Only She Is Silent - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

From that day on, Xu Shuheng was as punctual as a salaryman punching a time clock.

He arrived every morning at ten and left at five in the afternoon, always with an impeccable excuse.

One day it was retrieving old urban redevelopment materials; the next, it was verifying missing person files from twenty years ago; and the day after that, he claimed he needed to investigate a batch of sealed cases involving folk supernatural abilities.

I led him back and forth between the archives and the reading room. On the surface, I remained perfectly professional, but inside, my heart felt like a burrow full of frantic, racing rabbits.

He was far too good at acting.

The Curator thought he was polite, steady, and efficient; Song Yuxi thought he was handsome, if a bit cold in his aura;

even the elderly security guard at the gate praised him, saying he nodded and greeted people every time he entered, unlike those other officials who only knew how to flash their IDs to intimidate people.

Only I knew that he wasn’t just “Mr. Xu,” but the Xu Shuheng who could hear the secrets of the entire city.

And the way he looked at me was becoming increasingly… off.

That look wasn’t like a man looking at a woman, nor was it like a superior looking at a special subject. It was more like someone who had spent years in a blizzard, suddenly touching a warm stone in the snow.

Restrained, cautious, yet unable to hide it.

On the evening of the third day, Song Yuxi was called away for an emergency meeting. When the library closed, I was the only one left in the restoration room, organizing a batch of moldy old periodicals.

The power suddenly went out, and the entire floor plunged into darkness with a sharp click.

Just as the emergency lights flickered on, a dull thud echoed from the end of the hallway.

I grabbed a flashlight to investigate. Just as I rounded the corner of the periodical section, I saw a man in a black hoodie crouching on the floor, desperately stuffing original collection documents into a bag.

Those were old diaries collected from the public just last week. Tucked inside was a list of ability users from the Anomaly Period. Although we hadn’t finished cataloging them yet, someone had clearly set their sights on them.

I wanted to call the police, but the man was faster. He lunged at me, trying to snatch my phone.

In the narrow space between the bookshelves, he shoved me back. My back slammed into the iron frame, and a wave of numbness shot through my shoulder blades.

The man’s grip was terrifyingly strong as he cursed under his breath, “Give it to me! You didn’t see anything!”

The next second, footsteps echoed from the end of the hallway.

They weren’t fast, but they were steady.

The moment the man in the hoodie turned around, it was as if someone had suddenly seized him by the throat. His face went deathly pale.

His eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out. The bag in his hand hit the floor with a heavy thud, and his knees buckled, sending him straight to the ground.

Xu Shuheng stood there, his expression terrifyingly indifferent. “What you stole isn’t just data; it’s three lives.”

I didn’t understand what he meant, but the man in the hoodie seemed to suffer a total breakdown. He clutched his head, trembling violently, and began to sob as he spilled everything he had done: he had been paid to steal the list; his employer told him to find an experimental record codenamed ‘Silent Domain’; they even said if he couldn’t get it, he should burn the library down overnight.

He even blurted out the last few digits of his bank card, the meeting location, and what brand of cigarettes his handler usually smoked.

I was stunned.

This wasn’t an interrogation; it was a complete psychological collapse.

Xu Shuheng walked over, picked up the fallen file folder, and placed it back in my arms. His movements were gentle, as if he were afraid of breaking something.

“Can you still stand?”

I nodded, though my legs felt a bit weak.

He glanced at my scraped wrist, and his brow furrowed.

In that moment, I caught a fleeting glimpse of anger on that cold, almost heartless face.

The library’s security and the police liaison arrived quickly, and the man in the hoodie was taken away.

While giving his statement, the man continued to cry, saying, “I don’t want to die,” “I didn’t want to burn the place down,” and “That Silent Domain really exists.”

I sat in the office, my mind in a complete mess.

Xu Shuheng pushed a cup of hot water toward my hand. “Scared?”

I shook my head, then nodded, being so honest it was almost embarrassing. “A little.”

He fell silent for a few seconds before suddenly saying, “From now on, I’ll pick you up after work.”

I looked up at him, completely stunned.

“This is for protection,” he said flatly, as if stating a perfectly normal safety measure. “I’m not asking for your opinion; I’m informing you.”

Yet, for some reason, the first thing I felt in that moment wasn’t pressure, but a sour, warm tingling in my chest.

Because I could hear it.

This wasn’t just him being professional.