Hearing the sound, Lu Lingchen looked up and saw Shen Nian. He raised an eyebrow: "You're here? Have a seat."
Shen Nian walked over and sat across from him in the booth. Lu Lingchen had already ordered for her—milk and cake.
She only glanced at it before lifting her gaze and staring at Lu Lingchen: "What's the matter? Speak."
Earlier on the phone, Lu Lingchen had said he had something to discuss with her and wanted to meet in person.
Lu Lingchen picked up his red tea and took a sip, raising an eyebrow slightly at Shen Nian: "What's going on with you two again?"
"What?" Shen Nian was only puzzled for a moment before understanding.
"Don't act like you don't know," Lu Lingchen smiled. "In this world, only you could make him that angry."
He didn't name names, but it was clear who he was referring to.
Shen Nian suddenly became candid as well, picking up her milk and taking a sip, saying casually, "You should be well aware of what's going on between us."
"After all," she paused, then said, "It was you who told Lu Lingchuan that I was at the hospital yesterday, wasn't it?"
She stared at Lu Lingchen, questioning him.
As she looked him in the eye with unwavering confidence in every word she said, Lu Lingchen simply gazed back calmly. Then, he suddenly smiled: "What else do you know?"
Shen Nian didn't hold back, revealing all of her speculations to him.
"Based on my guess, last night you received a call from your brother, who asked you to look into my whereabouts, but not openly—you had to discreetly ask around. And he also told you who to ask: Jiang Lingling."
"..."
"Because of the hot pot incident yesterday, Jiang Lingling was with me the whole time, so she knew most of what happened. Of course, you all could have investigated on your own, but that would be time-consuming and laborious. Lu Lingchuan probably wanted you to find out immediately, and... he would only believe Jiang Lingling's answer."
More than just the results of the investigation, Lu Lingchuan wanted to hear it straight from Jiang Lingling's mouth.
To make it more real.
"..." Lu Lingchen raised an eyebrow, looking at the woman across from him with growing interest. "Go on?"
"You and Jiang Lingling don't normally interact, so of course you wouldn't call her directly—that would raise suspicion."
Suddenly receiving a call from the CEO's younger brother about something would make anyone suspicious, right? If Lu Lingchen had brought up Shen Nian directly, it would have made Jiang Lingling wonder.
No one at the company knew about the history between Shen Nian and Lu Lingchuan except for Lu Lingchen.
Although the two would commute and attend events together, everyone just assumed Shen Nian was Lu Lingchuan's most trusted assistant. She had been by Lu Lingchuan's side since the founding of Lingrui Group, his closest aide whom he entrusted with all his important work—practically his on-call personal assistant.
"So you spent time investigating the internal relationships at the company and found that Li Nan and Jiang Lingling got along well. You called Li Nan using her number from the employee records and had her ask about the situation, probing for information about me indirectly. Of course, you wouldn't ask directly either—you must have given Li Nan a plausible reason to convince her, and made her promise to keep it confidential."
Lu Lingchen probably told Li Nan he had seen the trending news and realized one of their company employees was involved in the incident. As a manager, he was very concerned about this. It all started because some loser guy was harassing two young girls. Now he couldn't go ask them as a man—that would be inappropriate. So he was entrusting Li Nan to ask what happened and whether they needed counseling arranged.
That reason was very convincing. Li Nan would have believed it wholeheartedly. If nothing went wrong, Li Nan probably claimed she had seen a video and recognized Shen Nian and Jiang Lingling's clothes—an excuse Lu Lingchen likely came up with for her as well.
After hearing this, Lu Lingchen nodded: "Yes, not bad. Anything else?"
"The reason you told Li Nan to keep it confidential was probably: Girls are sensitive about these things, and publicizing the incident would just trouble and embarrass them. So it's enough to check on them privately—consider this matter over, and don't bring it up openly again."
After considering it, Li Nan would have agreed with Lu Lingchen that it wasn't a good thing, and there were still plenty of ill-intentioned guys out there who harbored resentment toward women. Since the video didn't show Shen Nian and Jiang Lingling's faces, there was no need to discuss it further and cause them more distress.
The fewer people who knew about this incident, the better.
After saying all this, Shen Nian looked at Lu Lingchen: "Am I right?"
Lu Lingchen didn't answer, only replying: "You said this was just your speculation, with no proof."
Shen Nian smiled at this: "I never say things without proof. Your brother is the best proof."
The spiteful words he had hissed in her ear last night as they tormented each other made Shen Nian suspicious.
Lu Lingchuan never gossiped, so why would he know the hot pot incident in such detail?
Shen Nian had also suspected Liang Jinghe at first, but they hadn't met until the police station. Even if Liang Jinghe had mentioned something to Lu Lingchuan, how would Lu Lingchuan know that Xiao Mubai had put his hand on her waist to shield her at the hot pot restaurant? Liang Jinghe couldn't have known that.
Moreover, Liang Jinghe had left first, and the only one who knew Shen Nian went to the hospital was Jiang Lingling.
Shen Nian racked her brain but couldn't figure it out until she suddenly recalled Jiang Lingling's unintentional mention of "Sister Li calling" earlier today. Then everything became clear.
As for why she guessed it was Lu Lingchen and not Lu Lingchuan:
1) Lu Lingchuan wouldn't stoop to calling an employee, and going himself would only alarm and arouse Li Nan's suspicion.
2) No one at the company knew about her relationship with the Lu family. Lu Lingchuan inquiring about her movements at night would naturally raise questions about their relationship. So Lu Lingchuan could only ask someone he trusted who knew about their relationship to investigate.
Looking at the entire company, the only one who fit those criteria was Lu Lingchen.
"..." Lu Lingchen looked at Shen Nian, his eyes filled with undisguised admiration.
He had to admit, Shen Nian was truly intelligent. Her logical reasoning and deductive abilities were impressive. It was no wonder so many CEOs wealthier than Lu Lingchuan had repeatedly tried to poach her over the years, offering high salaries to make her their chief assistant.
Every word she said struck right at the truth, as if she had witnessed it firsthand.
Lu Lingchen nodded, confirming Shen Nian's speculation. But there was one thing he didn't understand.
"I told Li Nan to keep it confidential. She definitely wouldn't tell anyone." Because if Li Nan spoke, she would offend Lu Lingchen and be labeled untrustworthy.
In their line of work, breaking one's word was a grave offense.
