Cai Yan exclaimed. When she saw the expression on Yang Chenâs face, she realized that she was still holding the manâs hand and she immediately let go of it!
She covered her mouth with both hands, shaking as she tried to say something. Cai Yan was so anxious that she could not even utter a single word.
The man frowned. âYanyan, who is this? Do you know each other?
Yanyan?
Yang Chenâs smile turned even colder, âWow, so affectionate. Officer Cai Yan, wonât you tell me about your partner here?â
Cai Yanâs pretty face turned pale. When she heard Yang Chen addressing her as âOfficer Cai Yanâ, she had already felt a taste of Yang Chenâs fury.
âItâs not like that...Yang Chen, listen to me...I...we are here to...â
At that moment, Ah Zheng and a few subordinates of Boss Lei who were going to send Lei Heng away saw the man in the corridor and smiled.
âDirector Xiao, youâre here? Yo, is this the girlfriend youâve been telling us about? She looks hot. Our boss is waiting inside, come on in!â The Third Brother laughed.
As for Yang Chen who was at the side, the Third Brother and the others pretended to not see him. It was as if Director Xiao in front of them was more important than him.
Director Xiao quickly smiled and greeted them. Then he made eye contact with Cai Yan and held her hand.
âSir, I still have arrangements with Yanyan. We can get to know each other next time,â Director Xiao smiled and nodded at Yang Chen. He then pulled Cai Yan away.
Yang Chen stood blankly, with the word âgirlfriendâ echoing in his ear.
Who is Director Xiao? How is Cai Yan his girlfriend!?
Yang Chen clenched his fist tightly. It was only less than a week since the last time he was with Cai Yan. He could not understand why such a man would appear so suddenly.
As he was about to turn back and make things clear, the phone in his pocket vibrated.
Yang Chen took it out and looked at it. It was a message from Cai Yan.
âIâll explain later, donât come over.â
Yang Chen looked at her text and forced himself to calm down.
Although Cai Yan was in full swing, she would not do anything sneaky. He should still believe in his own woman.
Since she said that she would explain later, he will just wait for her explanation. So he went back to his cabin for a few more drinks.
But just the thought of Cai Yan holding hands with another man gave Yang Chen a headache.
After returning to the cabin, Hui Lin worriedly asked him about the situation. Yang Chen merely said that everything was fine so everyone else continued to have fun.
Hui Lin had to return to Beijing for the preparation of the Spring Festival Gala. She did not have much time so they left at around ten oâclock. Before they parted, Yang Chen asked her to send his regards to her family.
As soon as Hui Lin left, the crew left as well. The post-production of the movie was still in full swing and they were hoping for it to be released during the Spring Festival.
Yang Chen stayed until the end. He waited quietly in the parking lot for Cai Yan and the man to come out.
Cai Yan finally called as the time approached midnight.
On the phone, Cai Yan sounded a little weak and nervous, she asked softly, âYang Chen...Iâm out, where are you? Iâll be right there.â
âCarpark,â Yang Chen said flatly and hung up.
Not after long, Cai Yan who was still dressed in black walked over. The woman seemed to not be afraid of the cold despite only having a thin layer of stockings to cover her legs.
Yang Chen had never seen her dressed in such a feminine style. He was even more dissatisfied after seeing that she was dressed this way when she was with another man.
What made Yang Chen even more dissatisfied was that Director Xiao had followed her here!
Cai Yan noticed Yang Chen leaning against his BMW with his pale greenish face. She forced a smile to please him and walked up to him. Then, she carefully grabbed Yang Chenâs hand.
âHoney, you arenât really mad, right? Iâm here for work, itâs not what you think...â Cai Yan said pleadingly.
Yang Chen glanced at Director Xiao who was behind the woman. He too was also staring at Yang Chen with a weird expression on his face.
âWork? Iâm pretty interested to know what kind of work requires you, a police chief, to be someone elseâs girlfriend.â
âOh no, Xiao Ye and I are university classmates. Iâm only pretending to be his girlfriend to lie to Lei Zhengfu,â Cai Yan hurriedly said.
