The Vanishing Lover

Xu Ruyi had been truly terrified that day.

At "Zeng Demei's" place, she had come within a hair's breadth of being discovered by Qin Guan.

The moment she spotted that suspicious figure, she fled in panic. The first thing she did upon returning home was to thoroughly wash herself – her hair, her entire body. Her keen sense of smell made the thick smell of cooking oil seem to have grown feet, seeping into every strand of her hair and pore.

When Qin Guan came upstairs and entered the house, she was frantically opening the perfume he had brought home earlier in the bathroom, spraying it all over herself.

Auntie Feng was on the balcony, washing the clothes she had changed out of.

Everything was flawless, including Qin Guan.

He seemed perfectly normal, laughing and joking with their daughter as usual, complaining to her about the hardships of his day at the law firm. Except, lingering faintly around him, was that same trace of cooking oil smell.

It meant he had also gone to "Zeng Demei's" place; he had also met with her.

Moreover, "Zeng Demei" clearly hadn't told him that Xu Ruyi had already found her.

That night passed without incident.

After dinner, Xu Ruyi sat beside her daughter, watching her draw, but her mind was carefully sorting through the plan "Zeng Demei" had relayed. Qi Min wasn't stupid; this bizarre "fake death" act had genuinely fooled Qin Guan, proven by his willingness to hand over 300,000 yuan.

However, Qi Min's chances weren't high.

First, Qin Guan wasn't that foolish; he wouldn't be easily led by the nose by Qi Min. When he handed over the 300,000, he had already laid in wait nearby, ready to catch her. If Xu Ruyi hadn't intervened and disrupted things, Qin Guan would have caught "Zeng Demei" in the park that very night.

Of course, Qin Guan had still found "Zeng Demei" in the end.

If Qin Guan found "Zeng Demei" before Xu Ruyi did, given his abilities and eloquence, "Zeng Demei" could surrender in an instant. Even if she hadn't said anything today, what about tomorrow? The day after?

An utterly unreliable teammate would only ruin things.

Therefore, whether this plan could succeed still depended on Qi Min – "Zeng Demei" had said Qi Min held leverage over Qin Guan.

"When she brings out that leverage, it'll be the death of Qin Guan! Truly, that's what she said herself!" "Zeng Demei" had claimed at the time.

What if that was true?

If it was true, Xu Ruyi absolutely had to get her hands on that "leverage."

So, the first thing she needed to do was to stop Qin Guan from going to see "Zeng Demei" again, to prevent him from discovering Qi Min's plan.

Second, she had to keep a backup plan for herself.

The words of a petty person like "Zeng Demei" couldn't be fully trusted. She needed concrete evidence while also ensuring she couldn't be easily betrayed.

To achieve this, besides meeting Qi Min, she also needed to get Qi Min's phone – the phone Qin Guan had brought back. Xu Ruyi had known about it for a long time but hadn't touched it. She also knew Qin Guan had used it to submit a resignation letter to his firm, using it to cover up Qi Min's disappearance.

This man sleeping beside her, this professional litigator well-versed in the law, was practically a seasoned master of crime.

The fact that Qin Guan kept Qi Min's phone like this meant he must have had more, more important uses for it. Perhaps there was something on the phone?

Qin Guan had discussed many cases with her at the dinner table. Often, the key piece of evidence that won a case was something seemingly insignificant.

Qi Min's phone was hidden in Qin Guan's study.

On top of the full-wall bookshelf, there was a thick legal codex. The phone was hidden inside it.

Qin Guan thought he had hidden it extremely well and covertly, unaware that Xu Ruyi had known all along.

To avoid police tracking, the phone and the SIM card were stored separately.

Xu Ruyi was also puzzled by this behavior of Qin Guan's – if he had truly "killed" Qi Min, even if he wanted to use her social media accounts to send signals, why keep the physical phone?

But she only wondered; she didn't startle the snake in the grass – once Qin Guan was alerted, things would become much harder later.

She installed the card, turned on the phone, and scrutinized it thoroughly. She noted down some useful phone numbers, then meticulously returned the phone to its original place.

The most frequent messages received on Qi Min's phone were all from Li Yang.

Qi Min's useless boyfriend – Xu Ruyi had learned about him when she first investigated Qi Min. He had a handsome face but no brains, an impulsive personality, did drugs, drank heavily…

But even such a person had his own value – at least in this scheme, he might become her pawn.

How to make good use of this pawn?

Before Xu Ruyi could figure out a method, Qin Guan came home that very evening and asked her for money.

He said the matter of jumping ship to start his own practice was almost settled, but he currently needed a sum of money on the books as registered capital.

"This money isn't for spending; it can be returned to you in a few days. It's just a formality," Qin Guan said.

The registered capital he asked for was three million yuan.

"Actually, the thing I regret most, the first thing, is keeping Qi Min's phone. I used it to cover up her disappearance because I was so afraid, terrified someone would find out I'd killed someone. I wanted everyone to think Qi Min was still alive, living well."

"But I kept her phone. Actually, just keeping the SIM card would have been enough. I knew that, but I didn't throw it away because… I couldn't bear to."

Qin Guan looked calmly at Old He. "That phone was something I bought and gave to her. The latest Apple model. She asked me for it. Something bought with my money. I tried several times to throw it away, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it."

"You probably don't understand. I have such a high income now, my family background is so good, why would I be so hung up on a ten-thousand-yuan phone?" He laughed mockingly. "I know it might be a sickness, but I just can't change it. My money, I can't bear to part with even a single cent. Things I spend money to buy, I can never bear to throw away."

He let out a long sigh. "The second thing is that three million yuan."

"Three million yuan. I got it from Xu Ruyi. You can check both our accounts; it's clear as day."

"Xu Ruyi transferred it to me. Part of it came from two of her fixed-term savings accounts, another two parts were withdrawn from her investment accounts, and four hundred thousand was money she got from a friend. You can check it all; every single sum has a clear source and destination. Even if I wanted to fabricate it, I couldn't."

"Xu Ruyi has money; you all know that. After her parents passed, most of the real estate remained untouched, but the cash assets were all transferred into Xu Ruyi's name."

Qin Guan took a deep breath.

"But even so, three million is not a small sum. I knew Xu Ruyi would give it, but that day… she gave it so readily. At that moment, I should have been suspicious."

He laughed at himself again. "Looking back, I was sometimes incredibly stupid, and I also didn't understand women at all. I thought her readiness was because she trusted me, because she had no parents left and would depend on me, rely on me, from then on. I thought she loved me. It never occurred to me that she was giving it to me deliberately. She was using that three million to cast a wide net, and I was already the fish caught in her net."