Financial Workplace Survival Guide – CH 072

Chapter 72 ☆, No Tolerance For Any Criminal Act.

The period around Chinese New Year and other holidays was actually the busiest time for police officers. The festive atmosphere before and after the New Year allowed people who had been busy all year to relax.

It was good for people to relax, but excessive relaxation could lead to irrational consequences.

Zheng Zaochuan’s house was very close to Mary’s house. When Xin Xin was sitting in the car, her mind was in a mess, and she could not understand why Han Canghai and Zhang Qiao had started fighting.

Before she could even figure it out, she was already outside Mary’s building. Without even looking closely, she could tell where the incident had occurred.

The police car lights were flashing, and a huge crowd had gathered there.

Xin Xin squeezed in with difficulty. “What’s going on?”

Mary, her face pale with fright, rushed over. “Han Canghai just bled a lot.”

Zhang Qiao followed behind, his face pale but his expression calm as he said to Xin Xin, “You go with her to the police station to give a statement, and I will go with Han Canghai to the hospital.”

When the group arrived at the police station, Mary gradually calmed down and began to recount how the incident had occurred.

Xin Xin then realized that it was not Han Canghai and Zhang Qiao who had fought at all.

Zhang Qiao and Mary attended a dinner with clients. Zhang Qiao took Mary home, and on the way, they encountered a drunk middle-aged man who spoke rudely to Mary and even exposed his private parts.

Zhang Qiao argued with him for a bit and almost came to blows, but Mary stopped him. Mary was naturally bold, and when faced with this situation, she immediately and without hesitation used sharp and sarcastic language to ridicule the drunkard.

The drunkard, seeing the tall and imposing Zhang Qiao beside Mary, slunk away.

The matter should had ended there, as it was only a five-minute walk from Mary’s apartment complex.

But when they arrived at Mary’s building, they both saw Han Canghai waiting there.

Ever since Han Canghai made up his mind to win Mary back, he would often wait outside her house when he could not see her. Sometimes he would bring Mary some snacks, and sometimes he would bring her a bouquet of flowers.

He and Zhang Qiao also reached a tacit gentleman’s agreement to each use their own methods and wait for Mary to make a decision.

This was not the first time he’d waited there.

But this time, something unexpected happened.

Han Canghai was three steps away from them. He was about to hand the small cake he was carrying to Mary when he saw a person behind him staring at Mary with an unfriendly and sinister expression, leaning forward and reaching out as if to grab her.

Almost instinctively, Han Canghai rushed over and pushed Mary away.

The incident happened in an instant; the man behind Mary, startled, plunged a small knife into Han Canghai’s thigh.

Zhang Qiao turned around and saw that the person who had come was the drunkard he had just encountered on the road. It seemed that his departure was a pretense, and his real intention was to follow them and take revenge.

Perhaps he was waiting for Zhang Qiao to leave before making a move against Mary.

Zhang Qiao immediately pinned the man down.

The man was about forty years old, not very tall, and very thin. Under normal circumstances, neither Han Canghai nor Zhang Qiao would had been injured.

Things happened so fast that even the assailant did not have time to react.

It was quite late when they finished giving their statements at the police station. The man who had been so arrogant just moments before was now weeping and apologizing to the police.

He said he did not mean it; he was resentful after being insulted by Mary, and he had also drunk some alcohol. This made him increasingly angry, so he went to the nearby convenience store and bought a fruit knife.

He only meant to scare Mary; he never intended to hurt her.

After Mary finished giving her statement, she made it very clear that she would not forgive his action.

Then the three of them rushed to the hospital to see Han Canghai.

Xin Xin simply held Mary’s hand and comforted her from beginning to end: “Don’t worry, it’s just a regular small fruit knife, and it did not hurt any vital organs. Zhang Qiao just messaged me and said it’s nothing serious.”

Mary, who had been calm all along, relaxed now and burst into tears. “I feel so unlucky. Everyone I’ve been with is so pitiful. I cannot bear to see Han Canghai begging me so humbly, and I cannot bear to see Zhang Qiao trying so hard to win my favor. I’m so selfish. I don’t understand what I’m thinking. I’m greedy for everyone’s kindness to me. It’s all my fault. If it were not for me, none of them would have been hurt.”

Xin Xin wanted to say that it was not her fault, but that he had brought this upon himself because he was blinded by lust.

But now was not the time to talk about this. Xin Xin knew that what she’d say was not nice, so she obediently shut up.

Fortunately, when they arrived at the hospital, Han Canghai had already been bandaged up and admitted to the hospital. Although he looked a little pale, it was clear that he was not seriously injured.

“I’m fine; don’t cry.” Han Canghai, lying in the hospital bed, did not forget to comfort Mary.

Mary’s entire attention was on Han Canghai, and she gently smoothed his hair, asking, “Does it hurt a lot?”

“It does not hurt. Luckily, it was me who was injured. If he had slowly found the right spot, you might have been hurt.”

Han Canghai’s expression showed genuine relief, without any indication that his injury was a significant matter.

He saw the man walk forward, already holding a knife. If that knife had been aimed at Mary’s neck, the consequences would had been unimaginable.

