Chapter 207: Interrogating Zhang Yu, the Righteous God Clears the Scene
As they watched Yue Jincheng leave, baffled, the office door opened, and Gong Zhe walked in with another patrol team officer.
Now, Gong Zhe’s face was completely devoid of a smile. He said coldly, “Regarding today’s case of mutual combat, I’m here to take your statements.”
“Mutual combat?” Zhang Yu repeated. “How is it mutual combat? I told you he was trying to steal my phone.”
Gong Zhe said flatly, “Isn’t your phone in your own hand? I saw you use it to make a payment.”
Zhang Yu replied, “That’s because I stopped him before he could succeed.”
Gong Zhe asked coldly, “Then how can you prove he was trying to steal your phone?”
“According to the testimony of another bystander at the scene, you attacked him first, and he was forced to fight back.”
Zhang Yu was taken aback. “I attacked him?”
“Then look at the surveillance footage. He was the one who reached for my pocket from behind first.”
Gong Zhe flipped through the documents in his hand and said dismissively, “The surveillance cameras at the scene were broken. That moment wasn’t recorded.”
Seeing Zhang Yu fall silent, Gong Zhe continued, “So you have no proof that he was trying to steal from you?”
“Have you been short on money recently?”
“Have your monthly exam scores at school been slipping?”
“Have you been feeling mentally unstable lately?”
Listening to Gong Zhe’s string of highly leading questions, Bai Zhenzhen couldn’t help but retort, “What are you trying to do? Imply that Zhang Yu started it?”
Gong Zhe frowned. “This is all standard, routine questioning.”
“As for who started it, neither your account nor his is what matters. Everything will be determined by the evidence and the investigation’s findings.”
Bai Zhenzhen was furious. “Then why was he released while we’re still being held here?”
Gong Zhe stated as if it were obvious, “He could afford to post bail and has applied for a postponed review. Everything is reasonable and legal, so of course he could leave first. Once your questioning is done, you can also leave after paying bail.”
Hearing this, Bai Zhenzhen grew even angrier. “We’re the ones who reported the crime, and now we have to pay bail to get out?”
Gong Zhe said coolly, “Reporting a crime doesn’t mean you haven’t broken the law.”
Looking at Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, Gong Zhe knew that this situation was far more complicated than just a matter of bail.
Because not long after they had interrogated Yue Jincheng, the power of the Myriad Stars Group had been set into motion.
As a wealthy and influential corporation with an entire legal services team at its disposal, its power was far beyond what an ordinary person could imagine.
And now that this power was being directed at these two penniless students, although Gong Zhe didn’t know the company’s motives, he could already foresee the outcome.
Especially when he sensed that his own superior was subtly leaning in favor of the Myriad Stars Group, Gong Zhe’s demeanor changed completely, all memory of his earlier warm words to Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen forgotten.
After taking their statements, Gong Zhe left, leaving Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen locked in the office.
Bai Zhenzhen rubbed her stomach, growing more and more furious. She pounded on the door and shouted, “I need to use the restroom!”
There was no response.
Just then, Zhang Yu’s phone vibrated. It was a message from Zhou Chechen.
Zhou Chechen: The school is very displeased about your involvement in an off-campus fight. It has been decided that both you and Bai Zhenzhen will be given a demerit.
Zhou Chechen: Remember to apologize properly to the other party from now on. Don’t bring shame to Songyang High School.
Zhang Yu’s eyes narrowed as he read Zhou Chechen’s message. What is this?
A provocation?
A moment later, another message arrived, this time from Yun Ni: What’s going on? My superiors are saying you were involved in a brawl and they want to revoke your status as Divine Assistants.
Bai Zhenzhen watched the messages appear one after another on Zhang Yu’s phone. She felt a crushing pressure descend upon them, like an invisible giant hand slowly squeezing them tighter and tighter.
But watching all of this unfold, Fu Ji let out a hearty laugh. “It seems the Zhou family has made its move. This is a good thing.”
“They’re framing this as mutual combat and applying pressure from all sides. They clearly want to use this opportunity to mess with you. Maybe they’ll try to extort money from you, or get you detained so you can’t attend school.”
“Heh heh, but no matter what, they don’t know that you’ve befriended Deng Bingding, and they certainly don’t know that Deng Bingding has already begun investigating the Zhou family.”
“The deeper the Zhou family gets entangled in this matter now, the greater the price they will have to pay to extricate themselves later.”
While Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen waited patiently in the patrol bureau office, Yue Jincheng had already returned to the Myriad Stars Group’s security department.
Entering the director’s office, Yue Jincheng saw that besides the director, Si Zhouyu and another lawyer were also present.
The security director looked at him and said coldly, “Who gave you permission to act on your own?”
