Chased by My Heartless Ex - Chapter 57

Zhou Siyu was a woman of her word, when she said two days, she meant two days.

On the second day after the incident, Yu Yao regained consciousness from her post-surgery coma. Once her vital signs stabilized enough for her to be transferred to a general ward, she was questioned by the police in the thoracic surgery department.

The officers’ attitudes were clear, their questions were designed to steer her toward giving a different account of events. Throughout the interrogation, Mai and Xu You were forced to wait outside the room. Despite the pressure, Yu Yao held her ground, refusing to alter her story and accurately recounting the incident as she remembered it.

On the third day, a manager from the design company arrived at her hospital room with the contracted designer in tow.

“Miss Yu, I advise you not to waste your efforts any further. Out of humanitarian concern, we are willing to compensate you for your medical expenses since you were injured after leaving our company.”

The man stood arrogantly, looking down on the three young women, outsiders, even foreigners, as though they were already firmly in his grasp, mere playthings easier to crush than ants on the roadside.

Yu Yao stared coldly at the hypocritical, smiling wolves in human skin standing by her bed. Her hands, tethered by IV lines, clenched tightly at her sides. Pain radiated from the fractured bone through every nerve ending. The veins at her temples bulged, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead, yet she stubbornly refused to make a sound.

They laughed, a chilling, unsettling laughter.

Xu You, who had been sitting nearby calculating her start date and how to transport her paintings to Shanghai, noticed Yu Yao’s distress. She quickly handed a wet wipe to Mai to help cool Yu Yao down and stepped forward to deal with the scoundrels.

“Ladies, it would be in your best interest to accept our proposal. If we have to get unpleasant, we may even withdraw the compensation offer,” the designer said, his tone slightly milder than the manager’s, but he was just another bully relying on his position.

The two men looked at the women with pitying confidence, like hunters eyeing prey or landowners condescending to lowly servants.

They expected the girls to concede, to obediently sign the unequal contract Yu Yao had already torn up and scattered across the floor. They anticipated seeing them panic and beg for mercy.

But none of that happened.

Xu You casually picked up one of the contract pages at her feet, skimmed it briefly, and let out a light chuckle.

“After the contract takes effect, Party B Yu Yao shall not hold Party A liable for any responsibility.” She paused, crumpled the A4 paper into a ball, and tossed it in a smooth arc straight into the open trash bin. “I have a suggestion too.”

Four eyes stared at her blankly, waiting for her next words.

“Instead of spending all the company’s earnings on hiring thugs, why not invest in a proper legal department? The useless ones you have now, just fire them all and shut the department down. Save some funds.” Xu You’s gaze turned icy, sharper than the fruit knife on the table, glinting with shrewd intensity.

The two men froze momentarily before the manager snapped back, “How dare you slander us! What evidence do you have that our company hired thugs or that Yu Yao was injured by our people? There are no surveillance cameras nearby, no fingerprints on her clothes, and no murder weapon was found at the scene. You’re trying to trap us into admitting something, throwing our goodwill back in our faces. Utterly unreasonable!”

In his panic, he said too much. Realizing he had revealed too many hidden details, he abruptly cut himself off, muttered “ungrateful,” and hurried out of the room with the designer in tow.

The wolf’s tail was already exposed, waiting only for Zhou Siyu to gather all the evidence and find the right moment to reveal it, seeking justice for them and for those who had been victimized.

Xu You took her phone out of her pocket, pressed the pause button in the center of the screen, compressed the audio file, and sent it to the WeChat group Zhou Siyu had created. The file was too large, and the progress bar moved slowly. Just as she was about to set her phone down, a local news notification popped up on the screen.

[Weibo News: The Seven Deadly Sins of a Design Company in Beicheng Exposed]

Instinctively believing it was Zhou Siyu’s doing, Xu You clicked on it and read through the details carefully. Her tense expression instantly relaxed.

The design company’s recent tax issues, employee exploitation, conflicts with partnering construction firms, and interviews with dozens of victims were all exposed at once. The high-ranking trending topic quickly gained traction, attracting a flood of netizens and passersby. Within less than an hour, the discussion had surpassed sixty million views, and the subsequent growth was visibly rapid.

