Chapter 1 — Conspiracy Before Admission Day

I'm just missing the final background check before I can officially be accepted as a civil servant. That afternoon, I picked up my document bag and planned to drive to my fiance's place to get a confirmation of family relationship. But as soon as my fingertips touched the car key, a few lines of gray-white text suddenly appeared before my eyes. 【Don't touch the car.】 【Tonight at 7:20, someone will die on the west beltway.】 【The car that hit that person will have your license plate.】 【Three days later, the dead man's son will stab you right at the background check explanation.】 I stood silently at the door, sweating. The cold immediately rushed out. At that moment, the phone rang. The fiance's gentle voice came through the receiver: "Nam Chi, please drive over here. There are a lot of documents, I can check them for you."1 Ha Minh Xuyen and I have been engaged for two years. All relatives said he was thoughtful, mature, and knew how to take care of others. But at that moment, I just felt cold down my spine. I grabbed the phone and asked him: "What documents do you have to come pick up right now?" Ha Minh Xuyen laughed. "The family member status declaration that you have to submit during the background check. I've fixed two places for you, it's best to come pick it up yourself. Don't take the subway, it's very crowded during rush hour." The text just told me not to touch the car. He immediately urged me to drive. It was so coincidental that it looked like someone had already sharpened the knife, then placed it in my hand. I looked at the wall clock. Five twenty-seven p.m. There were less than two hours left until the time of the accident that the text mentioned. I tried to keep my voice calm. "My stomach isn't feeling well, I don't want to drive." The other end of the line was silent for a moment. "Stomach isn't feeling well? So will you come pick me up?" "No need." I picked up my bag, turned around and walked towards the elevator. "I went to the hospital nearby to buy some medicine first. We'll talk about the file tomorrow." Ha Minh Xuyen's voice was still gentle as before. "Nam Chi, tomorrow the background checker will check Don't be impulsive." I said: "The background check is my business. I know what's important." Without waiting for him to continue, I hung up. The elevator goes down to the second basement floor. My white SUV is still parked in the parking lot. The license plate, wheel rim, rear window sticker and old scratch on the right rear door are all intact. I opened the phone camera, filmed from the front of the car to the rear, then walked around the car once, especially clearly recording the number of kilometers, the amount of gas, the time on the dashboard and the number of parking spaces. After that, I called the residential area manager. "Ms. Ly, my car is at risk of having its license plate tampered with by someone else. Please go down to the second basement right now, help me confirm that the car is still here, then send a confirmation message to the resident group."When Ms. Ly ran over, she thought I had encountered a scammer. I don't explain too much. "Would you mind clarifying the time, location and license plate number in the video?" Ms. Ly followed. I uploaded the video to the judicial evidence storage platform to create a timestamp. After that, I asked the management to install a temporary lock in front of the parking space. Ms. Ly hesitated: "Miss Tham, this must be registered." "Just register, I will sign. I will pay the cost." Five minutes later, the car lock was installed. I put both the master key and the spare key in a transparent sealed bag, then called a car to the nearby notary office. Luckily, before six o'clock, the notary office still had an on-duty counter. I present the situation. The staff helped me seal the items, take photos on site and issue receipt papers. At eight minutes past six, I left the notary office. I'm not looking for Ha Minh Xuyen. I entered the subway station. Card swipe history, camera at the checkpoint

