Chapter 977: Chapter 760: Complete Outburst (2)
In the end, it was still Chonghui who first broke the silence.
But his attention wasn’t on Shi Chuxin, or rather, not on the conflict that had just happened.
"Zhuren, what’s wrong?"
What Chonghui cared about was Nan Zhubin. On this junior brother’s face, Chonghui saw an expression that was not a good sign.
"Just now that guy who was arguing with Shi Chuxin met my eyes, and then his expression changed," Nan Zhubin said.
This answer made the others in the EAP Project Team dismissive.
The receptionist with a master’s degree said, "Maybe he’s heard your lecture before, or heard about you from somewhere else? After all, you’re quite famous in the company."
Even more well-known than most of the management.
"No, that’s not the point." Nan Zhubin’s brows gradually furrowed. "The point is the expression he showed after seeing me."
Nan Zhubin’s gaze slightly lost focus, as if Memory was re-projecting Old Mo’s face in front of his eyes.
He analyzed the details on that face: "When he was talking to Shi Chuxin just now, his eyebrows were pressed down, the muscles around his eye sockets were tight, and his nose was twitching irregularly."
"That’s a very typical expression of [anger]."
The master’s students could barely understand a bit of this, while the consultants all looked blank.
Xia Tian said nothing, but his expression was infected by Nan Zhubin’s and started to turn serious as well.
"But after he saw me, the expression on his face... changed," Nan Zhubin continued.
"His eyebrows went flat, and his pupils and gaze froze."
"Most importantly, the corners of his mouth—started doing this very contradictory movement, both taut and pulling back, forming a composite of crying and smiling at the same time."
The others had no way to recall things the way Nan Zhubin could.
But just listening to Nan Zhubin’s account, it felt like something was going wrong.
"To show that kind of expression after [anger]..." Nan Zhubin took a deep breath. "It looks like a [repressed attack impulse]."
"I’m very familiar with that expression." Nan Zhubin looked at Chonghui and stressed, "We’re very familiar with it."
Chonghui was stunned for a moment, then every muscle in his body tightened.
In what situations did they usually see cases related to "attack impulse" that they were so familiar with?
Thinking of some rather ominous scenes, Chonghui suddenly shouted, "Everyone get up, stop eating."
"Move, get far away!"
Chonghui’s first reaction was to protect the junior members of the project team.
Xia Tian responded immediately; as he stood up, he also helped pull up the baffled receptionist with the master’s degree.
The receptionist was still confused: "Attack impulse what... Junior Brother Nan, you mean something’s going to happen? But that guy already left, didn’t he? This..."
"Stop talking, get up, move!"
Chonghui was terse and forceful, herding everyone in the project team up like chicks, pushing them out of that corner of the cafeteria and into the crowd.
Only then did he look toward Shi Chuxin.
With just one glance, his pupils shrank abruptly.
...
Shi Chuxin was still lying on her table, sobbing.
She had actually cried enough; she just didn’t know, for the moment, how to deal with the scene after she finished crying, how to face the other onlookers in the cafeteria, and how to face Chonghui and the others she’d have to talk to later.
But she didn’t have time to think about any of that.
Vaguely, she seemed to hear a string of exclamations, coming from far to near.
Before she could lift her eyes from the crook of her arm to look, she heard a deafening bang—
"Thud!"
Right after that, Shi Chuxin felt the table she was leaning on start shaking like it was about to collapse, and something came crashing down on her head and face, slapping her from all directions.
A stench of food and oil clogged Shi Chuxin’s nasal cavity; she realized it was her tray that had been knocked over.
Shi Chuxin jolted, about to jump up, but then she felt an irresistible force at the back of her neck, and her whole body was smashed hard down onto the table, completely out of her control.
"Shi Chuxin!" She heard someone roaring her name.
It sounded like the voice of that Old Mo from just now.
Shi Chuxin’s first reaction was panic, then anger. She strained to open her eyes, wanting to shout something, but in the very first moment her vision cleared, she fell silent.
