Chapter 7

Huang Guifen heard this voice, and she quickly pulled Ye Sibei down, squatting in a position outside the door where people couldn’t see them.

This position was invisible from the outside, but they could see outside through the glass window on the door.

They saw a young man in a cheap suit talking to the two policemen standing at the door.

He had a big smile on his face, looking very flattering, while the two policemen frowned, seemingly not liking him.

He passed a cigarette to them, but the two policemen waved him off quickly. His smile faded a bit, and he glanced at the person behind the glass of the hospital room.

His face was revealed through the glass, showing a young face somewhat similar to Ye Sibei’s, with a hint of scholarly air.

Ye Sibei instinctively lowered her body even more.

In that moment, she suddenly realized a kind of behavioral, unconscious inferiority and humiliation.

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“Just pretend like nothing happened, live like before, that’s enough.”

When Lin Feng arrived at the door with water, she heard faint sobbing from the ward. She hesitated for a moment and didn’t enter.

She waited at the door for a while until it seemed calm inside, then she knocked.

After a while, Ye Sibei opened the door. She looked at Lin Feng and the other two policemen, forcing a smile. “Thank you for bringing me clothes. I’ll go back now. Can I send the clothes back tomorrow?”

“We have filed a case,” Lin Feng stopped her, making a final effort. “We will help you.”

“I’m sorry.” Ye Sibei lowered her head. “It’s just a fight with my husband. You can’t help me with this.”

Ye Sibei looked at the floor and repeated, “I’m sorry.”

Lin Feng was stunned. Ye Sibei turned around and walked out with her mother.

Lin Feng watched her leave, wanting to call her back. But at the moment she was about to speak, she looked at Ye Sibei’s back and suddenly couldn’t utter a word.

Clearly, there were people supporting her, accompanying her, but she felt like a lost soul, rootless and powerless in the turbid world.

—

Huang Guifen accompanied Ye Sibei to take a taxi home first. After taking a shower, she changed into tightly wrapped clothes and went with Huang Guifen to another hospital to get HIV prevention medication.

When she reported to the police, she asked Lin Feng to buy her contraceptives. Now, what remained was to prevent all possible infectious diseases in advance.

This was the only thing she could do for herself under control of reason.

After finishing everything, it was already afternoon. Huang Guifen took her back home. She squatted in front of Ye Sibei, looking at her seriously. “Sibei, this matter is over. You must not let anyone find out about it, understand?”

Ye Sibei looked at her quietly, nodded slowly after a long time.

Huang Guifen forced a smile. “Mom will cook. I’ll make your favorite braised pork today.”

After saying that, Huang Guifen went to the kitchen. Ye Sibei sat on the sofa resting. She still felt pain below, but she didn’t dare to show it.

Huang Guifen was cutting vegetables, thinking about her work, and stood in the kitchen instructing her, “Did you take a leave today? Did you apologize to your boss? Say you’re sick. Don’t lose your job; it’s hard to find a job now.”

Ye Sibei’s mind was blank, listening to Huang Guifen’s instructions. She searched for her phone in her bag and when she took it out, she suddenly realized something was missing.

The condom was gone.

Did that person use it?

Related thoughts rushed into her mind in an instant, and her heartbeat couldn’t help but speed up.

The desire to know that she had restrained surged madly. Her mind was filled with one thought, who could it be?

She kept replaying everything that happened last night in her mind, outlining the last person she saw—was it Fan Jiancheng?

But he’s such a good person. He always reminds young female employees to protect themselves, helps them avoid drinking too much, and used to send them home.

How could it be him?

Ye Sibei’s mind was in chaos. She couldn’t help but bite her nails.

Ye Sibei in the living room remained silent. Huang Guifen urged her again, “Quickly make the call.”

“Oh.”

Ye Sibei came to her senses, controlled her emotions, and called Fan Jiancheng.

The call connected quickly, and a somewhat angry voice came from Fan Jiancheng through the phone, “Ye Sibei, what’s going on with you? You didn’t come to work for a day. You should have taken a leave or something. You left without a word. Are you planning to quit?”

“Mr. Fan,” Ye Sibei listened to Fan Jiancheng’s voice, trying to calm herself down, “I, I drank too much last night and ended up in the hospital. I want to take a leave.”

Hearing “drank too much,” Fan Jiancheng paused. He softened his tone, sounding somewhat worried. “Nothing serious happened, right?”

As he spoke, he added with some apology, “Zheng from the client side was there, and I couldn’t stop him. Sorry about that.”

