At around seven o’clock, the Xiao Dizhu family arrived. Upon entering the house and seeing Li Shu’an at Xi Tang’s home, Xiao Dizhu was pleasantly surprised and chatted with him briefly about Xi Tang’s situation. Xiao Dizhu’s four-year-old son hugged Ni Kailun’s baby and rolled around on the floor, suddenly filling the house with innocent laughter.

That evening as everyone ate together, Xi Tang sat at the dining table feeling surprisingly normal. She had been rescued by Ni Kailun and her people. During that long period when she was hospitalized in her hometown, Xiao Dizhu accompanied her mother, running errands and helping out at the hospital. No one understood what had happened to her better than these few people around her. Even Li Shu’an, who had only learned about this today, remained as calm as ever. Xi Tang was already alone in the world; she didn’t care about outside criticism nor was she afraid of losing anything. At worst, she could return to Hengdian and start acting again. In this circle, no one mentioned the dirty storm raging outside. Under the warm yellow light of the dining room, there was only a pot of chicken soup giving off wisps of steam.

Halfway through the meal, Ni Kailun received a call. Today she had been selectively answering her phone—some calls she had to take, others she preferred not to. She refused to answer media calls but couldn’t actively hang up, so her phone remained facedown, sometimes vibrating continuously. Ni Kailun suddenly said to Xi Tang: “Something’s come up, I’ll step out for a moment.”

Ni Kailun went downstairs. Shen Min had been calling her every fifteen minutes all afternoon, and she hadn’t expected him to wait this long. As soon as Ni Kailun stepped out of the elevator, she saw him standing by a car in the garage.

Despite waiting so long, Shen Min’s expression showed no impatience, maintaining his customary politeness: “Miss Ni, sorry to bother you.”

Ni Kailun casually explained: “I’ve been busy, sorry. What’s the matter?” Shen Min nodded and politely asked: “I understand. About Xi Tang’s situation, is there anything I can help with?” Ni Kailun shook her head.

Shen Min had just arrived from Beijing: “Sun Kehu left the country yesterday. We’re still investigating that police report. If you need any assistance with the online public opinion, you can have someone contact me.”

“Mr. Shen, thank you.”

“Is Xi Tang at home?” Ni Kailun remained silent and shook her head again, her refusal obvious.

Shen Min reluctantly returned to the car, and the rear window lowered. Shen Min leaned against the car window briefly, then turned and took a few steps to stop Ni Kailun as she was about to leave, asking: “Miss Ni, how is Xi Tang doing by herself?”

Ni Kailun turned to look at the back seat of the black car and suddenly understood. She said unhappily: “Is Zhao Pingjin in the car? Why doesn’t he come out and talk to me himself? Why is he acting like a big shot?”

Shen Min pressed his lips together awkwardly without saying anything.

The next moment, the rear door opened, and a handsome, tall, thin man stepped out, supporting himself against the car door. It was Zhao Pingjin. Shen Min quickly returned to stand behind him.

The garage lights were harsh. Zhao Pingjin looked rather pale as Ni Kailun told him: “Her boyfriend is upstairs. We’ll find a way to resolve this. At worst, she’ll just quit the entertainment industry and get married.”

The corner of Zhao Pingjin’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly. He opened his mouth to speak but couldn’t get any words out. Ni Kailun glanced toward the darker part of the garage where several suspicious-looking cars were parked. She said to Zhao Pingjin: “You should stay here. The place is surrounded by paparazzi. She’s already a murder suspect now. If there’s another scandal about her being a homewrecker and the other woman, she’ll be the most notorious person in the entertainment circle.”

Before Ni Kailun finished speaking, Zhao Pingjin’s already pale face turned even whiter. He lowered his head and put his hand on the car for support.

Ni Kailun turned back toward the elevator and pressed the button. From behind her, she heard Shen Min’s somewhat worried voice: “Let me take you back to the hotel.”

Zhao Pingjin’s voice was too low to hear clearly.

Shen Min’s voice suddenly rose, uncommonly serious: “I’ve already had Secretary He change your flight. You must stay in Shanghai to rest tonight. You cannot return to Beijing.”

Ni Kailun entered the elevator, unable to help shaking her head. “What a doomed relationship.”

Huang Xi Tang opened the door for her, and for some reason, she looked anxious and uneasy at that moment: “Who was looking for you?”

Ni Kailun walked in with an unchanged expression. “Security from downstairs.”

Three days later, Xi Tang went to Beijing accompanied by her manager and assistant.

Following Ni Kailun’s instructions, her assistant notified the various Shanghai media outlets in advance. On the day of departure, reporters who had heard the news swarmed the airport departure hall, blocking it completely. Xi Tang didn’t use the VIP channel but got out of the car at the regular passenger entrance. The media and onlookers surrounded her like a vast ocean with her as a small white drifting point. Fortunately, they had prepared in advance—a ten-minute walk took half an hour with security assistant Bao An escorting Xi Tang’s group. At the moment she appeared at the airport, photos of the incident’s subject wearing a long white shirt, her beautiful but somewhat haggard face, head lowered and silent behind a mask, quickly dominated all entertainment media headlines.

Her father and Li Shu’an came to meet her at the airport.

The next day, Huang Xi Tang, accompanied by her lawyer, appeared at the Chaoyang District Police Station.

Huang Xi Tang’s stabbing incident had created an uproar. After several days of fermentation on the internet, it gradually exceeded the scope of the entertainment circle and evolved into a social hot topic, with thousands of people discussing it. Since its registration, Xi Tang’s Weibo has never been this popular. Even when she won the Best Actress award for “Spring Comes Late,” creating the first traffic peak of her life, it couldn’t compare to now. Although she hadn’t logged into social media or made any statements since the incident, her follower count increased by 200,000 in a single day. Netizens came in droves to watch and participate. All media outlets were following the case. The day she appeared, the road in front of Daojia Yuan No. 1 was crowded with reporters, and several media outlets opened live broadcasts directly online.

