Chapter 11 — Back Before The Wedding Day

On Tuesday morning, Lam Quoc Bao knocked on the door of the private office that Khanh Linh had just been given after officially becoming a creative director, holding a thin file of documents, with a serious expression different from usual.

"Look at this," he said, placing the file on the table and opening it to the marked page. "I found an expense for 'legal advice for capital contribution contracts' worth nearly two billion VND, approved directly by the chairwoman's office, without going through the usual appraisal process of the project finance department."

Khanh Linh held the document, her eyes quickly scanning each line of data. "What capital contribution contract? Our project does not have any items related to outside capital contribution."

"That's exactly what makes me feel unusual," Lam Quoc Bao replied, his voice low. "I tried looking up the name of the company receiving this 'consultation' - Thinh Phat Investment Consulting Company. According to the business registration documents, this company has only been established for six months, has a very small charter capital, but has received such a huge amount of money from Bao Tin Group."

Khanh Linh's heart beats faster. This was a familiar pattern that she had learned to recognize too late in her past life - shell companies were created just to formalize the money transferred out of the corporation in the name of legality, then when a scapegoat was needed, the entire responsibility would be placed on the person who signed the most recent relevant documents - and in her previous life, that person was her.

"Can you find out who is the legal representative of Thinh Phat company?" she asked, trying to keep her voice calm even though her insides were churning.

"I looked it up," he replied, turning to the next page in the document. "The representative's name is Trinh Ngoc Lan."

That name made Khanh Linh stunned. It was indeed her - the strange woman she had seen secretly chatting with Mrs. Kim Chi at the gala a few months ago. All the pieces of the puzzle are now starting to fit together, painting a clearer picture of the conspiracy that is secretly brewing.

"Trinh Ngoc Lan," she repeated the name, her voice low as if trying to engrave it in her mind. "In my previous life, I had never heard of this name, but this time, she appeared too early, too clearly to be a coincidence."

"What do you mean 'past life'?" Lam Quoc Bao asked, slightly frowning at her unusual use of words.

Khanh Linh paused, realizing she had just said something wrong. "I mean, in my previous market research, I've never seen a company like that," she corrected quickly, trying to keep her voice as natural as possible. "Maybe I'm just being a little too sensitive."

Lam Quoc Bao looked at her for a moment, his eyes as if he wanted to ask something more, but in the end he just nodded and did not inquire further - a delicate respect that made Khanh Linh secretly grateful to him even more.

"Thank you for finding this out," she said, folding the document and placing it carefully in a separate locked drawer. "We need to keep this information private and not let anyone else know, even within the project team. Can you continue to quietly monitor all transactions related to Thinh Phat company in the near future?"

"Of course," Lam Quoc Bao replied, his eyes determined. "But you should also be careful, if this is really a deliberate plot, there must be someone behind it will definitely not reveal loopholes easily. We need more concrete evidence before we can do anything."

At noon, when Khanh Linh was eating alone in the office to handle more work, Dang Khoa suddenly stopped by and knocked gently on the door before entering.

"Do you have time? I want to invite you to dinner tonight, there are a few things I want to discuss privately," he said, his voice serious, different from his usual confidence.

Khanh Linh was a bit surprised by this sudden invitation. "What needs to be said in private?"

"I... I feel like you've been keeping a distance from me lately," Dang Khoa replied, his eyes showing rare confusion. "I just want to understand if I did anything to make you uncomfortable."

Khanh Linh was silent for a moment, considering carefully before answering. She didn't want to create unnecessary conflict at this sensitive time, but she also didn't want to let this relationship progress in the direction she was determined to avoid. "It's not like you did anything wrong," she replied, choosing her words carefully. "It's just that I want to fully focus on work during this important phase of the project. I think, keeping a clear boundary between work and personal feelings will be better for both of us, especially when you are both a business partner and the son of the group's chairman."

"I understand," Dang Khoa replied, his voice a bit disappointed but still maintaining his composure. "But I hope, one day, when the project is more stable, you will give me the opportunity to get to know you better, not just as a colleague."

Khanh Linh did not respond directly, just smiled politely and cleverly switched to another work topic to avoid having to make any promises. After Dang Khoa left, she breathed a sigh of relief, but couldn't help but feel a little sad at the thought of having to constantly keep her distance from a person who, despite having enough reasons to no longer trust completely, was still not a completely evil person in her eyes.

On the way back to the design room after a conversation with Dang Khoa, Khanh Linh accidentally passed by the fire escape area with few people and heard Bao Ngoc's familiar voice, small but full of tension.

"...I said I need more time to think," Bao Ngoc said over the phone, his voice trembling as if he was trying to suppress some emotion. "I promise, this will not affect Khanh Linh, right? I don't want to hurt him."

Khanh Linh stopped behind the corner of the wall, her heart pounding, trying to hear more, but the voice on the other end of the line was too quiet to recognize who it was. A few seconds later, Bao Ngoc hung up the phone, sighed deeply before adjusting his clothes, regaining his normal expression as if nothing had happened, and then walked towards the elevator.

Khanh Linh stayed a while longer, to make sure Bao Ngoc was gone, a mixture of mixed emotions arose in her heart. That call confirmed what she had long suspected — someone, most likely Ms. Kim Chi or one of her representatives, was approaching, putting pressure on Bao Ngoc in some way. But the statement "don't want to hurt him" also shows that, deep inside, Bao Ngoc still has a part of conscience, a tug of war that has not been completely submerged by ambition or pressure from outside.

"There's still a chance," Khanh Linh thought to herself, stepping out of the corner of the stairs, "if I'm just clever enough, patient enough, maybe I can still stop him from slipping down this wrong path before things become irreversible."

Late in the afternoon, when packing her things to prepare to leave, Khanh Linh received a strange text message from an unnamed phone number: "Be careful what you believe in this company. Not everyone is what they seem." Without any further information, the message disappeared shortly after as if sent from an anonymous application.

Khanh Linh frowned, trying to think about who could be the one sending this mysterious message. Could it be that some hidden ally is also noticing the same abnormalities as her? Or was this just a vague, baseless warning, perhaps even a trap set to test her reaction?

She took a screenshot of the message and saved it in a separate folder on her phone before deleting it to avoid detection if someone checked her device. That evening, while sitting alone in her room, she opened her notebook and wrote more notes than usual: "Thinh Phat Company - Trinh Ngoc Lan's cover, received two billion dong from the corporation in the name of unclear legal advice. Dang Khoa still pursues, needs to continue to keep a tactful distance. Anonymous message warns - need to determine the source as soon as possible, it may be a potential ally that has not yet appeared."

Closing the book, she looked out the window, her heart heavy with disorganized thoughts. The fateful chess game has now begun to reveal the first pieces, and she knows that she needs to calculate each move more carefully than ever to avoid being caught up in the spiral of tragedy again.

Before turning off the light to go to bed, she texted Lam Quoc Bao, just one line: "Let's meet tomorrow earlier than usual, I have more information to exchange." Just a few seconds later, he texted back: "Okay, I'll be there at seven." That quick, sure response made Khanh Linh feel more secure, as if amidst the countless uncertainties surrounding her, she still had a solid, unshakable fulcrum.