Yu Zhining was still inside the Corridor Room.
Fragments of memory were being awakened with perfect clarity.
Every fragment was connected to Yu Xiaxing.
Outside, two staff members came over for an inspection, exporting data from the machines in each room.
One of them stopped outside the room where Yu Zhining was. “It’s so late. Why is someone still using this room?”
The other staff member checked the records. “It’s fine. She’s just an individual visitor, and she was extremely guarded. She didn’t reveal a single useful piece of information. There’s nothing of value. Let’s deliver the useful data to Ms. Qin first.”
“Okay.”
—
At the same time.
In the guestroom area of the resort, Huo Mian lay sprawled on the bed and said to her mother, “Mom, the classmates I was closest to in middle school will be here soon.”
Qin Mei had already showered and was now sitting beneath a newly purchased beauty lamp.
Her income was fairly high, but she spent nearly all of it on beauty treatments and maintenance, leaving little behind for her daughter. That was why she was so eager to marry her daughter into the Yu family, so Huo Mian could enjoy wealth and privilege for the rest of her life.
Just moments ago, mother and daughter had been discussing things from more than a decade ago.
Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zhining had once been so close as brother and sister, yet in the end, they had still fallen completely apart.
“So, if you see that two people you consider enemies are very close, you can smear them with labels and pin all sorts of accusations on them. Keep leading the people around them in humiliating them, over and over. Naturally, they’ll distance themselves from each other to avoid suspicion.
“If you’re dealing with two inexperienced children, it’s even easier. They can’t tell the difference between familial affection and romantic love. They’ll believe whatever you lead them to believe.
“Distance is a form of compensatory behavior. The more someone cares, the more they’ll distance themselves from the other person to prove their innocence.”
After listening to her mother, Huo Mian looked rather pleased with herself. “So the fact that you bought me so many of those novels back then and had me give them to my classmates, while also spreading those rumors among them, was a stroke of genius!”
“The two of them never even had a real argument from beginning to end, yet they still broke off completely. Whenever they saw each other back then, they acted as if the other person were invisible!”
After a pause, Huo Mian added somewhat dejectedly, “I don’t know why, but they seem to have made up now. They’ve started talking to each other again.”
Qin Mei let out a laugh. “Talking doesn’t mean they’ve made up. That thorn in Yu Zhining’s heart won’t be so easy to pull out.”
Just then, someone gently knocked on the door.
Qin Mei switched off the beauty lamp. “Come in.”
The door opened, and a staff member in a white uniform walked in.
“Ms. Qin, sorry to disturb you.”
As he spoke, he handed her a thick stack of documents.
“These are the records just exported from the Corridor Room tonight. They’ve already been sorted by batch. Sorry to trouble you.”
Qin Mei accepted the documents with a faint smile. “Go back and tell Boss Zhao that we’ve been working together for years. There’s no need for him to be so formal.”
The staff member replied respectfully, “Of course.”
Qin Mei added, “Keep a close eye on Mr. Gu’s payment. He only paid the deposit today. Once the emotional peak has passed, some elderly clients may start having second thoughts. Give him another round of patriotic ceremony and emotional reinforcement.”
The staff member answered, “Understood,” and left.
The door closed again.
Huo Mian immediately leaned over. “Mom, what’s that?”
Qin Mei opened the documents and explained, “These are the records exported from the Life Corridor Room. The machines in the Corridor really do work, and there’s a scientific basis behind them. But what’s truly valuable is that they let us glimpse the secrets of our target clients.”
They had learned Mr. Gu’s secret through the Corridor Room.
Whenever he chatted with people, he would desperately complain that his children were unfilial and had abandoned him at a senior-care center.
When he first entered the Corridor, he had also been suspicious and defensive, refusing to tell the truth.
After several sessions, however, he realized that the machine really worked. It could even allow people to see those they had lost long ago in their memories.
Only then did he finally reveal the truth.
Back when Punan had yet to be developed, he had been nothing more than a poor fisherman. His first wife had struggled alongside him, working tirelessly and giving birth to four children.
When he reached middle age, Punan was suddenly developed. Within just a few years, the land became worth a fortune.
After his ancestral home was demolished, his assets multiplied overnight, turning him into a wealthy man.
Then he began cheating on his wife again and again.
His first wife was an honest, simple woman. She could only swallow her tears and resentment in silence, and she died young after being consumed by anger and heartbreak.
That was why, in his old age, all his children despised him. Even though he had money, none of them were willing to curry favor with him.
When he was alone with the machine, he felt guilty toward his first wife. He had cried and regretted what he had done. He also understood that his children’s lack of filial devotion was entirely his own fault.
But in front of outsiders, he still cared about saving face. He continued to curse his children and refused to admit that he himself had done anything wrong.
After reading Mr. Gu’s information, Huo Mian couldn’t help laughing. “What a scumbag! Mom, getting a million yuan out of him through that scam was practically an act of justice!”
Qin Mei let out a quiet sigh. “Oh, I didn’t organize the scam. I only handled the routine maintenance and follow-up, so I won’t get much. Maybe a hundred or two hundred thousand yuan at most. It’s barely enough for anything.”
In truth, she had only joined the organization a few years ago and wasn’t a senior member.
At first, she had joined out of personal interest, writing articles and making videos for Breaking Cocoon, which was only a small organization.
The “Restart Life Tour Group,” however, had been planned by a much larger organization.
Three years ago, those people had approached her after seeing how provocative her videos for Breaking Cocoon were.
They hired her to target the elderly residents at the senior-care center.
She had simply wanted to make some money for her beauty treatments, so she joined.
Qin Mei continued flipping through the documents.
Halfway through, she suddenly came across the files of two temporary visitors.
One had complained about fighting with his siblings, while the other had filled out his form with a chaotic mess about the Dragon King of the Eastern Sea and other nonsense.
Qin Mei tossed both files into the trash without a second thought.
After all, the resort was open to the public, and many temporary visitors came in out of curiosity. None of them were of any value.
Qin Mei read through several more files when her phone suddenly rang.
After answering the call, she said to Huo Mian, “The production crew I contacted has arrived.”
Huo Mian glanced at her phone. “My middle school classmates will be here soon too.”
Qin Mei nodded. “Give them a little more money. This is for the wealth and glory of your entire second half of life. Don’t be stingy!”
“I know, Mom.”
—
At the pavilion behind the resort, Yu Xiaxing and Yu Zheng finally met Professor Zhong!
She had imagined Professor Zhong as an old man so bewitched by Qin Mei that he had lost all sense.
Unexpectedly, when she saw him, he still appeared perfectly lucid. His hair was completely white, his figure thin and lean, and a pair of rimless glasses rested on his nose, giving him an air of refinement.
When Yu Xiaxing first spoke to him, there was still a trace of resentment in her voice. She complained that they had treated people differently, bullied students from St. De, and that those old-fashioned institutions had far too many pointless rules and procedures.
Professor Zhong did not get angry. Instead, he apologized gently and took out the official seal he carried with him, stamping it onto her documents.
After receiving the certificates, Yu Xiaxing finally felt completely relieved.
This time, she had truly and thoroughly terminated the contract.
After working so hard for so long, she had finally managed to fail for once!
