Chapter 4: The Traitor Was the One She Trusted Most

Xiaoyue left Hongsheng that same afternoon, taking nothing with her but the silver bracelet and the top-secret file. She rented a small room on the outskirts of the city and cut off contact with everyone, including Madam Zhou.

Only one thought filled her mind: Xie Chengyan had been using her from the start. Approaching her, keeping her close, even publicly declaring her his fiancée. It was all part of a plan to find evidence against the Tang family, or worse, to cover up his father’s crimes.

Just as she was drafting a post to reveal everything she knew on social media and “expose” Hongsheng, a strange email arrived in her inbox. No sender name, just a video attachment.

She opened it with trembling hands.

It showed a much younger Xie Chengyan, years ago, sitting across from a man whose face was hidden in shadow.

“I’ll get close to Tang Xiaoyue,” Chengyan’s voice said in the video, cold and calculating.

“You think she’ll trust you? After all these years?” the shadowed man asked, full of doubt.

“I’ll make her fall in love with me. Once she loves me, every secret of the Tang family will come out on its own.”

Xiaoyue broke down sobbing, her whole body shaking like a leaf in the wind. She stopped the video and clutched her head in both hands.

So it had all been a meticulously arranged game.

The “chance” meeting at the charity gala last year, where he had “happened” to appear in front of her for the first time.

The secretary job, arranged with unnatural ease.

The bracelet returned at exactly the moment she was weakest.

Even the fiancée announcement in front of a crowd.

All of it, every bit of it, had been deliberate, moves in a big game in which she was nothing but an expendable pawn.

Tears streaming down her face, Xiaoyue decided to publish the video on social media and ruin all of Chengyan’s plans, even if it cost her own reputation.

But just as her finger touched the “post” button, the door of her room was shoved open.

Xie Chengyan stood there, his shirt wrinkled, his hair a mess as if he had run a long way, breathing hard. He looked nothing like his usual cold, immaculate self.

“Don’t post that video.”

“Why should I listen to you?” Xiaoyue screamed, tears pouring down her face. “You’ve been lying to me from the start!”

He came closer, his voice urgent. She had rarely seen him lose his composure like this.

“If you publish that video, your mother will die.”

Xiaoyue froze, her hand still on the keyboard.

“Are you… are you threatening me?”

“No.” Chengyan shook his head and dropped another file onto the table, his voice low and exhausted. “I’m trying to protect you. The way I have for the past ten years.”

Xiaoyue opened the file with shaking hands. Inside was technical evidence showing that the video had been cut and spliced together from several unrelated conversations, carefully staged to destroy her trust in him.

But what shocked Xiaoyue most was the last line in the file: the person who had sent the doctored video to her inbox was Lin Yi, Chengyan’s closest assistant, the man who had been by his side for years.

“Then Lin Yi… who is he? Why would he do this?”

Chengyan’s eyes turned toward the door, cold as ice.

“Someone who betrayed us both.”

At that moment, the door burst open once again.

The person who walked in made Xiaoyue doubt her own eyes.

It was Madam Zhou, the adoptive mother she had always trusted, standing side by side with Lin Yi. There was no trace of the old kindness on her face. In its place was a chilling, calculating coldness.