“Zhang Chenghui, everyone is going to hear about the disgraceful things you’ve done today. I’ve put up with you for more than a decade—how have you treated me? Before you married me, you had already held a wedding banquet and taken a wife back in your hometown. Back then, people in the countryside didn’t usually register their marriages, so you kept it hidden from me. You even concealed it until I was seven months pregnant. Then you secretly went back home to hold a birthday banquet for your daughter, and lied to me that your father was ill.”
“Seven months pregnant, I lugged bags of gifts and took a four-hour bus ride. Only when I arrived did I find out that you already had a wife in the countryside.”
Qi Yuqing spoke through her tears, but her voice was remarkably calm. It was clear that she was deliberately holding back her emotions, afraid that becoming too agitated would affect the baby.
“Yuqing, I already explained everything to you. Dani and I have nothing going on. Can you stop imagining things all the time?”
How could he possibly admit that Yanyan was his daughter? If he admitted it today, he would lose his job tomorrow. He had no idea what had gotten into Qi Yuqing these past few days. Why wouldn’t she let the matter go? Did she really have to cost him his job before she would be satisfied?
The onlookers were completely bewildered. Who was telling the truth?
“Zhang Chenghui, I never thought you could be so shameless—bold enough to do something and still refuse to admit it.”
Zhang Chenghui looked aggrieved, his eyes red-rimmed and silent as he stared at Qi Yuqing. He wanted everyone to see him as the victim. For all these years, he had always played the part of a good husband. Surely no one would believe Qi Yuqing now. Besides, whenever he made that expression, she would eventually give in.
Looking at him, Qi Yuqing suddenly laughed. Whenever she saw that hypocritical face of his now, she wanted nothing more than to tear it apart.
“Zhang Chenghui, do you really think that if you keep denying everything, all the dirty accounts from these past ten-odd years will simply disappear?”
Qi Yuqing returned to the house, pulled an iron box out from beneath a loose floorboard, and flung it in front of Wang Dani.
“Open it. Take a good look at the kind of man he really is.”
Wang Dani opened the iron box, and a thick stack of photographs spilled out.
She jerked her head up and looked toward Zhang Chenghui in the distance. Then she scrambled to her feet and charged straight at him.
“Zhang Chenghui, you bastard! You’ve been sleeping around behind my back? How could you do this to me? You said you married this woman so you could give Yanyan and me a better life. Then who is that woman in these pictures? Tell me!”
Wang Dani pummeled Zhang Chenghui with her fists.
Zhang Chenghui was stunned as well. “Wang Dani, stop acting crazy.”
With that, he shoved her away and tried to see what was inside the box.
But Qi Yuqing grabbed the photographs and flung them into the air. Dozens of pictures of Zhang Chenghui and Shao Tingting in bed fluttered down among the crowd.
“Holy crap, what is this? Who’s that woman? She’s got quite a figure!”
“I know her, I know her! She works in the hospital’s logistics department. Her name is Shao Tingting.”
“Oh my goodness, what a shameless pair. Is that the hospital warehouse?”
“And this one’s in the hospital bathroom. This one’s in the utility room. Good grief, there isn’t a place they haven’t done it!”
“What the hell are they doing here? Eating chili peppers?”
“Big tree, little chili pepper—not only is she spicy, she’s pretty damn saucy too.”
The men scrambled to get a look, while the women yanked their husbands by the ears.
“You little brat, get home! Is this something you should be looking at?”
Zhang Chenghui picked up one of the photographs from the ground. The moment he saw it, he nearly fainted.
“Qi Yuqing, you’re vicious! You actually had me followed? You took all these pictures? Are you trying to ruin me?”
His eyes were poisonous as he glared murderously at Qi Yuqing.
Director Qi immediately stepped in front of his daughter. He had just found out that she was pregnant. After finally having a child, he absolutely could not allow anything to happen to her. He had never expected his daughter to gather so much evidence. Clearly, she had been preparing to tear things open with Zhang Chenghui for quite some time.
“Zhang Chenghui, what else do you have to say?” Qi Yuqing met his gaze without the slightest trace of fear.
In truth, Qi Yuqing had not collected the photographs herself. A few days earlier, on her way home, someone had suddenly slipped a paper-wrapped packet into her hands. When she returned home and opened it, she found clear evidence of Zhang Chenghui’s affairs inside.
The photographs had obviously been taken by someone who had deliberately followed him. Even the pictures taken at the guesthouse had been shot from extremely clever angles. Whoever had taken them was clearly no ordinary amateur.
She had guessed that Zhang Chenghui must have offended someone, so she hid the photographs away. At first, she had planned to use them as leverage to negotiate better terms for a divorce. But Zhang Chenghui’s refusal to admit anything had infuriated her so much that she finally brought them out.
“Wang Dani, I’ve always believed that I treated you fairly. I didn’t know you existed when I married Zhang Chenghui. If I had known, I never would have married him. Even if you two were husband and wife in the flesh, Zhang Chenghui and I are the legally married couple. Every month, I even had Zhang Chenghui send you money and ration coupons. Do you know that money came from me? It wasn’t his at all. And yet you drugged me, making it impossible for me to ever have children!”
The crowd erupted once again.
“What? Qi Yuqing was drugged and rendered infertile?”
“That woman drugged her? How vicious!”
“She was trying to take everything for herself! How could someone be so wicked? Isn’t she afraid of divine retribution?”
Wang Dani laughed through her tears. “You think you did nothing wrong? Then what did I do wrong? I was betrothed to Zhang Chenghui since childhood. My family paid for most of his schooling. Did you know that?”
“While he was away at school, I was the one who stayed home and looked after his parents and younger siblings. When their house leaked, my brother was the one who repaired the roof. During the autumn harvest, my entire family helped them bring in the crops. When I gave birth, he was marrying you. I’m a person too! He was clearly my husband. Why did a piece of paper turn me into an abandoned wife? Why should I accept that?”
“Yes, I was the one who drugged you so you couldn’t have children. You deserved it! You were stupid. Your father was a traditional doctor, yet you trusted me instead of him? You stole my husband from me. Was I supposed to thank you for it?”
“I only made sure you couldn’t have children. How was that wrong? He said he was marrying you for his future, so he could establish himself at the hospital. Of course I knew the money he gave me came from you. That was what you owed us!”
“He saved all his money for my Yanyan. She’s the only daughter he’ll ever have, so everything he owns belongs to Yanyan.”
“You don’t know this, do you? Every time he came back to give me money, he slept with me too. He said you were a filthy woman who would try all kinds of tricks just to have his child.”
Wang Dani had completely lost control, spouting anything and everything that came to mind.
Those words infuriated Qi Yuqing. She fought to steady her breathing.
At that moment, the dull look in Zhang Chenghui’s eyes suddenly sharpened. He sprang to his feet and lunged straight at Qi Yuqing.
