121: Chapter 222 Collapse of Trust and Confrontation (Part 1)

The first to notice something amiss was the head of the Yin Family's public relations department.

At eleven in the morning, he received a veiled inquiry from a familiar financial reporter: "Director Li, is your group's future son-in-law, CEO Yu Bo, having... hmm, some personal issues lately?"

The PR director's heart skipped a beat, and he immediately opened his computer.

Several marketing accounts and entertainment forums, usually known for leaking gossip and tracking celebrity privacy, already had several high-traffic posts floating on their homepages.

The headlines were more sensational than the last:

"Charity or Hypocrisy? The Financial Backer Behind 'Yin Angel' Suspected of Being Caught in a Romantic Scandal!"

"Secret Late-Night Meeting with a Mysterious Woman, Will the Perfect Boyfriend Persona Collapse?"

(Blurred photo: Yu Bo and a woman entering and leaving a high-end apartment unit at night; the woman's side profile is faintly recognizable as not being Yin Tianxue)

"Not Just One? Suspected Mistress Number Two Appears, Traveling in the Same Car with Intimate Behavior!"

(Photo: Yu Bo's car at the entrance of a villa, a woman throwing herself into his arms for a hug, the woman's back figure is slender and pretty)

The content of the posts was vague, but the implications were extremely pointed.

They painted Yu Bo as a "hypocrite" who appeared to support his girlfriend's charity work and acted affectionately, while secretly having ambiguous relationships with multiple women.

In the comments section, voices of doubt, mockery, and indignation on behalf of Yin Tianxue had already begun to emerge.

The PR director broke out in a cold sweat instantly.

He knew the importance of Yu Bo to Tianyu Group and the Yin Angel project, and even more so, how deeply Yin Tianxue loved Yu Bo.

He immediately ordered his subordinates to monitor public opinion and prepare a PR contingency plan, while steeling himself to personally knock on the door of Yin Tianxue's office—Yin Tianxue was at the group headquarters today following up on government approval documents for the hospital project.

Yin Tianxue was discussing document details with a colleague from the legal department when she saw the PR director enter with a grave expression, and her heart sank inexplicably.

"Director Wang, is something the matter?"

"Eldest Miss..." Director Wang hesitated, glancing at the legal colleague nearby.

Yin Tianxue understood and asked the legal colleague to step out first.

Once the door was closed, Director Wang handed over the tablet in his hand, the screen still displaying those exposé posts.

"You... please take a look at this first. These are some... false rumors about CEO Yu that have suddenly appeared online."

Yin Tianxue took the tablet, her eyes landing on the glaring headlines and the blurry but familiar figures.

Her complexion turned pale, inch by inch, at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Her fingers holding the tablet turned white at the knuckles from the force, trembling slightly.

Late at night... an apartment... it wasn't her.

The entrance of the villa... a hug... that woman, that back figure...

Was it Tang Guo? Or... that "Nian"?

The fleeting glimpse of a message on a phone screen on the night of the victory banquet now overlapped with these blurry but malicious photos, like a poison-tipped ice pick, ruthlessly piercing through the crumbling wall of trust she had built for herself over the past few days.

"When... were these taken?" Her voice was so dry it didn't sound like her own.

"The photo timestamps indicate they are recent, but specifically..." Director Wang replied cautiously, "I've already arranged for people to trace the source and am contacting the platforms to delete the posts. But the spread is quite fast, I'm afraid..."

Yin Tianxue stood up abruptly, her vision blacking out for a moment; she held onto the edge of the desk to steady herself.

"Get the car ready, I'm going home." Her voice was very soft, yet carried a kind of near-shattered determination.

"Eldest Miss, the situation is unclear right now, please don't be agitated, CEO Yu might..."

"Get the car!" Yin Tianxue raised her voice, her eyes already red-rimmed, yet she forced herself not to let the tears fall.

Director Wang dared not persuade her further and hurriedly made the arrangements.

Meanwhile, Yu Bo had just finished a meeting with bank representatives and returned to his top-floor office at his company.

His chief assistant rushed in, almost at a run, his expression equally grim: "CEO Yu, something has happened! Online..."

Yu Bo's heart sank as he took another tablet handed over by his assistant.

