Chapter 141: Whispers of Deception

In the quiet night, Lin Zheng Ran slipped through the city streets, tracking down the room of those two individuals.

The next morning dawned early.

As the sky lightened, Liu Yong, the deputy general manager of Pan Cheng Group, drove to the company.

He happened to cross paths with the workers who came every two weeks in their garbage truck to collect the company’s waste.

One worker operated the truck, clamping onto the trash bin and tipping its contents into the vehicle for compaction.

The truck made a series of crunching sounds.

It sounded like scrap metal, but it was actually the remnants of the safe that Lin Zheng Ran had tossed in the night before.

Liu Yong ignored the workers and drove into the company grounds, where the security guard greeted him, “Good morning, Mr. Liu!”

Liu Yong paused his car briefly. “Anything unusual at the company last night?”

The security guard reported back, “Nothing out of the ordinary, Mr. Liu. Yesterday was quiet and everything ran smoothly.”

“That’s good.”

Liu Yong asked this as a routine check; after all, Pan Cheng Electronics was a well-known firm in the city, not the kind of place petty thieves would target, and there wasn’t much worth stealing anyway.

He parked in the lot, entered the group building, and took the elevator upstairs, exchanging nods with employees along the way.

Liu Yong reached his office on the seventh floor and unlocked the door with his key.

Humming a tune, he sat at his computer, glanced at the time, and scrolled through the New Star List with a smirk. “That studio won’t last another day. They’ll be calling me today for sure, especially with all this evidence piled up.”

He powered up his computer.

Skilled as always, he located the video files.

Then he realized they were gone.

Liu Yong froze for a second, thinking he must have clicked wrong, so he backed out and tried again.

Still nothing.

He suddenly straightened up, tension gripping him. He searched the filename directly—nothing. He repeated the process, frustration building. “Damn it! What the hell? Did this crappy computer lose my files? Of all things, it had to be something this important!”

Cursing under his breath, he remembered he had the original files on a USB drive. He stood, grabbed his key, and headed to the file cabinet to find the safe.

He planned to pull out the USB and reload the files onto the computer.

But this time, it wasn’t just the USB missing—the entire safe was gone!

“What?”

Liu Yong stood there dumbfounded, eyes wide as saucers, convinced he must be seeing things.

He rubbed his eyes and realized the safe was indeed missing.

“Where’s my safe?!”

His first thought wasn’t that it was stolen; after all, a safe in his office seemed impossible to take.

And it was heavy—moving it would be no small feat.

He called the admin department. “Hey, admin? Was anyone in my office yesterday? What happened to my safe?”

The admin staff was baffled. “What safe? We don’t know anything about that. No one’s touched it.”

“How can it just vanish if no one touched it?! It had valuable stuff inside—confidential files!”

“But… that’s impossible, Mr. Liu. No one moved it. Want me to check the security footage?”

“Yes, check the cameras! Now!”

“Alright, hold on.” After hanging up, the admin muttered to themselves, “What a nutjob boss. Who loses a whole safe?”

A moment later, the admin called back, sounding bewildered. “Mr. Liu… the footage from last night is gone. The system seems fried. All we have is from the day before.”

“You’re kidding me!”

Staring around his office, he muttered to himself, “Is this some kind of ghost story? That’s ridiculous… wait…”

With trembling hands, he pulled out his phone and found the number for those two people he’d hired. If the files were gone and the computer ones too, what about the studio mess?

And worse, that other USB in the safe held even more secrets!

He dialed, but as expected, they didn’t pick up.

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Lin Zheng Ran had taken another day off to meet Jiang Jingshi.

In the warehouse of Jiang Jingshi’s music team.

Jiang Jingshi, Lin Zheng Ran, Wang Jie, and the young idol stared at the two mysterious figures standing in the warehouse. These were the very people poached by Pan Cheng Electronics who had turned around and accused the studio of copyright infringement.

Jiang Jingshi glanced at Wang Jie, then at Lin Zheng Ran. “What’s going on? How did they end up here?”

None of them had an answer.

But that morning, when Lin Zheng Ran and Jiang Jingshi arrived at the music studio, they heard noises from the warehouse. Stepping in, they found these two, and that’s why they called Wang Jie over.

