blackmail
The staircase sloped downwards, and on the landing of the next floor, a window at the top of the wall could not be opened. A blinding white light pierced through, falling on people's backs, on Zhang Ai's back. Light absorbs heat, and the light drained the heat from her heart.
Maintaining silence, Wen Dai, who had been observing, suddenly asked, "What do you want from me? You even brought up the issue of 'a life for a life'... May I ask what you intend to do to me?" Her voice remained soft and gentle, even trembling slightly. She clutched her bag tightly, leaning forward slightly.
"Actually, it's nothing much. I think you're a reasonable person, so I'll just tell you directly. Last night, my daughter-in-law suddenly miscarried because you said earlier that she would suffer retribution. You can't just say things like that, especially to a pregnant woman. We definitely want you to learn your lesson—just give us 100,000 yuan as compensation to appease my unborn grandson." The woman, Zhang Ai's mother-in-law, took a step up the social ladder, her words seemingly carrying an air of self-righteous magnanimity.
Her tongue swept across her back teeth as Wen Dai suppressed her temper. She opened her eyelids, feigning innocence and vulnerability as she looked at the person in front of her. "But it was your daughter-in-law's child who first said I was that mistress who was dating a rich man. Children naturally hear things from adults, right? Since your daughter-in-law spread rumors about me first, I was bound to say that she would be punished for slandering people so easily. How come she miscarried just because I retaliated? Is my mouth that powerful? The Academy of Sciences could take me there for research!"
Zhang Ai suddenly became agitated. She glared at Wen Dai with her bloodshot eyes and shouted, "You've always been a mistress! You've been hooking up with a rich guy!" She pointed at the bag Wen Dai was carrying, "Otherwise, how do you explain this bag? Living in such a shabby place yet carrying such an expensive bag, who would believe you haven't hooked up with a rich guy? A slut like you who destroys other people's families is the one who truly deserves retribution and should be struck by lightning!"
"You've ruined my life, you've caused me to lose my child, it's all your fault!"
After the shrill screams ceased, a long silence followed. It was clear how unstable Zhang Ai's emotions were; even her mother-in-law, who was supporting her, seemed startled and turned to stare at her blankly.
A moment later, the sound of leather shoes stepping on the stairs came from below. Wen Dai moved her feet again, took two steps forward and stood in front of the stairs, craning her neck. She met Chen Sizhe's gaze as he turned the corner with a furrowed brow. She raised her hand and beckoned in the silence, saying in a high-pitched voice, "Here I am, here I am, come over here!" Her undisguised movements drew the attention of the few people who had been keeping quiet.
A leather trench coat accentuated the man's tall figure, while the suit jacket peeking out underneath added to his air of nobility. His gleaming leather shoes tapped on the concrete steps as he ascended, his handsome face becoming increasingly clear beneath his slicked-back hair. His fox-like eyes, devoid of much emotion, swept over them indifferently, his gaze lingering briefly on the door of room 302 before finally settling on Wen Dai's eyes.
The three of them reached the same conclusion at the same moment—this man, whose temperament clashed with the place, was looking for the owner of apartment 302. Blocked on the stairs and caught in an emotional turmoil, Zhang Ai and the woman supporting her instinctively pushed to the side, making way for the newcomer.
Chen Sizhe stepped onto the stairs, walked to Wen Dai's side, glanced around with a critical eye, and then spoke in a low voice: "What's going on?"
Wen Dai let out a long, affected sigh. She glanced up at him, raised her chin at the three people in front of her, shrugged innocently, and said, "It's probably because you and Uncle Chen have come to see me a few times and people have seen you... Look, this lady insists I'm a mistress, ha—I don't even know whose mistress I've been or whose family I've broken up; however, if I agreed to be your father's goddaughter, then I should be considered to have broken up your family, but I should also be the second mistress."
"You didn't agree?" For once, Chen Sizhe's focus veered off course. He looked down into her eyes, and his question, which came out unconsciously, seemed to carry a hint of surprise. But only he knew that the slight anxiety in his chest had subsided—though he didn't seem to care.
Wen Dai gave a nonchalant "hmm," then tilted her chin up to look at him. Her peach blossom eyes, framed by a beauty mark, were brimming with clear, bright water, sparkling with lively interest as they blinked. "Do you know what the list I told you about is?"
