The once grand company building now looks desolate and gloomy.
Dong Enyu, dressed in an appropriate suit, appeared outside the Haijiao Headquarters.
Since the scandal broke out, Haijiao had been closed for several days, claiming internal reorganization.
However, the woman understood that Haijiao had already been cut off at the roots, now just an empty shell.
The electronically controlled doors were no longer open, and Dong Enyu could only enter through the side door.
As she passed the parking lot, her eyes swept over two cars, her mood unperturbed, and she turned on her heel to enter the building.
Knock, knock— Outside the office door, Dong Enyu politely knocked, knowing that ‘she’ was inside.
After a moment, footsteps were heard from behind the door, and the other party opened it without hesitation.
The first thing that caught her eye was the heavy clouds stacking up outside the floor-to-ceiling windows.
Dong Enyu blinked, a faint smile playing on her lips, and shifted her gaze to meet the eyes of the other person.
After days apart, they met again, but things had changed.
The woman who once sat confidently in front of the mountain and sea view now wore a haggard face as she opened the door for her… What a pity… Even though the company wasn’t operating, Huo Ai still came to work every day.
She wore her usual women’s suit, her smooth hair resting behind her, her eyes devoid of emotion, and the tear mole at the corner of her right eye made her look extremely pitiful.
If Haijiao could be divided into ten parts, Dong Enyu would have already taken eight, leaving the remaining two struggling in Huo Ai’s hands.
That’s why the woman still came to work.
Perhaps she thought there was still a chance? So be it.
Dong Enyu walked into the office calmly, and Huo Ai, standing silently beside her, slowly closed the door.
“I brought this for you.” The woman took out a letter from her handbag, with two clear words written on it: ‘Resignation.’ Huo Ai glanced at the letter in Dong Enyu’s hand and said indifferently, “Just leave it on the table.” She walked over to the desk, the room unlit, and outside, a gentle rain began to fall, creating an oppressive atmosphere that made it hard to breathe, with only the sound of heels echoing.
Following Huo Ai’s words, Dong Enyu placed the resignation letter on the desk and noticed today’s morning paper.
The headline was quite sensational, with large red letters reading: ‘Coral Reef Group Director He Xuan Apologizes and Steps Down.’ As expected.
“Only demoted employees would show that kind of expression,” Dong Enyu smiled, looking at Huo Ai across the desk.
“But for Manager Huo, this is undoubtedly a promotion, right?” Huo Ai’s face was pale, her mouth twisted in a smile that was hard to tell if it was a sneer or a bitter smile, but it was something Dong Enyu thoroughly enjoyed.
Who would have thought that an old fox would show such a defeated look? “No, I should call you Director Huo, right?” He Xuan was forced to step down due to the scandal, and Huo Ai, the second in line, was pushed forward.
But is it a blessing or a curse? Huo Ai squinted her eyes, her dark pupils somewhat cloudy.
“Your flattery lacks sincerity.” It was full of sarcasm.
Dong Enyu chuckled, shrugged, and said lightly, “I’m really sorry.”
“If you have something to say, just say it.
There’s no need to write a letter.” Huo Ai ended the topic, pushing the resignation letter Dong Enyu submitted forward.
At this moment, Huo Ai was sitting, and Dong Enyu was standing.
She looked up from below, her aura undiminished, even if she was just a shell, unable to diminish the woman’s innate confidence.
Even if she was a bit tired, a bit embarrassed, Huo Ai wouldn’t let herself lose her footing.
“I want to resign.” Dong Enyu crossed her arms, knowing Huo Ai wouldn’t let her leave easily.
“Can’t stay in the Administration Department? I’ll transfer you to another department.
The Information Department is also short of people.” Rather than saying ‘short of people,’ it was more accurate to say Haijiao had lost its power.
All the employees had resigned due to negative reports, and those who could escape had already fled.
Only the high-level staff, held by Huo Ai, remained, but how long could she hold them? “No,” Dong Enyu shook her head, her bright red lips parting slightly.
“I can’t stay at Haijiao.” Not just the Administration Department, but also the Information Department, filing documents, running errands, staying under Huo Ai’s company… Dong Enyu couldn’t stay.
“At this point, lying is over the top,” the woman shook her head helplessly, seemingly unimpressed by Huo Ai’s official tone.
She pulled a chair over and sat down, meeting Huo Ai’s gaze.
“You used to be so wary of me, magnifying my every move hundreds of times.
Now, everything that should be reported has been reported, and everything that shouldn’t has been broadcasted.
Isn’t this a relief for you?” Dong Enyu was quite calm, while Huo Ai remained unusually composed, mature in the face of the woman’s bitter words.
“You don’t need to bother monitoring me anymore.
Nothing that should be exposed was missed.” She had done everything she needed to do to bring down Haijiao.
Huo Ai no longer had a smile.
A thunderclap sounded outside, the rumbling and blinding light adding an eerie atmosphere to the room.