Mary grabbed Han Canghai’s hand and rested her head on his head as if no one else was around. “Thank goodness you’re alright.”

Xin Xin noticed that Zhang Qiao had left at some point.

She gave Zheng Zaochuan a wink and then left the ward.

Zhang Qiao stood in front of the hospital window, staring blankly outside. The moonlight shone on him, creating a blurry halo around him.

“The moon’s unaware of her tranquil brightness and does not even know that she’s the moon. Look, isn’t the moon quite willful?” He smiled at Xin Xin.

This line of poetry may not be referring to himself or even to Mary.

It was about love itself or not about love itself.

Xin Xin offered refined and scholarly advice: “Love sometimes has another name, which is fate. When facing fate, perhaps letting go isn’t a bad choice.”

Everything that happened tonight was a coincidence, and it may not have any impact on the course of Mary and the others’ story. But it was also possible that this coincidence would influence the direction of the entire story.

Zheng Zaochuan yawned, glanced at the two looking somewhat sad, and abruptly asked, “When are you going back? I just finished taking care of the other formalities.”

Xin Xin gave him a strange look. “Don’t you have any thoughts on this?”

Zheng Zaochuan did not, and instead interrupted Zhang Qiao’s sorrowful spellcasting, “Let’s go. I just asked, and Zhao Ningyan said she’d stay with him. Let’s go back; there’s no point in staying here. Forced relationships don’t work, so let’s not be an eyesore here.”

Zhang Qiao could not laugh, but he could only agree to Zheng Zaochuan’s suggestion.

Xin Xin and Zhang Qiao each had their own thoughts, but they continued to discuss Mary’s final choice.

However, this minor incident did not cause any further consequences. Han Canghai was discharged from the hospital before the new year, and the assailant was detained and awaiting sentencing.

Everyone should go back to their own homes and find their own mothers; the festive mood of the New Year should not be ruined.

Xin Xin went home early, and the whole family celebrated Lunar New Year’s Eve with great joy. Then, while her parents were all happy and CCTV was broadcasting “Unforgettable Tonight,” Xin Xin calmly announced the bombshell news, “I’ve found a boyfriend, and he will be coming to see me tomorrow.”

The parents, who were already dozing off, were so shocked by the news that they felt like they had just drunk eight cups of coffee.

“Where does this young man work?”

“Is this the young man who called me to let me know you were safe when you were away on a business trip and had no signal?”

“What does he do?”

Xin Xin was overwhelmed by the barrage of questions, so she avoided the main points and talked about Zheng Zaochuan’s situation.

After receiving the tip from Xin Xin, the parents immediately picked up their phones and started searching for Hanhai Company.

Information online indicated that Zheng Zaochuan had stepped down as CEO. However, there were also some less positive reports circulating online.

In an effort to gain favor for Zheng Zaochuan, Xin Xin casually recounted how she had been kidnapped and nearly killed, only to be rescued thanks to Zheng Zaochuan paying a huge ransom.

Xin Xin said seriously, “Don’t worry, he owns shares; he will not be poor. Besides, the reason he stepped down as CEO was because I meddled in his business.”

Of course, she cleverly concealed the fact that she was kidnapped, perhaps because of Zheng Zaochuan’s identity. At the same time, she also tried to downplay that Zheng Zaochuan had an extremely difficult adolescence.

Lin Fang, her mother, could not hide her worry.

Xin Xin’s job was so ordinary; how could she have been kidnapped? And how could she have gotten involved in such a complicated matter? Although she was sitting here fine now, who knows?

The father glanced at the mother and immediately understood. He spoke earnestly to Xin Xin, “Baby, we’ve always believed in you, you know that. But this young man runs a company. His living environment and economic foundation are different from yours. We live in a society governed by law now, and the market’s only better because the country’s cracking down on organized crime. In our generation, many business people know people in the underworld.”

If they continued, they would touch on some darker aspects. Xin Xin always heard these stories from her parents. They were all about how, before the crackdown on organized crime, many businesses had connections to organized crime, and some even needed powerful protectors to thrive, causing immense suffering for the people.

In the end, all these people were arrested, and the whole ecosystem improved significantly.

Xin Xin was over thirty, but her parents still subconsciously call her “baby” every day, and when they visited her in Haining, they even picked her up at the subway station. When she first turned 18, she protested against this, but now she was numb to it and even felt a kind of pampered joy.

“Yes, I know, but he’s not that kind of businessman. He’s a proper college graduate.”

Xin Xin’s father thought for a moment and then asked her, “What does this young man’s family do?”

A person’s views on choosing a partner were generally related to their family background. As she subconsciously said, she hoped to find someone from a happy family. This was, of course, her parents’ long-held belief; they’d always believed that even though their financial situation was not great, a child from a kind and loving family would surely be good.

Alarm bells rang in Xin Xin’s mind, and a few words surfaced in her head: “It’s here! This day has finally come!”

In other families, when children were unhappy, the theory of their family of origin was always present. But in Xin Xin’s family, the theory of their family origin was also always present in the parents’ education.

While never being absent, Xin Xin’s parents would also share their experiences, allowing Xin Xin to judge for herself the significant impact of loving parents on their child.