Lin An pulled over two chairs and sat facing Zhang Wanru, the two less than a meter apart.
Zhang Wanru was terrified and sat trembling in her chair. Seeing Lin An's reaction, she realized that she had gotten herself into trouble.
The last time she saw the group of five, they were each carrying a baseball bat and looked menacing, which left a deep impression on her. Now these people were standing outside the door, which really scared her and made her dare not do anything rash.
"Why did you steal trade secrets?" Lin An asked coldly.
Zhang Wanru stared blankly at Lin An, then composed herself and hurriedly began to explain:
"No, I just copied some data from your computer. How can that be considered stealing trade secrets?"
“You’re my son. I’m not a stranger when I touch your computer.”
After saying a few words, Zhang Wanru regained some confidence. She continued, "A mother taking her son's things can't be considered stealing."
"The data is all on the hard drive, and I haven't shown it to anyone else. If you don't want it, I'll give you the hard drive. Why are you having someone scare me? Just let me go."
After saying that, she propped herself up on the chair with her hand and tried to get up and leave.
"Sit down!" Lin An shouted. "Violating trade secrets is a criminal case. In serious cases, it can be punished with up to ten years in prison. Do you want me to send you to jail for ten years?"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Wanru's legs went weak, and she slumped into her chair, completely terrified.
"What?! A criminal case? Ten years in prison?"
After a moment's pause, she immediately knelt before Lin An, crying and begging for forgiveness:
“Son, I was wrong. Please don’t call the police. I didn’t do it on purpose, and I didn’t mean any harm. I just wanted to take the documents back and take a look so I could understand what you were doing.”
Lin An's face was cold as he sneered, "You want to understand me?"
"Yes, I was afraid you wouldn't recognize me, so I wanted to get to know you better and find common ground with you. I'm so sorry, please don't call the police! Please forgive me this time."
Zhang Wanru cried her eyes out, terrified. Lin Haoran had become a monster after only a few days in jail. She couldn't even imagine ten years in prison; she'd rather die.
“Son, I was wrong… Son, I was wrong…” Zhang Wanru knelt on the ground, clasped her hands together, and begged Lin An, repeating her apology over and over again.
Lin An looked down at her, finding the person in front of him incredibly noisy: "Don't you dare call me son! You're not worthy!"
“When I was living next to you, you never once thought about getting to know me.”
“When I was penniless and living in the storage room of a ramen shop, struggling to study, you never seemed to want to understand me.”
"When I was lying in a hospital bed, my life hanging in the balance, you didn't even think to come and find out about me."
"Now that I've succeeded in starting my own business and have my own company and industry, you come here to steal my company documents, claiming it's to understand me. Do you think I'll believe that?"
Zhang Wanru covered her face and lowered her head. Tears streamed down her chin and fell to the floor. Lin An was right. She had done everything in the past, and she had no way to defend herself.
Lin An is her biological son, but she has almost never fulfilled her responsibilities as a mother.
Lin An continued, "You've never treated me like your own son for a single day, but I've never thought of taking revenge on you, because you carried me for ten months and gave birth to me. It was hard for you, and I remember your kindness."
"But you just had to provoke me!"
Zhang Wanru, her face streaked with tears, choked out, "Lin An, I really didn't mean it. I genuinely wanted to make up with you, that's why I did it."
Lin An's face turned ashen. He couldn't understand how Zhang Wanru could still be so stubborn at this point.
He sneered, "I think you're just doing this to curry favor with men!"
"It's for Chen Xiaohe, isn't it!"
Zhang Wanru was stunned, and asked in horror, "How do you know him?"
Lin An laughed angrily: "I know him better than you do."
Zhang Wanru stopped pretending and said directly:
"Lin An, you know that Lin Haoran and I have no feelings for each other anymore. Chen Xiaohe is my first love, and we have a foundation of feelings for each other. I want to be with your Uncle Chen now, but he insists on getting to know you before he will be willing to be with me."
"So you listened to him and stole Xiao An Company's information?" Lin An asked rhetorically.
Zhang Wanru slapped her thigh: "Oh dear, Lin An, this can't be considered stealing. We just want to take a look. I don't understand it, so your Uncle Chen can help me."
"To understand me, you need to look at company information?" Lin An was furious. He couldn't understand how Zhang Wanru could believe such illogical statements.
"Yes! You're a career-oriented person, so of course you need to learn about things through company information."
Zhang Wanru spoke with a firm tone, just like those elderly people on TV who were scammed by telecom fraud, as if they were under a spell and would never repent.
Lin An's eyes were bloodshot, but reason and upbringing controlled his hands, preventing him from slapping Zhang Wanru. He roared:
"Zhang Wanru, do you know that Chen Xiaohe is a fraudster!"
"He went bankrupt and divorced less than a year after getting married. After returning to China twenty years ago, he has been idle and irresponsible. He worked as a male prostitute when he was young, and when he got old, he became addicted to gambling. He cheated many rich women and is now heavily in debt. He owes a coal mine owner three million yuan, and that coal mine owner is now colluding with Lin Zhe and is my mortal enemy."
Do you really think you're so charming that your first love can't forget you?
"He was just sent by the creditors to deliberately get close to you. Their target is me; you're just a pawn!"
Zhang Wanru received too much information at once, and was almost overwhelmed, even forgetting how to cry:
"No, Xiao He is my first love. He loves me. You're lying to me, aren't you? Tell me you're lying to me!"
She repeated in an almost pleading tone, "Lin An, tell me quickly, you're lying to me."
Zhang Wanru couldn't accept that her dream of marrying into a wealthy family had been shattered.
Lin An looked at her with endless disgust in his eyes: "I'm not lying to you, Chen Xiaohe is a con artist who preys on women, and you are the pig he raised."
"If you had even a little bit of sense, you wouldn't have fallen for it."
"You're almost fifty years old, uncultured, lacking in substance, and even devoid of kindness. All you know how to do is spend money and dream. What makes you think a rich, successful, good-looking man who can cook would fall in love with you?"
"Do you know why you were deceived? Based on your criteria for choosing a partner, only a scammer can meet your needs."
Zhang Wanru cried out in anguish, "He said he loves me. He has a villa, a Bentley, and a driver. He can't be a liar. You're the liar!"
Lin An looked down at Zhang Wanru, and the anger in his heart silently subsided. He suddenly felt that it wasn't worth getting angry over this idiot in front of him; Zhang Wanru was hopeless.
Lin An slowly said, "Believe it or not, Chen Xiaohe has already taken your money and is preparing to run away. Let me tell you, he is afraid that Qian Sanyuan will find out his itinerary, so he is preparing to leave Haishi by water. He should have arrived at the dock by now."
"But you can thank me, I've already sent people to stake out him, so you'll get to see her one more time."
Zhang Wanru shook her head; she absolutely could not believe Lin An's words.
She knelt on the ground, scrambling to find her handbag, pulled out her phone, and dialed Chen Xiaohe's number with trembling fingers.
"Sorry, the number you dialed is currently switched off!"
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