Lin Bei’s video career had just gotten off the ground when she ran into a major obstacle.

It all started with her third video.

That day, she planned to shoot a piece on “How to Clean an Entire Room for Ten Yuan.” This was her signature content, because she had some secret tricks for budget-friendly cleaning.

Excitedly, she set up her phone in the kitchen and said to the camera, “Today I’m going to teach you a secret trick—how to make your room spotless using items at home that are about to expire. First, you’ll need baking soda and white vinegar.”

She took out the baking soda and white vinegar from the cabinet and held them up to the camera.

“These two things cost less than five yuan combined, but they can tackle grease in the kitchen, limescale in the bathroom, and even stubborn stains on clothes.”

She opened the cap of the white vinegar bottle, ready to pour it into a bowl.

Then her hand slipped, and the whole bottle flew out of her grasp, flipped in mid-air, and landed precisely on the documents Su Chen had placed on the kitchen counter.

The vinegar bottle shattered on the floor, splattering vinegar everywhere.

To make matters worse, the stack of papers had already been soaked through by the white vinegar, causing the red markings to bleed and turn into a blurry pink haze.

Lin Bei stood in the kitchen, still holding the baking soda, frozen like a statue.

Her phone was still recording, faithfully capturing the entire scene.

In the fastest time of her life, she cleaned up the mess—swept up the glass shards, mopped up the vinegar on the floor, then grabbed the soaking-wet stack of papers and tried to dry them with a hairdryer.

But the ink had already bled. The writing on the pages was completely illegible.

Looking at the pink, crumpled, sour-smelling pile of paper, she could only think one thing: Su Chen was going to kill her.

When Su Chen got home from work, he smelled the strong scent of white vinegar in the air.

“Lin Bei,” he said as he walked into the living room, “What have you been up to again?”

Lin Bei stood in the doorway of the kitchen, her hands clasped behind her back, looking like a cat that had done something wrong.

“Brother Su, I told you not to get mad.”

Su Chen’s right eyelid twitched.

“What did you do?”

“When I was filming today… there was a little accident.”

“What kind of accident?”

“Your documents… the ones you were looking at last night… I got them wet.”

Su Chen’s face changed.

“You got them wet? What do you mean ‘wet’?”

“White vinegar. White vinegar got them wet.”

The living room fell deathly silent.

Su Chen took a deep breath, his voice eerily calm: “Where are those documents?”

Lin Bei reached behind her and pulled out the now-pink, crumpled stack of papers.

Su Chen took them, flipped through them, and saw that the writing was completely blurred. All the red annotations had bled, rendering the entire document useless.

Su Chen closed the file and looked up at Lin Bei.

He gave her a look she’d never seen before—deep, restrained, and on the verge of exploding.

“Do you know what these documents are?” His voice was so soft that Lin Bei found it even more terrifying than if he’d shouted at her.

“I don’t… but I know they’re important.”

“They’re the equity agreement I signed with my business partner. I need them tomorrow morning at ten o’clock.”

Lin Bei’s blood froze instantly.

The equity agreement. Due tomorrow. And now it’s been soaked in white vinegar.

“I… I can explain…”

“Explain what?” Su Chen slammed the document onto the coffee table. “Explain how you knocked over the bottle of white vinegar? Or explain why you filmed right where I was looking at the documents?”

His voice finally rose.

For the first time, Lin Bei saw Su Chen lose control. At that moment, the veins on his forehead were bulging.

“The kitchen is so big—why did you have to film right on the kitchen counter? My documents have been sitting there for three days, and you’ve never touched them. Why suddenly today?”

“I… I thought they were just scrap paper…”

“Scrap paper?” Su Chen sneered. “I sat at the dining table for two hours reading scrap paper?”

Lin Bei was speechless.

She knew she’d made a mistake—not just now, but the instant the bottle of white vinegar had tipped over.

But there was no way to undo it.

“Su Chen,” she whispered, “I’m sorry. Really sorry. Is there any way to fix this? I can help you retype a new copy…”

“There’s no electronic version.”

“So could you ask the other party for another copy…”

“The other party is overseas, and it’s three in the morning now.”

Lin Bei opened her mouth, then closed it again.

She stood there, head down, fingers intertwined.

Su Chen glanced at her, turned around, and walked into his own room, closing the door behind him.

End of Chapter 16: The Line of His Cleanliness Obsession