Zhou Qinglian and Gu Jinan Conspire against Shen Tang

Zhou Qinglian and Gu Jinan Conspire against Shen Tang through a deliberately deceptive alliance built on divided romantic loyalties. Zhou Qinglian wants Gu Huaian, while Gu Jinan claims to want Shen Tang; together, they arrange to make Shen Tang disappear from Gu Huaian’s immediate world. The scheme matters because it transforms private desire into an organized threat: Zhou Qinglian supplies the emotional motive, Gu Jinan supplies the strategy, and Shen Tang becomes the person both intend to move without her consent.

Discovery Through Eavesdropping

The conspiracy first emerges indirectly. While Shen Tang is waiting in an inconspicuous corner of a cafe for Luo Chen, she hears voices through the thin wall of the neighboring booth and recognizes the voice of Zhou Qinglian, whom she regards as a little white flower. The conversation begins with hesitation and distrust. One speaker presses the other to decide, insisting that the arrangement is reasonable because each of them wants a different person: Gu Jinan says that Zhou Qinglian likes Gu Huaian and that he wants Shen Tang.

Shen Tang quickly realizes that the conversation concerns her and quietly presses herself against the wall to listen. The scene therefore divides into a public front and a concealed backstage. In the adjacent booth, Zhou Qinglian lowers her eyes and asks whether Gu Jinan truly likes Shen Tang. Gu Jinan answers that he does, at least in the sense that he likes her appearance, figure, and amusing personality. His response is not a declaration of devotion; it reduces Shen Tang to qualities he can desire and use, while also revealing that his interest is sufficiently real—or sufficiently convenient—to support the proposed deception.

The Bargain Between Zhou Qinglian and Gu Jinan

Gu Jinan does not pressure Zhou Qinglian indefinitely. He tells her to consider the matter and implies that, if she refuses, he can simply walk away because he is not absolutely determined to obtain Shen Tang. He then prepares to leave. This calculated withdrawal changes the balance of the conversation: Zhou Qinglian, fearing that the opportunity will vanish, calls him back and agrees to cooperate, but only after demanding conditions of her own.

Her first condition is secrecy. No one else may learn about the arrangement. Her second is more consequential: after the plan succeeds, Gu Jinan must take Shen Tang far away and ensure that she never appears beside Gu Huaian again. The wording exposes the true objective of the alliance. Zhou Qinglian is not merely seeking to injure a rival or test Gu Huaian’s feelings; she wants Shen Tang physically removed from his side. Gu Jinan accepts without resistance, and the two conclude their agreement with the language of collaborators anticipating future work together.

The arrangement is powered by asymmetrical motives. Zhou Qinglian is acting from possessiveness toward Gu Huaian, while Gu Jinan treats the situation as an opportunity to pursue Shen Tang and manipulate the surrounding relationships. Their shared plan does not mean that they want the same outcome for the same reason. It means that their separate desires temporarily point toward the same target.

Gu Jinan’s Double Role

The conspiracy becomes more complex when Gu Jinan later approaches Shen Tang and tells her that Gu Huaian’s childhood sweetheart has returned and intends to target her. He presents the warning as a disclosure that could protect her, and Shen Tang is stunned that he has revealed it. The apparent act of protection places Gu Jinan in a double role: he is connected to the scheme against Shen Tang, yet he also offers himself as the person who can explain the danger and help her respond.

Gu Jinan tells Shen Tang that he plans to gain the returning woman’s trust and gather information from her. He therefore recasts the deception as counterintelligence. He asks Shen Tang for a favor—not to withdraw or defend herself openly, but to participate in a staged performance designed to convince the other woman that he has succeeded. Specifically, he wants Shen Tang to pretend to be his girlfriend and act out the relationship in front of her.

This request reproduces the same theatrical logic that governs the original bargain. Zhou Qinglian and Gu Jinan have arranged a private script in which Shen Tang is to be removed from Gu Huaian; Gu Jinan then proposes a second script in which Shen Tang publicly appears to belong to him. The apparent girlfriend scene is thus both a tactical diversion and an extension of the conspiracy’s central method: controlling what each observer believes about the relationships around them.

Stakes and Narrative Function

The conspiracy places Shen Tang’s marriage agreement and public image under pressure. Her contractual marriage with Gu Huaian is built around appearances: the agreement requires occasional family dinners and the outward presentation of a loving couple, while providing Shen Tang with a monthly payment of five million and a two-hundred-million settlement at the end of the two-year term. Because the marriage already depends on managed appearances, the plot against her can weaponize the same performance that normally protects her.

Shen Tang also enters the conflict from a vulnerable public position. She is a low-ranking celebrity whom online rumor has branded with insults such as “loose tea bitch,” “plastic surgery freak,” “compensation scammer,” and “troublemaker,” while her company’s public-relations team pairs her with male celebrities to exploit attention. Her reputation makes fabricated romantic evidence especially dangerous: a staged scene can be absorbed into an existing scandal narrative before she has any chance to control it.

The wider story repeatedly uses performance as a test of sincerity. A livestream host can instantly replace arrogance with an apologetic, affectionate persona when the camera turns on; Shen Tang and Gu Huaian must appear to be a loving couple at formal gatherings; and Gu Jinan proposes a fake romance as bait. Against this background, the Zhou Qinglian–Gu Jinan alliance is not merely a secret plot but a concentrated example of the novel’s concern with front-stage behavior, hidden intentions, and the instability of appearances.

Consequences for Shen Tang’s Alliances

The scheme also complicates the boundary between enemy and ally. Gu Jinan’s warning gives Shen Tang information that she would otherwise lack, but his proposed solution requires her to trust him enough to perform intimacy with him. His conduct makes alliance itself uncertain: cooperation may be genuine in one moment and instrumental in the next, while a warning can function simultaneously as protection and manipulation.

Shen Tang’s relationships are consequently tested through chosen participation rather than passive victimhood. The proposal that she act as Gu Jinan’s girlfriend appears to place her inside his plan, but it also gives her an opportunity to observe, negotiate, and potentially redirect the deception. The conspiracy’s immediate power comes from secrecy and misdirection; its dramatic tension comes from whether Shen Tang can turn a role written for her into a role she controls.

The event therefore marks a shift from ordinary romantic rivalry to coordinated social maneuvering. Zhou Qinglian seeks to monopolize Gu Huaian’s presence by removing Shen Tang, while Gu Jinan seeks access to Shen Tang through a performance that may also serve his broader intelligence-gathering plan. Their agreement makes Shen Tang the object of a joint design, but the moment she learns of it, the design becomes exposed to her awareness—and therefore vulnerable to resistance.