TNSFC – Chapter 41

One umbrella separated two worlds.

The downpour was immense, the surroundings both noisy and quiet. Que Yining felt the hand resting on her shoulder as she gazed at Gu Shanxue’s profile.

Gu Shanxue led her forward. Her boots trod on the concrete, the splashes from their soles mingling with the rainwater and flowing away, much like the blood that constantly surged towards Que Yining’s heart, circulating and spreading throughout her body.

In that moment, Que Yining didn’t think about anything. All the sounds around her seemed to be swept far away by an invisible force.

She walked forward with an appearance of composure, belatedly savoring the feeling—it was somewhat magical and a little romantic.

She curved her lips into a faint smile, amused at her own reaction. She always prided herself on handling everything with ease and control, yet it seemed there were moments when she couldn’t manage herself.

It wasn’t until they reached the steps that Que Yining’s gaze fell upon the elegantly decorated private restaurant before them. A waiter approached to take Gu Shanxue’s umbrella. Gu Shanxue handed it over, and her hand naturally slipped from Que Yining’s shoulder.

The warmth vanished abruptly. Que Yining naturally linked her arm with Gu Shanxue’s. When their eyes met, she gave Gu Shanxue a sweet smile. Her makeup today leaned towards a youthful style, lending a soft quality to her smile.

Gu Shanxue returned her smile and led her forward.

Que Yining had initially thought that since they were dining at a restaurant owned by Gu Shanxue’s friend, the friend might come over to meet them, giving her a chance to learn more about Gu Shanxue. However, the friend didn’t show up, and Gu Shanxue didn’t seem to have informed them of her arrival.

So, Que Yining let go of that thought. Being alone with Gu Shanxue was better anyway.

After dinner, Gu Shanxue handed Que Yining a key—a teardrop-shaped magnetic card. Que Yining took it and put it in her bag.

Gu Shanxue: “It’s raining heavily today. You can go tomorrow instead.”

Que Yining nodded. “Okay, if it’s not raining tomorrow, I’ll go.”

As long as the cat doesn’t run off to get involved with other cats, neutering isn’t urgent for the next day or two.

Gu Shanxue: “Then I’ll take you back to your company?”

Que Yining replied, “Okay.”

She didn’t have anywhere else good to go anyway. The downpour made it unsuitable for going out, and she wasn’t interested in the invitations from the original owner’s friends. Fortunately, the musical Gu Shanxue had invited her to was tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, the weather would be good then.

When they walked out of the restaurant, the rain outside hadn’t lessened.

A waiter, holding Que Yining’s umbrella, was about to step forward to open it for her. Another waiter also took out one of the restaurant’s umbrellas, intending to go to Gu Shanxue’s side.

Gu Shanxue raised her hand, declining their help. She took Que Yining’s umbrella, put her arm around Que Yining’s shoulder, and walked towards her car, just as they had arrived.

Que Yining watched her actions, her emotions stirring. There was a moment of pleasant surprise, but seeing Gu Shanxue’s seemingly unchanged expression, she felt she might be overthinking it.

Gu Shanxue’s car stopped in front of the company. Que Yining opened the umbrella, stood by the car, and closed the door.

She hadn’t left yet when Gu Shanxue pressed the button to lower the car window.

The window slowly descended. Que Yining leaned down by the window and waved at Gu Shanxue.

Que Yining: “Drive safely, bye-bye.”

Gu Shanxue: “Mm, bye.”

Only after the car disappeared into the curtain of rain did Que Yining walk into the office building and press the elevator button.

The rain lessened around two-thirty in the afternoon and gradually stopped.

The dark clouds were somewhat dispersed by the wind, and bright daylight peeked through the cloud cover. Gradually, the light spread, and a rainbow arched across the sky.

Que Yining stood before the floor-to-ceiling window and put down her coffee.

The sky has cleared, good. Even the rats should be coming out to play.

Que Yining didn’t tell her family about this matter but instead used Qiao Yuchu’s connections.

The Qiao family was a reasonably prominent wealthy family. Qiao Yuchu’s cousin-in-law was the director of the Lu Su Public Security Bureau. Que Yining called Qiao Yuchu and asked her to mention the matter to her cousin-in-law.

This wasn’t abusing power for personal gain, of course. Que Yining was the confirmed victim who had already reported the crime; she just wanted the arrest to happen a bit faster.

At 7:20 in the evening, Zhang Shiyu knocked on the office door.

Zhang Shiyu: “Boss, they caught him. He’s at the police station now.”

Que Yining stood up from her executive chair, picked up her bag, and tilted her chin slightly. “Let’s go.”

Que Yining took Zhang Shiyu to the police station. When Xie Yanhuai heard about it, he insisted on going along to see.

