Villain: After Intercepting the Female Lead, the Protagonist Collapses

Chapter 67

Chapter 67: I Haven’t Cried, Just Blinded by the Sandstorm”

This scent, she knew it all too well. She remembered the time on the mountain when her master called together her and the seven fellow disciples to prepare a potion called “Melting Herb Liquid.”

The potion’s effect was simple: it could corrode the medicinal properties of the herbs but still maintain their original form. The master did this as a test to see if they had the talent for learning ancient Chinese medicine.

After all, ancient Chinese medicine is fundamentally different from modern medicine.

Lin Xiyan put down the medicine bottle in her hand and remained silent. There was no longer any need to discuss who the real culprit was.

However, she couldn’t understand why Ye Chen would go to such lengths to frame her, as she didn’t recall having any feud with him.

Lin Jiahao, seeing Lin Xiyan suddenly become silent, panicked inside. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, not even daring to breathe heavily.

“Dad, I already know who it is…” Lin Xiyan took a deep breath, trying to suppress the fury within her.

Lin Zhentian nodded, not asking further. In fact, he knew who it was without Lin Xiyan having to say it. After all, the voice in the audio from Lin Xiyan’s phone was Ye Chen’s.

“I’m going to find him now to demand an explanation…” Lin Xiyan took a deep breath and walked out of the cosmetics factory’s gate.

After Lin Xiyan left, only Lin Jiahao and Lin Zhentian remained in the meeting room.

“Chairman…” Confronted with Lin Zhentian’s scrutinizing gaze, Lin Jiahao bowed his head in shame.

Lin Zhentian’s expression was a mixture of anger, confusion, suspicion, and sadness, which ultimately turned into a long sigh…

“Sigh… Go, go as far away as you can, and never let me see you again.” Ultimately, Lin Zhentian did not act against Lin Jiahao, still choosing to believe his side of the story.

Though he was known to be ruthless and merciless, that was only towards outsiders; he couldn’t bring himself to be so harsh with his own people.

Lin Jiahao had been with him for over a decade, and his actions today were born of desperation. “Thank you, Chairman…”

Lin Jiahao knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times to Lin Zhentian, holding back the tears in his eyes, and left without looking back.

This farewell was forever.

After Lin Jiahao left, Lin Zhentian stared blankly at the conference room’s ceiling, unable to return to his senses for a long time.

…

After leaving the Lin cosmetics factory, Lin Jiahao headed straight for the nearby road. He had already arranged with Jiang Che that, once everything was over, Jiang would organize for him to go abroad.

Jiang Che had arranged a black A8 to meet him near the factory. After walking on the road for over half an hour, Lin Jiahao indeed saw a black A8 parked by the roadside. A large man in black clothes was smiling at him.

This man was the one who had followed Jiang Che to threaten him, pointing a gun at him. “You did well, the young master is very pleased.”

As Lin Jiahao approached, Ah Long patted his shoulder, giving him a suitable compliment. He had come following Jiang Che’s instructions to send Lin Jiahao and his family abroad. “Get in the car; your wife and child are waiting for you inside.”

“Thank you…” Lin Jiahao thanked Ah Long and then got into the back seat of the A8.

Upon opening the car door, he saw the two figures he had been longing for, his wife gently coaxing their child to sleep.

When she saw him enter, his wife gestured for him to be silent. Seeing this, Lin Jiahao suddenly cried, feeling that all his recent fears and worries had been worth it.

As long as his wife and child were safe, what did it matter if he really lost his life?

“Husband, why are you crying?”

“It’s nothing, just blinded by the wind and sand…”

Such is the sorrow of the insignificant, unable to control their own destiny.

…

On the other side, Ye Chen paced back and forth in Lin Xiyan’s house in Jiaxin Garden.

He was chain-smoking, his brows knitted into a frown, feeling extremely agitated. Several days had passed since the Lin family’s birthday banquet, and he still had no clue how to establish a firm footing in Linjiang City.

