Chapter 7 | The Five Years You Owe Me
No one spoke.
The five photos on the phone screen had stopped on the last one.
Xu Zhiqing lay at the bottom of the stairs.
One hand was still clamped tightly around Su Yanxi's wrist.
She wasn't the one who pushed anyone.
She was the one who had tried to stop Su Yanxi from falling.
Su Yanxi had known this truth for five years.
"You had these photos all along."
Xu Zhiqing spoke.
Her voice was calmer than even she had expected.
Su Yanxi looked at the phone on the table.
"I don't know why the photos were on it."
"The folder was created five years ago," the IT staff member said.
"The photos have always been stored locally. They were just hidden."
"I really had never seen them."
"The hidden folder requires a password to open."
"Someone else could have created it!"
Su Yanxi suddenly looked up.
"I've used this phone for years. I had it repaired, and I lent it to other people. Someone putting the photos on it doesn't mean I was the one who hid them."
"Then why was the folder called Backup?" Xu Zhiqing asked.
Su Yanxi didn't answer.
"What were you backing up?"
"I don't know."
"The photos, or my innocence?"
"I said I don't know!"
She suddenly shouted, losing control.
Tears began falling again.
"Why do you have to keep pushing me? It's been five years. A few photos suddenly appear now, and who knows if someone tampered with them?"
Xu Zhiqing looked at her.
"So you know these photos can prove you lied back then."
Su Yanxi's expression changed.
"I never said that."
"If the photos are fake, you should ask the police to authenticate them instead of rushing to say the matter is in the past."
"I just think the most important thing right now is the company's data leak."
"To you, the fact that I was falsely accused for five years was never important."
Xu Zhiqing's voice didn't rise when she said it.
But the entire office fell even quieter than before.
Five years ago, she had stood among a crowd just like this.
Su Yanxi had cried as she accused her.
The others had whispered among themselves.
Zhou Yuheng had stood beside Su Yanxi and asked her why she had done such a thing.
Xu Zhiqing had said it over and over.
She hadn't pushed anyone.
She had been trying to pull Su Yanxi back.
No one had believed her.
Later, she stopped explaining.
Because everyone only believed the person who cried harder.
"Zhiqing."
Chen Jiawei called her softly.
"I didn't know what happened back then was like this."
Xu Zhiqing turned to him.
"Of course you didn't."
"At the time, I only heard Yanxi say..."
"Every one of you only heard her say it."
Chen Jiawei's expression froze.
"I'm sorry."
Xu Zhiqing smiled faintly.
There was no sarcasm or anger in it.
She simply felt that those three words had come far too lightly.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"Because I misunderstood you."
"You also misunderstood me just now and thought I stole the phone."
"I never decided it was you."
"You said that the matter hadn't been investigated yet and that I shouldn't make it worse."
She repeated his words from not long ago, word for word.
"Chen Jiawei, every time someone accuses me, all of you tell me to stay calm, not make a scene, and wait for the facts to come out."
"But as soon as she cries, you immediately believe that she's the one who was wronged."
Chen Jiawei opened his mouth.
But he had no way to refute her.
The HR manager walked over to the table.
"We'll end today's investigation here for now."
She turned to the two police officers.
"The company will provide the complete surveillance footage, emails, and login records. We'll also secure this phone in accordance with the police's request."
"What about my job?" Su Yanxi asked immediately.
"Until the investigation is complete, you'll be suspended from accessing B07 and all other unreleased projects."
"You're suspending me?"
"We're suspending your project access."
"What's the difference?"
"You can still cooperate with the HR investigation, but you don't need to enter the original office area."
Su Yanxi's breathing grew increasingly ragged.
"You're treating me like the person who leaked the data over a few photos that no one knows where they came from?"
"It's not just the photos," the HR manager said.
"You concealed the actual device used to photograph B07, gave an incorrect explanation of the cloud synchronization, claimed that you had lost the phone, and then the phone was found in your own paper bag."
"I never claimed it was lost!"
"The police will make that determination."
"Then what about Xu Zhiqing?"
