"The Most Important Person"

After lunch, Lin Xinyi returned to his office.

Just like in the morning, no one came to disturb him that afternoon either.

It was as if, as long as he, the Security Director, sat in his office, the laboratory would be guaranteed safe.

And so, after he broke his beginner Minesweeper record down to two seconds, another idle afternoon passed.

It was already five in the afternoon.

Lin Xinyi rubbed his sore, swollen eyes, wondering what time he could get off work.

Just then, a phone suddenly rang.

After playing around all afternoon, Lin Xinyi's mind had grown a little sluggish, but he instantly snapped to attention:

"Someone called 'me'?"

"Who could it be? That security chief from this morning?"

He quickly pulled out his phone and saw that the displayed number had been saved as:

"The Most Important Person."

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

There were only two saved numbers on the previous owner's phone: one was "Laboratory," and the other was "The Most Important Person."

The "Laboratory" number was obviously for work, but this "Most Important Person"...

Who knew who it was or how close they had been to the previous owner.

I hope it isn't a parent or family member...

Lin Xinyi had no desire to call a stranger Dad.

With a faint sense of nervousness, he finally answered the call.

"Hello?"

A young woman's voice came from the other end.

Like that security chief from the morning, this woman spoke in a very cold voice.

But the coldness was different.

The security chief's voice was like an icy plain in winter—still, frigid, and merciless.

This young woman's voice was more like a mountain forest in autumn, carrying a faint sorrowful loneliness.

Of course, those were only Lin Xinyi's subjective impressions.

His more direct thought was:

Why did everyone who called the previous owner talk like this? Was the AC broken, so they were trying to cool themselves down?

Lin Xinyi was silently mocking them in his head.

Then the young woman on the other end said:

"You're in your office right now, aren't you?"

Lin Xinyi's heart skipped a beat.

So this so-called "Most Important Person" was actually in this pharmaceutical company?

Was she the previous owner's female coworker? Or was their relationship even closer?

"I'm in the office," Lin Xinyi replied stiffly.

The young woman on the phone spoke with unusual brevity. "I'm coming over now."

As soon as she finished speaking, she hung up.

Lin Xinyi immediately became uneasy.

Just a few minutes later, someone knocked on his office door.

"Come in."

The door opened, and the woman who entered was—

"Miyano Shiho?"

Seeing the brown-haired girl with an icy expression push open the door, Lin Xinyi could not help but stare in surprise.

Why was it her? She was the "Most Important Person"?

Then why had she not even greeted him at lunch, and why had she looked at him with such intense disgust?

When Lin Xinyi had first received the call, he had guessed that this "Most Important Person" was a female coworker close to the previous owner, perhaps even his girlfriend.

But now, it seemed that his relationship with Miyano Shiho was not that simple.

Could it be that Miyano Shiho was actually "my"—

girlfriend, and they were currently fighting?

Lin Xinyi was boldly forming hypotheses and preparing to verify them cautiously, while Miss Miyano spoke to him with an expressionless face and extreme economy of words:

"Can we leave?"

Lin Xinyi: "..."

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

Lin Xinyi: "..."

The brown-haired girl's icy expression gradually melted away, and anxiety faintly showed across her delicate features. "Why aren't you saying anything? Is there a problem?"

Lin Xinyi remained silent, looking even more like an ice block than Miss Miyano had before.

But inside, his thoughts were extremely lively:

Leave? Go where?

Miss, could you at least tell me?!

Lin Xinyi's scalp tingled. His current situation was exactly the same as when he had faced Inspector Megure's interrogation that morning.

Only this time, the person questioning him was an acquaintance of the previous owner. If he kept failing to answer, she would probably discover something strange soon enough.

"Well, cough..."

After remaining silent for a long time, Lin Xinyi finally forced himself to say:

"I need to think about this matter a little more."

"You..."

The brown-haired girl's gaze became increasingly sharp.

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

"Sister?" Lin Xinyi let out a long breath of relief inwardly. At last, she said something useful.

