Chapter 64 Clarification

Leaving Wenxin Technology, Duan Yubai's expression was dark and terrifying.

What did Wen Zheng mean just now? The property left by the Su family to Su Nuo?

The Su family had been on the verge of bankruptcy back then; how could there be any property left to Su Nuo?

If the Duan family had not let bygones be bygones and taken Su Nuo in, she would have become an unwanted orphan, sent straight to an orphanage.

Duan Yubai sat in the car, his eyes tightly closed.

It felt as if he were seeing that little girl again, crying incessantly and clutching desperately at the corner of his suit jacket.

"Brother Yubai, I don't want to go to the orphanage. Can I be your little sister?"

"I'm begging you, I'm scared. I don't want to go to the orphanage."

The tragic image of young Su Nuo kept flashing before his eyes. He abruptly opened his eyes.

"President Duan? Are you feeling unwell?"

"Go tell Zhao Zhe to have him take Su Nuo on the project, and credit the performance to Su Nuo."

With Duan Yubai giving the order, Mo Xiaoxue did not dare disobey.

Since Su Nuo was not yet a regular employee, merely an intern, naturally, this performance would just be counted as hers.

Mo Xiaoxue glanced back in the direction of Wenxin Technology.

Since Wen Zheng thought so highly of Su Nuo, she hoped they would enjoy a pleasant collaboration.

The commission from such a massive project was something she would gladly accept.

However, before any of them could return to the company, Duan Yubai received another call from a business partner and had to turn the car around for the golf course.

Meanwhile, back in the CEO's office, Su Nuo was practically on the verge of collapsing onto the floor.

She had originally thought organizing documents would be simple, but once she started, she discovered that the files encompassed every single department.

She had happened to hit the peak of the quarterly document consolidation.

Useful and useless documents alike had been piled onto her.

She had no idea how these things were handled in the past. When she asked Li Jingze and the others, no one was willing to tell her.

In the end, she could only follow Duan Yubai's instructions, sorting them out chronologically, bit by bit.

Aside from bathroom breaks, she spent the entire day reading through the contents of the files.

It was not until everyone else had finished work and was leaving that Li Jingze knocked on the door.

"Miss Su, not all documents are important."

He gave a light cough. "Just arranging them by quarter is fine. Usually, it takes the few of us a whole week to sort through this. You don't need to rush so much."

"A week?" Su Nuo crouched on the floor, lifting her head with great effort.

Li Jingze nodded helplessly.

He had no idea why Duan Yubai had ordered her to organize the files all by herself, but for all the staff in the CEO's office combined, it would still take an entire week—a full seven days—to get it done.

Su Nuo dropped heavily onto the floor, feeling a surge of hot blood rush to her head.

So Duan Yubai, purely to torment her, had made her single-handedly tackle a week's worth of multi-departmental paperwork?

If she could not finish sorting them, she wouldn't be allowed to go home. Did that mean she wouldn't be able to leave this place for months?

She suddenly felt a suffocating pressure in her chest, unable to exhale the stagnant air no matter how hard she tried.

Checking to ensure no one else was around, Li Jingze tossed a slip of paper over to her.

"I've written down the priority departments. These are the ones President Duan wants to review tomorrow. Focus on these first."

"I'm off, gotta go. Don't tell anyone."

He pointed at the slip of paper, and Su Nuo nodded with immediate gratitude.

She knew that most of the company was likely filled with Mo Xiaoxue's informants.

Everyone had tacitly accepted Mo Xiaoxue as the future mistress of the house.

Today, Su Nuo had heard more than enough rumors herself.

Especially during the lunch break, where the pantry was practically a hotbed for every kind of gossip imaginable.

The majority of the gossip centered around Mo Xiaoxue and Duan Yubai.

"I heard Miss Su has already been living at President Duan's house for months? The two of them are living together?"

"Obviously? You didn't think they were sleeping in separate rooms, did you?"

"My family lives on the same floor as Secretary Mo, and the water leakage wasn't even that serious."

"President Duan dotes on his own woman, what's it to you? Are you just green with envy and jealousy?"

Some even started discussing their upcoming wedding date, claiming that the two families had a long-standing friendship and that they were childhood sweethearts.

Hiding in a corner, Su Nuo carefully nibbled on a steamed bun.

The rich aroma of coffee in the pantry completely masked the taste of the cold bun.

Even so, she ate it with relish.

However, those people got one thing wrong: Mo Xiaoxue and Duan Yubai were not childhood sweethearts. She was.

Except that she was merely Duan Yubai's younger sister, the adopted daughter of the Duan family.

Suddenly, the tone of the conversation shifted, moving directly onto Su Nuo.

"Did you see President Wang's clarification online? He said the woman he was hugging yesterday was just a minor internet celebrity. I looked at it, and she really does look eight or nine parts like Miss Su."

"Not at all. She only looks like her because of makeup, otherwise how could she fool so many netizens?"

"President Duan was out with people; how could he possibly not notice his own sister was missing?"

"These fabricated scandals about women are so sickening. But why did President Wang suddenly admit to cheating during his marriage anyway?"

Hearing this, Su Nuo's fingers tightened slightly.

Wang Debin actually "clarified" things? What was going on?

She quickly pulled out her phone and indeed found Wang Debin's statement, which explained that he and his wife had been separated for four years, and they were merely sorting out their remaining asset divisions before officially filing for divorce soon.

Meanwhile, someone had pointed out the differences in clothing between Su Nuo and "that woman."

Su Nuo could tell at a glance that the photos had clearly been taken today, yet they were still being pulled out for comparison.

True, the clothes belonged to the same collection, but the placement of the decorations and the colors were slightly different.

Netizens, following the crowd blindly, immediately became convinced that Su Nuo had been wronged.

[How could the eldest Miss Su lower herself to be with an old man? I advise certain people not to be so ridiculous.]

[Would the Duan family really use an adopted daughter to ingratiate themselves with President Wang? Are you kidding me?]

[I remember the Su family used to hold a pretty high status too, how could she possibly be cast aside?]

[Is it only me who thinks Su Nuo is genuinely being abused? Otherwise, she's autistic, why else is she so thin?]

Throughout the entire lunch break, Su Nuo spent half an hour reading the contents online.

The events of the night before last seemed to have ended just like that, quietly and without a ripple.

Everyone believed that President Wang had kept a minor internet celebrity as a mistress, not her.

As for the Duan Corporation, not only did it remain unaffected, but its stock price even saw a slight bump.

At that moment, a warmth had flickered in Su Nuo's heart.

Aside from Duan Yubai, no one else could have pulled that off.

Regardless of whether he did it for the sake of the company or for some other reason, at the very least, he had helped her.

Having finished two large steamed buns and feeling her energy restored, Su Nuo had returned to the office.

Yet now, sitting on the office floor, she felt as though she had been struck by lightning.

Duan Yubai wanted to torture her—was it simply because she had been locked away in that compound for months?

He couldn't see that she had been starved down to skin and bones, nor could he see the faint scars scattered across her body.

He hadn't even been willing to have a doctor give her a proper checkup, hastily jumping to the conclusion that she was just acting.

So he wanted to punish her by subjecting her to endless work.

By letting her bear all kinds of vicious curses and slander for an entire day before finally throwing her a lifeline to clear her name?

Su Nuo slowly hugged her knees tightly to her chest, feeling the office grow bitterly, bone-chillingly cold.

Then, the office door was pushed open, and an even colder voice rang out from above her head.

"I told you to work, and here you are, zoning out?"

"Does the company pay you a salary just for you to come here and enjoy yourself?"