chapter 2

While Sheng Bianyan was bargaining with the crab vendor at the market, I crashed into another car trying to avoid a scammer who suddenly darted out from the roadside.

When he hanged himself in the restroom of the lecture hall, I had just left the police station, exhausted from a long round of debates and reviews with various parties.

Because I was held up at the police station for half a day.

Afterwards, I sent Boss a leave request via text, turned off my phone, rushed home, and frantically worked on the project proposal I had to present the next day. I was so busy that when I reported to Boss in his office the following morning, I completely forgot to turn my phone back on.

So when the receptionist came in with two police officers saying they were looking for me, I panicked, thinking the previous day’s car accident had caused more trouble.

The police, businesslike, said they needed my cooperation for an investigation, and since they couldn’t reach me by phone, they had to come to the company.

Boss Xing Fei is a protective and loyal employer.

He politely invited the police to sit, saying, “Xiao Rui is a company employee. If there’s any dispute or issue, the company will represent her.”

The two officers sat down-one to question, one to take notes.

“Ms. Rui Man, why did you go to see Sheng Bianyan yesterday morning?”

I was stunned for a moment, not reacting immediately. “What does this have to do with Professor Sheng?”

“You just need to answer truthfully.”

The officer looked at me, expressionless.

I hesitated before speaking:

“The company has a project proposal due today for the client. I went to Professor Sheng to confirm some details.”

Boss added with a smile:

“Professor Sheng is a project consultant hired by our company. Xiao Rui has always been the one assigned to coordinate with him. Yesterday, she went to the university to verify some data with him-I’m aware of this.”

The officer nodded and asked again:

“Verifying a few data points shouldn’t take long, right? Besides work, did you talk about anything else?”

“Verifying the data took less than five minutes. The rest was just some small talk,” I replied.

“What did you talk about?”

I was puzzled, but answered honestly: “Just some casual conversation, like whether we’ve been busy lately, where to go for the Mid-Autumn Festival, whether we’ve prepared mooncakes or crabs for the holiday, things like that.”

The officer pressed further, asking me to recount every sentence of our conversation, while the other officer took notes.

Five minutes later, unable to hold back, I asked:

“Excuse me, what does my car accident and my conversation with Professor Sheng have to do with anything?”

Boss, sipping tea behind the tea table, also turned to look at the questioning officer.

The officer stared at me for a few seconds, his expression serious:

“Sheng Bianyan died yesterday afternoon in the restroom of the university lecture hall. Preliminary findings indicate death by hanging.”

“What!”

In the quiet room, Boss and I exclaimed in shock at the same time.

We then looked at each other, seeing utter disbelief on each other’s faces.

Suddenly, the officer spoke again:

“Ms. Rui Man, there’s a question I need you to explain.”

Suppressing my pounding heart, I forced myself to calm down and nodded.

The officer asked:

“Yesterday morning, Sheng Bianyan received five visitors in his office. Besides three students and one faculty member, you were the only outsider. According to your statement, your work and small talk together took no more than fifteen minutes, but the hallway camera shows you entered his office at 11:00 and didn’t leave until 11:30. So, what were you doing during the extra fifteen minutes?”

I widened my eyes, dazed for a moment before answering:

“During that time, Professor Sheng was on the phone.”

The officer’s eyes flashed sharply, staring at me:

“Are you sure? We checked his phone records-there was no call during that period.”

I shook my head, confused:

“No, he wasn’t using his phone. He used mine to take the call.”

The officer frowned, “You mean someone wanted to reach him, but didn’t call his phone and instead called yours?”

I nodded.

“Yes.”

“Who was it?”

I swallowed, slowly turning to look at the person sitting silently behind the tea table.

“It was… Boss.”