The man spoke so aggressively that Emily had to shift around to avoid the spray of saliva from his mouth. "Sir, I didn't mean that. How about this? You can go over there and fill in the form with your personal information. Free consultations start at nine o'clock. You can wait in the lobby until then."
"Why should I wait? Why won't you let me see a doctor right now?" the man asked, disappointed and seemingly hurt. He pushed Emily away and began to rush inside. "I want to see a doctor. Don't try to stop me!"
"Sir, you..." Emily began. Subconsciously, she reached out to stop him. As soon as her hand touched him, however, he stumbled and fell back with an exaggerated expression of pain on his face.
"Ow! She hit me! What kind of a clinic is this? How dare you hit a patient?" He lay on the ground, waving his arms wildly. "It hurts! It hurts! She hit me!"
Emily immediately saw through him and her face darkened. It was clear to her that this man was deliberately stirring up trouble for some reason.
"Sir, we are an established public service organization. If you think you can come here and play your dirty tricks on us, you've come to the wrong place." With cold eyes, she turned around and instructed the person in charge, "Call security immediately, and have them escort this man out."
Without hesitation, the personnel did as he was told.
Amid the chaos, no one noticed the man with a black hat standing in the corner, secretly filming everything.
In the CEO's office, Darren slowly flipped through the photographs in his hands.
He asked coldly, "Are the articles and pictures ready to be published online?"
Harlan nodded and replied confidently, "They are. Everything is in order. As soon as the news of Emily laying a hand on a depressed patient comes out, everyone will brand her a hypocrite."
"You just wait and see, Emily," Darren said softly. A cold smile formed on his lips as he brushed her face in the photo with his finger.
In the picture, Emily, with her outstretched arms, seemed to be shoving the man onto the ground. The depressed man was about to fall on his back, looking powerless and vulnerable.
It took a long time for the free clinic to end. Emily was about to head back to her office to get some rest when she received a call from Rita.
"Hello, Rita," she answered. Exhausted, she rubbed the area between her eyebrows as she made her way to her office.
"My dear Emily, take a look at the news on the internet! You're screwed!" The anxiety in Rita's voice was alarming.
Emily had no idea what she was talking about. Worried, she quickened her pace.
She still had Rita on the phone when she entered her office. With a trembling hand, she closed the door and hurried over to the desk. Then, she immediately turned on the computer.
In seconds, her screen was filled with pictures of a familiar scene. She couldn't believe her eyes. Although she knew what had really happened, in the pictures, she seemed to be pushing the patient down.
And to her astonishment, these news stories—and the whole matter, in fact—seemed to have been planned out. It was as if someone had been at the free clinic all along, ready to sabotage her.
There was no coverage of the full story on the news. Only details about Emily pushing down the man were discussed. Suddenly, she stopped scrolling through the article.
There was a picture of the man's medical records, which clearly indicated that he had a long history of depression. The following picture was a close-up shot of his injury after supposedly being beaten by Emily.
The caption read that Emily was a woman who pretended to be pure and noble, but that in reality, she was a hypocrite who had assaulted a depressed man while holding a free clinic.
"Emily? Are you there?" asked Rita on the other end of the line. Emily sighed; she had forgotten that she was still on a call with Rita. Trying to sound as calm and collected as she could, she tried to comfort Rita.
"Don't worry about me. I'll find out what happened. I'll call you later. Trust me, I'll figure it out."
After hanging up the phone, Emily sat down. The lines on her face grew deeper with concern.
She knew that someone had set her up. Panicking now would only please whoever this person was.
She could never let the enemy win. But what should she do?
Suddenly, her eyes lit up. She thought of a great idea. There had to be CCTV cameras at the venue, and the footage would tell her everything that she needed to know. Immediately, she hurried to the surveillance room.
If she didn't act now, the people who were trying to ruin her might get to the tapes first. If that happened, then there would be no way to redeem her public image.
The surveillance room was on the third floor of the building. Thinking quickly, she ran to the elevator.
When she got out of it upon reaching the third floor, she was so rattled that she bumped right into a man who was on his way in. He was dressed in all black.
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