Wang Jie shook her head in disbelief. “This is crazy.”

The two captives looked at Wang Jie in terror as she demanded, “Why are you two here?”

They shook their heads. “We don’t know. We woke up and we were locked in here.” Though they didn’t know how they got there, they knew they were traitors.

So they assumed the other side must have sent someone to kidnap them, their faces etched with fear.

“W-Wang Jie, we know we wronged you, but you didn’t have to do this. We were desperate—we needed the money, so we signed with Pan Cheng. We didn’t mean to accuse you of plagiarism. Please don’t hurt us.”

Wang Jie’s anger flared at that. “How dare you bring up plagiarism! You’ve worked with me for years. If you wanted to leave, fine, but turning around and smearing me like that? That’s low!”

One of them replied, “We’re sorry, we really were forced into it. If we didn’t go through with the accusation, we’d have to pay massive breach-of-contract fees. We had no choice.”

As soon as they finished, Jiang Jingshi noticed a file folder behind them.

Curious, she asked, “Wait, what’s that thing behind you?”

The two jumped and turned to look; they hadn’t even noticed it themselves.

Lin Zheng Ran picked it up, opened it, and found it was the original contract they had signed with Pan Cheng Company.

Unbelievable.

Jiang Jingshi and Wang Jie stared in shock.

“Huh?”

Lin Zheng Ran sighed. “This whole thing is so bizarre. What on earth is happening?”

No one knew, except Lin Zheng Ran.

After all, this kind of plot was far-fetched—even for a novel, especially a romance one.

It might fit in a cultivation romance, but still.

The young idol caught on. “Hold on, forget how these two got here for a second. If we have them and the files, doesn’t that mean we don’t have to worry about the copyright fees anymore?”

Excited, he added, “We can get them to sign a new contract right away. That solves half the problem!”

Wang Jie blinked, realizing the point. “You’re right. With the documents and people in hand, the copyright issue is done. As for the harassment claim…”

Jiang Jingshi jumped in. “If it’s just harassment, that’s easy. Before they post those videos online, you two can go public on your platforms and say it’s a consensual relationship. Even if they try to buy traction, they can’t twist it into harassment. The real trouble was them combining both tactics—that’s what made it messy.”

The two nodded.

Lin Zheng Ran suggested, “Then let’s move fast before they release those videos. You two announce it on your own platforms now.” He glanced at the captives. “And while you’re at it, get a new copyright contract signed with them. That wraps everything up.”

Though Wang Jie had no idea what had really happened, she figured there were no ghosts involved, so Jiang Jingshi must have pulled some strings—only a big boss like her could manage something like this.

She smiled. “Thanks, Boss Jiang. We’ll get on this right away. Thanks again for your help!” She emphasized it twice.

Wang Jie turned to the two tied up. “If you’re short on cash, I’ll give you some, but we need to rewrite that copyright contract.”

With no other options, they nodded. “Okay, okay, we’ll sign.”

Without wasting time, Wang Jie dove into handling the announcements and contracts.

Watching the bustle, Jiang Jingshi suddenly chuckled and leaned toward Lin Zheng Ran, whispering, “What did you do, little brother? Is this some kind of magic? Everything just sorted itself out so easily?”

Lin Zheng Ran feigned innocence, shrugging with a laugh. “Who knows what happened? This is my first time seeing something this wild.”

If he hadn’t stepped in, the whole thing would have dragged on, leaving either Wang Jie in hot water or Jiang Jingshi footing the bill and effort.

He wouldn’t have gotten involved otherwise, but in real life, this was like divine intervention—who’d expect immortals walking among us?

In a pinch, Lin Zheng Ran didn’t want to disrupt his life this way, since standing out too much wouldn’t lead to lasting happiness. Things like asset checks would just complicate everything.

Jiang Jingshi eyed him closely; she didn’t know the details, but she had a feeling it was all Lin Zheng Ran’s doing. How he pulled it off was beyond her.

She was growing more curious about him by the day—who wouldn’t be?

Smiling, she said, “Anyway, it’s all resolved now.”

Lin Zheng Ran met her gaze and smiled back. “Yeah, and that’s what matters.”