Mai Xiaoshu couldn't sleep that night. He opened the music app and listened to some light music, then he slowly felt sleepy.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself walking on an unfamiliar street. There was a vague figure walking towards her in front of her. Gradually, the figure came closer, and she realized that the person walking towards her from the fog was An Chengye!
He still looked as lonely as he did during the day. Mai Xiaoshu felt a pang of sadness in his eyes and something seemed to be grabbing his heart when he saw him like this.
She finally couldn't help it, stepped forward, grabbed the corner of his clothes and asked with sobs: "Are you getting engaged?"
An Chengye said nothing, just nodded.
"Because the system was almost destroyed by hackers, you were worried that if something happened again, you would not have the funds to maintain the company's operations, so you agreed to Uncle Yin and Yin Lunmei's engagement, right? You don't really like her, right?" Mai Xiaoshu's eyes were full of tears, and he asked with anticipation while looking up.
An Chengye lowered his head and remained silent for a long time.
Tears finally burst out , Mai Xiaoshu lowered his head and said what he had hidden for a long time: "I, I like you..."
Hearing her words, An Chengye was stunned. When Mai Xiaoshu mustered up the courage to look up, she saw his face full of joy. He hugged her excitedly, muttering, "Me too, why didn't you tell me earlier..."
Happiness came too suddenly. Mai Xiaoshu smiled with joy. She closed her eyes and felt An Chengye's warm embrace.
After a while, An Chengye let her go. She looked up in a daze and saw that he was suddenly looking at her with a fierce look on his face. Her arm was held tightly by him with increasing force.
"Since you like me, why did you betray me? Speak! Speak!" An Chengye yelled at her like crazy.
"I didn't, I didn't betray you!" Mai Xiaoshu was shocked, not knowing why he suddenly acted like this. She struggled in fear to break free from his grasp and almost collapsed.
"Ah——" Mai Xiaoshu screamed and jumped up from the bed in the bedroom. The ferocious face of An Chengye in front of him disappeared instantly.
A ray of early morning sunlight shone through the window, and the dust flying in the air slowly floated in the beams of light.
Mai Xiaoshu held his forehead with his hand and breathed a sigh of relief: "It turned out to be a dream..."
Her body was still shaking uncontrollably when she heard the sound of cutlery clattering outside and the delicious smell of toasted bread entering the room.
She walked out of the room and said, "Fei Fei, are you baking bread?"
"Yeah, I'm baking cheese bread, come and try it!"
Mai Xiaoshu followed the smell and saw a box of toasted bread with a crispy crust next to the oven, sprinkled with milky white cheese slices. The aroma of milk and bread mixed together, exuding an enticing smell that made people drool.
She walked over, picked up a piece and took a bite. The unpleasantness and horror in the dream were slowly soothed away by the food.
Song Feifei was very pleased with her satisfied expression and said happily, "I'll leave one more piece for you. I have to pack the rest and take it to the magazine. Let me tell you, our magazine was recently acquired by a big company called Morning Star Group. The new boss will be here today. I'll take the bread to flatter him. Maybe he'll give me a promotion and a raise!"
"No matter how much you flatter, you're just an intern. There are a lot of regular employees queuing in front of you waiting for promotion and salary increase. But I think you can be the leader of the interns!" Mai Xiaoshu felt much better after eating the bread and started joking with Song Feifei.
She touched her belly, and her appetite seemed unsatisfied, so she blinked her eyes and begged Song Feifei flatteringly, "Can you leave me one more piece? Feifei is beautiful and has great cooking skills! She is good at both cooking and cooking!"
"Didn't you just say that I'm only fit to be the head intern? Now you have the nerve to beg me shamelessly?"
"I was wrong, I was wrong!"
Seeing her admitting her mistake so sincerely, Song Feifei raised her little face and said, "Okay, I'll leave a few more for you."
While the two were playing, the cell phone in the room rang. It was Mai Xiaoshu's phone. She hurried back to the room to answer it.