His throat felt dry, and perhaps a gust of wind had swept over him as he approached. Chen Sizhe looked away and turned to examine Wen Dai's door and the large poster pasted on the wall beside it once more. "...You want me to help you with your lawsuit?" His gaze, which had returned to the room, held a hint of disbelief.
Wen Dai nodded heavily, her eyes, which had just been feigning pitifulness, now shining with their true brightness. She raised her arm, her finger pointing up the wall from below until it stopped at the back of the door before retracting. "This pile—you saw it too, right? It's damaged my reputation. They not only destroyed communal property but also caused me personal property loss. Their actions have caused me great psychological harm. I don't know how long the stigma of being a mistress and a gold digger has been attached to me. This should be considered defamation, right? And... they just tried to blackmail me, demanding 100,000 yuan."
She crossed her arms in a fearful gesture. "They were kicking my door early this morning, yelling that I was a mistress and that I should pay for my murder with my life... I don't even know who I killed, but I know who they would kill if I couldn't handle it."
She raised one hand to her temple, lowered her head slightly, and sighed softly, "Actually, I'm very sensitive and psychologically fragile. I feel that their actions have caused me a lot of harm. I can't live here anymore. I really want to jump off the roof..." Her soft and weak voice made it very obvious that she was acting, but the other three couldn't find a reason to refute her.
Even with her turbulent emotions, Zhang Ai should have regained her composure by now. Who could remain calm upon hearing the word "lawsuit"? She was upright and honest; but she clearly wasn't. She no longer needed her mother-in-law's support; yesterday's miscarriage seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever. She strode up the steps to Wen Dai, anxiously saying, "What do you mean? I didn't come to you for no reason. Flies don't land on eggs without cracks. Can you honestly say you didn't curse me yesterday? I miscarried in the evening; can you say that has nothing to do with your curse?"
"What wouldn't I dare to do? Sister, this is a new era with new ideas. Even feudal remnants would call you superstitious if they saw your thinking. Good deeds are rewarded and evil deeds are punished. I didn't set this rule. You spread rumors about me first, so of course I have to say you'll be punished. Otherwise, should I swallow my anger and beg you to stop spreading rumors about me?"
Wen Dai raised her chin, taking advantage of her height being taller than Zhang Ai, and applied Chen Sizhe's arrogant attitude to her advantage. "Also, don't use the saying 'flies don't land on eggs without cracks' too often. Do you think you'll only behave when you're stabbed yourself? As a fellow woman, I don't want to use this to attack you. You know the facts yourself. The lawsuit is definitely going to happen, and I'm not someone to be trifled with."
Chen Sizhe, who had his hands in his coat pockets, pulled one hand out, glanced at his phone to check the time, and then looked at his eyes indifferently beneath his lowered eyelids. “You have violated many articles of the ‘Public Security Administration Punishment Law’, which I will not list one by one. You cannot escape being detained. There are also the provisions mentioned in the ‘Civil Code’... You will know about them in court.”
He glanced at Wen Dai beside him and said succinctly, "Report the case to the police first, then file a civil lawsuit."
Zhang Lin, who had been silent since Chen Sizhe appeared, suddenly spoke up: "Who is this police report targeting?" He pointed at Zhang Ai standing in front of him and protested, "She made me do it all. She's the mastermind. She suddenly called me and said that a mistress had caused her to lose her baby, and asked me to help her prepare red paint and big-character posters. I didn't spread any rumors or slander. I was just deceived..."
Wen Dai's act of dialing the police hotline made Zhang Lin even more agitated, and he reached out to grab Wen Dai's hand holding the phone.
However, Chen Sizhe simply put his arm around Wen Dai's shoulder, pulling her to his left and placing her in a protective corner against the wall. His gaze towards Zhang Lin was filled with disdain. "You should take those words to the case officer. You even wanted to lay a hand on her, ha." The sarcastic laugh at the end stirred up impulses in people.
Zhang Lin clenched his trembling fist tightly, his jaw tightened, and he slammed his fist hard against the stair railing beside him. The stainless steel stair railing immediately vibrated and shook at a frequency somewhat like his body.
After hanging up the call to report the crime, Wen Dai tapped the screen a few times. She turned her phone around and showed the screen to Chen Sizhe. A look of delight spread across her face as she said boastfully, "Look, I was recording before I left home. I even recorded the sounds of them kicking the door and cursing at me outside. Doesn't that give me a lot of leverage in the lawsuit?"
