Great Power Reclamation

Chapter 2883 The Fallen Reporter

"Hello, Ms. Ivana!"

Ume's voice was a little hoarse from excitement and nervousness, and she tried her best to maintain a calm demeanor.

"It's a great honor to meet you! I'm reporter Wu Mei, and I'm conducting a special interview about the development of the Military Reclamation City, especially about Mr. Ye Yuze's entrepreneurial journey."

"Mrs. Ye just mentioned that you and Mr. Ye are longtime friends and partners. I wonder if you would be willing to share some... um, some special stories about you and Mr. Ye?"

"Or, what is your deepest impression of Mr. Ye?" She chose her words carefully, her gaze fixed on Ivana's deep blue eyes, trying to catch any possible emotional ripples.

She deliberately emphasized the word "special" a little more, as if testing the waters.

Yu'e seemed to want to say something, but after glancing at Ivana's calm profile and then at the barely suppressed eagerness in Wumei's eyes, she simply picked up her teacup, took a small sip, and chose to remain silent.

Ivana gently placed the small biscuit dish on the small table in front of Ume, her movements unhurried and deliberate.

She didn't answer immediately, but picked up a small, simply shaped cookie she had baked herself and ate it slowly, her gaze calmly fixed on a rose bush in full bloom in the courtyard, as if sorting out distant thoughts.

The afternoon sun shone through the gaps in the leaves, illuminating her golden hair and serene face. The only sounds in the air were the rustling of leaves in the breeze and the soft crackling of cookies.

"Special past events?"

Ivana finally spoke, her voice low and soothing, with a unique rhythm, like the low hum of a cello.

"Yes, a lot. So much that... enough to write a book."

A faint, distant smile appeared on her lips, a smile devoid of sweet ostentation, but possessing an almost sacred clarity refined by the passage of time.

"I first met Ye in Kyiv." Her gaze seemed to pierce through the barriers of time and space, returning to that distant moment of their first encounter.

"That winter was particularly cold, so cold that even the Volga River fell silent. My father, a politician, was stripped of his job and fell ill because he insisted on what he believed to be right."

“The family’s savings vanished quickly, like snow in the sun. I ran around everywhere, enduring cold looks and deception... Just when I was about to despair, Ye appeared.”

Ivana's voice was calm, yet contained a tremendous power that made Ume involuntarily hold her breath.

“At that time, he and Yang Geyong went to Kiev to purchase old steel. Because he didn’t want to stay there for long, he set up an office, and I became his employee.”

Ivana paused, her long eyelashes drooping down to conceal the turmoil in her eyes.

“He was not satisfied with me at first, and did not even intend to hire me. But after he learned about my situation, he sent me a sum of money, enough to pay for my father’s expensive imported medicine and subsequent treatment.”

There was also a note with only one line: 'Ivana Petrovna, please believe that winter will eventually pass.'

"That money was a life-saving fund."

Ivana raised her head, her azure eyes looking directly at Ume, frank and resolute, without the slightest hesitation.

"More importantly, he gave my father the dignity and hope to live. He didn't know us, he had never even met us, father and daughter. His help was as pure as the first snow in Siberia, without any conditions or expectations of anything in return."

"Later, to repay this kindness, I worked desperately to repay it. Later, when my brother came back, they actually knew each other..."

Ivana looked around the neat and cozy little courtyard, her eyes filled with a sense of belonging.

"Later, Ye gave me a chance, a huge trust. He handed over the company over there to me. Do you know what that means? At that time, I was just a young girl who had just started out, burdened with the weight of her family, and had nowhere else to turn."

"And what he's entrusting me with is the crucial task of ensuring the supply of raw materials for the entire warrior group!"

"Many people objected, saying he was crazy."

Ivana's tone carried a hint of emotion, "But he overruled everyone's objections. He said:
“Ivana’s eyes told me that she understood the significance of this matter and gave her a chance.”

She let out a soft breath, as if she had unloaded some kind of burden.

“I did not let him down. My team and I did not finish the job until Warrior Steel no longer needed that scrap metal.”

“Reporter U,” Ivana’s gaze refocused on Ume’s face, her eyes clear and unambiguous, filled with nothing but unwavering honesty.

"You ask me what my deepest impression of him is? It's trust. It's his courage and insight to entrust a precious spark to a stranger in the darkness. You mentioned the special past between us?"

She gently shook her head, her blonde hair gleaming in the sunlight. "It's not the kind of 'special' thing you're imagining. All that's been there is his helping a girl who had nowhere else to turn, and a girl who, in order to repay that kindness and trust, devoted her entire career to following and fighting for her."

