"I understand the difficulty you were in at the time. Let's call this one settled." Yang Ce waved a hand. "But don't let there be a next time."

"I understand!" Bao Lin nodded hurriedly and let out a breath. It looked as though Yang Ce had no intention of holding him responsible.

"This time I bear some responsibility too. I never had the heart to make you clean out the parasites in the company, and that's what led to this." Yang Ce sighed. "I told you last night, and by this morning something had already happened—clearly they'd been plotting it for a long time."

Bao Lin lowered his head, a flicker of shame in his eyes. Yet, since Yang Yongjin had pressed the matter, he still felt the weight of it heavily on his conscience. Auditing the company's accounts had been his own duty all along—he should never have needed Yang Ce to remind him of it. So Bao Lin knew full well that the blame lay entirely with himself, and he resolved then and there that such a thing would never happen again.

Thinking of Sun Jie, Yang Ce suddenly recalled that last night, when he had called her number, the phone had been switched off. He picked up the phone once more and dialed Sun Jie's number.

But when the call went through, the phone was still off. Yang Wenru furrowed his brow. Sun Jie would not normally keep her phone off even during the day, would she? Even if she had turned it off at night to charge it or for some other reason, it was nearly noon now—why would it still be off?