Chapter 81: Chapter 81: Is Human Life So Worthless?

The villager froze, looking at the man and woman sitting in the car. He frowned, about to say something.

But someone next to him pulled on his arm. "That’s the reporter from last time."

The memory of the village chief being arrested was still fresh. Not wanting to stir up any trouble, they simply dispersed.

In the car were none other than Zhou Huaijin and Zhuo Yu.

Zhou Huaijin had originally planned to visit Chi Wan on his own. However, he ran into Zhuo Yu, who was heading to Qingshui Village to do a follow-up report on their new village chief, so they decided to come together.

Zhuo Yu dropped Zhou Huaijin off at the foot of the mountain. Seeing a steady stream of freight trucks coming down, she decided not to drive up and risk blocking the narrow road. She pulled over to the side. "You go find Wanwan first. I’ll come find you both after I’m done here."

Zhou Huaijin nodded and got out of the car.

As he walked up to Chi Wan’s house, Zhou Huaijin looked up at the treehouse. It was quite different from how he remembered it. His thoughts drifted to what Zhou Huai’an had said, and he felt a bit dazed.

"Senior Brother, why are you just standing out there spacing out? Don’t you recognize my place anymore? And where’s Sister Xiaoyu? Didn’t she say she was coming over too?"

Chi Wan’s cheerful voice came from the doorway, her smile as bright as ever.

Zhou Huaijin snapped out of his daze and stepped into the revamped little courtyard. "She went to take care of her interview. I was just thinking your yard is getting more and more of... a hermit’s vibe?"

Chi Wan laughed. "Well, to live up to that description, I guess I’ll have to plant some bamboo."

But Zhou Huaijin replied, deadpan, "In that case, you’ll have to watch out for bamboo shoots growing through your walls."

Chi Wan shook her head. "Senior Brother, I haven’t seen you in a while. Since when did you start telling such lame jokes? ...Oh, right. You seemed to be in a rush. Is there something important you needed to tell me?"

Last night, he had sent her a message. It was unusual—Zhou Huaijin normally just sent "good morning" and "good night" texts, with the occasional photo of an interesting plant from his research trips. But last night, he’d been very serious, saying he had something important to tell her and that he would come see her in person today.

Chi Wan’s initial reaction was that it was related to his research, but then she thought, ’Why would Zhou Huaijin tell me about his research, though?’

At Chi Wan’s question, the smile on Zhou Huaijin’s face vanished. "Let’s talk inside," he said.

Seeing his serious demeanor, Chi Wan had an inkling of what was coming. She led him into the living room and poured him a cup of tea. "All right, what’s wrong?"

Zhou Huaijin handed Chi Wan a file, then briefly recounted his conversation with Zhou Huai’an from the day before. "Wanwan, this He Lingfeng is a very dangerous man. I’m worried he’ll try something once the semester starts."

Chi Wan frowned, quickly flipping through the stack of papers. She searched her memory. "So it was them..."

This was back at the beginning of last semester, on one of the rare occasions Qi Youyou had asked her for a favor.

Chi Wan truly didn’t know He Lingfeng or his sister—she had never even met them. Substituting for the tutor that one time was just a minor blip in her college life. If Zhou Huai’an hadn’t uncovered these clues, she would have completely forgotten the man even existed.

Besides, not long after that, Qi Youyou had lost that well-paying job anyway.

When Chi Wan heard about it at the time, she’d specifically asked Qi Youyou if she’d lost the job because she had subbed for her. If so, she had intended to offer some compensation.

But Qi Youyou had refused, insisting it had nothing to do with Chi Wan. She said the family was simply unhappy with her "teaching quality"—under her tutelage, He Lingshan’s grades hadn’t just failed to improve, they’d actually gotten worse.

Chi Wan remembered ranting about it with Qi Youyou at the time. ’With Sansan’s attitude toward her studies, who could possibly help her improve her grades?’

Afterward, Qi Youyou found another suitable tutoring gig, and Chi Wan gradually forgot about the whole incident.

’Come to think of it,’ she mused, ’was it possible Qi Youyou had been fired because... He Lingfeng had mistaken me and her for being in the same line of work, and he’d wanted to hire me as He Lingshan’s tutor instead?’

She seemed to recall a period when she kept getting texts with tutoring job offers. The hourly pay had been very tempting.

But Chi Wan had no plans to get a part-time job. After all, she wasn’t short on money and didn’t feel the need to take a job someone else might need more.

So she had just forwarded the offers to Qi Youyou. She had even assumed that the next tutoring job Qi Youyou found was from one of those offers she’d sent.

So after all this, it turned out Qi Youyou really had been dragged into this because of her...

Chi Wan found He Lingfeng’s way of thinking utterly baffling. "What century are we in? Is he still playing those overbearing-CEO games, trying to ruin a family and snatch what he wants?!"

But what infuriated her most was that her own father had been driven to bankruptcy for such a ridiculous reason!

It was true that her father, Chi Yuanshan, had gotten a smooth start in his business thanks to a few big orders from Song Baihan. But even without Song Baihan, given her father and Song Yinghe’s cautious and steady approach, they would have eventually found their footing on their own, even if it took a little longer at the start.

’So what did all this amount to now?’

’When elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers?’

And to top it all off, there was a creep secretly stalking her. The thought just made Chi Wan feel sick.

This was the first time Zhou Huaijin had seen such a dark expression on Chi Wan’s face. He assumed she was frightened by He Lingfeng’s insane behavior. After all, any woman would be terrified to learn she was being targeted by such a psycho.

He began to comfort her, "Wanwan, don’t be scared. It’s..."

But Chi Wan cut him off, her teeth clenched. "Does he really think he can do whatever he wants just because he has some money? I’d welcome him to come after me. And if he doesn’t, I’ll go after him sooner or later."

She already knew the He Family was no good. It was infuriating enough that they had targeted her family just to get at Song Yangming.

But she never expected there to be an even more infuriating secret behind it all.

Chi Wan was so furious at He Lingfeng’s actions she could have laughed. Forget about the fact that he bankrupted her family, causing countless workers to lose their jobs overnight. The method he used to frame them—that was an uncontrollable explosion!

If it had actually gone off in a crowded area, people would have been killed!!

In the eyes of people like the He Family, was human life really so worthless?!

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Chi Wan looked at Zhou Huaijin, who still seemed to be struggling to find the right words of comfort. "Thank you, Senior Brother, for coming all this way just for this. And please thank Brother Huai’an for me, too. He already went to so much trouble helping me investigate the He Family before.

"Oh, right, my family’s orchard just had a harvest, so I packed some gift boxes for you both... It’s nothing much, but it’s the thought that counts, so don’t you dare turn your nose up at it. Could you take his to him for me?

"Let me know when you’re both free, and I’ll treat you to dinner!"

Staring into her eyes, which now shone even brighter from her previous anger, Zhou Huaijin subconsciously shook his head. "We won’t. It was the right thing to do..."

Chi Wan let out a soft laugh. "There’s no ’right thing’ about it. It was never your duty to help me."