Ivana's tone was unusually calm, yet every word carried immense weight:

"I know there are rumors circulating. Let them say what they want. My feelings?"

She paused, a deep, almost heartbreaking tenderness flashing across the depths of her azure eyes, but it was quickly replaced by a stronger sense of reason and gratitude.

"That's my own business. To Ye, I have only eternal gratitude, respect, and... a blessing that has never changed and is deeply buried in my heart. He gave my father life, and he gave myself value and dignity in life!"

"He is one of the most important people in my life, like an older brother, a mentor, and an inextinguishable lighthouse. That's enough. This feeling is pure and unwavering, and I would dedicate my life to protecting it."

She picked up a cookie and handed it to Yu'e beside her. Yu'e naturally took it, and the two smiled at each other. That unspoken understanding and tacit agreement was like an invisible barrier, isolating them from all speculation and disturbance.

"Sister, I had his child, but I truly loved him, and you weren't married yet at that time!"

Yu'e gently placed her hand on Ivana's hand; that silent comfort and support was worth more than a thousand words.

Wu Mei sat there blankly, the edges of the interview notebook she was clutching tightly in her hand already slightly softened by sweat.

Ivana's calm yet fervent confession, every word like a heavy hammer, shattered her carefully constructed preconceived notions.

It wasn't the resentful accusation from the scandal's protagonist that she had anticipated, nor was it some shady deal hidden behind a hypocrite's mask.

It is an epic written by a woman over half her life, about gratitude, dignity, career, and a hopeless yet unregretful love.

Kevin's words still echoed in my ears—"Treat people as people," "Value what's in your head more than gold."

Yu'e's sigh was gentle yet powerful—"His goodness is so natural, as natural as breathing."

At this moment, Ivana's almost saintly confession—"pure and without regret," "worth protecting for a lifetime"—is truly moving.

Ye Yuze's image in her mind was completely overturned. He was not some hypocrite whose mask needed to be torn off; he was a mountain, a mountain that silently bore the fate of countless people, giving them light and warmth, dignity and a future.

His very presence was a powerful spiritual force.

An indescribable sense of shame, mixed with the shock of the deep affection between the two women before her, overwhelmed Wu Mei like a cold tide.

She felt like a brute wielding a sharp blade, barging into a temple. All those prepared, pointed questions, all those schemes to dig up "juicy scoops," now seemed so despicable, so insignificant, so utterly vulnerable. Suddenly, her phone began vibrating wildly in her pocket, the buzzing particularly jarring in the quiet courtyard, like the invisible, anxious urging of Editor-in-Chief Xie.

Wu Mei's body trembled violently, as if struck by an electric current. She almost frantically pulled out her phone, and the three words "Editor-in-Chief Xie" flashing on the screen felt like a red-hot branding iron, making her fingertips numb.

She didn't answer. She let the vibration continue persistently, as if trying to drain the last bit of battery power.

She looked at Yu'e and Ivana's calm gazes, which held no reproach, only a faint, knowing inquiry.

"I...I'm sorry, I..." Wu Mei's voice was terribly dry. She suddenly stood up, her movement so large that she knocked over the teacups on the small table.

Half a cup of leftover tea spilled out, quickly spreading a dark, irregular stain on the light-colored wooden tabletop.

She didn't bother wiping herself or paying attention to Yu'e and Ivana's reactions. Grabbing her heavy interview bag, she almost stumbled as she rushed out of the Ye family's courtyard.

The afternoon sun was still bright, birds sang sweetly, and the leaves of the sycamore trees rustled in the wind.

But Wumei felt a chill run through her body, as if a huge, cold stone was lodged in her chest. She wandered aimlessly along the quiet, tidy path she had come from, her steps heavy.

Kevin's words, Yu'e's memories, Ivana's eyes brimming with unwavering devotion, and Editor-in-Chief Xie's phone vibrating like a death knell...

All the sounds and images swirled and collided wildly in her mind.

She walked to a huge sycamore tree and leaned against its rough, cold trunk, where she finally felt a little support.

With trembling hands, she pulled out a thick notebook from her interview bag, filled with pre-set questions and so-called "investigative leads."

The edges of the notebook were crumpled and wrinkled from her gripping. She opened it, and those questions that she once found sharp enough to leave Ye Yuze speechless now seemed so pale and malicious in the sunlight. Every word felt like a desecration of the figure who had given countless people dignity and hope.

Those pre-arranged "dirt" and those unsubstantiated "clues" have now become needles piercing her own conscience.

My phone started vibrating wildly again; it was still "Editor-in-Chief Xie."

