Su Ning looked at Wu Yi, who seemed to have been struck by lightning, his face full of disbelief.
She let out an impatient tsk.
But the rewards notifications that kept ringing in her mind smoothed her temper back down. She raised an eyebrow—was this a case of having to fool yourself before fooling others?
The very next second, her suspicion was confirmed.
“Why?”
Looking at Xing Qiu, Wu Yi laughed bitterly. “Why would you do this? I love you so much, I’ve been so good to you. No one in this world loves you more than I do, and yet you would betray me?”
The others were just as confused.
Xing Qiu opened her mouth.
She wanted to say—where was the love? Was it in the way he always gave up on her for one reason or another, letting others slander her, calling her shameless for being pregnant before marriage, and standing by in silent approval when people said she wasn’t worthy of him?
What a joke.
Was she supposed to have gotten pregnant all by herself?
She wanted to say—was it in the way he forever ignored her words, her opinions, dismissed her thoughts, her very being, believing that a woman only needed to stay at home and enjoy wealth and luxury, never once bothering to understand what she truly wanted?
She also wanted to say—if he truly loved her, why, when he ran, didn’t he spare her even a single second of thought? If he had, maybe she would have noticed something was wrong much sooner.
But in the end, she said none of it.
She simply continued, calmly and unhurriedly, laying out the evidence she had found.
There were even letters exchanged with the Japanese.
The people present had heard all of this before.
But hearing it again still churned their hearts with waves of shock and disbelief. How could it be? How could it be him? Even if something had happened before, most people never truly believed he had colluded with the Japanese. Given Wu Yi’s status and position in the Northeast, there was no reason for him to switch sides to Japan.
“Are you out of your mind?”
Someone shouted at Wu Yi, whose face had turned ashen, their voice filled with frustration and disappointment.
Wu Yi remained silent.
But someone spoke up to defend him—
“That’s not true.”
It was Wu Xuewen. A boy of that age was already starting to shoot up, changing almost every day, yet the clothes he wore fit him perfectly.
He gritted his teeth and said without hesitation: “My father always told me we should serve our country, protect the people, and be proud of the Northeast. How could he possibly collaborate with the Japanese? Someone must be framing him.” As he spoke, he shot a hateful glare at Su Ning.
Who the one behind the framing was went without saying.
Su Ning wasn’t angry.
Instead, she said with interest: “Then what about the evidence? Every bit of it was brought up and found by your mother. Was that also all part of some scheme against him?”
Wu Xuewen’s body tensed.
He glared hatefully at Su Ning. Why, why did she have to push him like this? This woman, wicked to the core.
He bit his lip.
Then spoke in a low, heavy voice: “My mother is just a woman of the inner quarters. She’s naive and knows nothing. Because she and my father have been fighting lately, and there’s been all sorts of gossip floating around outside, my mother thought my father was being cold and heartless and didn’t want to marry her. She’s been really heartbroken behind the scenes. I know all this because I’m her son. That’s why she got fooled by you, and in a moment of impulse, she did this thing.”
Su Ning smiled.
Not because of the reward notification that rang out, but because she genuinely found it amusing.
What she’d said earlier was right.
No word fit Wu Xuewen better than “filial piety.”
It was just that his filial piety was always directed at his father.
Or rather, at whoever seemed stronger, more powerful, and more beneficial to him.
And if it meant sacrificing his mother along the way, so be it.
Although she really wanted to say something to provoke them a little, when she saw Xing Qiu's pale, ghost-like face and her trembling frame, Su Ning held back out of kindness.
Sigh.
She really was a saint.
"You're not my son."
Xing Qiu stared fixedly at Wu Xuewen, and repeated word by word:
"I don't have a son like you."
What?
Wu Xuewen looked up in disbelief.
He thought he'd misheard, but once he confirmed it, a wave of overwhelming grievance crashed over him.
It was all his mother's fault.
She'd never considered his situation at all—his biological father was a traitor to the nation, and it was his own mother who'd exposed him. How was he supposed to face the world now? Even the Wu family wouldn't treat him well!
He was only ten years old!
Coming up with this plan to save the situation had already taken everything he had.
What more did they want from him?
"Enough."
Su Ning couldn't be bothered to watch any longer. She didn't need to guess how this would play out—disbelief, accusations, self-pity. So boring.
She cast a careless glance at Wu Xuewen:
"Kids really do have vivid imaginations. You've talked so much, and I went through all this trouble—setting up this whole elaborate scheme, losing several of my men—just to frame your father?"
She seemed to find it amusing.
