Chapter 175: She Finally Appeared
Chang Li stabilised her emotions before reassuring her: “Xueluo, calm down. The email said that we have to send 8 million yuan to that account within 24 hours, so they’re clearly here for money! Just give them the money then! A problem that can be solved with money isn’t a problem at all!”
Ning Xueluo replied irritably, “8 million yuan! In a day! Where am I supposed to get that much cash?”
Although she earned a lot of money, she spent a lot of it as well. She had to keep up appearances, curry favour with the Ning family and people within the entertainment circle… All of that took money.
“If you gather it from various sources… you should still be able to gather that amount somehow!” Chang Li muttered to herself. Inwardly, she thought to herself that the blackmailer had really picked the right price; it was just about the maximum amount that they could raise.
It was at this moment that Ning Xueluo thought of something: “Since they can trace our information, why can’t we do the same?”
Chang Li shook her head, “Are anonymous accounts that easy to trace? You have to hack into the bank’s system! Even if we spend the money to hire someone to do that, we won’t be able to find a hacker of that caliber in such a short amount of time! Furthermore, even if we find out who it is, what can we do? The evidence is stacked against us, this sum… We still have to give it to them no matter what!”
“Damnit…” Ning Xueluo glared fiercely at Cui Caijing, who was trying to burrow into a corner, “What a failure!”
She had blackmail against Cui Caijing in her hands, so she felt safer using her for tasks like this. If not for that, she would have driven her out long ago.
Cui Caijing wanted to retort, but she didn’t dare to speak protests despite the anger in her heart. She was really innocent, okay?!
Ning Xueluo worked hard to recover from her earlier fright. With a forced calm, she urged, “Chang-jie, help me withdraw money now! Hurry! Also, hire more fans to attack Ning Xi online! We have to force Ning Xi into a dead end in a week!”
“Xueluo, we have Zhang Qiang’s verbal testimony anyway. Do you think we should… throw her into jail and be done with her once and for all?”
“We can’t. Although the Ning family doesn’t look too kindly on her, it’s not to the point that they’ll let her go to jail. Remember, don’t let her terminate her contract. Make her stay in the company for the rest of her life to pay off her debt. Otherwise, if she gets desperate and runs back to the Ning family, it’ll be hard for me to control her then…”
“Also, to prevent any unforeseen incidents tomorrow, I’ll arrange for a good lawyer to meet us there tomorrow!”
Ning Xueluo racked her brains and gave them orders. After making sure that there weren’t any gaps in her plan, she finally settled down.
Everything had been going so smoothly. She hadn’t expected such a huge wrinkle to appear in her plans. Luckily, it was just as Chang Li had said. A problem that can be solved with money isn’t a problem at all! She absolutely wouldn’t allow anything else to go wrong from now on!
……
The next day.
Ning Xi received the 8 million yuan without a hitch. At 6pm exactly, she entered Starlight Entertainment together with the lawyer that Lu Tingxiao had arranged for her.
It just happened to be the time that everyone was knocking off work. When they saw Ning Xi, they immediately stared at her in surprise before hurriedly running off to report. They posted news and photos in their chat groups, online, and on their Weibos—— Ning Xi, who had seemingly disappeared off the face of the planet, had finally appeared again!
“Heaven! Ning Xi! It’s really her! She actually dared to come out of hiding!”
“Yeah! She’s pretty gutsy! If it were me, I would definitely have run away, what would I come back for?”
“That’s right, there’s no way she’s going to be able to continue staying in the entertainment circle after that incident. If things get worse, she might even be sued and get sent to jail. It would probably have been better if she had just run away!”
“Did you see that man by her side? He looked pretty elite! I wonder what his background is?”
“He doesn’t seem like a lover, could he be an assistant?”
“How could that be possible?! She’s already in such dire straits, how could she afford to hire an assistant?”
“She could probably sell herself out to a rich master for money, after all.”
“Hehe, I’d like to see what kind of master has the ability to settle a huge matter like this one!”
……
TL Note: 8 million yuan = USD ~1.16 million (as of today’s rate).