At the crossroads on the downhill slope, the car was propelled forward irresistibly, like a runaway wild horse.
"Miss Li, hold on to the handle on the window!" Xie Bingxia concentrated, quickly turned the steering wheel, and sped past amidst the blaring horns.
However, just dodging like this was not a solution. Ahead was the most congested section in the city center. What should they do then? Xie Bingxia glanced at the green belt by the road and had an idea. She had no choice but to slow down by scraping against the green belt.
At this moment, two Land Rovers flashed in the rear - view mirror, coming side by side. They caught up with Xie Bingxia's car, one on the left and the other on the right. The windows rolled down, and a black - suited bodyguard made a gesture to Xie Bingxia, meaning for her to hold on tight.
Xie Bingxia understood and stopped paying attention to the steering wheel. While holding on tightly herself, she reminded Li Yishan, "Hold on tight!"
The Land Rovers rushed over quickly, sandwiching Xie Bingxia's car. Screech - screech - the sound of metal friction was ear - piercing. Xie Bingxia even felt the car lift off the ground. The three cars were in a sandwich state, slowly accelerating until they stopped.
The bodyguard got out of the car and knocked on Xie Bingxia's window. "Are you okay?"
Li Yishan was so frightened that she was stiff in her seat. Xie Bingxia helped her unbuckle the seatbelt and patted her on the shoulder to comfort her. "Don't be afraid. You're safe now."
A dozen minutes later, Gu Bei arrived at the scene. Two accidents in two days in a row. Boss Gu's face was extremely grim. He grabbed Secretary Zhang by the collar and demanded, "Where is Yuan Yiyun! Find her!"
Secretary Zhang quickly replied, "She went to New Zealand to lie low half a month ago."
"Gu Bei..." Xie Bingxia called him. "Let's put Yuan Yiyun aside for now. Miss Li doesn't look well. Let's find a place for her to calm down first."
Li Yishan was curled up in the back seat of the car, pale - faced. Her condition was really bad.
"Just right. I'll book a suite for you in a hotel. I'll handle the rest."
Gu Bei's domineering statement left no room for Xie Bingxia to object. Like endangered animals, the two of them were escorted by bodyguards to the designated hotel room.
"Stay here and don't go anywhere until this matter is resolved."
Li Yishan had calmed down a bit. She took a sip of the coffee Xie Bingxia handed her and then slowly said, "The person who hurt Miss Xie yesterday and the one who tampered with the car today may not be Miss Xie's enemy. They might be after me."
"What do you mean, Miss Li?" Xie Bingxia was surprised. "Weren't they sent by Yuan Yiyun?"
Li Yishan looked up at Gu Bei. "Actually, around one or two o'clock last night when you sent me back to the apartment, before I got on the elevator, I faintly felt someone staring at me. But since you were there, they didn't act."
Last night? One or two o'clock? So Gu Bei and Li Yishan had been together last night until so late. Xie Bingxia shot a jealous look at Gu Bei, saying sourly, "You haven't seen each other for so many years. Naturally, you had a good heart - to - heart talk."
How could Gu Bei not taste the jealousy in Xie Bingxia's words? He was secretly happy but pretended not to care on the surface. "I drank a little wine yesterday. I didn't notice if there was someone following. Are you sure, Yishan?"
Goodness, he even drank wine. Xie Bingxia's mouth twitched twice, giving Gu Bei a black look.
"I'm sure." Li Yishan nodded. "They might have mistaken me for being with Miss Xie, so they kept attacking us. It's just that I got out of the car yesterday and escaped."
Gu Bei and Xie Bingxia analyzed the two incidents carefully. It was indeed possible that they were after Li Yishan.
"Who have you offended?" Gu Bei asked. Li Yishan shook her head. "It should not be revenge but an attempt to silence me." As she said this, her eyes gradually turned red, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"Can you listen to me tell the whole story?"
