"President Shen, if you want to resolve this matter reasonably..."
Jiang Xinghai suddenly said in a serious tone, "Right before I came, your assistant, Sophie, sent out a notice telling all employees to take the day off. That's highly unusual, so I decided to come check on you. Sure enough, something happened!"
"What?"
Shen Lingxue was startled, but then it all clicked. "No wonder that scumbag Wang Junhao swore that no one would come to save me even if I screamed my lungs out. So he and Sophie were in cahoots all along!"
As if grasping a lifeline, she carefully went over everything that had happened since last night.
"That's right. Sophie disinfects the coffee mugs every day before leaving work. She's the only one who would have had the chance to poison me. I suspected her from the very beginning..." Shen Lingxue clenched her fists. The more she recalled, the colder her heart grew as everything fell into place.
She tried to sort through her jumbled thoughts, pondering how to resolve the conflict with the Wang Family. After all, the fate of her entire Shen Family was at stake!
"I'm in a WeChat group from my old designated driver days. I've already uploaded Sophie's photo and posted a fifty-thousand-yuan bounty. I'm confident it won't be hard to find that bitch in a city as big as Jizhou!" Jiang Xinghai said, full of confidence.
"Designated drivers meet a lot of people. That's a good idea."
Shen Lingxue nodded in relief, then started tapping on her phone again. "That first fifty thousand was for your... recuperation. This is for the legwork. Once this is all over, name your price. I'll do my best to meet it."
"Fine."
Jiang Xinghai didn't stand on ceremony. One hundred fifty thousand yuan arrived in his WeChat account through a series of transfers.
A silver needle suddenly appeared in his hand as he walked toward Wang Junhao.
"What are you doing?" Shen Lingxue asked in alarm.
Jiang Xinghai hesitated for a moment before inserting the silver needle into the back of Wang Junhao's head. "It's better to put him into a deep sleep before we dump him at a hospital."
"A deep sleep..." Shen Lingxue started to say something, but trailed off.
"Don't worry. I can put him to sleep, and I can wake him up. I can even fully restore that part of him that was so severely damaged. But when the time comes, he'll have to pay a price. And I guarantee he'll be begging me to kill him," Jiang Xinghai said with a meaningful smile.
"..."
Shen Lingxue's red lips parted slightly. 'Is this man's medical skill really that incredible?'
'In that case, could this man also treat the chronic ailment my father has suffered from for years?'
"Leave it to me." Jiang Xinghai smiled meaningfully. It was about time he had a chat with the Wang Family about the past!
"Just please, don't do anything rash," Shen Lingxue said, still worried.
"In any case, just go home and rest. Leave the rest to me," Jiang Xinghai said with a hearty laugh.
He grabbed Wang Junhao by the hair and started dragging him toward the door like a dead dog.
Shen Lingxue stood rooted to the spot, watching Jiang Xinghai's retreating back.
She was deeply moved to have someone by her side, helping her strategize at a time like this.
But everything Jiang Xinghai had said also made him seem completely unreliable!
However, she had to admit that Jiang Xinghai was meticulous.
Not only was he a master of medicine, but he had also beaten Wang Junhao to such a sorry state with just a few moves. His fighting skills were impressive too!
"I'd like to hire you as my... personal driver. Would that be okay?"
Shen Lingxue suddenly felt that this man truly possessed some hidden skills.
"I'm a jack-of-all-trades for the company, ready to go wherever I'm needed. You're the boss, so you call the shots. I have no problem with that," Jiang Xinghai said with a smile.
Shen Lingxue had once saved his parents. As their son, he was determined to repay that debt. Protecting this woman was something he had wanted to do all along.
The two of them went downstairs, got in the car, and sped away.
「On the road.」
"By the way, President Shen, if it's convenient, I'd like to find an opportunity to visit your home and pay my respects to the Chairman." Jiang Xinghai planned to meet the Shen father and daughter together, waiting for a chance to ask about them saving his parents five years ago.
"Actually, I was also thinking of inviting you to my home."
