I'm sorry, but your fiancé loves me.

Zhou Xue sent a message to Yun Muqian:

"Are you free these next couple of days? Let's grab a bite to eat."

send.

She stared at the screen for several minutes but received no reply.

I waited another half hour, but still no reply.

It wasn't until evening that Yun Muqian replied with just three words: "Busy lately."

Yun Muqian knew that Zhou Xue must have been exhausted by the recent events and that she must have had an ulterior motive for seeing her, so she ignored her invitation.

Zhou Xue didn't insist. She exited the chat window, put her phone aside, and reopened the investigation report in front of her.

There is a detail in Yun Muqian's resume: she graduated from university two years later than usual, because she "took a leave of absence due to illness".

She took a leave of absence due to illness. What illness did she have? Which hospital was she in? Is there any record? If it's really a lie, then where did she go and what did she do during those two years?

Zhou Xue called downstairs, "Zhou Yao, come up here for a moment."

A moment later, Zhou Yao appeared at the top of the stairs. "What's wrong, sis?"

"Come in."

Zhou Yao entered the study, walked to the desk, and glanced down at the document spread out on it. Yun Muqian's name was prominently displayed on the paper, and his expression changed slightly.

"Are you still investigating Yun Muqian?" Zhou Yao's voice carried a hint of wariness.

"Please sit down first," Zhou Xue said.

Zhou Yao didn't sit. He stood there, frowning as he looked at her.

"Sis, what exactly is going on between you and her? You've been making a fuss about this these past few days. Dad's company had such a big problem and you weren't trying to help, you're just wasting all your energy investigating someone unrelated—"

"Please sit down first." Zhou Xue's voice was a little deeper than before.

Zhou Yao glanced at her, then slowly sat down in the chair. Zhou Xue leaned against the edge of the desk, crossed her arms over her chest, and looked down at him.

"Zhou Yao," she said, "I have a question for you."

"you say."

Do you remember someone from high school named Jiang Xiaohua?

"Jiang Xiaohua?"

Why are you suddenly asking this?

Do you know him?

"Of course I know her, sis. I went with you a few times when you led people to ambush her."

"I don't remember exactly which times," Zhou Yao said in a low voice. "I just remember one time you called a few girls to the equipment room, and I went with them."

"Zhou Yao," her voice was hoarse, "did you lay a hand on him?"

Zhou Yao remained silent for a long time before saying, "I pushed her once."

Zhou Xue's breath hitched.

"The day you and your men cornered her at the end of the corridor," Zhou Yao said, "she backed away, backed up to me, and I pushed her. She fell."

Why did you push her?

"I don't know," Zhou Yao said. "Maybe you'd be happy to see me helping you deal with her. Maybe you just found her annoying. Maybe... there's no way. I was just a stupid kid back then; I had no idea what I was doing."

Zhou Xue slowly sat down in the chair opposite the desk, looking somewhat dazed.

"Sister," Zhou Yao looked up, his eyes a little red, "why are you telling me this?"

Looking at his slightly red eyes, Zhou Xue felt a surge of indescribable emotions. She reached out and took the stack of documents in front of him, flipping to one of the pages. On it was a photo and a summary of Yun Muqian's resume that she had circled.

"I've been thinking about something," Zhou Xue said, her voice as flat as still water, "if Yun Muqian is Jiang Xiaohua—"

"impossible--"

"Let me finish," Zhou Xue interrupted him. "If Yun Muqian is Jiang Xiaohua, then her approach to you was intentional. She knows who you are, she knows you're from the Zhou family, and she knows what you did back then. She's been scheming against you from the very beginning."

Zhou Yao's face turned pale instantly.

"Her friendship with you, her closeness to you, her intimate relationship with you—it was all part of a plan." Zhou Xue's voice trembled slightly, a tremor she herself didn't even realize.

"She's back. She's come back to us. She's coming one by one: Qin Qihan, Dad's company, you—she's taking back everything she owed her back then."

Zhou Yao suddenly stood up, the chair leg scraping the floor with a screeching sound. His chest heaved violently, his face turned from white to red, and the bloodshot in his eyes deepened.