Que Yining didn’t stop him. She told some employees who were still working overtime to go home early, then headed to the police station.

They were halfway to the police station when Qiao Yuchu called Que Yining to ask if the person had been caught.

Qiao Yuchu had made the call, so of course, she knew roughly what had happened. She was quite concerned about her good friend’s affairs. After hearing Que Yining say the person was caught, she excitedly came to the police station to join the commotion.

When Que Yining arrived, the police were already interrogating him.

Que Yining stood outside the interrogation room’s glass, looking at the very silent, handcuffed middle-aged man inside.

Que Yining: “Officer, has he said anything?”

An officer standing nearby shook his head. “We found him in his hometown. As soon as we received the report, we started an investigation. The ID card he used was his own. After failing to find any trace of him in the city, we contacted the police station in his hometown. Sure enough, he was there.”

“After we caught him, he was very agitated. Under questioning, he denied stealing commercial secrets, claiming he suddenly missed his family and bought a ticket home. No matter how we questioned him afterward, he insisted he just suddenly missed home and didn’t have time to ask for leave. When we asked him why he was furtively approaching someone else’s computer, he denied doing so until we showed him the surveillance footage and witness testimony provided by your company. Only then did he say he saw a bug crawling on that computer, so he went over.”

Xie Yanhuai couldn’t help but blurt out, “Bullshit.”

That reason was indeed bullshit. Who present would believe it?

The officer continued, “Please don’t worry, the interrogation is still ongoing.”

Que Yining smiled. “Okay, we’re not worried. We trust in your abilities, officers. You’ll definitely get it out of him.”

Seeing Que Yining’s sincere smile, the officer scratched his head, a little embarrassed, and went to pour water for Que Yining and the others.

Xie Yanhuai wasn’t sure what Que Yining was thinking and tentatively asked, “Are we just going to wait like this?”

Que Yining: “We can only wait. Although there’s surveillance footage, there’s no decisive evidence. If he keeps his mouth shut and we haven’t suffered any losses, they can’t hold him for long.”

The surveillance only captured Geng Liyun approaching Xie Yanhuai’s computer. He squatted in front of the computer case, blocking the camera’s view, so no one saw what he did. Even Lin Yuan, who came in later, only saw Geng Liyun walking away from Xie Yanhuai’s computer.

If Que Yining had suffered significant losses, for example, if there were indeed signs of intrusion in the cloud drive storing core data, Geng Liyun definitely wouldn’t be able to get away with it if he couldn’t explain himself. But the current problem was that there were no signs of intrusion there.

Xie Yanhuai leaned against the glass, carefully scrutinizing Geng Liyun.

Geng Liyun, sitting inside, was completely unaware and continued to resist the police’s questioning with silence.

Que Yining sat down in a chair. After thinking for a moment, she requested to speak with Geng Liyun alone.

A few minutes later, Geng Liyun saw the officer in front of him leave, and another person entered.

His pupils instinctively dilated, and his body unconsciously leaned back slightly.

Que Yining sat opposite him, leaning forward slightly, her face still wreathed in a smile. She looked at him and said, “What’s wrong? You seem a little afraid of me?”

Geng Liyun twitched the corner of his mouth, showing an angry expression. “Boss, I just went home without asking for leave. There’s no need to go to such lengths as calling the police and falsely accusing me of stealing company secrets. I’m just a modeler; I don’t handle anything else.”

Que Yining raised an eyebrow. “Then why did you go near Xie Yanhuai’s computer?”

Geng Liyun: “I’ve said it several times already. I really just saw a bug on Team Leader Xie’s computer case, so I went to deal with it.”

Que Yining: “Oh? Is your eyesight that good? Your seat is some distance from Xie Yanhuai’s, isn’t it? You must have clairvoyant eyes to see a bug on his computer case from your own seat. Since your eyesight is so good, why do you wear glasses?”

As Que Yining spoke, her gaze remained fixed on Geng Liyun’s face, her voice carrying a teasing, light smile. But Geng Liyun’s body grew increasingly tense, and cold sweat involuntarily beaded on his forehead.

Geng Liyun stammered, “I… I was just going to the… the pantry to make a cup of coffee. I saw it when I walked by. The bug was quite small. It wouldn’t be good if it crawled into the computer case, so I… I went to deal with it.”

More sweat appeared on Geng Liyun’s head, and his fists by his sides clenched unconsciously.

He was indeed afraid of this beautiful boss in front of him. Just looking into her eyes made him tremble. Her constant smiling demeanor was like that of a beautiful, venomous snake—one that could swallow a person whole at any moment. It was terrifying.