Capital intervention is truly something else.

As Xu You marveled at this, a new message appeared in the group. She switched apps to check.

[LA: Received. Send two photos of Yu Yao’s injuries and her medical records from the hospital. I’ll blur the details and post them now. Let’s add fuel to the fire and see how long this blaze lasts.]

Finding the suggestion reasonable, Xu You held her phone next to Yu Yao, snapped two photos that included the nameplate on the bedside, and then requested the electronic medical records from the doctor, uploading everything to the group.

Just as the files were sent successfully, Zhou Siyu abruptly halted their next steps, postponing the plan they had discussed.

[Zhou Siyu: Hold off on posting for now. The other side is spending money to suppress the trending searches. Let’s wait for them to bleed a little more, then contact their competitors to catch them off guard.]

[Zhou Siyu: @LA, @Xu You, your personal information might not stay hidden. There’s a high chance they’ll expose the hospital you’re in and cause trouble. I’m arranging with the hospital to transfer you now. Is that okay? If it’s too much hassle, there’s another option, I can send bodyguards over immediately.]

It was a request for their opinion, not a unilateral decision.

Lu Ang knew Zhou Siyu tended to lower her guard around Xu You. Having witnessed it a few times, he still found it unbelievable and shocking to see it in writing. Xu You was truly the only one who could make her yield.

There had never been anyone else in the past, and there wouldn’t be in the future.

Xu You had long passed the naive teenage years where sweet words could sway her. Switching back to Weibo, she glanced at the rapidly falling trending search ranking and replied with a simple “Okay.””

Yu Yao was already in Beicheng’s renowned Military General Hospital, and transferring her would be inconvenient. She accepted the second option Zhou Siyu had proposed. With bodyguards stationed on the floor, she felt a deep sense of security.

Unaware of their dealings, Yu Yao asked what she was busy with after seeing her flurry of activity. Xu You’s phone vibrated twice. Thinking it might be important, she checked the screen, pursed her lips, and turned it off.

Lu Ang was howling in the group about her coldness, likely under pressure from Zhou Siyu, as he quickly deleted the message. But she was indeed feeling detached and emotionless now, so she simply ignored it and put her phone away.

“I had someone expose that design company. You’re not the first one they’ve assaulted, and if we stay silent, I believe you won’t be the last,” Xu You said solemnly, sitting on the accompanying chair by the bed.

Upon hearing this, Yu Yao quickly processed the information and interrupted, “You contacted Zhou Siyu?”

Xu You turned her head away, avoiding eye contact and hiding her emotions.

“Say something, cough, cough.”

Overwhelmed with emotion, her already fragile lungs, unable to bear even the slightest strain, throbbed with pain. Her vision blurred into whiteness, and she involuntarily broke into a cough. Mai hurriedly fussed over her, and as the wave of pain subsided, her breathing steadied, though her expression remained filled with regret.

Yu Yao’s fingers trembled weakly. “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t insisted on coming to Beicheng, if I hadn’t hastily signed with the design company without proper investigation, if only-”

“Enough,” Xu You interrupted her self-blame. Under Yu Yao’s surprised gaze, her face showed no trace of blame or reproach. She spoke calmly, “What’s done is done. All we can do now is steer things in a better direction. Whatever I did was my choice because you’re worth it. Right now, your only job is to focus on recovering. Once this storm passes, we’ll regroup, rebuild the company, and make a fortune. Every month, we’ll stuff my bank account until it’s plump.”

Her slightly hoarse voice strained to conceal her exhaustion, and as she spoke, the two friends couldn’t help but laugh together.

“Not just every month, every week, I’ll transfer money to you, burying you in piles of cash,” Yu Yao’s throat tightened, and the roots of her eyelashes grew damp.

Xu You didn’t stand on ceremony. “It’s settled then.”

The design company was not without its own tactics. After several hours of suppression, the trending topic had already dropped to the edge of the charts, nearly buried by other entertainment news. The moment they had been waiting for had arrived.

In the group chat, Lu Ang sent just two short words, and the nearly extinguished flames roared back to life, fiercer than before.

Now, evidence of Yu Yao being beaten and hospitalized was released, along with the “missing” surveillance footage that even the local police claimed they couldn’t find.

