Xie Lian had made two cardinal mistakes.
1. He could easily have chosen moments when only Xie Mi and You Hongxuan were together to take his covert photos, yet every time, he photographed all three of them and cropped Shen Yeqing out.
That meant Shen Yeqing could simply say he had been there too, and the rumor that Xie Mi and You Hongxuan had been on private dates would fall apart on its own.
2. He had completely failed to notice that Xie Mi and the others had taken photos of their own.
That was a fatal oversight.
When Yu Jinche called Xie Lian to ask about it, as Xu Shuangrong had instructed, Xie Lian merely fell silent for a few seconds before saying,
"I didn't know. You never told me."
He didn't understand all the twists and turns of the entertainment industry. All he knew was that Yu Jinche had asked him to secretly photograph Xie Mi being intimate with other men, so he had done just that.
Yu Jinche hadn't specified what kind of setting he should photograph them in.
Xie Mi, Shen Yeqing, and You Hongxuan had all been together. If he didn't crop one of them out, how else was he supposed to take the photos?
Besides...
He genuinely hadn't known Xie Mi and the others would take so many selfies when they went out!!!
He had known even less about that absurd video.
After getting his best shots in the middle of the night, he had gone back to bed because he was tired. How could he have known they would pull off something so ridiculous afterward?!!
"Xie Mi really doesn't usually like taking photos that much. I have no idea what got into her those few days."
Listening to Xie Lian's utterly baffled voice