"I feel sorry for her, and that’s only because you two, as parents, have never once felt sorry for your own daughter!" Auntie Zhang was not about to be intimidated by Wang Meifang. In this building, no one came from a family that was any less well-off than the others.
Wang Meifang tried to argue back, but Shi Jingye barked at her, "Shut up! That’s enough!"
He couldn't afford to be the laughingstock of the neighborhood. A man of his stature—a factory director—couldn't even manage his own daughter of eighteen years. Who would believe he could manage the workers at the factory?
Shi Jingye walked over, yanked Qiao Qingqing back, and addressed the neighbors in a low voice: "My apologies for the disturbance. I’ll make sure they keep it down from now on. You can all go home."
With that, he slammed the door shut.
Auntie Zhang, still uneasy, called out from outside: "Director Shi, you must not hit the child again!"
Shi Jingye forced down his rage and glared coldly at Qiao Qingqing: "Look at the mess you’ve made!"
"I told you this wretched girl was trouble. Look at the people in this building—she’s conned them all into being her muscle," Wang Meifang spat bitterly. "If I’d known I was raising an ingrate, I should have strangled you the day you were born!"
Qiao Qingqing shook off Shi Jingye's hand. "It’s not that you didn't think about strangling me; it’s just that I was lucky enough to survive."
She watched as Wang Meifang’s expression turned increasingly ugly, and said coldly: "Wang Meifang, do you really think your baby-swapping scheme from all those years ago was so seamless that nobody saw it?"
At these words, a flicker of panic appeared in Wang Meifang’s eyes.
"You wretched girl, shut your mouth! Who told you I swapped the two of you?"
She still refused to admit it.
However, Shi Jingye, who knew his wife’s temperament all too well, saw the panic in her eyes and recalled her reaction back at the hospital...
Was there anything left for Shi Jingye to misunderstand?
Still, Qiao Qingqing was the outsider now. Regardless of whether Wang Meifang had done it, he could not let Qiao Qingqing get what she wanted.
"What proof do you have?" Shi Jingye said, his expression stern. "If you have evidence, go find the neighborhood security team and have them take someone in. Without evidence, you’re just spewing slander."
Qiao Qingqing couldn't help but clap. "Well said, truly worthy of a director!"
She did lack evidence—after all, it was something Wang Meifang had confessed to herself. But if she didn't have the proof to take down Wang Meifang, she certainly had the leverage to take down Shi Jingye.
"Since Wang Meifang was the one who did it, it wouldn't be hard to investigate; it would just take some time."
Hearing this, a flash of mockery and smugness crossed Shi Jingye’s eyes; he knew he had guessed right.
Immediately, Qiao Qingqing changed her tone: "But as for you, Director Shi—your illicit affairs and your private acceptance of bribes from factory workers—those things would be simple to investigate."
For a moment, the room was so quiet that a pin drop could be heard.
After a long while, Shi Jingye was the first to regain his senses. His face turned pale, his eyes bulging as he stared daggers at her.
"What... did... you... say?"
Afraid he hadn't heard her clearly, Qiao Qingqing raised her voice and repeated: "I said, Director Shi, your illicit affairs..."
Shi Jingye brought the wooden club down with a violent swing! The wind from the club made the hair on Qiao Qingqing’s arms stand up. Having been on guard all along, she dodged to the side without hesitation.
"Bang!"
The table behind Qiao Qingqing was smashed in half.
She had no time to worry about the unfortunate table; her eyes remained locked on Shi Jingye. He looked savage, like a beast that had finally torn off its human skin.
"What’s wrong? Can’t keep up the act anymore?" Qiao Qingqing sneered. "You’re just like Wang Meifang. You both thought your dirty deeds were hidden from everyone. It’s a pity, though—Heaven has eyes, and now I know."
"Ahhhhh!"
Only then did Wang Meifang finally grasp what Qiao Qingqing had said. Screaming in a mix of fury and hysteria, she lunged at Shi Jingye, her claws raking across her husband's face.
"Shi Jingye, you heartless bastard! You dare to cheat on me?"
Seeing these two old curs, who had been united in their efforts to suppress her, now tearing each other apart, Qiao Qingqing felt a profound sense of satisfaction.
After swinging the club, Shi Jingye had snapped back to reality, his mind regaining some clarity. Faced with his frenzied wife, he impatiently insisted that these were just lies Qiao Qingqing had fabricated to drive a wedge between them.
But Qiao Qingqing coolly began to list several names—yes, several, not just one or two.
Leveraging his position as factory director, Shi Jingye had used coercion and temptation to rack up quite a debt of romantic favors. It wasn't until his past life, when the factory went bankrupt, that Shi Jingye had drunkenly blurted out these affairs while drinking with his cronies. Back then, funded by Qiao Qingqing, he had become the boss of a company; though old, he had been full of swagger.
While Qiao Qingqing didn't have absolute proof of his affairs, there was no doubt about his corruption and bribery. Just exposing one of those would be enough to ruin him.
When Wang Meifang heard those names, she went mad, clawing at Shi Jingye as if her life depended on it. This confirmed to Qiao Qingqing that her past-life knowledge wasn't just Shi Jingye bragging.
In the end, Shi Jingye was left with two deep gouges on his face and four or five on his neck. Since he had to go to work tomorrow, he couldn't afford to walk into the factory with a clawed-up face, so he desperately protected it. He couldn't care about his neck, which was already bleeding from Wang Meifang’s nails.
Had Wang Meifang not grown tired and slumped to the floor, sobbing, he would have sustained far more than those few marks.
Shi Jingye turned a deaf ear to Wang Meifang’s wailing. They were husband and wife; they were bound together by blood and bone. As long as Wang Meifang realized that blowing this up would destroy him, she would have no choice but to swallow her pride and keep quiet.
As for Lanlan and Awang... they were his own flesh and blood. If he lost his job and were arrested, it would do them more harm than good. He wasn't worried about them.
The only one he was concerned about was Qiao Qingqing. He had an instinct that she was now his greatest threat.
Shi Jingye walked straight over to the sofa, looking at Qiao Qingqing, who was sitting with her legs crossed, watching the show.
"Have you caused enough trouble?"
Seeing him approach, Qiao Qingqing pulled a kitchen knife from behind her.
It was this knife that stopped Shi Jingye in his tracks. Otherwise, given the force with which he had shattered the table, she suspected he would have charged over to strangle her.
"Trouble? Who’s causing trouble? Director Shi, your wife swapped me with your daughter—the one born with a sickness. For eighteen years, I treated you like my own parents, endured your abuse, and let you treat me like a slave."
"But today, I finally realized that I could have had parents who loved me, brothers who pampered me. I could have stayed home, done nothing but focus on my studies, and when I grew up, I could have earned a job at the factory..."
Every word she spoke dimmed the light in her eyes. The dark, swirling undercurrents in her gaze were enough to make even Shi Jingye shudder.