Chapter 69.2: “Are you dating him?”

Lin Hui was indeed at the coffee shop downstairs, and he did bring crabs. His complexion was a little pale, a stark contrast to his calm and composed demeanor earlier that morning.

He had reserved a small private room. After Bai DuanDuan sat down and ordered a coffee, he stared at her for a moment before speaking somewhat hesitantly, “DuanDuan, are you together with Ji Lin?”

He confirmed in a dry tone, “Are you dating him?”

Bai DuanDuan was taken aback for a moment, then nodded confidently.

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“R bsrl usw nyd cl ayvksdyz yde calyj wr okvb bkx yqvla usw blya obyv R byhl vs pyu.”

Jyk PwydPwyd qasodle yde zssjle yv Nkd Twk. “Ya. Nkd, R wple vs nyzz usw Mlynbla Nkd, cwv vbyv eslpd’v xlyd R ynjdsozletl usw yp yd lzela obs nyd xleezl kd xu rlapsdyz zkql. Rq usw nyzzle xl blal vseyu vs vyzj ycswv vbkp, kv’p wddlnlppyau. R’x cwpu yde R byhl vs ts wrpvykap.”

Tsolhla, Nkd Twk tayccle bla byde. Tl zssjle wdlypu yde pyke, “PwydPwyd, R alyzzu byhl uswa clpv kdvlalpvp yv blyav. Vzlypl zkpvld vs obyv R byhl vs pyu clqsal usw xyjl y elnkpksd.”

Tl nzlyale bkp vbasyv yde vbld easrrle y csxcpblzz sd Jyk PwydPwyd— 

“Ji Lin doesn’t really like you. He’s only with you to use you and to get revenge on me.”

Bai DuanDuan frowned completely.

For a moment, she suddenly felt a bit confused, as if she had walked into the wrong place and stumbled onto the set of some dog-blood drama. What was Lin Hui talking about? Did Ji Lin get together with her out of revenge? What kind of imaginative plot was this?

Lin Hui pursed his lips, as if he had anticipated Bai Duan Duan’s reaction. He paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, “Duan Duan, there’s something I’ve been hiding from you.” He looked into Bai Duan Duan’s eyes. “I used to handle a case as a lawyer, and the other party involved was Ji Lin’s father.”

Bai Duan Duan looked up at Lin Hui.

“That was almost twenty years ago. You were still a child, maybe not even ten years old yet. I was only in my twenties and had just become an assistant lecturer at the law school after successfully passing the bar exam during my graduate studies. Back then, it was easier to get a lawyer’s license while studying for a degree and it wasn’t as strictly monitored as it is now. So, I had already successfully obtained my lawyer’s license and was teaching while also working part-time at a law firm. I was comfortable with my work at the university and thought it would be a challenge to try my hand at being a lawyer. That was the year I started handling cases.”

“So, was Ji Lin’s father’s case the first case you handled?” Bai Duan Duan asked. “What happened in that case that caused Ji Lin to hold a grudge against you?”

“It wasn’t the first case. It was the eleventh case, and I remember it very clearly.”

“Did you win the case?”

“Yes,” Lin Hui paused and lowered his gaze. “It was a labor dispute case. Ji Lin’s father’s factory faced insolvency and was unable to pay its workers on time. I represented over a thousand employees and several executives to fight for their rights to pay. I won the case, but after paying the compensation and wages, Ji Lin’s father had to declare bankruptcy. The assets were sold off to repay the debt, and his family’s company… went bankrupt. A few months after the workers received their compensation, Ji Lin’s father committed suicide.”

Bai Duan Duan fell completely silent. At that moment, she didn’t know what the appropriate reaction should be, as her limbs felt cold and her mind was blank. Ji Lin had never told her about this, and she had no idea that his father had passed away so early and not from illness.

“Their company is called Jixin Pharmaceutical.”

Jixin Pharmaceutical?

Bai DuanDuan was shocked, she knew about this company! 

