Qin Yumo, twenty-eight years old, was Hu Yifei's best friend and a former senior beauty consultant for L'Oréal.
She was the quintessential big-city white-collar professional. Growing up in a comfortable, middle-class Shanghai family, she had never developed a true sense of financial scarcity. While she couldn't be classified as a ultra-wealthy heiress, she had never lacked for anything since childhood—whether it was high-end dining, designer fashion, or lavish daily expenses.
"Tell me about Qin Yumo's current predicament," Adrian Li instructed, leaning back in his leather chair. Because Qin Yumo had been dispatched on an extended corporate assignment outside Shanghai prior to his arrival in the city, he had yet to meet her in person.
"Several severe chemical accidents recently occurred involving the high-end beauty products under her direct supervision," Yi Zhongtian explained smoothly. "Multiple high-profile clients who used the specific treatments she recommended suffered permanent facial disfigurement."
"She is merely a beauty consultant," Adrian noted, raising an eyebrow in mild skepticism. "Even if a client suffers a reaction, shouldn't corporate product liability rest entirely on L'Oréal's legal team?"
"According to the forensic investigation conducted by the municipal authorities," Yi Zhongtian offered a cold, calculating smile, "Miss Qin privately peddled counterfeit, uncertified chemical compounds—which did not originate from L'Oréal—to her private client list for personal profit. Consequently, she must bear absolute, individual legal responsibility."
"How could an educated woman like her make such a basic, catastrophic blunder?" Adrian found it somewhat absurd. Qin Yumo was a university-educated professional with solid emotional intelligence and an impressive intellect. Furthermore, she wasn't impoverished. Why would she engage in such an easily detectable, foolish scheme?
"Miss Qin recently developed a severe, uninhibited shopping addiction," Yi Zhongtian detailed, pulling a financial dossier from his briefcase. "Her credit card balances spiraled out of control, leaving her buried under two to three hundred thousand yuan in immediate debt. Too embarrassed to confess her financial embarrassment to her family or friends, she sought alternative channels to secure fast capital. That was when she received a series of targeted, unsolicited sales calls..."
Yi Zhongtian trailed off, but Adrian instantly comprehended the entire mechanism.
The trap was elegantly simple; one merely needed to ensure the target took the initial bait. With Qin Yumo's typical lifestyle, two to three hundred thousand yuan represented barely six months of discretionary spending. Had she simply swallowed her pride and asked her network, half a dozen friends would have gladly loaned her the funds.
However, much like desperate victims who fall into predatory online lending traps, her initial shame prevented her from speaking up. That silence allowed the psychological snare to tighten until a vicious cycle consumed her.
"Where is she currently residing?" Adrian asked.
"Miss Qin is currently staying at the Grand Hyatt Hotel," Yi Zhongtian replied. "Over the past forty-eight hours, she has completely exhausted her personal network. Not a single associate is willing to extend a hand."
"Did she not reach out to the tenants at the iPartment?" Adrian asked, a hint of dark amusement in his tone.
Yet the moment the question left his lips, he chuckled softly at the absurdity of the thought.
Admittedly, Hu Yifei, Zeng Xiaoxian, and Sekiya were solid, high-income professionals. But Qin Yumo was now tangled in a catastrophic criminal liability case involving severe medical disfigurement. With their modest white-collar connections, they possessed zero leverage to shield her. Involving them would merely drag Hu Yifei into a hopeless legal quagmire without offering Qin Yumo a sliver of salvation.
"Young Master, would you prefer I personally conduct the negotiations with her?" Yi Zhongtian asked respectfully.
"No need. Have the driver prepare the sedan. I will handle this encounter myself," Adrian decided.
While sending a seasoned corporate operative like Yi Zhongtian would undoubtedly yield maximum operational efficiency, Adrian preferred to personally oversee the submission of Hu Yifei's closest confidante.
Inside a secluded suite on the upper floors of the Grand Hyatt, Qin Yumo stood frozen near the window, her trembling hand clutching her smartphone. She was staring at a contact number she had sworn to delete from her life forever.
Summoning every ounce of her remaining courage, she pressed the dial button.
"Hello? Richard? It's... it's Yumo," she forced out, her tone dropping into a sweet, apologetic purr the moment the line connected.
Richard was her former boyfriend—a South African diamond merchant commanding a fortune exceeding hundreds of millions of yuan. He was the quintessential, high-society bachelor. During their multi-year romance, Richard had lavished millions of yuan on designer gifts and luxury travel for her.
While a man's willingness to spend capital on a woman didn't necessarily guarantee genuine devotion, his absolute refusal to spend money guaranteed he cared nothing for her.
Back then, Qin Yumo had been deeply in love with Richard. Even when she caught him entertaining other women, she had desperately rationalized his behavior, contemplating giving him another chance. In her mind, it was hardly uncommon for an unmarried billionaire to keep mistresses; she had originally prepared herself to turn a blind eye.
Tragically, she eventually uncovered the horrifying reality: she wasn't his primary partner at all. She was merely one of his disposable mistresses, and the other woman was his legally wedded wife!
The revelation had dealt her self-worth a crushing blow, leaving her psychologically scarred. Under normal circumstances, she would have rather starved in the streets than ever contact him again. But standing on the precipice of ruin, she had zero alternatives left.
"You arrogant, washed-up bitch! Go straight to hell!"
What Qin Yumo had never anticipated was that when she finally swallowed her pride to beg for financial assistance, Richard flatly humiliated her over the speaker, scoffing that her youth had faded and she was no longer worth a single yuan of his capital before slamming the phone down.
The brutal rejection delivered a secondary, devastating shock to her spirit, nearly causing her to collapse onto the carpet.
Over the past fortnight, she had been systematically consumed by economic disputes and criminal lawsuits. She had lost her prestigious corporate career, her financial standing, and her entire social circle. The moment her high-society acquaintances caught wind of her legal troubles, every single one of them immediately blacklisted her number.
This was precisely why she hadn't dared to breathe a single word of her plight to Hu Yifei.
'If I ask a close friend for thirty or fifty thousand yuan to handle an emergency, the friendship survives,' she thought bitterly. 'But if I drag them into a multi-hundred-thousand-yuan criminal lawsuit, it will permanently destroy our bond.'
Buzz... Buzz...
Her phone suddenly vibrated with an incoming call from an unlisted number. Traumatized by days of aggressive collections, Qin Yumo swiped the screen and screamed hysterically into the receiver.
"Stop harassing me! I don't have any money left to give you!"
However, instead of the harsh, abrasive tone of a debt collector, a deep, magnetic, and completely unfamiliar male voice resonated smoothly through the line.
"Miss Qin? I was informed that you have been experiencing a minor cash flow inconvenience lately."
Qin Yumo froze, her heart skipping a beat. "Who... who are you?"
"Discussing financial arrangements over an unencrypted phone line is somewhat uncouth," the voice replied smoothly, his tone carrying an unmistakable, absolute authority. "I wonder if Miss Qin would be inclined to step down to the second floor? I am currently waiting in Suite 208."
Click.
The line went dead.
Qin Yumo stood alone in the quiet room, staring at the blank screen for several long minutes. She was completely cornered, her life reduced to ruins. Wiping the tears from her cheeks, she carefully reapplied her makeup, pulled on her coat, and walked out the door toward Suite 208.