“It’s nothing serious, just probably… staying in the hospital for a couple of days.” Listening to Fan Jiancheng’s straightforward response, Ye Sibei lowered her head.

“Well, you rest well,” Fan Jiancheng didn’t suspect anything, “and try to come back to work as soon as possible.”

“Okay.”

Ye Sibei responded and hung up the phone.

After hanging up, she looked at the slightly blackened banana on the coffee table.

Actually, she might never know the answer.

And is this answer… valuable?

She didn’t know.

She just felt that something was still stirring within her, calling out in unrest, struggling to break free.

She sat there blankly, and after a while, Ye Ling returned home from playing chess in the park.

Seeing Ye Sibei, Ye Ling was a bit surprised. “Hey, Sibei, why are you here?”

“She had a fight with Qin Nan. Don’t mind her,” Huang Guifen immediately intervened, taking out the dishes from the pot and placing them on the table.

Ye Sibei seemed to be helping with the dishes as usual. Ye Ling took off his coat and watched the two of them busy at work. “How come you always argue with Qin Nan?”

“Where do married couples not argue?”

Huang Guifen was cooking. “Let them argue. As long as they don’t divorce.”

“You can’t say that. Sibei, my birthday is coming up in a few days. Bring him over, and I’ll talk to him for you.”

“Okay.”

Ye Sibei nodded, not daring to say much about her relationship with Qin Nan.

As the family chatted, Ye Nianwen’s voice came from the door.

“Dad, Mom,” as he pushed the door open and saw Ye Sibei, his eyes lit up, and he immediately exclaimed excitedly, “Sister!”

Ye Nianwen always looked very happy, as if he had no worries every day. If one didn’t see him bowing and scraping outside, no one would think he had suffered grievances.

Huang Guifen couldn’t help but feel sorry for him when she saw him now. She pretended not to know anything and went forward to take Ye Nianwen’s bag, asking with concern, “Are you hungry today?”

“What era is it? Still feeling hungry? The leader at our office especially likes me. We have banquets every day, all seafood and such. I’m tired of eating these.”

“Exaggerating, huh.” Ye Ling listened to his son boast. Although he was happy, he still wanted to advise, “Be modest in life. You just graduated; you should learn to be humble and low-profile…”

“He knows.”

Ye Sibei interrupted Ye Ling’s words, and Huang Guifen quickly spoke up, “Enough with the lectures, let’s eat.”

Huang Guifen called everyone to sit down while she continued to prepare. Ye Ling felt hot and went to change clothes first. The ones who actually sat down were Ye Sibei and Ye Nianwen.

Ye Nianwen looked curious and inquisitive, “Sister, why are you here today?”

“Did you go to the hospital today?”

Ye Sibei asked directly, and Ye Nianwen’s expression stiffened. Before he could lie, Ye Sibei exposed him, “I saw you at the hospital today. Why were you giving cigarettes to those police officers?”

Ye Nianwen seemed embarrassed. His smile was a bit forced. He approached Ye Sibei and whispered, “I’m attracting clients.”

As Ye Sibei scooped soup, Ye Nianwen earnestly explained to her, “These police officers handle cases every day and know many people who need lawyers. If they can introduce these victims to me, then I have clients, right?”

“Why weren’t you at the police station then?” Ye Sibei placed the bowl on the table, showing no emotion. Ye Nianwen quickly continued, “I was at the police station. Suddenly, I heard about a case, so I followed the Criminal Investigation Team. I thought, for a major case, there must be victims going to the hospital, so I went to the People’s Hospital, looked around for a while, and saw three police officers guarding a room. That place isn’t far from the gynecological examination area. I guess it’s a rape case.”

Ye Sibei’s hand trembled, and soup spilled on her hand.

Ye Nianwen grabbed some tissues from the side and took the bowl, saying, “Be careful, sis.”

“Did you see the victim?” Ye Sibei wiped her hands with tissue, not daring to look up. Ye Nianwen shrugged, “No, otherwise, I’d be working on the case tonight and not coming back.”

“These cases are all about timing,” Ye Nianwen scooped soup for Ye Sibei, “if it’s delayed, the difficulty in solving it increases significantly.”

Ye Sibei lowered her head and blew on the soup, “Is it difficult to win such cases?”

“Sis, think about it,” Ye Nianwen finally had a chance to show off as Ye Sibei asked a professional question. He sat up straight and pointed with two fingers, “What are the two elements necessary for proving rape?”

Ye Nianwen lowered one finger, “First, we need to prove that there are objective facts, right? That is, we must prove that Person A and Person B had a confirmed sexual relationship. We can prove this through some biological evidence, which is relatively easier.”

