Soul Patch

Chapter 156 Taking Down Xue Xiaowan

"Mr. Wen, please feel free to tell me what's on your mind."

Wenjie looked down at Xue Xiaowan, his gaze naturally sweeping over the petite woman in front of him.

He looked around and lowered his voice, saying, "It's not convenient to talk here. Let's go to the meeting room."

After saying that, he stood there with his hands in his pockets.

Seeing that Mr. Wen showed no sign of leaving, and having just repeatedly mentioned wanting to go to the meeting room, Xue Xiaowan could only gesture in a guiding manner, saying, "Mr. Wen, please."

Wenjie muttered to himself: "What's with the invitation? How am I supposed to know where the meeting room is? And he doesn't even bother to lead the way."

"Ladies first!" Wenjie said with a smile.

Xue Xiaowan gave a soft "hmm" and turned to walk towards the meeting room on the 16th floor.

The meeting room was located to the right of the directors' offices. The two passed a row of private offices and then walked through the open office areas B and C. As they walked, Wenjie exclaimed, "Huahai Group is really big!"

There are so many areas on just one floor, and there are more than twenty floors from top to bottom, with balconies upstairs.

What can the murderer, who is hiding somewhere, do if he knocks Li Shiman unconscious and takes her to some office or meeting room to kill her?

As he sighed inwardly, Xue Xiaowan stopped and pointed to a row of rooms in front of her, saying, "These are all meeting rooms. Lin Tao, who came for the interview, is in the one on the far right."

She tiptoed, glanced at the nearest meeting room, and pushed open the door: "Mr. Wen, please!"

Wenjie glanced around and noticed that Huahai Group's negotiation room was simply decorated, with uniform glass partitions and waistlines printed with the logo.

As Xue Xiaowan pushed open the door to a meeting room, Wenjie looked around and noticed that the room was simple yet featured a strong contrast of colors.

A light green sofa sits beside two small bookshelves. The white lacquered bookshelves are the same style as the coffee table, and the bookshelves hold three to five brochures from Huahai Company, with blue, green, and bright yellow covers respectively.

A bright bouquet of dried flowers, in the primary colors, adorns the white lacquered coffee table.

This strong color contrast naturally draws people in as soon as they enter the room, making them look involuntarily.

Wenjie glanced at the sofa, then strode over to it and slowly sat down.

Xue Xiaowan stood somewhat awkwardly at a distance from the sofa. Wenjie was starting to dislike the girl's mild-mannered personality. It was almost 11:10, and she was still wasting time here.

He waved to Xue Xiaowan, signaling her to come over and sit beside him.

Xue Xiaowan glanced down at her phone, then reluctantly walked over and sat down.

"Were you just checking the time?" Wenjie suddenly asked a question she wasn't prepared for at all.

"Oh, I... I'm afraid the interviewees will have to wait too long."

"But you know Lin Tao isn't suitable. You could have just interviewed him and sent him away. Why did you bring his resume here?"

Wenjie bombarded Xue Xiaowan with questions, his imposing manner causing her to involuntarily shrink back.

"Am I wrong? You work in public relations and have to handle all kinds of media crises, so you should be most concerned about the media and all kinds of reports."

As far as I know, Lin Tao has a rather extreme personality. His previous jobs lasted no more than two years. What could be the reason for his frequent job changes? It's either because he lacks ability or he's a bad person.

If you say you didn't notice any of these things, that's understandable, since you're not in this line of work and wouldn't pay too much attention to a person's life story.

However, a while ago, a report stated that a gas leak in Lin Tao's home led to the death of his wife. His wife had suffered a mental breakdown due to the death of their daughter three years prior.

Lin Tao's father-in-law was struck by lightning and died in an accident. It was his responsibility to take care of his wife, who was unable to take care of herself. However, his wife had an accident the day after his father-in-law's accident.

Regardless of whether this was intentional or not, what you're doing is media surveillance and public relations maintenance. Last month, there were so many reports about Mr. Zhang being struck by lightning and killed, and his daughter dying the following day from a gas leak—you didn't even pay attention to those? And you're planning to have Mr. Li interview someone on a media blacklist?

After saying that, Wenjie looked up at Xue Xiaowan again. She seemed to have all her strength drained away, slumped on the sofa, her eyes darting frantically toward the door, as if she wanted to run away as fast as she could.

"If you were truly a public relations assistant, I doubt you wouldn't lack this basic professional awareness, so... who exactly are you?"

Wenjie asked coldly with a straight face.

His strategy was to first give Xue Xiaowan a hard time, and then lure her into revealing her true identity. He did this because he had his own concerns.

Of the five patch carriers connected to the network, only two appeared in the system's murder rehearsal with their real identities. Once one's real identity is exposed, there will be no benefit.

"Mr. Wen, please don't be angry. I... I was negligent. I'll let the interviewer leave right away," Xue Xiaowan said timidly as she stood up and stammered, preparing to walk towards the door.

"Where are you going? It's not as safe as here outside!" Wenjie said slowly, drawing out the last syllable of his voice.

Sometimes, when two people are at an impasse, the one who ultimately wins may not be the one with the best negotiation skills, but rather the one with the strongest mental fortitude.

At this moment, the calmer Wenjie remained, the more flustered Xue Xiaowan became.

He still has to thank his father for giving him this identity, even though his previous memories were fragmented and he hadn't participated in the company's management in real life, so he hadn't had a chance to experience the sense of superiority that this identity brought him.

However, the system's rehearsal scenarios gave him quite a thrill.

Upon hearing this, Xue Xiaowan was even more horrified. Her face turned ashen as she turned to Wen Jie and said, "Mr. Wen, what are you saying... what do you mean? I... I don't understand."

"I just asked the assistant in the general manager's office where my office was, and she said it was downstairs. But my office is clearly on the 20th floor. Then, less than twenty minutes later, I found out that the assistant had been murdered."

Wenjie paused for a moment, then got up, quickly went to the door, and closed it behind him.

At this moment, Xue Xiaowan was in no mood to explain whether she had been negligent at work. She realized a more serious problem, one that concerned her life.

Wenjie turned around and approached Xue Xiaowan step by step, his expression neither warm nor cold:

"I'm sure the whole building has heard about your assistant's murder by now. Don't tell me you were too busy with work to know..."

Xue Xiaowan's eyes were brimming with tears; she felt threatened by Wenjie.

Wenjie showed no sign of stopping. He moved closer to Xue Xiaowan's face, nose to nose, and said in a low, drawn-out voice:

"Xiao Wan, then tell me, who killed the assistant?"

(End of this chapter)