Director Harris arrived twenty-three minutes later.

Not an assistant.

Not a relationship manager.

The director himself.

A black sedan stopped in front of the bank, and Harris stepped out with two senior executives behind him.

I was still sitting at the café across the street.

When he saw me, he walked over immediately.

“Miss Lin.”

He extended both hands.

“I thought you might call eventually. I just didn’t expect it to be today.”

“Neither did I.”

He glanced at the cardboard box beside my chair.

Then at the bank across the road.

His expression sharpened.

“Did something happen?”

“I resigned.”

Technically, that wasn’t true.

But I had no interest in explaining supermarket cards.

“Then their loss is our gain.”

He sat down.

“About the transfer…”

“All of it.”

Harris paused.

“The full two hundred million?”

“Yes.”

“Including the fixed deposits?”

“Yes.”

“And the investment account?”

“Yes.”

His eyebrows rose slightly.

I took a sip of coffee.

“I don’t want one yuan left there.”

Harris smiled.

“Understood.”

Twenty minutes later, we walked back into the bank.

The security guard recognized me first.

His expression was almost comical.

“Clara?”

“I need to handle some personal banking.”

He looked at the three men behind me.

Then at me.

Then back at them.

Nobody stopped us.

Rachel noticed us the moment we entered.

She was speaking to a client, but her voice suddenly disappeared.

Manager Wallace came out of his office.

“What are you doing back here?”

I placed my identification card on the counter.

“Closing my accounts.”

Rachel laughed.

“Your salary account?”

I looked at her.

“All of them.”

Wallace frowned.

“You don’t need to make a scene, Clara.”

“I’m not making a scene.”

I turned toward Harris.

“I’m conducting a transfer.”

Harris stepped forward.

“Good afternoon. Harris Cole, regional director of Continental Private Bank.”

Wallace’s face changed.

He clearly knew the name.

People in banking usually did.

“Director Cole?”

Harris gave him a polite nod.

“We’re assisting Miss Lin with an asset transfer.”

Wallace looked confused.

“Asset transfer?”

Rachel finally stood up.

“How much could she possibly—”

“Two hundred million yuan,” Harris said.

Silence.

Not normal silence.

The kind that seemed to swallow the entire room.

Even the clicking keyboards stopped.

Rachel stared at me.

Wallace blinked twice.

“What?”

Harris remained perfectly professional.

“Miss Lin has instructed us to receive approximately two hundred million yuan in funds currently held with your institution.”

Wallace looked at me as if I had suddenly become someone else.

“You…”

His mouth opened.

Closed.

Then opened again.

“You have two hundred million here?”

“I did.”

Did.

That single word hit harder than shouting ever could.

Wallace rushed toward the computer.

“Wait.”

His fingers moved quickly across the keyboard.

He entered my employee information.

Nothing.

Of course nothing.

My private banking profile had never been connected to my employee-facing records.

My father had arranged the account years before I started working there.

A few seconds later, Wallace called someone.

Then someone else.

His voice grew quieter with each call.

Finally, he lowered the phone.

His face had turned pale.

Rachel walked toward him.

“Manager Wallace?”

He ignored her.

Instead, he looked at me.

“Clara, perhaps we should discuss this privately.”

“There’s nothing to discuss.”

“There may have been a misunderstanding regarding your dismissal.”

I almost laughed.

“A misunderstanding?”

“Yes. Internal investigations can sometimes—”

“Twenty minutes ago, the evidence was undeniable.”

His lips tightened.

“That was before I had reviewed all the circumstances.”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“That was before you knew how much money I had.”

Someone behind us coughed to hide a laugh.

Wallace heard it.

His face became red.

“Clara, we worked together for almost three years.”

“Exactly.”

I stepped closer.

“Three years.”

“You knew how I treated clients. You knew my performance record. You knew I had never received a disciplinary warning.”

He said nothing.

“And when two gift cards appeared in my drawer, you didn’t ask why the surveillance footage from that area was missing.”

Rachel’s face suddenly stiffened.

I noticed.

So did Wallace.

I continued.

“You didn’t ask why the cards disappeared before the complaint was filed.”

Rachel’s lips went white.

“You didn’t even ask Mrs. Miller whether she gave them to me voluntarily.”

Wallace glanced at Rachel.

That tiny movement told me everything.

He hadn’t investigated.

He had simply accepted the version most convenient to him.

Then a voice came from behind us.

“Miss Lin?”

I turned.

A gray-haired woman stood near the entrance.

Mrs. Miller.

She was holding a shopping bag.

Her eyes brightened.

