PANT - Chapter 23
Chapter 23
The video Su Wanxing opened first was sent by Shi Ning's subordinate, a surveillance video clip from the Yinian Café. The video showed the scene after Su Wanxing and Jiang Ningran entered the coffee shop.
At first, the two people in the frame looked normal. They chose a booth behind some green plants, which seemed rather secluded.
First, Jiang Ningran handed something to Su Wanxing, and Su Wanxing nodded.
The surveillance couldn't record clear sound, so one could only discern what was happening from their actions.
Su Wanxing explained, "I forgot to grab my old class notes, and she brought them to me. That's why she asked me to go for coffee."
Shi Ning's fingertips rested on her chin, rubbing it gently. She didn't respond.
The video continued. Su Wanxing got up to go to the restroom, and just then, the coffee arrived. Jiang Ningran nodded at the staff member who brought the coffee, seemingly saying thank you, and then took something out of her bag. She held it tightly in her fist, and the surveillance camera couldn't capture it.
This could be described as a surveillance blind spot.
Watching this, Shi Ning had reason to suspect that Jiang Ningran had deliberately found this blind spot. She had anticipated this and acted accordingly.
Fortunately, however, there had been a theft at this coffee shop before. The public security department had come to inspect, and to prevent such incidents from happening again, the manager had added hidden cameras in many places.
For example, a tiny camera behind Jiang Ningran recorded her every move.
The staff member had even thoughtfully edited the different footage from the two cameras together to make it convenient for CEO Shi to watch.
In the footage, Jiang Ningran took a small item from her bag, resembling a test tube from a lab, then opened the stopper and poured the transparent liquid into Su Wanxing's coffee cup. After doing all this, Jiang Ningran even took a spoon and gently stirred Su Wanxing's coffee.
Seeing this, both Su Wanxing and Shi Ning confirmed the truth of the matter.
Jiang Ningran's actions perfectly confirmed Shi Ning's previous speculation.
She had drugged her.
The staff member also thoughtfully sent a message to explain: "CEO Shi, we've checked. This drug is the currently most popular underground 'Baby Sleeps for Three Days.' After use, people of any gender will enter a heat period. It can also cause drowsiness and may have side effects like memory fragmentation... turning them into a doll at others' mercy."
Seeing this, Su Wanxing covered her eyes with her hand, tears streaming from between her fingers. Her sobs grew from small to large, as if she was desperately suppressing something. In the end, she could no longer control or endure it and just let it all out.
Su Wanxing asked in agony, "How could this happen?"
She didn't even have the courage to keep watching.
In the video, Su Wanxing returned, completely unaware of what Jiang Ningran had just done.
Su Wanxing sat back in her seat, holding the coffee and taking small sips. She didn't actually like coffee, but because Jiang Ningran had ordered it, she forced herself to drink a few sips. Although she didn't drink much, still...
It was clear that what Jiang Ningran had put in had an effect.
Before long, Su Wanxing started to become restless. She lowered her head and kept clutching the hem of her skirt. In the footage, Jiang Ningran seemed very concerned about her, moving from the opposite seat to sit next to Su Wanxing, asking her how she was. Although Su Wanxing shifted, she still didn't put enough distance between herself and Jiang Ningran.
The small sofa in the coffee shop was only so big. Su Wanxing was already pressed almost entirely against the wall. Jiang Ningran kept moving closer to her.
From the surveillance, you could see a commotion starting in the coffee shop. Many people were looking around, and some had already stood up, seemingly about to walk towards Su Wanxing. Jiang Ningran supported Su Wanxing, pulling her into an embrace, and then walked out. The video cut off, and the phone screen went black.
Su Wanxing probably couldn't accept this.
The sobbing had stopped, but tears continued to fall, almost gathering into a small ocean. Settled at the bottom of that ocean was all her pain.
Shi Ning silently clicked on the next video. This one was from the hotel lobby and elevator surveillance. It showed that Su Wanxing was almost unconscious the entire time, being supported by Jiang Ningran. Jiang Ningran reached into Su Wanxing's clothes herself, took out her ID card, and then checked in.
