The Most Important Person

## Chapter 16: "The Most Important Person"

After lunch, Lin Xinyi returned to his office.

Just like in the morning, no one bothered him in the afternoon either.

It was as if the lab could ensure its safety simply by having him, the Security Director, sit in his office.

And so, another afternoon passed uneventfully, until he broke his record for beginner Minesweeper, getting it down to 2 seconds.

It was now 5 PM.

Lin Xinyi rubbed his sore, swollen eyes, wondering when he could finally get off work.

Just then, his phone suddenly rang.

Lin Xinyi, whose brain felt a bit sluggish after an afternoon of games, instantly perked up:

Someone's calling 'me'.

Who could it be? Is it that security chief from this morning again?

He quickly pulled out his phone and saw the contact name displayed:

"The Most Important Person."

"This..." Lin Xinyi's pupils contracted.

The original owner's phone only had two numbers saved: "The Lab" and "The Most Important Person."

"The Lab" was clearly for work, but this "Most Important Person"—

Who knew who this person was, or how deep their relationship was with the original owner.

I hope it's not a parent or family member...

Lin Xinyi really didn't want to call a stranger "Dad."

With a slight nervousness, he finally answered the call:

"Hello?"

A young female voice came from the other end of the line.

Just like the security chief from the morning, this woman's voice was very cold.

However, the coldness was different.

The security chief's voice was like an icy plain in winter—cold, unmoving, and ruthless.

This young woman's voice was more like an autumn forest, subtly imbued with a desolate sadness.

Of course, these were just Lin Xinyi's subjective perceptions.

His more immediate thought was:

Why do all the people calling the original owner speak in such a tone? Is their air conditioning broken and they're trying to self-refrigerate?

Lin Xinyi was inwardly complaining.

Then, he heard the young woman on the other end of the phone say:

"You're in your office now, right?"

Lin Xinyi's heart skipped a beat:

This so-called "Most Important Person" is actually in this pharmaceutical company?

Is she the original owner's female colleague? Or is their relationship even deeper?

"I'm in my office," Lin Xinyi said, forcing himself to respond.

The young lady on the other end of the phone was unusually concise: "I'll be right there."

As soon as she finished speaking, the call was hung up.

Lin Xinyi suddenly felt a bit anxious.

A few minutes later, there was a knock on his office door.

"Come in."

The door opened, and the woman who entered was—

"Miyano Shiho?"

Seeing the tea-haired girl with an icy expression push open the door and walk in, Lin Xinyi couldn't help but feel a bit surprised:

How could it be her? This is the "Most Important Person"?

Then why didn't she even say hello at lunch, and why did she look at me with such disgust?

When Lin Xinyi first received the call, he speculated that "The Most Important Person" would be a female colleague with a deep relationship with the original owner, or even a girlfriend.

But now, it seemed his relationship with Miyano Shiho wasn't that simple.

Could Miyano Shiho actually be 'my'...

...girlfriend who's upset with me?

Lin Xinyi was boldly hypothesizing and preparing to carefully verify, while Miyano Shiho, her face expressionless, spoke to him with a brevity that seemed to cost her words dearly:

"Are you ready to go?"

Lin Xinyi: "..."

Miyano Shiho frowned slightly: "Why are you still sitting there?"

Lin Xinyi: "..."

The tea-haired girl's icy expression gradually thawed, a subtle anxiety showing on her delicate features: "Why aren't you saying anything? Is there a problem?"

Lin Xinyi remained silent, appearing even more like an ice sculpture than Miyano Shiho had earlier.

However, his mind was extremely active at this moment:

Go? Go where?

Tell me, girl!

Lin Xinyi felt his scalp tingle. His current situation was exactly like facing Inspector Megure's interrogation that morning.

The only difference was that the person questioning him now was an acquaintance of the original owner. If he kept failing to answer, he'd probably be found out very quickly.

"Well, ahem..."

After a long silence, Lin Xinyi finally bit the bullet and said:

"I need to think about this a bit more."

"You..."

The tea-haired girl's gaze grew sharper:

"Why won't you take me to see my sister?!"

"Sister?" Lin Xinyi let out a long sigh of relief in his heart: "Finally, something useful."

