The taxi had been gone for a while before that feeling of being watched finally dissipated.
My phone chimed with a message from Little Dai asking where I was: “Want to come join us for dinner?”
I replied briefly: “I’ll manage on my own.”
Back home, I changed clothes, showered, dried my hair, and after sitting on the sofa for a long time, sent a message to Lin Yusen.
“Are you free to take a call?”
“Just a moment.”
About ten minutes later, Lin Yusen called. I told him very calmly: “I’ve gotten into some trouble.”
Lin Yusen’s voice was steady, “What trouble? Did you demolish their laboratory?”
“…Not quite that bad. Hasn’t your grandfather contacted you?”
“No, is this about the Sheng family?”
“Yes,” I explained the situation in detail, hesitating slightly when I got to Zhuang Xu’s appearance.
Lin Yusen seemed completely unconcerned, immediately saying after I finished: “Your classmate’s actions were extreme, but this won’t affect us. Don’t worry or blame yourself.”
I didn’t know how to describe my feelings at that moment. On the way home and after getting back, I replayed the entire situation several times, thinking I could handle it. But despite my earlier show of indifference to Ye Rong, I couldn’t help but worry.
Hearing his words now, I finally relaxed.
Only then did I allow myself to feel the hurt and sadness?
Then Lin Yusen added a second point: “Besides, whether or not you told her about this, once she found out, she could have used you to mislead Sheng Xingjie. This has no necessary connection to your previous actions.”
I froze holding the phone. If his first statement was just consolation, this completely absolved me of responsibility.
“Lin Yusen, don’t do this.”
“Do what?” he asked lightly, even laughing a bit.
“This is too biased, and unfair. I wasn’t thorough enough.”
“How weren’t you thorough? If you had coldly watched your classmate being deceived, you wouldn’t be the Nie Xiguang I know.”
“I didn’t consider many things, like whether it would involve you, and besides Sheng Xingjie didn’t just deceive Ye Rong, he also deceived another girl…”
“Xiguang.” Lin Yusen suddenly interrupted me seriously.
I stopped.
Lin Yusen said: “Sheng Xingjie was the one who did wrong. Why are you demanding perfection from yourself?”
I held my breath, then slowly let it out, my eyes growing misty, “Lin Yusen.”
“I’m here.”
I want to see you, want to see you right now.
I said in my heart.
I paused for a while, then made a wish to him: “Will Sheng Xingjie have bad luck?”
“He will.”
“Can it be really bad luck?”
“The Zhou family has deep connections, and they only have one daughter in this generation who they cherish deeply. The Sheng family will have to give them an explanation.” Lin Yusen analyzed calmly, “Actually, Grandfather probably already knew about Sheng Xingjie’s behavior. He doesn’t care about that, but he will care about how Sheng Xingjie handled it.”
And Sheng Xingjie failed at that – I understood Lin Yusen’s unspoken meaning.
“I’ll help a bit.” Lin Yusen’s tone suddenly turned cold, “He’s gotten too full of himself, making such casual accusations.”
“Ah?” I froze, not knowing what to say, “…Be careful?”
He suddenly laughed again, his tone instantly turning gentle, “Alright, I’ll be careful.”
A burst of noise came from his end, and Lin Yusen seemed to cover the receiver to tell someone “Coming.”
“Are you busy?”
“Conference break.”
“Then hurry back to your meeting.”
“Mm, after the meeting I’m flying to Shanghai.”
I was surprised, “Resolved so quickly?”
“No, I’ll fly back tomorrow morning.”
That won’t do! I hurriedly stopped him, “No no, I’m fine now, come back after you’ve finished your business.”
Lin Yusen didn’t speak, so I emphasized, “You’re not allowed to rush back, understand?”
He was silent for a while, seeming to weigh options, finally saying: “Alright, I’ll call you tonight. How about I give you a task?”
He seemed to be walking as he spoke, “When you have time, think about where we should go for the May Day holiday. Didn’t you say you covered your colleague’s monthly settlement last month, so you can take time off this month?”
“Yes yes, I’ll think about it right away, but you absolutely must not rush back, okay?” I repeatedly urged, “Go back to work now, I’m hanging up.”
I hung up first, checking the call duration – less than ten minutes. Surprisingly short, but my mood had completely flipped.
I pulled myself together, planning to find something to do, like clean the house. However, just as I found the cleaning cloth, my father called. My heart jumped – had the Sheng family finally come? Sure enough, they had.
But his tone was very careful, “Xiguang, there’s something I need to ask you about.”
I made a sound of acknowledgment, and he continued, “Sheng Baiqi called me, saying you took some photos and reported Sheng Xingjie to Old Mr. Sheng. Of course, I trust you completely, so I want to know what misunderstanding is involved here?”
I thought for a few seconds, then asked: “What photos?”
He explained in detail, and I couldn’t be bothered to pretend to be angry or surprised, instead saying directly: “His ex-girlfriend was my roommate, and we never got along well. I don’t know what they’re up to, but it has nothing to do with me.”
Father relaxed, “That’s good then. It’s best not to get involved in this matter. Old Mr. Sheng was so angry he was hospitalized. Better if we’re not involved at all. I’ll clarify this when I visit him later.”
“Grandpa Sheng is hospitalized?” My heart rose, “Is it serious?”
“From Sheng Baiqi’s tone, it shouldn’t be serious, probably just putting on a show for the Zhou family. If it were real, he’d be angry about having no worthy successors,” Father said somewhat sarcastically.
After hanging up, I immediately messaged Lin Yusen about Old Mr. Sheng’s hospitalization. About ten minutes later, I received his reply: “Just asked Grandfather’s doctor, nothing serious, he’ll be fine after some rest, don’t worry.”
