“So,” Qin Yining spoke up, her voice a few notes lower than usual, “you’re saying that your husband, who disappeared for three years, dragged you into a hotel room, slept with you, and then you ran off before dawn, and now you want me to help you delete the surveillance footage to prevent him from finding out it was you?”
“…Pretty much.”
“Gu Ziyao.” Qin Yining took a deep breath, as if suppressing some emotion on the verge of erupting. “Do you know what this is called?”
Gu Ziyao didn’t answer.
“This is called being taken advantage of and then helping the person who did it count their money.” Qin Yining’s voice rose a few notches.
“That bastard Shen Junyan—ignoring you for three years, and as soon as he comes back, he—even if he was drugged, that’s his problem! He’s a grown man. If he got drugged, it’s because he wasn’t careful enough. What does that have to do with you? Why are you taking the blame on yourself?”
“I’m not taking the blame—”
“Yes, you are.” Qin Yining stood up and paced back and forth in the living room a couple of times. “You said, ‘I didn’t resist,’ ‘It’s my own fault.’ What is that if not taking the blame? Gu Ziyao, wake up! You’re the victim!”
Gu Ziyao looked up at her, her eyes reddening again, but she didn’t cry.
“Ning Ning, I’m not the victim.” Her voice was calm. “I’m his wife.”
Qin Yining’s footsteps halted.
“Legally, we’re husband and wife,” Gu Ziyao said. “Between husband and wife… it doesn’t count.”
“Bullshit,” Qin Yining cut her off bluntly.
“Between husband and wife, it still has to be consensual. In the state you were in, could that be considered consensual? You were drunk, dragged in by him, pinned against the wall—you didn’t even have a chance to say ‘no.’ Is that consensual?”
Gu Ziyao lowered her head, her fingers tightening around the water glass.
“And you said you didn’t know he was drugged,” Qin Yining walked over to her, crouched down, and met her eyes. “What did you think he was at the time? A strange drunk? A pervert? You were dragged into a room by a stranger, and your first instinct wasn’t to fight back with everything you had?”
“I did resist,” Gu Ziyao said softly. “I pushed him.”
“You pushed him once and then stopped?”
“…”
“Gu Ziyao, look at me.” Qin Yining reached out, cupped her chin, and forced her to look up. “Do you… still like him?”
The question pierced like a needle, striking the softest part of Gu Ziyao’s heart.
She didn’t answer.
But the thin layer of mist in her eyes answered for her.
Qin Yining looked at her, her lips trembling slightly, then pulled her into a tight hug.
“You fool,” Qin Yining’s voice was muffled against her shoulder, tinged with a nasal tone. “Three years… you’ve liked him for three years?”
Gu Ziyao leaned against her shoulder, closed her eyes, and said nothing.
“Alright.” Qin Yining released her, wiping the corners of her own eyes. “Let’s not talk about it anymore. I’ll help you delete the surveillance footage.”
She stood up, walked over to the desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down, placing her fingers on the keyboard. Three monitors lit up simultaneously, casting a blue glow on her face. Her expression shifted instantly from emotional to work mode—calm, focused, efficient.
“Earl Hotel, top floor, right?” Qin Yining asked while typing.
“Mhm. Between around 9:30 p.m. and 6:30 a.m.”
“Corridor surveillance, elevator surveillance, lobby surveillance—all of it needs to be deleted?”
“The hallway footage must be deleted. The rest… delete whatever you can.”
Qin Yining nodded, her fingers flying across the keyboard. Lines of code flashed across the screen, green characters dancing against a black background like strings of encrypted incantations.
“The hotel’s surveillance system uses a third-party cloud storage solution with average security,” Qin Yining’s voice came from behind the screen, carrying a professional nonchalance. “There’s a synchronization delay between their local servers and the cloud. As long as we intercept the data stream before synchronization, we can leave no trace. Understand?”
“No,” Gu Ziyao answered honestly.
“Good that you don’t,” Qin Yining’s lips curved slightly upward. “You just need to know I’ve handled it.”
She pressed the enter key, and a green progress bar popped up on the screen, jumping rapidly from 0% to 100%.
“Done.” Qin Yining leaned back in her chair and turned to face Gu Ziyao. “Hallway cameras, elevator cameras, lobby cameras—any footage with you in it, even the backups, are cleared. Even if they hire professional recovery companies, they won’t be able to restore it. Unless they hire a hacker.”
Gu Ziyao let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you, Ningning.”
“Don’t thank me.” Qin Yining’s expression turned serious again. “I helped you delete the footage not to help you hide it from him, but to keep you from getting dragged into this mess. But you need to think carefully—the three-year deadline is almost up. Do you really plan to just let it go?”
Gu Ziyao was silent for a moment. “What else can I do?”
“You could…” Qin Yining weighed her words carefully. “You could let him know. Tell him it was you last night. See how he reacts.”
“And then what?” Gu Ziyao gave a bitter smile. “Let him think I set him up? Make him believe I’m a woman who takes advantage of others?”
“You’re not taking advantage—”
“But he’ll think that,” Gu Ziyao interrupted her.
“How do you know?”
“Because if it were me, I’d think the same.” Gu Ziyao lowered her head. “No contact for three years, then suddenly appearing in his hotel room right before the divorce—it sounds like a carefully calculated plan.”
Qin Yining opened her mouth to say something but swallowed her words.
She knew Gu Ziyao was right.
Who in Shanghai’s business circles didn’t know Shen Junyan? The cold-faced king of the underworld, ruthless and merciless. Those old shareholders who tried to force him out back then—none of them were still with the Shen Group. Some went to Southeast Asia, others left the business world entirely.
If someone like that felt he’d been set up…
Qin Yining didn’t dare think further.
“So you’re just going to let it go?” she asked. “Pretend nothing happened?”
“Nothing did happen.” Gu Ziyao stood up and placed her water glass on the coffee table. “A drunk man and a woman who didn’t resist, spending a night in a hotel. Things like this happen every day. Nothing to make a fuss about.”
She spoke calmly, as if discussing something unrelated to herself.
But Qin Yining noticed her fingers trembling as she set down the glass.
“What about you?” Qin Yining asked. “What will you do now?”
“What do you mean?”
“Can you still pretend you don’t know him?”
Gu Ziyao fell silent for a few seconds, then smiled faintly. That smile was very light, as fleeting as a ripple on the water, vanishing in an instant.
“I never knew him in the first place,” she said. “We agreed three years ago not to disturb each other. Over these three years, I’ve kept my word. For the remaining time, I can do the same.”