The gloomy atmosphere in the room made Vivian very depressed. She finally understood that some things were much more troublesome than she thought.
However, she didn't want to do anything at this time. Although her relationship with Gap had faded a lot because of Gap's betrayal, they were still husband and wife. From a legal point of view, she still had to bear part of the responsibility.
Even if it was only a small part of the responsibility, it was enough for her to keep the secret, especially for the sake of her child!
In the Bailey Federation, there were actually many deep-seated social problems, but these problems were usually not reported.
However, just because they were not reported did not mean that they did not exist. The most serious problem was the problem of school bullying.
This was especially true for children with "tainted" records. They were especially vulnerable to being bullied by other children in school. Even the teachers would turn a blind eye to this kind of behavior.
Among the many "tainted" records, the father was a criminal and was currently serving his sentence.
This meant that a child did not have the protection of a man. In this male-dominated society, this kind of situation was equivalent to telling everyone that they could bully the child or even the child's mother. It would not cause too much trouble.
There would not be a rude man waving a baseball bat and rushing into the school to discipline the bastards or the teachers. There would also not be a man in a suit and tie bringing a lawyer to court with the student and the school.
Furthermore, there was always a ridiculous misconception that crime was a hereditary factor, which exacerbated this phenomenon.
This included the teachers. They would look at this phenomenon with colored eyes. They would also be indifferent. Not all teachers were saints. Most of them were just ordinary people. They were not much different from the people on the street.
For the sake of her child, at least at this stage, Vivian would not consider revealing these secrets.
Vivian quickly got up and left. Lynch did not ask her to stay. Of course, it was not appropriate to ask her to stay. He quickly returned his attention to the work at hand that was not completely finished.
At the same time, in a farmer's house on the edge of the city, Gap was curled up in a sheep pen, shivering. He had to admit that an absurd knight novel he read in school saved him.
As January approached, the temperature in Saibin City had dropped to the freezing point. At this time, if one did not have proper thermal protection measures, they would not wake up after falling asleep.
At that time, he had read a book that said that the protagonist squeezed into a flock of sheep in the cold winter and thus avoided a disaster. At that time, he had sneered at these stories. How could there be such a stupid person in the world? Couldn't they just wear more clothes if they were afraid of the cold?
Until today, he had never understood that it wasn't the book that was stupid. It was his lack of experience.
Hugging the sheep, Anpu felt a warmth he had never felt before. There was no other time that he yearned for a warm environment more than now, but he was actually very confused.
He didn't know where he got the courage to escape, but he had no idea what to do after escaping.
Call the police?
This might be a good idea, but as an auditing accountant, he knew that once he confessed what he had done, even if people would say that he was not the mastermind, he would still have to bear a serious charge and lose his CPA status.
In the future, it was unlikely that a proper company would hire an unqualified accountant with a serious criminal record like him.
Perhaps the gangs would not care about that, but it was a path that he did not want to take.
Should he talk to Mr. Neo?
He had escaped from Neo's place and even scratched a guard's face with a broken lens. If he just wanted to talk to Mr. Neo, why would he hide for so long?
Also … he had a vague feeling that if Mr. Neo found him this time, he might really disappear. That was why he couldn't go looking for Neo.
What should he do then?
Should he go back and pretend that nothing had happened?
But would the police or Mr. Neo be willing to believe that nothing had happened?
Everything had changed. For the first time, a sense of helplessness and loss of control flooded Anpu's heart. It was a feeling that he had never experienced before.
He felt uneasy, his heart raced, and his head hurt.
In a daze, his consciousness and reaction speed began to slow down, and he was in a half-awake state. Soon, he fell asleep in the warmth of his body.
It was at this time that a few young people approached the sheep pen with sticks in their hands.
The leader was a country girl wearing linen clothes. She looked to be about seventeen or eighteen years old. Her flaxen hair was combed into two large braids that reached her waist.
Her head was wrapped in a square handkerchief, and she wore a thick, dirty dress. The freckles and dust on her face could not hide the quickness in her eyes.
