Hearing that, Sister Zhou slowly calmed down, though the resentment in her eyes was still hard to conceal.
Qiuyun poured her a glass of water. “Sister Zhou, you’re straightforward and not very good at hiding your feelings. Why don’t you take the afternoon off and get some rest? I’ll handle things here.”
Sister Zhou took a deep breath. She knew Xiaoqiu was thinking of the bigger picture. “All right. I’ll tell Madam.”
“Madam is kindhearted, and she’s just as incapable of hiding her feelings. Don’t tell her—just ask for the afternoon off,” Qiuyun assured her. “I’ll explain everything to Madam afterward. I won’t let her misunderstand and think you abandoned us at a critical moment.”
Sister Zhou gradually eased up. “It’s fine. Madam will understand.”
Elsewhere.
After Cao Xiuxiu hung up, she glanced around and immediately deleted the unfamiliar number.
Then she continued eating as if nothing had happened.
Before long, Qiuyun arrived.
Cao Xiuxiu asked, “Where’s Sister Zhou?”
Qiuyun smiled. “Sister Zhou said I barely ate anything just now, so she asked me to come back and eat a little more.”
“Oh, that’s true. You really didn’t eat much before the master called you away.” Cao Xiuxiu couldn’t help asking, “What did he want to talk to you about?”
Qiuyun acted as though she were speaking to an ordinary colleague, without the slightest hint of probing. She put on a troubled expression. “Well… I’m not at liberty to say. Let’s eat first.”
“It’s all right, it’s all right!” Cao Xiuxiu hurriedly waved her hands. “I was only asking casually. If you can’t say, then forget it. In our line of work, the most important thing is knowing how to keep a secret.”
Qiuyun nodded in agreement. “Who could argue with that?”
After lunch, Xiuxiu went to the small kitchen to prepare bird’s-nest soup for Madam.
Yu Xiang received a call and went to the sitting room. She told Qiuyun, “The student said he’d never met him before and didn’t know him.”
That was strange.
Qiuyun fell silent. She couldn’t quite explain it, but she simply felt that this Professor Dai was highly suspicious.
After years of experience, her ability to read people was by no means exceptional, but she could generally form a rough impression of someone’s temperament and personality from their clothing, mannerisms, and behavior.
Yet when she had met him before, he hadn’t given off any impression of being a clean freak, a stickler for order, or an especially rigid person.
But in the surveillance footage, despite the weather already being warm at the end of March, he had been wearing a long-sleeved shirt buttoned tightly to the collar, without even a jacket. There was something very much about him that said, “This has nothing to do with me.”
Qiuyun asked, “Madam, could we have someone pull up the surveillance footage of this student near the academic affairs office? I’d like to take another look.”
Xiaoqiu never made unfounded suggestions. Yu Xiang nodded. “All right.”
Just then, Xiuxiu came over carrying a white porcelain bowl. “Madam, you haven’t eaten lunch. Have some bird’s-nest soup to soothe your throat.”
Yu Xiang sighed. “No need. You’ve been busy all morning too. Go take a nap. You still have work this afternoon.”
Xiuxiu glanced around. “Where’s Sister Zhou?”
Qiuyun smiled and said, “Madam told her to go rest as well.”
Yu Xiang was a little surprised, but assumed Qiuyun didn’t know Sister Zhou had asked for leave.
“Oh, all right.” Xiuxiu took away the tray. “Then I’ll go back to my room and take a nap. Just call me if you need anything, Madam.”
Yu Xiang looked exhausted. “Mm.”
Because of the Jiang family’s influence, as well as the public controversy that was gradually gaining traction online, the university authorities were highly cooperative. They quickly sent over the surveillance footage.
Qiuyun carefully watched the student from the moment he entered the student affairs office: walking through the entrance, passing the lobby, going upstairs, and then turning into the restroom.
That was when Professor Dai appeared, carrying a briefcase. He entered the restroom as well.
One or two minutes later, the student came out carrying his documents. A minute after that, Professor Dai emerged—but the briefcase was no longer in his hand.
“Ask the student where he put those documents when he went to the restroom, and whether they ever left his sight.”
Yu Xiang asked the student’s academic counselor to make the inquiry on their behalf. The answer was that, because the documents were inconvenient to take into the restroom and the sink area was wet, he had placed them on top of the metal fire-equipment cabinet in the corner.
In other words, during that period, the stack of documents had indeed been out of his sight.
The footage continued.
Teacher Wang was absent. The student placed the documents in the designated cabinet and left.
Not long afterward, Professor Dai entered. He went to the cabinet, apparently failed to find the documents, then calmly walked out of the office and returned to the restroom. He left the student affairs office carrying his briefcase.
“The truth is obvious,” Qiuyun said with a sigh.
There was no denying it—Professor Dai was extremely meticulous.
Not only had he deliberately left an incorrect date on the signature line, he had also carefully chosen such a clever method to avoid becoming a suspect.
Yu Xiang was somewhat dazed. In her mind, her former senior schoolmate had always been a gentle and warmhearted man.
He had even called her specially the day before to comfort her and assure her that he absolutely believed her.
How could he have done this?
Qiuyun copied the relevant sections of the footage. “Madam, when I was at your teacher’s house last time, I heard you mention that he was dismissed from a position overseas, correct?”
“Yes.” Yu Xiang sighed. “After completing his master’s degree, he went abroad. He only returned last year.”
Qiuyun noticed that Madam had seemed dispirited ever since lunch. “You… already knew something, didn’t you?”
Yu Xiang looked over and gave a faint smile. “It’s already made its way online. One of my colleagues sent it to me. Jiang Yihua must have told you not to say anything to me because he was afraid I wouldn’t be able to handle it, right?”
“Uh…” Qiuyun asked, “After what happened between you and Sir before, did you both always put the other person’s feelings first, but never actually communicate with each other?”
Yu Xiang was silent for a long while. “He’s too busy. To him, my problems have to be solved as efficiently as possible, so his usual solution is to throw money at them.”
Over time, she had gradually stopped wanting him to know about such things.
Qiuyun cleared her throat. “Let’s focus on discussing how to clarify this matter.”
Sir and Madam clearly had feelings for each other. If they were an ordinary married couple, facing life’s hardships side by side and supporting one another through thick and thin, they would surely be very happy.
Unfortunately, a gulf of understanding and social status stood between them. Madam didn’t want to become his burden, while Sir was always treating her like a delicate flower in a greenhouse, unwilling to let her face the cruelty of the wealthy world.
“We’ve found the person involved. If this matter hadn’t made it online, finding him would be enough to consider it resolved,” Qiuyun said with a sigh. “But it has already been pushed onto the internet. Simply finding him and getting him to withdraw the report won’t be enough. I’m afraid Madam will have to come forward and clarify things herself.”
Yu Xiang had no objection. “All right. I should give everyone an explanation anyway.”
Qiuyun thought for a moment, then asked, “Would Madam be willing to do a livestream?”
“A livestream?”
“Yes. The report mainly accuses you of abusing your influence and using money to bully others. I was thinking that we could shift the focus of the clarification toward academic discussion. As long as your professional knowledge is solid, all the doubts surrounding this matter will naturally be dispelled.”
Yu Xiang said, “You mean I should livestream myself explaining the contents of the report to the public?”
“Yes. Of course, if Madam would rather not, we have other ways to handle it. It doesn’t have to be this approach.”
It was simply the most direct one, and the results would be the quickest and most decisive.