Moreover, there were no leads from Gu Yunqi about the murderer who annihilated his Ye family, just instructions to wait for news. This deepened Ye Chen’s frustration.

“Ring…” Just then, a message notification on his phone interrupted his thoughts. Ye Chen picked up his phone to see a message from Lin Xiyan.

“Come over, I have something to discuss with you!” accompanied by an address of an unfinished building in the east of the city.

Ye Chen furrowed his brows, though it was odd for Lin Xiyan to meet there, he didn’t think much and, grabbing his jacket, hailed a cab to the location.

…

In the unfinished building in the east of the city, Lin Xiyan parked her car and waited silently for Ye Chen’s arrival. About forty minutes later, Ye Chen finally arrived.

“Sister, why have you asked me to meet in such a place?” Ye Chen asked in confusion, overlooking her somber expression and assuming she was just in a bad mood.

“Don’t you know why I asked you to meet here?” Lin Xiyan’s voice was cold, her eyes filled with chill, devoid of her usual warm smile.

“Sister, what do you mean?” Ye Chen frowned, sensing that today’s meeting was not simple.

“Heh… I didn’t think you’d dare to come… We’ve reached this point, and you’re still pretending?” she retorted. “Just look at the trending news on your phone!”

Doubtful, Ye Chen took out his phone and opened a social media app. He had been preoccupied with thoughts of advancement and had little time for his phone, genuinely unaware of recent events.

“Shock! Lin Corporation is a fraudulent drug dealer.”

“Shock! Lin Corporation’s beauty pills, priced at 2500 yuan each, are fakes!”

“Shock! Lin Corporation’s stock market value evaporated by tens of billions overnight!”

“What…” Seeing the trending news, Ye Chen was stunned. The beauty pills were fake? How could this be? He then realized why Lin Xiyan summoned him: clearly, it was an accusation.

But the formula he gave Lin Xiyan was real. How could it be fake?

“Sister… there must be some misunderstanding; the pill formula I gave you is absolutely genuine,” Ye Chen assured her, having no reason to betray Lin Xiyan after all her help.

“Heh… The formula is indeed real,” Lin Xiyan conceded, relieving Ye Chen briefly until her next words baffled him. “But you first gave me the real beauty pill formula for production, then colluded with my Lin employees to mix in ‘Melting Herb Liquid’ with the raw materials…”

“This caused direct losses of billions to Lin, yet no one would suspect you. Ye Chen, what a calculation you’ve played…”

“Sister, I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” Ye Chen was genuinely confused. He knew what Melting Herb Liquid was but had been home recently. How could he have colluded with Lin employees?

“At this point, you’re still pretending…” Lin Xiyan sneered, pulling out her phone to show him a video. Before leaving her office, she had copied the surveillance footage to her phone and threw the Melting Herb Liquid to Ye Chen.

“This… I didn’t do this, Sister! You have to believe me!” Seeing the video, Ye Chen was dumbfounded. He didn’t recognize the middle-aged man in the video at all. When did he threaten him?

“Still denying it?” Lin Xiyan laughed coldly, her smile chilling to Ye Chen, who realized she was genuinely angry. “Fine, then I will discipline you on behalf of our master, so you learn to respect your seniors!”

With that, Lin Xiyan gathered her internal strength in her palm, leaped up, and struck towards Ye Chen’s chest. Ye Chen, unprepared, mustered his internal strength to defend against her attack.

Lin Xiyan’s palm strike sent Ye Chen flying against a tree, which broke from the impact. Ye Chen vomited blood and turned pale.

Still recovering from a previous beating by Shen Qingqiu, he couldn’t withstand Lin Xiyan’s attack despite being at the same cultivation level.

“Sister…” he pleaded weakly. “I really didn’t do these things…”

Lin Xiyan’s then sent her second strike that worsened his already severe injuries.