How could they stop?

Actually, I had an answer in my heart.

Only when I cried out in pain would they stop.

If I sealed myself inside invisible walls for protection, their attacks would become heavier and heavier.

They didn’t want you to be unscathed, nor did they want you to turn a blind eye.

They spent time and effort launching attacks, so you had to feel pain.

The logic of all this was very simple, like the simplest circuit.

Connect the electricity, and the light turns on.

If it doesn’t light up, then it’s the light’s problem.

I kept my head down assembling display screens when suddenly a worker beside me held up a small LED light and winked at another worker. They deliberately raised their voices to ensure their conversation reached my ears.

“Hey! Look!”

“Look at what?”

“Look at this LED light’s tip… pointy. Doesn’t it look like a breast?”

The two people giggled a few times after speaking, then picked up another LED light.

“Look, what do you call two lights?”

“Second breast.” (A play on words with “mistress”)

I listened to those words, expressionlessly keeping my head down, assembling the display screen in my hands.

Whether young men or young women, the destructive power of their foul language far exceeded that of the previous workshop.

The workers in the previous workshop had just come of age. Although there was also a large amount of abuse, those words weren’t enough to wound my soul. They were just using the purest thoughts to express malice without any substance.

But now, there were many adults and middle-aged people in the workshop.

If they wanted to hurt me with words, how could I resist with only eighteen years of experience?

But I really didn’t want to cry out in pain.

Pain in this world was truly strange—even when your body was completely unharmed, you would still feel pain.

Even though I had never done these things, and the person they fabricated was not me at all, I would still feel pain.

But once I cried out in pain, it would be equivalent to admitting to these misdeeds.

This situation was exactly like the viewpoint they held from the beginning—if they weren’t talking about me, then why would I be angry?

An unfounded slap from a strange woman had sent me into Avici Hell.

And here there wasn’t even that woman, nor Director Fang, yet my identity hadn’t changed at all.

…

“Zhang Fang.”

I walked in front of Zhang Fang. After holding back for a long time, I still called out her name.

“Oh…” Zhang Fang revealed a smile, looked up at me, then slowly stood up.

The few girls beside her saw this and wanted to reach out to hold her back, but she stopped them.

“Isn’t this… my mentor?” She displayed the posture of a victor and spoke to me. “How does mentor have time to come find me?”

“Zhang Fang, I’m not a mistress.” I said in a serious tone.

She stared into my eyes and frowned slightly, then smiled and asked back: “What?”

“I feel it’s necessary to explain to you—Director Fang’s wife wrongly accused me, and Director Fang was even transferred away because of this.” I continued. “These situations have nothing to do with me.”

I gradually raised my voice, attracting the attention of everyone on the entire production line to what was happening here.

“I thought you were going to say something…” Zhang Fang shook her head. “Mentor… you came just to explain this matter? Alright, I know now. If there’s nothing else, I’ll get back to work.”

“It’s not just this matter.” I interrupted. “I need to talk to you properly. You told others I’m a mistress, but you don’t have evidence, do you?”

“Evidence…” Zhang Fang was stunned by my question, then sorted out her thoughts. “That’s not right, mentor. Then what evidence do you have to prove you’re not a mistress?”

“If you put it that way, then it’s worth discussing.” I said. “Does inability to prove innocence mean guilt? Then what method do you have to prove you haven’t killed anyone before?”

“I…”

Perhaps this was Zhang Fang’s first time openly arguing with me. For a moment, she was actually choked by my words.

She probably had never imagined I was this kind of person.

More and more onlookers began gathering around us. They all seemed to be waiting for the result of this debate.

Although I appeared calm on the surface, I was actually trembling with nervousness.

Whether I could cure their plague all at once might depend on this debate. The best result would be for them to generally recover, leaving only lifelong aftereffects.

Now the flames of war had been ignited. Everyone had stopped working to watch. In just a few minutes it would reach the workshop director and the boss. I needed to inject the treatment in an extremely short time.

“You… that’s just sophistry!” She came back to her senses and said. “Murder is illegal. If I had broken the law, could I still be standing here?”

“So because being a ‘mistress’ isn’t illegal, you can use it to falsely accuse me?” I sternly demanded.

“I…!” She was choked by my words again, looking like she was about to fall into a disadvantageous position.

“Zhang Lijuan… don’t argue… What if the leadership finds out…” One of the girls beside Zhang Fang seemed to want to smooth things over, inopportunely inserting her voice from the side.

“Don’t speak.” I looked at her and said. “You don’t understand what happened before. Everything is what Zhang Fang told you, so you don’t know what’s true or false either. Now I’m asking her alone. It has nothing to do with you.”

I felt I seemed to have gained experience. In this extremely disadvantageous scenario, I had no way to defeat everyone, so I could only identify a single target.

Hearing the phrase “has nothing to do with you,” she knew she was in the wrong and could only silently close her mouth.

“According to your logic, not seeing it means it didn’t happen.” I said to Zhang Fang again. “You weren’t in my previous workshop at all. You don’t know anything about what happened in the workshop, so why spread rumors?”

“You… you…” Zhang Fang gritted her teeth and found herself seemingly cornered, so she changed tactics and said: “You’re just being unreasonable. If it really wasn’t you, why didn’t you say anything when we wrote ‘Broken Shoe’ on the bulletin board? Now you suddenly have the ability…”

“Like you said, the ‘Broken Shoe’ written wasn’t me, so what does it have to do with me?”

Just as I was once again cornering Zhang Fang, a figure slowly walked out from the crowd.

He pushed through all the people and stood between Zhang Fang and me. But this time he didn’t face me with his back. Instead, he faced me and said exactly the same words as before:

“What’s going on…? What are you doing…?”

Unfortunately, this young man’s eyes no longer held any light, like an old man who had lost interest in everything.

The same person, the same words. But this time I stood on his opposing side, becoming his enemy.

Just like last time, he was protecting the girl he liked.

Seeing Mantuan blocking in front of her, Zhang Fang looked as if she had seen her savior. She quickly grabbed Mantuan and said to me: “Zhang Lijuan, didn’t you just say I didn’t see it with my own eyes? If you have the ability, ask Mantuan! He was in the same workshop as you at the time. Others might not know, but how could he not know?”

At this moment, everyone looked at Mantuan.

In their eyes, this down-to-earth and hardworking young man had always been very proper and certainly couldn’t lie.

So… he should give the most fair answer, right?