Overly Intense [Criminal Investigation] 47

Chapter 47: Losing Anger

Can she get her?

Qin Luo thought about it all the way home. She threw her laptop bag on the sofa, curled up in the lounge chair. A cargo ship passed on the river, and the purple clouds covered the sky, enveloping the entire floor-to-ceiling window.

She took out her phone and glanced at WeChat. Besides the company business group chat, there was no news from Shen Yiyi.

Can she get her?

Thinking of the confrontation in the study that day, she had observed Shen Yiyi’s eyes. She should have been moved when she looked at her. Otherwise, why would she have cried in her arms? Why would she have snuggled into her body while sleeping? But why did she only want to be friends?

[Liu Jia: Have you seen the live stream schedule for tomorrow?]

A chat box popped up on WeChat. Qin Luo came back to her senses.

[Qin Luo: Yes, I’ve looked it over. There are some strange interactive segments. I’ve asked the business department to negotiate with the brand to cancel them.]
[Liu Jia: SD has a very good reputation in the industry. Good luck tomorrow. I have something else to do, so I won’t be there. I’ll have Zhan Luo pick you up.]
[Qin Luo: He handled the last reading group very well. Don’t always make him a driver.]
[Liu Jia: I’m not making him a driver this time. I’m making him your bodyguard.]

Zhan Luo, the bodyguard and driver, was waiting downstairs at Qin Luo’s house at 10:30 the next day.

Liu Jia was attending another event, so Qin Luo’s schedule was particularly full. She first went to Logos to sign a contract for a sharing session with a bookstore, then coordinated the advertising copy with the media department, and then was dragged off to get her makeup done.

As the makeup artist’s brush swept across her face, Qin Luo took out her phone from her pocket and opened the chat box with Shen Yiyi. After a lot of scrolling up and down, she didn’t type two words before she exited.

She couldn’t find a good reason to contact Shen Yiyi and sighed in frustration.

“Sister Qin has been sighing a lot lately. Don’t tell me she’s really in a relationship?” The work atmosphere at Logos was good. As long as you completed your tasks on time, any of the “cattle and horses” could joke with the “farm owner.”

Especially Qin Luo, who was known for being down-to-earth in the company, the kind who could coax and trick people into believing her grand plans.

Qin Luo threw her phone on the makeup table and leaned back, closing her eyes. “Love is a long way off.”

“You can’t even get someone like you??” The makeup artist was amazed. The few leaders she could see in the company were all surrounded by people. Especially President Liu, who changed partners as fast as she changed brush heads.

Qin Luo asked back self-deprecatingly, “I also want to know… how can someone like me not get her?”

As soon as she finished speaking, a cup of coffee appeared on the makeup table.

“Sister Qin, coffee, sandwich,” Zhan Luo said from the side.

“Thanks!”

Qin Luo squinted at the sound and saw that there was only one lunch on the table, and Zhan Luo’s hands were empty. “Why didn’t you buy one for yourself? Didn’t I say it would be reimbursed?”

Zhan Luo shook his head. “I’ve already eaten.”

“It’s really hard on you to have to come and drive on a Saturday.”

Zhan Luo waved his hand. “It’s not hard. It’s worth it.”

“Is there an underwear display at this event? Do you want me to put some highlighter on your collarbone?” The makeup artist unbuttoned Qin Luo’s shirt.

Qin Luo looked away from Zhan Luo and at her own collarbone. “No need. Once the live stream’s beauty filter is on, a whole box of highlighter won’t do any good. Let’s just stick to being natural.”

“That’s true,” the makeup artist nodded.

***

SD was an international light luxury sports brand.

In China, its main product category had shifted from men’s leisure a few years ago to women’s sports. And the underwear series was a hot seller in the past two years.

SD’s brand marketing had long been interested in Logos’s female growth track and had invested a lot of money in Logos.

This included advertisements for its artists, sponsorship for scholars’ location shoots, theme cooperation for reading groups, and Logos’s live stream channel.

Logos was unrivaled in its track, with a very high degree of verticality and a high-quality potential customer base. The brand’s investment had been very effective, so the cooperation was close and had been increasing year by year.

“Sister Qin.”

The main person in charge of planning in SD’s public relations department was called Demi. She was mainly responsible for liaising with the artists, arranging events, and coordinating the live stream.

Qin Luo shook her hand in greeting. “Demi.”

The two quickly got into a working state. They chatted briefly about their recent situation and then moved on to the live stream process.

Qin Luo had seen the live stream outline.

The content would be roughly guided by the host, starting with Qin Luo sharing the behind-the-scenes creation story of Her Kill, then moving on to observations of society, and finally discussing how sports can help women face social pressure, and then to self-discovery and self-redemption of the body.

The entire conversation would last for two hours, with a focus on depth and a secondary focus on sales.

The live stream warm-up had already begun. SD had invested in the platform’s opening screen advertisement. In addition, Qin Luo was active on social media, and her views had a high degree of attention. There was still half an hour before the live stream started, and tens of thousands of people were already waiting.

This was a good start for the brand’s official blog live stream.

While Qin Luo was getting her microphone on, Demi’s team emphasized the many live stream rules again, informing her of the review standards to prevent Qin Luo from making mistakes during the live stream.

