998 Phis.h.i.+ng Interview
“Professor He, you overestimate me. How could I have possibly dodged that?” Gu Nianzhi discreetly made a funny face and said with a smile, “My face still hurts!”
He Zhichu was silent.
He wanted to go visit her, but considering how his own fever had just subsided, he may still be contagious if he had a cold virus.
After stewing over it for a while, he said to Gu Nianzhi, “Turn on the video chat, I want to see your face.”
Gu Nianzhi giggled before turning on the video chat on her phone. She said with ill intentions, “You’d better be mentally prepared. Don’t be frightened by me…”
He Zhichu mentally prepared himself fully, but when he saw Gu Nianzhi’s perfect face br.i.m.m.i.n.g with youthful vitality, he finally knew realized that he had fallen for her trick.
“Naughty.” He Zhichu dryly chastised her, but he didn’t get angry. Likewise, he was not unhappy or embarra.s.sed by her teasing.
Just now, he had been overly concerned because he cared about her. He’d forgotten about Gu Nianzhi’s special body const.i.tution.
“But did they actually hit you?” He Zhichu’s finger gently brushed over the image of Gu Nianzhi’s pretty, oval-shaped face on the phone screen. “Does it hurt?”
“It hurts, of course, it hurts. I’m not made of iron, so how could I be immune to pain?” Gu Nianzhi playfully inhaled. “But it didn’t hurt that much. It was much less painful than my injuries from before.”
That statement didn’t comfort He Zhichu. It actually made him feel even more aggrieved.
He looked at Gu Nianzhi for a while before finally asking, “Then are you still going back to the Senate?”
“I’ll go, why wouldn’t I? If I resign just like that, then wouldn’t I have been beaten for nothing?” Gu Nianzhi pointed to her right cheek. “Speaker Long said that this incident isn’t over! So I must go and keep an eye on it, just in case someone intentionally decides to gloss it over…”
He Zhichu heard the hidden meaning in her words and keenly asked, “Your colleague purposely set you up?”
Was her intention so obvious?
That wasn’t good.
Gu Nianzhi laid down on the bed while, holding her phone above her as she changed the topic with a smile. “Professor He, although Speaker Long said this incident wasn’t over and that the Senate would step in to bring me justice, I can’t just sit idle and wait for other people to bring me justice.”
“What do you want to do?” He Zhichu could already read Gu Nianzhi’s mind. She wanted to sue someone again…
“I want to leak the news. Aside from suing the person who hit me, Prime Minister Tan and his wife also needed to make a joint response. I will also be seeking large compensation from the Office of the Prime Minister.” Gu Nianzhi raised a brow.
He Zhichu always agreed to whatever Gu Nianzhi wanted to do. He didn’t hesitate to nod. “Okay, do you want to declare a statement or do you want me to do it for you?”
“You’re my secret weapon, I must keep you hidden for now,” Gu Nianzhi said with a giggle. “I’m going to go to work at the Senate tomorrow and make a statement through the media then.”
Not long after she finished the phone call with He Zhichu, Ma Qiqi called her as well.
“Nianzhi, are you okay?” Ma Qiqi had seen Gu Nianzhi on the news and been very worried ever since. Yin s.h.i.+xiong had asked her to contact Gu Nianzhi later, so she had been patient enough to wait until now.
Gu Nianzhi almost blurted out that she was okay, but the words changed just as they were about to leave her mouth. She replied vaguely, “I’m alright, it doesn’t hurt anymore.”
“How can the people from the Office of the Prime Minister be such thugs!” Ma Qiqi was full of indignation. “They are so violent! They should never hit someone in the face! They are breaking all the taboos!”
Gu Nianzhi nodded along with her. “Qiqi, you weren’t there at the time, but those people were certainly thugs! Their words were so vulgar that I couldn’t stand listening to them! Prime Minister Tan is gambling it all; he doesn’t care about shame anymore!”
“As if he still cares about shame?!” Ma Qiqi snickered. “His video was so embarra.s.sing, what shame does he still have? But truthfully speaking, I’m pretty impressed by these politicians. They are truly more shameless than normal people. If such a thing had happened to a normal person, they probably would’ve been so humiliated that they’d want to die. But look at Prime Minister Tan. Not only is he unwilling to commit suicide, but he refuses to step down as well! He’s as relentless as mud on a wall!”
“That’s a given. The foremost criterion for being a politician is to be shameless. Normal people want to have shame, so there’s no way they could do such high-difficulty work.” Gu Nianzhi and Ma Qiqi joked around for a while more.
Ma Qiqi saw that Gu Nianzhi was in a fairly good state of mind, so she finally felt relieved. She said, “It’s late now, you should rest. Are you resting at home tomorrow? I’ll come to visit you.”
