Yunjin Club was located in the most expensive lakeside district of the capital.
At noon, the sunshine was perfect, while the cars parked outside were each more understatedly luxurious than the last.
On the surface, this was a place where people gathered for tea and conversation.
In reality, everyone who sat inside came with hidden motives.
Shen Nian arrived alone.
She was no longer wearing the plain white T-shirt and faded jeans from the previous night. Instead, she had changed into a sharply tailored black shirt and matching trousers. Her hair was tied back, giving her an appearance that was cool, composed, and immaculate.
She hadn’t dressed up to show Qin Shuya respect.
She wanted Qin Shuya to see that she was no longer the “country girl” who had been stopped at the door the night before.
The private room was on the top floor.
By the time the hostess led her inside, Qin Shuya was already seated by the window.
The woman had taken exceptional care of herself. She wore a smoke-gray qipao, pearl earrings, and held a teacup delicately between her fingers. When she smiled, she looked every bit the gracious, well-bred lady of a distinguished family.
If one didn’t already know what she had done, anyone meeting her would have assumed she was the picture of an elegant society matron.
“Niannian, we’ve finally met.”
Qin Shuya set down her teacup, her tone warm and almost affectionate.
“You’ve suffered all these years.”
Shen Nian remained standing.
“Drop the act.”
Qin Shuya wasn’t offended. Instead, her smile deepened.
“You really do have your mother’s temper.”
“And you think you’re worthy of mentioning her?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Qin Shuya looked up at her with a faint smile.
“If it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t even be alive today.”
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
Shen Nian fixed her with an icy stare.
“You’d better explain exactly what you mean.”
“Sit down first.”
Shen Nian pulled out a chair and sat across from her.
Qin Shuya poured her a cup of tea but made no attempt to continue. Instead, she seemed content to study Shen Nian’s reaction.
“You must be wondering why your mother’s belongings ended up with Wan’er… why Lin Man has cared more about Wan’er than you all these years… and why, the moment you came back, everyone in the Shen family acted as though they owed her something.”
“Because all of you are guilty.”
“No.”
Qin Shuya shook her head gently.
“It’s because when something belongs to you long enough… you eventually start believing it really is yours.”
She spoke with unsettling composure.
As though she were discussing someone else’s life.
In that instant, Shen Nian realized that people like Qin Shuya were the most terrifying of all.
She had never believed she’d done anything wrong.
“Twenty-three years ago, when Su Lan went into labor, things didn’t go well.”
Qin Shuya spoke slowly, as if recounting an old story.
“She delivered prematurely. She lost a great deal of blood, and the baby was born weak. Zhou Guifen was one of the nurses assisting with the delivery. Everything had been going fairly smoothly…”
“But another expectant mother was admitted to the hospital that same day.”
“That woman was you.”
“Yes.”
Qin Shuya admitted it without hesitation.
“It was me.”
A shadow crossed Shen Nian’s eyes.
“You gave birth too.”
“What a pity.”
Qin Shuya smiled, though there wasn’t the slightest trace of warmth in her eyes.
“My baby was dying the moment she was born. The doctors said that even if they managed to save her, she’d most likely spend her life sickly and frail.”
“I couldn’t accept that.”
She looked directly at Shen Nian.
“Why was Su Lan’s child destined from birth to become the Shen family’s eldest daughter…”
“…while my child was meant to rot in the mud?”
The bitterness behind that single question had been festering for more than twenty years.
It made Shen Nian’s stomach churn.
Only now did she truly understand what it meant for a person’s heart to become so rotten that they could deceive even themselves.
Qin Shuya called it not accepting her fate.
But it wasn’t that at all.
She had simply turned someone else’s destiny into the bargaining chip for changing her own.
“So you switched the babies.”
“At first, I only wanted to see if it was possible.”
Qin Shuya lifted her teacup as though reminiscing about the distant past.
“But Zhou Guifen needed money, and Lin Man was foolish and easy to manipulate.”
“I only gave things a little push…”
“And everything fell into place.”
“How much did Lin Man know?”
“At first, nothing.”
“Later, she found out—but by then she was too afraid to say anything.”
Qin Shuya’s smile grew wider.
“She wanted to stay in the Shen family too badly.”
“What does a woman fear most when she knows her husband can never forget his ex-wife, knows her mother-in-law looks down on her, and knows she’ll never surpass Su Lan?”
“What she fears most… is discovering one day that even the child she depends on for security isn’t really hers.”
A chill crept into Shen Nian’s fingertips.
So the so-called deep bond between mother and daughter…
Had been nothing more than an illusion held together by shared interests.
