Old Dong’s face went ashen, and he looked visibly rattled. He froze for a moment before finally speaking, his voice hoarse with pleading. “Xiao Qi, my wife doesn’t know yet. I was momentarily out of my mind. Please, you absolutely have to keep this quiet for me.”
Faced with this reality head-on—even though she wasn’t personally involved in this marriage—Qi Xi, as a woman herself, and as someone Old Dong had mentored and looked out for, felt a wave of helplessness, frustration, and genuine disappointment. She couldn’t understand why he’d done something like this. “Don’t you love your wife? Why would you do something like this to betray her?”
Once exposed, Old Dong stopped trying to hide it. He clutched at his hair desperately, then sank down onto the office sofa, utterly defeated, the composure he’d been putting on finally cracking completely.
“In my heart, I only love my wife,” he said weakly. “I never had real feelings for Yu Nana. When she first joined the company, I was the one who hired her. Her family circumstances really were difficult—sick parents at home—and I felt sorry for her, so I looked out for her a bit, brought her along to group meals and things like that.”
“My wife is highly educated—more so than me, actually. She has a doctorate, and she’s an executive at a company now. Great personality too, good in every way. But because she’s so accomplished, she’s never looked up to me the way… Half a year ago she got promoted, and now she earns more than I do. Being around my wife, I sometimes feel like I don’t really matter. But Yu Nana was different. She didn’t know how to do anything, always had to come to me for advice and guidance, like she couldn’t function without me.”
Old Dong’s voice carried both regret and pain. “I didn’t realize at the time that she was doing it deliberately. I was blinded by my own vanity, thought she was just some innocent kid who didn’t understand much. Little by little, I lost my sense of restraint. There was a work dinner where I had too much to drink, and she said she’d take me home. When I woke up, we were already at a hotel, and everything had already happened.”
He continued, urgent to explain himself. “But deep down, I’ve always loved my wife. She and I are soulmates. In my heart, I never betrayed her—I just had one moment of weakness, and I fell into Yu Nana’s trap.”
Qi Xi said nothing else, just asked, “And then she started using it against you, step by step?”
Old Dong’s expression was full of regret. “Yes. I never imagined that after we slept together, she’d become a completely different person—no longer the admiring young girl I thought she was. She became demanding, started asking me for one thing after another. First it was bags, then jewelry and makeup, or trips. I basically became her personal wallet. And because I’m the HR director, she started taking extended sick leave, or just not showing up at all. I’ve covered for her more times than I can count, but she’s never satisfied.”
His tone was full of self-recrimination and regret, but Qi Xi still felt he wasn’t genuinely remorseful—because what he was saying didn’t even sound like the truth.
If he’d really just been drunk and manipulated by Yu Nana into a moment of weakness he barely remembered, why was there a matching couple’s mug on his desk? Why did Yu Nana get to act so imperious? Why had he let himself be held hostage by her for nearly a year?
However calculating Yu Nana might be, she’d only recently graduated—and from how she’d barely bothered hiding her temper with Qi Xi earlier, she didn’t seem like someone with deep, calculated schemes. If it really came down to a direct confrontation, could she really outmaneuver someone as experienced in HR politics as Old Dong?
Exactly how the affair had started, who had initiated it, and whether it had been purely physical or something more emotionally entangled—only Old Dong himself really knew the truth of that.
But regardless of the details, betraying his family and his wife was an undeniable fact.
Yet Old Dong kept complaining. “It’s all Yu Nana’s fault for not knowing when to stop. I’ve done everything I could to cover for her absences, pulled every string I could, but she’s really gone too far this time. I’m the HR director, sure, but I’m not the company’s top boss. What does she think this company is—her personal playground? It’s not like I own the place. She comes and goes as she pleases, doesn’t even try to hide it. And now her department manager has finally had enough and installed a surveillance camera at her own desk, positioned to catch Yu Nana’s seat. Three months of footage showed she’d worked less than eight days total in that period, and that evidence got submitted through the company’s internal HR complaint system. There’s nothing more I can do to cover for her—I have no choice but to let her go.”
