Huojin used an empty conference room for interrogation and asked Zhang Feiyu to be ushered inside. The latter sat opposite him in silence.
"We et again."
Xiyang blinked in confusion.
Again? When did they et before?
Zhang Feiyu said nothing.
"I heard what the witness, Zou Haoran, had to say. Now, I want to hear your side. Tell what happened from the beginning."
"...I don’t know."
"aning?"
"I don’t know how Sir...died."
Huojin paused. "We will co to that part. Step by step. For starters, tell about your mood this morning. How was it?"
"Tense but also...positive."
"Why?"
Zhang Feiyu lowered his gaze. "I have been keeping my stress piled up within for a long ti. I didn’t share anything with my wife. But...after talking to you last night, I strangely felt good for the first ti in months. I didn’t pick Sir’s calls and I talked to my wife about my exhaustion and worries when I returned ho. She was happy that I finally ca around talking about it. She sternly told to talk to Sir Kong today by any ans."
"About your problems?"
"Yes."
"Which were what? Work overload? Unrealistic deadlines?"
Zhang Feiyu shook his head. "Not all of it. The thing is I am certified in app developnt. But due to a crunch in resources, I was suddenly put in a data analytics project. The two are very different fields. I have no certification or training in data analytics. I am completely new to it. I thought there would be a ntor to guide initially. But there wasn’t. I repeatedly asked and urged that I really needed help. But Sir Kong didn’t help. He said to figure it out myself."
He clutched his head, his eyes reddening. "I couldn’t complete my tasks. I tried studying the subject but couldn’t really understand it after a certain point. But I was still expected to commit to my deadlines. When I couldn’t, Sir Kong would lash out..."
’How long would it take, Feiyu!? I an, how difficult can it be learning sothing new?’ Kong Chuanli harshly rebuked.
Zhang Feiyu trembled. ’It’s not t-that. I j-just need a little help in understanding-’
’Forget getting any help! You have to manage it sohow. Don’t co crying to . Now I need you to look through these files and create your data analysis. Pull an all nighter if you have to, but I want the work done, got it?’
’Damn it, Feiyu! You got it all wrong! Do you know how much the client got mad at ? We are supposed to be their data analytics experts but we showed them garbage! Now, rectify it as soon as you can.’
’I can-cannot-’
’Just do it!’
An extrely nauseous sensation gripped his stomach as he trembled hard. He struggled to breathe.
How will I...How will I do it a-alone? I d-don’t know anymore than this...
What will I do now?
H-How?
At present, Zhang Feiyu closed his eyes. "This went on for nine months. By nature, I am an overthinker so the pressure, the expectations and the fact that I couldn’t stand up to them started taking a toll on . But I took more courses and finally began to understand the subject little by little.
The mont Sir Kong realized that I was getting things right, he began to add on my workload. It was tiring, exhausting with the late night calls and deadlines, and I... missed doing app developnt. But I couldn’t say it because I was afraid of his anger.
It didn’t seem that he would pull out of the project anyti soon. This also affected my personal life. I couldn’t give ti to my wife because I was too burnt out due to work which only spiraled my guilt more and more."
As Bojing heard his story, tears pooled in his eyes.
"Why are you crying, Senior Lu?" Shilin whispered his question.
Bojing whispered back. "I just thought about Boss. Boss looks like a selfish and ruthless person, but he has very strict work ethics and a firm work culture set in place. He is a w-workholic himself, but he has ne-never treated those who work under him so harshly like a toxic Boss. He k-kicks the person out of his lab if t-they work overti for even five minutes. It-it just made emotional...I am so lucky," he sniffled. "I will re-rember to hug Boss with gratitude when I et him again!"
—
"Achoo!"
Mingshen narrowed his eyes. "I will kill soone if I catch a cold. I hate colds. They are annoying."
He looked up towards the apartnt flat. "Why has my ti to shine still not arrived?"
—
Jia opened the door just when the man was out in the living room holding a glass in his hands. He froze seeing the door unlocked and the delivery woman half-inside the house. Before be could act, Lim swung from behind her and already had his gun aid at him.
"Freeze! Hands behind your head! Get down on your knees right now!"
The man’s gun was on the farther side of the couch. But there was no ti to reach it.
"On your knees right now or I will shoot you," Lim squinted his eyes.
The man stared at them with a seething indignation. He slowly bent down on his knees.
Jia warned. "Keep the glass aside. Don’t think you can throw the water on my face and get control of Lim and in the confusion."
He stiffened. That idea just hardly struck him when Jia already knocked it out of the window. He grudgingly kept the glass aside.
Lim kept his gun aid at the man, and Jia walked around him. She grabbed his hands and locked his wrists with handcuffs. "You think you can show your toxic masculinity by raising your hand against a woman?"
He looked back and sneered. "Easy for you to say when my hands are all locked up. But then again, what can I expect from a pathetic woman like you? Your gender always have been useless and helpless without us n."
Jia arched her brow in amusent. "I will entertain your challenge once you are in prison. Don’t worry. Your hands will be free at that ti but you would still lose to miserably. Where is she?"
He was outraged. "...Inside."
Lim put his gun back in his holster and said, "I will get her."
And he headed inside.
"Get up," Jia ordered the man. "I will take you to your new ho."
Suddenly, a sharp chill ran past her spine. She had noticed sothing from the corner of her eye that sank her heart.
She looked back and saw two beer bottles on the table. It wasn’t that both bottles were empty or even one was. That would an the sa person consud one bottle and went for his second one.
But the level of beer in the bottles was different. The first beer bottle had almost half of the beer left while the second was just one-fourth consud.
Why would a person open a second bottle when he hadn’t yet finished his first one?
Her eyes slowly widened in horror and realization.
The man laughed in reply. "The ti to go to my new ho is not so soon, my dear."
Shit!!!
Jia turned her head and scread. "Lim! There is one more-"
Her worst imagination ca true when she heard a choking and painful gasp from inside followed by the sound of a slow, falling thud on the floor.
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