mtl008 Chapter 1429 Yunrui's Sincere Devotion: The Track Behind Bars
Chapter 1429 Yunrui's Sincere Devotion: The Track Behind Bars
“I’m not here as a journalist; this is a personal interview.” Qi Ruixiang opened his notebook, his pen pausing on the first page. “But I will ensure that my questions are objective and rigorous, just like when I covered your building materials line back then.”
His gaze was calm, devoid of mockery or sympathy, but filled with a professional focus—a focus ingrained in his very being when covering breaking news, a focus he never truly lost even after his downfall and subsequent role as a live-streaming influencer.
Bai Xiuxian stiffened, avoiding his gaze and looking at the withered sycamore leaves outside the window. "What do you want to ask? The inferior materials of Hongfuyuan, or that I sent Lin Xu to get close to Gu Yunxi? I've already explained all of this to the police."
"I want to know the details." Qi Ruixiang lightly tapped his pen on the paper. "When you signed the building materials supply contract with the Hongfuyuan developer, were you clearly aware that the BX-07 insulation material was not flame-retardant? Through what channels did you forge the test report you provided at the time?"
His speech was steady, and each question went straight to the point without any unnecessary embellishment, instantly bringing the atmosphere of the meeting room back to the press conference scene—where he did the same thing, standing among the reporters, using the most concise questions to expose the evasive answers of the company executives.
Bai Xiuxian's fingers clenched slightly, her knuckles turning white from the force. "Yes... I know the materials weren't up to standard." Her voice lowered. "The test report was forged by a third-party agency, costing 500,000 yuan. The developer took a 2 million yuan kickback from me before agreeing to use my materials." She raised her head, a hint of self-mockery in her eyes.
"Why would you take such a big risk?" Qi Ruixiang pressed, his gaze fixed on her eyes. "With your wealth, even without the Hongfuyuan project, you could easily keep the company running."
At the mention of this issue, Bai Xiuxian suddenly became agitated. She slammed her hand on the table, her voice rising sharply: "Risk? If I didn't take risks, the company would have gone bankrupt long ago!" Her chest heaved violently, and the collar of her prison uniform was ripped out of shape. "I signed a betting agreement; if I lost, I would have to relinquish control of the company! How can I willingly hand over the empire I've built with my own hands after a lifetime of hard work?"
Qi Ruixiang remained calm, unaffected by her emotions: "So you chose to use inferior materials to reduce costs and fill the gap with illegal profits? Have you ever thought about how many people those materials will kill?"
His voice wasn't loud, but it carried a power that penetrated people's hearts: "There was an old woman at the fire scene. Her husband perished in the flames while trying to get his portrait."
There was also a firefighter who had just turned twenty, and he was burned beyond recognition while rescuing trapped people. Are these people's lives just chips in your gamble?
Bai Xiuxian's body jolted violently, as if all her strength had been drained, and she slumped into the chair. Tears suddenly welled up in her eyes, not the performative crying she had in the Gu family's teahouse, but a desperate, suppressed sob.
"I...I never thought people would die." Her voice trembled with sobs. "I thought at most it would just be a project failing inspection, and we could just pay compensation...I never imagined the fire would spread so quickly, or that the materials would be so useless..."
Qi Ruixiang watched her weep, his finger pausing on the recorder, but he remained silent. Only Bai Xiuxian's sobs and the rustling of wind through the paulownia leaves outside the window filled the meeting room. After a long silence, he finally spoke slowly: "Besides stealing research results, did you have any other purpose in sending Lin Xu to approach Gu Yunxi?"
Bai Xiuxian wiped away her tears, sniffed, and her voice was still choked with sobs: "I...I want to use Gu Yunxi's research results to cooperate with overseas pharmaceutical companies, get investment, and completely break free from the constraints of the performance-based agreement." She looked up at Qi Ruixiang, her eyes filled with regret, "I'm sorry to Gu Mingcheng. He trusted me so much back then, but I turned around and harmed his daughter. I'm also sorry to those I killed..."
Qi Ruixiang preserved the recording intact. On the afternoon he was released from prison, instead of handing the material over to the police as usual, he returned to his rented old neighborhood.
The rented room was less than 20 square meters, with several boxes of old newspapers and recording equipment piled up in the corner. These were all the belongings he had left behind when he was a journalist.
He sat at the creaking wooden table, turned on his malfunctioning old computer, and spliced together the recording of the meeting room with footage he had previously filmed of the prison exterior and the reconstruction of Hongfuyuan. He added no fancy special effects, not even a simple piano melody as background music, focusing solely on Bai Xiuxian's hoarse confession and his calm questioning…
He deliberated for a long time before finally settling on the title of the video: "Interview Behind Bars: From Business Elite to Prisoner, Bai Xiuxian's Greed and Repentance".
The moment Qi Ruixiang pressed the publish button, he leaned back in his chair, staring at the loading icon flashing on the screen. He felt no excitement about the expected traffic, only a strange sense of certainty.
He didn't expect the video to make a big splash, since such heavy content was too niche compared to the entertainment gossip and funny clips on short video platforms.
To his surprise, when he logged into his account again three days later, the data in the backend stunned him: the number of views exceeded one million, the number of likes exceeded one hundred thousand, and the comment section was in an uproar.
"So many hidden stories behind the Hongfuyuan fire." "Reporter Qi's questions were so sharp and professional." "Judging from Bai Xiuxian's expression, is she really regretting it?" "I hope more of these kinds of things will be exposed so that more people can learn from them."
From that day on, Qi Ruixiang found his own path. He no longer dwelled on his past misfortunes, nor did he obsess over making quick money by riding the wave of popularity. Instead, he devoted all his energy to the "Interviews Behind Bars" series.
Leveraging his connections from years past, he contacted prisons across the country, requesting meetings with celebrities who were once high-profile but are now imprisoned—including corporate executives who embezzled public funds, stars who evaded taxes, investment tycoons involved in financial fraud, and business figures like Bai Xiuxian who were behind bars for greed...
His initial application was not successful, with many prisons rejecting him on the grounds of "protecting privacy" and "avoiding hype." Qi Ruixiang did not give up. He took his self-made interview video with Bai Xiuxian and went to the prison's propaganda department time and time again, explaining his original intention: "I am not doing this for hype, but just want to use their experience to sound the alarm for more people."
To prove his sincerity, he even offered to waive all interview fees and refuse any commercial placements in the videos. Finally, after making no fewer than twenty trips, a prison granted his interview request.
The days slipped by quietly as they made their way to prisons, court hearings, and organized interview materials.
Spring turned to autumn, he went through three canvas bags, filled five notebooks, and wore out two voice recorders. From Hong Kong to the mainland, from south to north, he would rush over to any suitable interviewee as soon as possible...