Lin Yanqiu’s embrace was not warm.
Through the thin layer of fabric, Hua Qi’an could even feel a faint chill from the other’s body, a coolness not found in ordinary people.
Yet compared to Hua Qi’an herself, Lin Yanqiu’s body was still warmer.
So, the former could feel a gentle warmth.
At this moment, this almost restrictive hug instead carried a forceful, comforting power that allowed for no objections.
Lin Yanqiu’s powerful heartbeat, steady and regular, thumped one beat after another, transmitting clearly into Hua Qi’an’s ears through their closely pressed chests.
Her body’s clean, cool fragrance was now overpowering, flooding all of Hua Qi’an’s senses and dispelling the faint, metallic tang lingering in the air.
Hua Qi’an lifted her head from Lin Yanqiu’s arms.
Those usually half-lidded eyes were now covered in a layer of mist.
Her gaze landed on Lin Yanqiu’s arm, where blood was still beading from a wound.
“Jie, you’re hurt…..”
Her voice carried a trace of barely noticeable tremor.
Lin Yanqiu, however, seemed not to feel any pain.
She simply pulled a few tissues from the desk and pressed them carelessly to the wound.
Her gaze fell upon the scattered, eerie A4 papers strewn across the floor.
“I’ll help clean up.”
Hua Qi’an immediately said.
She slipped from Lin Yanqiu’s embrace, stepped forward and bent down, beginning to pick up the papers one by one before the other could react.
The sudden emptiness in her arms left Lin Yanqiu a little absent-minded as she watched Hua Qi’an’s back picking up the papers.
Lin Yanqiu did not stop her.
She turned and tried the office door.
“Click.”
The moment she pressed the handle, the door opened naturally.
There was no sign that it was ever broken.
As if what happened earlier was all just their illusion.
Lin Yanqiu’s expression became grave at once; what had just happened was far too bizarre.
She found it difficult to explain with her current knowledge.
Could it really have been just a simple coincidence?
The printer suddenly going haywire, the door lock suddenly failing…
The joint from her hand to her arm now stung faintly from a papercut.
The eye-catching crimson on her pale skin was especially striking.
All of it served as a clear reminder: it wasn’t an illusion.
Everything had truly happened.
Lin Yanqiu’s expression darkened further.
She walked indifferently to her desk and began checking the now-silent “culprit”.
To the side, Hua Qi’an crouched down, gathering the scattered papers into a neat stack.
The ones in her hands bore only faint imprints, with no visible patterns or words.
But Hua Qi’an distinctly remembered that when she looked up earlier, she saw sheets printed with faint red characters.
Her gaze then fell on a sheet by the door.
Lin Yanqiu’s blood was still seeping into it, making it stand out even more.
Hua Qi’an placed the papers she had picked up on the table and then picked up the sheet that had fallen by the door.
She flipped it over to look at the back.
But what was printed wasn’t the faint red characters she’d imagined.
It was a rather familiar, enlarged funeral portrait…
The boy in the photo had a “tin foil perm” hairstyle, with a self-assured smile he believed was handsome.
It was Wang Chang.
Hua Qi’an froze.
Blinking, she narrowed her eyes to confirm.
It wasn’t a funeral portrait, but Wang Chang’s black-and-white student ID photo.
She picked up another sheet by the door.
Still Wang Chang.
Another one… also Wang Chang.
All of them were his headshot ID photos.
It was as if the printer had glitched and gotten stuck on this one person’s photo, crazily printing it over and over.
But…..
Hua Qi’an’s fingertips traced the rough edge of the paper.
She clearly remembered that when those papers came flying out of the printer, she’d seen faint red characters printed on them.
That definitely wasn’t an illusion.
So what was going on?
At that moment, she recalled the chilling, metallic tang that had lingered at her nose just before the anomaly.
She suddenly understood.
This didn’t seem like an ordinary printer malfunction, but… a supernatural phenomenon.
But such things—how could she say them out loud?
Hua Qi’an slowly lifted her head and glanced at Lin Yanqiu.
Lin Yanqiu had already finished inspecting the printer.
She now sat in her seat, brow furrowed as she stared at the wound on her arm, blood still welling up, her gaze filled with impatience and disgust.
She hated anything that was out of her control.
Whether it was public opinion running wild, or a printer suddenly going insane.
Hua Qi’an’s heart sank.
She recalled how Lin Yanqiu had rejected those talismans and Buddhist beads before.
She remembered the cold “I’m not fond of superstitious things.”
She couldn’t say it.
If she told Lin Yanqiu…
Lin Yanqiu not only wouldn’t believe her, she might even think Hua Qi’an was just spouting nonsense out of fright.
Then things would only get more complicated.
So, she chose to remain silent.
Hua Qi’an carefully stacked the sheets with Wang Chang’s headshots.
“Looks like the printer broke. It kept printing this photo over and over.”
She stood up, placing the thick stack of paper on the desk before Lin Yanqiu, her tone calm and even.
Lin Yanqiu glanced at that displeasing face, her brows knotting even tighter.
“Throw them away.”
She spat out the words coldly.
