Chapter 33 Chapter 33 We are brother and sister
The night is as dark as a curtain, and there are no stars tonight.
Lin Jie zipped up her coat and looked at Song Zhihan who was completely wrapped up in it. His heart felt like it was soaked in concentrated lemon juice and couldn't stop feeling sour.
Song Zhihan had calmed down a lot by now, but he still sobbed when he spoke.
"Did you come back after seeing the news online?"
The cold wind blew her long hair again, and the wet hair stuck to her face. She grabbed it with her hands, her movements a little roughly.
Lin Jie held her wrist and used his other hand to carefully gather her hair into her collar, revealing her face completely, with her tearful eyes and red nose.
"The signal is not good in the mountains, and I saw it too late. I'm sorry, Song Zhihan, for making you bear so much alone." He apologized again, with pity in his eyes.
After receiving the news, he started to rush back. On the way, he also learned the cause and effect of the incident. While feeling guilty towards Song Zhihan, he was also suppressing his anger. He had not expected that during the days when he was away, someone would be so bold as to implement a plan that had been rejected long ago and even frame Song Zhihan.
Song Zhihan tugged at the sleeve of his coat, gripping it tightly as he stared intently at Lin Jie. "So what will you do? Will you respond, or will you let things continue to ferment?"
She cared a lot about Lin Jie's attitude. She wanted to know whether Lin Jie was like everyone else, thinking that this was just a matter of being scolded a few times. She also wanted to know whether Lin Jie would stand on her side.
She was in a panic, and Lin Jie could see it. Like Song Zhihan, he looked at her with a straightforward gaze.
"I will produce evidence to clarify this matter, and I will redeem all the grievances you have suffered."
As he spoke, he stretched out his index finger and caught Song Zhihan's unshed tears. The hot tears touched his fingertips, and his voice was so soft that it was almost pleading: "Don't cry, Zhihan."
Lin Jie thought he had adjusted his mood on the way back and could deal with this matter calmly and rationally, but when he saw Song Zhihan's tears, all that calmness collapsed in an instant.
Song Zhihan burst into laughter, sniffed, and shook off his coat sleeves. "How do you want to clarify? I've posted everything I can on Weibo, but there are still many people accusing me of hype and lying. It's pointless, Lin Jie. If you keep going like this, the only one who will be hurt is Lingdong. So let it be."
It's easy to find excuses to accuse someone of a crime. No matter how much she proves herself, others will only think she is quibbling. She can't provide any evidence to prove that someone else did it. The longer the battle lasts, the greater the damage to Lingdong. Anyway, as they said, just wait until next week's update.
Song Zhihan persuaded himself to accept this result.
"Leave this matter to me. Go back and have a good sleep tonight. When you wake up tomorrow, I will give you an explanation." Lin Jie took her shoulder and walked inside, his words full of determination.
Those people must not have revealed the content of the last meeting to Song Zhihan. As long as he can find the surveillance footage from that time, all problems will be solved and Song Zhihan's grievances will be cleared.
Song Zhihan hesitated, then reached out and took Lin Jie's arm, hesitant yet determined: "Lin Jie, no matter what happens, can you spare an hour for me tomorrow afternoon? I... have something I want to talk to you about."
Lin Jie tried to infer what she was going to say from the expression on her face. He saw painful struggle and vague relief. He asked a question in his mind and for a moment he couldn't think of what she was going to say.
But no matter what she wanted to say, Lin Jie also had something to say, so he held Song Zhihan's hand and made a promise with her: "Okay, I have something to say to you too."
The suppressed emotions were like a volcano about to erupt, and Lin Jie wanted to give himself a chance. He didn't want to resist the urge to hug Song Zhihan when she needed comfort, didn't want to retract his outstretched hand, and didn't want to see one bee and another flutter around her.
After so many years, he still only has feelings for this person, and she is the only one who can capture his attention all the time.
He wanted Song Zhihan to belong to him completely, or he wanted to give his whole self to Song Zhihan. He wanted it to be just the two of them in this relationship.
Song Zhihan smiled, a smile that concealed sadness and forbearance. She suddenly opened her arms and locked Lin Jie's waist tightly, burying herself deeply in his arms. It was a hug, but also a farewell.
They separated in an instant, so quickly that Lin Jie had no time to hug him back, so quickly that her fragrance only lingered in his nostrils for a moment.
"Lin Jie, thank you." Song Zhihan was still smiling, but tears flickered in his eyes. Thank you for being my dream as a girl, and thank you for standing firmly by my side when I was about to be swallowed by the gray rules.
Thank you for making me a better person.
