Chapter 5 | Who Is Really Under Investigation?
“Did you offend someone?”
Su Yanxi stood beside Xu Zhiqing’s desk.
Her voice was full of concern.
But no one in the office believed she was genuinely worried.
At least, Xu Zhiqing didn’t.
She looked at Su Yanxi.
The redness left around the other woman’s eyes from crying that afternoon was still there, and the shock on her face was perfectly timed.
She looked like an innocent new hire who had just been suspected of something, yet was still willing to care about someone else.
“Who I offended—you don’t know?”
Su Yanxi’s expression stiffened for a moment.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“The anonymous tip included photos of B07.”
Several sharp inhales sounded throughout the office.
Su Yanxi’s eyes widened.
“That’s impossible.”
She instinctively took a step back.
“That photo had already been deleted.”
“So you admit the photo attached to the tip was taken by you?”
“I haven’t seen the email. How would I know whether I took it?”
“You just said it was impossible.”
Xu Zhiqing turned her computer screen toward her.
“You can look at it now.”
The anonymous tip was displayed on the screen.
The crookedly angled photo of B07 was clearly visible in the attachment.
Su Yanxi stared at the screen.
Her face gradually turned pale.
“How could this happen…?”
She raised a hand to cover her mouth.
“I really didn’t send it out.”
“The screenshots you provided this afternoon don’t prove that syncing wasn’t enabled yesterday.”
“But I didn’t send this email!”
Su Yanxi suddenly raised her voice.
“Even if the photo was synced, my account could have been hacked, or someone else could have looked through my phone. You can’t assume I sent the tip just because I took the photo.”
“I never said you sent it.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at her calmly.
“I only said the attachment was a photo you took.”
Su Yanxi’s breathing stopped for a beat.
The atmosphere in the office grew even more charged.
Several coworkers who had merely been watching exchanged glances.
Su Yanxi quickly realized that her reaction had been too strong.
She lowered her voice.
“I’m just scared you’ll suspect me again.”
“This isn’t about me suspecting you.”
Xu Zhiqing picked up her phone.
“This photo proves that the data did leak from your phone.”
She dialed the HR manager’s extension.
The moment the call connected, Chen Jiawei hurried out of his office.
“Zhiqing, don’t call yet.”
Xu Zhiqing turned to him.
“Why not?”
“The marketing VP already knows.”
“Perfect. I have new evidence to add.”
“The VP wants to deal with the contents of the tip first.”
Chen Jiawei lowered his voice.
“This wasn’t an ordinary anonymous email. The sender sent the same materials to Yaocheng, a research platform, and two industry media outlets. They also said they would release the complete evidence before noon tomorrow.”
The office fell silent again.
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
“So the company’s first response is to suspend my access?”
“It’s only a temporary measure.”
“The person who secretly photographed the documents can still sit here, but I’m the one removed from the project first?”
Su Yanxi immediately spoke up.
“My access to the project has also been suspended.”
Xu Zhiqing didn’t look at her.
“You’re only barred from entering the project area. What was revoked from me was my administrative access.”
That meant she could no longer view the raw data, revise the presentation, or access the proposal materials going forward.
There were only four days left before the formal presentation.
By taking away her access at this point, the company was practically declaring that she was unfit to remain in charge.
Chen Jiawei looked troubled.
“The allegations suggest that you may have altered the research data. During the investigation, the company has to secure the materials first.”
“Who requested the suspension?”
“The VP.”
“On what grounds?”
“The issues listed in the anonymous email are very specific.”
“Specific doesn’t mean true.”
“I know, but the company can’t take the risk.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at the accusations in the email.
Insufficient survey samples.
Repeated responses from a particular age group.
Deletion of survey results unfavorable to the proposal’s direction.
Adjusting the research conditions without the client’s consent.
Any one of those charges was enough to cost her her position.
And every one of them deliberately avoided the actual data.
