On Thursday, Brightness held a general shareholder's meeting and invited many news media at home
and abroad.
Rose, the spokesperson of Brightness, took out the patent certificate of C technology and relevant
parts. Without its authorization, no other company or person was allowed to use the same technology
within five years.
She also told the shareholders that the technology Seine used in the bid for the equipment was stolen
from Brightness. At present, they had conclusive evidence and would sue Seine at any time.
Hearing this, the crowd burst into an uproar, like a time bomb, starting the timer.
What came next was that the stock price of Brightness soared and that of Seine company plummeted
on the contrary.
What a play Essie was playing. Smart people could see it.
This was a trap.
Under the influence of the European debt crisis, the profit of Seine kept falling. Zac had made a bold
decision for Essie to acquire the company, which was the biggest threat to the Brightness.
The senior executives of Seine decided to fight back. They wanted to survive in a desperate situation
and turn the loss into profit by cooperating with Baker. At the same time, they gave a heavy blow to
Brightness. However, they didn't expect that they missed a step and fell into the cliff.
Now, it would face the double huge compensation from Brightness and Baker. It was like a ball with
only a big hole and could no longer be bulging. There were only two ways for Seine to get rid of the
crisis. One was to declare bankruptcy, the other was to surrender to Brightness and accept to be
acquired.
The shareholders of Seine were unwilling to choose the former, not to mention that Essie had to whip
them behind to speed up their pace.
Now, there was another thing that needed to be solved by Essie. The thing was to find the chief culprit
who leaked the technical secret.
In fact, from the moment when Finney planted a virus in the computer and stole the technical
information, Essie had found it. She pretended to know nothing and let Finney finish her work. She was
going to catch the big fish in one net.
When she found Finney, she burst into tears. "I'm sorry, Essie. I didn't mean to do that, but I have no
choice. If I don't do as that person said, I'll be in jail."
Startled, Essie asked, "Finney, tell me what happened."
Finney sniffed and sobbed, "I met a friend in the fitness club. She is a famous painter and has the
same interests as me. We have a good talk. One day, she invited me to her house for fun. I went there
without thinking. I didn't expect that she was a lesbian and confessed her love to me. I was frightened
and wanted to leave, but she grabbed me. We had a quarrel on the stairs. I pushed her down by
accident. She died. I wanted to pretend that she fell off the building by accident, but I didn't expect that
someone took the video of that day and sent it to me. He threatened me that if I didn't do as he said, he
would hand the evidence to the police and put me in jail. "
Essie's two beautiful eyebrows twisted into a ball, and her intuition told her that there was something
wrong with it.
The next day, when the first ray of morning sunlight fell from the clouds, Zac and Essie drove Finney to
a small village in the suburb of Dragon City.
The village was extremely quiet. There were very few people and it was hard to see a house within two
or three miles.
The low pine trees around were closely connected, like the undulating green waves. After they had
gone for dozens of miles, a dark and gloomy mountain popped out. The shape of the mountain was
very strange. From afar, it looked obscure, like strange water flowers stimulated by the green waves.
The villa where the female painter that Casey had lived was built at the foot of the mountain.
The traffic here was very inconvenient. Without a private car, it would take more than forty minutes to
find the bus back to the city.
As soon as they got off the car, a gust of cold wind blew from the top of the mountain. Finney got goose
bumps all over her body, which made her feel scared from the bottom of her heart. It was extreme quiet
here. The sound of the water streaming in the nearest spring and the rustling wind in the farthest
distance echoed in her ears, making her even creepier.
It seemed that the villa had been abandoned for a long time. The Chinese photinia in the garden had
withered, and the weeds swallowed the sound of footsteps.
Zac used the tools he brought to open the door.
It was the same as what Finney had seen last time. All the furniture was covered with white cloth, and
there were white walls, white carpet and white curtains. It was blank and gloomy inside.
The chill continued to climb up from the bottom of her feet, and her hair stood up one by one. She
shivered again and held her arms.
Noticing that, Essie reached out her hand and held her. "Don't be afraid. I'm here with you."
The living room was spacious and the stairs were built in the north. Finney walked a few steps forward
and came to the stairs. "I was standing here at that time. Casey was in the middle of the stairs. She
grabbed my arm, and I grabbed her wrist trying to get rid of her. Then she screamed and rolled down
the stairs. "
She walked to the stairs where Casey was lying. Zac touched the carpet under his feet, which was soft
and thick. "Was it the same carpet before?"