“You just said I should thank you for being alive.”
Suppressing the anger boiling inside her, Shen Nian asked,
“What exactly did you mean by that?”
Qin Shuya regarded her with the indulgent expression of an elder looking at an inexperienced child.
“Because Su Lan had already begun to suspect something.”
Her voice was almost gentle.
“She was too clever.”
“And clever women tend to die young.”
“She traced the investigation to Zhou Guifen… then to me… and she was even preparing to hand the evidence over to the Shen family’s old madam.”
“But what she didn’t know was that Gu Chengshan had also set his sights on the Shen family’s overseas financial network.”
“She saw things she was never supposed to see.”
“What did you do to her?”
“It wasn’t ‘we.'”
Qin Shuya set down her teacup.
“She brought it upon herself.”
“If she’d simply stayed in her place as the Shen family’s eldest daughter-in-law, none of this would’ve happened.”
“But she insisted on making trouble.”
“She insisted on digging.”
“So in the end…”
“…she could only drag herself down with it.”
“Did she die?”
Qin Shuya smiled.
“Would you rather she were dead…”
“…or alive?”
The question pierced Shen Nian like a knife.
Her fingers tightened around the teacup.
Apparently pleased that she had finally provoked a genuine emotional response, Qin Shuya continued.
“Your mother didn’t abandon you.”
“She knew that if you stayed in the Shen family, sooner or later you’d be dragged into all of this.”
“So she silently allowed you to be taken away.”
“In the end…”
“She was trying to protect you.”
“And yet you still didn’t spare her.”
“Because she had something.”
Qin Shuya looked at Shen Nian and enunciated every word.
“Something that could get a great many people killed.”
“Where is it?”
“That depends…”
“…on whether you’re willing to cooperate.”
At last.
They had reached the real purpose of this meeting.
Shen Nian looked at her with eyes as cold as ice.
“What do you want?”
“It’s simple.”
Qin Shuya raised two fingers.
“First, stop investigating Zhou Guifen.”
“Second, have the old madam return Wan’er’s shares and restore her secondary bank card.”
Shen Nian laughed.
“Keep dreaming.”
Qin Shuya sighed softly.
“Niannian, you’re still too young.”
“You think uncovering a few scraps of the truth means you can overturn the entire game?”
“I agreed to meet you today because I was giving you a chance.”
“Then let me give you one.”
Shen Nian rose to her feet and leaned over the table.
“Tell me where my mother is.”
“If you do that now…”
“…I’ll make sure your punishment isn’t quite so painful.”
For the first time, a trace of darkness flashed through Qin Shuya’s eyes.
“You really think you’ve grown up enough to negotiate with me?”
“No.”
Shen Nian straightened.
“I came to inform you…”
“…that your good days are over.”
She turned to leave.
Behind her, Qin Shuya spoke unhurriedly.
“Do you know why the old madam was always so protective of the Buddhist shrine?”
Shen Nian stopped.
“Because inside it was an adoption certificate that hadn’t been completely burned.”
Qin Shuya chuckled softly.
“But that was nothing more than worthless paper.”
“The thing that truly matters…”
“…is in the Shen family’s old archives.”
“You think I’ll believe you?”
“You don’t have to.”
Her tone remained light.
“By midnight tonight…”
“…someone will have burned the archives to the ground.”
Shen Nian spun around.
But Qin Shuya had already lifted her teacup again, as though she’d said nothing at all.
The moment Shen Nian left the club, she called Shen Yanzhou.
“Go back to the old residence immediately. Head straight to the archives.”
“What happened?”
“Don’t waste time. If you’re not there within ten minutes, you’ll deal with the consequences yourself.”
She hung up and started the car.
As she sped out of the underground garage, the gleaming glass building remained perfectly elegant in her rearview mirror.
Places like this were ideal for making deals.
Because no matter how filthy the conversation was, once it took place within those polished walls…
…it somehow sounded like refined advice.
She drove back to the Shen estate at breakneck speed.
Red lights.
Traffic.
Blaring horns.
Everything seemed to vanish behind her.
By the time she burst through the gates of the estate, the butler was already running toward the rear courtyard, drenched in sweat.
“What’s going on?”
“The archive room is smoking!”
Just as she’d expected.
When Shen Nian rushed over, black smoke was already billowing from the second floor of the side building.
The servants were in complete chaos, clutching fire extinguishers.
Worse still, the archive room had been locked from the inside.
“Move.”
She kicked the door.
The first strike failed.
The second shattered the lock.
Inside, the smoke wasn’t too heavy, but the fire had been started with precision.
