At that moment, Xia Xiaomei actually pulled out a rectangular red gift box from her pocket.

She opened the box, and instantly, golden light glittered.

Inside the rectangular red box was a thick men's gold necklace, a large men's gold ring, and additionally, a longevity lock made of gold.

Xia Xiaomei handed the red box containing these three expensive gold accessories to Sun Yijie.

She said these were gifts for him and hoped he would accept them.

When Sun Yijie saw these three gold accessories, his eyes immediately glazed over.

His first instinct was to reach out and take them with both hands, but he restrained himself.

He said such valuable gifts were too much and he couldn't accept them.

They could start as friends first, or something along those lines.

Hearing this, Xia Xiaomei was overjoyed. Despite being 36 years old, she bounced up and down excitedly on stage like a little girl.

Then, Sun Yijie and Xia Xiaomei left the stage.

Manager Xiao Zhang, seeing his matchmaking succeed with this pair, was very pleased.

Next, he wanted to match a second and third pair.

But unfortunately,

by the time the event ended at 9 PM, he hadn't succeeded in matching anyone else. The main reason was that aside from Sun Yijie and Xia Xiaomei, not a single person was willing to go on stage during those two hours.

Thus, this matchmaking event came to an end.

"Jiang Ran, we're leaving first. Thank you so much for helping me with my makeup today."

After the matchmaking event ended, Jiang Ran stayed behind to help Manager Xiao Zhang clean up the buffet leftovers.

Xia Xiaomei came over holding Sun Yijie's hand to say goodbye to Jiang Ran.

"No need for thanks, it was nothing," Jiang Ran replied.

Seeing Xia Xiaomei and Sun Yijie holding hands and being intimate, Jiang Ran knew this pair was 90% confirmed.

Although he could tell Sun Yijie was only after Xia Xiaomei's money,

at least it worked out, and he should be happy for Xia Xiaomei.

Of course, Jiang Ran hadn't expected Xia Xiaomei to be such a big spender—pulling out three gold accessories just like that.

With gold prices currently over a thousand per gram, those three pieces were worth a small fortune.

No wonder Sun Yijie couldn't resist the temptation. Someone who could casually give away three gold accessories

probably had hundreds, if not thousands, more at home.

At this moment, Wang Anjian was also nearby, watching the scene unfold.

He was eating an ice cream sprinkled with numerous blue painkiller tablets.

Nowadays, he treated painkillers as his daily meals.

For some reason, though it was obvious to anyone with eyes that Sun Yijie was only with Xia Xiaomei for her money—

after all, no matter how well Sun Yijie tried to hide it on stage, his expressions weren't completely under control.

His demeanor before and after the three gold accessories appeared was noticeably different, though subtly so.

Following normal logic, the sequence of events should be: Sun Yijie would swindle Xia Xiaomei for money and favors, squeeze her dry, and then dump her,

leaving Xia Xiaomei with neither love nor money.

But Wang Anjian couldn't shake the feeling that Xia Xiaomei—who barely reached Sun Yijie's shoulders, was stocky, and had an unattractive face—was actually the predator in this relationship.

Meanwhile, in the live stream room:

Domineering Female CEO: "Well, Sun Yijie is done for. Those who bet on him can start mourning now."

Ultimate Rich Kid: "Why do you say that? Is Xia Xiaomei also a dangerous criminal? But Sun Yijie is tall and strong—Xia Xiaomei is tiny compared to him. If it came to a fight, who knows who'd be in more danger!"

Domineering Female CEO: "Just wait and see. This Xia Xiaomei... she's seriously twisted. Though, honestly, I think you're even more twisted, Ultimate Rich Kid."

Ultimate Rich Kid, utterly confused: "?????? How am I twisted????"

Domineering Female CEO: "You grill the attractive female residents—like Qin Yi, Qin Kelian, and Su Mi—for every detail about them. But with an unattractive one like Xia Xiaomei, you don't ask anything about her background or story?"

Ultimate Rich Kid fell silent, likely because she'd hit the mark.

...

Meanwhile, on Mike's end:

When he rushed to the fifth-floor hallway window where Robert had been, the man was long gone.

After searching the entire floor without finding him, Mike immediately ran down to the first floor to look for Xiao Zhang.

He didn't find Xiao Zhang in the management office, but on the desk where Xiao Zhang usually sat, he spotted a large key ring.

Mike grabbed the keys and headed to the surveillance room.

He found the right key, unlocked the door, and entered.

Recalling the approximate time, he pulled up the footage of the fifth-floor hallway and window.

The moment the video played,

his suspicions were confirmed—that man was indeed Robert!

Identical twins might look alike, but no two people have identical mannerisms and expressions.

This was Robert!

He quickly checked where Robert had gone next,

but the footage only showed Robert running toward the sixth floor. When he checked the sixth-floor cameras, Robert seemed to have vanished into thin air.

There was no trace of him.

"These have been edited..."

Mike pressed his face so close to the screen he might as well have merged with it, scrutinizing the footage more intensely than he had with Zhou Wu and Zhou Wu's father's disappearance videos.

He suddenly realized: every frame after Robert reached the sixth floor had been altered or cut!

"From when I saw Robert on the fifth floor from downstairs, to running up to search, then coming back down to get the keys and enter this room—it couldn't have taken more than twenty minutes! In just twenty minutes, someone edited the surveillance footage?!"

Compared to the shock of seeing Robert,

Mike now felt sheer terror at how quickly the footage had been tampered with.

What did this mean?

It meant his every move was being monitored, and whoever—or whatever—was watching him had terrifyingly fast response capabilities.

Even worse, they could predict his actions—anticipating that when Mike couldn't find Robert, he'd check the cameras, so they preemptively altered the footage.

"Damn it!"

Mike slammed his fist on the desk. At this moment, he, a top-ten detective in the U.S.,

felt like a child pinned down by an enormous hand, completely helpless.

He left the surveillance room, returned the keys to their place,

and walked toward the elevators in a daze.

Just as he reached the elevators, someone called out to him.

"Mike, what's wrong? You look exhausted. Have you eaten? If not, there's still plenty of buffet food in the activity room."

It was Jiang Ran, who had been cleaning up after the matchmaking event and had stepped out to throw away trash when he spotted Mike.

Mike waved him off, signaling he wasn't interested.