Lin Chu and Zheng Yuntong arrived at the lobby of the office building and could see a crowd of people waiting outside the automatic doors. Everyone in the crowd was equipped with cameras and lenses, so they were obviously reporters.
The entire security detail must have been deployed, as it would have been impossible to hold them back otherwise.
"Stay out of the way, or else you will be identified and pulled into this mess because of me." Lin Chu said to Zheng Yuntong.
She had become the subject of fabricated news so many times that she was kind of desensitized to it. The only thing she cared about was not ruining the image of the Yan family. However, when it came to her own image… she no longer cared.
Nevertheless, she could not let Zheng Yuntong"s peaceful life be disrupted because of her issues.
Zheng Yuntong shook her head as this exceeded her expectations. "Those reporters will do anything for fresh gossip. What if they b.u.mp into you, especially in your current condition?"
Immediately after this, she felt her wrist being grabbed. The touch of the stranger"s fingers burned her skin, causing her to s.h.i.+ver.
She turned around and saw that it was Shen Zongyi as the latter had appeared behind her without her noticing. She directed her gaze downward at the large hand holding her wrist.
His fingers were pretty, they were so long that they could almost form a full fist despite simultaneously gripping her wrist. His nails were neatly cut at exactly where the nail met flesh, keeping it clean and tidy. They were not as bright a shade of pink when compared with hers, which proudly reminded her of the resilience of a man. They also seemed to be more calloused as the crescent-shaped white areas stood out.
Zheng Yuntong"s face burned. The area that he was gripping burned hot as if they were being branded by iron, but it was nowhere near as painful, it was just a similar scalding sensation.
She gulped, then fumbled to get her words out without daring to look at the other in the eye. She felt like she could not speak under his dark, obsidian gaze, and her face burned as she stood there totally immobilized.
She could only avert her gaze and look to the side. "As… a.s.sistant Shen."
Shen Zongyi raised his brow. His gaze became more intense after seeing Zheng Yuntong"s reaction toward him. "Lin Chu"s right. You shouldn"t show yourself."
Zheng Yuntong instantly forgot about her shyness. She raised her head to retort, but Shen Zongyi had already turned toward Lin Chu. "I sent someone to scope out the area and Young Master Yan has already sent some people here to protect you. We"re now making arrangements so that they can enter the area, but both the front and back doors are surrounded by reporters, so it"ll be too obvious if all of them entered at the same time. There are security guards outside the buildings too, so they"ll escort you out."
Lin Chu nodded. Only after this did Shen Zongyi lower his gaze to talk to Zheng Yuntong. "You shouldn"t go out either or risk messing things up. Besides, you alone can"t protect Lin Chu even if you tried."
Zheng Yuntong knew that Shen Zongyi was speaking the truth, but she felt hurt by his dismissive tone. Her cheeks puffed out as she pouted.
Shen Zongyi noticed her unhappy expression and felt amused. Thus, he smiled to himself and pulled her to his side.
Only then did Zheng Yuntong realize that he had never loosened his grip on her wrist. Her face reddened as she attempted to pull her wrist away, but he did not let ago. He stared at her whilst looking displeased. "What are you doing, fiddling around like that?"
Zheng Yuntong, "..."
Was she fiddling around?
It would not be good if anyone saw them and misunderstood the situation.
Nevertheless, it was now too late for her to prove her innocence. Most of her colleagues had already come down and had thus seen her and Shen Zongyi fooling around.
At this moment six men donning black suits walked toward Lin Chu. "Mistress."
Lin Chu recognized that they were the men Yan Beicheng had sent.
To prove her point, Shen Zongyi suddenly spoke up and said, "He"s one of Yan Beicheng"s men."
After this, he turned to Zheng Yuntong and smiled. "Are you relieved yet? Aren"t they more capable than you?"
Zheng Yuntong, "..."
Four security guards trailed behind the six men. Lin Chu nodded at them and said, "Let"s go."
The four guards led the way. They opened the door and, together with their colleagues at the entrance, blocked the reporters from advancing.
The six bodyguards formed a circle with Lin Chu at the center while holding their arms out to keep the reporters away.
Lin Chu acknowledged the reporters as she stood on the stairs. The reporters clamored to ask her questions, but she could not make out what they were saying due to the noise.
"Everyone, please calm down." Lin Chu raised her voice slightly without losing her composure.
She was as calm as humanly possible. She stood with her back straight and eyes dead ahead, looking very much the part of a lady from a respectable family. She did not show fear or unease despite facing the gaggle of reporters. Her cold gaze swept downward as the crowd really began to quieten down.
Those reporters thought themselves experienced; they had attended a lot of press conferences and they had also met a lot of renowned people from both within the country and overseas. Despite this, they felt that Lin Chu was their equal.
