MY - 32

On a winter afternoon, the sunlight was sparse, and towering buildings stood tall.

In the CEO’s office on the 37th floor of Huahong Group.

Lu Nandu, leaning back in his chair, had just finished an overnight cross-border meeting. Two buttons of his shirt were undone, and his brow was currently furrowed with irritation.

Two knocks sounded from outside the door, then Qin Jin pushed it open and entered.

“CEO Lu, how can I help you?”

Lu Nandu was always serious at work, and his temper was inherently bad. When he was irritable, his features appeared sharp.

He handed over the tablet: “Deal with this.”

Qin Jin took it, glanced at the interface casually, and understood: “Yes.”

________________________________________

The night was deep, and the curtains were wide open.

A few discarded clothes lay scattered on the path from the bed to the bathroom.

Soon, Jiang Xi emerged from the bathroom, water dripping from her hair onto her back.

She walked over, grabbed a bath towel from the rack, and wrapped it around herself, her eyes still hazy with sleep.

Jiang Xi had slept all afternoon, after taking sleeping pills.

She didn’t care at all about the current direction of online public opinion; groundless accusations were her crimes.

Strangers were eager to shackle her.

Jiang Xi was barefoot. The coldness of winter seeped from the tiles into the soles of her feet, but she seemed not to notice. She walked to the kitchen, pulled open the refrigerator, and took out a can of beer.

The cool tone of the can made Jiang Xi’s fingers appear even paler. She popped open the can with a soft clink, foam overflowing and dripping down the side onto the countertop.

Jiang Xi brought the can to her lips and took a sip.

________________________________________

Back in the bedroom, she picked up her phone and saw several missed calls: from Xia Xinyan, Ji Yuanzhou, Jiang Chi, and Tong Yun.

Jiang Xi knew without thinking why they were calling. She wasn’t as fragile as she used to be.

Jiang Xi sat in the chair by the French window. The curtains at home only had a chance to be open at night, and outside, Beijing’s lights were just coming on.

Jiang Xi called Xia Xinyan back.

Xia Xinyan was probably waiting for her call; it was answered quickly as soon as it rang.

Jiang Xi chuckled: “Were you guarding the phone?”

Xia Xinyan clearly breathed a sigh of relief when she heard her relaxed tone.

But even so, she still couldn’t completely relax, asking tentatively: “Xiao Xi, why didn’t you answer the phone this afternoon?”

Jiang Xi told the truth: “I was sleeping.”

Xia Xinyan was clearly a little surprised: “Sleeping?”

“Yeah, nothing to do.”

Xia Xinyan couldn’t tell whether to be happy or worried. Of course, if she was sleeping, she wouldn’t have seen the news online. But at the same time, she knew that Jiang Xi couldn’t truly fall asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow in such a situation; it was most likely due to sleeping pills.

“Did you take sleeping pills?”

Jiang Xi leaned back completely into the chair, slightly lowering her head and neck to fiddle with the can in her hand: “No.”

She had plenty of ways to fool Xia Xinyan. Xia Xinyan always trusted her and indeed didn’t suspect her: “That’s good then.”

________________________________________

Perhaps it was Jiang Xi’s imagination, but she seemed to feel that Xia Xinyan’s voice was a little off.

She didn’t speak.

Tonight, Xia Xinyan was clearly much more cautious in her speech. After a while, she deliberated: “Xiao Xi, if you’re not feeling well lately, remember to tell Auntie.”

Then she added, “If you’re feeling unwell, you must also tell Auntie.”

Jiang Xi chuckled: “Nothing’s amiss.”

Seeing that Xia Xinyan seemed to want to cautiously remind her of something else, Jiang Xi directly broached the sensitive topic: “Don’t worry.”

Her lips curved into a casual arc: “I’ve already been cussed out once before, so this time isn’t any different.”

It was good that she was willing to say it out loud. What Xia Xinyan worried about was her not speaking. Her worries instantly diminished by more than half, but she still felt heartache: “Not one more time.”

Jiang Xi didn’t interrupt her, quietly listening.

