As usual, Lin Xiao pushed open the airtight door of the engineering department to "play" with Doom. For some reason, the assembly workshop was much quieter than usual today. The crane booms weren't moving, and the welding torches weren't firing. Only a few technicians were squatting next to the rotor base in the distance, tightening bolts, occasionally letting out a muffled thud. He glanced around and found that Ben wasn't welding steel plates in the corner, Human Torch wasn't playing games by the inclined column, and even Reed's seat was empty. Lin Xiao stood at the door, stunned for a moment.
Where are they? Where did they all go?
Lin Xiao walked slowly inside, and when he reached the assembly table where Reed usually stood, he found several blueprints spread out on the table, and the data board next to it was still lit up. He took out his phone and glanced at the time: 3:07.
"Is she avoiding me?" Lin Xiao shoved his phone back, a slight smirk playing on his lips. "Alright, alright, Brother Doom, you've finally broken down?"
Lin Xiao's lips curled into a smile as he was about to open the Doupao to check Doom's whereabouts, but just then he heard a woman sobbing from the corner.
The sound was very soft and intermittent. Lin Xiao tilted his head and followed the sound, walking around the high stack of alloy plates. He saw Susan next to the innermost shelf of the assembly table.
She sat curled up in a folding chair, her legs tucked under the chair, clutching a wad of soaking wet tissues in her hand. A water stain stained the cuffs of her light blue research uniform, a few strands of hair fell loose and clung to her cheeks, her nose was red, and her eyes were swollen like two peaches.
Lin Xiao stopped and blinked.
Susan heard footsteps, looked up, and saw it was him. Her eyes immediately welled up with tears again. She turned her face away, dabbed her eyes with a tissue, and said in a muffled, hoarse voice, "Why are you here again?"
"I'm here to see Reed." Lin Xiao took two steps closer to her, tilting his head to examine her face. "What's wrong?"
"It's nothing." She crumpled the tissue into a ball, her voice still nasal. "You can go now."
Lin Xiao blinked, squatted down, rested one hand on his knee, and tilted his head to look at her. Susan didn't even look at him; her gaze was fixed on the shelf next to her, her lips pressed into a thin line, and her shoulders trembled slightly.
Just as Lin Xiao was getting bored, she suddenly turned around, and Lin Xiao was slightly taken aback.
What a beautiful picture of a woman weeping. Her eyes were still red, and her eyelashes were still damp, but the light in her blue eyes had changed. She looked up at Lin Xiao at just the right angle, her lips slightly parted, carrying a hint of indescribable grievance, making her seem pitiful to behold.
" Reed, he..." Susan bit her lower lip, a gesture that seemed deliberately meant for him to see, "He's changed."
Lin Xiao's heart beat 0.003 seconds faster.
He admitted that her face was indeed beautiful, and she looked pitiful when she cried. But in the instant she looked up, he caught a glimmer of light in her eyes. It happened so fast that Lin Xiao wouldn't have noticed it if he hadn't been honing his concentration these past few days.
Lin Xiao clicked his tongue inwardly. What exactly is this girl up to?
His face remained unchanged, but his brows furrowed slightly as he feigned concern. "What's wrong?"
Susan looked away, staring at the soaked tissue on her knee. Her voice was soft and trembling. "He's been so cold to me lately. He doesn't talk to me, he doesn't even look at me. He wasn't like this before. He'd even ask if I went to get him a glass of water. Now I sit next to him working overtime until the early hours, and he doesn't say a word. He looks at me like I'm a plague." She sniffed. "Sometimes I even feel like that person isn't him at all."
Lin Xiao sensed a hint of sincerity in her last sentence. Her crying wasn't entirely an act.
"So you're hiding here crying all by yourself?" Lin Xiao leaned forward, his tone softening. "Have you talked to him?"
"We talked." Susan shook her head and gave a bitter smile. "He said I was overthinking things. But a woman's intuition doesn't lie. The way he looks at me is like he's looking at a stranger. Before, when he looked at me, his eyes were bright."
As she spoke, she looked up at Lin Xiao. That glance was filled with so much: grievance, helplessness, a search for comfort, and a layer of probing hidden beneath. The way she looked at him was as if she was waiting for him to say, "I understand you."
Lin Xiao was looking at her too. He knew what she was looking at. He was thinking about something else.
He silently channeled his mental energy, peering towards Susan's direction.
Telepathy was a new ability granted to him by the Ring of Wisdom; he wasn't yet proficient, but it was sufficient for detecting superficial emotions at close range. His mental energy acted like a thin film, gently covering Susan's emotions, which washed over him: resentment, anxiety, fear, and a hint of tension. The tension was extra, not part of the resentment or anxiety. What was she nervous about? Was she nervous that her acting wasn't convincing enough?
Lin Xiao read through Susan's emotions and withdrew his mental energy. He basically confirmed two things: first, Susan did indeed suspect Reed, that was true; second, she was consciously guiding him, trying to get things out of him.
"You've been spending so much time with Reed lately." Susan's hand had somehow landed on his forearm; her fingertips were cool, and she curled them slightly. "Do you know what's wrong with him?"
