Song Jia was extremely angry when she saw the photos.
She looked at Huo Xiao with a suspicious and inquisitive gaze, not entirely convinced that the photos were his.
But she was very angry.
Faced with the stares of onlookers, he blushed and ran out of the auditorium.
Huo Xiao chased after him, but after a few steps he turned back, snatched the photos back, and put them in his pocket.
He wasn't sure who the man in front of him was, but his priority now was to appease Song Jia.
"Jiajia, the photo really isn't mine." He caught up with Song Jia and restrained her with his hands.
Song Jia was on the verge of tears: "But that's Xue Mei's photo. How could her photo fall off you?"
Huo Xiao was speechless. "So you think I have an affair with Xue Mei? You still don't believe me, right?"
Song Jia's distrust of him caused him to break down, and his voice became somewhat agitated.
Song Jia didn't want to argue with him, so she walked forward with a dark face.
Huo Xiao didn't say anything more and followed her home.
When the couple returned home, the children were still awake. Upon seeing their mother, they ran towards her.
When Song Jia saw them, she led them back to their room without any expression.
Jiang Ning, who came out to greet them, keenly noticed Song Jia's dark expression and pulled Huo Xiao aside.
Why are you back so early?
Huo Xiao was seething with anger, but hesitated to speak.
A moment later, Lin Chen also came over, put his arm around his shoulder, and led him to sit down under the locust tree.
"What's wrong? Did you two have a fight? Talk it out, don't just get angry."
Seeing how concerned they were about him, Huo Xiao took out the photo from his pocket.
“Look, when I was dancing today, someone showed me this photo and insisted that it fell out of my pocket.”
Lin Chen saw the photo—a long-haired woman with a bare back and exposed thighs—and immediately looked away.
"What is this? How did you get this kind of photo?"
Jiang Ning picked it up and looked at it, feeling a little embarrassed despite being a woman herself.
When she finally saw the woman's face clearly, she exclaimed in surprise, "How could it be Xue Mei?"
Huo Xiao ran his hand through his hair, looking troubled: "Jiajia recognized her too, it's Xue Mei. I was afraid the photos would leak, so I brought them back."
But I suspect the person who gave me the photos did it on purpose. Others don't know the details; they only see that I have nude photos of women. I guess I'll be the subject of gossip tomorrow.
Although he was angry, he remained relatively clear-headed.
Jiang Ning crossed her arms and paced back and forth, imagining that if Xue Mei was the one who did this, then she was truly shameless.
"Huo Xiao, do you remember who picked up the photos? Or what they looked like?" she asked.
Huo Xiao recalled that the man looked somewhat familiar when he saw him, as if he had seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't quite place him.
Seeing his troubled look, Lin Chen patted his shoulder to comfort him: "Alright, if you can't remember, don't think about it for now. Let's comfort your wife first."
Jiang Ning also said that she wouldn't look for Song Jia now that it was late, but would talk to her tomorrow, saying that no woman would be able to accept something like this.
The next morning, Song Jia was still in a bad mood. Her face was expressionless, and her eyes were red, as if she had been crying.
When Song Jia went out, Jiang Ning followed her and talked to her for a long time.
"Ningning, I know Huo Xiao couldn't possibly have taken those photos, but I still feel terrible. Why is Xue Mei such a persistent ghost?"
Jiang Ning walked side by side with her.
“Now that the children are protected, she doesn’t dare to lay a hand on them, so she can only resort to these petty tricks. Look how powerful those photos are; they immediately caused you two to quarrel. The factory probably has all sorts of speculations about Huo Xiao.”
Hearing this, Song Jia panicked:
"Won't Huo Xiao be the subject of gossip? I should have known better than to run away. I could have handled those photos much better."
She started blaming herself again.
Jiang Ning chuckled: "You're just too concerned about Huo Xiao, and you've lost your mind for a moment. Especially in times like these, the couple should stand together."
Song Jia nodded, deciding to find an opportunity to make amends for this.
When Huo Xiao arrived at the textile factory, he indeed heard a lot of rumors, speculating that his wife had caught him cheating on his wife.
He saw that the office on the same floor had been renovated and the new director had moved in. He suddenly realized that the person who had given him the photo was the worker who had renovated the office.
Because he had changed into clean and tidy clothes and styled his hair well last night, he didn't recognize him at first glance.
After get off work, he told Lin Chen and the others about his discovery.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Ning asked, "Is it the one with delicate features?"
"That's right, how did you know?" Huo Xiao asked, puzzled.
Jiang Ning then told him about how that person had once sent green plants to her office.
"By the way, you know this person, Ah Chen, he's Lucy's husband, Xu Jie."
When Lin Chen heard Xu Jie's name, he thought back for a moment, and things that had happened several years ago suddenly started playing in his mind like a movie.
"Xu Jie and Xue Mei? Do they know each other?"
Lin Chen raised a question.
At this moment, at Gao Baoliang's stall in the wholesale market, Sister Gui is dealing with a counterfeit goods incident.
She didn't know what was going on, but even though she sold genuine Yansha brand clothing, quite a few people came to her with clothes that had come loose, insisting that they were bought from her and demanding a refund.
Sister Gui could only explain one by one that these clothes were not sold by her, that they might be counterfeit, and that they could not produce any proof of purchase, so they could only leave with the clothes.
However, this incident still had a significant impact on clothing sales, with orders noticeably decreasing compared to before.
Seeing that something was wrong, she reported the matter to Gao Baoliang.
Gao Baoliang was busy with the renovation work but promised to find time to deal with it.
Gao Baoliang came to dinner, already feeling troubled by the counterfeit goods issue.
I was furious when I heard that Xu Jie had given Huo Xiao such photos.
"What kind of person is this? I'm going to ask him tomorrow why he did this, and I'll fire him while I'm at it!"
He didn't need to get involved in firing a decorator, but he really wanted to know how he got Xue Mei's nude photos and why he used them to ruin Huo Xiao's reputation.
The next day, Gao Baoliang arrived at the company and the first thing he did was to have the HR department bring Xu Jie over.
To his surprise, HR told him that Xu Jie had resigned and had just said goodbye.
He felt a sense of frustration and immediately asked HR to find his information and his home address.
Having obtained his address, Gao Baoliang went there in person and found his dilapidated and cramped tenement building.
He learned from his parents that Xu Jie had gone out and was apparently selling clothes at a stall near the university gate.
Gao Baoliang walked over, grabbed his collar, and punched him in the face.
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