The sender only had B07’s strategy summary.
They had none of the original research materials.
So they could only work backward from the conclusions on the final page and fabricate a seemingly plausible process of falsifying the data.
“I need access to the original database,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“That’s not possible right now.”
“Comparing the system logs will confirm whether the data was altered.”
“The IT Department is already handling it.”
“Do they know what to look for?”
“Zhiqing.”
A note of caution entered Chen Jiawei’s voice.
“You’re also under investigation now. You can’t access the evidence yourself.”
Under investigation.
Those four words reached everyone’s ears.
Only minutes ago, her coworkers had been shocked by the announcement.
Now suspicion had gradually entered the way they looked at Xu Zhiqing.
Some quickly looked away.
Some lowered their heads and opened the company messaging app.
Others silently closed the documents they had previously shared with her.
It had been the same five years ago.
No one had told her to her face that she had done anything wrong.
Everyone had simply started avoiding her.
They stopped replying to her messages.
They stopped inviting her to gatherings.
Whenever she approached, the conversations that had been underway immediately stopped.
In the end, even she had begun to wonder whether, as long as everyone believed the same thing, that thing would become true.
Xu Zhiqing’s hand hanging at her side slowly tightened.
Her nails dug into her palm.
This time, she didn’t leave.
“All right.”
She closed the anonymous email on her computer.
“Since I’m under investigation, from this point forward, I want every request related to the investigation delivered to me in writing.”
Chen Jiawei froze for a moment.
“What?”
“That includes the reason for suspending my access, the scope of the investigation, the responsible department, the estimated completion time, and how the company will secure the original data.”
“There’s no need to make this so formal, is there?”
“The entire company received the suspension announcement. Isn’t that formal enough?”
Chen Jiawei’s expression turned ugly.
“I didn’t send that announcement.”
“But you’re speaking to me on behalf of management now.”
Xu Zhiqing picked up the B07 incident report from her desk.
“Also, the attachment to the anonymous email has already proven that the secretly photographed document was leaked. I’m requesting that the company investigate both matters together. It can’t investigate only whether the data was falsified while ignoring whose device the materials were leaked from.”
Su Yanxi’s expression changed.
“You’re still trying to pin this on me.”
“You took the photo. I don’t need to pin anything on you.”
“I’m a victim too!”
Her voice began to tremble.
“My cloud account may have been hacked, and my private data may already have been leaked. You don’t care what happened to me. You only want to prove that I’m the one who harmed you.”
“Then you should report it to the police immediately.”
Su Yanxi froze.
“What?”
“Your account was hacked, confidential documents were stolen, and they were used to send an anonymous tip.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at her.
“This isn’t a minor matter. You can report it right now and ask the police to investigate the login records.”
“I…”
“Do you need me to call for you?”
Su Yanxi opened and closed her mouth.
Tears fell again.
“I only said it was possible. I’m not even sure I was hacked.”
“Then investigate it.”
“What if it was just a system error?”
“A system doesn’t send photos to three companies and two media outlets on its own.”
Several coworkers couldn’t help looking at Su Yanxi.
Her face grew even paler.
“It could also be that I logged in on another device before and forgot to log out.”
“Then it’s even more important to find out which device it was.”
“Zhiqing, enough.”
Chen Jiawei interrupted.
“This isn’t an investigation room.”
“I didn’t ask the company to send the announcement to the entire project team,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“Since the company chose to publicly announce that my access was suspended, it can’t expect me to privately endure everyone’s suspicion.”
Chen Jiawei fell silent.
Xu Zhiqing picked up her bag.
“Until I receive formal notice, I won’t log in to any project system again, so no one can later claim that the records were tampered with.”
She locked her computer screen.
“Also, have the IT Department preserve every operation record from the project’s creation to the present. Nothing is to be overwritten.”
“Where are you going?”
“My access has been suspended. Do I still need to stay here?”
