After the divorce, I started to transfer

Faced with the leader's stern attitude, which showed almost no mercy, the air in the meeting room seemed to freeze.

Li Meiqing was the first to lose her composure, her face turning pale as she rushed to defend herself, saying, "Boss, I did know about the video, but I absolutely did not participate in it. It was Luo Liang's idea from beginning to end."

Hearing Li Meiqing's eagerness to distance herself from him, Luo Liang's lips twitched involuntarily. He subconsciously opened his mouth, as if wanting to say something, but the words ultimately turned into a sigh, and he chose to remain silent.

The die is cast, and arguing with Li Meiqing in front of the leaders would only make the situation more awkward and pointless. Moreover, her explanation sounded more like she was guilty, a clear case of protesting too much.

The leader's sharp gaze lingered on Li Meiqing's face for a moment, then he waved his hand and said, "I've made my meaning very clear. I hope you won't make a mistake. Alright, you can all leave now."

Luo Liang first bowed his head and said respectfully, "Please go ahead and do your work, leader," before straightening up and quickly walking out of the conference room as if fleeing.

Li Meiqing's lips trembled several times, as if she wanted to argue, but meeting the leader's sharp gaze, she ultimately couldn't utter a single word. She turned and walked out of the conference room, immediately spotting Luo Liang's back ahead, and quickly followed after him.

"I have something to tell you."

Li Meiqing grabbed Luo Liang's arm and dragged him to the stairwell of the fire escape without saying a word.

"Did you give the video to someone else?"

As soon as she entered the stairwell, Li Meiqing's face darkened. She stared intently at Luo Liang, her voice barely audible, as if squeezed out between her teeth.

Luo Liang abruptly shook off her hand, his face equally grim. He retorted coldly, "Didn't you just say this has nothing to do with you? Why are you asking me about this now?"

Li Meiqing gritted her teeth in anger and said, "Your blackmail has nothing to do with me. I'm the one who's been dragged into this for no reason. If the video gets leaked, not only will you be finished, but you'll also drag me down with you."

Luo Liang sneered with a mocking smile: "Don't forget, you didn't refuse the 100,000 yuan I gave you. So don't try to portray yourself as so innocent and pitiful. We're all in the same boat now, whether you admit it or not, that's how the leaders see us."

Son of a bitch!
Li Meiqing clenched her fists in anger, wanting to punch that hateful face, but she still retained a sliver of reason and forcibly suppressed the urge to strike. She simply stared at him with hostility and said, "If I were really in cahoots with you, it wouldn't be as simple as 'borrowing' 100,000 yuan. I know someone like you would definitely ask for an exorbitant amount, extorting a huge sum from them, at least several million. Otherwise, how could they possibly have directly hired two leaders to pressure us?"

Luo Liang, stung by the remark, retorted with dissatisfaction, "What's the point of you trying to distance yourself from me now? Do you think the leaders will believe your nonsense?"

Li Meiqing took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and said, "I know it's useless to say anything now, but you and I both know what really happened. The blackmail was entirely your doing, it has nothing to do with me. If you want to die, don't drag me down with you. So, that video absolutely cannot be leaked in any way."

Luo Liang understood the implications of her words, and his expression grew increasingly grim. However, he had no patience to continue arguing with her and could only impatiently explain, "I sent the video to my wife, but I repeatedly told her that this must be kept a secret and absolutely not told to any outsiders. I'll message her later to completely delete the video and make sure it doesn't get leaked. So, don't worry, I know what I'm doing and I understand the gravity of the situation."

Hearing him say that, Li Meiqing's tense nerves relaxed a little, but deep down she still felt a little uneasy.

The feeling that her fate and future were completely controlled by others made her feel extremely uncomfortable and panicked.

She couldn't help but warn again sternly, "I hope you and your wife don't try to be clever and secretly save this video as a shield. If they find it or accidentally leak it, they will definitely retaliate against you without regard for the cost. You've seen their power. If you two are still up to no good and think about finding opportunities to threaten and blackmail them in the future, you might not even know how you died. People like that are not people like you and me who can afford to offend them. I hope you keep this in mind."

Luo Liang's face turned pale and then red after hearing her words. He became angry and embarrassed and said, "I'm a grown man, do I need you to remind me of these principles?!"

After saying this, Luo Liang turned around, flung open the heavy fire door, and left without looking back.