Ye Sibei nodded.

“But the difficult part is the second,” Ye Nianwen pressed down another finger, “How does the woman prove that she wasn’t willing? You say there are marks on the woman’s body, but maybe it’s a special preference? There’s video footage, but maybe it’s cosplay or role-playing? So, there needs to be a strong chain of evidence to prove this. And during this process, those bastards often throw some disgusting accusations at the woman, like she was the one who seduced or it was consensual since they were in a relationship. These things can greatly impact a woman’s reputation and often lead to a breakdown even before the trial.”

Listening to Ye Nianwen’s words, Ye Sibei could relate each of those statements to scenes she had heard in the news before, but now, those protagonists were her.

The faint spark of hope in her heart quietly extinguished, and she lowered her head, listening to Ye Nianwen sigh, “So, I’m saying, whether to report or not, it’s a punishment for the victim either way. It’s better to just pretend it never happened, close your eyes, and forget about it.”

Ye Sibei remained silent. Ye Ling came out after changing clothes and asked Huang Guifen to sit down.

Dinner began, and the family enjoyed their meal, appearing warm and cheerful.

Each person carried their own masks, as if there were no hardships in the world.

At this time, Lin Feng was sitting at a roadside diner with her team leader, Zhang Yong.

It was rush hour after work, and the diner was crowded. The two of them could only sit at a small table near the entrance, each with a bowl of noodles and two pieces of braised tofu.

Lin Feng sat still while Zhang Yong ate heartily, taking glances at the car repair shop across the street.

His car had a punctured tire in the morning on the way back from the outskirts of the city, and now he finally had time to get it fixed.

The one fixing his car was a very young man named Qin Nan, who happened to be the owner of this shop. He had extraordinary skills in car repair, fair pricing, but he wasn’t talkative. Zhang Yong often came here to get his car repaired and washed, so he was quite familiar with Qin Nan.

Zhang Yong watched as Qin Nan repaired the tire and then started washing the car. He admired how his filthy car gradually became shiny again, feeling happy. Suddenly, he heard Lin Feng speak up, “I think this case should be registered.”

Zhang Yong was startled by her sudden words and turned to look at her, “Madam, can you not scare me like that out of the blue?”

“You saw the situation today,” Lin Feng furrowed her brows, “The person involved clearly isn’t in the right state, and the examination report also shows…”

“Shows what?”

Zhang Yong interrupted her, leaving Lin Feng stunned. Zhang Yong put down his chopsticks and looked at his justice-driven apprentice, “Lin Feng, remember, in our line of work, don’t presume guilt, or else you might easily wrong someone. You think something’s off with her, but besides your intuition, do you have any evidence?”

“Whether to register other criminal cases or withdraw charges, that’s our decision from the moment we respond to a call. But this case is different,” because they were in public, Zhang Yong couldn’t be too direct, “The will of the person involved is a crucial factor in making a determination. Now that the person involved isn’t talking, what basis do you have to make an assumption?”

As Zhang Yong spoke, he gestured toward Lin Feng’s eyes with his hand, “What about those green bean eyes of yours?”

“But, Captain, her situation…”

“There are many possible explanations for her situation,” Zhang Yong glanced at the nearly cold noodles, “With so many cases, are you fixating on just this one? Is your workload not sufficient?”

As Zhang Yong saw that his car was almost washed, he took a few more bites and noticed that Lin Feng still hadn’t started eating. He frowned and asked, “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“No, I’m not eating.”

Lin Feng stood up, seeming angry, and said, “I’m leaving.”

“Well, my car is fixed. Shall I drop you off?”

“No need.”

Without giving Zhang Yong a chance to refuse, Lin Feng directly hailed a taxi and left.

Zhang Yong muttered to himself, “Stubborn little girl,” drank a few sips of soup, paid via WeChat, greeted the owner, and then returned to his car.

The car had been thoroughly cleaned. Qin Nan saw him approaching, glanced at the tires, and reminded him, “Your tires are worn quite thin now. Next time they get damaged, you should just replace them. Do you want me to order one in advance for you?”

“Sure, how much?”

“I’ll give you a discount, 900.”

“Okay, make the order.”

Saying this, Zhang Yong leaned against the car and scanned the QR code for payment near the shop. Qin Nan went to the counter to issue him a receipt. Zhang Yong listened to the mechanical female voice in the shop announcing “Payment received, 900 yuan,” leaned against his car, and glanced at the neatly arranged tires nearby.

Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he turned to Qin Nan, “Old Qin.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know much about tires?”