As Chen Bei opened the door, she came out of the room holding a cup, bumping into Shen Nian, and her pupils suddenly contracted.
"Who are you really, and why won't you leave me alone?" She was quite agitated.
After saying that, she tried to retreat back into the room: "Don't look for me, I don't know anything, I don't know anything!"
"Chen Bei!" Shen Nian took a step forward, but a piercing pain shot through her ankle again. Enduring the pain, she said, "Don't you want that beast Wang Yong to pay the price?"
"..." Hearing this, Chen Bei, who was about to close the door, paused.
Shen Nian took out a business card from her bag, "I'm Shen Nian, the executive assistant to Lu Lingchuan, the CEO of Lingrui Group."
"..."
Chen Bei still eyed Shen Nian warily, not blindly believing her words. Instead, she took out her phone from her pocket.
Shen Nian knew what she intended to do, so she prompted, "Ling from dawn, Rui from flower bud."
"..." Following Shen Nian's prompt, Chen Bei accurately typed in "Lingrui Group" and searched. Sure enough, a lot of news and Lu Lingchuan's photo came up.
Shen Nian took another step forward, but the sensitive Chen Bei immediately took a step back: "Don't come any closer!"
"..." Shen Nian frowned slightly, one hand pressed against her leg, and she held up the business card in her other hand: "I just wanted to give you this."
Chen Bei still didn't trust her, pointing to a nearby table: "Just put it there."
Seeing that she was still on guard, Shen Nian complied, limping over to place the business card on the table before retreating. Chen Bei carefully walked over, took the card, and walked away, maintaining distance from Shen Nian.
She looked down at the business card.
Shen Nian, Executive Assistant to the President of Lingrui Group.
Below was a string of phone numbers.
Based on the number on the card, Chen Bei dialed the phone, and soon Shen Nian's phone in her bag started ringing.
Chen Bei looked at her, and Shen Nian met her gaze: "Do you believe me now?"
"..." Chen Bei pursed her lips without saying a word.
She was just an ordinary person. She had never met or known any big bosses. She could only use this method to verify if the other party was lying to her or not.
She hung up the phone, and Shen Nian's incoming call ringtone also abruptly stopped.
Chen Bei gripped the bedroom door, no longer as agitated and sensitive as before, only lowering her head and saying, "You're an assistant at a big company, what do you want with me?"
Shen Nian looked at her, sincerely replying, "To make that beast Wang Yong pay the price."
These words touched Chen Bei, and she immediately looked up, seeing the earnest expression on Shen Nian's face, not appearing to be deceiving her.
She was just a small service worker, with nothing worth lying about.
After a long while, she finally said, "But we don't even know each other, so... why would you help me?"
"Because five years ago, my best friend Ling Rui and I were cornered by the drunken Wang Yong and Yang Hao. They..." Shen Nian paused, a flash of pain in her eyes. She didn't elaborate on the details, only saying, "A month later, my best friend committed suicide. We've been in a legal battle with them for five years, demanding the death penalty, while they pleaded not guilty."
"..." A five-year legal battle.
Upon hearing this, Chen Bei's last shred of wariness towards Shen Nian disappeared. She knew that Wang Yong was a wealthy man, with money and background, which was why he had been so arrogant for so many years. For someone to have been in a five-year legal battle with him proved that this person's background was also not to be trifled with.
"So you came to find me to..." Chen Bei tentatively asked.
"The crime of rape alone is not enough to warrant the death penalty. Plus, my best friend committed suicide, and they were drunk at the time. They insisted it was a drunken mistake. Without more witnesses and evidence proving that those two are utterly despicable, they may ultimately be acquitted. Even if convicted, it would be less than three years."
Shen Nian finished, her gaze somber: "That's why I'm looking for you."
"...Drunken mistake..." Hearing those four words, Chen Bei couldn't help but laugh bitterly, teeth clenched in hatred: "When have they ever made a 'drunken mistake'? Alcohol only makes them fully expose their beastly nature!"
She looked up at Shen Nian and said, "Come in."
Chen Bei invited Shen Nian into what she called the living room, though it only had a table and a small fridge, with peeling wallpaper and a paint bucket on a stool, clearly showing traces of wall painting.
"Have some water," Chen Bei said, holding out a cup.
It was just an ordinary cup, printed with the logo of some tutoring school, clearly a promotional gift.
Seeing Shen Nian staring at the printed words on the cup, Chen Bei's eyes flashed with a hint of self-consciousness, quickly explaining, "Although it's not a nice cup, I've washed it clean. It's not dirty."
Shen Nian smiled: "I'm not looking down on it."
Saying that, she took the cup and drank some water, which was just plain boiled water.
Seeing that Shen Nian really wasn't looking down on her, Chen Bei finally relaxed.
After drinking the water and putting the cup down on the table, Shen Nian said, "If you don't mind... could you tell me about the situation back then? I was able to find you because while investigating Wang Yong, I came across what happened to you, but we only know some surface information."
At the mention of that time, a flash of panic and fear flickered in Chen Bei's eyes. She remained silent for a full minute before finally speaking in a small voice.
"Back then, I was still a freshman in college. My roommate and I went out... that roommate was a friend I'd known for many years. We were from the same hometown, went to the same high school, got into the same university, and were even assigned to the same dorm room, so we were really close."
"Because our parents were so strict in high school, once we got to university and became adults, we wanted to see what a bar was like. So that day, the two of us went."
"After wandering around for a bit, we found it wasn't much, just really noisy, and we lost interest. We were about to head back when we were stopped by a few ruffians who started harassing us and trying to get us to drink. We refused, but they forced the drinks on us."
Chen Bei hung her head, and even though so much time had passed, recounting that past incident still made her body tremble in fear.
"Even... even though we'd never drank before, our tolerance wasn't so low that we'd pass out after just one drink. But after drinking what they forced on us, we felt powerless all over and passed out."
Hearing this, Shen Nian immediately realized that the drinks they were given likely contained something.
"...Ping Ping drank it all, but I struggled and spilled a lot, so I only drank a little. I woke up faster, in a daze, and heard the laughter of many men. At the time, I didn't dare open my eyes, only squinting, and I saw six or seven men sitting on the sofa, ordering us around like kings. That was when I realized that besides Ping Ping and me, there were other girls who had been victimized too."
Chen Bei's hands shook more and more, her eyes flickering with deep fear and unease.
