Hearing these words, Liu Chen's long-held silence and fear were instantly activated, surging from the depths of her heart.
At this moment, tears that Liu Chen had suppressed for months also fell along her cheeks onto the transparent floor of the stage.
Ren Yu held Liu Chen's hand and helped her up from the sofa chair. It wasn't so much a "help" as they were separated by two thick down jackets.
Shen Hongfang stood at the back of the audience, afraid to come closer, as his primary responsibility was to protect Senior Sister He Siyu.
Seeing the scene of his boss and Liu Chen supporting each other, he hesitated. Then, seeing his boss leading Liu Chen towards the exit, he followed with Senior Sister He Siyu.
When Liu Chen came to her senses, she was already holding a cup of warm milk, sitting in the golden seat behind the driver of the commercial vehicle Shen Hong had driven that day.
Liu Chen blew on the hot milk in her hand, and the heat rose, bringing a sense of warmth to her face.
"Thank you."
This "thank you" didn't specify what or whom she was thanking, but the four people in the car understood.
After stabilizing her emotions, Liu Chen said:
"Hu Xingfa is scum. I originally thought he was just irresponsible, and his neglect of me was because Hu Qian and her mother occupied the roles of wife and daughter."
Taking a deep breath, Liu Chen's eyes gradually became firm.
"Now I realize, Hu Xingfa doesn't love anyone. He loves himself the most."
The television interview seemed to have turned into a farce. Apart from Liu Chen calling the police again to arrest her own relatives, the world seemed unchanged.
At this very moment, Hu Xingfa felt like the sky had fallen.
He sat in the back of the police car, his hands cuffed and resting on his knees, his lips tightly sealed, not daring to utter another word.
How did things turn out like this?
He had been drinking congee and eating steamed buns that morning, thinking the weather was bright and sunny. After the interview at noon, with money in hand, he planned to order a car, not anything too fancy, just the newly released Mercedes-Benz, costing around four hundred thousand.
When did the whole thing start to go wrong?
Initially, though he found the makeup in the dressing room ugly, he didn't say anything. Later, he pretended to need to use the restroom, but actually went out to find Liu Chen.
Then, he wanted to speak to that brat Liu Chen, but she had a cold face and ignored him. He was stopped by that pretty boy, and then caught by that woman Xu Danli and brought back to the dressing room.
That's it!
It was from then on that he couldn't control his mouth!
No!
It should be earlier!
From when that brat Liu Chen came to their house to celebrate her mother's birthday the year before last, her mother had a fight with that bitch Zhang Lili and fell to the ground.
Later, she became paralyzed in bed, making the house smell of urine every day.
Later, later this brat instigated her mother to remarry, without any shame. How could children let their divorced mother remarry like that!
Hu Xingfa sat in the back of the police car, thinking more and more, and felt that all of this was Liu Chen's fault!
Every time he encountered Liu Chen, he would get unlucky and encounter strange things.
In normal times, Hu Xingfa would have been cursing by now, but the words that came out today felt ominous, and he dared not speak easily.
But when he arrived at the Public Security Bureau, Hu Xingfa couldn't help but speak.
Two criminal investigators locked him in the interrogation room. A desk lamp was lit, casting a cold white light onto the interrogation table.
Hu Xingfa felt that the entire day was like a dream. How had it come to this?
Outside the one-way glass window, two criminal investigators were reporting to the captain.
"According to the testimony of the witnesses on the scene, he is suspected of violating a woman's will and forcing her to endure..."
The two criminal investigators were not ordinary people. Moreover, to prevent Hu Xingfa from denying his words, the audience members had forced the studio staff to copy a video and hand it over to the investigators.
The investigators had seen many terrible things, but they couldn't help but be confused when they learned that this man had used his own daughter for profit. As the saying goes, even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs; this old fellow was "eating his children first."
The captain of the criminal investigators glanced at Hu Xingfa's demeanor in the video and frowned slightly.
"First, give him a urine test. If the results are clear, proceed with the interrogation."
"Yes, Captain!"
Hu Xingfa was taken for a urine test. He kept his mouth shut throughout, and the only words he spoke were:
"I want to hire a lawyer!"
After saying that, Hu Xingfa quickly closed his mouth, swallowing the rest of the sentence, "I want to sue you."
However, after the urine test report came out, Hu Xingfa, alone in the quiet and dark interrogation room, finally broke down.
"I made sure Hu Qian had enough to eat and wear since she was a child. Now that my business is affected, it's only right for her, as my daughter, to share some of the burden! What's wrong with that!"
"So you admit now that you forced her against her will."
"How many times have I told you! I'm her father! Her biological father! Besides! She hasn't even called the police herself! That proves she thinks I'm right!"
The two criminal investigators exchanged glances. Indeed, many young people, after suffering persecution, choose to hide the fact of their assault due to fear of societal judgment.
At eleven o'clock at night, as the interrogation reached a stalemate, the police station received an alarm call.
It turned out that Xu Danli, for the sake of ratings, had directly edited the day's interview content crudely and replaced the originally scheduled interview.
As it turned out, Xu Danli's judgment of the market was accurate. The moment this interview program was broadcast, the ratings soared. If anyone were to walk on the streets, they would find that almost every shop with televisions was playing the same program.
Even the customers at the barbecue stall in the residential area, sitting in the garden outside the building, were watching the old, bulky television screen with unblinking eyes while reaching for skewers from the plate without looking.
At this point, the interview program was nearing its end, and the television was about to go into commercial break.
But before the commercials, the program showed Hu Xingfa's furious attempt to assault someone. Although the dagger in Hu Xingfa's hand was pixelated, the shape of the pixelation clearly resembled a dagger.
Furthermore, the post-production team was adept at capturing viewers' curiosity. After showing this segment, they used bold, enlarged text to write:
"Why did the male guest suddenly lash out with violence?
Was he enraged and ashamed, or unable to bear it any longer?!
Find out shortly!"