After three grueling years of studying, I finally made it into the city agency. Then at a family banquet, I found out that my cousin, Gina Forrest—the one I'd seen at a hometown reunion—had also landed a job in the exact same unit.

During the family dinner, right in front of our uncle, who happens to be a senior official, my cousin shoved a doctored confidential document into my hands. She suddenly shrieked, collapsed to the floor, and scattered the papers everywhere.

"Clara! That's classified agency material! How could you sneak it out to show an outsider? Just for some lousy commission?"

Our uncle slammed the table in rage, declaring he would uphold justice over family ties—have me fired on the spot and report me up the chain.

Then, right in front of me, a line of on-screen text floated by.

[Gina has really lost her mind. Doesn't she know the main character is the undercover inspection team leader sent specifically to investigate her?]

[And look at the uncle still putting on his act. The team's car will be pulling up outside any minute.]

Reading the on-screen text, I took a slow sip of tea and said to Gina, who was falling all over herself to prove her loyalty, "This document is classified, all right. But you changed the wrong part."

Then I turned to my uncle and said, "And you just said you would uphold justice over family ties? Perfect. You can come back with me to the team and explain all those hiring violations over the past few years."

Gina was stunned. The government system she had been killing herself to get into—I was the one in charge of evaluating her.

I watched the lines of on-screen text floating in front of me and slowly set down my teacup.

The noisy accusations in the private dining room came to a brief halt because of my overly calm movement.

I looked up at Gina, who was sitting on the floor crying her eyes out, and said in a flat tone, "This document is classified, all right. But when you altered the data, you forgot to realign the watermark number on the third page. If you're going to frame me, you could at least do a decent job of the forgery."

Gina's crying caught in her throat. A flash of obvious panic crossed her face, but it was quickly covered up by another look of hurt innocence.

"Clara! What are you talking about? You clearly stole this document from the agency. How can you turn around and accuse me of altering it?"

Wiping her tears, she shrank back against her uncle, Robert Coleman's leg, as if she had suffered some terrible injustice.

"I know you've always been jealous that I found my birth parents, jealous that Uncle Robert treats me—his long-lost niece—so well. But you can't just throw me under the bus to save yourself!"

Uncle Robert's face darkened. He slammed his hand on the table so hard the dishes clattered.

"Clara! Have you lost all sense of decency? Gina just came back to the family, barely passed the exam to get into our city agency, and instead of looking out for her as her older cousin, you go and sell classified state secrets?

"Let me tell you, this isn't over! As a division chief at the city agency, I will not let family loyalty cover up wrongdoing.

"First thing tomorrow, I'm starting the process to have you fired. Then I'll personally hand you over to Internal Affairs."

The relatives at the table saw that the division chief was furious and quickly changed their tune, pointing and whispering about me.

"Clara, how could you? Our family never raised such a greedy, money-grubbing traitor!"

"Exactly. Gina is such a sweet girl. Why do you have to bully her?"

"She's the apple of Robert's eye. You're just some grind who studied her way up from a small town. What makes you so special?"

"You'd better apologize to Gina right now, hand over that bribe money, and maybe Robert will let you do less prison time out of family loyalty."

Listening to these disgusting, two-faced comments, I felt like laughing.

They had no idea. I had studied hard for three years and finally made it into the city agency—but not some ordinary department. I was on the Eighth Inspection Team, specially seconded from the state ethics commission.

This time, I had gone undercover as a new hire into the city agency to secretly investigate Robert's corruption, bribe-taking, and hiring violations over the past few years.

And Gina—this "cousin" who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere—was one of Robert's biggest illegal hiring schemes.

I looked at Robert putting on his grand display of righteousness, and I couldn't hold back my cold smile anymore.

"Uncle Robert, you just said you would uphold justice over family ties?"

I stood up, looking down at him.

"Perfect. You can come back with me to the team and explain all those hiring violations and backroom deals over the past few years."

As soon as I said this, the private dining room went so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Robert was stunned. Gina was dumbfounded.

They probably never imagined that a low-level new hire would dare say something like that to a division chief.

The on-screen text floated by again.

[Hilarious. Robert thinks he's starring in his own courtroom drama. Little does he know the main character is the actual grim reaper sent to investigate him.]

[Gina's acting is so bad she can't even line up a watermark. Trying to pull a reverse frame job in front of an Internal Affairs big shot? She's just handing herself over.]

[Can't wait for the smackdown. I'm dying to see them both begging for mercy.]

Gina recovered first. She pointed at me and shrieked like I'd just told the funniest joke in the world, "Clara, have you lost your mind? Who do you think you are? You want Uncle Robert to 'explain himself'? You're just a staffer who barely passed probation!"

Robert snapped out of it too. He shook with rage, jabbed a finger at my face, and roared, "This is mutiny! Absolute mutiny! You ungrateful little brat! You're about to be destroyed, and you're still running your mouth! Have you gone completely insane?"

Just then, the door to the private dining room was shoved open from outside.

A young man in a sharp suit, his hair slicked back with gel, walked in quickly.

As soon as he entered, he put on a big smile and hurried over to Robert. "Chief, so sorry I'm late. An urgent matter came up at the agency."

The newcomer was my fiancé, Zack Neeman, Deputy Director of the agency's office.

Zack had barely gotten through the door when his initially warm expression changed completely at the sight of the classified documents scattered all over the floor and Gina sitting there crying.

