The Vanishing Lover

"The Lakeside Villa Hotel, from the very beginning, was a setup, a trap."

"But it wasn't Xu Ruyi's; it was Qi Min's trap laid out for me."

Qin Guan narrated steadily.

Calm now, everything became clear.

"The origin of the matter is this,"

"Qi Min was my mistress for over two years. She knew I was preparing to jump ship and start my own practice. She wanted to follow me, saying she'd be with me no matter what—success or failure. She even said she wanted to lend me money to help me make the move."

Qin Guan gave a faint smile.

"Actually, I never believed that. After all, we were just having an affair. In that kind of relationship, how much sincerity could there be?"

"Later, to prove her sincerity, she actively gave me 300,000 yuan. That was all her savings. To be honest, I wasn't touched from the start. I knew she gave that money with her own purpose."

Qi Min's purpose was to become a partner.

"A partner, a shareholder. She wanted a stake."

"But 300,000 yuan for a stake—do you think that's possible?"

Qin Guan sneered. "When I jump ship, our partners are either famous lawyers or have connections and resources. In short, besides money, everyone brings their own resources and skills. What was she? She was just an assistant. Whether in terms of money or ability, she simply wasn't partner material."

"That money, she gave to me early on. She also helped run some minor errands for the partnership. I thought about giving her a red envelope later as thanks. Unexpectedly, about a week after I took the money, she brought up the idea of becoming a partner. She said it very subtly, but I was extremely resistant. I thought she was completely overreaching herself and trying to trap me by acting first and asking later. I was very displeased with her behavior."

"However, I didn't return her money."

The polygraph lines still fluctuated calmly.

He wasn't lying because this was the truth.

"This is the root of Qi Min's hatred for me—I took her entire savings of 300,000 yuan, but I didn't let her become a partner. Moreover, to swallow that money, I made a fake contract to fool her—a dual contract. The one she signed was actually forged by me..."

"She naturally discovered it, felt she'd lost all her money and her bright future. Hence, the entire incident at the lakeside villa."

"Simply put, in this same place, during this same incident, there were two women simultaneously trying to destroy me."

"The difference is, what Qi Min always wanted was money."

"After discovering the contract I gave her was fake, she first tried hinting to get the 300,000 yuan back. But I didn't give it. I said the money was already invested and I couldn't withdraw it. But actually, this was just my excuse. I knew I should have returned it to her. I shouldn't take her money like this. I had 300,000 yuan in my card, even more than that. It wasn't that I couldn't take it out, but..."

"I just didn't want to pay it back."

Qin Guan sighed. "I suppose it's because I was terrified of poverty as a child. Once any money comes into my hands, I can't bear to give it out again. This is probably a kind of sickness for me..."

This was also the truth, a fact he had never been willing to admit.

Any money that came into his hands, he couldn't bring himself to part with—the moment he gave it away felt like cutting off his own flesh, painful and agonizing.

Xu Ruyi had always simplistically understood it as thriftiness. She would thoughtfully pay for him every time.

None of them understood.

"Qi Min found various reasons and asked several times. Before the business trip, she was clearly already unhappy. Looking back now, that was probably when she gave up on me, decided to use this method to get her 300,000 yuan back, while also extorting a large sum from me, and then leave me."

"Qi Min got some kind of drug from Li Yang. I don't know the specifics; you can ask Li Yang. He's an addict. He has a history of drug use and still takes pills now. He also participates in secret dealing. The little money he earns is almost all spent on drugs."

"Later, on the hill in the park, Qi Min admitted it. This drug, after taking it, slows a person's heartbeat, causing them to faint on the spot. She wasn't lying. That's exactly how she was at the time—lying on the bed, no heartbeat, no pulse, body turning cold... though it could also have been because the air conditioning was too strong..."

Thinking of Qi Min's pale, cold body, Qin Guan paused, closed his eyes, and then regained his composure.

"Anyway, she completely fooled me with this fake death act. I was terrified. I didn't dare call the police—after all, it was an affair. I was afraid Xu Ruyi would find out, and even more afraid the police would mistakenly think I killed her. My mind was in chaos, unable to think. I hurriedly stuffed her into the suitcase."

"Originally, I wanted to take that suitcase away..."

Qin Guan calmly recounted that part again—he was telling the truth. He had tried to take it. He had pushed the suitcase all the way to the lobby on the first floor. Then he encountered Li Yang returning, so he quickly sent the case to the third floor.

"Probably from this moment on, it was 'The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.'"

These eight characters were what Qin Guan realized after calming down.

"That day, Qi Min used the fake death trap to lure me in. Xu Ruyi, meanwhile, had installed surveillance in the hotel room in advance, waiting to capture the entire process of my affair with Qi Min, and then use it as a weapon against me."

"At the same time, Xiao Zhi, dispatched by Xu Ruyi, was secretly watching us near the hotel, waiting to get the surveillance footage and hand it over to Xu Ruyi. Of course, this was Xu Ruyi's original plan..."

Qin Guan's voice was steady, but his account was truly gripping. Two officers were listening intently.

"But from the moment she saw Qi Min fake her death, Xu Ruyi's plan completely changed..."

That day, it truly was the mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

And it was exactly as Qin Guan surmised—Xu Ruyi had indeed installed surveillance in the hotel room in advance—this was easy to do. Facing the bed was a long table; no one would carefully examine the ornaments on it.

Besides surveillance, she had indeed sent someone to watch near the hotel, waiting only to obtain ironclad evidence against Qin Guan.

This was her original plan.

Her plan had never included taking a life.

Qin Guan knew Xu Ruyi well enough on this point—given Xu Ruyi's temperament and the influence of her parents' upbringing over nearly thirty years, she couldn't do something so vicious. She couldn't set up a ruthless trap like Qi Min's.

She couldn't even withstand major upheavals.

That morning, Xu Ruyi was anxiously waiting at home—when she received the call, her heart nearly jumped out of her chest.

"Qi Min is dead? Qin Guan killed Qi Min?"

She was so frightened she slumped onto a chair, her head buzzing, unable to think for a moment.

Qi Min was dead—her original plan instantly fell apart.

Lovers Who Disappear.