She was saying thank you, but Lin Jie heard something else in her words. He felt very strange. He didn't know where this strange feeling came from, but he always felt that Song Zhihan was getting further and further away from him.
Cheng Yang and Beika were still waiting for her outside. Lin Jie handed the person over to them and said, "Be careful on the road. Remember to let each other know you're safe when you get home."
Cheng Yang grabbed Song Zhihan's arm and vowed, "Don't worry, Mr. Lin, I will definitely send the person home safely. I'll leave the rest to you. You must give Song Zhihan an explanation."
Lin Jie nodded. It was not a serious promise, but it made people inexplicably convinced.
Song Zhihan called this Lin Jie's magic. She felt that if Lin Jie didn't have a conscience, he could just sell health products and make a lot of money.
The three people left chattering, and Song Zhihan's depressed mood gradually calmed down.
Lin Jie rolled up his shirt sleeves, made a cup of iced coffee, and started tonight's battle.
This matter was actually very simple, as the current trend was completely consistent with the plan proposed by Julie at the last meeting. The reason why Song Zhihan kept proving himself was that someone must have concealed this matter. Therefore, if we just check the surveillance footage from that day and lay out the evidence, everything would be explained.
But the problem is that there is no sound in the surveillance footage. What is the point of using silent surveillance footage as evidence?
Lin Jie connected his phone to his computer and called up the folder in the cloud disk.
He has always had the habit of recording phone calls, and almost all meetings at work, big or small, have backups. Next, all he has to do is synchronize the audio.
...
The three of them found a place to have a midnight snack. While waiting for the food, Becca was interrogated by the two remaining people.
"Master, you are really a hidden talent!" Cheng Yang held his chin up with a look of admiration on his face.
Song Zhihan followed suit. She only knew that Becca's other identity was a writer, but she didn't expect that she was the famous BKAA. According to her ability, she could easily lead the entire screenwriter team. She was really pretending to be a pig and eating the tiger.
Becca smiled shyly. "Actually, I don't want to go out to work, but my family always thinks it's not a proper job, so I want to find a job that's a little less busy, so that they can at least think I have a proper job."
"Hey, do you know Qia Da? I saw he retweeted your Weibo."
Becca's face suddenly turned red and she stuttered when speaking, but luckily she was usually very introverted, so no one found it strange.
"Well, we are considered netizens."
Cheng Yang nodded, then nudged Song Zhihan with his shoulder, smiling mysteriously, "We saw that President Lin looked very anxious today. We've been working together for so long, and this is the first time we've seen a demon lose his composure like this. Could it be because of you?"
There was a hint of teasing in her words, exploring their relationship. This only added to Song Zhihan's pressure. She smiled bitterly, "Don't speculate. There's nothing between Mr. Lin and me. He's mainly concerned about Lingdong."
Even if there was, even if she knew, she could only pretend not to know. After all, starting from tomorrow, her relationship with Lin Jie would be just brother and sister, without any other color mixed in.
...
After dinner, Song Zhihan returned home. Only when she was alone did she finally let go of her forced composure. Her shoulders relaxed, and she slumped over the steering wheel, her mind racing.
If her relationship with Julie hadn't become so strained, would this incident have never happened? Throughout their interactions, she'd always been confrontational, from bluntness to sarcasm, never backing down. She began to question whether her approach was flawed, and whether, as Lin Jie had said, she needed to learn to yield appropriately.
After thinking for a long time but still unable to figure it out, Song Zhihan walked home from the basement with his head down. When he walked into the living room, he saw his parents sitting together, huddled together, looking at their phones.
"Mom, why don't you go and have a rest?" Song Zhihan put his things away and sat down next to Song Yazhi.
Song Yazhi's eyes were like water. The person who answered her was Gu Chen. He put the phone in front of Song Zhihan with a frown on his face.
"Zhihan, is this talking about you? What's going on? Why are they all scolding you?" Song Zhihan was usually casual, so seeing him being serious was a bit uncomfortable.
No matter how strong you pretend to be outside, a greeting from your family can break your defense. Song Zhihan's eyes, which had just stopped working, started working again, tears streaming down her face without stopping for a moment. She cried like a pear blossom in the rain, and her tears rubbed all over Gu Chen's body.
The more Gu Chen listened, the angrier he became. Song Yazhi's expression also turned ugly. They didn't understand these things. It was only after a few young secretaries saw them that they reported them to him. Now seeing Song Zhihan's aggrieved look, he couldn't think about anything else.
Song Yazhi said that they would collect all their words one by one and sue them for defamation. Gu Chen was even more exaggerated, saying that he wanted to teach them a lesson and use uncivilized methods.
