Thought It Was Just a Petty Thief...

Chairman Xu's good mood vanished completely when he arrived at the company the next day.

He was even somewhat angry.

Because the person sitting before him for this arranged meeting was not the Engineering Department supervisor he wanted to see—Jiang Fengshan.

As a veteran servant who had worked under three generations of Serpent Coil leadership, the man had diligently served the group since Xu Shi's grandfather's era.

Given that status, although Xu Shi had already known the old man was somewhat crooked, he had still been willing to show him some respect and sit down for a proper face-to-face talk first.

The other party had readily agreed at first, but Xu Shi only learned upon arriving that the bastard had claimed a sudden illness and stood him up at the last minute.

That was refusing a favor after being given one.

"Miss Jiang Chengcheng, do you really think you're qualified to speak with me in place of your adoptive father?!"

He tried his best not to vent his anger on the woman before him, but he could not quite hold it back.

This adopted daughter of Jiang Fengshan's was also a member of Serpent Coil's Engineering Department, and her résumé was quite impressive... but that was not what concerned him right now.

All he knew was that the old bastard was stringing him along, and that left him extremely displeased.

"I... I... If Chairman Xu has any instructions, I-I can pass them on for you..."

Jiang Chengcheng answered timidly. "M-my father really did fall suddenly ill... I-if it's an engineering issue, I already submitted a report to you yesterday..."

It was obvious that Xu Shi's presence had frightened her.

She kept her head lowered, her legs tightly pressed together, stammering too badly to speak properly.

She was not much good at dressing herself, either. The oversized work uniform looked awkward on her, while her messy braid and thick black-rimmed glasses that covered most of her face made her look terribly old-fashioned.

Honestly, under normal circumstances, Xu Shi probably would not have given a girl like this a second glance.

But her words suddenly caught his attention. "You said... you wrote that equipment usage feedback report?"

He remembered it clearly. When he had read it last night, it had been signed by Jiang Fengshan, not her.

"Y-yes, I wrote it..."

Jiang Chengcheng seemed at a loss. "I-is there a problem? Y-you can tell me, and I'll revise it..."

"If you wrote it, why was it signed with your adoptive father's name?"

Xu Shi gradually calmed down and asked with a frown.

"This..."

Jiang Chengcheng froze, then turned her face away in a panic.

She had clearly realized that she had accidentally let something slip.

"Tell me."

Xu Shi forced her to meet his gaze. "How long has something like this been going on?"

"...J-just, just this once..."

Jiang Chengcheng bit her lip, trying to brush the matter aside. "My father wasn't feeling well yesterday, so I helped him..."

"I'll give you one more chance."

Xu Shi cut her off bluntly. "If I'm not mistaken, Miss Jiang, you weren't doing these things willingly, were you?"

"N-no, I did all of this willingly..."

Jiang Chengcheng tried desperately to explain.

"So you admit this wasn't the first time, right?"

A smile rose at the corner of Xu Shi's lips as he stood and slowly walked toward her. "Then why not tell the truth? I hate dishonest people."

At the sight of this, Jiang Chengcheng instinctively curled herself up even more and squeezed her eyes shut. "Please don't hit me. It's all my fault..."

Everyone knew Xu Shi's reputation. According to the version she had heard, he was a psychopathic maniac who beat and berated his subordinates as a matter of routine.

That made her even more afraid.

Yet the scene she had imagined never came.

Xu Shi merely placed a hand on her shoulder, then lowered his voice and said softly, "Could it be that Miss Jiang is truly willing to remain your adoptive father's puppet for the rest of your life?"

"True talent should shine more brilliantly, not have its research achievements stolen by others while others enjoy the glory."

"You've even suffered his long-term abuse... Do you really want things to go on like this forever?"

In truth, he had not been entirely sure about that last point even a minute ago. Perhaps the girl in front of him was simply socially anxious.

But her instinctive reaction just now had happened to confirm his guess.

As for the rest... he had already understood seventy or eighty percent of it the moment Jiang Chengcheng let it slip.

That was quite the pleasant surprise.

He had thought he was catching a petty... ah, no, he had thought this would just be a simple meeting, yet he had hooked a big fish instead.

Good thing you left, old bastard.

Xu Shi's words were undoubtedly like blades, stabbing viciously into Jiang Chengcheng's heart.

Because the truth was largely just as he had said.

As an orphan adopted by Jiang Fengshan, she had originally been deeply grateful to him.

After all, he had taken her out of the misery of the orphanage and given her excellent living conditions and a good education.

And she had not disappointed her father's expectations. She earned a degree from the Mechanical Engineering Department with outstanding grades, then joined the Serpent Coil Group where he worked.

At the time, she had sincerely hoped to become her father's right-hand woman.

But what followed did not unfold as she had imagined. It began with a research report.

Jiang Fengshan had approached her with the report, claiming that he wanted to discuss it with her... Naturally, she had been happy to do so and had carefully helped him correct the mistakes and flaws in it.

Yet when the report was submitted to the group, her name was nowhere among the authors.

She had not thought much of it the first time or two, assuming that perhaps her father had simply overlooked it... But as it happened more and more often, she began to realize something was wrong.

This was outright academic plagiarism... Yet when she confronted Jiang Fengshan about it, all she received was a beating.

"I raised you so you could enter social circles. Who knew you had no talent in that regard?"

The kind elder finally bared his fangs. "Fortunately, you still have some value. You haven't wasted all I invested in you."

After laying everything bare, he stopped pretending. He forced her to carry out extensive technical research, then shamelessly put his own name on all the results.

Whenever she tried to resist, she received only more brutal abuse than before.

That was how she had spent five years at Serpent Coil—unwilling, yet forced to become a tool in his hands.

Such experiences left her in unbearable pain. It was not only physical suffering; over time, she developed a severe mental illness and had no choice but to rely on large amounts of medication for relief.

A young girl in the bloom of her youth had become the dispirited figure she was now.

But she had no way to seek help. She had never had many friends growing up, and the Engineering Department was Jiang Fengshan's territory. Even if anyone noticed something, no one dared speak out.

She could not even find someone to confide in.

She had never expected that Xu Shi would be the one to expose it all in the end.

"Then tell me, Miss Jiang. What is your choice?"