Shadows covered half her face, making Huo Ai look like a ghost from a movie, her face deathly pale, her pupils as black as ink.
She pursed her lips, her gaze fixed on Dong Enyu, her fingers tapping rhythmically on the table, making a faint ‘tap… tap… tap…’ sound.
“Was it really you?” Her deep, hoarse voice barely concealed her suppressed anger.
On the verge of eruption… Dong Enyu wasn’t intimidated by this aura; instead, she became more composed.
She crossed her long legs, resting her hands on them, tilting her head with a faint smile.
“Yes, it was me, Dong Enyu, who did it.
All those messages were evidence I personally handed over to the police.” The facts were clear, and apart from Huo Ai, no one was unaware.
More precisely, even if Huo Ai knew, she wouldn’t believe it.
How ridiculous.
Remembering how Huo Ai had argued with He Xuan over the ‘truth’ not long ago, now that she had admitted it, Huo Ai had become a fool.
What did she want to hold onto? Even now, what did Huo Ai still want to ‘believe’? If she could have looked at her with suspicion like when they first met, wouldn’t life have been easier? “What do you want…” Huo Ai frowned deeply, closing her eyes tightly.
“What do you want?” Revenge? It must be revenge, right? Hearing this, Dong Enyu’s smile deepened.
Huo Ai actually asked her ‘what do you want?’ Was she begging for mercy now? “I want to bring down Haijiao,” the woman laughed cruelly.
She had already achieved eighty percent of that goal, and in addition, “I want to expose the mastermind behind Haijiao, which is you, Director Huo.”
Boom!— A flash of lightning struck outside, casting Huo Ai’s face in shadow, while Dong Enyu’s smiling expression was illuminated.
“Is that so? Is that how it is?” Suddenly, Huo Ai’s voice relaxed significantly, no longer like a taut string that could snap at any moment.
However, now it was too loose, as if nothing mattered anymore.
“Pretending to be clever in front of me, always causing trouble, saying nice things to me, going along with me, climbing into my bed… risking your life to gain my trust… was it all for the purpose of bringing down Haijiao… no, was it to bring me down?”
“As expected of the clever Director Huo, you guessed it right.” Now, sitting with her legs crossed in front of Huo Ai, the one with confident eyes was Dong Enyu, different from the clumsy, reckless woman she knew, the one who would act coquettishly and seductively towards her.
She was Dong Enyu, and yet she wasn’t Dong Enyu… “Was it premeditated?” It seemed that the one kept in the dark was Huo Ai.
Dong Enyu shook her head, smiling.
“I just responded to the situation.
You wanted loyalty, so I gave you loyalty.
Can’t you see, Director Huo, with your high status, unwilling to open your heart to trust anyone, not even He Xuan? Why is that? Yet you were so fixated on me? Did you think there was still some benefit to be gained from me? In the end, weren’t we just playing a game?” The script dictated the performance… Huo Ai slightly opened her mouth, wanting to say something but unable to make a sound.
Dong Enyu was patient, giving Huo Ai time to absorb the impact of reality.
A once clueless, troublemaking, flirtatious woman was the key to her downfall.
She had said it before, to hide in the swamp, she had to stain herself black first.
She had done it thoroughly, playing the fool who didn’t care about her life, drifting with the river of time.
Fortunately, she was still alive, and now she had reached the shore, and the game should end.
“Do you think I should trust people?” Huo Ai suddenly laughed softly, but the smile carried an imperceptible bitterness.
“You know better than anyone the cost of trust, don’t you?” Bringing down everything she had, cutting off all her retreats, Haijiao would never recover from these reports, and Huo Ai might even face prison time because of these cases.
The cost of trust was losing everything she had built… So, would she still choose this dead-end path? Dong Enyu nodded.
“I know very well, but you can’t blame me entirely, Director Huo.” After speaking, the woman walked towards the wall.
On the beautifully decorated cabinet, a calligraphy painting hung on the wall.
Dong Enyu leaned forward, picking up a silver sphere from beneath the painting.
The reflected light was particularly bright, causing Huo Ai, sitting in the main seat, to clench her fists, the ‘crack’ sound of her fingers quite frightening, but it didn’t scare Dong Enyu.
—”If you want to work by my side, you’d better not play any tricks, because in my eyes, it’s meaningless.” Out of nowhere, Dong Enyu remembered how Huo Ai used to scold her, and now she really wanted to return it all.
“My target was never you,” Dong Enyu spoke the truth.
Her undercover mission was to find the mole in the Police Station, but things became more complicated.
In Wutang, she discovered many incredible things, and Huo Ai was one of them.
In the North District, the renowned Zhengshang Daqiye was secretly involved in such dealings with the underworld.
“Was it good or bad that you saved me? Between you and me, who was using whom?” Dong Enyu suddenly laughed heartily, tossing the pinhole camera in her hand, which rolled to a stop in front of Huo Ai.
“This whole thing, from start to finish,” the woman pursed her lips, her blood-red lips speaking softly, “was all your own doing.”