"Zhou Xue," he called her by her full name, his voice colder than ever before.

"Why do you have to do this? Why do you have to investigate her? Why do you have to prove she has ulterior motives? Can't you... can't you just think of her as a normal, good person?"

She's not an ordinary person—

"I can see who she is with my own eyes!" Zhou Yao's voice suddenly rose. "I've known her for so long, and every time she's been with me, it's been genuine! Can't you accept that she has nothing to do with those things from the past?"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, and reached out to overturn the stack of documents on his desk.

The papers scattered with a rustling sound, landing on the table, floor, bookshelves, and chairs. Yun Muqian's photo drifted to Zhou Yao's feet. He looked down at the photo, his chest heaving, his breathing heavy.

Zhou Xue sat in the chair, unfazed by the outburst of anger.

She simply sat quietly, looking at Zhou Yao's reddened eyes and trembling lips, "Zhou Yao, if I were to say that the person you like now, you used to bully before."

These words were like a knife chilled to the bone, piercing Zhou Yao's chest with pinpoint accuracy.

His breath caught in his throat, and he froze. He looked down at the photo of Yun Muqian at his feet. The woman in the photo was smiling, her eyes crinkling, wearing a beige business suit, her hair cascading over her shoulders; she looked gentle and beautiful.

He stared at the photo for a long time, and suddenly an image flashed through his mind.

Years ago, in a school corridor, sunlight streamed in through the windows and fell on the floor tiles. He stood at the end of the corridor and saw his sister and a few others cornering a thin girl against the wall.

The girl hunched her shoulders and backed away, moving towards him. He didn't know what he was thinking at the time, but he reached out and pushed her.

She staggered back two steps and bumped into the wall. Her backpack strap broke, and her textbooks scattered all over the floor.

The girl looked up at him.

She had short hair, with slightly long bangs, and her eyes were expressionless as she glanced at him. Then she squatted down to pick up the scattered textbooks, her fingers trembling slightly.

Zhou Yao's knees suddenly buckled.

He steadied himself by holding onto the corner of the table, and covered his forehead with his other hand, as if digesting something that had violently impacted him.

"She...she doesn't remember me." Zhou Yao's voice was hoarse. "I mentioned high school to her when we were chatting the other day, and she said she didn't remember. She said she didn't have any good memories of high school and didn't want to think about it."

"That's why she doesn't remember you," Zhou Xue said softly. "She's faking it. She wants to lower your guard, to make you feel like you have nothing to do with her past. That way, you'll side with her without any suspicion."

"Stop talking." Zhou Yao's voice was very low, almost pleading.

"Zhou Yao, didn't you ask me what I've been up to these past few days?" Zhou Xue stood up, walked around the desk to him, and looked up at him.

"I'm saving our family, I'm saving you. She's coming back to take everything away—Dad's company, Qin Qihan—she's going to take everything that belongs to us, one by one."

Zhou Yao closed his eyes, leaned against the edge of the desk, and breathed heavily. "Let me be alone for a while."

"Zhou Yao," she began, lowering her voice, "I'm just guessing. I don't have any evidence yet."

"I just think the timing is right; the timing of her appearance is too coincidental," Zhou Xue said. "But I can't be sure of anything right now. Don't alert her."

"When she was with me..." Zhou Yao began, his voice hoarse, "When she ate with me, when she laughed, when she chatted, was it all fake?"

"I don't know," Zhou Xue said, her voice slightly hoarse, "but if it's fake, she acted too convincingly."

"I don't know what she's thinking," she said, looking at him. "But Zhou Yao, regardless of whether she is or not, there's one thing you need to think about."

"What?"

"If she really is Jiang Xiaohua, and she comes back to take revenge on us, then everything between you and her is built on lies. The more you like her now, the more it will hurt you later."

Zhou Yao didn't say anything, but slowly squatted down, gently picked up Yun Muqian's photo, and looked at it in his palm for a while.

Then he murmured softly, "No, it can't be like this. If it really is her, she's so kind, she would never lie to me."