The Whole Company Thinks I'm the Boss's Mistress, But Only the Boss's Wife Pays Me - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
When the police arrived, everyone in the company was watching the spectacle.
Some people stood behind their workstations, pretending to get water.
Some kept their computer screens on, but their eyes kept drifting toward the eighteenth floor.
When I went downstairs to give my statement, I saw Xu Jia standing at the entrance to the emergency stairwell.
Her face was very pale.
I walked over.
She took a step back.
“Xu Mian, I really didn’t know it would blow up like this.”
I asked, “Did Zhao Mingyuan tell you to post the photos?”
She nodded, then shook her head.
“He didn’t say it outright.”
“He just said that new hire, Xu Mian, wasn’t clean, and that everyone shouldn’t be fooled by her.”
She bit her lip, tears falling.
“I didn’t dare not post them at the time.”
“My younger brother’s internship spot was in his hands.”
I looked at her.
I couldn’t forgive her on behalf of the me from yesterday.
But I also didn’t have the strength to curse her out.
I only said, “You can go to HR and explain the situation.”
Xu Jia froze.
“Will CEO Song fire me?”
“I don’t know.”
I paused.
“But if you don’t say anything now, Zhao Mingyuan will make you out to be the mastermind behind the rumors.”
Xu Jia’s tears fell even harder.
That day, the company group chat completely exploded.
But this time, no one dared to run their mouth in the main group.
Screenshots from smaller group chats came out one after another.
The people who had cursed me the hardest yesterday started deleting their chat histories, started apologizing, started saying they had only followed the crowd.
Some people messaged me privately.
“Mianmian, I’m sorry. I only heard it from other people too.”
“Don’t take it to heart.”
“Actually, I always thought you didn’t seem like that kind of person.”
I looked at those messages and didn’t reply.
Yesterday, typing out the line “sleeping with someone once gets you a raise” probably took them only three seconds.
Now, typing “I’m sorry” also took only three seconds.
At seven that evening, I walked out of the police station.
Song Wantang was standing at the entrance, waiting for me.
She had changed into a long trench coat, and she looked awful.
I walked over and returned the earring to her.
She didn’t take it.
“Lin Yuan left it for you.”
I said, “The contents inside have already been taken out.”
Song Wantang looked at the earring.
“If she mailed it to you, I don’t think it was so I could take it away.”
I held the earring in my hand and suddenly didn’t know what to say.
After a long time, I asked her, “Does Lin Yuan know now?”
Song Wantang nodded.
“I contacted her.”
“Is she willing to see me?”
Song Wantang was silent for a few seconds.
“She said not yet.”
A pang of bitterness rose in my chest.
Song Wantang said softly, “She doesn’t want to see me either.”
The wind blew in from the roadside, carrying a hint of dampness.
For the first time, I saw obvious exhaustion on Song Wantang’s face.
Not the exhaustion of a strong career woman.
It was the exhaustion of someone who had finally admitted that she, too, had missed something.
She said, “Back then, when she came to me, I didn’t believe her right away.”
“I told her to wait.”
“I said I would look into it.”
“Then there was a problem with the financing. I flew to Beijing three times. By the time I came back, she had already resigned.”
She stopped.
“I thought she had taken the money.”
I looked at her.
For a split second, I really wanted to say, You were at fault too.
But she had already said it herself.
And saying that wouldn’t make Lin Yuan suffer any less.
I asked, “Why did you look into it again later?”
Song Wantang said, “Because she sent me a photo.”
She took out her phone and showed me.
In the photo was a newborn baby.
The baby’s wrist had a hospital bracelet around it.
Beside the baby, half a sheet of paper was visible.
On the paper was a single sentence.
“He doesn’t have to carry the surname Lu.”
Song Wantang looked at the photo, her voice very low.
“Only then did I understand that she hadn’t come to ask for a title.”
“From beginning to end, all she wanted was for people to stop dumping dirty water on her.”
