Chapter 135: Get in the Car

"You mean this Wang Danrou is actually a spy!" Sitting on Leng Zhiruo's bed, Huang He said with a deep, pensive frown.

Although Huang He had a keen intuition that something was amiss with Wang Danrou, his suspicions had only been vague. Deep down, he had figured there was a seventy or eighty percent chance she had nothing to do with espionage.

And now, reality had come crashing down with a resounding slap to his face—Wang Danrou genuinely was a spy.

"Brother-in-law, whose spy do you think this Wang Danrou could be?" Leng Zhiruo scratched her head and said, "What kind of boss sends their own sister-in-law to act as a spy?"

"Indeed, that Pony Ma really has lived a life full of surprises," Huang He agreed, nodding with profound empathy.

"Wait, Brother-in-law, are you saying that the person behind Wang Danrou is actually Pony Ma?" Leng Zhiruo gasped.

"It is almost certainly him. After all, there are only two companies with both the motive and the capacity to compete with us for the acquisition of OurGame: one is Tencang, and the other is Shanda. However, Shanda had no prior competition with us; there was no reason for them to have planted a sister-in-law here as a spy so early on. The only one who would pull a stunt like this is Tencang."

"Besides, OurGame is of paramount importance to Tencang. Securing OurGame would immensely relieve their profit pressures," Huang He analyzed with absolute precision.

"Then I'm going to haul this traitor in right now and teach her a lesson!" Leng Zhiruo fumed angrily.

"Don't. Why would you grab her? What good would that do?" Huang He rolled his eyes. "Are you going to drag her to the police station? China doesn't even have a specific crime for commercial espionage; we only have the crime of infringing upon commercial secrets. But for that charge to hold up in court, it has to cause major losses to our company. Has she caused us any losses yet?"

"Well, not really..." Leng Zhiruo shook her head. In fact, far from causing any losses, Wang Danrou had actually contributed quite a bit, even sending two corporate parasites packing straight to the local police station.

"There you have it. Handing her over to the police now won't do us a single bit of good, other than alerting the enemy."

"Then I'll just drag her over here and beat her up!" Leng Zhiruo said indignantly.

"Oh, perfect. Then she can march right down to the precinct and file charges against us for assault, and you'll be locked up before anyone else. Does that sound like a profitable trade?" Huang He rolled his eyes again, causing Leng Zhiruo to stick out her tongue in a cute gesture of defeat.

"Furthermore, if we involve the police, we won't be able to keep it a secret that we bugged her room with a listening device. In the end, we'll be the ones in trouble!" Huang He added.

"So you're saying I have no other choice besides firing her?" Leng Zhiruo was thoroughly depressed.

"Well, not quite!" Huang He shook his head, a smile spreading across his face instead. "If we didn't know she was a spy, she'd undoubtedly be a continuous hazard. But now that her cover is blown, someone like her becomes a piece we can use to our advantage!"

"Actually, I was planning to set a trap to lure someone in anyway. I was just worried about what we'd do if the opponent didn't take the bait, but then Wang Danrou showed up and neatly filled in the unstable part of my plan," Huang He chuckled softly. "Don't you worry, Zhiruo, I'm going to make sure that guy Pony Ma suffers a double loss—losing both his troops and his treasure!"

"Losing both his troops and his treasure?" Leng Zhiruo's expression froze, twisting into an awkward, wry smile. "I'd say it's more like losing his sister-in-law and his investment!"

"What kind of talk is that, Zhiruo!" Huang He said with a righteous expression. "I have never had any interest in other people's sisters-in-law. I am only interested in my own!"

"What did you just say?" Leng Zhiruo's face flushed crimson in an instant.

"Zhiruo, what do you think is really going on here?" Huang He's hand stealthily crept around her from behind, wrapping firmly around her slender waist as he lowered his voice into a mischievous tone. "Zhiruo, don't you find it strange? This was an issue that could easily have been resolved over the phone—why would I deliberately run all the way from home to your place just to chat?"

"Ah!" Leng Zhiruo froze for a moment, then bit her lip and said, "I don't know!"

"Of course it's because my good Zhiruo has never given your brother-in-law a reason to step through your front door." As Huang He spoke, his hand began to wander mischievously.

"Brother-in-law, you can't do this... you're my brother-in-law..." Leng Zhiruo's voice lacked any real conviction.

"My good Zhiruo, have you given any thought to what I talked to you about last time? Let's get married; your brother-in-law is completely sincere!" At this very moment, Huang He was sincere—truly as sincere as a man could possibly be.

"No way, who gets married this fast? I haven't even been in a relationship yet!" Leng Zhiruo mumbled in a voice no louder than a mosquito's.

"Fine, then we'll date first. You can date until you've had your fill, and then we'll get married!" With that declaration, Huang He lunged forward directly.

... [Omitted one side story chapter] ...

"What on earth is going on next door?" That evening, while still diligently wrestling with her data collection, Wang Danrou suddenly heard some unusual noises coming from the next room. She had been living here for over a week and had never heard such strange sounds before.