Only the rows of old filing shelves at the very back were burning.
It was obvious someone had deliberately chosen the location.
Even more disgusting…
One of the windows had been left slightly open beforehand.
The wind poured through the narrow gap, feeding the flames directly toward the section storing the oldest case files.
This wasn’t an accident.
Someone had calculated exactly how to burn the room…
…and what to burn.
Shen Nian grabbed a wet cloth to cover her mouth and nose before charging straight inside.
The old files were piled everywhere in complete disorder.
No one had touched them in years, and the thick dust made breathing difficult.
She had no time to search through them one by one.
Instead, she relied on Qin Shuya’s clue and headed straight for the files related to the maternity hospital, adoptions, and birth records.
The flames had already climbed to the second shelf.
Just as she pulled out an old cardboard box, Shen Yanzhou’s voice rang out from outside.
“Shen Nian! Get out!”
“Shut up and get in here!”
The next second, he actually rushed inside.
He hadn’t even taken off his suit.
His face, however, was filled with unmistakable urgency.
Seeing her crouched amid the smoke, rummaging through boxes, his brows knitted tightly.
“Have you lost your mind?”
“I thought the Shen family’s archives were worth more than human lives.”
“I’m not talking about the archives!”
The words burst from his mouth.
Both of them froze.
Even the frantic crowd outside seemed to fall silent for a brief moment.
Shen Nian looked up at him.
For the first time, she saw unmistakable panic in the eyes of the elder brother who was usually so cold and unyielding.
She said nothing.
Instead, she tossed him the kraft document envelope she had just found.
“Found it.”
“Let’s go.”
The moment they rushed out the door, half of the wooden shelving behind them collapsed with a thunderous crash.
The flames roared upward.
A wave of scorching heat surged outward, nearly engulfing them.
Everyone in the courtyard broke into cold sweats.
Shen Yanzhou grabbed Shen Nian’s arm and pulled her farther away.
His voice was dark with anger.
“Do you have a death wish?”
Holding the envelope tightly against her chest, Shen Nian looked at him coldly.
“Someone else wants me dead even more.”
She tore open the seal on the spot.
Inside were not ordinary birth records.
Instead, it contained a specially preserved set of original photocopies.
The maternity hospital’s duty roster.
Delivery room entry logs.
An emergency transfer authorization.
And…
An unfinished adoption application.
In the applicant’s name, only a single surname had been written.
Gu.
Shen Nian’s gaze darkened little by little.
Just as she’d suspected.
There was someone else standing behind Qin Shuya.
More importantly…
At the very bottom of the envelope lay a small handwritten note.
Only one line was written on it in hurried handwriting.
If you’re reading this file, it means they’ve already begun silencing witnesses. Be careful of Gu Chengshan.
The signature consisted of a single character.
Lan.
The handwriting was light and hurried, as though it had been written in extreme haste.
Shen Nian stared at the character “Lan” for a long time.
Her fingers slowly tightened.
This was the first thing her mother had ever truly left behind with her own hands.
Standing beside her, Shen Yanzhou looked at the note as well.
After a long silence, he asked quietly,
“Do you believe she’s still alive now?”
“I never believed she was dead.”
Shen Nian carefully put the note away.
“Dead people don’t leave something like this behind for me.”
“What now?”
“What now?”
She looked toward the smoke still pouring from the side building.
“First, we find out who started this fire.”
“Then we follow the trail to Gu Chengshan.”
“The fact that they’re in such a hurry to destroy the evidence means I’ve already stepped on their sore spot.”
She turned and walked away.
When she reached the courtyard gate, she suddenly stopped.
Without looking back, she tossed one last sentence over her shoulder.
“Oh, one more thing.”
“Find out who first discovered the fire today.”
“The first person to raise the alarm…”
“…isn’t necessarily innocent.”
With that, she tucked the note bearing the single character ‘Lan’ safely against her body.
It was the lightest piece of paper she possessed.
And the heaviest life she carried.
She would never lose it again.
Because now she finally understood.
She wasn’t only pursuing the truth.
She was searching for someone who was still alive.
Someone she could never afford to lose again.
No matter where that person was imprisoned…
Or what had become of her.
A gust of wind swept over the courtyard wall, carrying the acrid smell of charred wood.
Shen Nian looked up at the side building, where smoke still drifted into the sky.
Her gaze grew colder by the second.
The fire Qin Shuya had set tonight wasn’t meant to destroy paper.
It was meant to erase what had truly happened twenty-three years ago.
Unfortunately for her…
She was already too late.
As long as Su Lan was still alive…
Those old debts would never truly be buried.