Chapter 97
As soon as Jin Zijin’s voice fell, the entire corridor plunged into silence.
The Wang family’s bodyguards were pinned hard against the wall. Their faces had gone red, but they couldn’t break free no matter how they struggled.
The female bodyguards Jin Zijin had brought with her were all retired special forces. Their strikes were ruthless and precise; they gave their targets no chance at all.
Old Master Wang stood frozen in place, his face dark as a slab of iron pulled from ice. He gripped his cane so tightly his knuckles had gone white, his whole body trembling.
He had lived nearly ninety years, spent a lifetime in Beijing, and no one had ever dared show him such blatant disrespect.
But when he saw the trained bodyguards behind Jin Zijin and met that woman’s gaze, cold as if tempered in ice, the curse that had risen to his lips was forced back down.
The little girl from the Jin family was not someone he could afford to offend.
Or rather, not someone he could afford to offend now.
Jin Zijin didn’t spare him another glance.
She turned around, cupped Wen Yan’s face in both hands, and looked her over from head to toe. “Are you all right? Were you hurt?”
The sharpness that had been enough to cut had softened in an instant, leaving only concern.
Wen Yan looked into her eyes, so close to her own, and felt the frantic pounding in her chest settle at once.
She shook her head. “I’m fine.”
“That’s good.” Jin Zijin wrapped an arm around Wen Yan’s waist, tightened her hold, and pulled her firmly into her embrace. She patted her lightly twice. “Don’t be afraid. I’m here.”
Then, with deliberate emphasis, she lifted her eyes to Old Master Wang. “No one will lay a finger on you.”
Standing to the side, Wen Chen watched the two of them leaning into each other, and the knot in his heart finally loosened as well.
Now that Jin Zijin had arrived, the situation was under control. Everything after this would be much easier to deal with.
——————
The atmosphere outside the operating room remained tense. As the two sides faced off, hurried, orderly footsteps sounded again from the far end of the corridor.
Leather shoes struck the polished tiles with crisp clicks, especially clear in the dead of night, instantly breaking the standoff.
Everyone turned at once.
At the front was Shen Changming, the chief of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, in uniform and looking stern. Behind her were several investigators from the criminal investigation team, along with Zhang Leinan, the team leader who had previously been in charge of the car accident case.
Zhang Leinan followed at Shen Changming’s side, cold sweat beading on his forehead, his steps slightly unsteady.
His eyes kept darting away; he didn’t dare look at Old Master Wang, and he certainly didn’t dare look at Jin Zijin.
He had accepted the Wang family’s benefits before and given them room to maneuver, turning a blind eye to the matter of Wang Manyu taking the fall.
He had thought that once the case was settled, everything would be over. He had never expected Shen Changming to come personally, and at such a critical moment.
Three groups of people were now gathered outside the operating room. The air seemed to freeze at once; the sharp tension in the corridor was palpable.
“President Jin.” Shen Changming spoke first, giving Jin Zijin a slight nod, her tone tinged with apology. “We’re late. Letting things get this out of hand is our dereliction of duty.”
Jin Zijin looked up at her, expression calm. She returned the nod and said nothing else. She knew very well that Shen Changming’s appearance at this exact time was already the result of Ye Jianlan’s efforts behind the scenes.
Shen Changming’s gaze then swept over Old Master Wang, whose face had gone ashen, and then over Wang Jinyu, who was huddled in the corner, battered and bruised.
Her brows knitted tightly as she said in a voice hard as iron, “Old Master Wang, Wang Jinyu is suspected of traffic-related homicide and hit-and-run. We’ve already obtained preliminary evidence. Please have him come with us and cooperate with the investigation.”
Old Master Wang’s expression changed. He slammed his cane into the floor. “Chief Shen! You need evidence when you speak!”
“The one who caused the accident was my daughter, Wang Manyu. She’s already been taken away for more than half a month. You’ve investigated her thoroughly, and she’s confessed. Why are you surrounding my son?”
“Investigated thoroughly?” Shen Changming smiled, looking perfectly composed. “We never said the investigation is thorough.”
“This matter is far from being decided. Everything is still under review.”
“As for evidence, of course we have some…”
The words had barely left her mouth when the red light above the emergency room, which had been lit for a full three hours, suddenly went out.
With a soft click, the operating room door was opened from the inside.
The attending physician, still in green surgical scrubs, came out with several nurses after removing her mask. Her face was drained with fatigue, along with a trace of barely hidden gravity.
In an instant, every gaze in the corridor fixed on her.
Wen Chen was the first to rush forward. His voice trembled so badly it was almost unusable. “Doctor! How is my mother? Is she all right?”