"Where are you now? Come to the company immediately!" Unexpectedly, as soon as I picked up the phone, I heard An Chengye's angry growl from the other end.
He did not explain what had happened, but asked her to come over immediately. His tone was no longer as gentle as usual, but rather sounded like an order that left no room for her to resist.
Mai Xiaoshu's heart was in suspense.
As soon as she arrived at the laboratory, Jian Jun, with a stern expression, took her to An Chengye's office.
It was not yet working hours and there was no one else in the lab.
"Jian Jun, what happened? Why did you call me over so early in the morning? Is there something wrong with Xiaoyuan again?" Mai Xiaoshu asked nervously.
Jian Jun walked forward quickly, without looking back, and said, "You will know later."
His cold reaction made Mai Xiaoshu feel a little uneasy, and he always felt that something bad was going to happen.
After entering the office, Mai Xiaoshu found that An Chengye, Jiang Xingye, as well as Uncle An, Uncle Yin, and President Wei from the board of directors were all there.
As soon as she appeared, they stared at her as if she were a criminal. She was a little confused and was about to ask what happened, but Jiang Xingye had already walked to her side and whispered to her, "Don't be nervous, just tell me what you know later."
This reminder made her even more nervous.
What on earth was going on? Why was everyone here so early in the morning?
She looked at everyone with a puzzled expression. At this time, An Chengye walked in front of her, but his action might be more appropriate to say that he was approaching. He looked indescribably tired, with a light green beard on his chin, and bloodshot eyes, as if he had not slept all night, and his eyes were full of anger caused by anxiety.
He looked at her gloomily, just like what Mai Xiaoshu had dreamed of last night: "Why is there a package sent to an external address in your mailbox? And it's full of company secrets!"
"What?" Mai Xiaoshu was stunned. What was An Chengye saying?
"Look for yourself!" An Chengye handed her notebook over. In the outbox column of the mailbox interface, there was indeed a file package sent to an unfamiliar mailbox.
But she had no recollection of having sent this email, and it was the first time she had seen this email address. When she tremblingly opened the file package, she was surprised to find that it contained all the most confidential and important documents of the Research Department.
"I didn't send these!" Mai Xiaoshu answered without thinking.
"Stop pretending! Now that the evidence is solid, you still want to deny it?! I guessed you were not a good person when you did the animal demonstration last time..." The speaker was Yin Lunmei's father, Yin Jianping. After blaming Mai Xiaoshu, he lectured An Chengye with a look of disappointment, "Chengye, how could you be so foolish to let this person of unknown origin join the core project!"
"No, it's not me! Maybe... maybe it's Yin Lunmei!" Mai Xiaoshu suddenly remembered that Yin Lunmei said yesterday that she wanted to send an important document to the principal and borrowed her computer. She stammered and told him what happened yesterday.
Uncle Yin pointed at her angrily before she finished listening: "You are talking nonsense! Not only did you do these things yourself, but you even dared to slander my daughter. My daughter and An Chengye are about to get engaged, why would she do such a thing to harm her future husband? What good can this do?"
"Engagement?" Except An Chengye, everyone else reacted to the news.
"Now is not the time to talk about this." An Chengye scratched his hair irritably, trying to distract everyone's attention.
“If you don’t believe it, you can check out the surveillance footage.” Mai Xiaoshu suggested that as long as the surveillance footage was checked out, there would be hope of proving her innocence.
After hearing her words, An Chengye's expression became even gloomier for some reason, as if he was trying hard to hide something.
He looked at Mai Xiaoshu again, his tone cold: "I retrieved the surveillance footage from the time the email was sent, but that footage was destroyed."
"Do you suspect that I destroyed the surveillance?" Mai Xiaoshu looked at An Chengye in disbelief.
If it was someone else's suspicion, it might just make her feel uncomfortable, but his suspicion broke her heart!
She thought he knew what kind of person she was and would believe her.
But now...
"There must be other ways to prove my innocence!" Mai Xiaoshu said loudly, biting her lips.
