After a moment’s distraction, Jiang Yicheng sighed. “We spent more than a year laying the groundwork for this move. We thought that even if we couldn’t bring our eldest brother down for good, we could at least make him take a serious fall—have him step down as president for three to five years. I never expected…”
Ning Zhi’s expression was cold. “Jiang Yihua reacted too quickly. The moment the incident began to gain traction, he issued the most direct and forceful rebuttal possible, leaving the board no choice but to give him the chance and the time to prove his innocence.”
Jiang Yicheng felt relieved. “Fortunately, when our people contacted Qin Man, they did so under the name of the fourth branch. At least that kept Big Brother from suspecting us.”
After all, judging from the current situation, Old Master Jiang still favored the eldest branch of the family most.
Ning Zhi curled her lips. “Jiang Yifeng keeps an entire army of paid internet trolls and marketing accounts under his command. He was the prime suspect from the start. Maybe he really did muddy the waters and throw plenty of dirt this time. It wouldn’t exactly be unfair to him.”
“That’s true. Since Big Brother is too difficult to deal with, taking Yifeng down first would work too. There’s no need to rush things with Second Brother.” Jiang Yicheng sighed. “After all, he and I are the only two brothers in this family who share both parents. We should at least show some consideration for that bond.”
“Hah. You regard him as your second brother, but the second branch’s husband and wife have never treated you as anything worth mentioning. Whenever there’s anything good or profitable, they keep it all for themselves, eating until their mouths are dripping with oil. They never remember that they have a younger brother in the third branch.”
Jiang Yicheng said nothing, because Ning Zhi was telling the truth.
“All right, stop looking so miserable. Who are you trying to put on a show for?” Ning Zhi rose to her feet. “I told you before to be more decisive. You should have followed the example of Hong Kong and hired a truck to run someone over. One clean hit and it would all be over. But you insisted that they were blood relatives and that we couldn’t go that far. Well, look where that got us. You gave them a chance to catch their breath. It’ll be much harder to deal with them from now on.”
Jiang Yicheng was helpless as well. “How was I supposed to know that our normally steady and cautious eldest brother would strike so quickly and ruthlessly this time? He caught everyone completely off guard. If he’d handled things the way he usually does…”
“Where are you going?” he asked as she turned away.
Ning Zhi had no interest in listening to him endlessly review their failure. She headed for the door. “What else would I be doing? Cleaning up the mess, of course.”
The person who had contacted Qin Man had resigned a month earlier. He was poorly educated, didn’t speak any foreign languages, and had no desire to go abroad. Unlike Qin Man, who had grown up watching Korean dramas and had always dreamed of living in South Korea, he simply took the money after resigning and returned to his hometown, beginning his retirement ahead of schedule.
Now that Qin Man had been caught so quickly, it would be safest to get this man out of the country as soon as possible and eliminate any future trouble.
The next day.
After ten grueling hours of nonstop decryption, Assistant Wei finally obtained the original files and located surveillance footage showing Qin Man entering and leaving the president’s study.
Meanwhile, Huang Ying and the other two colleagues successfully returned to China under “escort” from South Korea. The moment they arrived, they were summoned for questioning by police officers who had been waiting at the airport.
Because Jiang Yihua’s side had reacted quickly enough and acted decisively enough throughout the incident, less than forty-eight hours after it occurred, they worked with the authorities to issue a police statement in blue lettering on a white background:
At 9:00 p.m. on September 28, 20XX, our bureau received a report from a member of the public stating that a live-in domestic worker, Qin, female, aged twenty-nine, had violated a confidentiality agreement by using her position and work-related access to upload photographs to social media. She had also fabricated an affair with Jiang, male, aged forty-four, the homeowner at her place of employment, and posted the claim on social media, causing a serious negative impact online.
Upon receiving the report, our bureau immediately launched an investigation. Two days later, after receiving supplementary evidence, we summoned Qin for questioning at the police station. It was confirmed that the “nine-grid” collage circulating online consisted of secretly taken photographs, and that the alleged relationship with Jiang had been fabricated by Qin herself. After examining her phone, our officers confirmed that her statement was truthful.
The case is currently under further investigation.
Xicheng Branch of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau
September 30, 20XX
The Jiang Group’s public-relations department was even more direct. They simply released the surveillance footage.
In the video, Qin Man sneaked into the study, then looked around furtively as she crept out. The entire process took less than three minutes.
When the time stamp was compared with the time at which someone had previously dug up the nine-grid collage, it became clear that the photographs had indeed been taken during that period.
The evidence was as conclusive as it could be.
There were still some skeptics, however. They asked, “If she worked in the house, wouldn’t she have known there were cameras? Why didn’t they release the footage earlier? Why wait two days? Could it be fabricated?”
A public-relations employee replied to the comment, explaining that no special surveillance cameras had been installed inside President Jiang’s residence. The camera outside the study had only been installed four months earlier, and the people responsible for cleaning that area had not been informed of it. They also attached the relevant purchasing records.
As for why the footage had only been released now, the explanation was that the original recordings had already been overwritten, and it had taken some time to restore them.
The explanation was perfectly reasonable, especially with official confirmation behind it—and the footage itself was devastating.
The false accusation against the president of the Jiang Group finally came to an end.
At the same time, after issuing the clarification, Jiang Yihua immediately paid a substantial sum to the various platforms to reduce the story’s visibility.
Even so, the process was slow. By then, the public’s attention had already shifted to Qin Man’s many selfies, through which they caught a glimpse of the lives of the wealthy.
That evening.
Jiang Yihua sat in his study, staring blankly into space.
Once the matter had been resolved and he had calmed down enough to review what had happened, he realized just how close to disaster he had come.
If he had reacted even a little more slowly, those old foxes on the board would certainly have done exactly what he had done: issue an announcement without consulting him and suspend him to reduce the damage caused by the public backlash.
And what good would it have done if the truth had come out after he was suspended?
His position would still have been lost, and his power would still have been gone. Taking the position of acting president wasn’t difficult, but once he stepped down, reclaiming it would be nearly impossible.
Jiang Yihua let out a deep sigh.
He had to thank Qiuyun.
Two days later.
Qiuyun’s account received a deposit of three million yuan!
When she looked closely at the account number, she saw that it was the tail end of an account belonging to the eldest branch—a dividend account.
It wasn’t that she had memorized the account number. It was simply that the VIP bank cards used by the wealthy had endings like 0000, 6666, and 8888. They were so conspicuous that it was hard not to remember them.
Qiuyun stared at the seven-figure balance in her bank account, lost in thought.
What was this money supposed to be?
Could it be the reward President Jiang had promised her at the beginning?
Hadn’t he said it would be two hundred thousand yuan? How had it become more than ten times that amount?
With that thought, Qiuyun simply used her access privileges to log into the account and check its transaction history.
Only then did she discover that she wasn’t the only one whose reward had been increased. The other six secretaries and assistants had also received raises.
But they had each received an additional one hundred thousand yuan, bringing their total to three hundred thousand.
Her reward had been multiplied tenfold after theirs had been increased—a full three million yuan!
Qiuyun couldn’t help applauding President Jiang’s generosity in front of her computer. He was so extravagantly generous that she felt embarrassed about asking Sister Zhou for too high a price when selling her formula.
Meanwhile.
Although the incident had gradually faded from the public eye as other hot news stories took over the headlines, netizens who enjoyed following feuds among wealthy families had still detected something unusual in the situation.
Zhihu
Question: Jiang’s counterattack this time was so flawless. Was he set up by someone, or was this all self-directed?
The answers varied wildly, but the two responses supported by both pictures and evidence received the most upvotes.