“The patient had an acute myocardial infarction. We performed emergency thrombolysis, and a stent was placed. She has temporarily come out of danger,” the doctor said, letting out a breath of relief first, then turning solemn. “But there’s something we must explain to the family, and report to the police as well.”
Zhou Jianbin stepped forward immediately. “Doctor, please go ahead.”
The doctor looked around the corridor, her gaze pausing briefly on Old Master Wang before she said in a low voice, “When the patient was brought in, we detected an excessive amount of beta-adrenergic agonists in her blood.”
“This drug sharply accelerates the heart rate and raises blood pressure. For patients with hidden coronary artery disease, it can directly trigger an acute myocardial infarction.”
Her voice rang clearly through the corridor, word by word: “In other words, this patient’s heart attack was not natural. It was induced by drugs.”
Induced by drugs.
Those four words exploded like thunder in the corridor.
Even though they had already suspected the possibility of an attempt to silence her forever, Wen Chen still jolted violently, his pupils contracting.
Wen Yan’s face also turned cold in an instant.
As a top surgeon, she understood all too well what that drug did. In excessive amounts, it could not only trigger a heart attack; in severe cases, it could even cause sudden cardiac arrest and death so quietly that even an autopsy might struggle to find anything unusual.
If she had not been sent to the hospital in time, if the blood test had not been done, if…
She did not dare think any further.
The Wang family had truly dared to do this to their own daughter.
Shen Changming’s expression darkened completely, anger almost overflowing from her eyes. “What a vicious method. Such a thing actually happened under my bureau!”
She turned to Old Master Wang with a grave expression. “Old Master, rest assured. The city bureau will investigate this thoroughly! Whoever is behind this, whoever tampered with things in the dark, we will investigate to the end and never show leniency!”
Old Master Wang’s face changed drastically.
He staggered back a step. The cane in his hand nearly slipped, and his whole body slammed into the bodyguard behind him before he barely managed to stay upright.
“Who! Who did it! Who on earth did it!” His voice was shaking; his cloudy eyes were full of tears. “My daughter… my poor Manyu…”
He stumbled forward and pleaded with Shen Changming, “Chief Shen, you must, you must investigate this thoroughly and give our Manyu justice…”
The twins on the opposite side watched his hypocritical performance and exchanged a glance, both of them cold-eyed.
What a case of the cat crying for the mouse; a thief crying thief.
Wen Chen clenched his back teeth hard. Then he suddenly stepped forward and slowly pulled his phone from his pocket.
The screen was lit; on the recording interface, the waveform was still moving gently. The green line rose and fell; it was a heartbeat, a pulse, and also the truest witness to this absurd farce.
“Chief Shen, I have evidence I’d like to submit to you.”
At his words, everyone turned to look at him. When they saw the recording on his phone, Old Master Wang’s pupils shrank and his face went white.
Wen Chen shot him a glance and said heavily, “This is the recording from my argument with my uncle Wang Jinyu just now. He personally admitted to hit-and-run, and to having my mother take the fall for him in full.”
He paused, then swept his gaze over Old Master Wang, whose face had gone deathly pale, over Wang Jinyu, who had collapsed onto the floor, and finally back to Shen Changming. “My mother was drugged to induce a heart attack. The full truth of the Wang family’s ridiculous arrangement where the sister takes the blame for the brother, and the hit-and-run…”
“Please investigate all of it too.”
The moment his words fell, the entire corridor went dead silent.
It was so quiet even breathing seemed to vanish.
Old Master Wang abruptly looked up at Wen Chen, rage erupting in his eyes. “Wen Chen! You lunatic! Are you trying to frame your uncle just to clear your mother’s name?”
“Your uncle isn’t in his right mind, and he was worried about your mother, so he said some nonsense. You think that can wash away your mother’s crime?”
“You’re utterly confused!”
He roared, his voice nearly tearing apart: “Get rid of that useless thing of yours! Don’t make a fool of yourself in front of Shen Changming!”
“Nonsense?” Wen Chen looked at him and gave a cold laugh. “Grandfather, why are you in such a rush? Whether what my uncle said is true or not will be judged by the law.”
“Or are you afraid the police will uncover the truth?”
Old Master Wang was left speechless. He could only heave for breath, his face turning the color of liver.
Shen Changming immediately nodded toward the officers behind her. “Seal the audio evidence and take it back to the bureau for technical verification right away!”
“Yes, Chief Shen!”
The officers stepped forward at once and took Wen Chen’s phone. Seeing this, Old Master Wang’s vision went black and he nearly collapsed straight down. The bodyguard beside him hurriedly caught him, preventing him from hitting the floor.