Lin Xiao looked down at the hand, then looked up at her face. Susan bit her lower lip, her blue eyes were wet, and she deliberately softened her breathing, the rise and fall of her chest just enough for him to notice.
"You two are so close," she leaned closer, her voice low, "You must know something. Tell me, okay? I can pay you extra." She finished speaking, biting her lip, and ran her finger across Lin Xiao's chest again.
Lin Xiao felt a shiver run through him. Goodness, that expression, those eyes, the way she bit her lip, those movements—so alluring! Lin Xiao silently gave the performance a score: six out of ten. He gave her five points because she was indeed beautiful, and an extra point because she acted fairly seriously, but why were her hands trembling? But six points is six points.
Natasha is better than her even with just one finger.
The concern on his face slowly changed, transforming into something deeper. He tilted his head, his gaze moving down from her eyes, across her nose, stopping at her lips, pausing for a moment, then moving down another half inch. Susan's fingers tightened on his forearm.
"What do you want to know?" Lin Xiao's voice lowered, and his breathing became rapid.
Susan's eyes lit up for a moment, then quickly suppressed. " Reed. Why did he become like this? What happened to him?" Her fingers moved an inch up his forearm. "You know, don't you?"
Lin Xiao didn't answer. He just stared intently at Susan, his chest heaving rapidly before settling back down. He leaned forward half an inch, bringing the two of them to within half an inch of each other. Susan's shoulders stiffened, and she wanted to look away, but she held back. She forced herself to meet his gaze, her lips slightly parted, her breathing shallow and rapid.
"Then let me tell you," Lin Xiao's voice lowered, "What can I gain from Reed becoming like this?"
Susan cursed him under her breath, but her expression became even more alluring.
"What do you want? Anything is fine with me."
Lin Xiao's eyes were bloodshot, and his voice was urgent. "Really, anything is possible?"
Susan trembled with fright, but remembering Reed, she could only softly hum in agreement.
Lin Xiao's eyes lit up. "You said it yourself, so I won't be polite."
As Lin Xiao spoke, he pulled Susan into his arms. Susan's face turned green with fear. Her eyes widened as she stared at Lin Xiao, his face getting closer and closer. She wanted to roar, she wanted to go berserk, she wanted to push him away, she wanted to say that she was just saying it casually and to let him go. But when she thought of Reed, she held back. Lin Xiao's pouting lips were getting closer and closer, and she felt like she was falling into hell. Susan closed her eyes and pursed her lips in terror.
One second passed, and he didn't kiss her. Two seconds passed, and he still hadn't kissed her. A good dozen seconds passed, and Lin Xiao still hadn't made a move. Susan secretly opened one eye to look at Lin Xiao and found him smiling at her and easily releasing his embrace.
"Your methods are no match for Natasha's."
Susan's expression froze.
Lin Xiao's face loomed large before her eyes. Before she could back away, he had already grabbed her left hand. He tilted his head slightly, his lips close to her ear, his voice so soft that only the two of them could hear. "You acted quite earnestly, but unfortunately, I've seen countless women. I saw through your little tricks at a glance. Your tears were real, and your suspicions were real, but you were too hasty in trying to get information out of me."
Susan's face went from white to red, then from red to purple. Something churned in her eyes—shame, anger, disbelief, all intertwined. She jerked her hand back, her right hand instinctively rising, a pale blue energy field expanding from her palm, a transparent force field shield instantly forming between them.
"You, die!"
The force field struck Lin Xiao's chest, and he felt an immense force strike him. However, Lin Xiao Lin Xiao standing still, completely unmoved. The force field seemed to have hit an even thicker wall, and the ripples spread outwards from the point of contact before dissipating. Susan stared at him with wide eyes. The energy on her wrist was still pulsating, but it no longer had the force it had before.
Lin Xiao raised his right hand, bent his index finger, and flicked her forehead.
"Snap."
Susan leaned back, her back hitting the shelf, and several boxes of parts clattered down. She clutched a small red bump on her forehead, squatted on the ground, and tears welled up in her eyes again from the pain.
"You! You!" she spat out the two words through gritted teeth, squatted down, looked up at him, and a bright red mark bulged on her forehead.
Lin Xiao stood in front of her, his hands back in his pockets, looking down at her with a smile on his lips.
"Ms. Susan, please practice again next time. Tell Reed I'll be back tomorrow."
He turned and walked towards the door. After a few steps, he stopped and said without turning back, "Next time, try a different approach. I suggest you just come and ask directly; that's better than this act."
The footsteps faded into the distance. The airtight door opened and closed again, and the workshop fell silent once more.
Susan squatted beside the shelf, her hand still covering her forehead, tears welling in her eyes, her lips bitten until they turned white. She remained in that position for a while, then slowly stood up, brushed the dust off her knees, and tucked her disheveled hair behind her ears. The grievance on her face faded, the tears were wiped away, leaving only a red mark on her forehead.
" Agent Natasha, that bastard, she mentioned this person when she provoked me? Looks like they're quite close..." She repeated the name, a slow smile playing on her lips.
"Got it..."