Zhao Yinian looked at Song Xinya and sneered contemptuously. “What gives you the right to punish me? Do you think you’re a judge, with the state’s judicial authority?”
She glanced at the door Song Xinya had kicked open. “An employee kicking down the general manager’s door? It’s like having the Calabash Brothers hanging in your house and thinking you’re the boss.”
Song Xinya retorted, “It must be pretty frustrating when the family registry can’t even turn a page. Use both shoulders to squeeze until that pimple between them bursts. Then your family of three can reunite underground.”
Zhao Yinian mocked her. “Even though I have neither a father nor a mother, I’m still better off than you. At least my parents loved me when they were alive. My father would rather eat coarse grains and vegetables himself than spend the money he earned on anything but me. Unlike you—having a father is worse than having none. Your father would rather raise his mistress’s daughter than his own biological daughter. I hope that father of yours lives a long, long life, so he can torment you for longer.”
Zhao Yinian walked to the doorway and shut the office door.
With another bang, the door was kicked open again. Chen Siyan stood in the doorway.
Zhao Yinian had only made it one step from the entrance when the solid door slammed into her backside with a sharp crack!
The force was unstoppable. It sent Zhao Yinian sprawling face-first onto the floor, her mouth meeting Mother Earth in a passionate kiss.
A searingly painful kiss.
Her tongue had swollen from the impact.
Zhao Yinian climbed to her feet and spat out a mouthful of dirt mixed with blood.
“You two are insane! Why did you kick down my door? What did my door ever do to you?”
Song Xinya slapped the file concerning Sheng Tianjun onto Zhao Yinian’s desk.
“Look at this.”
Zhao Yinian roared, cursing under her breath, “I don’t care what it is! Whatever it is, I’m not afraid!”
Then she lowered her head and saw that it was the information she had been hiding—the evidence that Sheng Tianjun was a rapist. Her neck shrank back, and her face filled with fear.
She had kept these materials hidden so carefully. How had they ended up in Song Xinya’s hands?
If Song Xinya—and especially President Qin—found out that she had deliberately concealed the fact that Sheng Tianjun was a rapist, she would certainly be fired.
Zhao Yinian had spent years navigating the workplace and had seen all kinds of dirty, clean, and gray dealings. Her mind worked quickly, and she immediately decided to play dumb.
“Oh my God, Sheng Tianjun is a rapist? I’m only finding out now.”
“Song Xinya, where did you get these materials?”
Song Xinya replied, “I found them on the floor.”
Zhao Yinian asked, “Who dropped them? What a coincidence that you happened to find them.”
Song Xinya stared straight at her with a cold, sharp gaze. “You did.”
Zhao Yinian said, “How is that possible? I’ve never seen these materials before. How could I have dropped them? Song Xinya, that’s ridiculous.”
Chen Siyan took out his phone and brought up the evidence that exposed her. “The surveillance footage in the lobby recorded everything clearly. These materials fell from your hands.”
The expression on Zhao Yinian’s face changed. Her complexion turned ashen.
That afternoon, Song Xinya hadn’t simply sat around waiting for the workday to end. After the other employees had left, she had Chen Siyan retrieve the lobby’s surveillance footage and secured undeniable evidence.
“Zhao Yinian, stop pretending!”
Song Xinya continued, “Sheng Tianjun was your client all along. You know what kind of person he is better than anyone. When I said I was going to visit him, I didn’t expect you to help me, and I didn’t need your help. But as the legal representative and general manager of this company…”
She laid out her case with reason and precision.
“First, under the country’s Labor Law, you have an obligation to protect your employees and a responsibility to provide them with a safe and healthy working environment.”
“Second, according to Qin Group regulations, if one colleague harms another, that colleague will be fired. If a supervisor harms a subordinate, the supervisor will be fired and all Qin Group shares will be reclaimed.”
“Zhao Yinian, you deliberately concealed the fact that Sheng Tianjun had a history of rape, intentionally causing physical and psychological harm to me. The facts are already established.”
“If President Qin finds out about this, you’ll be receiving the double punishment of dismissal and having your Qin Group shares reclaimed.”
Terror spread across Zhao Yinian’s face.
Five minutes ago, she had been eagerly hoping to see Qin Yuhe. Now, she was afraid to face him.
As long as she made it through tonight—as long as Qin Yuhe didn’t find out about this right now—she could plead with Old Madam Qin. There might still be a chance to avoid dismissal and the recovery of her shares.
Again and again, Zhao Yinian told herself, It isn’t Qin Yuhe. It can’t be Qin Yuhe. It won’t be Qin Yuhe.