He knew.
It was over.
Everything was over.
When Wang Jinyu saw the police take the phone, his entire body instantly went limp.
Huddled in the corner with his head in his hands, he kept mumbling, “It wasn’t me… it was the Lu family… the Lu family made me do it… they said that road had few cameras… they were the ones who got me drunk…”
Over and over, back and forth, like a broken recorder on repeat. All the arrogance from earlier was gone without a trace; what remained was nothing but a heap of rotten mud.
——————
Soon, the hospital bed was pushed out of the emergency room by nurses.
The wheels rolled across the tiles with a faint sound, and everyone looked over in unison.
Wang Manyu lay on the bed, her face devoid of color, her lips dry and peeling, her eyes closed; she looked like a lifeless wax figure.
An oxygen tube was inserted into her nose, and all kinds of monitors were attached to her body. The beeping and ticking sounded especially clear in the quiet corridor.
In just half a month, she had wasted away to the point of looking hollowed out.
The face she had once so carefully maintained was now only exhaustion and emaciation. Even in unconsciousness, her brows were tightly furrowed, as if she were still trapped in endless fear and pressure.
Wen Yan’s gaze fell on her face, and her heart seemed to be gripped tightly by something.
Mother…
The doctor came forward and gave a few instructions. “The patient now needs absolute quiet. She must be transferred immediately to the ICU for intensive care, with round-the-clock dedicated monitoring.”
“Family members should not gather here. One person can stay to register the information.”
With that, she and the nurses pushed the bed toward the ICU.
The sound of the wheels gradually faded. Wen Chen immediately followed, never leaving her side. His eyes were fixed on his mother in the bed, afraid that if he so much as blinked, something terrible would happen.
Shen Changming looked at Wang Jinyu, still collapsed on the floor, and was just about to give the order to take him away when Old Master Wang suddenly stepped in front of her.
Leaning on his cane, he blocked Wang Jinyu’s body. His face was green with anger as he grit out, “Chief Shen, you don’t have a formal arrest warrant yet. You only have an unverified recording; you can’t just arrest people!”
His voice was trembling, but he was still forcing himself to hold on. “Jinyu is the Wang family’s heir. If anything goes wrong, I’ll hold you responsible.”
Indeed, procedurally speaking, they did not yet have a formal arrest warrant. They only had preliminary evidence; they could summon him to cooperate with the investigation, but not detain him by force.
Shen Changming remained silent for a few seconds, then looked coldly at Wang Jinyu. “Wang Jinyu, we are now issuing you a criminal summons in accordance with the law. You are required to report to the city bureau’s criminal investigation team within 24 hours for questioning.”
She paused, her gaze like a blade as it swept over Old Master Wang. “If you fail to appear on time, we will take compulsory measures.”
“Old Master Wang, let me remind you of one thing: don’t think about playing tricks. Harboring or hiding a suspect is also a criminal offense. If the person runs, you will bear the corresponding legal responsibility as well.”
Old Master Wang’s expression was ugly, but he said nothing more.
He only waved his hand, signaling the bodyguards to help Wang Jinyu, who had gone limp on the floor, and walked out of the corridor without looking back.
——————
The farce temporarily came to an end.
The police soon withdrew, leaving only four officers stationed outside the ICU. One reason was to protect Wang Manyu, the key witness; the other was to take her statement as soon as she woke up.
Jin Zijin also had her security team set up a perimeter around the ICU. Layer upon layer of protection surrounded the area so tightly that not even a fly could get in.
The ICU doors were closed.
Through the small window in the door, only a blurred white figure could be seen inside. Those figures were moving about, busy and silent, like a wordless film reel.
Wen Chen stood at the doorway with his back against the cold wall.
His eyes were bloodshot, and a shadow of blue stubble had appeared on his chin. He looked utterly worn down, fatigue lingering around him like an unshakable haze. Even so, he still stood straight as a board, staring at the ICU door without blinking.
Wen Yan walked over and gently patted his shoulder.
“Ge, go sleep in the lounge next door for a while.” Her voice was very soft, full of concern. “There are police here, and security arranged by Jin Zijin. Nothing else will happen.”
Wen Chen shook his head.
His voice was hoarse to the point of scraping, as though sandpaper had been rubbed across his throat. “No.”
“I’m afraid that in the time it takes me to blink, she’ll be taken advantage of again, or become someone else’s scapegoat.”
He turned to look at the ICU door, bitterness flooding his eyes. “If I keep watch here, I can breathe easier.”
Wen Yan looked at the redness in his eyes. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but in the end she only nodded silently.