Now, the dealings between the design company’s CEO and a certain official were exposed, intensifying the class conflict between the people and the authorities. The spontaneous discussions among netizens propelled the hashtag into the top three on the trending list.

#BeichengDesignCompanyScandal, #OfficialCorruption, #AntiCorruptionCampaign

Related hashtags sprouted up one after another like bamboo shoots after rain.

Indeed, once the fire spread to the masses, there was no chance of it quietly dying out.

Due to the heated discussions online, the Beicheng Public Security Bureau established an investigation team. The scandal, unfolding right under the nose of the capital and involving both political and public security circles, demanded a resolution within 24 hours, a reasonable explanation for the entire nation.

As the official blue-and-white police notice was issued, Xu You felt increasingly reassured. Justice for them was just around the corner.

Having never dealt with such incidents before, she could only imagine the difficulties involved. Sincerely grateful for Zhou Siyu’s efforts, Xu You shared the online discussions with Yu Yao and Mai before stepping into the stairwell to call Zhou Siyu and express her thanks.

She expected Zhou Siyu to answer quickly, but in reality, the call rang until the very last moment, nearly disconnecting before her voice finally came through the receiver.

“Hello,” Zhou Siyu cleared her throat, and faint, receding footsteps could be heard in the background.

With a thud, the garbage proposal sent up from below was slammed onto the desk by Zhou Siyu. Zheng Ran stood ramrod straight, eyes fixed on the tip of his nose, awaiting his boss’s criticism. Accompanying the sound of two cracking knuckles, he knew his boss’s “skill cooldown” had ended, and he lowered his head even further.

Zhou Siyu was about to speak when the phone beside her mouse rang with an incoming call. Without hearing her answer or tell anyone to leave, Zheng Ran quietly lifted his head and noticed Zhou Siyu hesitating, her hand hovering over the screen as if she wanted to answer but didn’t dare. He tried to hold back but couldn’t help letting out a laugh.

“Get out.”

The glass nearly shattered from the force of her voice.

As Zheng Ran made his way out, he secretly observed his boss. The only person who could calm her down from a furious state in an instant was Xu You. Silently, he thanked her in his heart and offered a prayer for her.

“Thank you.” Xu You, unaware of this little episode, spoke stiffly as she expressed her gratitude.

“No need.”

The WeChat icon on the computer screen blinked. Zhou Siyu received a message from Cheng Cheng, switched the phone to her left hand, and pressed it to her ear.

[Cheng Cheng: Old Zhou, are you guys done? This might involve my dad. Why didn’t you consult us before taking action?]

Zhou Siyu’s expression remained unchanged at Cheng Cheng’s complaint, but she anxiously waited for Xu You’s response, typing a reply with one hand on the keyboard.

[Zhou Siyu: I don’t know the details of your family situation. You all figure out a solution; I won’t get involved.]

Her friend’s indifferent attitude angered Cheng Cheng, who had always believed they were on the same side and shared common interests. Fuming, she typed out a long paragraph filling the entire screen, only to delete it in a fit of rage before sending, thinking this would make Zhou Siyu understand how upset she was.

Zhou Siyu didn’t indulge her and closed the chat window. The carpet under her boots bore the marks of her frustration.

“Can I start next week? I asked Zheng Ran, and the team lead who used to guide me, Qian, has been promoted to deputy director. I’d like to continue working in her team.” Xu You thought about the “old friend” Li Rui in the company and added, “Also, there’s an employee in the design department named Li Rui. I hope when I join, I can be one level above her.”

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line. “These are all my requirements.”

“I could parachute you in as a director if you want,” Zhou Siyu replied.

Xu You declined, “No need, I’m not that capable.”

“Fine, we’ll sign the contract when you come next week. I know you don’t plan to stay in the country long-term.” Her throat felt dry. “A monthly salary doesn’t make sense; how about a one-time payment of 50 million? What do you think?”

For once, Xu You showed a relaxed smile in front of her. “You really think highly of me. It’s hard to say if I can even generate that much profit for you.”

Xu You laughed, and Zhou Siyu laughed too.

“I believe in you.”

The most amazing little artist in the world, that’s what she secretly called her.