Su Yanxi suddenly pointed at her.
"Why does she get off without a scratch?"
The HR manager frowned.
"At present, there is no evidence that Xu Zhiqing was involved in the data leak."
"The anonymous letter was sent to Yaocheng."
"So?"
"She works for Yaocheng now!"
"That doesn't prove anything."
"She and Zhou Yuheng used to be together, and now they're working together again. Who knows if they deliberately set me up and tried to pin everything on me?"
The moment she finished speaking, a voice came from the office entrance.
"We didn't set you up."
Everyone turned around at once.
Zhou Yuheng stood outside the glass door.
His coat was still draped over one arm, and his breathing was slightly uneven. He had clearly hurried over the whole way.
Behind him followed legal staff from Yaocheng.
The HR manager stepped forward.
"Director Zhou, what brings you here?"
"The police notified Yaocheng that we needed to provide additional information about the anonymous letter, so I brought it over myself."
He handed the documents to the officers.
But his gaze passed over everyone and landed on the old phone on the table.
The screen was still displaying the photos from five years ago.
Zhou Yuheng took only one look before stopping in his tracks.
His face slowly turned pale.
The first photo.
Su Yanxi stood at the edge of the stairs.
The second.
She stepped on a decorative ribbon lying on the floor.
The third.
Xu Zhiqing reached out and grabbed her.
The fourth.
The two of them fell down the stairs together.
Zhou Yuheng stared at the photos.
He didn't move for a long time.
"What is this?"
No one answered.
He walked to the table and looked through the five photos again.
Then he raised his head and looked toward Su Yanxi.
"She didn't push you down."
Su Yanxi bit her lip.
"The photos could have been edited."
"Five consecutive photos, with the timing, angles, and movements all matching."
"Any photo can be faked these days."
"How could an original file created five years ago have been faked today?"
"I don't know!"
Su Yanxi took a step back, crying.
"Why do you believe her again? Just because she's back, you're taking her side in everything?"
"I'm asking you about the photos."
"You've already decided I'm lying!"
Zhou Yuheng didn't deny it.
His eyes fell on the folder name.
"These photos have been on your phone all this time?"
"I never saw them."
"Yanxi."
His voice was low.
"Look at me and say it."
Su Yanxi slowly raised her head.
"You really never saw them?"
The two stared at each other for several seconds.
Su Yanxi's tears kept falling.
"No."
Zhou Yuheng looked at her.
Only after a long while did he finally look away.
"I believed you before because you cried like this."
Su Yanxi froze.
"Yuheng..."
"Don't call me that."
The color drained from her face.
Zhou Yuheng turned to Xu Zhiqing.
She stood several steps away.
There was no joy on her face at finally being cleared of blame.
Five years ago, all she had wanted was for him to see the truth.
She had once believed that if the evidence ever surfaced and he was willing to believe her, everything could return to the way it had been.
Only now did she realize.
A belief that came five years too late couldn't bring anything back.
"Zhiqing."
Zhou Yuheng walked toward her.
"I didn't know she had these photos."
"I know."
"If only I had realized sooner..."
"There are no ifs."
She cut him off.
Zhou Yuheng stopped.
"Five years ago, before these photos existed, I already told you exactly what happened."
"Yes."
"I told you she stepped on the ribbon on the floor."
"I remember."
"I told you I grabbed her because I was trying to save her."
"I remember."
"I also told you that whoever took the photos deliberately left only the last one."
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
"I told you every single part of it."
Zhou Yuheng's Adam's apple moved slightly.
"I'm sorry."
Those three words again.
Today, everyone who had once refused to believe her had started apologizing to her.
But not one of them could tell her.
What could these apologies possibly bring back?
"You're apologizing now because you finally saw the photos," she said.
"What if these photos hadn't appeared today?"
Zhou Yuheng fell silent.
"Would you have believed me?"
"Yes."
He answered quickly.
"I would now."
"But you wouldn't have five years ago."
Zhou Yuheng's gaze darkened.
"No."
He didn't try to defend himself.