Appearing before media cameras for the first time since arriving in Beijing, Huang Xi Tang remained silent, but this time her proxy lawyer said one sentence: “The law will give my client justice.”

From that day on, Huang Xi Tang disappeared from public view. Her lawyer continued to cooperate with police investigations, but the media couldn’t dig up more information through official channels.

Online rumors were flying everywhere. Each day brought new revelations. Some said Huang Xi Tang was wrongly accused, that the person in the video wasn’t her, but others immediately countered that fingerprints had been verified, so there was no point in claiming innocence.

Others said she stabbed someone because of relationship troubles, and the victim was her ex-boyfriend. Some netizens claimed the man’s face wasn’t shown because it must have been rape. Various factions argued endlessly but without presenting any evidence. After several days of arguments without news, someone claimed their friend at the police station told them Huang Xi Tang had been detained.

On April 9th, the eleventh day after the incident, Star Art Company held a press conference regarding their artist Huang Xi Tang at the Kerry Center Hotel in China World Trade Center.

The hotel arranged a banquet hall. That afternoon, the number of reporters who showed up far exceeded expectations, causing chaos with the hotel arrangements. The hotel had to hire temporary security guards and verify each media member one by one. The press conference, originally scheduled for 3:00 PM, was delayed by a full hour. At 4:10 PM, Huang Xi Tang, wearing a white shirt, accompanied by her manager and high-level executives from the Beijing branch, faced the media publicly for the first time. Below the stage, camera flashes and shutter sounds merged into a continuous noise. Xi Tang wore no makeup, her face pale and very quiet.

The press conference lasted about half an hour. Xi Tang’s appointed lawyer addressed the media about the case. Lawyer Xiu, in his forties, spoke standard Mandarin, remained serious, and appeared calm and professional. Huang Xi Tang was involved in a case of bodily harm in self-defense. The person involved had taken drastic measures to protect herself when faced with sexual assault but subsequently suffered brutal retaliation from the victim. The approved evidence was displayed at the end. When the final section showed two completely unedited photos of Huang Xi Tang’s facial and abdominal wounds projected on the slideshow screen, several male cameramen turned their heads away from their viewfinders, seemingly unable to bear looking. Several female reporters cried on the spot.

The management company arranged for Huang Xi Tang to deliver a very brief statement.

At 5:00 PM, Xi Tang emerged from the hotel’s garage elevator. Li Shu’an was waiting in the car and stroked her head. Xi Tang was still trembling slightly.

Li Shu’an’s voice was steady and strong: “It’s over now. Go home and rest well. Leave the rest to the lawyers.” Reporters’ cars blocked the hotel entrance, refusing to disperse. Xi Tang waited in the garage for nearly an hour before leaving the hotel.

Following Ni Kailun’s advice, Huang Xi Tang hired Su Yan’s team at an astronomical price from the day she departed for Beijing. Su Yan’s people had been gradually guiding and laying the groundwork for public opinion during this period. Several groups had been stirring up discussions on various entertainment gossip websites. Starting the evening after the press conference, the best PR team and invited self-media writers together analyzed Huang Xi Tang’s incident from various angles and focal points. Dozens of different articles successively topped the headlines of the country’s hottest entertainment media for several days, starting from Huang Xi Tang’s girlhood days at the Film Academy up to her current status as a popular actress. The pieced-together experiences, whether true or false, half-true or half-false, portrayed Xi Tang as a girl who refused to submit to violence and violation, who stood up to power, maintained her chastity and self-respect, and continued to work hard and strive despite being harmed.

Huang Xi Tang had tears in her eyes at the press conference, looking pale and moving, her voice trembling slightly. This video segment was continuously refreshed online with 100,000 views per day: “In the many years since this incident, both my body and mind have been battling with it. I used excessive methods to protect myself, which is not a correct example to follow. I will continue to cooperate with the police investigation and hope to give everyone concerned about this matter the truth. Thank you to my family and friends who have helped me, and to everyone who cares about me. For more than seven years, I’ve been telling myself, and now I want to tell women who have suffered similar harm: we are not weak, we can be strong, we can overcome the past and live better lives.”

Xi Tang returned to Shanghai and stayed behind closed doors. Xiao Dizhu’s family often came to keep her company. Sometimes Xie Zhenbang would come over for dinner. With friends and family around, her loneliness was dispelled. Paparazzi staked out the community garage exit twenty-four hours a day.

Li Shu’an brought his daughter to visit.

During this period, Li Shu’an was in Shanghai almost every weekend. His little girl Xinxin and Xiao Dizhu’s son had already become good friends. Whenever the weekend came, the two played house together, pretending to be father and mother, with Ni Kailun’s son Jaden as their baby. Li Shu’an had met Xiao Dizhu many times, and they got along well. Li Shu’an’s late wife had been an expert in special education and a co-founder of a private school for disabled people in Beijing, as well as a philanthropist. The key was that when Xiao Dizhu spoke, he was so animated that outsiders couldn’t understand him. Even Ni Kailun, after meeting him so many times, still couldn’t understand him at all, but Li Shu’an, after just one or two meetings, could understand everything.

On this point, Xi Tang secretly admired him.

Xi Tang said to Ni Kailun: “It’s good that my mother is gone. Otherwise, after this incident, she would have been heartbroken again.”

Ni Kailun waved her hand to slap her head: “What nonsense are you talking?” Ni Kailun knew she was missing her mother. When people are vulnerable, they think of their mothers.