Even though she was jealous, Xie Bingxia couldn't bear to see her old friend aggrieved and sad. She put her arm around Li Yishan's shoulder and said, "Take your time. Don't rush. We're here with you."
The story started half a year ago. At that time, Li Yishan had just finished a major project and received an order from China. The order said that the art museum needed to be renovated, and Li Yishan was invited to design it. She was quite interested, so she took the order and booked the fastest flight back to China to discuss the plan with the client.
"The other party claimed to be the newly - appointed curator of the art museum and arranged for me to stay in a top - class hotel in the city. I had no suspicion at that time." Recalling that so - called curator, Li Yishan frowned.
But during the later discussions about the plan, Li Yishan became suspicious. Her design plans were all rejected one by one. The requirements put forward by the curator didn't seem to have anything to do with the art museum. Finally, they couldn't reach an agreement and parted unhappily. The day before she returned to the United States, the curator still politely invited Li Yishan to a farewell dinner.
"That night, I thought and thought but still felt a bit unwilling. I wanted to talk to the curator one more time. I remembered that he lived in the room next to mine, so I was going to knock on his door directly. Then I saw a man in all black standing at the curator's door. The curator welcomed him into the room." Li Yishan shivered as she said this. "I thought he had a guest, so it was inconvenient to disturb him, so I went back to my room. As a result, the curator was found dead in his room the next day."
Gu Bei took out his iPad and searched for the news report of this case. "It's true, but the deceased was not the curator of the art museum."
"Right. He forged his ID to deceive me." Li Yishan was extremely scared and covered her face.
After the case happened, the police summoned Li Yishan and also investigated the surveillance video from that night. But the video had been tampered with, and there was no picture of the black - suited suspect. After being cleared of suspicion, Li Yishan quickly flew back to the United States.
"I think it might be because I was abroad, so they couldn't do anything to me. This time when I came back, maybe..." Li Yishan didn't dare to continue imagining. Gu Bei felt regretful and said, "I'm sorry. It was me who asked you to come back."
After this conversation, Xie Bingxia understood the general situation. She patted her chest and said to Li Yishan, "Miss Li, stay here at ease. Leave your matter to me. I'll definitely find out the truth."
"You?" Li Yishan couldn't believe it. Gu Bei knew that Xie Bingxia had the problem of sticking her nose into other people's business again. He grabbed her and said, "Come here with me."
Xie Bingxia was dragged into another room. Gu Bei turned around and closed the door tightly. He said in a commanding tone, "I said you're not allowed to interfere. I'll handle it."
"How are you going to handle it?" Xie Bingxia retorted. "Rely on the police? It's an unsolved case from half a year ago. The murderer is still at large, and there is no new evidence. How can they investigate?"
"Then how do you plan to solve it? By illegal means?!"
"..."
Caught by Gu Bei, Xie Bingxia was unconvinced and mumbled in retort, "You've done illegal things before."
"I've decided to hand this matter over to the police." Gu Bei said rationally. "Of course, we'll cooperate fully and protect Yishan well." After saying that, he took a step closer to Xie Bingxia. "Don't think you can gain her favor by solving this matter. If you really want her to participate in the wharf project, you can... beg me."
Xie Bingxia really wanted to punch that arrogant face. She said, "You don't understand! Yishan has always seemed like a strong person since childhood, but actually she's very timid. She didn't even dare to dissect a frog in junior high school biology class..." Halfway through the sentence, she suddenly felt something was wrong and quickly shut up. But Gu Bei had already firmly grabbed her chin and forced her to look into his eyes.
"Repeat what you just said. Since childhood? Junior high school? Biology class?" Gu Bei's eyes were icy cold, like a knife stabbing into Xie Bingxia's heart.
"Yesterday should be your first time meeting Li Yishan, right?"
Xie Bingxia inadvertently dodged Gu Bei's gaze. "Yes, it was Miss Li who told me when we were chatting."
"You're lying to me." Gu Bei's intuition was super accurate. "Xie Bingxia, tell the truth!"