Xiu Mei immediately got up to grab her work laptop and carefully investigated the suspicious movements in the market. She may be on indefinite sick leave but she takes pride as the Lu Corporation's secretary.

She wasn't wasting away her time working under Lu Chen as she slowly gained experience how complicated the world could be in their industry.

And her experience didn't fail her.

It took quite some time but she finally found out a clue. Rose.

She thought hard whether there was a company or someone she knew by that name but nothing came to mind. She wondered if it's a new player in the market.

She frowned as she thought of that possibility. Because if it really is, then this Rose seems a cunning opponent, considering how it's making its way in the market.

She briefly alerted Lu Shao to watch out for any weird movements just in case but since the situation isn't too favorable for her to move to investigate, she could only pass the baton to him and her assistant.

On her side, she tried to research this 'Rose' but strangely, no article or anything related appears on the internet. Aside from their appearance in the stock market, no information could be found anymore.

Is this an illegal company? A ghost company?

At the company, it wasn't just Xiu Mei who's suspicious.

Lu Chen and Lu Shao are secretly noticing some strange movements in the company. Someone was moving behind the scenes actively these past few months, stealing information, tarnishing the names of some of their employees, and issues surrounding some of their operations.

The stolen information of their projects was immediately blocked and prevented multiple times, but Lu Chen quickly realized something wrong when he noticed that even the projects that are still in progress are being targeted. Even those projects that are known within the top level were revealed hence he was quite alarmed with the movements.

"There's still a rat within. Find it.

" Lu Chen ordered Lu Shao who immediately heeded his orders.

And then a few days later, Xiu Mei was caught unprepared when she bumped into someone in the most unexpected place.

She just got out of the comfort room planning to return to her eldest brother's room.

"If it isn't Mei'er, what a surprise.

"

"...

"

Her face dimmed as she saw Zhu Lin's figure behind her. She turned her head and continued moving forward to ignore him but he was quite insistent.

His arm blocking appeared in front of her,

"You still have quite the attitude, I see.

"

His face clearly showed unhappiness as he remembered how Xiu Mei kicked him out from a store months ago. It left a bitter taste in his mouth being embarrassed like that so he wouldn't let Xiu Mei go so easily this time when there's no one around.

Xiu Mei narrowed her eyes throwing daggers at him but she was already slightly panicking inside her mind.

She was helpless due to her inability, and to think that she bumped into one of the most terrible people in the world. Once Zhu Lin learns of her inability to speak, it would take less than a day before it spreads within their circle.

Her face will be all over the news tomorrow too.

With a lot of their enemies eyeing them at the moment, this small weakness of hers might get her whole family and the Lu Corporation in trouble.

She kept a cold face on as he continued to chatter. She didn't even bother asking why he was in a military hospital.

"Look, I know you have a grudge for what I did before but you can't blame me. I didn't want to die.

"

"...

"

Ying Yue didn't want to die too, you bastard.

"I'm just a human, and back then, I thought about the great life ahead of me so I couldn't just give up and die there.

"

"...

"

So are you saying that Ying Yue doesn't?

Xiu Mei was barely stopping herself from throwing her fist into his head and beat the ** out of this guy.

"Besides, I'm not the one who killed Ying Yue. It was the kidnappers, alright. So don't push the blame on me.

"

"...

"

You didn't. But if it weren't for you, we would have had a better chance of escape with the three of us. But you were too selfish to save yourself on your own.

Anger slowly bubbled up within her but she immediately returned to her senses.

Her hands balled into fists loosened as she took deep breaths, feeling her panic attack slowly emerging again. She counted in her head as she tried to not show her weakness in front of Zhu Lin.

While she was focusing, Zhu Lin's arm slid on her shoulders and she instantly felt disgusted. She shrugged his hand on her shoulder and immediately brushed his arm off as her eyes glinted in anger at him.

Zhu Lin didn't give up and continued pestering her. Completely forgetting where he was and Xiu Mei's background, he was only filled with ideas on how to properly return the favor of what she did to him.

He wasn't able to properly look at her the two times they met before, but seeing her now, she didn't look so bad.

She wasn't as curvy and her assets weren't as big as the other girls he dated before but Xiu Mei is still quite a beauty.

Lewd thoughts popped in his mind as he thought of how to punish her. He glanced at the empty comfort room, his mind already set.

That person did tell him to 'reward' her properly, so Zhu Lin was more than willing to comply. And so, Zhu Lin who completely didn't care that the military was Xiu Mei's territory started his plans.

Taking out the spray that 'person' delivered to him, he unhesitantly sprayed it on Xiu Mei's face while holding his breath.

Xiu Mei saw his movements and immediately stepped backward, turning her face to the side trying to avoid what he was spraying.

Was he trying to spray hydrochloric acid?!

She thought nervously but she quickly realized the answer to her question shortly after.