Xiao Ye walked up front and smiled. âHello, my name is Xiao Ye. Iâm Yanyanâs schoolmate from the police academy. I suppose you are Yanyanâs boyfriend, Yang Chen, that she mentioned. I hope you wonât misunderstand anything. Although Iâm pursuing Yanyan, sheâs still not my girlfriend yet.â
âXiao Ye! Stop talking! You...â Cai Yan became anxious and her face reddened.
Yang Chen laughed angrily. âHaha, Iâm so confused right now. Are you or are you not? Is this work or personal, what are you two even talking about?â
Cai Yan quickly said, âYang Chen, donât simply listen to him. Donât you know me well enough, why would I do all these behind your back? Today is really for work. I wanted to collect Lei Zhengfuâs criminal evidence. Thatâs why I purposely used this chance to come here.â
âCriminal evidence?â Yang Chen frowned.
âYeah,â Cai Yan nodded, âLet me tell you what happened....â
Cai Yan started to summarize the entire issue.
The one they called Boss Lei in the cabinâs actual name was Lei Zhengfu. He was a local tyrant from Lushan Town, on the west side of Zhonghai city.
He was said to be a tyrant because he worked as a gangster in his early years but later on, he somehow took over a quarry and became an iron ore boss. He started to produce steel and he gradually expanded his business.
However, in recent years, Lei Zhengfu relied on resources from both the dark and bright sides to build a paper mill.
The paper mill was originally not allowed to run. The pollution would be too serious and sewage discharge would also be a problem. However, Lei Zhengfu had connections in the town and those connections even reached people in Zhonghai City. So eventually, he managed to open it.
The profit of tens of millions in a year was definitely not something ordinary people could imagine. It also allowed Lei Zhengfu to feed the officials above.
However, Lei Zhengfuâs ambitions did not stop there. He also joined the party and was planning to become the village chief of Dawang Village this year through voting by village representatives.
After becoming the village chief, Lei Zhengfu could continue expanding his paper mill easily. At the same time, he could discharge the sewage into the river. That would reduce the cost of purification of the sewage waters.
Originally, the village committee strongly opposed this practice and gathered people to demonstrate against it. Although Lei Zhengfu had already bought over the connections, he still could not succeed. If he could become the village chief, everything would be much easier.
Yang Chen knew that there were many townships and villages around Zhonghai because Lin Ruoxi had also placed some low-level factories of Yu Lei in those surrounding towns. After all, labor and land there were cheaper.
In all actuality, Yang Chen was not at all interested in cracking down the villains and local tyrants in these townships. Such things were everywhere in the world and he was not a compassionate Buddha.
âEven if itâs because of this, why are you with this guy? Youâre dressed this way and call yourself his girlfriend?!â Yang Chen asked uncomfortably.
Cai Yan explained, âXiao Ye is a classmate from my university. Heâs now the office director of Lushan Town and heâs from the village of Dangwang. His father is against Lei Zhengfu as the village chief. Lei Zhengfu has too many connections so many officials are involved to protect him. It would be difficult to knock him down. At our last class gathering, Xiao Ye already knew of my position and wanted to ask me to investigate Lei Zhengfuâs criminal evidence. I couldnât investigate him directly since heâs a businessman and he could simply use his money to get out of this. Lei Zhengfu tried to get every household in the village representatives to vote for him, but Xiao Yeâs family never agreed. Thatâs why he specially invited Xiao Ye to eat and drink here today. We wanted to use this opportunity so I pretended to be Xiao Yeâs girlfriend and came to see Lei Zhengfu with him. We wanted to record something and jot down some of his bribes so we could file a lawsuit in the court!â
Yang Chen frowned and was still a little puzzled. There were so many twists and turns in this issue.
Although it was said that the surrounding towns and villages were also within the scope of the Zhonghai Region, she was only the Western District Police Chief. All he could only say was that Cai Yanâs sense of justice was too strong.