A tall, handsome figure stood in the center of the doorway. He wore a black suit, his shoulders broad and his waist narrow, his bearing noble and commanding.
It was Qin Yuhe.
Zhao Yinian’s heart felt as though it had rolled through a pile of coal, becoming coated in ash.
Qin Yuhe took in all her fear and panic. He looked past her toward Song Xinya. “What happened?”
Song Xinya had barely parted her lips when Zhao Yinian tried to seize the initiative and fabricate a lie.
“President Qin, let me explain. This is what happened—”
Qin Yuhe’s deep eyes remained fixed on Song Xinya.
“I only care about my wife. I only want to hear my wife speak.”
Zhao Yinian’s heart shattered into shards of glass.
From across half the room, Song Xinya gazed at Qin Yuhe, the corners of her eyes curving into a faint, gentle smile.
At home, in private, she called him by his full name: Qin Yuhe.
But here at the company, in this professional setting, she called him President Qin.
As an employee of Qin Group, Song Xinya truthfully reported the situation to the group’s president.
“President Qin, before I went to meet the client, Sheng Tianjun, I asked President Zhao for his information. President Zhao told me there was nothing available, but in reality, she deliberately concealed it.”
“She had more than just information about Sheng Tianjun’s family background and academic record. More importantly, she had evidence that Sheng Tianjun was a rapist.”
“As the company’s general manager, she not only failed to fulfill her responsibility and obligation to protect her subordinate, but deliberately pushed me into the fire with malicious intent.”
Qin Yuhe asked her, “How do you think Zhao Yinian should be dealt with?”
Song Xinya replied, “According to Qin Group regulations, Zhao Yinian should be dismissed, and the Qin Group shares granted to her should be reclaimed.”
Zhao Yinian opened her mouth and began shouting loudly, trying to drown out Song Xinya by sheer volume.
“President Qin, I didn’t know in advance that Sheng Tianjun was a rapist. I won’t deny that the paper fell from my hand, but what I want to say is that after learning that Yaya had been harassed by Sheng Tianjun at the beauty salon, I realized there was something wrong with him and began investigating him. I only found out about the information on that paper today.”
“As a company executive, I have never had any intention of harming a subordinate. I investigated Sheng Tianjun out of concern for Song Xinya and all the female employees of the company, acting with the bigger picture and a sense of responsibility in mind. That was how I learned that Sheng Tianjun had a prior rape conviction.”
She was twisting right and wrong, confusing the truth, and attempting to cover up her crimes with fabricated lies.
However, Zhao Yinian’s lie did sound plausible.
It was true that the paper had slipped from her hand, but there was no evidence proving when she had obtained the information written on it.
What Zhao Yinian didn’t know was—
Qin Yuhe asked, “I ordered the news about what happened to Yaya at the beauty salon that day to be sealed off. Not a single detail got out. How did you know about it?”
Zhao Yinian’s heart jolted violently. It felt as though a massive mountain had come crashing down on her head, carrying the force of thunder, and she was about to be crushed beneath it.
The moment Qin Yuhe said this, Chen Siyan suddenly raised his hand and smacked himself hard on the forehead. The loud crack echoed through the room, leaving five bright red fingerprints on his fair skin. He had struck himself so hard he nearly gave himself a concussion.
He shook his head vigorously, sending the little circles spinning inside his mind flying out of his skull.
“Hey, I suddenly remembered. Teacher Song went through that incident at the beauty salon, and two days later, when she came to work, Zhao Yinian immediately came over and asked us, ‘Did you two hear? A rape case happened at a beauty salon two days ago.’”
“The news never got out, so how did Zhao Yinian know? That proves she had already anticipated that the animal, the perverted bastard Sheng Tianjun, was going to do something terrible to Teacher Song. She must have been waiting outside the beauty salon from the beginning, just waiting to watch Teacher Song make a fool of herself.”
“And she still has the nerve to say she was thinking of Teacher Song? Screw that! It’s all lies—every word of it!”
Qin Yuhe gazed at Song Xinya, his eyes filled with tenderness and concern.
For the first time that evening, he looked Zhao Yinian directly in the eye. His gaze was as sharp as a blade, and every word cut like one.
“Now that the facts are clear, as the president and chairman of Qin’s Group, I hold the highest authority over personnel appointments and dismissals within the company. I hereby relieve Zhao Yinian of her position as general manager and reclaim the Qin’s Group shares previously awarded to her. This decision takes effect immediately!”