Gu Nianzhi quickly replied, “I still have to go to work at the Senate tomorrow. I’ll be home on the weekend, do you want to come over then?”
“You still have to work tomorrow? Your injury is alright?” Ma Qiqi was extremely worried. “Do you need to apply any medication?”
How could Gu Nianzhi go out with her face covered with ointment?!
Gu Nianzhi winked cheerfully. “I have a face mask, so I just need to wear it tomorrow.”
Ma Qiqi instantly recalled watching television footage of Gu Nianzhi walking out of the hospital. She’d indeed worn a black and white panda facemask.
“Okay then… If there’s nothing seriously wrong, then going out to work is certainly better than overthinking things at home.” Ma Qiqi knew that Gu Nianzhi hated doing nothing, so she urged her a bit more and promised to visit her on the weekend before ending the call.
Gu Nianzhi glanced at her watch and saw that it was already 10:00 in the evening. It happened to be time for bed.
She yawned before sinking into sleep.
She slept more peacefully and deeply than ever before. She didn’t even have any dreams.
She woke up very early the next morning, but she purposely dragged things out so she didn’t leave until 8:00.
With her current condition, no one would be taking things seriously enough to care if she was late or not anyway…
Wearing the black and white panda face mask from Huo Shaoheng, she took the subway instead of driving and got off near the Senate building. Then she walked the rest of the way there.
As she walked over, she gave the reporters ample time to recognize her.
When she’d left the hospital yesterday, she’d been wearing the same kind of black and white panda face mask. It was very unique!
When they took another look at her figure and posture, she seemed to be the female Senate personnel member who’d been a.s.saulted the day before.
When everyone’s eyes drifted to the name tag hanging on her chest, they immediately discovered that she was Gu Nianzhi!
She was the female Senate personnel member who’d been a.s.saulted!
The reporters immediately swarmed over with their microphones and cameras pointed directly at Gu Nianzhi to feverishly question her.
“Are Miss Gu Nianzhi? What thoughts do you have on what occurred yesterday?”
“Miss Gu, the Office of the Prime Minister has already begun to bail out their spokespeople. The police station didn’t bring any charges either. May I ask if you have any comments?”
Gu Nianzhi stopped in her tracks and stared straight at the reporter who’d said that the people who’d beaten her had already been bailed out. She stated calmly, “Are you certain? I haven’t heard this news.”
“I’m certain. Would you like to see the news source?” The reporter, who loved nothing more than chaos, excitedly took out his phone and showed the news source to Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi looked down at it for a while before lifting her head again.
At that moment, everyone could see that the large, glittering, and honest eyes above the face mask had already turned a bit red. Her voice choked as she asked, “…So nothing will happen even though he hit me? I’m sorry, but I can’t accept such a resolution. I want Prime Minister Tan and his wife to know that although I am a normal citizen, my personal safety cannot be violated. They must pay the price if they hit me. I’ll hire a lawyer to press charges against the spokespeople from the Office of the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Tan, and his wife. They can for the notice from my lawyer.”
The reporters instantly grew frenzied as they heard this.
They’d waited here since early in the morning and gotten headline news as a reward!
As a result, all the reporters excitedly began to report back to the TV stations and media outlets they belonged to and livestreamed the scene outside the Senate building.
As for the news of Gu Nianzhi declaring that she would lay charges against the spokespeople who a.s.saulted her, as well as Prime Minister Tan and his wife, it instantly went viral online.
Gu Nianzhi hadn’t even walked into the Senate building before Special a.s.sistant Yang learned of what had happened in front of the building’s entrance. He couldn’t help but angrily slam his fist on his desk.
“She’s still so relentless! The Office of the Prime Minister already told me we would be negotiating the matter, what is she going crazy for?! Sue, sue, sue! She only knows how to sue! She says it as if she thinks she can win as long as she wants to sue! She only wants to gain attention!”
The personnel in the Senate Secretariat looked at each other, not daring to reply.
They had very conflicted feelings about Gu Nianzhi being a.s.saulted.
As normal personnel, they certainly wanted the a.s.saulter to be severely punished. Their own safety could be guaranteed, and no one would have been beaten up for nothing.
But as Gu Nianzhi’s colleagues, they didn’t quite wish to see a newly hired intern gaining so much attention as soon as she arrived…
As a result, they all maintained their silence. They neither voiced support nor objection.
Special a.s.sistant Yang was well-versed in the ways of survival in the office, so he vented his frustrations and expressed his own att.i.tude before saying to his subordinate secretary, “When Miss Gu arrives, ask her to come to my office.”
