Intimate Trial Chapter 31
byChapter 31
Late at night.There were no lights on in the apartment, only the faint light from the mobile phone screen reflected Shen Shenlin’s pale, bloodshot face.She was curled up in the corner of the sofa, like an animal trapped in a desperate situation, her fingers turning white from exertion, clutching her cell phone tightly.
On the screen is an encrypted chat interface with “Insomnia”.The last message still stuck to the phrase “last chance” a few days ago.
Shen Shenlin stared at the dark avatar, her chest filled with fear, anger, despair, and an impulse that was on the verge of collapse and wanted to tear everything apart.With trembling fingers, she entered, deleted, and entered again in the dialog box. Finally, as if she had exhausted all her strength, she typed out the question that was lingering in her mind and almost driving her crazy:
“Who are you anyway?”
Send.
The news is like a stone sinking into the sea.
Time crawled by in dead silence, each second seemed as long as a century.Shen Silin’s breathing became faster and faster, and her heart beat like a drum, hitting her eardrums.She stared at the screen, as if she wanted to burn a hole through the dark avatar.
Just when she almost thought that the other party would never reply, or that this was simply a one-way, long-abandoned communication channel——
The prompt “Entering…” suddenly appeared.
Shen Shenlin’s pupils suddenly shrank, and her heart suddenly rose to her throat.
A line of words appeared in the dialog box slowly and clearly:
Insomnia: You finally asked.
No denial, no avoidance, no quibbling.There was just a plain statement that seemed to have been waiting for a long time.
Shen Shenlin’s blood rushed to the top of her head in an instant, and then froze into ice the next second.Her fingers were trembling so much that she could barely hold the phone.
Silin: Did you change the data?Xinghui’s report?
Insomnia: Yes.
A crisp “yes” was like a heavy hammer, hitting Shen Silin’s heart hard.The last bit of luck was completely shattered.
Silin: Why?!Aren’t you going to help me get revenge?!Why put the wrong data in?!What do you want to do?!
She almost yelled as she typed this line on her phone, although no sound came out.
Insomnia: Help you take revenge?
The other party seemed to chuckle, and although it was just words, Shen Shenlin seemed to be able to feel the cold ridicule.
Insomnia: Silin, do you still think this is a simple revenge game about your family’s bankruptcy?
Silin’s whole body was cold.
Insomnia: From the moment you walked into Ye’s interview room, you were already the most important piece on my chessboard.Your hatred, your abilities, and your ridiculous and pitiful emotional fluctuations are all the ‘resources’ I need to utilize most.
Insomnia: That time at ‘Ruixin’, you relented and I was very disappointed.But it doesn’t matter, your hesitation and struggle made you appear more ‘real’ and more ‘trustworthy’ to Ye Chang.This paved the final path for me.
Insomnia: As for ‘Xinghui’…wrong data?No, that’s just a necessary ‘correction’.Let an overly optimistic report that may conceal underlying problems return to its ‘due’ risk level.Ye Chang was too confident and too eager.She needs a little…appropriate setback to recognize the cruelty of reality.And this ‘corrected’ report is the best sobering agent.
Shen Silin looked at these words, her mind in confusion.Correction?Sobering agent?This is not revenge at all!Is this… manipulating Ye Chang?Or are you targeting Ye?
A more terrifying thought wormed its way into her mind like a poisonous snake.
Silin: You…are you also Ye Chang’s enemy?Do you want to use my hand to bring down the Ye family?
Insomnia: Enemy?No.
The other party’s answer was unexpected.
Insomnia: The relationship between Ye Chang and me is far more complicated than the ‘enemy’.As for the Ye family…its survival or collapse depends on its own choices, and…whether Ye Chang can finally pass this ‘exam’.
exam?Silin couldn’t understand it at all.
Insomnia: You don’t have to understand.All you need to know is that your mission is accomplished.You’re doing great, Silin.Even better than I imagined.Not only did you successfully get close to Ye Chang and gain her trust, but at the last moment, you used your “conscience” and your clever “risk warning” to provide the most perfect cover and rationality for my final “correction”.Even if Ye Chang discovers that there is a problem with the report in the future, the first thing he will suspect is you, the assistant with unknown motives who tried to ‘remind’ her, rather than other more hidden links in the report circulation process.You are the best part of my plan.
Every word was like a knife, and it hurt Shen Lin’s nerves.She thought she was struggling and looking for a way out, but it turned out that every step was planned by others, and she even became the most powerful part of others’ plans!
Silin: Who are you?!What is your relationship with Ye Chang?!
She threw out all the questions uncontrollably.
This time, “Insomnia” remained silent for longer.
It took so long that Shen Shenlin thought the other party would not answer again.
Finally, a new message popped up, but it was a sentence that made her feel as if she had fallen into an ice cave:
Insomnia: Who I am is no longer important.The important thing is that the game is coming to an end.
Insomnia: Silin, I give you one last piece of advice: leave Ye’s family, leave Ye Chang, and leave this city.It’s not too late before it’s too late.Otherwise, when the truth comes out, what you will face may not just be business failure or legal liability… but something more terrifying than that.
Insomnia: Remember, the name ‘Insomnia’.It means long nights with no peace.And some nights, once you step into them, you can never get out.
Insomnia: Farewell.Good luck to you.
The news stopped abruptly.
Immediately afterwards, Shen Shenlin watched helplessly as the contact picture named “Insomnia” quickly turned gray and dim, and then… completely disappeared from her list!
The other party unilaterally deleted her!Cut off all contact!
“No-!!!”
Silin let out a suppressed, desperate scream, frantically clicking on the screen, refreshing, logging out and logging back in… to no avail.”Insomnia” disappeared as if it had never existed, leaving only those cold and cruel words, and the prompt to run a crushing and deleting program for chat records and related information that was automatically triggered on her phone.
She collapsed to the ground, her phone slipping from her hands that were unable to let go, and the sound of the screen shattering was particularly harsh in the silence.
“Insomnia” is gone.
With all the mysteries, all the calculations, and her entire life in which she was exploited to the fullest but still unclear.
Who is she?
What is the relationship between her and Ye Chang?
Xinghui’s report was tampered with, why?What is the so-called “exam”?
I… what role did I play in this terrible game?
Countless questions were like crazy vines, wrapping around her heart, getting tighter and tighter, almost suffocating her.
And “Insomnia”‘s final warning, like a curse, echoed in the empty room:
Leave Ye’s family, leave Ye Chang, leave this city… Otherwise, you will face something more terrifying than business failure or legal accountability…
Silin curled up on the cold floor, trembling all over, tears finally bursting out, mixed with extreme fear, anger at being completely fooled, and a boundless, abyss-sinking despair.
She thought she was an avenger playing chess.
But it turns out that from beginning to end, she was just a pawn.
A mysterious chess player named “Insomnia” and Ye Chang, whom she hated but couldn’t let go of, controlled and played together…
chess piece.
But now, the chess players seemed to have completed the layout and left.
She was left alone as a chess piece that had lost all direction, standing in the center of the chessboard that was about to collapse, waiting for the final crushing from nowhere.