He hurried over, helped Gina to her feet, and patted her shoulder sympathetically.

"Gina, what happened? Who did this to you?"

Gina leaned into Zack's arms and pointed at me, her eyes full of tears.

"Zack, Clara snuck out the agency's confidential construction bidding documents to get a bribe.

"When I caught her, not only did she deny it, she said I was the one who altered the files. And then she threatened to report Uncle Robert to Internal Affairs..."

Zack's head whipped toward me. His eyes were full of disgust and disbelief.

"Clara, are you insane?!"

He strode over to me, wearing an expression of wounded righteousness.

"I can't believe you'd sell out national interests for money! What have I always taught you? Stay grounded and work hard. And instead, you go and commit federal crimes!"

Looking at this sanctimonious man, I felt nauseous.

The only reason Zack had gotten his Deputy Director position was because I had stayed up night after night writing his core reports and policy briefs.

He took my work to impress his bosses, then turned around and treated me like dirt.

Now that he saw Robert coming after me, he didn't hesitate to throw me under the bus to save his own skin and curry favor with the division chief.

"Zack, you haven't even looked at the files. How can you be so sure I'm the one who leaked them?" I said coldly.

Zack snorted. "Do I need to look? The chief and Gina saw it with their own eyes. You think they'd both lie about some low-level staffer? Clara, I'm deeply disappointed in you."

He turned to Robert and immediately switched to a fawning tone.

"Chief, please calm down. Since Clara did this, even if she is my fiancée, I won't cover for her.

"Effective immediately, I'm officially calling off the engagement. My family will never accept a woman with a criminal record."

The relatives at the table heard this and nodded approvingly one after another.

"Zack is truly a man of principle!"

"A woman like Clara could never deserve Zack. Gina is a much better match for him."

Gina heard this, and a flicker of smug triumph passed through her eyes.

Pretending to be magnanimous, she dabbed at her tears and said softly to Zack, "Zack, don't be too hard on Clara. She grew up in the countryside and has never seen real money. Anyone might lose their head for a moment.

"As long as she admits she was wrong, I'm willing to beg Uncle Robert to go easy on her and not take this to the police. Let her keep some dignity."

Zack looked at Gina with deep emotion. "Gina, you're so kind. She did this to you, and you're still pleading for her.

"You come from a good family. You're brilliant and graceful. That's the kind of quality a real government employee should have."

Then he pulled a pre-printed document from his briefcase and slammed it down on the dining table.

"Clara, Gina is soft-hearted and trying to give you a way out. This is a voluntary letter of resignation and confession to leaking classified information. Sign it right now. Admit to the leak.

"As soon as you sign, get out of the city agency. Then the chief can consider not referring you to the prosecutor's office."

I glanced down at the confession. The terms were written out clearly. Not only did I have to admit to stealing classified documents, I also had to admit I did it to pay off personal debts.

This wasn't giving me a way out. This was nailing the leak squarely on my back.

The on-screen text scrolled wildly in front of my eyes.

[This freeloading jerk is unbelievable! He rode Clara's work to the top, and now he's turning on her.]

[There's no way they didn't prepare that confession letter in advance. They set this trap for her from the start.]

[Go ahead and sign it, Clara. The moment you do, these people are all going to prison!]

I let out a cold laugh and picked up the confession.

Robert saw me pick up a pen, and a flash of triumph gleamed in his eyes. He barked, "Sign it now! Letting you slink away with any dignity at all is more mercy than you deserve!"

I looked up at these detestable people. The corner of my mouth curled into a mocking smile.

"Dignity? Uncle Robert, is your idea of dignity built on trampling over someone else's blood and bone?"

Before anyone could respond, I gripped the confession with both hands and tore it to shreds in front of everyone.

Zack's eyes went wide. He roared, "Clara! Are you refusing to take the way out we're offering you?"

"Offering me a way out?" I threw the shredded paper right in Zack's face. "Zack, who do you think you are? Do you need me to remind you how you got to be Deputy Director?

"For the past three years, who wrote the agency's year-end summaries? Who wrote the reports to the state commission? I did, night after night, while you took my work to impress your bosses. And now, you have the nerve to stand there talking to me about 'quality'?"

Zack flinched at the sting of my words. His face turned beet red. He pointed at me but couldn't get a word out.

"You... you're lying!"

I ignored his tantrum and turned to Robert, whose face had gone dark.

"And you, Uncle Robert. You keep saying Gina got into the city agency through proper channels. But from what I know, her name was never on this year's hiring list.

"She never even took the written exam. She directly replaced someone else on the interview list. Do you really think backroom deals like that can stay hidden forever?"

Robert's pupils shrank. He never imagined that I, a brand-new hire, could know so much. These were absolute secrets within the agency!

"What... what are you even talking about?" Robert completely dropped any pretense of decency and screamed with humiliated fury.

Seeing that not only would I not take the fall, but I was exposing his secrets in public, he knew there was no peaceful way out of this.

"Guards! Someone! Get the security guards in here!"

At Robert's roar, the door to the private dining room burst open. Several of his lackeys who usually brown-nosed him came rushing in, along with four or five security guards.

"Chief, what's wrong?" one of the lackeys asked, glaring at me menacingly.

Robert pointed at me and gave the order, frantic with rage, "This woman is suspected of stealing state secrets, spreading false rumors, and slandering her superior! Grab her! If she doesn't put her fingerprint on that confession letter, no one leaves this room!"