“One more time is like stepping on Auntie’s heart.”

The people on the other end of cyberbullying are invisible and intangible. They use the most caustic language to relentlessly attack those they dislike. They call themselves good people, yet they use the banner of justice to trample other good people underfoot, rushing headlong without distinguishing right from wrong.

Foul language, malicious curses. They might put down their keyboards and forget what they said yesterday, but those words carve into the hearts of the victims’ families.

Those who targeted Jiang Xi back then had gone goodness knows where, but Xia Xinyan still remembered those unspeakable insults.

The child she cherished in her palm was casually discarded and trampled underfoot, all that malice pressing down on her.

But she clearly wasn’t that bad.

Jiang Xi was silent for a while, then chuckled: “Then wouldn’t you be playing right into their hands?”

Xia Xinyan, who had tears welling in her eyes, was amused by her words and laughed: “Oh, you child. Seeing you like this now, Auntie is relieved.”

Relieved about what? Both of them understood. There was a year when Jiang Xi lived in darkness day and night, unwilling and unable to face the sun.

But that was all in the past now.

Jiang Xi lifted her eyelids, her gaze falling on the lights and buildings outside the window.

She said, “Don’t worry about me. Take care of yourself.”

Going through it again, Jiang Xi was clearly much more accustomed than before.

Xia Xinyan kept her on the phone for a few more minutes, then suddenly remembered something and asked, “Xiao Xi, do you have any friends?”

Jiang Xi didn’t pay it much mind: “What?”

Xia Xinyan said, “Auntie went online before answering your call and saw that those topics and posts from this morning had been deleted.”

Jiang Xi, who had been looking down, slightly raised her eyes at this: “Deleted?”

“Deleted,” Xia Xinyan said, “I was wondering if someone you know helped?”

There was probably only one person in Jiang Xi’s circle with that kind of power.

Xia Xinyan seemed to remember something else: “Oh, my head, I’m confused. Not all those posts were deleted; a few were left.”

Jiang Xi was silent for a moment and asked, “Which ones?”

Xia Xinyan originally didn’t want to mention Ren Shenghai’s name, but after thinking about it, she still said, “The ones that mentioned Ren Shenghai’s disappearance weren’t deleted.”

Jiang Xi had not read those comments that morning. As soon as Ren Shenghai’s disappearance was mentioned, many people’s focus shifted to the power behind Jiang Xi.

In fact, Jiang Xi had no idea that Ren Shenghai had vanished.

For a year after that, she was almost completely isolated from the outside world and didn’t know about the changes happening. Even after she resumed a normal life, she never inquired about Ren Shenghai.

________________________________________

After hanging up with Xia Xinyan, Jiang Xi opened the app for the first time since that afternoon.

As Xia Xinyan had said, only a handful of topics remained. And just as Jiang Xi had predicted, the posts rarely focused on directly criticizing her; instead, the firepower had shifted to investigating the power behind her.

Lu Nandu had just been involved in rumors with her recently, and given his high status, naturally, most of the focus was directed at him. It was also said that he was responsible for suppressing the news this time.

Jiang Xi wasn’t foolish; she knew who was doing this and understood his intentions.

He stood at the forefront, shielding her from the storm.

To say that Jiang Xi was not affected by the things that happened that morning would be impossible, after all, painting was something she loved very much. She would be affected to some extent, but not as much as before.

Jiang Xi turned off her phone and threw the empty can into the trash.

In the early hours of the morning, the city’s lights gradually faded, and the streetlights remained sleepless.

It snowed in the middle of the night, light, fine snow falling, turning the whole world black and white.

Jiang Xi didn’t rely on medication to sleep that night, nor did she force herself to.

Without any drowsiness, she spent the night as if it were day, eating and drinking as usual. She had barely eaten anything all day, so Jiang Xi simply cooked some instant noodles to get by.

After eating, she remembered that if Tong Yun knew she was still eating at this hour, she might make her run for several hours at the gym tomorrow.

Tong Yun had called her several times that afternoon, and Jiang Xi called her back that night.