“Then I’ll go back first with Jin Zijin.” She reached out and patted Wen Chen’s shoulder again. “Call me anytime if anything happens. I’ll come right away.”
Wen Chen nodded, then turned his gaze back to the ICU door and never looked away again. “Go on.”
Wen Yan and Jin Zijin left the hospital together.
The wind before dawn carried a chill, brushing over Wen Yan’s face and tangling her hair.
Day was already beginning to break.
A sliver of white showed in the east, like a wash of pale ink spreading across rice paper. Yet the city was still wrapped in deep night; the silhouettes of the tall buildings stood like silent beasts crouched in the darkness.
They got into the car.
The black Maybach slowly pulled away from the hospital and merged into the empty streets of the early morning. The tires rolled softly over the road, sounding like a sigh from the night.
The cabin was quiet.
Wen Yan leaned against the window, watching the streets outside flash past. Streetlamps swept by one after another, casting alternating light and shadow across her face. She said nothing the entire time, only looked quietly out the window.
Her profile, under the dim light, seemed especially pale. In her eyes lay an unspoken exhaustion and sadness, as if a layer of gray dust had settled over her that could not be washed away.
Jin Zijin sat beside her, silently watching her emotions the whole time.
She reached out and gently took Wen Yan’s cool hand. The warmth of her palm slowly transferred over, bringing wordless comfort.
Wen Yan’s fingers moved slightly, then tightened around hers.
Still, she said nothing.
After a while, Jin Zijin lightly stroked the back of her hand with her fingertips and carefully chose her words.
Her voice was very soft, carrying a trace of barely perceptible apology. “Yan Yan, I’m sorry.”
Wen Yan turned to look at her.
“This is my fault.” Jin Zijin met her eyes, serious. “I didn’t take proper care of the police bureau side, which gave them the chance to make a move on Auntie and scared you so badly.”
Wen Yan looked at her in silence for a few seconds.
Then she shook her head gently.
“It’s not your fault.” Her voice was very light, faintly hoarse. “The Lu family has stood in Beijing for so many years; this kind of dirty thing isn’t the first time they’ve done it. A tiny slip after doing everything else right is normal.”
Jin Zijin didn’t answer. She only held her hand even tighter.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
Wen Yan lowered her eyes and remained silent for a long time.
So long that Jin Zijin thought she would not answer, before she finally spoke softly. “I’m fine.”
After a pause, Wen Yan added, her voice so low it was almost inaudible, “It’s just that…”
“Just what?” Jin Zijin softened her tone and waited patiently for her to continue.
Wen Yan looked up at the neon lights streaking past outside the window, her expression especially desolate. “It’s just that… family, blood ties, all of it; in the face of self-interest, they’re really nothing more than that.”
Her voice was very light, like a passing breeze, yet it carried a heavy sadness. “Children… are just their parents’ expendable resources.”
Just like Wang Manyu; from the day she was born, she had been the stepping stone the Wang family prepared for their son, a resource that could be sacrificed at any time.
Just like herself; from childhood to adulthood, in the Wen family’s eyes, she had only ever been a tool used to pave the way for Wen Chen and exchange benefits with the Wang family.
She thought she had already seen through it all. She thought she had already severed herself completely from her birth family.
But when she saw her mother lying in the hospital bed, tubes all over her body, her heart still hurt.
It was like a thin needle had been driven into the deepest part of her heart; it couldn’t be pulled out, and it couldn’t be ignored.
Jin Zijin’s heart clenched hard.
She pulled Wen Yan into her arms and rested her chin on the top of her head. Her palm pressed against Wen Yan’s back, gently smoothing it again and again.
“No, Yan Yan,” she said, her voice tender and firm. “Not all parents are like that.”
“I know.” Wen Yan leaned into her embrace. Her nose stung, and she choked out, “I just think… she’s really very unlucky.”
In the end, she couldn’t hold back her tears. They slid down her cheeks and dropped onto Jin Zijin’s suit, blooming into a small dark patch of moisture.
This was the first time she had truly, clearly realized that Wen Yan still loved her mother.
She kept saying she wanted to cut ties with her birth family, saying she was thoroughly disappointed in her mother. And yet between her and Wang Manyu, there had always been an invisible umbilical cord.
It was the bond of blood; it was love etched into instinct.
She loved her mother, out of the most primal instinct: a daughter’s love for her mother.
But her reason kept telling her, over and over, that this mother was not worth it; she must not love her, must not soften, must not look back.
Human emotion was never black and white.
Love and hate, disappointment and reluctance, rupture and entanglement; they were always intertwined, complex beyond all control.