Shen Lingxue's mood sank as she thought about how her father's old ailment had recently relapsed. "Since you're such an amazing traditional Chinese medicine doctor, if you can cure my father's chronic condition, I will definitely reward you handsomely."
"What's wrong with the Chairman?" Jiang Xinghai's expression changed when he heard this.
"His back. As for the specific symptoms, let's talk after you've had a look."
Shen Lingxue had been about to explain everything, but she deliberately held back, considering this another opportunity to test Jiang Xinghai's medical skills.
Jiang Xinghai nodded thoughtfully. "I'll visit the Chairman at your home tonight then. For now, I'll go buy the medicinal herbs to treat your hemorrhoids. It'd be even better if I can find that bitch Sophie."
A short while later, Jiang Xinghai dropped Shen Lingxue off at the Yuhai Bay villa district and drove off alone.
First, he dumped the ghastly-looking Wang Junhao in an area near the hospital with no surveillance cameras, then headed straight for the nearest pharmacy.
"DING!"
While he was on his way, he received a friend request on WeChat.
The request was from a person whose note read, "Info confirmed."
'Did the fifty-thousand-yuan bounty really work?'
Jiang Xinghai raised an eyebrow and smiled, accepting the friend request.
The other person immediately sent a voice message. It was the pleasant voice of a young woman:
"I'm in the designated driver WeChat group with you. I just saw the woman you put a bounty on. Too bad for you, she's with a big, burly, bald guy. I'm guessing you're trying to catch a cheater, right? If you want her location, you'll have to pay me at least twenty thousand of that fifty-thousand-yuan bounty upfront, yeah?"
The corner of Jiang Xinghai's mouth curled into a smile. He replied, "Hey, twenty thousand is over the transfer limit. I need your full name to send it."
The other person was silent for a moment, then, sure enough, sent a message: Feng Lulu!
"How about this, you send me your location first to show some good faith? I'll transfer the money right after," Jiang Xinghai replied.
Feng Lulu first sent several angry sticker emojis, followed by another voice message:
"Do you take me for an idiot?! If you want to catch your cheater, transfer the twenty thousand first, then I'll give you the location!"
Immediately after, Feng Lulu sent a picture of a woman's back.
Jiang Xinghai was certain it was Sophie!
But Feng Lulu's camera angle seemed to intentionally avoid any street signs, making it impossible to identify the location.
Jiang Xinghai didn't hesitate any longer and directly transferred twenty thousand yuan.
Feng Lulu was refreshingly straightforward. She immediately started a video call, and after they introduced themselves, she revealed her location.
"Fresh Sea Water Bathing Beach!"
This beach was one of the largest in Jizhou, only a ten-minute drive from Jiang Xinghai's current position.
Soon, Jiang Xinghai arrived at the entrance to the bathing beach.
Feng Lulu was sitting in the shade, eating an ice cream.
She wore her hair in neat pigtails, with a white mesh top and black hot pants. When she stood up, she waved at the approaching Jiang Xinghai.
But unexpectedly, because of the hot weather, a piece of her ice cream melted as she stood up and happened to drip onto her.
The small, milky drop slid down her top and landed right on her shorts!
Leaving a white smudge in that spot was incredibly awkward!
"Oh no!"
Afraid Jiang Xinghai would see, Feng Lulu instinctively tried to cover the spot with her hands, forgetting that she was still holding half an ice cream in her left hand.
Now her black hot pants were almost completely covered in a blurry, milky-white mess...
The sight had a very real visual impact.
"Ah... This is a disaster, a disaster, a disaster..." Feng Lulu was at a complete loss.
Although she was still a virgin, she had seen her fair share of certain... special... films with her girlfriends.
"A little careless, aren't we?"
Just then, Jiang Xinghai walked over and took a few tissues from his pocket. "Let me help you wipe that."
He began wiping, completely deadpan, from her top down to her shorts.
"No... You... I... We... there should be a proper distance between men and women..." Feng Lulu's face flushed red with anxiety.
But she didn't dare shout in public, as that would only draw more attention from the people nearby.