Didn"t everyone say that Lin Chu was an orphan? Even if she had grown up in the Lin home, she could not possibly have learned this frigid and elegant disposition of hers under their crude upbringing!
Daughters of those respectable families could only dream of having such poise - they would no doubt fall short if compared to her. To take things further, her temperament was more like that of the mistresses of the Eight Dominant Families.
Lin Chu often appeared on the news, but few journalists had actually interviewed her.
The impression that the reporters had of her had actually all been derived from articles.
"I know everyone wants to know more about me. Various rumors were spread about me, but none of them are real. This is why I decided to stand here today and answer all your questions. I hope that every one of you can report the truth instead of spreading misinformation, as was the case for the interview. I don"t mind if there is news on me in the future, but only if the said news pieces are real." Lin Chu"s gaze swept across the crowd. "Everyone"s waiting to eat their lunch right now, and my husband is waiting for me. I ask that every one of you ask only one question one by one so that we can get this over with as soon as possible."
"Lin…" The middle-aged man was going to call her by name but he quickly corrected himself. "Mrs. Yan, you said that the rumors are not real, but we"ve proved that Dai Huimin and Xu Jiaojiao are your blood-mother and sister, and that you didn"t support them in any way. Are you refusing to acknowledge them because they"re poor and will be a burden to you?"
Lin Chu"s gaze was ice-cold as she turned to him. "Sir, I don"t know if you"ve watched Xu Jiaojiao"s interview, but I suggest you do so if you haven"t. Everything she said in the interview is real. If you were in my shoes, would you joyously reunite with them without first checking their ident.i.ty?"
Lin Chu smiled mockingly as the reporter opened his mouth to reply. "Remember that everyone can only ask one question. I know you want to reply with something righteous like "Of course I will!", but I"m not going to beat around the bush with you guys. What would you think if a woman came to you in tears and told you that she was the one who had abandoned you many years ago? Put yourself in my position and think, what would you do? Would you feel angry? Would you have immediately acknowledged her? We all say that blood is thicker than water, but would you not hold any grudge whatsoever even though you have never met the other party before, and thus was not any different from a stranger? Would you be able to instantly develop a relations.h.i.+p with them? I believe that all of you have relatives, people connected to you by blood. Can you tell me in good conscience that you"re close with all of them and have never argued with any of them, much less become estranged with them?"
Lin Chu continued when no one replied. "Those from wealthy families, do you not have relatives who scheme for your family money or clamor for everything they can get their hands on? Who feels that it"s your responsibility to treat them well, and turn their backs on you over a single blunder? I"m not alone now. I have a family and a husband. The Yan Family treats me kindly without any regard for my background or status. They treat me like they would their granddaughter after they learned of everything. I try to be cautious as this affects my family who loves me with all their heart, that I don"t upset them. I didn"t know what my mother and sister were like in the beginning. I didn"t know if they had approached me for my wealth, or if they were going to harm the Yan family. I don"t care how they treat me, but I can"t allow the people who love me to get hurt. This is not an act of arrogance, or of fear that they"ll burden me. I"m not afraid of the Yan Family or of Beicheng no longer liking me over this. I have full confidence that they"ll be by my side no matter what happens. And it"s because of this I can"t allow them to be hurt.
"Luckily, both my mother and sister are kind souls. My mother and her husband work hard. She might have done something wrong when she was young, but she was tormented by it for half her life. Now she feels nothing but regret and feels the need to make up for her wrongdoings. My sister had also done wrong, but she realized this long ago and tried her best to correct her faults. This alone makes them better than those who refuse to acknowledge their own faults. I will help them in any way I can, but they"ll need to work hard. Not to mention, I"d rather point them in the right direction than shower them with money they did not earn. Moreover, my sister is confident that she can expand her business. She"s young and has no experience, so starting from the ground up suits her best. She wants to start her own business, and a small diner is perfect in that it allows room for trial and error. I would rather they gain experience in this way than attempt to run blindly from an establishment despite lacking the means to do so. Rome wasn"t built in a day, and no company can rise out of thin air. The heirs from respectable families are tutored from a young age, which differentiates them from people like my mother and sister. They weren"t educated in this matter and thus have almost no experience. So, please don"t hold them to impossible standards and make a.s.sumptions that will hurt them."
"What about the Lin family?" Another reporter asked. "You"ve cut ties with them even though they raised you."
Lin Chu looked at him mockingly. "Are you coming to interview me or to try to find my faults and drag me down? If you"ve come for the latter, then I wouldn"t dare believe that you"ll report what I say honestly. Judging from your age, you"re not a fresh graduate. Do you really not know what had happened between me and the Lin family? I suggest you ask your colleagues to refer you to past articles in case you"re genuinely clueless about the matter. I can only say that you"ve not done your job well if you don"t know the latest news despite being a journalist."