Song Zhihan was amused. She coaxed her angry parents: "Okay, don't worry. Their scolding won't have any effect on me. At most, I'll feel annoyed for a while, but that's okay. Why bother with these people who have no judgment and blindly follow the trend?"
Song Yazhi rubbed her hair, her eyes gentle: "Zhihan, if you feel unhappy, don't do it. Mom has the ability to support you so that you don't have to work for the rest of your life. Your happiness every day is the greatest meaning of my work."
Gu Chen acted like someone who was used to living off his wife: "That's right, why are you suffering like that? Go home, or find a sinecure for your mother, or just stay home, or go to Paris to find Shanshan and have some fun with you."
They both comforted Song Zhihan in their own way, building a worry-free harbor for her. Song Zhihan's eyes moistened again. The better they were, the more reluctant she was to leave them, and even more reluctant to give up their love.
Song Zhihan hugged his mother's neck and snuggled up to her: "Mom, can I sleep with you tonight?"
She wanted to cherish this last bit of warmth and leave herself something to cherish in the future.
Song Yazhi also hugged her and said okay.
The mother and daughter looked very affectionate. Gu Chen poked his daughter's arm and said in a dissatisfied tone: "Hey, Song Zhihan, how old are you? Why don't you sleep with your mother? Can you sleep by yourself? I beg you."
Besides, what would he do tonight? Stay alone in the empty room? No!
...
That morning, a member of Mengying who had just clocked in saw a message in the work group that General Manager Lin was going to hold a meeting on recent online public opinion and asked the leaders of each group to attend on time.
Julie's heart skipped a beat. She patted her chest soothingly and took a deep breath.
It's okay. Lin Jie's sudden return means that the movie version must have been canceled. He urgently needs the popularity to maintain Lingdong's current situation, so he will definitely take this matter lightly. Besides, even if he really wants to find out the truth, what evidence can he have to prove it?
Thinking of this, she felt much more relieved.
Facing Liu Zhenyu's worried gaze, Julie patted his shoulder and comforted him: "Don't scare yourself."
In the conference room, Lin Jie sat with a tired look on his face. As usual, he glanced at everyone and spoke in a steady voice.
"You guys gave me a big surprise while I was away. Doesn't anyone want to explain all the fuss these past couple of days?"
Knowing that she couldn't hide it, Julie dared to admit it.
"Boss Lin, I did it. I'm sorry, I couldn't bear to watch Lingdong fall from grace, so I resorted to this radical approach. But the results are very significant now. Lingdong's search index on various platforms has skyrocketed. My suggestion is to not respond and wait until next week's update."
She argued confidently and didn't feel she was wrong at all.
Lin Jie sneered and his expression changed instantly.
"Just wait until next week to update? How many next weeks will the audience give us? Using this method to maintain popularity is really stupid. Have I ever said that this method won't work? Have I ever proposed a reasonable solution? Why do you have to be so smart? And you, Liu Zhenyu, if you listen to Julie, should I transfer you to the writing team as well?"
He had already heard the entire story and everyone's attitude from the modeling team leader. Just one Julie and one Liu Zhenyu had led a group of followers who followed the trend and followed the fence-sitters.
The oppressive feeling from Lin Jie was so strong that none of the people named dared to look him in the eye and they all lowered their heads.
Lin Jie looked at them deeply, then turned on the video he had made overnight. Julie's words played word for word from the speakers.
The calmness she had maintained all this time finally changed.
"Boss Lin! I...I'm doing this for the benefit of the company..."
She wanted to explain herself, but Lin Jie didn't give her the chance.
"Either you clarify it yourself, or let the authorities release this video. It's your choice." He pronounced the result mercilessly, making everyone tremble with fear.
The flapping of the butterfly's wings caused a storm. They could never have imagined that things would come to this point.
Liu Zhenyu couldn't help but interrupt: "Isn't she just a small employee? Is it necessary for you to defend her so much, Mr. Lin?"
Besides, with Song Zhihan's family background, how could she care about this job? If a young lady like her gets offended, she will probably just walk away.
Lin Jie looked at him and felt a sudden sense of powerlessness in his heart.
"From the beginning to the end, it has nothing to do with who is to blame. The fault lies in the incident itself and the abysmal way it was handled."
For the first time, he felt that it was difficult to communicate with others, which was probably like playing the lute to a cow.
It is undeniable that Song Zhihan was the trigger for his anger, but even if it wasn't her, he would not allow the situation to continue like this. Mistakes must be corrected, and this way of handling things was never something Lin Jie agreed with.