Qi Xi looked at him, her expression heavy. “So you and Yu Nana have had a falling-out over this? And she’s using the fact that you’re in HR to demand an outrageous settlement, even though she knows full well the law wouldn’t support her claim?”
Old Dong nodded, looking at Qi Xi with a pleading expression. “Xiao Qi, you have to keep this quiet for me. I deeply regret what happened, but now, with this termination, I can use it as an opportunity to settle things properly and part ways cleanly. She’s shallow—once she gets the money, she’ll be satisfied, stop bothering me, and disappear from my life for good.”
A man in his forties, Old Dong’s eyes reddened as he looked at Qi Xi. “This way I can truly turn back from the wrong path, put an end to this messy relationship with her once and for all. My wife will never find out, and our family’s happiness won’t be destroyed…”
Watching Old Dong ramble on, Qi Xi felt the refined, gentle image she’d once held of this uncle figure completely shatter, replaced by the unrepentant, lie-spewing, responsibility-dodging middle-aged man in front of her now.
Feeling a wave of disgust, Qi Xi said, “So you want to quietly part ways with Yu Nana, and pay her off to make it go away?”
Old Dong nodded. “She’s not even asking for that much this time… it’s still within what I can manage. Xiao Qi, as long as you keep this quiet, everything can be resolved smoothly.”
Right—the five-times compensation was still within his authority as HR director to approve on his own.
But…
But that money belonged to the company!
Sensing Qi Xi’s hesitation and inner conflict, Old Dong looked ready to get down on his knees. “Xiao Qi, I’ve always treated you well, haven’t I? I’ve looked out for you before, never expecting anything in return. Whenever you had trouble, wasn’t I always there to help if I could?”
Old Dong clearly understood human psychology well. Looking into her eyes, he pressed on persuasively. “But now I’m the one in trouble. I’m not even asking you to lift a finger to help me—just look the other way. This is a hard moment in my life. Do this one good deed, and you don’t need to concern yourself with it any further. I’m the one driving the settlement agreement anyway—you don’t even need to sign off on it, so you won’t bear any responsibility if anything comes of it. Just stay quiet, and it’ll be good for everyone. If something does go wrong and the company finds out, that’s on me, not you.”
Qi Xi wasn’t naive. Old Dong’s past kindness toward her really hadn’t come with any ulterior motive. From what she’d overheard other Yuanchen employees say during her occasional visits for meetings, his reputation was genuinely good—he really was a warm-hearted, well-liked man.
Thinking back on her own clumsy early days on the job, and how generously Old Dong had helped her out of pure goodwill, Qi Xi felt herself genuinely torn between reason and emotion, and couldn’t deny that she felt a slight wavering in her resolve.
“Xiao Qi, I know you young people can’t stand this kind of thing—can’t tolerate someone like me having an affair. But real life is rarely so perfect. Who can guarantee that in a marriage lasting decades, neither person ever once strays, even in thought?”
“Just help me out on this one. I’m not some murderer, not some irredeemable criminal. I just went off course for a while. If you just pretend this never happened, I promise I’ll get back on track, and I’ll treat my wife even better than before.”
Frowning, Qi Xi couldn’t help but speak firmly. “What happens between you and Yu Nana privately isn’t something I’m going to get involved in. I’m not going to go out of my way to report you to your wife, or air this out publicly somewhere. How you resolve things with her is your own family matter—after all, the person you’ve wronged isn’t me, it’s your wife.”
“But when it comes to compensating Yu Nana, you absolutely cannot mix personal and company matters—you can’t use company money to cover for your own personal mistake!”
