On her second day at work, Xiao Mei woke up with a whirlwind of thoughts swirling in her mind. The contents of the confidential file she had read the night before continued to haunt her. Questions echoed in her head: Why had Lu Zeyan given her such sensitive information so easily? What did he expect her to do with it?
Despite the uneasiness, she got dressed and made her way to the office. Her steps were slower than usual, weighed down by the burden of what she had learned, but her resolve was clear. She was determined to uncover the truth, no matter how dark it might be.
As part of the agreement, Xiao Mei was to shadow Lu Zeyan throughout his workday. From the moment she entered the building, she noticed subtle changes. Colleagues greeted her more formally, and their eyes flickered with curiosity. Whispers followed her as she walked past. She knew people were beginning to realize she wasn't just a guest writer—she was now deeply involved in something much bigger.
Throughout the day, Xiao Mei observed Lu Zeyan closely. She followed him from high-stakes boardroom meetings to elegant business lunches with powerful clients, and intense negotiation sessions behind closed doors. Lu Zeyan handled each scenario with impressive composure and control. He spoke little, but every word he uttered carried weight. He didn't just lead; he commanded attention.
But Xiao Mei's trained eye picked up more than just the surface. She noted every suspicious glance between colleagues, every document quickly hidden as she entered a room, and every carefully chosen word in casual conversations. With a small notebook tucked into her coat pocket, she jotted down details that others might dismiss as unimportant. She knew better. Every tiny clue could be a piece of a much larger puzzle.
Later that afternoon, Lu Zeyan surprised her by inviting her to visit an off-site location. "There's something important you should see," he said. His tone was calm but unreadable. Intrigued and slightly wary, Xiao Mei followed him in his car.
They arrived at a quiet, secluded building on the outskirts of the city. It was a project site still under development—modern, sleek, and empty. As they walked through the space, Lu Zeyan finally spoke.
"Do you believe that the truth always deserves to be told?" he asked suddenly, his voice echoing softly off the bare walls.
Caught off guard, Xiao Mei took a moment before answering. "Yes," she said firmly. "But the truth has consequences. And I'm prepared to face them."
Lu Zeyan turned to her with a small, enigmatic smile. "Then you're braver than most. Just remember, not everyone wants the truth to come out."
Xiao Mei nodded. "That won't stop me."
They said little after that. He dropped her off near her apartment, and she walked the rest of the way home, her mind racing with possibilities. That night, she sat at her desk and opened her laptop. With a deep breath, she began organizing the documents and photographs from the file into a digital folder. She cross-referenced them with older news articles and began building a timeline.
Names began to form patterns. Events lined up in ways that suddenly made sense. Xiao Mei felt like she was peeling back the layers of a story that had long been buried. But each discovery brought her closer to something dangerous.
Just as she was reviewing an article about a financial scandal from five years ago—one that had mysteriously disappeared from public records—her phone rang. The caller ID showed no name, just a string of numbers.
Hesitantly, she answered. A deep, distorted voice came through the speaker.
"Stop now before it's too late. There's a reason why no other journalist dared to investigate this."
The line went dead.
Xiao Mei stared at her phone in silence. A shiver ran down her spine, but it wasn't fear that overwhelmed her—it was determination. She set the phone aside, gripped her pen tightly, and whispered to herself, "I might be afraid. But I won't let that stop me. I will uncover the truth. No matter what."
And with that, she resumed her work—because now, more than ever, she knew the truth needed to be told.