An Chengye's face became more and more uglier, his eyes full of disappointment, that disappointment was ten times deeper than when he discovered that Miyamaru Tomo was missing.
He looked at Mai Xiaoshu and continued, "We found that there was only your fingerprint on the notebook. Jian Jun wore plastic gloves when he collected the computer to prevent contamination and damage to any clues. Now all the evidence points to you."
An Chengye's words were like a heavy punch to her, leaving her breathless. The questioning or angry looks from everyone present made her almost collapse.
"I didn't! I don't know what happened, but it really wasn't me!" Mai Xiaoshu looked at An Chengye pleadingly, hoping that he could stand in front of her again like before and tell her that he believed in her.
However, this time... An Chengye just looked at her coldly. At this moment, he looked so far away, with only disappointment and anger of being betrayed in his eyes...
After a long pause, he said in a hoarse voice, "Why do you do this? Do you know how much loss this will bring to the company? If we hadn't discovered it in time and modified the key data immediately, this matter would really be out of control!"
Mai Xiaoshu knew that it was useless for him to say anything more.
Last night's nightmare actually came true!
Why don’t you believe me?
Why are you so sure that you think I'm a liar who is selling company information?
Mai Xiaoshu had countless words he wanted to yell at him, but what was the point of explaining to someone who had already convicted you?
She bit her lip and said nothing in the end.
Yesterday, the two of them were at the empty door of Miyamaru Tomo's house, and he looked at her with disappointment in the same way. Perhaps from that time on, he regarded her as Miyamaru Tomo's accomplice?
"I believe Mai Xiaoshu. She has no reason to do this. And if she really did it, why would she come here today to accept your questioning? She could have run away like Miyaru Tomo..." Jiang Xingye finally couldn't help but stand up and speak for the helpless Mai Xiaoshu.
Mai Xiaoshu was awakened by Jiang Xingye's words and looked at Jiang Xingye with gratitude. She didn't expect that in this situation, he would still be willing to speak for her.
"What's the point of you believing? Now the evidence is conclusive and she has nothing to say. Call the police and let her explain herself!" Upon hearing this, Uncle Yin immediately retorted bluntly.
"That's right, Xiao Jiang, don't be soft-hearted. You must not let her off easily this time!" President Wei's voice also rang out.
"I'll handle this matter..." An Chengye answered in a low and calm voice. At such a sensitive moment, as the biggest victim, and in order to protect the interests of shareholders, it is only right for him to call the police, but... damn it, he just can't bear to do it.
Even at this point, when he had confirmed that she was the traitor, he still had fantasies about her. When he saw her crying, he was still moved and couldn't help but excuse her in his heart.
An Chengye never thought that one day he would become such an indecisive person. He really wanted to slap himself hard.
He glanced at the people around him who were waiting for him to make a decision, and said with certainty: "Now the evidence is conclusive, she can't run away."
"I think this matter should be considered in the long term!" Jiang Xingye said to everyone with a serious look.
Everyone discussed how to deal with Mai Xiaoshu, but because Jiang Xingye suspected that there was something else going on and An Chengye disagreed to call the police, they were unable to reach a consensus.
Jiang Xingye walked towards Mai Xiaoshu, who was ignored, took her hand and said, "I'll take you home first. We can talk about it tomorrow if there's anything..."
Mai Xiaoshu looked at Jiang Xingye sobbing. She wanted to refuse, but out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of An Chengye staring at her with eyes as if he was looking at a prisoner, which made her feel extremely uncomfortable.
She didn't refuse .
She needs someone to stand by her side and support her now, even if this support does not come from the person she wants most.
Mai Xiaoshu was led by Jiang Xingye to the door, and the shareholders behind him scolded him harshly: "Jiang Xingye, as a member of the board of directors, you are now turning your elbow outward? Why are you defending her so much?"
Jiang Xingye turned sideways and glanced at everyone. He saw the angry faces of the directors and An Chengye's murderous eyes... He said nothing, but just held Mai Xiaoshu's hand tightly, turned around and walked out of the meeting room.