This time, Wu Mei didn't hesitate. She pressed the answer button hard and slammed the phone against her ear.

"Ume! Where's the manuscript?! What time is it?! My email is empty! And you're not answering the phone! Do you even want to keep your job?!"

Editor-in-Chief Xie's voice, like a high-pressure airflow, filled with undisguised anger and anxiety, instantly assaulted her eardrums:

"Let me tell you, the space is already reserved for you! We're just waiting for your bombshell! Ye Yuze's 'deeply affectionate past' with his Ukrainian woman, and his wife's 'endurance and forbearance'."

"This is a fantastic story! You have to dig it out for me! The more emotionally charged the better! The more conflict the better! Readers love this! Do you hear me? Right now! Immediately! Send me the manuscript! Otherwise, you'll have to give it to me tomorrow..."

“Editor-in-Chief Xie,” Wu Mei suddenly spoke, her voice low and even a little hoarse, yet carrying an unprecedented calm, a deathly stillness found only in the eye of a massive storm, directly cutting off the torrent of the other party’s roar.

The person on the other end of the phone seemed taken aback by the unusual calm. After a brief silence, they launched into an even more agitated question:

"What are you doing? Tell me now! Where's the manuscript?"

Wu Mei's gaze fell on the interview notebook in her hand, the dense handwriting twisted and distorted, as if mocking her.

She spoke slowly and deliberately into the microphone: "I... can't write the manuscript anymore."

"What?! Say that again!"

Editor-in-Chief Xie's voice suddenly rose, filled with unbelievable rage:
"What do you mean you can't write anymore? Ume! Don't let me down at this crucial moment! I'm telling you, this is related to..."

"because……"

Ume took a deep breath, as if using all her strength, but her voice was exceptionally clear, piercing through the telephone line and through the last vestiges of her own inner turmoil:

"Because everything I write is garbage."

She paused, each word seeming to be painstakingly plucked from the deepest recesses of her heart:

“It’s an insult to a group of… truly selfless people. My pen,” she looked down at her slightly trembling hand holding the pen, “it can no longer betray my soul.”

After saying that, without waiting for any reaction from the other end of the phone—whether it was a more violent roar or a bewildered question—Ume abruptly pressed the hang-up button.

The world fell silent instantly, leaving only the sound of the wind rustling through the leaves and the pounding of my own heart.

She lowered her head, looking at the interview notebook in her hand, which was filled with utilitarianism and distortion.

Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling the pages. She reached out and gripped the edge of the notebook, pausing for a mere second. Then, with a sudden, sharp pull!

"Hiss-!"

The crisp, loud tearing sound was particularly jarring in the quiet afternoon. A thick sheet of paper was ripped open from the middle, then torn again, and again…

She tore at it fiercely until the notebook became a jumbled mess of shredded paper in her hands, impossible to piece back together.

Snow-white scraps of paper fluttered down, like offerings of paper money, falling onto the green grass under the sycamore trees. When the wind blew, they swirled and scattered, eventually dissolving into the soil and sunlight.

Ume leaned against the rough tree trunk, utterly exhausted, panting heavily, her chest heaving. Her face was wet; she raised her hand to wipe it, finding only icy tears.

Future prospects? Internship? Editor-in-Chief Xie's anger? These pressures that had once suffocated her now seemed to drift away with the fragments of that notebook.

A tremendous, almost utter exhaustion swept over her, but deep within this weariness, a strange yet resolute warmth rose—

It was the dull pain of conscience breaking free from its shackles, and the relief of the soul finding its way again.

She looked up towards the direction of the Ye family's courtyard, where it was quiet, with only the fragrance of roses quietly flowing in the air.

She knew that there were two women inside, who were protecting the same man and also a spiritual height called "selflessness" that she had only just begun to touch.

What she just tore apart with her own hands was not only a job, but perhaps also a path that had long since gone astray.

A few scraps of paper at her feet were swept up by the wind, swirling and flying into the distance. Wu Mei didn't chase after them, but stood quietly, letting her tears fall silently.

The afternoon sun in Junken City warmly enveloped her, and also enveloped the silent yet shining souls on this land.

The image of Ye Yuze, not tall but as imposing as a mountain, flashed through her mind, and she suddenly realized that she seemed to have fallen in love with this man…

He picked up his phone, dialed Ye Yuze's number, and said only one sentence:
"Mr. Ye, could you give me a job? I'm unemployed..."

Ye Yuze hesitated for a moment, asked nothing, and only said one sentence:
"Didn't you go to my house? Just find my wife, her company needs people..."

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