She had indeed looked at Wang Chang’s student file on the computer before, but who knew when the printer had connected and started spitting out his face during a glitch.
The color ink in the printer had run out that morning and hadn’t been replaced, so the photo was printed in black and white, which made her mood even worse.
Hua Qi’an nodded; in truth, she wanted to do just that herself.
With Lin Yanqiu’s permission, she tossed all those headshot prints into the shredder by the door.
With a mechanical roar, the photos were instantly torn to shreds.
After the bizarre events just now, whatever anger Lin Yanqiu had felt because of Chen Zhiyan had long since been swept away by these inexplicable happenings.
Now she felt only exhaustion in both body and mind.
The temperature in the office gradually began to rise again.
She opened a drawer, retrieving a small medicine box from inside.
Taking out cotton swabs and disinfectant, she began tending to the wound on her arm.
Seeing this, Hua Qi’an immediately stepped forward and naturally took the cotton swab from her hand.
“Let me do it, Jie.”
Her voice was soft, carrying a hint of gentleness.
Lin Yanqiu paused in surprise, looking at Hua Qi’an.
But in the end, she acquiesced.
She sat back in her leather chair, allowing Hua Qi’an to stand before her, carefully cleaning her wound.
The girl’s fingertips were cool, but her touch was gentle.
The cotton swab, dipped in cold disinfectant, brushed lightly over the wound, bringing a slight sting.
Lin Yanqiu’s gaze fell on Hua Qi’an’s lowered lashes.
Her expression was focused and serious, and that gentleness did not seem feigned.
The office was very quiet, with only the faint sound of cotton against skin.
The ambiguous atmosphere fermented silently in the stillness.
The hardened heart Lin Yanqiu had always possessed softened somewhat in that moment.
The strange accident from earlier, her own unexplained papercut… all of it ceased to matter.
As long as the person in her arms was safe, nothing else was important.
Luckily, it was she who had been cut, not Hua Qi’an.
She even felt grateful for this little accident.
If not for this, how could she, because of just a little scratch, see Hua Qi’an so worried for her?
She raised her other hand, gently covering Hua Qi’an’s as she applied the medicine.
Hua Qi’an’s body tensed, her hand holding the swab suddenly unsure where to place it.
She looked up at Lin Yanqiu in confusion.
“Xiao An.”
Lin Yanqiu’s voice was low, tinged with relief.
“Let’s just leave what happened today.”
She didn’t want to pursue those petty rumors, nor did she wish to question anything about Chen Zhiyan. After all…
No matter how much Chen Zhiyan tried to show off…
Hua Qi’an’s current guardian was her, and both of them were already registered in the same household.
This fact could not be changed.
Right now, she only wanted to enjoy this brief moment.
Hua Qi’an was stunned.
She hadn’t expected Lin Yanqiu to let her off so easily.
She looked at Lin Yanqiu’s sharp-cornered eyes.
There was no longer any cold scrutiny there, only a complex emotion she could not decipher.
Just as this moment of warmth was about to melt away all the chill in the office—
“Ring ring ring—”
A sudden, urgent phone call broke the rare peace.
Lin Yanqiu’s relaxed brows immediately knitted together.
The tenderness that had just appeared in her eyes was instantly replaced by impatience.
She glanced at the caller ID, her gaze growing even colder.
But in the end, she picked up the phone.
It seemed that the caller was someone she had to answer, even if she was annoyed…
“What is it?”
Her voice returned to its usual hardness.
But whatever was said on the other end, Lin Yanqiu’s expression darkened at a visible rate.
She only occasionally responded with words like “Mm”, “I know”, “I’ll be there right away.”
Hua Qi’an stood quietly to the side, not daring to make a sound.
Although it seemed she was no longer involved, without Lin Yanqiu’s permission, she dared not leave on her own.
Having finally “calmed her down”, she didn’t dare risk angering her again so soon.
After about half a minute, Lin Yanqiu hung up.
The office fell into silence once more.
Lin Yanqiu didn’t speak, only stared quietly at Hua Qi’an.
The look made Hua Qi’an uneasy.
“Jie?”
She probed tentatively.
“It was a call from the police station.”
Lin Yanqiu finally spoke, her voice hoarse.
Staring at Hua Qi’an, she sighed and closed her eyes for a moment.
She stood up, her gaze sweeping over the stack of forum-related A4 pages she had printed.
At last, her eyes settled on the candid shot of Hua Qi’an confronting Wang Chang.
“That man in the photo, that’s Wang Chang, right?”
Hua Qi’an didn’t know why she was asking, but nodded anyway.
She didn’t deny it, and as if remembering something, added, “He was hit by a flowerpot that fell from upstairs, I think his hand was broken, and he was sent to the hospital.”
Hearing this, Lin Yanqiu’s expression didn’t change at all.
Seeing this, Hua Qi’an instinctively swallowed.
Is something wrong?
“Jie, why are you asking about him?”
She asked carefully.
Lin Yanqiu lowered her head to glance at the time.
When she looked up again, her gaze toward Hua Qi’an was probing, doubtful… a mix of emotions that could not be put into words.
In the end, all of them were condensed into a single cold, emotionless statement.
“Wang Chang is dead.”