Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
“We’re setting the complaint aside for now,” she said. “We received a second letter.”
“A second?”
“You aren’t the target this time.”
She pushed the file over.
“Your deputy department manager is accused of using his position to submit inflated invoices.”
I read it.
The amount wasn’t large, but the allegation was serious.
More importantly, its format and wording were identical to the first letter.
The same complainant.
“What does that tell you?” the HR director asked.
“That I’m not their real target. They may be trying to use me to drag others in the department down.”
“Or—” She paused. “They want you to suspect your husband and create a bigger conflict.”
I stayed silent.
The logic didn’t fit.
If the target was internal to the company, why had the first letter concerned my marriage?
Unless the sender knew me very well.
Knew I was fighting with Zhao Lei and separating.
Knew I had concealed my bonus.
There weren’t many such people.
“May I see the original complaint?”
“Under company policy—”
“I’m requesting a review as the person accused.”
She considered it.
“I’ll ask management.”
That evening, Zhao Lei came to my flat.
He didn’t look well.
“Found out?”
“Yes.” He sat. “Zhao Qian’s boyfriend sent it.”
“Boyfriend?”
“After your brother-in-law ran away, she met a man who works in finance.”
He sounded exhausted.
“He used to work at your company. He knows the internal procedures and that you’re in finance. He came up with the complaints to force you to compromise.”
“Compromise on what?”
“Lending money.”
I laughed.
Out loud.
“Your sister found someone to report me over fifty thousand?”
“She says she didn’t know it would get like this—”
“Your sister’s thirty-two, not twelve.”
I stood.
“She doesn’t know what an anonymous complaint means? Doesn’t know it could cost me my job?”
“She knows she was wrong—”
“What good does that do?”
I picked up my phone.
“I’m calling the police.”
“Don’t!”
He caught my arm.
“Please. If Qian gets a criminal record, her whole life will be ruined.”
“What about me?”
I shook him off.
“When the company suspended me, did anyone think about me?”
“I’ve already told her off—”
“What good did that do?”
I looked at him.
The man I had been married to for five years looked like a child who had done wrong and didn’t know what to do.
“Tell me what you want. I’ll do anything,” he said. “Just don’t call the police.”
“Give me her boyfriend’s name, number, and address.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Talk to him.”
“No. What if—”
“Zhao Lei.”
I cut him off.
“You aren’t in a position to bargain.”
After a long silence, he found a number on his phone and sent it.
“That’s all?”
“I only know he’s Sun Hao. He used to be in your finance department, then changed jobs.”
“You can go.”
He stood, reached the door, then looked back.
“Are you coming home?”
I didn’t answer.
I called Sun Hao’s number.
“Hello? Who’s this?”
“Jiang Wan. Zhao Qian’s sister-in-law. We’re meeting tomorrow at ten.”
There were several seconds of silence.
“All right.”
At ten the next morning, I reached the agreed café.
Sun Hao was already there.
Thirty-two or thirty-three, glasses, neatly dressed. He looked respectable.
Once I sat, he spoke first.
“Ms. Jiang, the complaints were my idea.”
“Why?”
“To help Zhao Qian.”
He went on.
“She had nowhere to turn. Your brother-in-law ran away. She can’t pay the mortgage. The children need feeding. She asked you for a loan, and you refused. I had to find another way.”
“So you sent an anonymous complaint against me?”
“The plan wasn’t directed at you.”
He adjusted his glasses.
“The first letter was meant to make the company doubt you and suspend you temporarily. Once suspended, you’d go home to resolve the marital problem. Then Zhao Qian could set terms.”
“What terms?”
“What if I wouldn’t negotiate?”
“Then the second letter,” he said. “Reporting your deputy manager was the backup plan. If the first didn’t work, the second would expose departmental problems. The company would investigate thoroughly, and as chief accountant, you’d be implicated too.”
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll call the police?”
“You have no evidence.”
“I do now.”
I took out my phone and stopped the recording.
His face changed.
“You—