That predawn hour, Qi Min sensed danger.
In over two years of their affair, Qin Guan had never spoken of his childhood.
He wore shirts from a luxury foreign brand, scorned watches under twenty thousand yuan, dined at upscale Western restaurants, drank imported coffee—no sugar, but three spoons of milk from a specific high-end brand colleagues mocked as "wealth-taxing." This was Qin Guan: polished, urbane, the epitome of metropolitan sophistication.
Yet his past remained sealed.
Post-intimacy, Qi Min would sometimes rest her head on his chest, yearning to bridge the emotional chasm. The surest way to bind a man? Unearth his history.
She'd gently probe about his childhood, schooling, family…
Each time, his face darkened. "What? Sleeping with me requires a background check?"
He guarded his secrets fiercely.
But now—this image-obsessed man who buried his origins—voluntarily vomited his ugliest truths: a drunken father, a mentally disabled mother, childhood poverty, petty crimes…
"Why… why tell me this?" Her voice quivered, teeth chattering. Logic screamed to deflect, escape, but fear paralyzed her mind. She'd always judged crime victims for panicking—now she understood.
Danger loomed like a fog-shrouded beast.
"Why?" Qin Guan's smile stretched grotesquely, eyes dead. "Haven't you always dug for this? Wanted leverage? Here's more: I bribed witnesses. Remember that case I had you negotiate? Paid them to lie under oath. You recorded evidence, didn't you?"
He pressed closer, breath hot. "Fabricated documents too. You snapped photos as insurance, right?"
Qi Min's throat tightened. This wasn't about Xu Ruyi—this was reckoning.
In their profession, such secrets demanded silence. Permanent silence.
"Qin Guan, you're wrong!" She rasped. "I never kept evidence! I'd be implicating myself!"
Her parched tongue stuck to her palate. "I… I wanted to marry you! Yes, I schemed for three million, but I'd never—"
"Clever, aren't you?" His grip on her wrist tightened, veins bulging. "Digging deeper pits. Dragging Xu Ruyi in. You'll stop at nothing to destroy me—"
"No! I swear!"
"Last chance." His nose brushed hers. "What did you tell her about her father?"
"She… she thanked me!" Qi Min babbled. "For nursing him that week before his accident! Just gratitude! Nothing else!"
"Liar!"
The slap cracked like gunfire, throwing her onto the bed.