118: Chapter 118 Revenge Complete

The door slammed shut.

Lin Ning lay on the bed, his mouth curling up to his ears.

The wound on his waist ached, his muscles were sore, but the sweetness in his heart bubbled up, drowning out all the pain.

Today he had been stabbed and needed fourteen stitches.

Today, he also gained a girlfriend.

And that code name—Tianchang.

Just then, his phone rang—an unknown number.

Lin Ning answered in a good mood: "Hello?"

"Li—Lin Ning!" It was Fatty Zhang's voice, breathing heavily. "It's me... let's talk, okay?"

The smile on Lin Ning's face faded slightly: "Talk about what?"

"The past... it was all my fault, I'm a piece of trash. I apologize! I'll compensate you!" Fatty Zhang spoke extremely fast, afraid Lin Ning would hang up before he finished.

"Just don't pursue the bidding issue, and forget about the complaint letter..."

Lin Ning interrupted him: "Fatty Zhang, I won the arbitration, and the company turned around and sued me. That was your instigation, right?"

There was a pause on the other end of the phone, then a flat denial: "No, no! It wasn't me! You know how Boss Liu is, right? He'd squeeze oil out of a bone..."

"You don't have to admit it," Lin Ning said impatiently, getting straight to the point. "I know you have evidence of the Boss and the others evading taxes. Give it to me, and I'll go to the Boss to demand my severance pay. We'll be even."

"I... I don't have any evidence..."

"Then we have nothing to talk about." Lin Ning said coldly. "That's fine, I can take the matter of you using the complaint letter for extortion and discuss it with Boss Liu. I think, to quell the potential impact on the company, he'll be able to fulfill my 'little bit' of compensation."

"Wait!" Fatty Zhang shrieked. "Lin Ning! I'll pay you directly! Tens of thousands of yuan, I'll pay you directly!"

Lin Ning chuckled: "I only want the company to honor the arbitration I won fair and square. Why would I want your money? To set me up?!"

"You, you really want to drag us down with you?!"

Lin Ning laughed out loud: "The fish will die, but the net won't break. But Fatty, I underestimated you; I didn't think you were such a loyal dog! You have five minutes. You know my email address. Don't be late."

He hung up and tossed his phone aside.

Suddenly, it felt meaningless.

Those past grievances, that stifling frustration, that anger of wanting to crush the other person into the mud—after Jiang Yu's "I like you too," everything suddenly felt light.

It wasn't forgiveness; it was just not feeling it was worth it.

His world had grown larger, and these people didn't deserve to occupy so much space.

But letting them off? That was impossible too.

Before long, Fatty Zhang sent an email. The attachment contained two audio clips; the filenames were simple: Dinner Table Conversation 1, Dinner Table Conversation 2.

Lin Ning clicked them open.

Noisy background sounds, glasses clinking, the drunken laughter of men and women. Then the Boss's voice: "...How do we issue this invoice? Sister Sun, think of a way... Right, find those shell companies and balance the accounts..."

The Deputy Manager's: "What are you afraid of? Even if they find out, it's just paying back taxes, you won't go to jail..."

Sister Sun's drunken laugh: "Don't worry, I've been doing accounting for over ten years, nothing has ever gone wrong..."

Lin Ning listened expressionlessly until the end.

He opened another folder containing information he had long organized: a video of Fatty Zhang confessing to embezzling public funds, a recording of Liu Jian's extortion, a recording of this phone call, and the information he had compiled on the winning bidder companies.

He sent it directly to Officer Li Feng's internal work email with the note: "Extortion. You can verify this with those companies."

He sent the evidence of the Boss's trio evading taxes and the company's public information directly to the Tax Bureau's reporting email.

Then he created a new email, selecting the email addresses of all former colleagues who had previously corresponded with him in the recipient field.

Attachment: All materials, including audio, screenshots, and detailed account records.

The body contained only one line:

"Dear colleagues, a belated farewell gift for everyone. Take care."

Send.

This was the highest courtesy he could return to this bunch of trash.

Almost simultaneously, the email notification chimes began to sound one after another in the former company.

Fatty Zhang was holding his thermos, cursing Lin Ning in his heart, thinking about how to properly screw Lin Ning once the heat died down.

A new email suddenly popped up on his computer screen, and the sender was unmistakably Lin Ning's name.

His heart stopped. His hand shook, and he didn't even care that boiling tea had spilled all over his crotch as he tremblingly clicked it open.

The video played automatically; it was his own voice drunkenly bragging about embezzling public funds and holding the Boss's leverage.

The gazes of all his colleagues in the office pierced his instantly pale face like needles.

"No... this isn't..." He tried in vain to close it, but his hand slipped and pushed the volume to the maximum.

At the next workstation, Liu Jian's reaction was more direct.

After listening to the clear extortion recording in the email, he felt like his bones had been pulled out. He slid off his chair, slumped under the workstation partition, his eyes unfocused, muttering repeatedly: "It's over... it's all over..."

And in the General Manager's office, there was a loud crash of breaking porcelain.

"Who sent this?! Who did this?!" Boss Liu glared at the computer screen, his eyes splitting with rage.

Sister Sun rushed in immediately, followed closely by the Deputy Manager.

Sister Sun's face was as white as paper. She didn't know about the others, but she knew she was definitely going to jail. There was no such thing as a perfect set of books; once someone found a loose thread, how could they not uncover it?

She was like a lunatic now: "Old Liu, the whole company received the recording of us cooking the books. You need to think of something!"

Boss Liu's face turned white too, thoughts of back taxes and fines flashing through his mind.

Besides, if Sister Sun went in, would she blabber? She knew quite a few of his secrets.

In just a few short minutes, this small company completely ground to a halt.

No one was working; everyone was staring at their screens, whispering to each other in shock, disdain, or panic.

The whispers merged into a silent tsunami, completely drowning the five people standing on the edge of the cliff.

Before they were actually imprisoned, the flames of social death had already placed them on a public scaffold.

After doing all this, Lin Ning leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes.

Less than three minutes later, his phone began to vibrate.

It was Fatty Zhang's call, which he immediately blocked.

He answered the Boss's call.

"Lin Ning! Are you crazy?!" The Boss's voice sounded like a screeching chicken. "You want money, right? Tell me! How much!"

"Fulfill the arbitration ruling!" Lin Ning said. "I don't want anything else."

"You..."

"If I don't receive the money and the withdrawal of the lawsuit by tomorrow noon, I will go to the tax authorities to report you by name."

Lin Ning hung up immediately after speaking.

Five minutes later, a bank notification popped up on his phone: [Bank deposit: 87,650.00 yuan.]

Lin Ning put down his phone and stretched.

People are truly strange. Knowing full well that he wasn't a person who kept his word, why would he believe that others were such idiots?!

The sound of a key turning in the lock.

Jiang Yu walked in carrying two large plastic bags, sweat on her forehead, her ponytail retied, revealing a section of her fair neck.

"I bought pork ribs and yam to make you soup." She said while changing her shoes, her tone as natural as if she had done it a hundred times already. "I also bought spinach and pork liver; the doctor said it helps with iron."

Lin Ning watched her.

Watching her put the plastic bags on the dining table, watching her put on the apron she found in the kitchen—it was a freebie from the supermarket when he moved in, printed with an exaggerated strawberry pattern, but it actually looked kind of cute on her.

Watching her wash the vegetables, soak the ribs, and prepare the pork liver, her movements efficient and skillful.

The wound on his waist was throbbing faintly.

But his heart felt sour, soft, and full.

It was like a dandelion that had been drifting in this world, suddenly having its roots planted firmly in the soil.