Her normally cold face broke into a smile, eyes curving slightly, as she said softly:
"Do you really think he's worth that?"
Xing Qiu nodded silently.
In her view, Su Ning truly hadn't given Wu Yi a second thought—it was Wu Yi who'd been obsessed with her.
But still, when she'd come to deliver the warning, she hadn't expected Su Ning to believe her without a moment's hesitation...
Her gaze grew complicated.
Su Ning glanced at the still-defiant Wu Xuewen and the silent Wu Yi, clicked her tongue, and waved a hand. Someone strode quickly in from outside.
The newcomer nodded at everyone present, a look of relief on their face:
"Good thing we got there in time. Just a hair's breadth more, and they'd have gotten away. We've identified them all—they're Wu Yi's most trusted men, and there's even a Japanese among them. In the car, besides cash and valuables, there were all kinds of important intelligence documents. Once they'd gotten past the city gates, someone would've been waiting to receive them. The consequences would've been unimaginable."
At those words, Wu Yi's expression collapsed.
It was truly over.
Wu Xuewen was equally deflated, but then a thought struck him. Looking at his father, his lips trembling:
"Wait... Father, if you were going to flee, why didn't you tell me and Mother?"
Silence.
He clung to his last shred of hope:
"Was it that there wasn't enough time?"
Still silence.
...
The evidence was ironclad.
There was nothing more to say. The commotion had dragged on long enough, and it was getting late. Su Ning unceremoniously gestured for them to leave, and the others took the hint and took their leave—except Xing Qiu, who stayed behind.
But no one envied her.
For one thing, consider Xing Qiu.
She'd done the righteous thing by turning in her own husband, and that deserved praise. But on another level, it was different. In their eyes, Wu Yi had always treated Xing Qiu with deep devotion.
And she'd betrayed him without a flicker of hesitation.
How cold-hearted...
As for Su Ning, even now, they weren't sure whether she'd known beforehand. But one thing was certain—
She'd lost five of her men.
Five lives.
That forced Wu Yi to die, and it put her on the moral high ground, giving her every right to meddle in what should have been strictly internal business of the Northeastern Army.
As they left, someone muttered under their breath:
"The most poisonous thing is a woman's heart."
Su Ning had no idea they were gossiping about her behind her back. If she'd known, she'd have been genuinely offended.
In truth, her men hadn't died at all—
The ones who'd already betrayed you could hardly count.
The human heart is a treacherous thing.
Generous as the compensation was, there were still those who could be bought—after all, they weren’t being asked to do anything too complicated. Just stir the waters, muddy the trail, and leak a little information to the other side.
As for how she caught them so precisely?
Simple.
She just screened for people who suddenly displayed extreme hostility toward her and erupted in a burst of reward-worthy behavior. Those who betrayed with a clear conscience were always a rare minority. The guilty, on the other hand, always found excuses for themselves.
For instance: "Su Ning was a bad person anyway, she's done plenty of terrible things. I'm just doing what's right, meting out justice in heaven's name."
The world has truly fallen.
Su Ning let out a melancholy sigh.
System: ...
Ha. It didn't even want to say it. She'd read their psychology so accurately, yet still had the nerve to lament the decline of human morality.
Pulling herself back to the present, Su Ning looked at Xing Qiu.
Feeling the gaze on her, Xing Qiu tensed up all at once.
To be honest, though outsiders probably assumed the two of them had long been secretly allied, in reality they'd barely met, not even a handful of times. And now that her usefulness had run out, why was she being kept around at all?
Was this going to be a settling of accounts after the fact?
Word had it that this woman had a bit of a petty streak...
Just as Xing Qiu was spiraling into anxious speculation, Su Ning suddenly spoke:
"Wu Xuewen was wrong."
"The one with true patriotic spirit, full of burning passion—it wasn't Wu Yi. It was you."
Xing Qiu's head shot up.
Her eyes went wide.
But Su Ning didn't continue down that path. She said flatly, "I'm someone who rewards and punishes by the book. You can't stay in the Northeast anymore. I'll send you where you need to go."
"Th—thank you."
It took a long moment, but Xing Qiu finally spoke.
"Just a small favor."
Su Ning thought to herself—this had always been the path Xing Qiu was meant to walk anyway. But as soon as she came back to the country, between an old flame, a son, and one drama after another, she'd been drained physically and mentally, and eventually died under unclear circumstances.
Back when she'd first read that part of the plotline, she hadn't liked it.
Hmm.
She really was a good person.
……
After the other woman had left.
Su·Good Person·Ning immediately summoned the system with barely contained eagerness:
"Quick, tally up this round's rewards."