"Hmm, you did a good job." His slightly parted lips hesitated for a moment, but in the end, the words of praise came out awkwardly. Chen Sizhe turned his gaze to the other three again, his tone carrying a hint of sarcasm: "Let's go downstairs. It would be embarrassing if the investigators came up and caught you."
The group walked out of the dimly lit residential building. The old and dilapidated building was filled with gray, but the door in front of Wen Dai was gray and red. Their eyes, which were drawn away from the strong contrast of colors, were met with a piercing white light.
Wen Dai glanced at the black sports car parked at the entrance, clicked her tongue, and nudged the man next to her with her elbow. "I didn't know you'd modify your car like that."
A sneer escaped Wen Dai's ears, but Chen Sizhe still held his head high.
The biting wind was already threatening to bring snow, and his tousled hair was being tossed about as he uttered what sounded like an explanation: "It was custom-made when I was still in university."
The man, who was a head and a half shorter than him, nodded and said in a smug tone, "I know, I know, it's just youthful arrogance."
Looking into the distance, he couldn't even see the car sent by the police. Chen Sizhe lowered his eyes and glanced at the person beside him. The woman's long hair had been blown by the wind, and many strands of hair were curled and stuck to the top of her head. He raised his hand and rubbed it several times, making matters worse.
Having successfully gotten a messy, unkempt hairstyle, Wen Dai covered her head, turned her head and looked up, her incredulous gaze landing on Chen Sizhe's face. "Are you sick? How can you be so childish, Chen Sizhe?"
The naive Chen Sizhe remained silent.
Wen Dai frowned, ruffling her hair with both hands as he messed it up, grumbling, "You're almost thirty and still so childish, messing up a girl's hair like this."
"How am I an old man?" Chen's gentle question made Wen Dai raise her head.
She tucked the long hair that had gotten into her face behind her ear and said matter-of-factly, "You're actually twenty-six, five years older than me. If you round it up, you're thirty, so I'd consider you an old man."
Chen Sizhe, amused and annoyed, turned his head away, avoiding Wen Dai's gaze even out of the corner of his eye, and said in a sarcastic tone: "I suggest you go back to the first grade of elementary school for a refresher course with this kind of thinking."
The atmosphere around Zhang Ai and her two companions on the other end changed drastically. Zhang Lin didn't even want to glance at Zhang Ai anymore, pacing back and forth a short distance ahead, anxiously waiting for the police car while gazing into the distance. Meanwhile, Zhang Ai's mother-in-law kept grumbling, "The investigators aren't going to arrest me too, are they? I'm old, not like you. Oh dear—you should be grateful! I only came here because I felt sorry for you; don't drag me into this."
“No, I’ll take all the responsibility.” Zhang Ai replied to her anxious mother-in-law for what seemed like the umpteenth time. Her eyes were vacant, her gaze fixed on the ground, and one hand was stroking her lower abdomen. She didn’t observe the traditional postpartum confinement period. Just like when her son was born, she only observed a month of confinement before returning to work, and even did some housework during her confinement period.
The flashing lights caught the eye first, and a police car arrived shortly after. After understanding the general situation, the detective took Zhang Ai and the others into the car, while Wen Dai went with Chen Sizhe to Chizheng Police Station.
It took several hours to process the case. The "reporting receipt upon receipt" system allowed Wen Dai to receive a case acceptance receipt on the spot. The case officer then said they would contact her by phone to inform her of the final outcome. Chen Sizhe squeezed in the remaining time to help her complete the filing of the civil lawsuit offline.
As Wen Dai walked out of the litigation service center, she raised her hand and patted Chen Sizhe's arm, smiling as she said, "Hehe, thank you for your help today. You probably haven't handled such a small case before, have you?"
Chen Sizhe glanced at her, then slowly looked away, his tone flat: "What do you mean by 'small'? In terms of fees, I've done legal aid before; in terms of the size of the case, I mediated in the community years ago. As a lawyer, my duty is to achieve the best outcome for my clients, and the size of the case is not an important criterion. No matter how small the dispute, as long as it's about fighting for personal rights, and as long as the client needs a lawyer, then a lawyer will step in. Of course, it's true that a lawyer's status is linked to their fees—remember to pay them."
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