Finney nodded, "it has always been like this. Casey said it was made of cashmere, and she inhaled
dust several times a day."
After thinking for a while, her eyes suddenly flashed. She rubbed the surrounding carefully with her
feet, and a strange expression appeared on her face. "That day, there was another carpet on the
carpet, about the size of half a bed, and it was exactly the same as the one below. I didn't notice that if
it was here before. If I didn't take it carefully, it should be hard to notice it. On that day, the corners of
the carpet were upturned, so I saw it clearly. "
Her words immediately attracted the attention of Zac. He examined the surrounding carefully several
times, but did not find the overlapping carpet.
He walked up the stairs and searched the floor and wall at the corner for a long time. Suddenly, his
eyes focused on the corner where the ceiling and wall met. There were several holes, as if it had been
unscrewed there. After thinking for a while, he turned to ask Finney, "do you still keep the video sent by
that person?"
She shook her head and said, "I was afraid of being seen, so I deleted it that night."
"Do you remember where the video was taken?"
Finney walked back and forth in the living room for a few circles, and then stood at the corner of the
stairs. "If I remember correctly, it should be at this angle. The picture is very stable and there is no
feeling of shaking. It doesn't seem to be taken by hand."
"That's right." Zac nodded and pointed to the corner of the roof. "If I'm not wrong, there might be
cameras installed here."
"Camera?" Said Finney in a low voice. Why didn't she think of it? At that time, only the two of them
were present. In such a remote place, no outsider would normally pass by. The video might have been
shot through the camera.
At this time, Zac's voice came again, "think about it carefully. Can you see clearly from the video that
the female painter fell down by herself or by you accidently?"
"The video is very short. I... I just saw that when I shook my arm, Casey fell down. " She lowered her
head dejectedly. At that time, she also hoped to see the flaw, so she watched the video again and
again. But from the video, it was easy to believe that Casey was really pushed down by her
carelessness. After a moment of silence, she asked, "why did Casey install cameras here?"
"It's normal. Many villa owners will install cameras at home for the sake of security, but..." He changed
his tone, "what we need to know now is who took away this video?"
"Is it Marina, another friend of Casey?" Finney cried out. Casey was an outsider with a very eccentric
character. She didn't go out every day, and except for her friend Marina, she had almost not contact
with anyone else.
Finney recalled every detail of that time. Although a month had passed, her memory was still fresh...
The living room was deathly silent.
Casey lay motionless on the carpet. Her face was as pale as wax, without any color of blood. There
was blood on the corner of her mouth and on her forehead.
She called 120 in a hurry.
Soon, the ambulance arrived. The nurse lifted Casey into the car. When she was about to follow them,
she was stopped. "If you are not her family, don't follow us. Hurry up and inform her family."
She was at a loss and her mind went blank. After the ambulance left, she remembered that she didn't
have the contact information of Casey's family at all.
Just when she was at a loss, a harsh bell rang, as if a saw had torn the surrounding air.
Casey's phone was left in the living room. It was from Marina. She hurriedly told him about Casey's
injury. She wanted to find out other people's phone numbers in her phone's address book, but there
was only Marina's number in it.
The second day, she called Marina and wanted to ask about Casey's condition. Unexpectedly, she got
the news of Casey's death. When she fell down the stairs, her head was hit seriously and she died not
long after she arrived at the hospital.
Marina also asked her to go to the villa on Wednesday to mourn Casey. When she knew that Casey
was dead, she panicked and worried that she had pushed Casey down.
On Wednesday, she went to the villa alone.
That day, it was gloomy and dark.
The village was quieter than usual, and the dense pine forest around was dark under the cover of mist.
From time to time, the sound of cold wind whistling came from the col, like the desolation of ghosts.
The front of the villa was full of flowers, which were in clusters. They were so dense that the leaves and
branches could not be seen. There was only a bright red color. The first time she came here, she
stayed here for a while to appreciate these beautiful flowers.
But today, they seemed to be extraordinarily gorgeous, excessively and strangely gorgeous, as if they
had been tainted with blood after killing. She hurriedly turned her head away and walked forward.
The door was slightly open. When she slowly pushed it open, she couldn't help shivering as if a gloomy
cold wind was coming at her.
The living room was covered by a vast, single white color. The cold color expelled all the anger, and
also deeply hurt her eyes.
Marina stood there, her face as pale as the surroundings.
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