“Teacher Qin must keep in mind to avoid controversial topics and prevent traffic antagonism.” Qin Luo listened intently, nodding constantly.

The lighting team was ready, the technical support was in place, the host was staring at the teleprompter for the opening remarks, and the social media management was constantly promoting the live stream channel below the stage. Qin Luo glanced at Demi’s phone, and the number of viewers was constantly rising.

“Next, let’s welcome Teacher Qin Luo!”

Hearing her name, Qin Luo walked to the camera and sat down. Like countless sharing sessions and book signings, she sat down in her place, forced a smile, and summoned all her mental energy to complete every task.

But today, Liu Jia was not here, and her assistant Wang Dapao was also gone. Only the colleagues from the live stream department opposite her gave her a thumbs-up.

Three spotlights were shining on Qin Luo from the front.

Qin Luo felt that she was being illuminated too transparently, and her sense of security was leaking. She stared at the screen in a daze, until the host called her name again. Only then did she smile and put on her skin again.

“Teacher Qin, the book Her Kill has been out for five years and has always been at the top of the female reading list. It has won 7 awards and nominations, and is even the best-seller in airport bookstores. Did you ever think it would be so popular before you created it?”

“Best-seller? Haha.” Qin Luo was very cautious about such flattery. “Where did you get this data?”

The host checked her manuscript and replied, “In a special feature on the cultural and creative industry in a certain economic weekly.”

“Ah~ If the data is accurate, then I’m very happy.” Qin Luo’s hands were neatly placed on her knees, and she looked at the host seriously.

“Her Kill is not only the first choice for female readers, but also the best-seller in airports, which shows that to a certain extent, our women’s economic independence and influence in the social workplace are constantly increasing, and our cultural consumption is also very strong~ I didn’t expect it to sell so well in airports when I first created it.”

The host flipped through her manuscript. “Then what made you want to write these stories at that time?”

Since the publication of Her Kill, Qin Luo had answered this question countless times to the media. The answers were all similar, and they all summarized the original intention of her creation that she had written in the prologue, her source of inspiration, her anger, and her thoughts.

But these past few days, she had been entangled with Shen Yiyi, and she had re-traced the original intention of founding Logos with her sealed memories.

Original intention.

This Chinese word represents the pure motivation, the origin of passion, and the beautiful ideal that a person has when doing something.

A few questions suddenly flashed through Qin Luo’s mind.

Was she writing to save?
Was she creating to reveal?
Were the characters in her writing for projection?

It seemed that her own words were also covered in a rotten skin. It seemed to construct a magnificent question, but it had actually reconstructed a new prison.

Clearly, her creations were all accidental.

She had accidentally thought of the Mid-Autumn Festival through the moon. She had sat alone on the sofa, admiring the grand reunion in the program. She had gritted her teeth in hatred, and so she had created a human figure in her computer. She had thought of piercing it, tearing it, and then patching it up and sending it to a new continent, and so it had reasonably become a character.

It was also an accident.

She had seen a murder case on her phone screen. The plane back to China was turbulent. She was sitting in business class, but she could still be disturbed by a mischievous child. She had turned to observe. The mother with the child was anxiously trying to soothe her, while the child’s father was sleeping soundly beside her.

At that time, she had just wanted to stab those noisy sounds to death, to cut off her mother’s nagging in her ear, to dismember her terrible family.

So she had changed the name from The Murder Hidden in the Shadows to Her Kill, Hidden in the Shadows.

Qin Luo looked at the camera. “Because I wanted to question whether the ethical values in the narrative system are reasonable.”

This was an answer that was not in the original script. The host was stunned for a second.

“I was at my most tired when I was writing this book.” Qin Luo’s tone was calm. She couldn’t see the live stream comments, and she had also forgotten that this was a live stream.

She seemed to be confessing, or perhaps expressing her true feelings. “I was almost thirty when I was writing this book. I didn’t experience a single bit of happiness from my successful career or social status. I felt incredibly heavy every day. I didn’t know how to deal with my own body.”

The host had been invited by the brand. She was a host of a humanities program, with both cultural literacy and the ability to adapt. She abandoned her original script and seriously thought about Qin Luo’s answer.

“To deal with, this word sounds very painful when used on a person.”

“I think many people’s spirits are quite suspended.” After Qin Luo finished speaking, she looked up. In the distance, her own team was making gestures at her, telling her to get back on track with the content.

But her mind was racing, and the words on the tip of her tongue couldn’t keep up with her control. She blurted out, “Since I was a child, I’ve felt that there are two sets of language fabrics growing in my body, like two genders, a man and a woman intertwined in my body.”

Help!!!

The Logos live stream team was frantically gesturing below, even waving their hands vigorously, hoping that Qin Luo would see and stop.

They couldn’t predict the public opinion effect of these answers that had not been risk-assessed tonight.

Qin Luo blinked. “I feel that I can’t question myself with either set of language systems. I’ve lost the right to be happy.”

“When I was a child, I thought it was because I had no economic ability, no social identity. But when I was almost thirty, I found that I had everything, but I still couldn’t question myself.”

Therefore, she had noticed that anger.

That anger that had been hidden by someone.