Old Dong’s tone turned almost pleading. “Xiao Qi, all my money is managed by my wife. I don’t have access to that kind of cash on my own. If I settle with Yu Nana privately, I’d have to dip into our household funds, and my wife would definitely ask what such a large sum was for—it would all come out… And we just switched to a new place in a better school district recently, the mortgage is already a stretch as it is…”
“I know it’s not right to have the company cover this for me, but even five times compensation—Yuanchen’s about to go public, this amount is nothing to the company. I’ve worked myself to the bone for this company for years, never once claimed a cent of overtime pay. If you actually calculated what the company owes me in unpaid overtime, it would far exceed five times that compensation amount! I know what I did with Yu Nana was wrong, but in every other respect, I’ve genuinely given everything I have to this company. My contributions to Yuanchen far outweigh that settlement amount.”
Old Dong kept circling back to the same central point, over and over—that Qi Xi should simply look the other way, let things proceed smoothly, let Yu Nana take the money and go, let Old Dong avoid alerting his wife, and preserve his happy family life as if this were just a minor blip in an otherwise fortunate existence.
Looking at Old Dong’s pleading eyes, Qi Xi couldn’t honestly say she felt no hesitation at all.
Old Dong clearly wanted to keep trying to persuade her, but just then, there was a knock at his office door—his assistant reminding him he needed to join a company executive conference call immediately.
With no choice, Old Dong gathered his notebook to prepare for the meeting.
But before leaving the office, he made one more earnest plea, lowering his voice. “Xiao Qi, I’m not going to force you. Just think it over carefully. Go along with my plan, and it really will be good for everyone involved. You won’t need to waste any more time on this—you could head back tonight. My wife will never know any of this. My mother-in-law hasn’t been well lately either—terminal cancer, not much time left. If she found out about this now, it would devastate my wife completely. Even if I have to beg you, for her sake, please don’t let this come out. If this gets exposed, the person who suffers most is my innocent wife. Just… have a little pity for her.”
“Anyway, take some time to calm down first, don’t do anything rash. If there’s anything, let’s discuss it once I’m back from this meeting, okay? If you want something to eat or drink while you wait, just ask, I’ll have my assistant get it for you.”
After repeating his pleas several more times, and seeing that Qi Xi seemed composed, Old Dong finally left the office, glancing back several times, clearly troubled. Just before the door closed, Qi Xi heard him outside calling for his assistant, still pressing legal to finalize Yu Nana’s settlement agreement and get it signed as quickly as possible—likely hoping to make it a done deal before Qi Xi could act, banking on her giving up out of a desire to avoid trouble.
Once Old Dong left, Qi Xi was alone in the office. Her gaze drifted back to his desk.
Ironically, right next to that couple’s mug he shared with Yu Nana sat a framed family photo—Old Dong with his arm around his wife, the two of them holding their daughter together, all three smiling warmly, happily.
If Qi Xi stopped the settlement agreement currently being drafted and reported Old Dong’s misuse of company funds to Yuanchen’s senior leadership, there was little doubt he’d be fired.
And once he was fired, his wife would almost certainly find out about the affair with Yu Nana that had caused it—which, either way, would be a devastating emotional blow to her. The happy family captured in that photo would never be the same again; there would forever be a rift between them.
Old Dong’s wife would be heartbroken, and regardless of whether they divorced or not, a fractured home like that could hardly be good for their child’s development.
But if Qi Xi said nothing, none of that would happen. The only one who’d lose out would be the company—and as Old Dong had pointed out, the company was doing well financially; this amount of compensation was well within what it could absorb, and might not even trigger an internal audit issue.
Images of Old Dong’s pleading face, of all the kindness he’d shown her before, flashed through Qi Xi’s mind.
Facing a decision weighted with this much personal history and emotion, it really was difficult not to feel torn.
But…
Qi Xi took a deep breath. She wasn’t just a person—she was also a lawyer.
In this moment, her role needed to be defined by her profession.
In the end, even though it left her feeling heavy and uneasy inside, Qi Xi stood up, walked out of Old Dong’s office, and headed to the legal department.
She halted the process of finalizing the settlement agreement.
Then she wrote a letter to Yuanchen’s management, briefly explaining what had happened.
It was only a short letter, but once she’d finished writing it and pressed send, she felt a strange mix of relief and exhaustion wash over her.
Had she done the right thing?