He only glanced at it for a second before his eyes instantly turned cold and sharp, radiating a terrifyingly low pressure.

He recognized those photos—the ones from Shen Nian's apartment, and... that hug Tang Guo had given him at the villa entrance that morning.

The camera angle was tricky, capturing Tang Guo's reliance and his "acceptance" in an incredibly ambiguous way.

"Investigate! Immediately find out who is pulling strings behind the scenes! Contact all partner media and platforms, spare no expense, I want these posts gone within an hour! Send lawyer's letters, sue the accounts that first published and spread this, sue them until they're bankrupt!"

Yu Bo's voice was not loud, but every word was laced with ice shards; it was the terrifying calm before a storm.

"Yes! It's already being done! But CEO Yu, there's also..." The assistant swallowed with difficulty, pulling up another page, "A new set has just been exposed... even... even more serious."

The new post's headline: "The Smoking Gun! Charity Prince Takes Mistress for Secret Pregnancy Check, Suspected of Preparing to Deal with an 'Accident'?"

The photos were of Tang Guo, bundled up tightly, entering the "Anhe" private medical center this morning, and photos of her looking slightly dazed after coming out, holding a document bag (or backpack) as she got into a car.

The photos weren't very clear, but combined with the earlier framing of her as a "mistress" and the secret "reputation" of "Anhe" in the circle, the implication was already blindingly obvious.

"Bang!" Yu Bo slammed his fist onto the heavy solid wood desk with a dull, thunderous thud.

The teacup on the desk jumped, tea splashing everywhere.

His face was livid, his eyes surging with monstrous rage and a trace of the ferocity of someone pushed to the brink.

Young Master Yang! It had to be him, no one else! To think he even managed to photograph what happened this morning! He had arranged it so secretly!

"Tianxue... does Tianxue know?" He looked sharply at his assistant, his voice carrying an imperceptible tightness.

"Over at Tianyu Group... they probably already..." Before the assistant could finish, Yu Bo's private phone began to vibrate frantically.

"Tianxue"'s name pulsed on the screen.

Yu Bo looked at that name, took a deep breath, and forced himself to calm down as quickly as possible.

He waved the assistant away, walked to the window, and answered the call.

"Tianxue..."

"Yu Bo." On the other end of the line, Yin Tianxue's voice was abnormally calm, so calm that it was unsettling. "Where are you?"

"I'm at the company. Tianxue, listen to me, those things online are all rumors, someone is maliciously slandering me..."

"Come home." Yin Tianxue interrupted him, still using that eerily calm tone. "Now, come home. Let's talk."

Then, the phone hung up. The busy signal that followed sounded like a death knell.

Yu Bo gripped his phone, his knuckles turning white. He knew the hardest hurdle had arrived.

He quickly composed his thoughts and expression, grabbed his car keys, and strode out the door.

He had to arrive home before Yin Tianxue, or at least at the same time. He could not let out-of-control emotions fester any further.

Inside the villa, there was a deathly silence.

Yin Tianxue had arrived home first. She hadn't turned on the lights and simply stood in the center of the living room, facing the door.

Sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling windows, stretching her thin silhouette long across the polished floor, making her appear lonely yet stubborn.

There were no tears on her face, only a kind of near-blank numbness, and the unhideable, shattered pain deep within her eyes.

When Yu Bo opened the door with his key, this was the scene he saw. His heart clenched painfully.

"Tianxue..." He closed the door, walked over quickly, and wanted to hold her hand.

But Yin Tianxue suddenly stepped back, avoiding his touch.

She looked up and stared straight into his eyes. Those clear eyes that had once been filled with love and trust now held nothing but cold scrutiny and bottomless sorrow.

"Are those photos real?" She asked, her voice very soft, yet sharp as a knife.

"Someone intentionally took them from those angles, taking things out of context!" Yu Bo immediately denied it, his tone urgent and sincere. "Tianxue, believe me! That Shen Nian is a woman I knew from business in the past, she has been pestering me, and I clearly rejected her long ago! That night was the last time I talked to her to make things clear, to tell her not to harass me anymore! The one with the hug, that's Guoguo! You know, Guoguo is just like a little sister to me, that day she was just... just a bit emotional, it was just an ordinary hug!"