Chapter 292 The Only Chance
When Ji Wan woke up, the window lattices of the ward were shining with the turbid warm yellow light of the setting sun, which was even brighter than the red light of the stock exchange.
The phone beside my pillow kept buzzing.
She fumbled to pick it up, and her fingertips hit the cold IV tube, causing a slight pain.
"Sister Wan, I'm downstairs at the hospital. I just arrived." Sun Tian spoke so quickly that it pierced Ji Wan's mind, which was filled with the smell of medicine.
With a light sigh, Ji Wan struggled to sit up, but his collar sank into his neck, soaked with moisture.
Although the hospital has conscientious air conditioning, the hospital gown still sticks to my back due to sweat, like a snake attached to my bone.
"Speak slowly." She closed her eyes slightly and spread out the company documents on the bedside.
When Sun Tian spoke again, her throat was split in two. "I caught her. I went to the branch office to get some documents in the middle of the night. I saw a light in the accounting office, so I hid and didn't go in."
"Then what?"
"I saw her secretly taking photos of the account books. She was literally snapping photos of the company's latest financial report, even turning on her phone flash." Sun Tian took a breath as a car horn blared outside the window. "How arrogant!"
Ji Wan flipped through another stack of documents at hand. The names written in bright red ink looked like bloodshot eyes from last night's sleep.
The monitor beside her ear was beating rhythmically, interweaving with the sound of her flipping through the pages to create an inexplicable rhythm.
The cracks in the ceiling had never been repaired.
"Pei Yun, right?" Ji Wan's voice suddenly calmed down. "Where is she now?"
"I locked her in the branch office meeting room."
"Don't make a sound yet, bring her to the hospital." Ji Wan said firmly, "Enter through the north gate of the hospital. If you can't get past the security guard, come directly here."
"Okay, I'll go now."
"Remember to check her phone." After hanging up the phone, Ji Wan closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. A dull pain seeped out from behind his eye sockets.
The fluorescent light above my head flickered, as if complaining that no one had changed the bulb.
The door of the ward was opened, and the nurse reminded me that the infusion bag was empty.
Ji Wan nodded and watched the other party pull out the needle skillfully. She remembered the little girl who handed her the towel in the delivery room five years ago, who was also so skillful.
At that time, Ruize and Yuening had just landed on the ground, lying on her left and right, and their crying was louder than the ringing of the phone in the company now.
The slight pain of removing the needle is nothing compared to the gloom in my heart.
After watching the nurse leave, Ji Wan stood up, dressed neatly, and grabbed the folder that had fallen at the end of the bed.
Pei Yun, 34 years old, finance.
Behind the seemingly ordinary resume, the numbers don’t lie.
Ji Wan pulled out a blank piece of paper, pursed his lips, and slid the tip of the pen quickly across the paper, outlining the clues and time points.
The dusk outside the window was dark, like a lead block that was about to crush the glass at any time.
Occasionally, there were footsteps in the hospital corridor, heavy and orderly, like the guards in the palace corridor.
There was a gentle knock on the door, but Ji Wan didn't move. "Come in."
Sun Tian pushed the door open and walked in, followed by Pei Yun with red eyes. The woman's suit jacket was wrinkled and her hair was half loose.
Pei Yun's handbag was confiscated and held in Sun Tian's hand. It was bulging, and its shape was more obvious than her stiff expression.
"Sit down." Ji Wan raised his eyes, his voice cold and thin, like the wind blowing through the hall on an autumn night.
Pei Yun lowered her head, her steps seemed to be stuck in a quagmire, and she struggled to move to a chair in the corner of the ward.
His left leg was shaking, causing the plastic chair to rub against the ground, making a helpless, harsh sound.
"Have you finished taking pictures of the account book?" Ji Wan asked as he flipped open his notebook, revealing a page of bank transaction records densely marked in red and blue.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Pei Yun swallowed, twisted her fingers together, and the dead white joints seemed to pierce the skin.
Sun Tian sneered and took out a cell phone from her bag. "Sister Wan, the photos in her phone are all there. They're evidence. They clearly record the branch's accounts. I stopped her when she was about to delete them."
Pei Yun suddenly looked up, a flash of panic in his eyes, and then he quickly lowered his head, his throat making a slight sound as if it was being strangled.
