The submissive wife of the domineering CEO

Chapter 9 - The Cleaning Aunty

At 6:30 in the morning, Lin Yue arrived at the company ahead of schedule. Last night, she didn't sleep much and kept replaying in her mind the abnormal fund flow she discovered in the financial database, as well as the dark causal lines pointing to Su Qing, Zhao Zhi Ming, and Gu Beiyuan. She needed to find a breakthrough, and the underground archive room might hold the clues she needed.

As soon as the elevator door opened, she heard the scolding voice coming from the end of the corridor.

"Can't even handle such a small task? Do you know how expensive this cart is?" Su Qing's shrill voice cut through the empty corridor with a distinct echo. "If it can't be repaired, you'll have to pay for it yourself. It'll be deducted from your salary!"

Lin Yue quietly approached and saw Aunt Wang, the cleaner, squatting on the ground, completely at a loss as she stared at a broken cleaning cart. Su Qing, with her arms crossed, stood aside, her face showing no attempt to hide her annoyance.

"Director Su, this wheel started to loosen yesterday. I reported it to the maintenance department, but they said they won't be able to handle it until today..." Aunt Wang explained in a low voice, her hands trembling slightly.

"So it's my fault then?" Su Qing sneered. "The cart was used by you, so of course you are responsible for its damage. I'm going to use this floor's meeting room to receive important clients today. You need to clean it up right now!"

Lin Yue noticed that one of the wheels of the cart had completely come off, and the screws at the connection point were nowhere to be found. She recalled that when she left last night, it seemed that Su Qing's high-heeled shoes were wedged against the edge of the cart, but she didn't pay much attention at the time. Now it seems that this might be the real cause of the cart's damage.

"Director Su, the morning meeting is about to start," Lin Yue appeared at the right time and softly reminded, "I just met Assistant Zhang downstairs. She said that the Gu family's people arrived earlier and are waiting for you in the reception room."

Su Qing was momentarily stunned. She clearly hadn't expected Lin Yue to show up at the company so early. She glanced at her watch and impatiently said to Aunt Wang, "Wait until I'm back to settle the bill with you!" Then she stepped into her high heels and hurriedly made her way towards the elevator.

Lin Yue crouched down and carefully inspected the damage of the cart. The screw holes at the connection point of the wheel axles had become deformed, clearly caused by an external impact.

" Aunt Wang, could I borrow your hairpin?" Lin Yue asked softly.

Aunt Wang, puzzled, took off the black hairpin on her head and handed it to Lin Yue. As you could see, Lin Yue skillfully straightened the hairpin, inserted it into the hole at the connection point of the wheel, gently adjusted the angle, and then pressed it firmly.

With a "click", the wheel was temporarily held in place.

"This is just a temporary fix and won't last long." Lin Yue stood up and took out a small box from her bag. "I have spare screws here. It should be possible to fix it."

Aunt Wang looked at Lin Yue in astonishment as she effortlessly produced various sizes of screws and a small multi-functional tool*. Within just a few minutes, the cart was restored to its original condition, and even more stable than before.

"Girl, you... How did you manage to carry all these with you?" Aunt Wang asked in disbelief.

Lin Yue smiled slightly: "It's just a habit."

This is certainly a lie. As the leader of Yin Yao, she has long been accustomed to dealing with all kinds of unexpected situations at any time. This small tool box is one of the necessities she always carries with her, and unexpectedly, it came in handy today.

Aunt Wang gratefully clutched Lin Yue's hand and said, "Thank you, girl. If it weren't for you, my salary this month would have been completely deducted."

Just then, Lin Yue's causal vision suddenly malfunctioned and started uncontrollably. She saw several golden causal lines extending from Aunt Wang's body, and one of them was particularly bright and connected to the cart in her hand. At the end of the line, she vaguely saw an old yellow copper key.

" Aunt Wang, is it usually just you who takes care of this cart?" Lin Yue asked casually.

"Yes, I'm in charge of the cleaning work for this floor." Aunt Wang pushed the repaired trolley and tested the wheels. "Even the sanitation in the underground archives room is taken care of by me."

Lin Yue's heart stirred. The underground archive room stored the company's annual paper files, including some old documents that had not been digitized. There was a good chance that she could find the information she needed there.

"I heard that the underground archive is quite old. Isn't it rare for people to visit there?"

"Exactly!" Aunt Wang lowered her voice. "That place is very creepy. Apart from me doing the cleaning once a week, hardly anyone goes there. Even the door lock is of the old-fashioned type. When the company replaced all the locks with electronic ones, they forgot about that place."

Aunt Wang said, taking out a set of keys from a concealed pocket on the side of the cart: "Look, these are all the keys for the areas I'm responsible for. This one, the oldest one, is for the archives room."

Lin Yue's gaze was fixed on the brass key - precisely the same key she had seen in the Eye of Cause and Effect just now.

"So many keys, it must be quite troublesome to manage them, right?"

"Used to it." Aunt Wang sighed. "It just happens that sometimes it's easy to get confused. Last week, I accidentally mixed up the key for the archives room and the one for the lounge. I almost couldn't get into the door."

Lin Yue gave a thoughtful nod. Under the influence of the Causal Eye, she saw that the yellow copper key was wrapped with several causal lines, and one of them was even connected to a photo of her mother.

"Aunt Wang, let me make a key classification label for you," Lin Yue took out a small roll of colorful stickers from her bag. "This way, you won't get confused."

"Then how could I be so rude as to...?"