Yue Jincheng started, “I…”
Slap!
The security director struck Yue Jincheng across the face.
“If the company didn’t still need you right now, you would have been fired on the spot,” he said coldly.
A fiery sting radiated from the handprint on Yue Jincheng’s face, but he dared not touch it. He could only bow his head and say, “I’m sorry, Director. It was all my fault.”
The security director said, “Give me your phone.”
At these words, Yue Jincheng’s face twitched, a flicker of fear in his eyes, but in the end, he handed over his phone.
The security director skillfully opened the company’s employee financial platform and said, “The company fronted your bail this time. Use your own reserve funds and reimburse the company now.”
“Hurry up.”
Yue Jincheng gritted his teeth. Under the director’s piercing gaze, he could only obey.
The director continued, “From now on, you stick to the story that Zhang Yu attacked you first, and it was mutual combat.”
“The company lawyer will instruct you on the specifics.”
“Remember this: act out of line again, and you can forget about ever finding another job in Songyang City.”
The lawyer at the side said, “The approach is simple. When you’re at the patrol bureau, you’ll say this…”
Listening to the instructions, Yue Jincheng frowned. “Just keep mediating with him like this? Keep getting entangled? Constantly harass him?”
He didn’t understand. “This is a perfect opportunity to ruin him, isn’t it? With the company’s power, it wouldn’t be a problem to make it impossible for him to go to school.”
“We could easily threaten him and get the information the higher-ups want…”
Before Yue Jincheng could finish his sentence, the security director kicked him in the stomach. He let out a muffled grunt and doubled over like a cooked shrimp.
The security director said icily, “Didn’t I just tell you? Don’t make your own decisions. You do what the leadership tells you to do. If you understand, you execute. If you don’t understand, you execute even more.”
“The company doesn’t need people at your level to have their own ideas.”
“Do you understand?”
Yue Jincheng managed to straighten up and nodded. “I understand.”
But his mind was still filled with confusion. He couldn’t understand why the company, which could easily crush penniless high school students like Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen, always seemed to let them off the hook.
“Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen are just two ants.”
“Crushing them is easy, of course.”
“But to step on them, grind them back and forth without actually crushing them, forcing them to run back to their anthill for help… now that requires a great deal of skill and finesse.”
In the hospital room on the 333rd floor of the central tower, Zhou Yang looked out at the cityscape and sighed to himself. “The new employees these days are getting more and more impulsive.”
But Zhou Yang was not flustered. Having weathered many storms over the years, he was all too familiar with subordinates making mistakes and errors.
He would not wallow in this mistake, blaming heaven and earth. He would only adjust after the fact, seeking new opportunities within the given circumstances.
Thus, upon learning that Yue Jincheng had attacked Zhang Yu and been caught on the spot by the patrol team, Zhou Yang had immediately taken action, leveraging his influence to seize control of the situation.
I can’t just pretend nothing happened. That would surely alert the evil god behind them.
But I also can’t just get rid of Zhang Yu in one fell swoop and lose the trail to the evil god.
I still need to use Zhou Chechen’s name as a cover.
I’ll frame the entire incident as Zhou Chechen hiring someone to set up a trap for Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen out of revenge…
At least from Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen’s perspective, I need to contain the entire event to the level of bullying orchestrated by Zhou Chechen.
As he thought, he made phone calls. Relying on the Zhou family’s resources and the influence of the Myriad Stars Group, he quickly achieved his objective.
After handling everything, Zhou Yang let out a soft breath. Next is to deploy more personnel and continue monitoring Zhang Yu and Bai Zhenzhen through multiple channels.
Now, whether they seek help from the evil god or realize something is amiss and try to flee, we should be able to make some gains.
“But before that…”
Zhou Yang mused, Since it’s already come to this, why not have them detained for a few days? I can arrange for someone inside to teach them a lesson. Perhaps that will force them to reveal more weaknesses?
Even if they are students taking the Foundation Establishment exam, everything is being done by the book. They can’t blame me for it, can they?
Just as Zhou Yang was contemplating the finer points of his plan, his phone suddenly vibrated.
Then came a frantic series of vibrations as message after message flooded his screen.
“The divine ministry is on-site! They’re searching the group’s headquarters!”
“Chairman Zhou! The security department has been sealed by a righteous god! We’ve lost contact with everyone!”
“Zhou Yang, what the hell is going on? Why would a sixth-rank righteous god come to investigate you?”
“Uncle, a righteous god has descended upon the main residence…”
“Chairman Zhou, our funds have been frozen?”
Reading the flood of messages, Zhou Yang was initially bewildered. A sixth-rank… righteous god? Investigating me?
But as more and more messages appeared, he felt as if an inescapable net was closing in on him from all directions, tightening with every passing moment until he could barely breathe.