Li Meiqing could only glare hatefully at his back until the door closed, cutting off her view.

At this moment, she was filled with regret and felt extremely wronged.

What I regret is that I listened to Luo Liang's instigation and was blinded by a mere 100,000 yuan hush money, which led me to get involved in this mess.

The injustice was that she genuinely felt she and Luo Liang were not on the same side, but in the eyes of the leadership, they were firmly linked together, leaving her speechless and utterly wronged.

Unfortunately, she couldn't convincingly prove her innocence; in fact, having accepted the money, she wasn't exactly innocent. This feeling of being unable to express her grievances drove her almost insane.

Most importantly, she gained nothing from this whole affair and instead left her superiors with a bad impression of being greedy and foolish.

Forget about promotions and raises; she might not even be able to keep her hard-earned job once the dust settles on this incident.

Li Meiqing stood blankly at the cold stairwell for a long time, getting angrier and angrier as she thought about it, but she was completely helpless and only felt endless regret.

……

After Luo Liang and Li Meiqing parted ways, Luo Liang immediately took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to his wife, telling her in a serious tone to immediately stop contacting Zhang Jingwen's people and to keep the video safe and secure, and absolutely not to leak it.

His wife was naturally very surprised when she received the news, and immediately called to ask for the specific reason. Luo Liang did not hide anything and told her the whole story over the phone.

After hearing this, his wife was immediately filled with anxiety and panicked, fearing that the other party would directly call the police to arrest him. After all, she had also participated in contacting and demanding "hush money," and strictly speaking, she was an accomplice.

His wife immediately panicked and told him to come home right away so they could discuss their options face-to-face.

Even if his wife didn't say anything, Luo Liang was eager to go home at that moment.

It was already almost 4:30 in the afternoon, and there wasn't much time left before he got off work at 5:00. He had long lost his will to work.

Luo Liang quickly left the TV station, started his car, and arrived home in just over ten minutes.

His home is indeed very close to the TV station. Five years ago, he scraped together enough money to make a down payment on this house. The most important consideration was that it was close to his workplace, making it convenient for him to commute to get off work.

Besides his wife, he has two young children at home: an eight-year-old son who has just started first grade and attends after-school care; and a two-year-old daughter.

Because he had to take care of two children, his wife had to be a full-time housewife. The entire family's livelihood rested on Luo Liang's shoulders.

One can imagine how much pressure he was under in his life.

The monthly mortgage payment is consistently over five thousand, and the family's daily expenses, no matter how frugal we are, still amount to five or six thousand. Our eldest son needs to attend tutoring and after-school programs, and our youngest daughter needs to drink formula. If any of the children gets a headache or fever, a trip to the hospital can cost several hundred or even a thousand.

His monthly salary varies. When business is good, he can earn 13,000 yuan, but when performance is average, he only earns a little over 9,000 yuan, barely reaching 10,000 yuan. It is clear that the little money he earns at work each month is simply not enough to support his whole family.

Therefore, he often had to take on private jobs during holidays to supplement his family income, which was the only way he could barely maintain the family's financial balance.

With such a large family to support, it's no wonder he took the risk and decided to blackmail the big star Zhang Jingwen.

Ultimately, isn't he doing all this for the sake of his family?

It seems that fate just won't give him the chance to make a fortune. He had already tried to keep the "hush money" very low, only asking for one million, but even a big star like Zhang Jingwen was unwilling to give him the money generously. Instead, she went directly to his boss and his boss's boss to put pressure on him.

After returning home, Luo Liang recounted the whole story to his wife in detail.

After hearing this, his wife's already pale face became even more gloomy, her eyes reddened, and she almost burst into tears.

"Then... what should we do now? If they really call the police, will we be arrested and go to jail? What will happen to our two children then?"

Neither of them had any elders to rely on. Luo Liang lost his father at a young age and his mother in middle age; his wife lost her mother at a young age, and after her father remarried and started a new family, she became the superfluous person.

Hearing his wife's words, Luo Liang felt a pang of fear. He could only force himself to remain calm and reassure her, "Don't worry. If anything really happens, just say you know nothing. If they really investigate, I'll take all the blame."

His wife almost burst into tears upon hearing this: "You'll take it? How can you take it? If you really go to jail, our family will be completely ruined! How can I, a woman, afford to pay the mortgage and raise the children?"