“The company hasn’t suspended you from work.”
“But I can’t perform my duties right now.”
Xu Zhiqing glanced at the time.
“I’ll wait at my desk for written notice. Once the workday ends, I’ll leave.”
She sat back down.
She paid no further attention to anyone.
Su Yanxi was still standing beside the desk.
The tears she had prepared seemed to have lost their effect.
She probably hadn’t expected Xu Zhiqing to demand that the police be called in front of everyone.
Even less had she expected Xu Zhiqing not to rush to explain herself, but instead to first demand that the system records be preserved.
The office gradually returned to the sounds of work.
Only, everyone moved more quietly than usual.
Ten minutes later, Xu Zhiqing received a message from Zhou Yuheng.
“Are you still at the office?”
She didn’t reply.
A second message appeared immediately after.
“Yaocheng received the anonymous email too. I’ve already requested that the change of project lead be suspended. The presentation date remains unchanged.”
Xu Zhiqing stared at the last sentence.
The presentation date remains unchanged.
That meant Yaocheng hadn’t terminated the partnership.
It also meant she still had four days to prove herself.
She finally replied.
“The company has suspended my project access.”
Her phone rang immediately.
Xu Zhiqing glanced around, then got up and walked into the break room.
“Hello?”
“Who made that decision?”
Zhou Yuheng’s voice was colder than usual.
“Our company’s VP.”
“Why?”
“The anonymous email accused me of altering the research data.”
“Yaocheng never requested that your access be suspended.”
“This is an internal investigation.”
“I’m coming to your office.”
“Don’t.”
Xu Zhiqing refused immediately.
There was a two-second silence on the other end.
“Why not?”
“Earlier today, she publicly accused you of having ulterior motives toward me. If you come to the office and question management for my sake now, it’ll only make this harder to handle.”
“But I’m the client.”
“That’s exactly why you can’t interfere with our company’s investigation.”
“I can clarify Yaocheng’s position.”
“By email.”
She leaned against the break room wall.
“Send a formal email to the company requesting that the project materials be preserved, the original presentation date be maintained, and confirming that you didn’t request a change of project lead.”
“You want to use pressure from the client to make them restore your access?”
“Not restore it.”
Xu Zhiqing looked through the glass door.
Su Yanxi was standing beside her desk, looking down as she operated her phone.
“I want to make sure the company can’t casually put someone else in charge of my work before the matter has been fully investigated.”
Zhou Yuheng quickly understood what she meant.
If Yaocheng requested a change of project lead, the company could move her off the project with perfect justification.
But as long as Yaocheng clearly stated that it had made no such request, any handover arrangement would look suspiciously rushed.
“All right. I’ll send it immediately.”
“And one more thing.”
Xu Zhiqing paused.
“Don’t delete the original email. Have your IT Department preserve the complete headers and confirm the sending server and source.”
“We’re already looking into it.”
“Any results?”
“The email was sent through an overseas anonymous email service. We haven’t been able to locate its actual source yet.”
Xu Zhiqing wasn’t surprised.
If Su Yanxi had dared to send it directly, she would have prepared a way to hide her tracks long ago.
“But there’s a problem with the attachment,” Zhou Yuheng said.
“What problem?”
“The file was created yesterday at 3:47 p.m.”
Xu Zhiqing quickly recalled the time.
It was exactly when Su Yanxi had secretly photographed the documents.
“What else?”
“The image was downloaded once and then reattached to the anonymous email. Device system information was left behind in the process.”
“Can you confirm what kind of device it was?”
“An Android phone.”
Xu Zhiqing’s gaze passed through the glass door.
The phone in Su Yanxi’s hand was an Android phone.
“That doesn’t directly prove it was hers,” she said.
“But it narrows the field.”
“There are plenty of people in the company who use Android phones.”
“The attachment to the anonymous email Yaocheng received retained the original filename.”
Xu Zhiqing paused.
