After that, Shi Zirui truly realized that whoever had the final say in this city was not justice, law, or anything she had learned about conscience.
She went to the police station and visited local institutions that might handle similar disputes. She even wanted to report academic corruption to the local university, but there was no university in the area. The few universities in the province that could be called academic institutions were in the provincial capital, Wanghai. She would need to travel two or three hours by car to visit there.
But Shi Zirui couldn't leave.
The police station came, but they asked some irrelevant questions and then left. Then came the endless harassment, constant disputes, and constant tracking and surveillance promised by the "boss" named Ren, which made her exhausted to deal with.
What she found most difficult to accept was that her relatives, through coercion or inducement, oppressed and forced her, and even restricted her personal freedom to a certain extent.
This made Shi Zirui feel troubled and distressed, and she was also extremely puzzled.
That article did not involve any advanced or cutting-edge field. It was really just something written by someone in the academy in his spare time. It was not qualified to be published in any academic journal. The only "commendable" thing about it was that it was widely circulated in a bad sense.
Why would such a worthless article be misused, and why would it go to such great lengths and use such extreme means?
Later, during the time she was forced to stay in Wankang City, Shi Zirui finally figured out the twists and turns and countless tricks involved.
The police station sent a policeman named Zhou, who was said to be there to take on the pressure when he was arrested. He looked very young, as if he had just worked for a few years. He was still a newbie in this place where seniority is everything. He said that it took him about an hour to get here from his original workplace. If Wankang had not been in turmoil recently and was really short of staff, it would not have been his turn to be sent here.
Officer Xiao Zhou asked her if she had seen the "doctors" in white coats on the street and the citizens queuing up to "see a doctor". They were trying to convince everyone to believe the slogan on the wall, "Treat the disease if you have it, strengthen the body if you don't" and to promote their "medicines".
Shi Zirui then understood that this series of events was too simple to explain, and it was all about profit.
The local "boss" of Wankang spent a large sum of money to buy the so-called "formula" from a so-called doctor with great fanfare, and insured the formula, throwing money out like water, creating a momentum that attracted the attention of the entire Wanghai.
From the countryside to the city, almost every corner of Wanghai is covered with similar advertisements, claiming the effects are nothing short of miraculous. If anyone doubts this, someone among them will say, "This thing is endorsed by experts, it really works!"
The so-called endorsement was the article that was somewhat inflammatory and signed by her school.
This was something Shi Zirui could not understand at the time. She did not know that she was blocking someone else's path to wealth, and she could not accept that the articles she handled were tampered with, crushed, scattered into the bright sunny sky, and turned into a gust of evil wind blowing towards the world.
Resistance led to even more severe oppression, and by the time Shi Zirui reacted, she had been forced into a desperate situation.
Officer Xiao Zhou ensured her personal safety for a period of time, but he was not just there to protect her. There was still a lot of work to do. After he left, Shi Zirui lost her protective umbrella, and the police station no longer accepted her requests.
Their methods ranged from personal threats to family infiltration, and were pervasive. In just five days, she was overwhelmed and in constant fear.
At that time, Officer Zhou wanted to send her out of Wanghai, but failed. Finally, before he left, he told her helplessly that Wanghai had too many oppressions that ordinary people could not withstand. He actually had an idea who was responsible for this series of things. It was Wang Kai, the Wang family, who had been in the limelight in Wanghai in recent years and whose trend was increasingly unstoppable.
That was not a behemoth that ordinary people could defeat. If they really couldn't do it, they would just bow their heads. After he finished the work at hand, he would rush over immediately and would do everything he could to get Shi Zirui out of Wanghai safely.
During this time, she learned a great deal about Wanghai. The Wanghai Wang family's reputation was legendary, and their methods were so terrifying they could make a child stop crying. Shi Zirui no longer had that indifferent persistence, but there was no point in bowing her head now. Like a fish on the chopping block, she didn't even have the right to beg for forgiveness.
Shi Zirui was unable to wait for him in the end, and her phone call was unsuccessful. What she finally received was her family's request for a "marriage alliance", which was like offering a sacrifice to pray for the blessing of the river god, and she played the role of the sacrifice.
The last straw that broke the camel's back was a phone call of accusation. She spoke to the school, and they said that there was evidence proving her collusion and asked her to go back quickly to be questioned.
In short, she lost both her studies and her job. Even if she left Wanghai, she would be imprisoned when she returned. All her efforts were wasted and everything was back to the starting point.
Shi Zirui sat on the threshold of the yard, watching the children playing in the street. On her tender pink knees lay an insignificant book, which she used to entertain herself on long journeys. But now she was not reading it, but just flipping through it casually. There was a razor blade under the book.
Her expression did not fluctuate much; it was very calm and cold, and one could not sense any emotional warmth. This was attributed to her self-training over the past five years. Although it was of no help to her current situation, it allowed her to maintain sufficient dignity before her death.
If even this carefully trained elegance and composure collapsed, she would consider herself a complete failure. As for now, she was simply dying.
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