Upon hearing this, Luo Liang was completely at a loss, pounding his head in self-reproach: "It's all my fault! It's all my fault for being so blinded by greed, thinking I could just make a quick buck like those paparazzi and then quit. I took a chance and completely ignored the fact that when we were filming, they already knew exactly who Li Meiqing and I were. I was so incredibly stupid."

Ultimately, he underestimated Chen Feng's background and status as an "ordinary person," and also underestimated Zhang Jingwen's power as a female celebrity.

“What’s the use of saying these regretful things now? We need to think of a way to make amends and salvage the situation. No matter what, we absolutely cannot let them call the police,” his wife said, her eyes red.

Luo Liang calmed down a bit. After thinking for a while, he said, "If the other party really wanted to call the police, they probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of having two leaders come to me. I think they probably don't want to make a big deal out of it, because they're afraid we'll expose the video."

Upon hearing this, his wife's eyes lit up, and she immediately said, "Shouldn't we keep this video in our hands to make them hesitant to act rashly against us?"

Luo Liang hesitated for a moment. His original idea was to destroy the video completely and get it over with, but now that his wife said this, keeping the video in his possession to make the other party hesitant to act seemed to be a safe way to protect himself.

"I'm afraid that if the other side finds out that we still have backups, they will use even more powerful methods to deal with us."

"But if they find out we have no trump cards left, wouldn't they be even more unscrupulous in retaliating against us?"

Luo Liang was unable to refute for a moment. He hesitated for a long time before finally making up his mind and saying, "I'm afraid that if this video is leaked, it will bring us utter destruction."

His wife immediately said, "That's easy. We'll just keep one backup, download it to a USB drive, hide the USB drive, store it separately, and keep it off the internet. That way, there'll definitely be no risk of leakage. Delete everything from the computer and phone."

Luo Liang couldn't make a final decision right away. After pondering for a long time, he slowly said, "How about this? I'll think of a way to apologize to those two people, especially the man named Chen Feng, in person and sincerely ask for his forgiveness. If he's truly magnanimous and forgives me, then we don't need to keep this video anymore; we can destroy it all. But if he's adamant and refuses to forgive me, then for our own protection, we'll have no choice but to keep the backup of this video."

Upon hearing this, his wife felt that this was the safest solution at the moment, and immediately nodded in agreement, saying, "Okay, this is a good idea, let's do it this way. If the other party is willing to forgive you and show that they will let bygones be bygones, we really don't need to go against such an important person, and we can't hold any more illusions."

……

Meanwhile, Li Meiqing had already found the address of Fengmang Film and Television Company online. It was located in the Guomao Building, not too far from the TV station.

She also found the registered legal representative's mobile phone number through a business registration information query website, but unfortunately, the call went to a busy signal and no one answered.

So, seeing that it was almost time to get off work, she immediately drove her Dongfeng Citroen and rushed to the China World Trade Center.

Using her identity as a reporter from the provincial TV station, she found the building's property management office and obtained the contact information of the person in charge of Fengmang Film and Television Company.

This time, the call was answered quickly, but the voice on the other end was that of a woman.

"Hello, who are you looking for?"

"Hello, I'm looking for the person in charge of Fengmang Film and Television Company. I'm a reporter from the provincial TV station."

"The head of Fengmang Film and Television Company? Oh, you've got the wrong person. I'm no longer working at Fengmang Film and Television; I've resigned."

The person on the other end of the phone was Lu Sijia, formerly the general manager of Fengmang Film and Television, and naturally, she was the contact person registered with the property management. However, she has now resigned, the position of general manager has changed, and the property management's contact information has not been updated in time.

"You resigned? Would you mind giving me Mr. Chen Feng's contact information? I have something very important I need to contact him about."

"You said you're from the provincial TV station?" The other person's tone became more wary.

"Yes, that's right."

"What do you want with Chen Feng?"

"It's...it's a very important personal matter, and it's not convenient to tell you over the phone."

"...Okay, I'll ask Chen Feng for you. If he agrees to contact you, I'll send him your phone number so he can reach you. If he doesn't want to contact you, please don't call me again, okay?"

"Well... okay. Thank you so much."

"Well, that's it."

After Lu Sijia finished speaking, she hung up the phone decisively.

Li Meiqing could only stand below the bustling building, phone in hand, anxiously awaiting the unknown "judgment." (End of Chapter)