“There you are! I came to look for you.”

Wallace froze.

Mrs. Miller walked over.

“I called this morning and they said you weren’t available.”

She noticed the box beside me.

“What happened?”

Nobody answered.

So I did.

“I was fired for accepting your supermarket cards.”

Her expression changed instantly.

“What?”

Rachel took one step backward.

Mrs. Miller slammed her shopping bag onto the counter.

“I gave those cards to her!”

Half the bank turned toward us.

“She refused them three times. I practically forced them into her hands!”

Wallace swallowed.

“Mrs. Miller, perhaps we can discuss—”

“No! We’ll discuss it right here.”

She pointed at him.

“I’ve banked here for ten years. Clara is the only employee who ever stayed after closing to help me when my husband was hospitalized.”

Then she looked around.

“And now you accuse her of taking bribes because I gave her grocery cards?”

Wallace’s forehead began shining with sweat.

Rachel tried to slip away.

“Rachel.”

My voice stopped her.

She turned.

I smiled.

“Where are you going?”

“I have work.”

“Perfect.”

I picked up my phone.

“Then maybe you can explain something while you work.”

I opened the banking app.

“There was a camera above my desk.”

Rachel’s face changed.

“You said the footage was unavailable because the system malfunctioned.”

She said nothing.

“But I remembered something.”

I looked directly at her.

“The camera wasn’t maintained by our branch.”

Wallace stared at her.

“It was connected to headquarters’ security archive.”

Now even Harris looked interested.

“So,” I continued, “before coming back, I asked someone at head office to preserve the footage.”

Rachel’s confidence vanished.

“You had no right—”

“I had every right to request evidence related to an accusation against me.”

Wallace suddenly snapped.

“Rachel, what did you do?”

She looked at him in disbelief.

That was almost funny.

Only an hour earlier, they had been allies.

Now that his own position was threatened, he abandoned her immediately.

“I didn’t do anything!”

“We’ll find out.”

Wallace turned to me.

“Clara, please. Don’t transfer the money yet. Give me one day.”

“No.”

“Half a day.”

“No.”

“An hour.”

I shook my head.

“You had an hour.”

His expression collapsed.

I signed the transfer authorization.

Harris accepted it.

Then my phone vibrated.

A notification appeared.

TRANSFER REQUEST APPROVED.

200,000,000.00 CNY.

I showed Wallace the screen.

“Now you can investigate properly.”

I picked up my box.

Behind me, Wallace began calling headquarters.

Rachel was crying now.

Neither of them interested me anymore.

Outside, Harris opened the car door for me.

Before I got in, Wallace came running out of the bank.

“Clara!”

People on the sidewalk turned.

He rushed toward me, breathless.

“Wait!”

I stopped.

For the first time that day, his voice contained no authority.

Only panic.

“Head office wants to speak with you. They said your account is classified as a strategic private client. If those funds leave, our branch’s annual deposit target—”

“I know.”

His face froze.

Of course I knew.

I had worked there for three years.

Two hundred million wasn’t just money.

For a branch like his, it was performance.

Ranking.

Bonuses.

Promotion.

Everything he cared about.

“Please,” he whispered. “We can reverse the dismissal.”

I looked at him for several seconds.

Then I smiled.

“You still don’t understand.”

“What?”

“This was never about getting my job back.”

I stepped into the car.

“It was about finding out what kind of people I was working for.”

Harris closed the door.

As the car pulled away, I looked through the window.

Wallace stood on the sidewalk.

Rachel had appeared behind him.

Neither looked victorious anymore.

My phone rang.

Unknown number.

I answered.

“Hello?”

A deep male voice came through.

“Miss Lin, this is Daniel Mercer from headquarters.”

I glanced back at the shrinking bank building.

“Yes?”

“We’ve reviewed the preserved security footage.”

I sat straighter.

“And?”

There was a pause.

Then he said:

“The cards were removed from your drawer by Rachel Zhang.”

I wasn’t surprised.

But his next sentence made my smile disappear.

“However, Miss Lin, Rachel wasn’t acting alone.”

I slowly tightened my grip on the phone.

“Who else was involved?”

Mercer took a breath.

“The footage shows her entering Manager Wallace’s office immediately afterward.”

My eyes shifted toward the rear window.

Wallace was still standing outside the bank.

Watching my car disappear.

Mercer continued.

“And we found something else.”

“What?”

“Your dismissal was approved before the gift-card complaint was officially filed.”

For the first time that day, I said nothing.

This had never been about two supermarket cards.

Someone had wanted me gone before the trap was even set.

And now I wanted to know why.