“What was the filename?”
“IMG_20260808_154703.”
The date and time were preserved in the filename in full.
As long as the same filename had ever been generated in Su Yanxi’s cloud album or on her phone, it would prove that the two photos came from the same file.
“Send the complete information to HR.”
“I will.”
Zhou Yuheng paused for a moment.
“Zhiqing, are you okay?”
She didn’t answer immediately.
It was the second time that day he had asked her something unrelated to work.
It was also the first time in five years that anyone had directly asked whether she was okay as soon as the rumors appeared.
“I’m fine.”
“Every time you say you’re fine, it means things are really serious.”
Xu Zhiqing lowered her eyes.
“You no longer have the right to decide whether I’m telling the truth.”
Silence fell over the phone again.
“I know.”
Zhou Yuheng’s voice dropped.
“But this time, I won’t just listen to what other people say.”
Xu Zhiqing tightened her grip on the phone.
For a moment, she almost wanted to ask him:
Why hadn’t he done that five years ago?
Why, when everyone said she had hurt Su Yanxi, had he simply believed them?
Why had he waited until she’d been gone for five years before deciding to investigate the truth?
But now wasn’t the time to question the past.
“Send the email first.”
She ended the call.
When she returned to the office, the atmosphere had changed again.
Several coworkers were gathered around Su Yanxi’s desk.
Su Yanxi sat in her chair, her face pale and her shoulders trembling nonstop.
Chen Jiawei stood beside her.
The moment he saw Xu Zhiqing return, he walked over.
“Zhiqing, Yanxi’s phone is missing.”
“When did it go missing?”
“She was about to report it to the police and went to look for the account information on the phone. That’s when she realized that her personal phone, which she’d left on the desk, was gone.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at Su Yanxi.
Only minutes ago, she had clearly seen the other woman using her phone through the glass door.
“Which one is missing?”
“She has two phones,” Chen Jiawei said.
“Her usual phone is still there. The missing one is an old phone. She says her cloud account is also logged in on that old phone.”
Su Yanxi raised her tear-filled face.
“I always kept it in the drawer,” she sobbed.
“I took it out this afternoon to check the sync settings, but it suddenly disappeared just now.”
“The screenshots you gave HR this afternoon were taken with the phone you have now,” Xu Zhiqing said.
Su Yanxi shook her head.
“I logged in with the old phone first, then sent the screen to this phone.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Because I took the photos with the old phone.”
The entire office fell silent.
This was the first time Su Yanxi had admitted that the phone used to photograph B07 wasn’t the one in her hand now.
It was an old phone that had never appeared in the investigation.
“Which phone did Zhou Yuheng check yesterday?” Xu Zhiqing asked.
Su Yanxi’s lips trembled faintly.
“This one.”
So when she had deleted the photos in front of Zhou Yuheng yesterday, the phone she took out hadn’t been the device used to photograph the documents at all.
“You took the photos with the old phone, transferred them to this one, and deleted them in front of Director Zhou?”
Chen Jiawei finally understood.
His expression darkened completely.
“Why would you do that?”
“No!”
Su Yanxi hurriedly stood up.
“I grabbed the wrong one. I have two phones, and they look almost identical. I was so nervous that I didn’t notice.”
“Then why didn’t you say so yesterday?”
“I only remembered just now.”
“You only just remembered which phone you took the photos with?”
“I was terrified!”
She cried as she grabbed Chen Jiawei’s arm.
“And now the old phone is missing. Someone must have taken it and used the photos on it to send the anonymous email.”
Everyone’s gaze moved around the office.
Every person who could have approached Su Yanxi’s drawer was a coworker from the same department.
Her explanation effectively spread suspicion to every single one of them.
Chen Jiawei pulled his arm free.
“Check the security cameras first.”
“There aren’t any cameras in the office area,” a coworker quietly reminded him.
