Huai Shi looked down at his phone, scrolling through the information on the screen. "I only took two days off, and I'm already overdue. I absolutely need to go back and ask Ai Qing for a few more days, right?"

Liu DongLi didn't speak.

"Speaking of which, why haven't I been able to contact Ai Qing?" Huai Shi looked up, staring at Liu DongLi's face. "Do you have any idea?"

"...I've only been here for two days, how would I know? Maybe she's in some kind of closed-door training; that sort of thing happens often." Liu DongLi chuckled. "Don't worry, I'll help you ask for leave later. The plane takes off in an hour, so how about we head out first?"

"No, I'm not going."

Huai Shi said calmly, "You're hiding something from me."

"…"

"It's about Ai Qing, isn't it?" Huai Shi asked.

"…"

Liu DongLi pretended not to hear. He turned his head to admire the young women in the bar, whistling casually as if nothing was wrong.

"Then I'll just go ask Old Xiao directly."

Huai Shi made a move to dial his phone, but Liu DongLi hastily pressed his hand down, a bitter expression on his face. "Look, do you absolutely have to get involved in this mess?"

Huai Shi remained expressionless. "You have to tell me what happened, don't you?"

"How would I know?"

Liu DongLi looked grief-stricken. Seeing Huai Shi's cold indifference, he became even more distraught. "I'm not lying to you, I really don't know! A couple of days ago, Little Ai came to me. She said the Yin's family would likely make a move against you soon and told me to tell you to be patient, that now isn't the time. She wanted me to take you abroad for a few days and come back once things have blown over.

Her intuition is like a raven's caw—the more serious the matter, the scarily accurate it turns out to be. I didn't dare disbelieve her!"

"…"

Huai Shi was stunned for a good while. Then, he heard the distant door being pushed open. An unfamiliar woman strode in quickly, glanced around, and upon spotting their table, rushed over and sat down, panting.

She grabbed the freshly delivered vodka from the table and downed it in one gulp before she finally caught her breath.

"This is terrible! Terrible! Something's happened to Ai Qing!"

Huai Shi was stunned.

"Excuse me, but who are you?"

"You could say I'm your colleague. Did Ai Qing not mention... Ah, forget it. She doesn't seem like the type to introduce her friends anyway."

Chai Fei sighed helplessly. She glanced at Liu DongLi, then back at Huai Shi. "An hour ago, Ai Qing was suspended pending investigation. She helped you cover something up in the Red Gloves incident. Later, after Green Day got implicated in that affair in Jinling, the review team decided to suspend her duties for investigation. As a result, she was immediately taken away by people from the Yin's family."

Liu DongLi's expression twitched. He raised a hand and slapped it to his own face, mouthing a silent curse.

"How did you find us here?" he asked.

"Don't underestimate a best friend's intuition, okay?" Chai Fei shot him a look. "All I had to do was glance at her call log, check the people she's contacted in the last two days, and finally, look up Huai Shi's phone location. That's enough to figure it out, right?"

Spotting the travel brochures and plane tickets next to Liu DongLi, she paused, then realization dawned. "Wow, you guys were actually planning to skip town? How shameful is that?"

Liu DongLi looked aggrieved. "Can I claim I'm an innocent party here?"

"Whatever. It doesn't matter to me whether you go or stay."

Chai Fei pursed her lips and waved for the waiter to bring some snacks. She started munching on high-calorie food, her mouth full, and mumbled, "Anyway, as her friend, all I could do was come and let you know... No, actually, the person this really concerns is Huai Shi over there. I can't do anything about the rest."

"You call that being a friend? That's pretty superficial!"

"For an office acquaintance, doing this much is already showing great loyalty, okay!" Chai Fei glared at Liu DongLi. "Besides, aren't you a Cowherd? After swindling so many innocent teenage girls out of their money, do you even have the right to criticize me?"

"…"

Liu DongLi, at the lowest rung of the pecking order, was speechless.

"If you ask me, Little Qing isn't the type to just sit back and wait for disaster. Besides, this suspension notice arrived under very suspicious circumstances. More trouble might be brewing, so it'd be better for you all to keep your distance for now."

Chai Fei patted Huai Shi on the shoulder. "If she didn't tell you anything, then you're better off not getting involved... Wait, your surname is Huai?"

Huai Shi nodded.

"Ah, forget it. I'm afraid I've made this trip for nothing then."

Chai Fei rubbed her aching forehead. "That woman has lost her mind! It's likely the Yin's family is truly coming for you this time... You'd best go into hiding. Lie low for a while, and then they won't be able to touch you."

"Are you saying the Yin's family wants to make an example of Huai Shi?" Liu DongLi asked in disbelief.

"Why wouldn't they? Would they just let him grow stronger until he's capable of wiping out their entire family one day?"

Chai Fei sneered. "Even with the Social Security Bureau trying to keep them in check, there are plenty of ways. Don't you know how many methods there are to destroy someone? They don't even need to lift a finger themselves; they just need to let Huai Shi walk into his own destruction. For instance, if you were to overestimate your abilities and go provoke the Yin's family at their doorstep, their retaliation would be perfectly justifiable, wouldn't it?"

She tossed an entire chicken wing into her mouth and swallowed it, bones and all.

Finally, she spat the meager scraps into the trash can.

So, this was her plan all along?

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