Chapter 59: Caught Red-Handed, Qin Huairu's Reputation is Ruined

"Fac... Factory Director..."

Qin Huairu's lips trembled as she let out a voice no louder than a mosquito's.

The last trace of color on her face was completely drained by the glaring beam of the flashlight, leaving her as pale as a sheet of paper.

The three gossiping women behind her were so terrified that their legs went weak. One of the more cowardly ones shivered so violently that a reeking, yellowish puddle of urine began to trickle down her trouser leg.

"Factory Director? So you still remember I'm the Factory Director?" Yang Weiguo was so furious he laughed. He pointed right at Qin Huairu's nose and cursed furiously, "I'm asking you, Qin Huairu! What in the world are you lot doing, sneaking around the engineers' dormitory in the middle of the night?!"

"W-We... We were just passing by..." Qin Huairu was still putting up a final, futile struggle.

"Passing by?" Yang Weiguo sneered. "Passing by requires hiding in the bushes? Passing by requires staking the place out? Passing by requires waiting until everyone turns off their lights before making your move?"

With every question he threw at her, Qin Huairu's face grew a shade paler.

"Take them all away to the security office! I'm going to interrogate them myself today!" Yang Weiguo commanded with a grand wave of his arm.

The security guards surged forward like ravenous wolves, grabbing Qin Huairu and the other three tightly from both sides.

"It wasn't me! Factory Director! I've been wronged! It was her! Qin Huairu made us come!"

The psychological defenses of the three women collapsed instantly. To save their own skins, they didn't hesitate for a second to throw Qin Huairu right under the bus.

"Qin Huairu told us that Doctor Chen and Nurse Lin were having an illicit affair, and she dragged us here to catch them in the act!"

"Right! She said she was upholding the factory's moral standards! We were all tricked by her!"

"The key to the door is right in her pocket!"

As soon as these words were spoken, an uproar broke out among the crowd.

Every single security officer looked at Qin Huairu with undisguised contempt and disgust.

Yang Weiguo, meanwhile, was so angry that spots danced before his eyes.

Good! Very good, Qin Huairu!

Not only are you spreading rumors, but you're also attempting to frame innocent people! You're trying to push the heroes and treasures of our factory onto a dead end!

"Search her!" Yang Weiguo spat out the word from between clenched teeth.

A female security officer stepped forward and, completely ignoring Qin Huairu's struggling, rummaged directly through her pockets.

In no time at all, a large, cold, heavy-duty padlock and a key were fished out.

The ironclad proof was as solid as a mountain!

Qin Huairu instantly collapsed, turning into a heap of limp mud. Supported by two guards, she couldn't even manage to stand on her own feet.

Her eyes were hollow and consumed by utter despair.

Right at that moment, the hallway light of the engineers' dormitory clicked on.

Chen默 and Lin Wanqing stepped out of the building side by side.

Chen Mo's face maintained its usual unruffled, breezy expression.

As for Lin Wanqing, looking at Qin Huairu's wretched and miserable state, her eyes held not a shred of sympathy—only disgust and icy coldness.

Upstairs just now, she had heard every single word of Qin Huairu's instruction to "wait until they turn off their lights before shouting" with absolute clarity.

This woman's heart was venomous beyond belief!

She had genuinely intended to ruin her entire life!

"Factory Director Yang." Chen Mo walked up to Yang Weiguo and gave him a slight nod.

"Doctor Chen! Comrade Lin! You've been startled! You've been wronged!"

Seeing the two of them, Yang Weiguo's face instantly twisted into a mix of guilt and burning fury.

"This whole mess is entirely my fault! It's my lax management that allowed such a morally corrupt, venomous wretch to exist in our factory!

Rest assured, today I will give both of you a satisfactory explanation, and I will give the entire factory a proper accounting!"

Hearing the words "venomous wretch," Qin Huairu's body gave a violent shudder.

She lifted her head and locked a gaze filled with bone-deep malice onto Chen Mo.

It was all him!

Everything was engineered by him!

He had known about her plan all along, yet he kept his composure, just waiting step by step for her to walk right into his trap!

This man was a devil!

Sensing her gaze, Chen Mo slowly turned his head to meet her eyes.

His expression was tranquil—as calm and still as a bottomless, frozen pool of water.

That look seemed to be saying: You brought this entirely upon yourself.

...

The following day, the rolling mill held an unprecedented general assembly for all its workers and staff.

