Elena Shen stared at the screen in silence.
She had just received a photo from Annie Gu—a lineup of male escorts standing shoulder to shoulder in a row of club rooms at the Yujin Clubhouse.
Typing back, Elena asked:
[Did you find out who he was?]
Annie replied, clearly frustrated:
[Not yet. It's seriously bizarre. Yujin's main business is hotels, and the second-floor clubhouse isn't that big. There aren't even that many male escorts working there. How is it possible that I still can't find the guy?!]
[Maybe... he already quit?]
Elena fell into a moment of silence as she read the last few words. Then, after a long pause, she finally typed:
[Is it possible… that the man you slept with wasn't an escort?]
There was a long delay before Annie's reply finally popped up:
[Sh*t!]
—complete with an exploding-with-rage emoji.
Northern City – Huo Group Headquarters.
Julian Huo had just finished an online meeting when a knock came at the door of the president's office.
The man exited the conference interface, lifted his gaze slightly, his voice low and frigid. "Come in."
It was He Mu, one of his secretaries.
The atmosphere inside the office had been cold and heavy ever since Julian had returned from Huaihai City. The tension was so thick it sent chills down everyone's backs.
He Mu stepped in cautiously, holding his breath. "Mr. Huo."
Julian's gaze was dark and sharp. Fingers pinched at his temple in fatigue as he cut straight to the point before the secretary could spout unnecessary words:
"Have you found out who the woman from that night was?"
This time, He Mu didn't dare hesitate. He answered immediately, afraid of suffering the same fate as the last few unfortunate assistants who had failed to deliver.
"Yes, Mr. Huo."
He stepped forward and handed Julian a tablet containing surveillance footage.
The video showed a hallway deep within the second-floor clubhouse. Around 12:30 a.m., a disheveled young woman in a panic slipped out of one of the rooms.
The girl was obviously trying to avoid the cameras—head down, mask on—swiftly maneuvering herself out of frame and into the surveillance blind spots.
Even though she had just fled a chaotic bed in the middle of the night, her survival instincts had kicked in with uncanny strength.
Her legs barely supported her, and her waist ached to the bone, but she still managed to evade every camera inside and outside the hotel—terrified her brother would check the footage.
It wasn't until she'd run a good distance down Huai'an Road that she dared to stop and make a call to Elena Shen.
He Mu had spent considerable effort piecing together fragmented footage from areas outside their usual domain in Huaihai City. With some deduction and a lot of guesswork, he finally identified the woman who had accidentally stumbled into Mr. Huo's room.
The footage presented to Julian was stitched together from various sources. After the hallway scene ended, the screen cut to a roadside camera on Huai'an Road, where the same girl stood in the night wind, anxiously making a phone call.
As the video concluded, Julian's gaze narrowed on the paused frame—a partial side profile of the girl, face mostly obscured, her head still lowered.
Knuckles tapping against the desk, he asked coldly:
"Did you find out who she is?"
He Mu replied, "Yes, sir. She's the daughter of the Gu family in Huaihai City."
Julian's brow furrowed. "Gu…?"
Then something clicked in his mind. "Winston Gu's sister?"
He Mu nodded hesitantly. "Yes, Mr. Huo."
Just then, another knock came at the door.
Ren Heng, another secretary from the executive team, stepped in. "Mr. Huo, the chairman called. He said you must return to the Huo estate today."
Julian's brows drew tighter. "Did he say why?"
Ren Heng looked uncomfortable, glancing sideways at He Mu—who promptly averted his gaze and pretended not to exist.
Feeling the weight of Julian's increasingly cold stare, Ren Heng broke out in a cold sweat and blurted the answer:
"Apparently… the chairman dreamed last night that you have an illegitimate child wandering out there. He wants an explanation."
Silence fell.
The temperature in the room dropped another ten degrees.
A vein throbbed visibly on Julian's temple. "Who the hell told him that nonsense? Where the hell did this 'illegitimate child' come from?!"
Ren Heng buried his head so low he might as well have been trying to sink into the floor.
The tension was suffocating.
After a long beat, Julian's eyes turned back to the tablet.
He tapped on the paused screen.
Playback resumed.
At 1:10 in the video, the girl disappeared from the hallway's view.
At 1:15, a tall figure in a camel-colored coat and high heels briefly appeared at the edge of the camera's blind spot—a fleeting but strikingly familiar silhouette.
Julian paused the frame again.
His brow furrowed even deeper. "My aunt was in Huaihai City during the auction?"
He Mu knew nothing about the Huo family's internal affairs, having been busy accompanying Julian during business negotiations with the Jiang Group.
But Ren Heng—whose role involved coordinating personal and family matters—wasn't so lucky.
The mention of Huo Lan Yin, Julian's youngest aunt and the apple of the Huo patriarch's eye, was clearly not a coincidence.
Grimacing under Julian's penetrating stare, Ren Heng nodded stiffly:
"…I believe so, sir."