Zoey Chow never expected things between Rona Muir and Jiro Hirayama to escalate to the point of living apart. At first, she thought it was because Lucas Lin was too charming, and Rona Muir was so swept up in the affair that she voluntarily separated from Jiro Hirayama.
But after asking around, she found out that Rona Muir wasn’t the one causing trouble—instead, it was the usually quiet, rarely-seen Jiro Hirayama whose private life was in chaos, having slept with one of his young assistants.
Honestly, among the wealthy, this kind of thing isn’t even a big deal.
How many rich men actually stay loyal to their wives?
Who doesn’t have a few flings on the side?
And they’ve all hooked up with plenty of people close to home—secretaries, department heads, business partners, you name it.
But Rona Muir and Jiro Hirayama are nothing like those people.
First of all, Rona Muir is a CEO.
Second, Jiro Hirayama is a scientist—an absolutely crazy biochemist, at that.
So when people speculated, they always thought Rona Muir was the one keeping a young lover. No one ever imagined it would be the stiff, boring Jiro Hirayama who’d end up with a mistress.
So Zoey Chow couldn’t help herself—she called Lucas Lin to ask what was going on.
Lucas Lin was unusually calm about the whole thing. No matter how Zoey pressed him, he claimed he didn’t know anything, just saying there’d been a mix-up and that Amy had ended up in the wrong room. Now, he insisted, he was a victim too.
Of course, Zoey didn’t believe a word Lucas said.
But since their partnership was already over, she didn’t dare offend Rona Muir too much, so she just let it go.
As for everyone else, even those curious enough to ask questions could only dig around the edges—nobody really dared to go straight to Rona Muir or Cecilia Gu for answers.
Cecilia Gu told everyone that Rona Muir was out of the country on business, then moved her into Molly Yun’s little apartment—right into Cecilia’s own room.
Cecilia Gu looked around the apartment and couldn’t help but sigh.
Her sister was still missing, and now Rona was in trouble too. How could things go so wrong all at once?
"Just settle in here. Someone will come by every day to clean and make sure you’re fed," Cecilia said, sitting down beside Rona. "I really wanted to spend more time with you, but the company needs me. My sister’s gone, you’re gone—if I don’t go back, there’ll be no one left to run things."
"I’m fine. I’m not that fragile. I just don’t want to see them," Rona replied coolly. "Bring me any work you can—I’ll handle it here. Jiro will definitely come to you for news about me. Don’t tell him anything. I don’t want to see him at all."
"Okay," Cecilia Gu answered softly. "But I still think there’s something off about that night. Don’t be so quick to condemn Jiro. Who knows, maybe he’ll find evidence to prove he’s innocent?"
Rona didn’t respond, just kept fiddling with the remote, her mind a mess.
Cecilia didn’t try to push her anymore. After a few words of comfort, she hurried off.
That night, after work, Cecilia came by again, but saw that Rona was already asleep. She didn’t wake her—just quietly left.
Sure enough, when she got home, there was Jiro Hirayama, looking rumpled and desperate, waiting outside her door.
"Where did Nana go?" Jiro blurted out, anxious. "I swear I didn’t do anything to hurt her! If I ever betray her, may lightning strike me dead! If she still won’t believe me, I’ll go get a physical exam right now! I can prove I haven’t done anything in the past few days! I’ve already forced Amy to get checked—she definitely doesn’t have any of my DNA!"
Cecilia sighed. "That’s not the point. With your resources, any test could be faked. Do you really think Rona would believe it? Besides, nobody can stay calm in a situation like this. Let her think it over—she’s not reckless. Go home and rest. I’ll take care of Rona. She doesn’t want to see you, so waiting here won’t help. Even if I took you to her now, she’d just leave, and then I wouldn’t be able to find her either. If that happens, you won’t even get a chance to show her any evidence."
Jiro looked completely hopeless.
Just then, Charles Yin walked over and said to Jiro, "Cecilia’s right. Getting anxious won’t help. But the news has already been suppressed—nobody outside dares gossip about it. Otherwise, you’d never get past your in-laws. Leave this to Cecilia."
Jiro knew Charles was right, so he left the Yin house in a daze.