Because Jixin Pharmaceutical’s bankruptcy was once a big news in City A for over a month. It was almost a well-known company in City A, founded by local entrepreneurs and received multiple rounds of financing and market optimism within two years. In the third year, their designed two anti-cancer targeted drugs were expected to be listed on the mainland in the fourth year, and the clinical trials of candidate drugs for immune cell gene therapy were also progressing steadily. It was almost a thriving company, and even the news media reported many times that Jixin Pharmaceutical planned to list on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in two years to raise funds.

As a company cultivated independently by City A, Jixin Pharmaceutical was also the object of promotion and interview by local news radio stations, even Bai Duanduan, a primary school student who did not like to watch news, heard related news frequently from various channels or saw related promotions. Looking back now, Bai Duanduan still vaguely remembers that according to reports, the CEO surnamed Ji of this company returned from studying abroad to start his own business. 

Until today, Bai DuanDuan still didn’t quite understand the pharmaceutical industry. All she knew was that it was both able to burn money and able to make money, because almost every other piece of news back then was about how Ji Xin Pharmaceutical had raised billions of yuan in financing. Although she didn’t know exactly what the company did, the impression left on Bai DuanDuan’s young mind was just two words – wealthy.

This company was wealthy, and the boss was wealthy. Bai DuanDuan even remembers very clearly that Ji Xin Pharmaceutical’s research and development of new drugs was financed in billions.

Of course, if it was only that, she might not have remembered Ji Xin so clearly. What really made her remember the company to this day was its legendary fate – it was once on a roll, and was even said to be listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in the following year. The news media were full of praise for the company and its founder. However, suddenly, Bai DuanDuan doesn’t remember exactly when, the news started reporting about Ji Xin’s broken financing chain, Ji Xin Pharmaceutical going under, investors withdrawing, and employees not being paid… In short, from the image of prosperity, it suddenly became a deluge of negative news.

Afterwards, all she heard about was Ji Xin Pharmaceutical’s complete bankruptcy and inability to pay its debts.

Bai DuanDuan only knew about this because her parents talked about it casually, and she didn’t take it to heart. She never imagined that this case would be so closely related to her own life nearly 20 years later – the son of the person involved in the case was her current boyfriend and boss, and the representative lawyer for the laborers involved in the case was her former teacher and boss…

Ji Xin Pharmaceutical’s bankruptcy was just six inconsequential words at the time, but now, it was the most heart-stopping turning point in Ji Lin’s life.

Ji Lin once said that he started working as a laborer at the age of 13, and also had long-term experience working in the kitchen as an assistant cook. Bai DuanDuan was very curious and asked him several times, but he never confirmed or denied it and changed the subject. Bai DuanDuan used to think that Ji Lin was just a poor kid who had to grow up early because of his family’s financial situation, but she didn’t realize that he was actually the son of the owner of Ji Xin Pharmaceutical, who was once a privileged young master.

However, the ever-changing business environment caused his father to face difficulties, and his life went through ups and downs as a result.

Bai DuanDuan’s father was originally a comfortable middle-class worker in a state-owned enterprise, but after being deceived into quitting his job and starting his own business, the family struggled financially. Finally, his father’s amputation surgery caused the family to fall into dire straits, going from middle class to barely making ends meet. This was a huge gap that Bai DuanDuan could not forget or relieve. If you put yourself in Ji Lin’s shoes, going from a privileged young master to the son of a debtor who was despised by the whole city of A, under the pressure and embarrassment, it’s something that she, who had never experienced it, could hardly imagine. And to make matters worse, Ji Lin was only in his teens when Ji Xin Pharmaceutical went bankrupt.

If Ji Xin Pharmaceutical had just gone from prosperity to near bankruptcy, it might not have been talked about for so many years. What made it a topic of discussion for many people was the news that founder Ji Chengzhi committed suicide shortly after the bankruptcy.

He actually died peacefully. He took an overdose of sleeping pills after his family fell asleep at night, and by the next morning when his family called 120 for an ambulance, he was already beyond help.

Bai DuanDuan never thought that the person who had died, whom she thought was just someone in a distant news story, was actually Ji Lin’s father, who had died early.

In an instant, she felt a complex and oppressive mix of emotions, and even without thinking, she knew what Ji Lin had gone through.