Similar to what Father said. I completely relaxed. After Lin Yusen’s words earlier, I certainly wouldn’t blame myself anymore, but if something serious had happened to the old man, I would still have felt uneasy.
I put away my phone, no longer in the mood for housework. Sitting on the sofa, random thoughts flashed through my empty mind – where to go for May Day, what to pay attention to in tomorrow’s joint research center discussion…
Amidst these wandering thoughts, an idea suddenly burst into my mind.
My heart suddenly started racing, and I stood up, thinking by the sofa for a while. The more I thought about it, the more feasible it seemed, so I quickly called my father back.
As soon as he answered, I asked: “Dad, you haven’t gone to the hospital yet, right? When are you going? I’m in Shanghai too, let me come with you to visit Grandpa Sheng.”
Hearing that I wanted to visit Old Mr. Sheng with him, Father’s reaction could only be described as overjoyed, immediately saying he’d send a car to pick me up.
“No need, I’ll take a taxi over now.” I took the opportunity to make another request, “When we visit, can we ask Uncle Sheng to come too?”
Father was confused: “Why ask him?”
“If there’s a misunderstanding, of course, we should clear it up in person. How can we let him wrongly accuse me like this?” I emphasized the last few words.
So when we visited Old Mr. Sheng at the hospital around five in the afternoon, I was with Chairman Nie and Sheng Baiqi. Father probably hadn’t had time to tell Sheng Baiqi anything, as his attitude toward us was extremely cold, maintaining a sour face from the hospital entrance to the ward.
In the ward, Old Mr. Sheng looked in decent spirits, sitting up and reading the newspaper. Seeing us arrive, he ignored Sheng Baiqi and only greeted us, “Little Nie, Xiguang, what brings you here? Sit.”
We set down our gifts and asked about his condition before sitting on the sofa. Old Mr. Sheng asked me: “Yusen called, and said he’s away on business. Xiguang, aren’t you working in Suzhou? How did you come here?”
“Yusen was still worried, and since Dad was coming to visit you, he asked me to come check on you first.”
A satisfied smile appeared on Old Mr. Sheng’s face, “Now you’ve seen that I’m fine, tell him I’m alright, no need to worry needlessly.”
“Of course, we’d be worried, and besides,” I paused before continuing, “Dad called me this afternoon saying there was a misunderstanding, so I had to come even more.”
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?” Old Mr. Sheng asked neutrally.
I deliberately spoke somewhat messily: “At my classmate’s birthday party, Rong Rong, that is, Ye Rong was there too. That’s when I found out she was dating Sheng Xingjie. I was so happy I told Yusen afterward, saying our classmate would become family. But today Dad told me someone wrote emails and took some photos to your inbox saying Sheng Xingjie was two-timing, and they’re saying I sent it. I was stunned – I don’t even know what’s going on, I didn’t do this.”
“The photos weren’t taken by you? The emails weren’t written by you?” Sheng Baiqi pressed aggressively.
“Of course not. How could I have taken any photos? I don’t even know Grandpa Sheng’s email, and I’m in Suzhou – how would I know about Sheng Xingjie’s dirty deeds?”
Sheng Baiqi’s expression grew even uglier, but I was angrier than him, turning to Old Mr. Sheng, “Grandpa Sheng, is your company’s IT department not working? Can’t they check who sent it? Why drag me into this? Sheng Xingjie is so hateful, who knows how many people can’t stand him.”
Father coughed: “Xiguang.”
I reined myself in somewhat, but still appeared indignant: “It could have been anyone around them who knew they were dating. Why would Yusen and I do this? We’re in Suzhou now. No, Uncle Sheng, you must give me an explanation today. I can’t just be wrongly accused like this.”
Sheng Baiqi hadn’t expected me to turn the tables on him and was momentarily speechless.
I looked at Grandpa Sheng, saying grievously: “Grandpa Sheng, there’s something we’ve never mentioned. I just started getting involved in company affairs and found a very unreasonable contract. Two years ago when the market was trending downward, the company somehow signed a six-year contract locking in prices and purchase volumes for auxiliary materials. The total amount is huge. I asked Yusen if we could find a way to terminate it, but Yusen said this company belonged to Big Aunt’s brother, so we couldn’t touch it, and we just accepted it. So Yusen has always been very mindful of relations with Uncle Sheng’s side. We didn’t say anything about such a big issue, just silently accepted it ourselves, how could we possibly make trouble over gossip?”
Old Mr. Sheng’s expression changed instantly: “What’s this about the contract?”
My heart raced with excitement – the old man knew how to catch the key point.
On the way here, I had been quietly analyzing Old Mr. Sheng’s character. Twenty years ago, he could send his right-hand son-in-law abroad, so he must be suspicious and autocratic, definitely unable to tolerate any behind-the-scenes profit transfers.
So from his perspective, if we hadn’t played such a big card involving Uncle Sheng’s profit transfer, we certainly wouldn’t make an issue of Sheng Xingjie’s personal misconduct.
This was the strongest evidence that I hadn’t sent the emails.
As for the contract matter, it wasn’t that we didn’t want to mention it before, but Lin Yusen, being closely connected to the Sheng family and having just received shares, had reservations about bringing it up.
For me, as an interested party, being young and just starting work, to speak up when wronged regardless of consequences was reasonable. Moreover, I said it in front of Sheng Baiqi, not behind his back – perfectly righteous and beyond reproach.
I let out a long internal sigh of relief.
That contract should be completely resolved now.
Later when Lin Yusen tells his grandfather about wanting to return to medical practice, relations with Sheng Baiqi’s side can be eased again.
Of course, that would have to come from him.