She was a very ordinary country girl that could be found anywhere.
Beside her was her younger brother and the children from the nearby farms. These children were born socializers, and they could always make friends across long distances.
This time, they were gathered here because the country girl had recently discovered something embarrassing. She suspected that someone was violating her family's sheep.
It was difficult for her to tell her parents or other adults her thoughts. She could only communicate with her friends.
In fact, having some kind of relationship with a sheep or a cow that transcends species in the Bayer Federation and even the entire world was not an unacceptable thing, especially in the pastoral areas of some poor countries. This almost became a kind of fun for the children who herded sheep or cows.
It was a kind of fun that had little color in the deathly gray world that was as silent as a grave.
The country girl knew about this, but she could not accept someone doing this to her family's sheep, so she gathered her friends and planned to catch the bastard who had insulted the sheep.
"It sounds like there's no sound anymore …" The country girl glanced into the sheep pen. It was very quiet in the middle of the night.
At the edge of the flock, a few rams with long horns suddenly opened their eyes. Their square pupils stared at the country girl and her friends for a while before closing again.
The weather was too cold. The country girl and her friends quietly searched for the bastard under the moonlight. Not long after, they discovered a scene that made them feel disgusted.
A half-naked man had fallen asleep with a sheep in his arms. They could not help but think of more terrifying things. The country girl was enraged. She raised her stick high up into the air!
With a dull thud, Gap, who was dreaming, suddenly felt the world around him turn dark. Following it, his soul was knocked out of his body by a huge force and drifted in the boundless darkness.
Soon, an intense pain woke him up. However, his muddle-headed mind couldn't figure out what was going on at all before he was beaten up!
His piercing cries spread far and wide. A legend began to spread around the area, saying that undead would appear in the middle of the night every winter.
If anyone accidentally stumbled into them, their flesh and blood would be devoured and turned into their food!
A few years later, the story was included in "Seventy-two Amazing Stories", and became a terrifying legend in Saibin City.
Of course, this was all in the future. As for now?
The poor guy was woken up from his sleep, but was knocked out again!
CEO Neo's personal bodyguards had almost turned the place upside down. They had searched both sides of the highway several times, but they could not find any trace of the man.
Gap seemed to have disappeared into the boundless wilderness all of a sudden, and some bad news came from the police station.
The girl who went to the police station to report the case did not only report Gap alone. She also reported his direct superior, the head of his department, and two board members.
In fact, there were some other people as well. In the game of domination in corporate culture, the status of the dominated might not even be as good as a more private thing. Sharing had become the mainstream.
Not only would Gap share the girl with the others, the others would also share their girl with Gap. It was a very special kind of "corporate culture". People might be ashamed to deny it, but it would not stop existing just because they denied it.
Gap's direct superior was also arrested by the police. When the local police station and the Federation Bureau of Investigation received permission from the local government, their style of doing things became a lot wilder.
Gap's slightly plump boss soon succumbed to these people's tactics. He fell down four times in the toilet, and after 'provoking' his fellow prisoners multiple times in the detention room and being beaten up several times, he finally gave up.
He confessed some of the things he knew. Of course, it was good for him to confess first. At the very least, he could shirk some of the responsibility.
The investigation team once again confirmed Gap's importance and issued a new arrest warrant. At the same time, they began to investigate the girl, which seriously delayed the relocation of Christopher.
They had to solve these problems. At the very least, they had to prove that these cases were not directly related to the company. Only then would they be able to get away. However, this was very difficult to do.
Everything seemed to be developing in a direction that was disadvantageous to Christopher. Even CEO Neo could feel the subtle change in the attitude of the Conservative governor of the neighboring state. This made him even more anxious.
However, there was no way everything would end quickly. It was not like he told others at the beginning. He could not leave at any time. In fact, he could not leave at all.
Ever since he started to tamper with the company's financial statements a few years ago, his fate had been firmly tied to Christopher.
The company was here, he was here.
If the company was gone, there was no need for him to exist!
Gradually, he felt like he was being forced to the edge of a cliff.