From the sound of it, "he" and Miss Miyano had agreed beforehand to go see her sister together after work today.

That made the problem much bigger.

If they were only ordinary acquaintances, would "he" casually agree to go meet a female coworker's sister with her?

And then there was that contact name—"Important Person." Hiss...

Could she really be "my" girlfriend, and they were in the middle of a fight?

Thinking of this, Lin Xinyi's headache grew worse.

He did not want to inexplicably gain a girlfriend he did not know at all.

Besides, although Miss Miyano was pretty, her personality was rather awful—every time she saw him, she looked as though she had seen an enemy, her expression so cold it made people shiver.

Ugh, who would want a girlfriend like that?

"Well..."

Lin Xinyi thought for a moment before finally expressing his desire to distance himself as tactfully as possible:

"I won't be going today. You should go by yourself."

Miyano Shiho: "..."

She only had one chance each week to see her sister, Miyano Akemi.

And as a "prisoner" confined in this laboratory, she had to obtain the permission of Lin Xinyi, the "prison warden," and leave the laboratory only under his full-time supervision.

If Lin Xinyi did not agree and did not accompany her, she could not take even a single step outside this building.

So, go by herself?

Never mind whether she could even make it out of the company gates alone—even if Lin Xinyi truly dared to let her go out by herself...

Gin would probably come over in less than half an hour, carrying that Beretta M92F of his that never missed when shooting his own people.

"Are you joking with me?"

Miss Miyano rarely showed much expression, but Lin Xinyi could still read irritation in the slight upward tilt of her brows.

What was even more concerning was that a trace of suspicion seemed to flicker in her beautiful blue-green eyes.

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

That makes sense... If she was close to the previous owner, she would definitely notice things that others couldn't.

Lin Xinyi vaguely sensed trouble.

It seemed he had to make a clean break with Miss Miyano.

Since the previous owner had already been fighting with her and had not even left this "girlfriend" a word before committing suicide, Lin Xinyi might as well break up with her decisively.

That would minimize his contact with the previous owner's acquaintances and prevent trouble.

So, after a brief silence—

Lin Xinyi raised his head and spoke to Miyano Shiho in the gentlest tone he could manage:

"Shiho..."

He vaguely knew that in Japan, men and women in intimate relationships should call each other by their given names.

Therefore, at such a formal moment of breaking up, Lin Xinyi chose to address Miss Miyano gently as "Shiho."

"Shiho."

"There are some things I've wanted to tell you for a long time..."

He was about to give Miyano Shiho a permanent nice-girl card in the previous owner's name.

But unexpectedly, the moment she heard that gentle "Shiho," Miss Miyano's expression immediately changed.

For once, her face became unusually expressive.

The expression contained shock, embarrassment, disgust, revulsion, resistance, and all kinds of other emotions. It was incredibly complicated and difficult to describe. If he had to make a comparison—

It was probably like when Lin Xinyi returned to his hometown for Lunar New Year and saw the aunt next door holding up a heavily photoshopped picture of her niece, the image distorted beyond recognition, while stubbornly insisting on setting him up with her.

"I understand."

Miyano Shiho unconsciously took two steps back.

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

With that, she walked out of the office without waiting for an answer, shutting the door behind her with a cold expression.

As soon as the door closed, amid Lin Xinyi's stunned silence, a faint rustling sound of someone talking on the phone soon came from outside.

About a minute later, Miyano Shiho appeared before Lin Xinyi again.

She pushed open the door and said to him coldly:

"Lin, you have a call."

"Huh?"

Lin Xinyi froze slightly.

Almost in the next second, the phone in his pocket began ringing.

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

Naturally, he did not dare neglect a call from his superior.

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

"Boss, what is it?"

"..."

The leader on the other end fell silent for a moment.

After pondering for a while, he finally spoke, but his voice was no longer as cold and calm as before.

Clearly, even he found what he was about to say unbelievable:

"Sherry called and said that you..."

"Sexually harassed her?"

Lin Xinyi: "..."