Chapter 493: The Unknowing Are Blameless
The nurse said through her tears, "I admit I'm a little vain, but you can't use this fake bracelet as a reason to attack me!"
Seeing that she was spouting nothing but lies, Xiao Ye decided to stop talking.
'Anyway, the soldiers have already notified their superiors. They must have started the investigation by now.'
'She's just a nurse, after all. There's no way she could hide her tracks that well.'
When she saw he wasn't speaking, the nurse assumed he'd run out of ways to attack her, so she started playing the victim again.
"You can let me off the hook now, right? I really didn't do anything to you!"
"No matter how many reasons you come up with, I didn't do it, and that's final!"
"Please, I'm begging you, just leave me alone. I don't know what I did to offend you. Look at the state I'm in. Shouldn't your anger be appeased by now?"
Her words once again stirred the crowd's sympathy.
"That's right, enough is enough. Can't you see she's already been completely humiliated today!"
'Losing face is better than losing your life.'
The doctors also began to chime in, speaking up for the nurse.
When Xiao Ye saw a doctor step forward, actually trying to help the woman up, he sneered. "I'd like to see who dares to touch her today!"
"I say she's a spy, and she is!"
"You're going too far!"
The crowd of onlookers grew larger and larger, but Xiao Ye's expression remained unchanged.
The doctor supervising the nurse was red in the face with anger. "How can you be like this? You're making baseless accusations and slandering someone!"
Xiao Ye simply ignored him and continued to sit in his chair.
More and more people joined in, hurling insults.
His silence only made some of them more vicious with their insults.
In reality, it wasn't that they couldn't stand the injustice; they were just enjoying the spectacle.
But seeing everyone else cursing, a malicious impulse took root, and they joined in as well.
Xiao Ye simply committed the faces of a few of them to memory and paid them no further mind.
Ten minutes passed.
The onlooking patients and doctors were all furious.
"What's the meaning of this!"
"Let her go, now!"
"Hurry up, or don't blame me for getting physical! A grown man picking on a young woman... Shameless!"
Some of the more hot-tempered individuals even looked like they were about to attack Xiao Ye.
If it weren't for the soldiers standing by, they wouldn't have been able to restrain themselves.
"BANG!"
Suddenly, a loud noise rang out.
The crowd was startled into silence.
"What was that?"
"Was that a gunshot?"
The sound of synchronized footsteps approached.
The crowd turned to see a squad of soldiers approaching, led by none other than General Jiang.
His expression was grim. 'I said nothing would go wrong right before I left,' he thought, 'and now this happens!'
"All of you, get out of the way!"
"It's General Jiang! I've seen him on TV!"
"My God, why would such a big shot come here? What's going on?"
General Jiang went straight to Xiao Ye. Seeing he was unharmed, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he looked at the nurse on the floor. "Men, arrest her!"
"A citizen of Country N, yet you became a spy! A traitor!"
As he spoke, General Jiang produced a printed document as evidence.
It showed that a large sum of money had suddenly appeared in the woman's husband's bank account just last year.
Around that same time, a rather important figure had died in this very hospital.
At the time, everyone had assumed the death was caused by a post-operative infection, a risk that exists even in a hospital.
But now it was clear that someone had been deliberately murdered!
"If it weren't for today's events, we would have never known that you were the one behind last year's incident!"
"What do you have to say for yourself now!"
General Jiang threw the papers in her face. The nurse's face went white as a sheet as she picked them up and looked.
Bank transactions, communication records—it was all printed out in black and white.
Once the state decided to act, her paltry little tricks stood no chance of keeping things hidden.
As for her contacts, they wouldn't go to the trouble of helping her cover it up.
All they needed was someone to get the job done. Whether their deeds were exposed, or whether their pawns were punished, was of no concern to them.
The nurse's body trembled.
General Jiang shouted sternly, "What do you have to say now! The evidence is ironclad, and we've already arrested your husband!"
"No, don't arrest him! It was all me!"
The nurse broke down in tears. Only now did she finally feel true fear.
"Someone contacted me and asked me to do it. My child was young, and our family was desperate for money. I couldn't resist the temptation, so I agreed to help."
"But I only did what they told me to do that one time! I swear, I never meant for anyone to die!"
Last year, she had thought she was just doing a small favor, but then the patient died from an infection.
She had been afraid for a long time, but it was only fear, not regret.
If she had to do it all over again, she would still say yes. After all, it was enough money to ensure her family could live a good life!
Later, when nothing came of the incident, she grew bolder.
When that person contacted her again today and asked her to harm someone, she was even able to remain calm and collected.
The nurse knelt, slamming her forehead against the floor. "I was wrong! I was so wrong! I just... My life was just so hard!"
"I'm begging you, please let my husband go! I have a three-year-old at home! Can't you go easy on my sentence?"
General Jiang sneered. "Treason is the most serious of crimes. There is no possibility of a light sentence!"
"Men, take her away!"
The doctor who had defended her tried to speak, but General Jiang shoved the evidence at him. "You all heard her just now! She confessed with her own mouth!"
"And to think you were so eager to protect a traitor. Hmph!"
General Jiang was furious with nowhere to vent his anger, and he was especially incensed to hear that a crowd had surrounded Xiao Ye and insulted him.
Only then did he approach Xiao Ye, his expression instantly shifting to a smile. "Mr. Xiao, I am so sorry. I never expected something like this to happen."
"As a man in your position, failing to anticipate this only proves you're a fool!"
"They failed to get me once, so a second attempt was inevitable. A hospital is a crowded, chaotic place. You failed to have people monitoring every step of the process, leaving an opening for a mere nurse to exploit!"
Being called a fool in front of so many people made General Jiang's face flush, but he couldn't refute it because it was the truth.
Xiao Ye then turned to the few people who had been the most vicious with their insults. "They incited the crowd and nearly caused a disaster. Take them away!"
The few of them instantly panicked.
They believed they were acting out of a sense of justice. What had they done wrong?
"We didn't know she was a spy! Ignorance isn't a crime!"
"That's right! You can't arrest us! We were just trying to help! By what right can you take us away?"
"Trying to help?"
General Jiang scoffed. "True helpfulness comes after you understand the situation, not from blindly believing one side of the story!"
"You were all so convinced she didn't look like a bad person. Do you really think villains walk around with the word 'villain' written on their foreheads?"