Moreover, the noise was utterly bizarre, sounding almost like someone whose mouth was being muffled, letting out muffled, humming groans.

The sounds continued for quite a while, filling Wang Danrou with a mounting sense of dread. She wondered nervously if burglars had broken into the building.

Concerned for Leng Zhiruo, she mustered her courage and knocked on the door, intending to check if everything was all right. The moment she knocked, the noise inside stopped abruptly. After a short pause, Leng Zhiruo's voice called out from within, explaining that she had simply suffered a nightmare and that the sounds had been made in her sleep. That explanation put Wang Danrou's mind at ease, and she returned to her room to resume working on the documents.

"It's all your fault! Didn't you know someone was right next door?" Leaning against Huang He's chest, Leng Zhiruo complained with a playful glare.

"The one making noise was you, not me. How can you pin that on me?" Huang He stretched lazily, looking entirely satisfied.

"You jerk, hurry up and get out of here! What am I supposed to do if someone from the company sees you here tomorrow morning?" Leng Zhiruo began trying to shove him out.

"Now that's a strange thing to say. I'm their boss, and your brother-in-law to boot. Is there a problem with me appearing here? If I'm here inspecting their work, would any of them dare to have an opinion?" Huang He said with a mock-serious growl.

"Oh, please! When have you ever shown up at our company before 10 AM?" Leng Zhiruo scoffed dismissively.

"Then I'll just stay here past 10 AM. You go to work first, and once this floor clears out, I'll step out of the elevator. Nobody will have any idea where I came from!" Huang He reasoned.

"So you really don't want to leave?" Leng Zhiruo asked softly.

"Silly girl," Huang He gently pinched the tip of Leng Zhiruo's nose. "This was your first time, after all. How could I possibly leave you at a time like this and let you spend the entire night by yourself? Am I really that much of a scumbag?"

"Hmph!" Leng Zhiruo let out a soft huff and fell silent, the two of them basking in a rare, tranquil moment of peace.

Taking advantage of the quiet, Leng Zhiruo's mind drifted back to every single detail of what had just transpired. Suddenly, a particular sentence Huang He had uttered earlier echoed in her head: *"I have never had any interest in other people's sisters-in-law. I am only interested in my own!"*

"Wait a minute, that doesn't sound right!" Leng Zhiruo muttered to herself. "Even if he isn't interested in other people's sisters-in-law... he has a total of five sisters-in-law of his own!"

At this realization, a wave of panic and wariness washed over her. Just as she was preparing to interrogate Huang He properly to see if he harbored any untoward thoughts about her sisters, she noticed that he was already fast asleep.

The very man who had just claimed he wanted to accompany her through her first night was now happily off in dreamland.

"A man's lips are just a ghost's lies!" Leng Zhiruo muttered resentfully. Yet, she hadn't the heart to toss Huang He around or wake him up. Instead, she was left alone with her runaway imagination.

"Wait... just a moment ago, as a sister, I was worrying that my sisters might steal my brother-in-law!" Leng Zhiruo whispered to herself in the dark. "But... he's also my brother-in-law now. Is my sister up there in heaven watching me right now, watching me steal her man?"

At that thought, Leng Zhiruo gave a start, her entire body shivering involuntarily.

——————————

"Danrou, have you finished preparing the materials I asked for?" At nine o'clock the next morning, Leng Zhiruo asked Wang Danrou.

"They're ready!" Wang Danrou obediently handed over the documents. As Leng Zhiruo glanced through them, a flicker of surprise crossed her face. The data was gathered with astonishing thoroughness; without an entire night of exhausting effort, compiling a report of this quality would have been impossible.

"You've worked hard!" Leng Zhiruo said calmly.

"Oh, it was nothing, hehe..." In truth, Wang Danrou had not contributed a single cent's worth of effort to this report. After hearing those bizarre noises last night, her mind had been thrown into complete chaos, leaving her entirely incapable of focusing on work while her imagination ran wild. Desperate, Wang Danrou had resorted to sending a QQ message pleading with Pony Ma for help, prompting him to hand over the proprietary research data on OurGame that Tencang's corporate department had compiled.

Consequently, this document was actually the culmination of months of work by Tencang's entire business division, simply condensed by Wang Danrou into a concise summary—meaning its depth and richness were naturally extraordinary.

"Let's go..." Leng Zhiruo nodded, taking a step forward, but suddenly clutched her lower stomach and stumbled back a few paces, sinking uncomfortably into Wang Danrou's office chair with a pained expression.

"Director Leng, what's wrong?" Wang Danrou asked in a panic.

"It's nothing, just my monthly visitor! Let me sit down and rest for a moment!" Leng Zhiruo smoothly deployed a pre-prepared excuse.

Ah, an utterly flawless alibi.

"I'll go pour you a cup of hot water!" Wang Danrou hurried off. As she left, Leng Zhiruo's gaze drifted toward Wang Danrou's computer. The girl hadn't shut it down, and the screen remained brightly lit.

The little QQ penguin icon sat cheerfully in the taskbar, blinking innocently up at Leng Zhiruo.