"Five years ago, I chose to believe the part I had seen."
"No," Xu Zhiqing said softly.
"You chose to believe the person you wanted to protect more."
Su Yanxi stood not far away.
At those words, her body swayed.
But Zhou Yuheng continued looking only at Xu Zhiqing.
"I owe you the truth."
"The truth is already here."
"And I owe you an explanation."
"I don't need one."
"But I do."
Xu Zhiqing frowned.
Zhou Yuheng lowered his voice.
"For these five years, I thought you chose to leave after doing something wrong."
"Now I know that you were the one left behind to bear the consequences."
"I can't pretend I was merely deceived."
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
For one brief moment, she saw the Zhou Yuheng of five years ago.
The man who had once promised that no matter what happened, he would listen to everything she had to say first.
But that man had disappeared on the night of the staircase incident.
"That's your problem," she said.
"Don't use your guilt to bother me anymore."
Zhou Yuheng's fingers tightened slightly.
In the end, he answered with only one word.
"Okay."
Su Yanxi suddenly laughed.
A sob still colored the sound.
"So now you're all satisfied?"
She looked around at everyone.
"You found a few photos proving she didn't push me. Then what?"
"You falsely accused her for five years," Chen Jiawei said.
"I really thought she was the one who did it!"
"You saw the complete photos. How could you still think it was her?"
"I never saw them!"
"Then find out where the photos came from."
Zhou Yuheng turned to the IT staff member.
"Were the files taken with this phone?"
The IT staff member lowered his head and checked the photo metadata.
"No."
Su Yanxi immediately looked up.
"You heard him! They weren't taken with my phone!"
"The fact that they weren't taken with your phone doesn't mean you didn't receive them."
The IT staff member enlarged the file information.
"The original-device field was cleared, but the photos weren't sent through a standard messaging app."
"Then how did they get onto the phone?" the HR manager asked.
"They were shared from another cloud account."
Everyone fell silent.
"Can you trace the account?"
"Only part of the sharing record remains."
The IT staff member turned the screen toward the police.
"The account has been deactivated. Only the first character and the last two characters of the name remain."
The screen showed a partially redacted email address.
The first English letter was L.
The last two characters were 27.
Xu Zhiqing stared at the address.
She didn't recognize it.
But Zhou Yuheng suddenly stiffened.
"You know this account?" the officer asked immediately.
He didn't answer.
"Mr. Zhou?"
Zhou Yuheng's gaze remained fixed on the screen.
"There weren't just the three of us at the gathering five years ago."
"Who else was there?"
"The person who was taking photos that day."
Xu Zhiqing looked at him.
"You know who it was?"
"I always thought he had left early."
"Who was it?"
Zhou Yuheng slowly raised his head.
"Lin Yao."
The moment the name fell, Su Yanxi's expression changed.
She took a step back and hit the chair behind her.
Xu Zhiqing had never heard that name before.
"Who is Lin Yao?"
Su Yanxi cut in sharply.
"Someone who's already dead."
The office fell into dead silence.
Zhou Yuheng turned to look at her.
"How do you know he's dead?"
Su Yanxi's lips trembled.
"You told me before."
"I never told you."
"That's impossible."
"I didn't find out that Lin Yao had disappeared until after I returned to the country."
Zhou Yuheng stared at her.
"He never appeared again after the gathering five years ago."
"It wasn't until last month that the police confirmed his identity."
Su Yanxi's face went completely white.
"How did you know he was dead?"
She didn't answer.
But at that moment, the old phone on the table lit up again.
The shared account that had been deactivated for five years suddenly sent a new album invitation.
The album title contained only one sentence:
"Someone is missing from the stairs."
A cover photo appeared beneath the invitation.
In it, Xu Zhiqing and Su Yanxi stood on the stairs five years ago.
Zhou Yuheng was walking toward them from below.
And in the corner reflected in the glass, a fourth person was standing there.
That person held up a phone.
Their face was completely hidden behind it.
But they were wearing the white coat Su Yanxi had claimed to have lost that night.