From the sound of it, "he" (the original owner) must have pre-arranged with Miyano Shiho to go see her sister together after work today.

If so, this was a huge problem.

If they were just ordinary colleagues, would "he" casually agree to go see her sister with a female colleague?

And then there was that note, "Important Person"... Hiss...

Could this really be "my" girlfriend with whom I'm having a spat?

Thinking of this, Lin Xinyi felt an even bigger headache:

He really didn't want to suddenly acquire a girlfriend he didn't even know.

Moreover, while Miyano Shiho was beautiful, her personality was rather awful—every time she saw him, it was like she was seeing an enemy, her expression so cold it made people shiver.

Ugh, definitely don't want that kind of girlfriend!

"Um..."

Lin Xinyi thought for a moment, and finally expressed his desire for distance in an extremely roundabout way:

"I won't go today. You can go by yourself."

Miyano Shiho: "..."

She only had one chance a week to meet her sister, Miyano Akemi.

And as a "prisoner" under house arrest in this laboratory, she had to get permission from Lin Xinyi, this "prison warden," and be accompanied and monitored by him throughout, before she could leave the laboratory and go out.

As long as Lin Xinyi didn't agree or accompany her, she couldn't take half a step out of the building.

So, for him to tell her to go by herself?

Never mind whether she could even walk out of the company's front door. Even if Lin Xinyi really dared to let her go out alone...

Gin would probably come over with his Beretta M92F, the gun that kills his own people with every shot, in less than half an hour.

"Are you joking with me?"

Miyano Shiho rarely showed much facial expression, but Lin Xinyi still detected annoyance from her slightly raised eyebrows.

What was even more concerning was the faint glimmer of suspicion in her beautiful blue-green eyes.

"Damn it, she seems to have noticed that I'm different from before."

"Indeed, if someone is close to the original owner, they'd definitely notice something others wouldn't."

Lin Xinyi had a bad feeling:

It seemed he had to be direct and cut ties with Miyano Shiho.

Since the original owner was already having issues with her, and didn't even leave a message for this "girlfriend" before committing suicide, he might as well just break up cleanly.

That way, he could minimize contact with the original owner's acquaintances and avoid trouble.

So, after a brief silence...

Lin Xinyi looked up and spoke to Miyano Shiho in the gentlest tone he could manage:

"Shiho..."

He vaguely knew that in Japan, close friends of the opposite sex usually addressed each other by their first names.

So, at this formal moment of breaking up, Lin Xinyi chose to gently call Miss Miyano "Shiho."

"Shiho."

"Actually, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time…"

He was about to, as the original owner, give Miyano Shiho a permanent "friend zone" card.

But unexpectedly, after hearing that gentle "Shiho," Miss Miyano's expression immediately changed.

It was extremely rare for her facial expression to be as rich as it was now.

This expression, encompassing shock, awkwardness, disdain, repulsion, resistance, and various other emotions, was extremely complex and difficult to describe. If one had to make a comparison…

It was probably like when Lin Xinyi went back to his hometown for Chinese New Year and saw the aunt next door holding her niece's heavily Photoshopped, distorted picture, stubbornly insisting on setting him up with someone.

"I understand."

Miyano Shiho subconsciously took two steps back.

"Wait here. I'll come back in a bit."

With that, she walked out of the office without further explanation, coldly closing the door behind her on the way out.

As soon as the door closed, in Lin Xinyi's stunned silence, a rustling phone conversation quickly emanated from outside the door.

About a minute later, Miyano Shiho reappeared before Lin Xinyi.

She pushed the door open and said to him in a cold tone:

"Lin, you have a call."

"Huh?"

Lin Xinyi was slightly taken aback.

And almost in the very next second, the phone in his pocket began to ring.

He took it out and saw it was the number of that "head of security" from earlier that morning.

He naturally wouldn't dare to neglect a call from his superior.

Lin Xinyi immediately answered the phone and held it to his ear, even adopting the tone of those black-clad security guards as he called out:

"Boss, what's up?"

"…"

The leader on the other end of the phone was somewhat silent.

He pondered for a moment before finally speaking, but his voice was no longer as cold and calm as before.

Clearly, what he was about to say seemed incredible even to him:

"Sherry called and said you… "

"Harassed her?"

Lin Xinyi: "…"