Chapter 36.2

Days passed, transitioning from late autumn to winter.

There’s rarely snow in Nancheng during winter, but it’s a damp cold that’s hard for those from the north to understand. Yet, Ye Sibei still insisted on getting up at six in the morning.

With Qin Nan gone, she was living the life that he had hoped for her.

Qin Nan wanted her to exercise more, so she got up every morning to run. Sometimes she would put on Qin Nan’s boxing gloves and practice punching in the air.

She learned how to wrap her hands online and picked up many techniques.

Aside from exercising, she developed a new habit. She didn’t know if it was because she received his letter just before seeing him for the last time, but she also started to enjoy writing letters. Every night, deep into the night, she would sit alone at her desk and write letters to Qin Nan.

“I felt that Fan Jiancheng couldn’t possibly be a first-time offender, so I arranged to meet her and told her that this case would eventually have a conclusion. If she voluntarily provided evidence, it would count as a meritorious act and could reduce her punishment. If she continued to hide things for Fan Jiancheng, both of them would end up in prison together. Then I appealed to her emotions and reasoned with her, showing her the video of Tao Jie and Fan Jiancheng’s secret meeting, and analyzed the tragic fate of Fan Wenwen, urging her to fight for herself. In the end, she broke down.”

“You’re quite impressive,” Ye Sibei remarked.

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I know you don’t know me, but it doesn’t matter; I know you.

I used to be an employee at Fuqiang Real Estate and was once a target of Fan Jiancheng. Back then, I was only twenty-one, just graduated from a vocational school, and Fan Jiancheng was just a manager. I came to Fuqiang Real Estate during the holidays as an intern.

He was very nice to me, showing me great care. To be honest, at that time, I had a bit of admiration for this superior. But I knew he was married, so I hid my feelings and decided to leave after the school term began, cutting off that emotion completely.

However, just before I left, he wanted to have a farewell dinner with me. I knew I shouldn’t eat with a married boss, but I was temporarily blinded by my thoughts, thinking he didn’t know about my feelings, and I just wanted to have one last meal with him.

We had barbecue together. That night, he drank a lot and cried, telling me about his troubles in life. Seeing him drunk, I wanted to take him home, but his phone was dead. He told me he could just sleep at the hotel for one night.

So I took him to the hotel, helped him check in, and sent him into his room, thinking I could leave afterward.

But I couldn’t.

I always thought he was a gentle and polite senior, but that night, he grabbed my neck, pulled my hair, and slammed my head against the wall. At that moment, I thought I was going to die, and only then did I realize how utterly wrong I was.

The next day, I escaped in a panic. I thought about calling the police, but I didn’t dare. I couldn’t even tell my parents because I couldn’t explain to anyone why I had dinner with him that night or why I took a drunk man to a hotel. I knew I had made a mistake, and maybe everything that happened to me was deserved.

I told myself countless times that I was willing and that I liked him, but in every dream at night, I repeated that year’s experience, and I clearly knew that at that moment, I wasn’t willing.

For so many years, I have been blaming myself, punishing myself. Every time I think back to that time, I feel so disgusting.

Now I am almost thirty, and my life is a mess. My mother keeps asking me why I’m not married, and I can’t answer.

I thought my life would be this aimless until I met you.

I regret that if I had called the police back then, perhaps your tragedy wouldn’t have happened. Here, I want to say sorry to you.

And I am very grateful to you. Thank you for telling me that whatever I do is not a reason for me to be a victim.

This morning, the police called me, asking about what happened back then. I cried uncontrollably on the phone, unable to say a complete sentence.

Tomorrow I will go to the police station to give my statement. I hope that when I see him being sent to prison, I can forgive myself.

I can erase these nine years and start living again from the age of twenty-one.”

Ye Sibei looked at the letter, wiped her tears, and replied to that woman.

“We can all do it.”

More and more evidence emerged, and more victims came forward.

It all seemed to start over, yet it was different.

During those days, Ye Sibei cooperated with the police while also inquiring about Qin Nan’s situation, and she began preparing to move and look for a job.

According to Ye Nianwen’s analysis, Qin Nan was likely to be sentenced, which would greatly impact her political review. She gave up on the idea of becoming a civil servant and sent her resume to the provincial capital, returning to her original job in accounting.

Ye Ling tentatively asked her what she would do if Qin Nan really ended up in prison for many years.

If he got out of jail, he would likely be unemployed and unable to find work, potentially relying on her to support him.

Ye Sibei was eating, raised her eyes to look at Ye Ling, “So what do you think I should do?”

Ye Ling was momentarily speechless. As Ye Sibei continued eating, she turned to Ye Nianwen, “Lawyer Ye, you need to work hard. I’ll need to rely on you for support in the future.”

When Ye Nianwen heard Ye Sibei’s words, he felt overwhelmed, nodding, “Alright, I’ll go beg for food for you.”

The family laughed. Ye Sibei finished her last bite and looked at Ye Ling, “Dad, don’t worry. When the time comes, I’ll just take Qin Nan to beg for food; we won’t starve.”

Time passed day by day, transitioning from deep autumn to winter.

Winter in South City rarely had snow, but it was a kind of damp cold that people from the north couldn’t understand. Yet Ye Sibei still insisted on getting up at six in the morning.

With Qin Nan gone, she was living the life he had hoped for her.

Qin Nan hoped she would exercise more, so she got up every morning to run and sometimes used Qin Nan’s boxing gloves to practice punches in the air.

She learned to wrap her hands and picked up many techniques online.

In addition to exercising, she developed a new habit. Perhaps because she had received a letter from him before their last meeting, she began to enjoy writing letters. Every night, late at night, she would sit at her desk alone and start writing to Qin Nan.

She told Qin Nan about what happened each day, such as sending her resume to several companies in the provincial capital and starting to prepare for the CPA exam.

When she wrote about the CPA, she paused, realizing that Qin Nan might not understand, so she changed it to “certified public accountant.”

She wrote about learning to make new dishes, about seeing the first snow of winter and building a snowman that was as tall as her calf.

Besides writing letters, she sometimes saw Qin Nan in her dreams.

In her dreams, Qin Nan was sometimes a child, pressed to the ground in front of his father, crying out in desperation; sometimes he was a teenager, looking at her from the classroom across the glass, and this time, she turned back in the dream.

As she had more dreams, she occasionally woke up in the middle of the night, lying in bed, looking at the moonlight shining on the carpet. She would think of Qin Nan lying on the ground, turned away from her, saying, “I don’t know what liking someone is. But there’s one person I’ve always hoped would be well.”

She remembered that figure, sat up in the night, lit a cigarette, and stood on the balcony.

She should have noticed it earlier, she thought.

Every time Qin Nan talked to her about the past, about that young girl, about the helplessness of watching his father get his ribs broken and not daring to retaliate, about saying “I love you” to her in the bathroom, about embracing her on the school rooftop and telling her that he preferred not to entrust his life to anyone, she should have realized that Qin Nan was never invincible.

He was also waiting for her to lead him out somewhere.

But it was fine; she stood on the balcony, watching the snowflakes fall from the sky.

Everything was still in time.

2018 passed quickly, and by the end of January, Ye Sibei found a job.

The boss was an elite woman who learned about Ye Sibei’s situation online. After seeing her resume, she immediately contacted her and promised that she could start working after the New Year.

Meanwhile, Ye Sibei finally received news about the court hearing.

Ye Nianwen brought the court summons, and when Ye Sibei saw it, she realized there were two summons.