Perhaps because someone had cleaned up her mess, Tong Yun didn’t have to lift a finger herself, so her attitude towards Jiang Xi wasn’t bad, and she no longer relentlessly demanded an explanation from her.

The benefits of power are immeasurable.

Jiang Xi slowly ate her noodles, taking half an hour to finish.

________________________________________

Back in her room, she realized it had snowed outside. Fine, rustling white specks were falling. She walked to the window.

In her field of vision, the fine snow fell silently, and the streetlight tops were dusted with white.

After standing for a while, she was about to turn back to bed when her gaze swept past a figure downstairs and paused.

A black car, and a person standing outside it, wearing a black coat.

Even from a distance, Jiang Xi recognized the person downstairs at a glance. Her gaze settled on him, unmoving.

Her phone hadn’t rung; he hadn’t called her.

Jiang Xi sat down in a nearby chair, languid and casual, and lit a cigarette.

Fine mist wafted, dispersing into the air and disappearing.

She just sat there, watching the person downstairs outside the window, a thin cigarette held between her fingers, bringing it to her lips whenever she remembered.

Two ghostly figures adrift in the deep night.

The person downstairs still hadn’t left, even as the snow whitened the treetops and a thin layer of snow covered the road.

Jiang Xi stubbed out the cigarette butt in the white ashtray, leaving a small circle of black ash. She got up and left the bedroom.

________________________________________

Ten minutes later, Jiang Xi appeared downstairs in a white down jacket.

The moment she stepped out of the complex, she noticed that Lu Nandu didn’t seem very surprised to see her.

One in black, one in white. Lu Nandu wore a black down jacket, Jiang Xi a white one.

She walked towards him, finally stopping in front of him.

Jiang Xi looked at him and asked, “Are you so sure I’d come down?”

Lu Nandu looked down at her, a little childish: “I don’t know if I was sure, but you came down anyway.”

As much of a rascal as ever.

Jiang Xi’s gaze moved from his face to the slightly damp road. After a few seconds, she asked, “Why did you come to find me?”

Lu Nandu’s gaze, however, remained fixed on her. She said, “You weren’t asleep, were you? So I came.”

Jiang Xi’s gaze returned to his face.

Lu Nandu knew what she was going to ask just by looking at her eyes. Sure enough, Jiang Xi spoke the next second: “How did you know I wasn’t asleep?”

Lu Nandu casually fabricated: “Just a guess.”

Jiang Xi looked at him for a few seconds: “Do you need something from me?”

“Well,” Lu Nandu rubbed his nose, “you weren’t sleeping.”

Jiang Xi found it inexplicably amusing, a rare smile gracing her lips: “Is that the only thing you know how to say?”

Lu Nandu instantly smiled: “You smiled.”

Jiang Xi didn’t know why Lu Nandu was still like a child after all these years.

She could probably figure out why Lu Nandu thought she wasn’t sleeping, given that he knew everything that had happened today.

Jiang Xi said, “You’re the one who suppressed the news, right?”

The person in front of her clearly had the temperament of a boy, but in places she couldn’t see, he had already become a powerful figure.

He said, “It’s not suppressing news, it’s prohibiting the spread of rumors.”

Jiang Xi, however, said, “It’s useless.”

When the topic came up, Lu Nandu became slightly more assertive: “Who says it’s useless? Sometimes, the most effective way to stop rumors is to cut off the source.”

Seeing him insist that others were spreading rumors, Jiang Xi asked, “You trust me that much?”

As her words fell, Lu Nandu replied without hesitation: “I trust you.”

Jiang Xi remembered his way of handling this matter. Lu Nandu was mentioned multiple times in the un-deleted posts, shielding Jiang Xi from much malicious talk.

Even though Jiang Xi didn’t care much about being slandered compared to painting, Lu Nandu had still helped her.

She said, “I owe you a favor.”

This undoubtedly gave Lu Nandu an opportunity.

He looked at Jiang Xi, then suddenly called out to her: “Jiejie.”

Jiang Xi looked up at him.

“Then will you agree to anything I say?”