To prevent people from photographing computers and client data, the company had cameras only at the entrances and in the public hallways.
There was no way to confirm who had touched Su Yanxi’s drawer.
Su Yanxi suddenly looked at Xu Zhiqing.
“You were the only one who left your desk just now.”
Xu Zhiqing’s gaze turned cold.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I didn’t say it was you.”
Su Yanxi immediately denied it.
“I just want to know where you went.”
“The break room.”
“Did anyone see you?”
“You did.”
“I only saw you walk in that direction. I don’t know whether you came back at any point.”
As soon as she finished speaking, several suspicious looks turned toward Xu Zhiqing again.
Su Yanxi’s phone had disappeared far too suddenly.
And it had happened right after the anonymous email was exposed and she was told to report it to the police.
If that phone really existed, it might contain records that could prove the photos had been leaked.
And now the evidence was gone.
“Pull the entrance and hallway footage,” Xu Zhiqing said.
“I never left the office area. I couldn’t have taken the phone out of the building.”
Su Yanxi shook her head.
“You could have hidden it somewhere in the company.”
“Then call the police and search the building.”
“Zhiqing.”
Chen Jiawei stopped her in a low voice.
“We haven’t figured out what happened yet. Don’t make this bigger than it already is.”
“Her phone is missing, company data may have been leaked, and I’m being accused of falsifying research.”
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
“How serious does it have to get before it’s worth calling the police?”
Chen Jiawei was unable to answer.
Just then, the HR manager hurried over from the hallway.
“No one leave yet.”
Two IT employees followed behind her.
“Yaocheng just provided the original filename and device information from the anonymous email’s attachment. The company has decided to officially report this to the police. Until the police arrive, no one is allowed to take any personal belongings out of the office area.”
The color drained from Su Yanxi’s face.
“Is it really necessary to call the police?”
“Didn’t you say your phone was stolen?”
The HR manager looked at her.
“The police can investigate both the theft and the data leak.”
“But…”
“There’s one more thing.”
The HR manager took out her phone.
“The IT Department just tried to locate your missing old phone. The device serial number you provided still shows it as online.”
No one in the office spoke.
Su Yanxi stood rigidly in place.
“Where is it?” Chen Jiawei asked.
The HR manager looked up.
“On this floor.”
The two IT employees walked toward opposite sides of the office.
One of them opened a detection program.
The signal strength on the screen kept changing.
The closer he got to Su Yanxi’s desk, the higher the number climbed.
Her breathing grew rapid.
“The location could be inaccurate.”
No one answered.
The IT employee walked around her desk.
The signal suddenly weakened.
He stopped, then stepped back.
Next, he crouched down.
They had already checked Su Yanxi’s drawer, desktop, and bag.
Only one place remained.
The paper bag beneath her chair.
It contained the personal belongings she had brought to work that day.
The IT employee put on gloves and slowly pulled the bag out.
“Can I open it?” the HR manager asked.
Su Yanxi stared at the paper bag.
“It only has my clothes inside.”
“The phone signal is coming from inside.”
“That’s impossible.”
The HR manager didn’t touch her belongings.
“You can take it out yourself.”
Su Yanxi stood motionless.
A vibration suddenly came from inside the paper bag.
It was faint.
But everyone heard it.
The next second, a ringtone sounded from beneath the folded jacket.
The IT employee lifted the clothing.
A black old-model phone lay at the very bottom of the bag.
The screen displayed the locating call made by the IT Department.
The office fell silent except for the ringing.
Su Yanxi stared at the phone she had claimed was stolen.
Her lips trembled for a long time.
Finally, she forced out a sentence.
“I didn’t put it there.”
Xu Zhiqing stood several steps away.
She watched her in silence.
Five years ago, everyone had believed Su Yanxi’s tears without any evidence.
Five years later, the evidence was in Su Yanxi’s own paper bag.
This time,
she wanted to see
who Su Yanxi could cry to now.