The theme of the assembly was "Sternly Punish Rumor-Mongers, Rectify Factory Discipline and Morale."

Qin Huairu and the three gossiping women were paraded onto the stage like common criminals.

Qin Huairu kept her head down, her hair disheveled, her complexion sallow. In just a single night, she seemed to have aged a decade.

She didn't dare to look at the tens of thousands of pairs of eyes staring up from below.

Those gazes—full of contempt, mockery, anger, and schadenfreude—felt like countless steel needles, pricking her until she was battered all over.

Standing before the microphone, Yang Weiguo spoke in a booming voice, burning with righteous indignation.

With severe and stern language, he laid bare every single detail for the public: how Qin Huairu had maliciously fabricated rumors, and how she had meticulously plotted and schemed to frame Chen Mo and Lin Wanqing.

The entire factory erupted in an uproar!

"Oh my god! How could Qin Huairu be that kind of person?"

"So malicious! Doctor Chen saved so many people, and she actually wanted to ruin him!"

"You never truly know a person's heart! Usually, when she's crying all the time, you think she's so pitiful! I never imagined her heart could be this pitch-black!"

"She's a venomous scorpion!"

Down below, the workers' discussions rolled over Qin Huairu like a tidal wave.

The persona of the "pure lotus flower" and "innocent victim" that she had painstakingly cultivated for over a decade was torn to shreds at this very moment and trampled into the mud!

She had become the most vicious, despicable, and shameless woman in the entire rolling mill.

Silu the Pillar stood amidst the crowd.

Listening to Factory Director Yang's announcement and hearing the chatter of his surrounding colleagues, he froze right where he was, as if struck by lightning.

His mind went completely blank.

So... so that was how it was.

It turned out that Qin Huairu hadn't just been using him and calculating against him.

To achieve her own ends, she was entirely willing to use the dirtiest methods to destroy the life of an innocent young woman without a second thought!

All those gossiping stories she had told him previously about Chen Mo and Lin Wanqing were pure fabrications made up by her!

She had treated him like an absolute fool—a stupid blade meant to be used against Chen Mo!

Silu felt his internal organs churning violently.

An unprecedented wave of nausea and icy chill spread from the depths of his heart through his entire body.

He looked up at the withered, haggard woman on the stage, reviled by thousands.

He realized that he no longer harbored a shred of affection or pity for her.

Nothing was left except for an endless, freezing disgust.

"……For an individual like Qin Huairu, whose actions are utterly vile and whose impact is thoroughly corrupting, our factory committee has thoroughly deliberated and decided to impose the following disciplinary actions!"

Yang Weiguo's voice boomed through the loudspeakers, carrying across the entire factory compound.

"First, a criticism notice issued across the entire factory, recording a major demerit, to be placed in her permanent personnel file!"

"Second, the deduction of three months' wages, to serve as mental compensation for Comrade Chen Mo and Comrade Lin Wanqing!"

"Third!" Yang Weiguo paused, his tone growing heavier, "She will be transferred from the logistics group to the East District boiler room, tasked with cleaning slag and scrubbing the toilets! Effective as of today!"

Boom!

As soon as this disciplinary action was announced, another massive wave of uproar swept through the crowd!

Cleaning slag! Scrubbing toilets!

Those were easily the dirtiest, most exhausting jobs in the entire factory—the kind nobody would ever willingly take!

This was even more agonizing than being fired!

This was nailing Qin Huairu firmly to the pillar of shame, ensuring she could never lift her head up again for the rest of her life!

Hearing this sentence, Qin Huairu rolled her eyes back, her legs turned to jelly, and she collapsed in a dead faint right on the spot.

However, not a single person felt any sympathy for her.

Instead, she was greeted by a thunderous ovation from the audience below!

"Good!"

"Well handled!"

"That's exactly how you should deal with a wicked woman like that!"

Amidst the deafening applause, Yang Weiguo stepped down from the stage and hurried over to Chen Mo's side, wearing a face eager for praise and approval.

"Doctor Chen, what do you think? Are you satisfied with this outcome?"

Chen Mo looked at Qin Huairu, who was being dragged away like a dead dog on the stage, and gave a faint nod.

"Factory Director Yang has put in a lot of thought."

Ruined reputation, reviled by all, reduced from a respectable workshop worker to a toilet cleaner.

For someone as vain, prideful, and obsessed with saving face as Qin Huairu, this outcome was worse than death.

Yes, I am very satisfied.