Chapter Sixty: Handling and Change

After reviewing the sorted documents, Yurong’s expression had changed. She sent Xueyin away. She quickly listened to the audio files and understood the purpose of the information Li Yan had delivered. However, she was shocked by how Li Yan obtained these materials.

At that moment, Li Yan was waiting in the office, knowing that Yurong would definitely call. But before she called, Xueyin returned, bursting directly in.

"So? Did you deliver it?" Li Yan asked with a smile.

Xueyin originally wanted to question him for deceiving her, but faced with his smile, she found herself unable to voice it.

Intending to release her anger, she felt blocked and frustrated, perceiving Li Yan’s smile as particularly sly, as if he was deliberately provoking her. "Delivered! Does the manager have any other instructions?"

"So pleasant? Then make me a cup of coffee!" Li Yan said unceremoniously.

A malicious smile appeared on Xueyin’s face. Coffee, huh? The color of coffee could conceal anything dirty added to it without detection. What should she add? 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The phone rang, and Li Yan immediately put aside his playful demeanor, waving her off: "You go on and work. I have serious matters to discuss."

The call was from Yurong, and her first question was about how he obtained those documents.

"Where did you get it from? Did you have someone... forge it?"

After he went back on Sunday and mentioned it, Yurong had expressed her support for his investigation, saying to see how much funding would be needed, but not to personally get involved. Yet, there had been no response for the past two days, and she had forgotten about it because it was a matter long overdue, with little hope. Unexpectedly, Li Yan had directly presented evidence today, without any prior leak to her.

"Forgery? Of course not. This is from the foreigner who spread the virus confessing to his defense lawyer."

"Then how did you get this material? Did you find the lawyer and buy him off?"

"Haha, the example of Zhou Shiru was not long ago. If I used the same approach, the Changhe Group would definitely retaliate against us. The arguments we’ve previously used involving Zhou Shiru against them would all lose credibility, at least making people think we were just as shady. As for these materials...

Actually, it’s like this. This lawyer is a private attorney and not part of a larger law firm, so the security of his rented office is a major issue. Recently, his office was broken into, and many things were taken and destroyed, but because these materials were deemed quite important, the person stealing them selected them specifically. They found out it involved Changhe and Paradise Groups and knew we were at odds, so they wanted to sell us this information."

Listening to the story Li Yan had made up on the fly, Yurong clearly wasn’t buying it, "Sell to us? Then why contact you instead of our company? I suspect you leveraged your big-shot lawyer friend to check on that lawyer and orchestrated the theft, right?"

"Hehe... Between us, I can give you a nod, but if anyone outside says so, I could claim it’s unfounded slander. In short, we have obtained this material, and I’ve given it to you. How you decide to proceed, whether to sue or make it public, is up to you. You could claim the source as someone who contacted the company to sell it."

After hearing his plan, Yurong paused for a moment, then sighed lightly before asking, "Were you directly involved? If the police investigate, would it implicate you?"

"Absolutely not."

Yurong contemplated further, "Then I have another suggestion."

"Go ahead."

"Don’t you have a hacker friend? Let him help you discreetly release this information on the internet, and we can strategically apply pressurizing public opinion. You can initially publicize it, then make it clear there is recorded evidence. If there’s no reaction from them, gradually release some audio. If my estimates are correct, once this news spreads, those within Changhe Group directly involved will certainly try to contact you to buy back the audio."

"Why go through so much trouble? Wouldn’t it be better for the company to release it directly?" Li Yan guessed that Yurong wanted to give him a chance to make some extra money, which made him a bit embarrassed.

"There are three benefits to doing it this way. First, it allows the company to avoid issues regarding the source of the information. Even if we have an excuse, if we release it, we’re inevitably suspected of playing an unsavory role in that lawyer’s theft case, which could have wider implications. If it’s released online, we’re just citing information publicly available—we’re not accountable for its origin. Second, when stated by an uninvolved third party, the information seems more credible than when coming from the victim party.

Third, it allows you and your friend to earn a hush fee. Fourth, this case doesn’t solely involve our company. Once we achieve our goal, there will be no repercussions."

Yurong analyzed seriously.

Li Yan was surprised to see how quickly she thought so far and wide. It seemed that in terms of the company’s big picture, Yurong truly had exceptional insights! While he tended to act on emotion, striking directly, he hadn’t considered many interconnected factors.