Because she had seen what it was that had just overturned her tray and made that loud crash.
"—A knife! He has a knife!"
Only now did this belated exclamation reach Shi Chuxin’s ears clearly.
A kitchen knife had hacked into the table less than ten centimeters from Shi Chuxin’s head.
How could there be a knife?
Old Mo had her pinned down like a hen about to be served at New Year’s dinner.
And Shi Chuxin did indeed let out a desperate screech like a hen about to be slaughtered.
"What are you doing? What do you want? What are you doing?!"
...
There being knives in the cafeteria was perfectly normal.
When Old Mo turned away just now, he had gone to the back kitchen to snatch this thing.
"What am I doing?" Old Mo clenched his teeth, his voice shaking but laced with viciousness. "What I want to do—you’ve known it all along, haven’t you?"
"It’s just that you’ve been playing deaf and dumb, pretending you can’t hear—fine, then I’ll change methods and make you understand!"
"And now—it’s my turn to ask what you’re going to do!"
Under everyone’s terrified gaze, Old Mo yanked the knife out of the table in one go.
He didn’t chop down again; instead, he pointed the knife from a distance—at Nan Zhubin and the others.
The faces of the other project team members went pale in an instant. Chonghui, like a marionette on speed, kept shoving them outward, while he and Nan Zhubin stood in front of everyone.
"You planned it, right? You calculated everything in advance, didn’t you?" Old Mo’s voice was so loud it was almost tearing his throat.
"What plan, what calculation? You’re insane, your brain is broken!" Shi Chuxin, with her head forced down, couldn’t see Old Mo’s movements; she could only hear his voice and fire back incoherent replies.
Everyone else in the cafeteria couldn’t help following Old Mo’s movements with their eyes.
"Them, those people who came in from outside the company!" Old Mo shouted sharply. "That so-called EAP... they’re in cahoots with you, aren’t they!"
"I knew it—the company’s always talking about cost-cutting, and yet they spend money to bring in a bunch of outsiders, claiming they’re here to help us, some ’Employee Assistance’—turns out they’re here to help you get rid of us more cleanly!"
Old Mo grew more and more agitated.
"You people in HR, the moment you hear a problem, you brush me off, kick the ball around, treat me like an idiot, is that it?!"
"And those people too, putting on a show, giving lectures everywhere, teaching us how to regulate our emotions, doing Psychological Consultation—listening to all our inner thoughts, all so you can help them with the layoffs, huh?"
"You’ve all been treating us employees like idiots!"
"I just want the compensation I deserve. If you won’t give it, fine—but then you fob me off, you humiliate me! Maybe I don’t have huge achievements, but I’ve worked hard. You say layoffs, and we’re laid off; you say docking compensation, and it’s docked. We just want what we’re owed—is that wrong?!"
All the words no one had ever listened to before now burst out of Old Mo in one breath.
This time, there were plenty of people listening, and every one of them was listening in terror.
"The company won’t pay us, won’t give our compensation. But instead it spends money to hire—this whole bunch of people, to help push the price down together. What Psychological Counseling? It’s just to make us accept our lot, help you talk us into it, help you smooth things over, isn’t it?"
"Now I get it—from the very beginning, you never planned to give us what you were supposed to!"
Old Mo’s voice grew louder and louder, his emotions completely out of control.
Amid a wave of screams, he pressed the knife to the back of Shi Chuxin’s neck, using just enough force to slice a shallow line of blood.
"When I tried to talk nicely, you just wouldn’t listen—well, are you listening now?"
"You say you can’t decide? Then call over the one who can. No more hiding, no more passing the buck—it won’t work now!"
"I’m laying it out here today: either you give me a clear answer right now and make up my compensation, or I’ll take you down with me!"
Old Mo’s breathing was rough. The water stains and vegetable bits on the knife smeared onto Shi Chuxin’s neck, mixing with blood and looking glaringly grotesque.
The huge cafeteria fell deathly silent, leaving only Old Mo’s ragged breath and Shi Chuxin’s muffled sobs.
