140: Chapter 140 Rumors

At that time, there were so many people in the hall—citizens handling business, family members of suspects, police on duty—everyone saw the scene of the "unusual" Bureau Chief Bai seeing Lin Ning out.

Word spread like wildfire.

Then came the curiosity: "Hey? Who's that kid?"

"I think his name is Lin Ning."

"Hey? Is he the one whose dad ran away and left him with a mountain of debt?"

Relative A, who was leaving, couldn't help but join in: "Yes, I was there... Oh, you have no idea how polite Bureau Chief Bai was..."

"Why? Isn't he just a kid in debt?"

Relative B, who didn't know the reason either, bluffed: "...He's paid it all back! He bought a car for his sister, a house for his mom, runs a big company in Capital, and has a super impressive girlfriend. All this happened in just two months, think about it! Just think about it!"

"I heard that Lin Ning, the kid from your relative's family, found a really powerful girlfriend. What's her background?"

Relative C didn't know a thing but said mysteriously: "That aura~~ She's so young yet specifically invests in those big companies as a shareholder. What kind of background do you think she has?"

"..."

Relative D: "..."

Meanwhile, Lin Ning was video calling Jiang Yu.

Lin Ning, who appeared calm and composed in front of outsiders and his family, now had his thick black eyebrows furrowed, and his jawline was as tight as a bowstring about to snap.

"...That's basically it. I really want to freaking kill him!"

"A law-abiding society saved him!"

Jiang Yu also listened with her eyebrows raised in anger, regretting that she hadn't gone back with Lin Ning.

Lin Ning was a man and couldn't act like a shrew shouting in the street; he had to handle things cleanly to save face. If she had been there, she would have cursed that "Aunt" and "Wang Hao" from one end of the street to the other, from the town government to the rest area outside town, letting everyone see how disgusting that family was.

She stared at that grumpy face on the screen for three seconds, her heartache overcoming her anger.

Cupping her face and acting cute to coax him, "Wow! You took on three by yourself, and afterwards, you even had a police car take you to the station and made the police apologize to you. You also shut that disgusting family up so hard they couldn't say a word back!"

"And you call that 'basically it'?"

"Do you not know how amazing you are?" Jiang Yu puffed out her cheeks.

Lin Ning pursed his lips, but the corners of his mouth were hard to keep down, "It wasn't that..."

"Remaining calm in a crisis," Jiang Yu continued, counting on her fingers, "using the situation to break through, turning passive into active, not being soft when you needed to be firm—no one could have handled it more perfectly than you!"

Lin Ning finally couldn't hold back anymore.

He grinned, revealing white teeth that shone under the incandescent light.

"You're exaggerating!" His voice was still raspy, but his whole body had clearly relaxed.

"I just... I'm afraid of being too high-profile and causing trouble for my mom and the others later."

Jiang Yu waved her small hand, "What's most important is that you feel satisfied and don't feel wronged."

"Besides, bullying the weak and fearing the strong is common nature. As long as others have misgivings and use fewer dirty tricks, the goal is achieved. Facing them head-on, who's afraid of them?!"

She looked at Lin Ning with sparkling eyes, "You did exactly the right thing!"

Lin Ning looked at her for several seconds.

With a bit of grievance and a bit of longing, he said, "I miss you!"

On the screen, Jiang Yu buried her face in her crossed arms, showing only a pair of eyes that curved gently, "I miss you too..."

The chill of the northern night outside the window seemed to soften quite a bit.

That night.

How many people enjoyed the gossip.

How many people were so distressed they couldn't sleep all night...

The next morning, Hao Hong's call came through.

"Lin Zi!" His voice was as loud as if he had discovered a new continent, "Do you know? You, haha..."

Before he could finish, he started laughing wildly, his laughter eventually turning into a "quack quack quack..."

Lin Ning moved the phone three inches away. Is this guy crazy?

"Hey, 'when the river warms in spring, the ducks are the first to know.' I know the water here is warm, you don't need to specifically tell me!"

"Hic!" Hao Hong heard what Lin Ning said and finally stopped laughing wildly.

He said crossly, "Ha! Do you know what kind of reputation you have outside now? It's hard to say which one of us is the duck!"

Lin Ning remained unmoved: "Speak plainly!"

"From the town to the outskirts, everyone is saying that someone named Lin Ning found the daughter of a high-ranking official in the Beijing circle! He's eating soft rice so well that even the bureau chief personally saw him off!"

"..." Lin Ning's calm expression froze and slowly cracked.

He jumped up from the bed, "Bullshit! Who the hell is eating soft rice!"

Hearing Lin Ning's frantic personal attacks, Hao Hong suppressed a laugh, "Hey~~ From eighty-year-olds to three-year-olds, the whole town is saying it, so it must be true. Don't worry, buddy, in this day and age, eating soft rice isn't shameful! Pfft, hahaha..."

"...Damn!" Lin Ning was numb. Everyone from age eighty down to three was spreading rumors that he was eating soft rice?!

His brain was working at high speed, but he couldn't think of a way to debunk the rumors. Was he supposed to pull people on the street like Xianglin's Wife and tell them?

"I'll be d*mned... %￥#*..." Lin Ning cursed in a rage.

"Quack quack quack..." Hao Hong could imagine Lin Ning's breakdown on the other end of the phone and couldn't stop laughing.

Lin Ning hung up and rushed out of the room, wanting to complain to his mother.

He saw Lin Jing's family of three in the living room. Lin Jing looked at him with complex eyes and asked, "Xiao Ning, is it true? Are you really eating... letting your girlfriend help..."

Lin Ning closed his eyes in despair. Even his sister believed it?

"It's okay, Xiao Ning!" Seeing this, Lin Jing quickly comforted him, "Nowadays we emphasize equality between men and women. Family members don't care who is stronger or weaker; it's all for the family..."

...

Lin Ning sat in Hao Hong's shop with vacant eyes.

It was rare for Hao Hong to be so energetic early in the morning. One moment he was looking at Lin Ning and offering some repetitive words of comfort, and the next he was turning his face away, his expression twisting as he laughed silently.

"Don't hold it in, laugh if you want to! You already look old for your age; don't twist out any more wrinkles!" Lin Ning said expressionlessly and gloomily.

"Pfft! Haha..."

Seeing Lin Ning's dead-fish eyes turn toward him, Hao Hong quickly held it in and changed the subject, "Anyway, what exactly happened yesterday?"

Forcing himself to focus—he didn't come here to be this guy's clown, he had things to ask. He forced himself to forget the %￥#*&... that he couldn't change for now.

Lin Ning took a long breath and told Hao Hong about yesterday's events.

"Damn!" Hao Hong was stunned and disgusted, "Is 'Sea Rat' that vicious? No! Does he even have the brains for that?!"

Lin Ning had the same thought—did Wang Hao have the brains to come up with such a tricky and vicious move?

He had thought through everything that happened after he got home last night. For some reason, he just felt that He Changcheng—Wang Hao—and the people from the West Coal Yard were all on the same line.

There was no evidence, and he hadn't even had contact with them, but he just had this thought.

"What's the deal with that Captain He? I haven't heard of a 'Chief Captain' rank in the Public Security Bureau. Usually, the one in charge of the three teams is the deputy chief in charge of operations, right?"