"It's okay. It'll be quick."

Lin Yue took the set of keys and gently brushed her fingers over the yellow copper key. During the process of making the labels, she secretly took photos of the key's teeth with her mobile phone. As the leader of the Hidden Radiance, she could replicate any key at a glance, but at this moment, she had to maintain the appearance of an ordinary intern.

"All right." Lin Yue returned the labeled key chain to Aunt Wang. "The red one is the archives room, the blue one is the lounge, and the green one is the storage room..."

Aunt Wang was extremely grateful: "Young lady, you are such a kind person. If you need any help in the future, just let me know."

Lin Yue smiled and nodded, watching Aunt Wang push the cleaning cart away. Just at the moment she turned around, her eye of cause and effect flickered again - she saw that the yellow copper key would reappear in her life in the near future, and it was closely related to her mother's past secrets.

After arriving at the office, Lin Yue immediately sent the photo of the key's tooth pattern to Yin Ya's technical team. Within ten minutes, an accurate 3D printing file had been sent back to her encrypted device. Tonight, she would be able to replicate this key and enter the forgotten underground archive room.

The morning's work was still very heavy. Su Qing was obviously even more dissatisfied with Lin Yue because of what happened in the morning. She was assigned a bunch of trivial and time-consuming tasks. The others in the department also tacitly isolated her, and even during lunchtime, no one invited her to go to the cafeteria together.

Lin Yue didn't care about this. While she was efficiently completing her current tasks, she was also mentally planning her actions for tonight. The underground archives room was likely to contain the company's early financial records and personnel files, which might help her clarify the connection between Su Qing and Gu Beiyuan.

During the lunch break, Lin Yue went alone to the rooftop. This was one of the few places where she could temporarily relax. Looking down from a high place, the entire city's layout was clearly visible, just like the intricate interpersonal network she saw through the lens of cause and effect.

She recalled the grateful look on Aunt Wang's face when she fixed the cart this morning, and a warmth welled up in her heart. In Yin Yao, she was the revered leader "Zero"; here, she was just an intimidated intern. The constant shift between these two identities often left her feeling dazed.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, Lin Yue was organizing the meeting materials when Su Qing suddenly arrived at her workstation.

"Lin Yue, take these old files to the underground archive room." Su Qing placed a stack of thick folders on her desk. "Make sure to register them and complete the process by the end of the day."

Lin Yue gave a slight start. This coincidence seemed too suspicious. She had just received the information about the key to the archives room this morning, and was assigned to work there this afternoon.

"Is there any problem?" Su Qing raised an eyebrow and asked.

"No, Director Su." Lin Yue lowered her head, concealing the doubts in her eyes.

As Lin Yue walked towards the elevator with that stack of files, her causal vision activated again. She saw a dark causal line extending from Su Qing's body, connecting to a certain document in this stack of files. The color of that line was so deep, almost black.

The underground archive room is located on the basement floor of the building. Pushing open the heavy wooden door, a strong smell of old paper and dust fills the air. The room is dimly lit, with only a few old fluorescent lights humming softly.

Lin Yue followed the procedure to categorize the files and place them in the designated cabinets. At the same time, she secretly noted down the layout of the archives room and the positions of the surveillance cameras. Just as Aunt Wang said, the door locks here are still the old-fashioned brass locks, exactly matching the key she saw this morning.

While sorting through the last file, her fingers suddenly felt a sharp pain - the causal eye was uncontrollably activated, and golden threads spread out from the file folder, connecting to a folder labeled "1998 Medical Cooperation Project".

Lin Yue looked around and confirmed that there were no other people before gently pulling out the folder. She opened the first page and her breathing almost stopped - on the cover of the file, there was a prominent logo of the Gu Group, along with a photo of her mother when she was young.

Just then, the door of the archives room was suddenly pushed open. Lin Yue quickly put the folder back in its place and pretended to be sorting out other documents.

"Still not finished?" Su Qing stood at the door, her sharp gaze sweeping over the interior of the archives room.

"It'll be ready soon, Director Su."

Su Qing slowly walked in, her fingers gliding over the surface of the filing cabinet: "This place is really uncomfortable. What do you think?"

Lin Yue didn't reply. Instead, she accelerated her movements. She could sense that Su Qing's gaze was constantly following her, as if she were searching for something.

Finally, under Su Qing's supervision, Lin Yue completed all the filing of the documents. As she left the archives room, she accidentally turned her head and saw Su Qing standing in front of the filing cabinet of the 1998 medical cooperation project, with a slightly enigmatic smile on her lips.

Back in the office, Lin Yue couldn't calm down for a long time. There must be important information in that folder, and Su Qing obviously knew its existence. Tonight, she must visit the archives again.

After work, Lin Yue, as usual, was the last one to leave. But instead of going straight home, she spent her time in a nearby coffee shop until nightfall.

At nine o'clock in the evening, she returned to the company building again. Using the already copied key, she easily entered the underground archives room.

Under the dim light, she walked directly towards that special filing cabinet and took out the document related to her mother's past. Opening the first page, she finally understood why Su Qing cared so much about it - this document not only recorded the medical cooperation project between the Gu family and the Lin family many years ago, but also detailed a concealed medical accident, and one of the responsible parties for the accident was precisely her mother.

Lin Yue gently brushed her fingers over the photo of her mother on the document, a hint of determination flashing in her eyes. She had already found the first key to solving the mystery, and no matter how difficult the road ahead might be, she would keep going.