The Cold White Moonlight Desires Me Every Day - Chapter 20

The interrogation, delivered from mere inches away, felt like a thousand needles piercing Ni Yunshi’s skin, leaving her itching all over with nowhere to hide.

Oh no, oh no! I’ve been caught doing something bad!

Does she suspect I deliberately colluded with outsiders to harm her?

Waaah, I swear I didn’t! I’m still trying to figure out how to pay the fine myself, waaah…

Ruan Tang’s gaze darkened further. Could she really be so love-struck? Even after I’ve pushed her this far, she hasn’t revealed a single crack in her facade, not even in her thoughts?

“Ni Yunshi, I won’t always be here to clean up your messes. You’d better give me a straight answer right now.”

Ruan Tang pressed her again, her eyes now burning with malice.

“What exactly did you do that was so shameful you had to send Sun Hongwei to prison?”

Not prison—disappearance.

Only his complete and utter vanishing will allow me to truly act as if nothing happened.

“Showing mercy to enemies is cruelty to oneself. As for Sun Hongwei, I’ll see this through to the end.” Ni Yunshi met Ruan Tang’s gaze steadily.

For the first time, the voice in her heart crystallized into a coldness as pure as her beauty.

Ruan Tang’s breath caught for a moment. Just as she was about to press further, Ni Yunshi suddenly spoke in a harsh tone, “Ruan Tang, we’ve always been like oil and water. My actions are none of your concern, and you’d do well to stay out of it.”

Vicious and aloof! I need to be vicious and aloof!

I’m sorry, we need to keep our distance!

I’m about to roll up my sleeves and go all out soon. I can’t let my Tangtang get splattered with bl00d.

“Your company is a subsidiary of the group. Your actions will affect the group’s profits,” Ruan Tang retorted, adopting the authoritative tone of a superior. “Ni Yunshi, if you don’t tell me, do you think I won’t lock you back in the basement today?”

“If you have the guts, try it.”

Ni Yunshi scoffed, a hint of bitterness in her laughter.

I was never normal to begin with.

I should have died that day.

Surviving in the basement all this time? That’s just my strong fate.

Her inner thoughts grew increasingly bleak, as if her past emotions had merely been grass concealing a dark secret.

A gust of wind, a rustle of leaves—any disturbance could reveal the truth.

“Do you really think I’m incapable of this?” Ruan Tang’s expression turned cold and severe.

Ni Yunshi maintained her defiant stance but remained silent.

Receiving no response, Ruan Tang turned away in anger.

Leaving Bai Mei’er’s floor, Ruan Tang returned directly to her office on the top floor of the office building.

Li Xiao, startled by her furious demeanor and the bandage on her head, exclaimed, “President Ruan, what happened?”

“Issue an immediate directive to shut down Bai Mei’er Company for internal restructuring. Their recent performance has been poor, and their facilities are outdated.”

Before Li Xiao could express further concern, Ruan Tang had already dismissed him.

Despite her anger, Li Xiao, having served as her assistant for six months, understood Ruan Tang’s intentions and immediately set about carrying out her orders.

Within fifteen minutes, the directive had been issued downstairs.

Ni Yunshi showed no surprise, simply rising to go home.

However, the other employees of Bai Mei’er Company were far from pleased by the sudden vacation.

The receptionist pulled Li Xiao aside and whispered, “Assistant Li, President Ni just returned, and now President Ruan is targeting her again. With all the recent troubles, what’s going to happen to Bai Mei’er’s development?”

Though she spoke in a low voice, everyone nearby strained to listen.

“We’ve just been dealing with a lot of issues lately, which is why we’re temporarily suspending operations for restructuring,” Li Xiao said soothingly, signaling that everything was under control. “It’s also good for President Ni to lay low for a while. President Ruan, you still value President Ni, don’t you?”

Hearing this, the Bai Mei’er employees breathed a collective sigh of relief and happily went home.

But in the top-floor office, Ruan Tang’s face was grim as she made call after call, her fingers relentlessly tapping at the keyboard.

She was frantically researching Bai Mei’er’s financial reports and news articles from the past three years, extracting information from clients and business partners close to Ni Yunshi, trying to deduce what Ni Yunshi had done and what had happened to her.

Yet the information she gathered only confirmed Ni Yunshi’s business acumen and her friendly, almost universally liked social style, with virtually no known enemies.

Frustrated, Ruan Tang slammed down the phone, muttering, “Not a single one of these people is telling the truth…”

The fact that Bai Mei’er had been disrupted by protesters couldn’t possibly be unknown to anyone in the industry. To claim she had no enemies was clearly a lie!

“President Ruan, your relationship with Miss Ni is unstable. Outsiders will naturally avoid getting involved,” Li Xiao said, trying to reassure her.

Ruan Tang frowned, about to retort, when the phone on the assistant’s desk rang.

Li Xiao rushed to answer the call, his expression immediately shifting. After a hurried exchange, he hung up.

“President Ruan, it’s the police. They said… they said…” Li Xiao stammered, then trailed off.

Ruan Tang frowned warily. “Said what?”

“They want to reopen the investigation into your father’s death.”

Ruan Tang’s heart sank.

Years ago, while abroad, she had built her company with Gu Hewan’s help, using it to harass her father back in China.

Later, she secretly returned home, intending to overthrow him in one swift move. But before she could act, her abusive father died suddenly. She inherited his assets, consolidated his businesses, and even climbed to the top of his conglomerate.

Since then, rumors had circulated that she had secretly murdered her father.

“Send the investigators up,” Ruan Tang said calmly.

Li Xiao quickly escorted them in.

Though Ruan Tang had nothing to hide, the investigators’ first question still stunned her.

“Miss Ruan, our investigation suggests your father’s death may be connected to Ni Yunshi. Do you know anything about this?”

“I was abroad for three years. I know nothing about what happened here.”

Ruan Tang gave the same answer she had given when she first returned to China.

But this time, the investigators pressed further.

“If you truly know nothing, why did you imprison Miss Ni and slander her character?”

During the interrogation, the officer pointed to his neck.

Ruan Tang realized he was the same officer who had come to her home earlier to investigate her alleged illegal detention of Ni Yunshi.

“Are you trying to lead me with your questions?” Ruan Tang countered instead of answering.

The officer fell silent.

“I did nothing excessive to Ni Yunshi. You’ve already investigated. If you continue to use inappropriate language and leading questions, I’ll report you. My office has audio and video recordings.”

Ruan Tang’s assertive tone left no room for argument. Before the officer could respond, she added, “Since you’re acting on a lead, why not show it to me? Perhaps it will jog my memory.”

“I’m sorry, but the case’s leads are currently confidential and cannot be disclosed,” the investigator replied.

Denied access to the information she sought, Ruan Tang ceased her pursuit. The officer asked a few more perfunctory questions before leaving.

Li Xiao escorted the investigators to their car. When he returned, he whispered urgently to Ruan Tang, “President Ruan, as I saw them off, I overheard them discussing Sun Hongwei. They said he’s also under investigation in another jurisdiction, but they haven’t been able to locate him yet.”

“How can an official investigation fail to find someone?” Ruan Tang asked, puzzled.

“The investigation began today. He boarded a flight overseas yesterday.”