In the elevator, Jiang Ningran had her arm around Su Wanxing and even deliberately glanced back at the surveillance camera. The elevator's monitoring range was small, and it could pick up sound. Thus, Jiang Ningran's questioning voice came from the footage, "Wanxing, are you okay?"
Shi Ning completely understood her trick.
This sentence was meant to show that she knew Su Wanxing and was concerned about her.
Jiang Ningran said again, "Don't worry, we're almost at the hotel you mentioned."
This was meant to imply that going to the hotel was Su Wanxing's idea.
Su Wanxing gave a soft, mushy nod and said obediently, "Okay." She was in a daze, tugging on Jiang Ningran's clothes and saying, "Thank you."
Hearing this, the corner of Jiang Ningran's mouth curled up slightly. Before exiting the elevator, she glanced at the camera again.
She just wanted this surveillance to leave a record.
In the hallway, Su Wanxing's steps had gone soft; she was relying entirely on Jiang Ningran to hold her up. The next scene was of the two of them using the key card to open the door and then closing it.
All the videos ended there.
Neither Shi Ning nor Su Wanxing knew what had happened in the room, because a hotel would never have cameras inside the rooms. But based on Su Wanxing's account, she and Jiang Ningran had probably had relations.
Probably.
She said she had slept, and when she woke up, she remembered nothing. In that time period, anything could have happened.
The only one who knew the truth was Jiang Ningran, who had just been knocked out by Shi Ning.
Shi Ning could figure this out, and Su Wanxing was by no means stupid. She could also understand it now, and her face turned deathly pale.
Many times, many things are frightening precisely because they are unknown.
And now, that missing period in Su Wanxing's memory was what frightened her the most. She sat on the sofa, her whole body trembling, like a frightened little rabbit whose long ears had flopped down. Shi Ning picked up her phone, turned off the screen, and asked Su Wanxing, "Now, what do you want to do?"
Su Wanxing's face was completely colorless. The only color on it was probably her red-rimmed eyes from crying and her lips, which she had bitten so hard they were almost swollen.
Su Wanxing thought for a long time, then asked, "Shi Jiejie, can I... can I talk to Jiang Ningran?"
Shi Ning looked at Jiang Ningran, who she had already knocked unconscious, then glanced at Su Wanxing's determined gaze. She sighed and walked over to Jiang Ningran. She assumed a martial arts stance, raising her hands from her abdomen to her chin, then sinking them to her dantian, channeling her strength with her breath. And then- Pa! Pa!
Two slaps landed on Jiang Ningran's face.
Su Wanxing was stunned, but the slaps were effective. After a few slaps, Jiang Ningran slowly regained consciousness, her entire face red from Shi Ning's blows.
She had probably just woken up and was still a bit dazed. When she came to her senses, her bound wrists began to struggle nonstop, as if trying to break free from the belt Shi Ning had tied.
Shi Ning picked up a glass of water and held it in front of Jiang Ningran. "Sorry about that, I was a little rough. Why don't you have some water and rest a bit."
Jiang Ningran glared at her, refusing to speak.
Shi Ning smiled and said, "Don't worry. Unlike you, I didn't add anything to it."
As soon as she said this, Jiang Ningran's expression changed drastically. "What do you mean?"
Shi Ning's lips curled slightly, her tone scornful. "Jiang Ningran, you're such a smart person. Don't you understand what I mean? I woke you up now only because Su Wanxing has something to say to you."
She took a step back, clearing the way for Jiang Ningran to make eye contact with Su Wanxing, who was sitting on the sofa. Su Wanxing looked at Jiang Ningran. After a long time, she clenched her fists and asked, her voice hoarse from crying, "Jiang Ningran, why did you do this?"
She really didn't understand.
Hearing Su Wanxing's words, Jiang Ningran sneered. "What did I do? Su Wanxing, wasn't everything consensual between us?"
Su Wanxing loudly retorted, "I wasn't willing at all! You didn't even ask me!"
Jiang Ningran scoffed. "Su Wanxing, you and I both know. Some things... seven women. Hm? Stop pretending to be pure. Since you're willing to be topped by them, why not by me?"
Su Wanxing trembled with anger. She walked up to Jiang Ningran and slapped her without hesitation. "Jiang Ningran, I'm telling you, I am not her."