Jin Zijin tightened her arms, holding the person in her embrace even closer. Lowering her head, she pressed one gentle kiss after another onto Wen Yan’s hair, comforting her wordlessly.
————
Early the next morning, under some invisible hand’s control, the internet began shaking again.
A forty-minute recording was suddenly anonymously leaked online, sweeping across every social platform in an instant.
In the recording, Wang Jinyu’s evasive words amounted almost to a confession that he had driven drunk, caused a fatal crash, and fled the scene, and that Wang Manyu had merely been the scapegoat.
Following that, media outlets reported that Wang Manyu had suffered a heart attack and been temporarily released on medical bail.
The two pieces of news were released in succession, instantly causing a tsunami.
#The Wang family forced the sister to take the blame for her brother#
#Wang Jinyu drunk driving hit-and-run#
#Wang Manyu, the murdered woman#
#How absurd can son preference get#
All four hashtags shot to the top of the trending list in an instant, each followed by the glaring character for “explosive.”
Within just one hour, the readership exceeded 2 billion.
The entire internet went into a frenzy.
The comment section exploded. Netizens’ fury erupted like a volcano, sweeping across the web:
“I’m literally disgusted! Three lives! He caused the disaster himself, made his own sister take the blame, and in the end even drugged her to silence her? Is this something a human being does?”
“Son preference taken to this level isn’t just absurd; it’s anti-human! So a daughter’s life doesn’t count? She’s just a tool for wiping her son’s mess and dying in his place?”
“Wang Manyu is too tragic. She was drained by her birth family her whole life, and in the end even her own father wanted to kill her to pave the way for her brother. That’s suffocating!”
“People like Wang Jinyu need the death penalty! And that old bastard too; attempted intentional homicide means he has to go in too!”
“The Lu family! And the Lu family too! The recording clearly said it was the Lu family who planned this! Why is no one talking about them?!”
“Think about it and it’s terrifying. The Wang family was only a pawn; the Lu family behind them was the truly ruthless one. They set people up just to get organ sources. It’s horrifying!”
The public opinion completely spiraled out of control.
The Wang family became the target of universal condemnation. The abuse came down like a storm, and Wang Group’s stock price hit the floor the moment trading opened.
Its market value evaporated by billions overnight; partners rushed to cancel contracts, and banks cut off loans and credit. The already tottering Wang family was pushed entirely into the abyss.
At noon that day, the city bureau issued an official statement: Wang Jinyu had been criminally detained on suspicion of traffic-related homicide and hit-and-run, and the case was under further investigation.
At the same time, on the top floor of Hengxing Group’s president’s office,
the huge floor-to-ceiling windows looked out over the prosperity of Beijing. Skyscrapers rose in rows, traffic flowed in endless streams, and the sunlight was just right, pouring through the glass and spreading across the floor in a bright, warm wash.
Jin Zijin stood by the window, phone in hand, speaking with Ye Jianlan.
“The evidence chain has been completed,” Ye Jianlan’s voice came through the receiver, carrying a hint of gravity. “The past five years of illegal organ transplant records from the Twenty-Third Hospital, along with the flow of benefits to the top echelon of the powerful, are all here.”
“The one above doesn’t want this made too public online; let it stop here. As for the social media storm, it’s enough to use it to bring down the Wang family.”
Jin Zijin looked out the window, her voice calm. “All right.”
“I’ve already locked down the routes the Lu family used to transfer assets and prepare to leave the country. They won’t get away.”
“Hard work.” Ye Jianlan paused, then suddenly asked, “By the way, after being busy all this time, I never asked; how is Wen Yan?”
Jin Zijin gave a soft huff, her tone meaningful. “Is that you asking, or is it Senior asking?”
Ye Jianlan laughed lightly. “We’re asking together.”
“After all, Wen Yan’s mother is in trouble, and Senior has been very worried about her.”
On the day Wen Yan was involved, Jiang Linyue’s whole family had been protected by Ye Jianlan’s people and had not been allowed to contact the outside world, for fear that the Lu family might do something even more outrageous.
During this period, with so many things happening to the Wang family, Jiang Linyue had been terribly worried after hearing about it.
But Wen Yan was married now; she had her own lover and someone to confide in. Excessive concern would not be appropriate.
After worrying on behalf of the other person for so long, in the end she had only asked Ye Jianlan to pass on a single question.
Jin Zijin understood what she meant and smiled slightly.
“She’s not in the best state,” she said softly, “but she is still working, eating, and sleeping normally.”
“You can tell Senior that once she’s safe and the project lands, she can come ask her in person.”