Ding—
Another text message chimed, this one from Qing Muyie: "A'Wei, this hundred million is my betrothal gift."
Meng Jingwei was greatly alarmed and immediately said to Madam Qing, "Grandma, I need to step out for a phone call."
"Go ahead."
Madam Qing smiled kindly.
Meng Jingwei then got up and left the hospital room, stepping into the corridor to call Qing Muyie.
Once he answered, she said directly, "Qing Muyie, what are you doing? I only want the compensation you promised me, not you."
She had saved him, and the agreement was for a hundred million.
At the auction, she had bought the necklace around her neck, and Qing Muyie had helped cover a portion of the payment. He still owed her the remaining amount.
Even though they were together now, debts were debts, even between close relations.
"You risked your life to save me, and the only way I can repay that kindness is by giving myself to you."
"On what grounds? Did you ask for my consent before marrying me?"
"Then do you want to marry me?"
"I... don't want to."
"Then I can also condescend to 'marry into your family'."
"Dream on, have you no shame?"
"Compared to marrying a wife, shame is worthless."
"Then... I don't want this money." After all, it was only tens of millions less than the agreed sum, and she had been given more than enough to begin with. She couldn't possibly sell herself for a few tens of millions.
"The money is already in your account. It's too late to go back on your word now," the man said with a soft laugh. "Besides, you personally agreed in the hospital that after a three-month trial period, we could have a secret marriage. What's done is done!"
Meng Jingwei: "..."
How could he be so utterly shameless?
She raised her hand to her forehead, truly believing she had been so ensnared by Qing Muyie's gentleness that she had foolishly agreed to his proposal of a secret marriage.
Was it too late to regret it now?
"Then we'll talk after you've passed the three-month trial period. We made a pact, and I don't believe you won't break it." Thinking about his frenzy these past two days, Meng Jingwei felt that Qing Muyie would surely lose control.
The moment he touched her, what would become of 'what's done is done'? What about a secret marriage?
No way!
Calm down, calm down, must remain calm.
To sell herself off after only one day of dating!
Meng Jingwei felt something was wrong with her brain.
"It's a deal."
The man, brimming with confidence, hung up the phone and drove to the parking lot of Songyu Group.
Because his affairs had caused a huge uproar, Song Jun immediately mobilized the company's public relations department to handle the matter with full force. He also contacted the employees from the mall's clothing store, using his 'financial power' to make those employees deny the 'sensational' events that occurred between them in the fitting room to the reporters.
As for Qing Muyie kissing a 'man,' the man, who hadn't used Weibo for years, finally posted his first update. The post contained no words, only a picture.
It was a photo taken in the mall, as they exited the clothing store, showing him with his arm around Meng Jingwei's waist, kissing her.
Because Meng Jingwei was disguised as a man, the photo displayed Qing Muyie's domineering posture as he leaned in to kiss the man with greyish-white hair.
The release of this single photo immediately stirred another massive wave of discussion online.
Qing Muyie paid no heed to the online chatter. Instead, he opened his computer and began typing furiously, coding strings of text. He hacked into the surveillance system, retrieved all the surveillance videos of him and her together, and saved them.
Then, he designed a firewall and encrypted all the videos showing him and Meng Jingwei appearing together in the surveillance footage.
Meanwhile, half an hour earlier, Meng Jingwei had also been feeling uneasy due to Qing Muyie's situation.
Subsequently, all of Qing Muyie's family members rushed to the hospital to accompany Madam Qing. However, to avoid the fuss from her sons and daughters-in-law, Madam Qing pretended to be asleep in bed.
Meng Jingwei also took the opportunity to leave the hospital and return home. She used her computer to hack into the neighborhood's surveillance system, retrieving all the videos of Qing Muyie driving her home, them taking the elevator, entering her apartment, her applying makeup, coming out of her house, and their drive to the mall, as well as all the footage from the mall's parking lot, preserving them as evidence.
She also found the videos of her getting out of Qing Muyie's car, finding a place to remove her makeup, and the footage after she had removed it, saving all of it.
Although Qing Muyie now had the means to resolve this incident, if he were to go public with his marriage one day, it would inevitably cause public scrutiny.
At that time, she could present the video evidence to silence everyone.
If, however, Qing Muyie betrayed her and fell for someone else, then this evidence would only gather dust for a lifetime.
She wasn't a saint who would help him prove his innocence if he cheated on her.
With this thought, Meng Jingwei suddenly realized that the entertainment media would surely dig deep to identify the 'man' Qing Muyie kissed. They would very likely try to retrieve surveillance footage at the earliest opportunity.
At that point, wouldn't she and Qing Muyie be exposed?
Meng Jingwei then intended to encrypt those videos, but who knew, when she prepared to access the surveillance footage again, the videos had already been encrypted and were inaccessible.
She couldn't help but feel puzzled. What was going on?
Then Meng Jingwei couldn't help but smile. Without a doubt, the person who could encrypt the videos so quickly must be Qing Muyie.
Because the videos couldn't be deleted, if they were deleted, and someone in the future tried to retrieve the surveillance footage and couldn't find these videos, then even if they produced videos to prove their innocence, they would be accused of forging them.
To prevent others from deleting them, the best approach was to establish a firewall.
She hadn't expected that their thoughts would be so in sync.
After handling the matters at hand, Meng Jingwei immediately returned to the hospital to continue accompanying her grandmother.
As she reached the entrance of the hospital room, she could hear the commotion inside.
"Mom, what do you mean by this? You're being far too lenient with Qing Muyie."
"By doing this, you're inciting public outrage."
"Qing Muyie has disgraced the Qing family, and you're doing nothing?"
"Hmph, I think you're getting old and your mind is addled."
"Clang—"
...
Meng Jingwei stood at the doorway, listening to the conversation inside. Suddenly, she heard the sound of something being smashed.
Frightened, she immediately pushed the door open and walked in. She saw Li Fangzi, the fifth son's wife of the Qing family, smashing a cup from the table onto the floor. She pointed at Madam Qing and said, "If you don't handle this matter today, then don't blame us for not respecting your authority in the future!"
Li Fangzi was slightly plump, quite tall, and had a very loud voice, speaking particularly harshly.
The people standing in the hospital room, upon seeing Li Fangzi's anger, not only failed to intervene but instead added fuel to the fire.
"That's right, fifth son's wife speaks wisely."
"Mother, you must give us an explanation for today's events. Even if you're biased towards Qing Muyie, there must be a limit."
"Exactly. When have you ever shown such concern for our sons? Are our sons so inferior to Qing Muyie, or what?"
"That's right, that's right."
...
These people were relentlessly criticizing Madam Qing because of this incident.
But Madam Qing leaned against the headboard, her gaze lowered, remaining silent.
At that moment, Meng Jingwei's heart ached sharply, feeling a surge of sympathy for the aged Madam Qing.