“That sounds reasonable enough,” Que Yining said, feigning sudden realization, then her face immediately turned cold. “Then can you explain why Xie Yanhuai’s computer was hacked? Do you know how big a loss that is? Just that part alone, the loss is at least in the tens of millions. Do you even know what you’ve done?”

She stood up and slammed her hand on the table, making Geng Liyun jump.

“You’re a modeler. You should have a rough idea of our game’s prototype. Then you should also know what kind of impact it will have when it enters the market. I advise you to tell the truth: where did you steal the data to? Did you sell it to another company? If another company steals our work and enters the market before us, do you know how much I’ll lose? You wouldn’t be able to compensate for it in this lifetime, your next lifetime, or the lifetime after that!”

Que Yining’s sudden change in demeanor and her stern rebuke not only shocked Geng Liyun but also stunned those outside the glass.

Xie Yanhuai and Zhang Shiyu watched Que Yining, who looked so consumed by rage she seemed ready to kill someone at any moment. They almost believed their company’s data had really been lost. After being swept up in anger for a minute, they looked at each other and had to remind themselves that their data wasn’t actually missing.

Facing Que Yining’s oppressive aura up close, Geng Liyun was flustered and at a loss, sweating even more profusely and shaking his head constantly.

“No, Boss, I didn’t steal any secrets, I really didn’t! How would I dare do something like that? I just…”

He said in a trembling voice, then, realizing he might have said too much, he immediately shut his mouth.

“Just what?”

Que Yining pressed immediately.

Geng Liyun clammed up and played dead, no longer looking up at Que Yining’s face.

Que Yining was sure he had done something, perhaps not stealing secrets, as his denial just now had been extremely agitated—he was practically on the verge of kneeling and swearing he hadn’t.

She felt that with Geng Liyun’s acting skills, he couldn’t have faked such a heartfelt denial.

Then what did he do?

Que Yining’s initial pressure had achieved its purpose. Knowing that staying there longer wouldn’t yield any more results, she coldly threw out a sentence.

“You’d better tell the truth. If you didn’t do it, then who did? 【If you don’t speak up,】 then it was you. You can’t escape.”

Geng Liyun looked up at her retreating back, his lips moved, but he still said nothing.

After opening the door, Que Yining’s expression softened. She met the indescribable expressions of Zhang Shiyu, Xie Yanhuai, and several police officers. Her gaze shifted past them to Qiao Yuchu, who was standing behind them.

Qiao Yuchu’s expression was very complicated. Looking at Que Yining, she seemed somewhat bewildered.

Ever since Gu Shanxue returned, her good friend seemed to have deviated somewhat from the person she remembered. It wasn’t so obvious at first; she just thought all the changes were because Que Yining had let go of her years-long obsession. But the Que Yining just now was truly unfamiliar.

That kind of aura—was that something the former Que Yining would have possessed?

Que Yining saw Qiao Yuchu’s expression, but her own face remained unchanged. She waved at Qiao Yuchu as usual.

“Xiao Qiao, you’re here. Was the show just now entertaining?”

Qiao Yuchu nodded hesitantly. “You were a bit fierce.”

Que Yining confidently tossed her head. “Of course. Don’t you know who I am?”

Whether the other person suspected anything or not, she didn’t care.

Perhaps because Que Yining acted so naturally, with an air of “I’m the best in the world,” the strange thoughts that had arisen in Qiao Yuchu’s mind were dispelled again.

She gave Que Yining a thumbs-up, and Que Yining smiled and pressed it down.

If a person insists on living too soberly, always getting to the bottom of things, it can only bring endless pain.

The other person might still have some doubts in her heart, but no one wanted to broach such an unconventional and inconclusive matter.

Que Yining’s gaze returned to the other side of the glass door, her eyes darkening.

She didn’t stay at the police station for long. She knew she had broken through Geng Liyun’s first line of psychological defense. The police were more professional at interrogation and investigation, so her staying longer wouldn’t be of much use.

Qiao Yuchu pulled Que Yining aside, saying she wanted to treat her to a meal, claiming it was to celebrate the capture. Sisters always find reasons to get together. Que Yining had no other plans, so she naturally agreed and told Zhang Shiyu and the others to go back on their own.

Que Yining got into Qiao Yuchu’s car and asked where they were going. Qiao Yuchu stepped on the gas and said she was taking her for drinks.

Que Yining thought Qiao Yuchu would take her to some restaurant, but unexpectedly, Qiao Yuchu brought her to a… place she couldn’t quite describe.

If she had to describe it, it was probably a maid cafe specifically for lesbians?

As soon as Que Yining entered, a well-endowed young woman sweetly said to her, “Welcome, Master.”

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