As soon as Gu Nianzhi arrived at the Secretariat, she was led to Special a.s.sistant Yang’s office.
“Miss Gu, you are Senate personnel member, but you cannot represent the Senate and say whatever you want to the news reporters outside.” Special a.s.sistant Yang tried his best to maintain a kind expression as he spoke to Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi looked around in shock. “I didn’t speak on behalf of the Senate outside… Does Special a.s.sistant Yang have some kind of misunderstanding?”
Who was the tattletale?
Gu Nianzhi had been planning how she would go tell Speaker Long about what had occurred outside, but these people already told on her.
The corners of Special a.s.sistant Yang’s mouth twitched. “Do you want me to play the video footage? Although you spoke outside the Senate building, there is still video surveillance.”
Gu Nianzhi nodded calmly. “Okay, you can play it and I’ll watch it.”
Wasn’t she being totally brazen and shameless?
Special a.s.sistant Yang gritted his teeth and became very serious.
He had someone send over the surveillance video from earlier and played it on his own computer. He said to Gu Nianzhi, “Miss Gu, see for yourself. Are you still going to say that you didn’t represent the Senate and speak to the media outside?”
The computer displayed Gu Nianzhi’s face with a mask on, but her voice was very clear. It was the video of her expressing her desire to serve papers to sue the spokesperson, Prime Minister Tan, as well as his wife.
“And?” Gu Nianzhi purposely acted confused. “I want to sue these people, what’s wrong with that?”
“There’s nothing wrong with that, but you can’t speak nonsense on behalf of the Senate to the people outside!” Special a.s.sistant Yang lost his temper. Wasn’t this girl supposed to be very smart?
Why was she so confused!?
Gu Nianzhi chuckled and reached out to shake her finger. “Special a.s.sistant Yang, I think you’ve misunderstood. I was representing myself when I said those things to the reporters, I wasn’t representing the Senate.”
“Okay, then you are completely responsible for the legal fees required for your lawsuit. This is not the Senate’s financial responsibility,” Special a.s.sistant Yang immediately declared, looking at her with victory in his eyes.
Fighting a lawsuit against the Office of the Prime Minister and completely footing the bill herself… This girl should antic.i.p.ate bankruptcy…
The Senate wasn’t going to spend a penny anyway.
“I am my own lawyer and can go to court by myself. Special a.s.sistant Yang, do you have a misunderstanding about my abilities?” Gu Nianzhi pouted her lips with disdain. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going to work now.”
She left without waiting for Special a.s.sistant Yang to reply.
The small grumblings in the Senate caused by Gu Nianzhi’s speech were soon eased. However, it caused huge waves online and in the Office of the Prime Minister.
“Mummy! Is Gu Nianzhi really going to sue you and Daddy?!” Tan Guiren had been in the Senate for the last few days and had been escorted outside by personnel yesterday. However, she had been waiting outside the Senate building ever since.
She was very upset that the a.s.sault had occurred, so she kept trying to find an opportunity to apologize to Gu Nianzhi. But her mother Cai Songyin refused to allow her to go.
Cai Songyin wasn’t fazed by Gu Nianzhi’s threat to sue at all.
“She wants to sue me and the prime minister? Haha, she needs to clean up her own ‘gossip’ first.” Cai Songyin had been waiting to sue that blogger, then to air out the short essay about Gu Nianzhi and Huo Shaoheng…
She would’ve gone to the court to file the case if the a.s.sault hadn’t randomly occurred yesterday.
Now the Office of the Prime Minister was busy dealing with the PR crisis of “spokespeople from the Office of the Prime Minister a.s.saulted a female Senate personnel member.” They were completely busy, so Cai Sonyin’s plan to sue the original blogger was temporarily put aside.
Cai Songyin was about to hurry out to meet with the media moguls and seek help from them. She was planning to lobby hard for support, so she had no choice but to hurriedly console Tan Guiren. “Little Darling, it’s fine, let her sue. We have your cousin and we aren’t afraid!” She said this before leaving.
However, Tan Guiren felt that the incident was their fault. Although she’d been outside the building, she had practically been there in person. She’d watched all the videos and seen that it was their fault. They would certainly lose if they had to fight the lawsuit.
Moreover, Cai Songyin’s dismissive att.i.tude made Tan Guiren feel that the situation was even more of an emergency. The entire Office of the Prime Minister had been flipped upside down because of this incident, so they couldn’t even spare the manpower to deal with the most important task of creating momentum for the general interim elections.
Tan Guiren desperately wanted to shoulder the burden with her parents.
She hesitated in the Office of the Prime Minister for a while before sneakily leaving the Office of the Prime Minister by herself and heading to the Senate building.