It was dark outside the window, casting her silhouette like a black silhouette hanging on the wall.
The IV tube hanging nearby swayed slightly, casting a shadow that flickered on the wall.
Ji Wan was too calm. He flipped open the bank statement with his left hand and asked, "Let me ask you, who is the owner of this account?"
Pei Yun stared at her knees, biting her lower lip. "No... I don't remember."
"Still pretending?" Sun Tian stomped her feet in anger, her high heels hitting the floor tiles, the sound echoing in the empty ward.
The nurses' carts clanged past in the hospital corridor, and the sound seemed to be synchronized with the heartbeat.
Ji Wan raised her head slightly. It was almost dark. She spread out another document and said softly, "Three million two hundred and seventy thousand. Twelve installments. They will be deposited into your personal account in batches. Tell me, what did the Chi family ask you to do with all this money?"
Pei Yun's shoulders trembled, as if stabbed by an invisible knife.
The rapid breathing sounded particularly harsh in the quiet ward.
Ji Wan didn't urge him, but just stared at the document, letting the air between them solidify like a spider's thread that was about to break.
Neon lights flicker outside the window, but the city night is never completely dark.
An airplane slowly crossed the sky, its flashing signal lights clearer than the stars.
"I... I don't know anything about the Chi family." Pei Yun finally spoke, her voice hoarse, like glass polished by wind and sand.
Ji Wan suddenly slammed the table with such force that the documents on the desktop vibrated like overturned strings, creating a suffocating silence.
She threw the bank statement in front of Pei Yun. All twelve transfer records came from the same account, and the account name was as clear as if it had been carved with a knife: Chi Group's Financial Technology Department Fund Pool B Account.
"And this, can you explain it?" Ji Wan handed over another piece of paper. On it was Pei Yun's call records, which were densely packed, and a certain number appeared repeatedly.
"This is Chi Lin's phone number. In the past fifteen days, you have spoken to each other thirty-seven times. The shortest duration was twelve seconds, and the longest was forty-six minutes."
Pei Yun's face was ashen, and her tightly clenched hands loosened, hanging on both sides of her knees like a puppet with its strings cut.
Ji Wan's tone suddenly slowed down. "I can sue you right now for industrial espionage, theft of trade secrets, and breach of trust that damages the company's interests. Do you know how much compensation you'll have to pay for these charges combined, and how many years of imprisonment you'll have to serve?"
Pei Yun finally broke down. She raised her head suddenly, tears streaming down her face. "They forced me to do this! At first, they just wanted me to provide some company information, but later on, they asked for more and more: accounts, customer information, core company data..."
"Who forced you to do that? Tell me clearly." Ji Wan's voice became increasingly cold and hard.
"Chi, Chi Lin..." Pei Yun sobbed, "He said that if I didn't cooperate, he would make public what happened between me and my ex-boyfriend, and I would be ruined! I have no choice, I really have no choice..."
Ji Wan lowered his eyes to look at the screen of his mobile phone. The Sun Tian video recording app was running on it, the red dot was flashing, and the time was accumulating minute by minute.
Pei Yun's cries echoed in the ward, interweaving with the ticking of electronic instruments, weaving into an absurd sonata.
Outside in the corridor, the wheels of a cart glided gently past.
Later still, an intern would come to patrol the wards, dragging his tired figure.
"Tell me all the details clearly and I'll record it." Ji Wan pointed at the phone. "This is your only chance."
Pei Yun was trembling all over, like a candle in the wind, but began to explain incoherently.
How Chi Lin contacted her, how he threatened her with her past private life, and how he instructed her to steal company documents, financial data and customer lists.
"They just want to see your company go bankrupt, or force you to back down and restructure." Pei Yun wiped away her tears, her eyes red from crying, and her voice was barely audible. "They said if they can't get you the job this time, they'll keep coming back and ruin your reputation."
Ji Wan's expression remained unchanged, but her eyelashes cast sharp shadows under the pale light of the hospital, like a sword about to be unsheathed. "What information do you have that you haven't passed on?"
Pei Yun shook her head, her eyes empty. "Everything has been sent: the latest financial report, account balance, and client list."
Ji Wan raised his head, a cold light flashing in his eyes, like a cheetah locking onto its prey.
She is no longer the compromising Ji Wan. This time, she wants the Chi family to pay the price.
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