ticket and phone location can both prove I was there. At six thirty-nine minutes, someone suddenly screamed on the station platform. An old woman wearing a gray coat fell next to the escalator, her face pale, her fingers shaking. I ran over and knelt on one knee next to her. "Uncle, can you hear me?" Her consciousness was hazy. Someone next to her shouted: "Is it a stroke?" I felt her pulse, saw a hypoglycemic medicine box exposed in her bag, and immediately told the staff: "It could be hypoglycemia. Quickly call an ambulance, get sugar water or glucose gel." The subway staff quickly brought the first aid box. I helped the old woman lie on her side to avoid choking, then helped her suck on sugar. More than ten minutes later, emergency personnel arrived. The old woman woke up a bit and grabbed my hand. "Girl, what's your name?" I said: "Tham Nam Chi." She looked at me for a moment. "I remember." That evening at twenty past seven, the camera on the western ring road captured a white SUV rushing across the crosswalk. An old man carrying a bag of groceries was thrown out. 2News of the accident broke out at 8:40 p.m. I was sitting in the twenty-four-hour self-service area of the administrative service center, having just finished printing the receipt to look up the certificate of no criminal record. The phone suddenly vibrated continuously. A group of classmates, a group of relatives, a group studying for exams, all are sharing a video. The image shook violently. Rainy night, street lights, crosswalks. A white SUV rushed past, its license plate enlarged several times. That series of numbers is my license plate. The video's title was as dazzling as blood. "The person who was about to become a civil servant stabbed someone to death and then ran away?" "Right before the background check caused someone to die, do you still want to go to the disciplinary inspection agency?" I stared at the screen, my chest tightening. Those words are real. Someone actually died. Regardless of whether the car was mine or not, an innocent person was caught in this trap. Ha Minh Xuyen quickly called. This time, his voice was very urgent. "Nam Chi, where are you?" "Administrative center." "Have you seen the video online?" "See." He seemed to have just breathed a sigh of relief, but also seemed even more tense. "Don't be afraid. I will go with you to the traffic police team to explain. As long as you are not intentional and actively cooperate, the matter can still be resolved." I coldly asked: "Why do you assume that I stabbed someone?" He paused. again. "I don't mean that. What I mean is that if you were so panicked at that time..." "Your car has been in the residential area's parking garage since afternoon." "But the license plate in the video is your license plate." I closed my eyes. "So it was a car with a fake license plate." He was silent for a few seconds and then sighed. "Nam Chi, you study law, you should know that public opinion will not care about such details. Now the most important thing is attitude."Attitude. You haven't even seen the evidence yet and have already begun to teach me how to admit my mistakes. I said: "I will go to the traffic police team, but I don't need you to go with me." I directly called the car to the accident management team. Before going in, I sent all the documents in chronological order to my email and two cloud storage drives. Video of the management board. Vehicle registration certificate. Sealed paper from the notary office. Authentication code of the judicial evidence storage platform. History of swiping subway cards. Login history at the administrative center. The receipt requires the car dealership to maintain vehicle information box data. There was also the alarm file number when I coordinated emergency services at the subway station. When the police handling the crime received me, his expression was very serious. "Tham Nam Chi?" "It's me." "The license plate in your name is related to a murder case."

had a traffic accident and fled. Please explain your whereabouts at around seven twenty this evening."I did not cry, nor did I complain. I gave each document to them in turn. "My car did not leave the residential area. The main key and spare key were notarized and sealed before the accident occurred. After six hours, I'm always at the subway, the emergency scene, and the administrative center. All have notes from a third party." As the police officer flipped through the documents, his eyebrows gradually furrowed. At this moment, Ha Minh Xuyen ran over. As soon as he entered the door, he grabbed my shoulder. "Nam Chi, don't try to force yourself. I know your pressure is great. The background check is coming, when people are impatient, they can easily make mistakes." The police officer raised his head to look at him. "What are you to her?" "Fiance." Ha Minh Xuyen looked at me, his eyes full of pain. "I believe her nature is not bad. If there really is a problem, I also hope that she can honestly confess." This statement is too cruel. He did not directly say that I was guilty. But it made everyone feel that I was hiding something. I removed his hand from my shoulder. "Ha Minh Xuyen, I repeat it again. I don't drive, nor do I crash." He smiled bitterly. "I'm just worried about you." My phone lit up. My half-sister, Tham Nhuoc Duong, had just posted a post on her personal page. "There are people who always talk about rules, but when something really happens, they only think about how to protect their future. How pitiful for that old man." The attached image is a white candle. She did not name names. But all mutual friends knew she was talking about me. Half an hour later, the recruitment unit's disciplinary inspection officer called me. "Comrade Tham Nam Chi, considering that you are currently involved in public opinion about a serious traffic accident, tomorrow's background check interview is postponed. I request you to cooperate with the investigation and wait for notification. "I held the phone, my fingertips were cold. Many years of exam preparation. The written test ranked first. The interview ranked first. The health check passed. There was only one last step left. Now, someone has placed a body right on the path where I entered the payroll. 3 Three days later, I received a notice to the recruitment unit to explain the situation. When I arrived at the gate of the provincial agency area, inside There were already many people surrounding outside. Banners hung on the iron fence. "Killed my father, must pay for my life." "Do you still want to be an officer if you cause an accident?" "Let's give justice to ordinary people." Several media people raised their phones and broadcast live in front of the gate. "Everyone, the person who is about to become a civil servant is coming." "I heard that the family is very powerful, the appraisal process The background check has not been canceled, just postponed." "Let's see today if she still dares to show her face or not." As soon as I got out of the car, all the cameras turned towards me. Someone shouted: "She's here!" "It's her!" "Stabbing someone and still dressing properly!" I was wearing a long black coat, with a white shirt underneath. Originally this was the outfit I prepared for the background check interview. Now It was as if they had turned him into a mourner. The dead man's son stood in front of the crowd. He was about thirty years old, his eyes were bloodshot from being awake, and he was holding a photo in his hand. The old man in the photo had gray hair and a very gentle smile. I later learned that his name was Nguy Quang Lam. Before retiring, he had worked as an environmental sanitation worker for more than twenty years. That night, he only went out to buy food medicine to lower blood pressure for wife.