Jiang Ningran burst out laughing. "You're not her?" Her entire state was already a bit manic. "Su Wanxing, even you don't dare to admit that you are that bitch, do you?"
"Why did you drug my coffee?" Su Wanxing was so angry she shoved Jiang Ningran, making her fall to the ground.
Even in this state, Jiang Ningran was still confident. "You already agreed to go for coffee with me. Doesn't that mean you consented to having relations with me? I had just temporarily marked you. If you weren't willing, why would you come with me?"
Su Wanxing screamed at the top of her lungs, "Because you said you would give me the notes! Because you said we were going to the coffee shop to talk!! Because! Because I wanted to tell you that I don't like you, and I wanted you to forget about that incident!"
"Su Wanxing!" When Jiang Ningran heard the words 'don't like you,' her eyes looked ready to split from rage.
She pleaded, "Su Wanxing, you do like me, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't have begged me that first time, right? You only go into heat when you're near me, don't you?"
Listening to Jiang Ningran, Shi Ning thought of a question. She looked at Su Wanxing, who was too angry to know what to say, and asked her, "Su Wanxing, do you remember the pattern of your previous heat periods?"
Su Wanxing shook her head. "I... my timing... it's very unstable. Sometimes it's thirty days apart, sometimes just over twenty. It's never certain."
Shi Ning: "Then do you carry inhibitors with you?"
Su Wanxing said with great certainty, "Of course. It's something I've carried with me ever since I became an adult. It's also something every Omega carries to prevent accidents. So, Shi Jiejie, of course I had it. I still have some at home right now."
At this, Shi Ning smiled, the light in her eyes as cold as mountain snow.
"That's truly strange then. When you went camping with Jiang Ningran, in the tent... where were your inhibitors?"
Hearing Shi Ning's question, Jiang Ningran snapped her head up to look at her, her eyes vicious, her gaze filled with a seemingly poisoned hatred.
Shi Ning, however, didn't care in the slightest.
She was the kind of person who was both liked and hated.
Back when she was handling commercial lawsuits, some people called her a lackey of the rich and powerful, suing only for money. When she took on legal aid cases, others cursed her, saying she disregarded the truth, shielded criminals, and only wanted to win.
So, she had seen this kind of look many times before.
Shi Ning asked Su Wanxing, "Do you remember if you prepared inhibitors before you went camping with her?"
Su Wanxing nodded. "I did. And because I was running low on inhibitors, I even placed an online order for same-day delivery."
She took out her phone to show Shi Ning the purchase record.
"I definitely brought them."
Shi Ning turned her head to look at Jiang Ningran. "Then that's very strange. Why is it that you had inhibitors with you, but that situation still occurred that day with Jiang Ningran?"
Jiang Ningran spoke in a cold voice, "I don't know what you're talking about, Shi Ning. Even if things were as you say, I couldn't possibly have predicted Su Wanxing's heat period. She can't even remember her own heat cycle, so how could I?"
Bingo.
Shi Ning snapped her fingers.
"Jiang Ningran, I never said what 'things' were, so how did you just confess to everything? Besides, Jiang Ningran, how could you not remember? Didn't you say you were always by her side, that you loved her the most? I would have thought that remembering her abnormal times each month wouldn't be a difficult task for you."
Having her thoughts pierced, Jiang Ningran felt a bit of shame and anger. She did indeed have a small notebook that recorded everything about Su Wanxing. Her height as she grew year by year, her weight, the scent of her pheromones, the fragrance of her hair, and her unstable heat periods.
Shi Ning knew this only because she was a book transmigrator who understood the situation from an omniscient perspective.
The bits of information Jiang Ningran knew were only what she had witnessed and heard in her previous life.
And as for Su Wanxing, she had even less information; all she received was a rough outline, like getting a general synopsis.
Therefore, Shi Ning, the true transmigrator who had hidden her identity and was mistaken for a native by Jiang Ningran and Su Wanxing, was actually the one who knew the most.
Because of this, she saw through it at a glance. Su Wanxing's first accidental heat was something Jiang Ningran had definitely calculated and tampered with.
This round had long been under Shi Ning's control.
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