The reporter looked defiant. He opened his mouth to retort but swallowed his words upon realizing that he had been caught out.
Lin Chu"s lips turned into a sneer as she continued, "If you asked me this even though you know what was going on, then I can only say that you harbor evil intentions toward me. A reporter who only wants to gain attention and stir up drama instead of prioritizing the truth… this would make you no different from Zhu Hexuan!"
The others looked toward the reporter upon hearing this. His face was crimson and he admitted to himself that he had really considered making up a story. Reporters frequently set up traps during their interviews. He had thought that Lin Chu was only putting up a front despite her seeming fearless. Anyone could learn something to that effect just by staying beside Yan Beicheng, so it should have been no problem for her to just mimic his demeanor.
However, she must not really be that smart. Was she not just an ordinary worker in Lin Yi?
He had snooped around beforehand and knew that Lin Chu had only joined a small company, Jing Wen, when she had no one backing her up. She had not managed to achieve anything in the few months she had worked there before being fired.
This proved that she was not smart.
If she was, Yan Beicheng could easily have founded a company just for her. Why would she need to work in Lin Yi?
Yan Beicheng must have wanted his friend to take care of her since he put her under his friend"s watchful eye.
This, in turn, proved that Lin Chu did not have anything to show for herself.
The reporter did not hold her in high regard, and it was because of this that he dared to try to give her a loaded question.
He did not expect Lin Chu to be the complete opposite of what he had thought, or for her to see through his trap and publicly shame him.
Once Lin Chu put her foot down, she would not allow anyone to blame her for something that she had not done. She also intended to show that she was not to be trifled with.
Lin Chu raised her finger and pointed at a man carrying a huge camera. "Please give this reporter a closeup and broadcast what I say to the public. Let everyone see the ulterior motives this reporter was hiding when he asked me that question!"
"Lin… Mrs. Yan. Seeing that you"ve mentioned Zhu Hexuan, I want to ask if you think the intern dragged down by Zhu Hexuan is innocent too, as the intern didn"t know the truth and was framed by Zhu Hexuan. She"s going to lose her job because of you, and she might not have the chance to be a reporter in the future. You were framed when you were in Jing Wen, so I think that you might understand what the intern is going through. Do you really want to involve someone innocent in this?"
Lin Chu looked at her. All the reporters were wearing their media pa.s.ses with their names on it except for her.
Lin Chu smiled coyly at her. "If you knew that I was framed, you must know what I was framed for. What you asked me is entirely different from the reality of your situation, Miss Hu."
Hu Mingrui stared at her in surprise as her face flushed red before turning as white as a sheet a moment later. Sweat trickled down her back; she didn"t expect Lin Chu to correctly deduce her ident.i.ty.
She could say with certainty that Lin Chu had not seen her before.
She had only joined the company for a short while and did not possess the necessary qualifications to do a solo interview, much less interview important people.
"You believed everything that was given to you without a second thought and never sought out proof even though you"re a reporter. Zhu Hexuan gave you the materials, and she would have needed to discuss everything with you to make sure that the articles turned like how she envisioned them. Every single word of the article was typed out by you, and you alone. Are you really as innocent as you say, Miss Hu? Even when the article was written with a strong intent to mislead its readers?" Lin Chu asked coldly. "I read the apology statement that you posted today. You claim that Zhu Hexuan lied to you and used you as you attempted to distance yourself from the incident, all without a sincere apology. Tell me, Miss Hu, are you really that innocent?"
Hu Mingrui"s face paled as the crowd turned toward her.
She had snuck out from work. The company had not yet informed her of the disciplinary action that they were taking on her, so she had wanted to trick Lin Chu into saying that she was innocent. If the subject had personally said so, then the company would think twice about taking action. At the very least, they would not fire her.
Hu Mingrui planned everything well, but she had underestimated Lin Chu, just like the reporter before her.
Both of them had thought themselves cleverer than Lin Chu.
In reality, she was just a fresh graduate with a few tricks up her sleeve; to Lin Chu, they were child"s play.
When another reporter wanted to ask a question, the bodyguards beside her whispered in her ear, "Young Master Yan is coming."
From her high position on the stairs, she could see beyond the crowd and spotted the familiar black Cherokee parked on the roadside directly opposite the entrance.
She watched as the door opened and a long leg stepped out. Moments later, Yan Beicheng emerged from the car, looking tall and elegant. The car behind him was high to begin with, but it immediately paled in comparison to Yan Beicheng, making it look a lot less rugged than before.