"Julie, have you made your choice?" Lin Jie urged her to make a decision.
Julie pursed her lips, and all her past pride disappeared as she made a difficult decision.
"I...I'll make my own statement."
Lin Jie nodded and turned off the video: "Let's adjourn the meeting. This matter ends here."
The crowd dispersed, Lin Jie sat there without moving, and so did Julie.
When they were the only two people left in the room, Lin Jie raised his head and looked at her calmly.
Julie stood up quickly and said, "Boss Lin, I apologize to you. I was not thoughtful enough this time."
Lin Jie shook his head, looking disappointed: "I'm never the one you should apologize to."
He turned off the computer and prepared to leave.
But just as he was about to step out the door, Julie stopped him again. Her words were filled with resentment: "Lin Jie, after all, isn't it all because I touched Song Zhihan? I didn't expect you to be like those men, completely captivated by a little girl. Now that you've kicked me out, you can finally let her take your place with peace of mind, right?"
She spoke quietly, and only two people could hear her, including Zhao Wendi who was eavesdropping at the door.
Lin Jie glanced at her, and she smiled awkwardly and tilted her body slightly.
"Julie, I've made myself perfectly clear just now, but since you mentioned Song Zhihan again, I'll take the trouble to explain to you once more. There has never been any cross-border relationship between Song Zhihan and me. I admit that I pursued her relentlessly, but she never received any work-related benefits. You can check it out; I have a clear conscience."
Julie was stunned and fell to the ground.
Zhao Wendie outside the door also hid herself. She looked at Lin Jie who was gradually walking away with a complicated expression.
Those words were said to her, not only now, but also to her who laughed at Song Zhihan nine years ago.
Jolie's statement was released shortly afterward, and public opinion shifted again. They clamored for an apology from Song, their orderly ranks resembling a brainwashed online army. In this internet age where everyone can express their opinions, losing the ability to distinguish right from wrong can lead to becoming mere puppets, blindly following the crowd.
Song Zhihan no longer cared about what they said. She had more important things to do right now.
Confess to Lin Jie.
She planned to go to Lin Jie's office after get off work to explain things clearly, but before she went, she was tripped up by the news that Zhao Wendi was leaving.
She was leaving, and although they had not spent much time together, several colleagues in the office still sent her their blessings.
Zhao Wendi stood in front of Song Zhihan holding something. For the first time, she smiled at Song Zhihan without any malice.
"Song Zhihan, you're right. I envy you. I envy you for having friends who treat you sincerely, for having parents who will always support you, and for Lin Jie's special regard for you. Even more, I envy you for having the courage to face difficulties head-on. I lost, Song Zhihan. Whether in the past or now, I have failed miserably."
Song Zhihan didn't know why she said this, but she still sent her blessings to someone who was about to leave.
"Zhao Wendi, I wish you all the best."
The entanglement from many years ago finally came to an end today. They smiled at each other and put away all their sharpness. Who didn’t have a mortal enemy in their youth? Now it seems that it was just a consolation.
After finishing all the work, it was finally time to get off work.
Song Zhihan did not leave immediately, but moved forward to Lin Jie's office.
Just as he was about to knock on the door, it opened from the inside. Their eyes met, and Song Zhihan saw a smile in Lin Jie's eyes.
She entered the office as if drawn in. The door was locked and everything was quiet.
"I've read Sister Julie's statement. Thank you for helping me." She sat opposite Lin Jie and first thanked him for everything that happened today.
Lin Jie sat down next to her, his thighs under his suit pants almost touching hers, and his pants legs and skirt hem were entangled together. This distance was far beyond the normal social range.
Song Zhihan forced himself to move to the edge: "I... have something important to tell you."
Lin Jie was looking forward to what she was going to say, and there was a glint of light in his eyes. He hoped it was good news.
Song Zhihan mentioned it again and again but still couldn't say it, and his expression became annoyed.
Lin Jie saw her hesitation and wanted to ease her inexplicable anxiety: "Don't worry, take your time."
Unspeakable sadness spread in Song Zhihan's heart. She felt the hot tears filling her eyes again. She took a deep breath and swallowed them back. When she looked at Lin Jie again, she was already fully prepared.
"Lin Jie, what I want to say is that we are actually brother and sister, biological children."
Lin Jie wasn't surprised at all, he just let out a short laugh: "Are you kidding?"
He even reached out and touched Song Zhihan's forehead, and said self-deprecatingly: "Even if you don't like me, there's no need to find such a ridiculous excuse to reject me."
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The author has something to say: Said [glasses]
Next chapter begins to torture Lin Jie [glasses]
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