Chapter 501: Encountering Green Tea

The waiter’s heart sank the moment he saw someone flailing in the pool.

Now, hearing Yun Zijin’s words, he instantly made up his mind.

He shed his vest and executed a beautiful dive. He grabbed the woman from behind and began pulling her toward the edge of the pool.

Once ashore, the woman coughed violently, looking utterly wretched.

On the other side, the man had also pulled someone from the water. He was holding the woman considerately in his arms, helping her catch her breath.

“COUGH, COUGH…”

“Brother Bo Wen, it’s not Sister Liu’s fault. I accidentally twisted my ankle, and that’s why… that’s why…”

As she spoke, the young woman snuggled deeper into the man’s embrace, greatly stoking his protective instincts.

“You don’t have to cover for her. I get it! She treats you like this, yet you still defend her. It’s not like she’s ever shown any gratitude!”

The woman who had been rescued by the waiter must have heard the man’s words, because her eyes dimmed. Yun Zijin and her three friends watched from the side, clicking their tongues at the spectacle.

“Hey! Meng Yao, Tutu, am I misremembering, or did that young lady just twist her own ankle and fall into the pool?”

“Yeah, I saw her twist her ankle and fall in, too. The other lady tried to grab her but couldn’t, and got pulled in herself.”

“That’s right. We were right here the whole time and saw everything clearly. We were the ones who called the waiter over, you know~”

Yun Zijin and the other two young women emerged from the shadows. They didn’t address the group, but simply started discussing it among themselves.

But their words made Qianqian’s act fall apart instantly. The man’s face showed bewilderment, and Qianqian looked over at Yun Zijin’s group in shock.

“I believe there are security cameras here, right? As for the truth, wouldn’t it be more straightforward to just check the footage?”

Yun Zijin pointed to a nearly hidden camera in a corner.

For guest safety, the Sijunzi Themed Hotel has cameras covering nearly every area except for guest rooms and other private spaces. They operate 24/7.

Hearing Yun Zijin, the young woman named Qianqian averted her eyes for a second, but still forced herself to say, “There’s no need to check the cameras. It really wasn’t Sister Liu’s fault. I was just careless… Don’t blame Sister Liu.”

With that, she lowered her head sorrowfully, pretending to secretly wipe away tears.

“Of course we don’t blame her. After all… you fell all by yourself. We saw it perfectly clearly from over here.”

‘Playing the innocent victim is one thing, but framing someone else is crossing the line.’

“Don’t you all go too far,” the man interjected. “Qianqian already said she doesn’t blame Liu Yan. All she needs to do is apologize to Qianqian, and we can drop it.”

Yun Zijin and her friends: ???

‘I’m sorry, what?’

Yun Zijin turned to Liu Yan. “Do you also think you should apologize to her?”

‘If even she thinks she should apologize to this Qianqian, then they’re a lost cause.’

Yun Zijin wanted to know where Liu Yan stood regarding these two.

‘Otherwise, if the victim herself didn’t care, there was no way they, as outsiders, could force her to leave that scumbag.’

“Let’s check the footage,” Liu Yan said.

‘Words alone were no proof. Even if she said she didn’t push Jiang Qianqian, Zhang Bowen would jump to the conclusion that she had.’

‘But today, with Yun Zijin and her friends here as witnesses, Liu Yan wanted to fight for justice for herself, just this once.’

Hearing Liu Yan, Jiang Qianqian’s expression stiffened for a moment, but she quickly recovered.

“There’s really no need. I already said I don’t blame Sister Liu. I was just careless…”

With that, Jiang Qianqian lowered her head again, looking as if she were the one being bullied.

“Without evidence, you can’t fully trust one person’s side of the story. Watching the footage is the most reliable way,” Yun Zijin said.

Yun Zijin gave the waiter a meaningful look. The waiter nodded and began reporting the situation on his walkie-talkie.

The Sijunzi Themed Hotel was now one of Yun Zijin’s properties. When the boss wants to check the surveillance footage, it gets retrieved at top speed, of course!

“Just wait,” Yun Zijin said. “Someone will be here with the footage shortly. Then we’ll know if anyone has been wrongly accused.”

As Yun Zijin finished speaking, the seven members of Zero One appeared, blocking any chance of Jiang Qianqian and Zhang Bowen leaving.

‘When it came to meddling, Yun Zijin’s policy was to either stay out of it completely or see it through to the very end.’

And until this was resolved, no one was leaving the circle formed by her bodyguards.

“You… You’re illegally restricting our freedom of movement! We can sue you for this!”

Of course Jiang Qianqian didn’t want to watch the footage; otherwise, everything she had just done would be exposed.

“Restricting your freedom? What are you talking about? We’re just taking a walk.”

The hotel manager, knowing it was Yun Zijin who requested the footage, copied the recording at top speed and rushed over with a laptop himself.

“President Yun, my apologies for the wait. There’s a lot of data in the surveillance room, so it took a little longer to locate the clip.”

“It’s fine. Play the recording.”

Yun Zijin didn’t want to waste any more time, so she gestured for the manager to play the recording immediately.

Meng Xiao placed the laptop on a nearby table, plugged in a USB drive, and skillfully opened the file.

Soon, the footage began to play on the screen. The Sijunzi Themed Hotel used brand-new, high-definition cameras with audio, so both the faces and the voices in the video were crystal clear.

The clip wasn’t long—only two or three minutes—so they quickly finished watching it.

After watching the footage, Zhang Bowen’s expression was awkward. “Um… Honey, I didn’t do it on purpose. I was just… in a panic…”

Zhang Bowen didn’t dare to look Liu Yan in the eye.

“Oh, so she’s your wife,” Yun Zijin remarked with exaggerated surprise. “You were in such a hurry to save Miss Qianqian just now, I thought you two were the couple.”

The expressions on both Zhang Bowen and Jiang Qianqian’s faces turned awkward.

Whether they were having an affair was one thing, but having it called out so openly was deeply embarrassing.

Liu Yan’s lips twitched, but she didn’t respond to Yun Zijin’s comment.

‘In truth, even if Yun Zijin hadn’t said it, she herself felt that Zhang Bowen and Jiang Qianqian had long crossed a line. She’d brought it up more than once, but all Jiang Qianqian had to do was cry, and Zhang Bowen would go soft. After all these years, she was truly sick of it.’

Zhang Bowen’s expression froze for a second at Yun Zijin’s words.

“You’re joking, Miss Yun,” he said. “How could I not know who my own wife is? I saved Qianqian first because she was closer. Right! That’s it.”

His final, emphatic confirmation only made his words sound less credible.

“Oh? But I just saw that she knows how to swim. Your wife, on the other hand… doesn’t seem to. Saving the person who can swim instead of the one who can’t… that really makes you think, doesn’t it?”

Zhang Bowen was left speechless by Yun Zijin. What could he say? ‘That he’d abandoned his own wife to save his first love?’