After Jiro left, Cecilia told Charles all about Rona’s analysis. "Charles, who do you think set this up?" she asked.
"I doubt anyone’s completely innocent," Charles replied, frowning. "With Rona’s experience, she shouldn’t have fallen for something like this."
"Maybe she just trusted too much," Cecilia said, defending Rona. "She’s not the type to scheme, so she’d never expect someone to go out of their way to break them up."
"You’re right, honey," Charles admitted quickly. "So who do you think is the most suspicious?"
"I’m not sure. I’ve met Lucas Lin and talked with him a bit—he’s a very smart guy. And he admitted he likes Rona," Cecilia said. "The moment I saw him, I felt something was off. I probed a little, and he confessed. But my people told me, judging by his reactions, he’s not the mastermind. Still, I suspect he knows more than he’s letting on."
Charles had assigned plenty of capable people to help Cecilia.
When Cecilia heard about Rona’s trouble, she brought a team with her—including the person Charles had assigned to her. It was from that person’s observations of Lucas Lin’s reactions that they concluded he wasn’t behind it all.
Charles trusted his people.
He nodded and said, "We know Jiro’s personality better than anyone. Do you really think he’s the type to risk divorce just to sleep with his assistant?"
"No way!" Cecilia denied immediately.
People with a childish streak are always passionate and impulsive—but never schemers.
Someone who’s not calculating and obsessed with experiments—how could they possibly have the energy to find a mistress?
It’s just impossible!
If Jiro were the type to chase after women, how could he have stayed a virgin all this time?
You know, when Rona first slept with him, he was still a total newbie!
"So, the only possibility is Amy!" Cecilia took a deep breath after Charles’s analysis. "But why would Amy do it? Even if Jiro and Rona got divorced, Jiro would never marry her, right?"
Becoming a daughter-in-law in the Hirayama family is no easy feat.
Charles smiled meaningfully. "Not every woman dreams of marrying into a rich family."
"What do you mean?" Cecilia asked, confused. "Then what does Amy want?"
Amy is a special agent—trained personally by Captain Hans.
Aside from freedom, only a life of luxury could tempt her.
If she doesn’t want either, then what does she want?
"You’d have to ask her yourself," Charles said, taking Cecilia’s hand and leading her inside. "Amy’s first demand is definitely freedom. We all know how Captain Hans operates—he never keeps anyone useless. And as you said, Amy’s just a low-level agent. If she can’t get into the inner circle, she’ll be tossed aside eventually, and that means death. Amy definitely doesn’t want to die, so she has to escape Hans’s control. Jiro and the Hirayama family could help her with that. But knowing Amy, she probably has a second or even third motive."
Cecilia perked up. "A second and third motive?"
Charles settled Cecilia into a chair and said calmly, "Let me ask you: If you’d suffered a huge loss and seen a lot of the world, and you had a chance to escape and get revenge, would you just let it go?"
Cecilia thought it over for a while. "Probably not. I’m not that petty, but if I’d been badly wronged, I’d definitely want to make up for it."
Charles laughed. "Exactly. Even you wouldn’t just swallow the loss—so with Amy’s personality, do you really think she only wants out of Hans’s base? If that was all, she could’ve just asked Rona or you for help. Given your relationship with Hans, he’d let her go if you asked. Amy’s an agent—she knows perfectly well how close you and Rona are. So if she’s going out of her way, she must want more than just freedom."
Cecilia was thoroughly impressed by Charles’s insight.
She and Rona had spent ages analyzing Amy’s motives, and all they came up with was that Amy was trying to break free from Captain Hans’s control and regain her freedom.
But Charles figured out, just from a few of Cecilia’s comments, that Amy must have other plans and demands.
Maybe that’s why no one has ever surpassed the Yin Consortium.
"Amy isn’t exactly a saint, but she must have a weakness someone’s holding over her," Charles said, signaling the butler to start dinner. While eating, he continued his analysis to Cecilia: "Hans usually recruits orphans, but not always. So, it’s possible that Amy found her family while out on missions. She might be able to escape Hans’s control, but if her family’s identity is exposed, she’ll have no choice but to go back to Hans’s base."
"So her second demand might be about her family?" Cecilia’s eyes lit up. "She wants Jiro Hirayama to protect her family?"