Chapter 128

Chapter 128

Qin Song and Hu Heng got into the car bound for City A.

Unlike before, Qin Song did not fall asleep the moment he got in. His mind was packed with worries, leaving him unusually alert.

When he could imagine the owner of the Unknown Number as a specific person, his heart filled with anger – like when he had gone to see He Yuchuan.

Anger would slowly expand like a squashed earplug, allowing a person to briefly forget fear.

But when that person became vague and elusive, their identity unknown, his heart dropped back into an ice pit-like now.

He had lived with He Qian for ten years. He knew her so well that he could point out the location of every mole on her body.

He had thought he understood her completely. She was so virtuous, so good-tempered, and so emotionally stable that he had believed he stood entirely above her. As long as he wanted to, he could adapt himself to her from head to toe and keep her firmly in the palm of his hand.

And yet, in Qin Song’s view, just because he had the ability to control her did not mean he had truly bullied her. Setting aside his flirtations and affairs outside the home, whenever he was alone with He Qian, he had done everything he could to treat her well.

Qin Song had never truly considered himself a scumbag. In his understanding, a scumbag was a man who hurt one woman for the sake of another.

He felt that scumbags were all incompetent, as if they only had one portion of money in their hands and one portion of love in their hearts. If they gave half to their mistress, their wife was left with only half; if they gave the whole portion to their mistress, their wife was left with nothing at all.

But he was different. He had ten times the money and love. Even if he gave three portions to a mistress, his wife would still have a full seven. From that perspective, he had never favored one over the other, much less favored the concubine and discarded the wife.

He had simply never expected He Qian to have known about his infidelity long ago. She must have anticipated even Huang Yuanrui showing up at her door to force a confrontation. But when she had first found out, and how much she already knew, he had no idea.

Now he believed the owner of the Unknown Number was very likely He Qian. She had put a listening device in his ashtray, and that ashtray really had appeared in the anonymous letter.

Perhaps He Yuchuan did not know everything about his sister either. From his perspective, his sister had only planted one listening device. But could she have secretly planted a camera as well, without telling anyone?

Qin Song suddenly realized he had never truly understood his ex-wife.

She was like a calm sea, and he was like a tiny sailboat. Only by plunging deep below the surface could one discover the hidden world beneath.

From that moment on, Qin Song gained a different understanding of women as creatures.

Just as humans only truly begin to revere nature when faced with natural disasters, Qin Song finally, belatedly, began to revere women like He Qian.

They might look perfectly ordinary, as if the kitchen and the garden were their only stages, but that was only because they had not chosen the right opportunity.

Once their interests were threatened, or their bodies and hearts were harmed, their slender frames could erupt with astonishing power.

Qin Song felt he had been terribly stupid, that he had underestimated He Qian for a full ten years. Yet for some reason, he could not bring himself to hate her at all.

He did not want money from her, nor did he want a house from her. He only wanted to ask why, after receiving all her compensation, she still insisted on destroying him completely.

Hu Heng had fallen asleep again. His left cheek was pressed against the seat back, his eyes and mouth tightly shut.

Qin Song looked at him and felt deeply guilty.

Hu Heng could have lived a normal life, yet now, to keep him company, he was being dragged back and forth across the country.

Qin Song remembered the first time he met Huang Yuanrui. He had been busy exchanging flirtatious glances with Huang Yuanrui, while Hu Heng had his mouth wide open, snoring so hard he was almost drooling. Back then, Hu Heng had still been simple and honest, like a sunny big boy.

Now both of them had reached middle age, and wrinkles had appeared on Hu Heng’s face too. He busied himself with the company all on his own, looking weighed down by worries. Even when he slept, he no longer sprawled out carelessly like he used to.

At that moment, Qin Song received another text from the Unknown Number.

“Mr. Wang Hai, when we meet, I’ll say – bingo!”

Qin Song felt a weak surge of anger.

This person had become addicted to the game. They took Qin Song’s suffering as entertainment.

Qin Song could not imagine meeting He Qian and seeing her gentle face suddenly twist into a vicious expression, then hearing her smile and say to him, “bingo.”
He looked left and right, then quickly replied, “What exactly do you want? Money? How much?”

The other side didn’t reply again.

Maybe Hu Heng was right. Maybe the other party didn’t want anything at all – maybe they just wanted to see him suffer, wanted to watch him lose his mind.

Even though Qin Song understood that, he still couldn’t look at it rationally or control his own emotions.

Right now, he just wanted the other side to ask him for something – anything.

Even if they wanted him to kneel on the ground and act like a dog, he could immediately loop a chain around his neck, lie down, and bark obediently, as long as he could be done with this nightmare once and for all.

He truly didn’t want, on some future day – say, on New Year’s Eve, when the family of three was wrapping dumplings and watching the Spring Festival Gala; or during the Lantern Festival, when Li Juan brought out bowls of tangyuan for him and Xiao Hui; or on Children’s Day, when he took Xiao Hui to a parent-child activity… he truly didn’t want that unfamiliar number to suddenly drift back into his life and send him a message:

“Mr. Wang Hai, do you still remember the ashtray you used when you killed someone?”

Just imagining that kind of scene made him lose all hope for the future.

After getting out of the car, Qin Song took a mask and hat from his bag and put them on.

Hu Heng said, “You really don’t need to do this. No one here knows what happened to you.”

Qin Song said nothing, only waved it off.

He first went to the road where the company was located and stood across from the entrance, staring at the building for a long time.

That had once been the place where he struggled to make a name for himself, where he had realized his own value in life.

He had once carried huge dreams and set huge goals. He had once drunk with clients until he coughed up blood from his stomach, and he had once lost handfuls of hair after failing a bid. He had suffered plenty of losses, and he had also made a lot of money.

Now, all of it felt like something from a previous life.

A thousand-mile embankment collapses from an ant hole. He had never dreamed that after just a short time of finally making something of himself, his whole life would be completely ruined by a love disaster.

Qin Song didn’t contact He Qian in advance. He just went straight to the villa where they used to live.

He habitually assumed He Qian would still be home all the time, but when he knocked, there was no answer from inside.

So he sat down on the steps by the door and waited in the sun for He Qian.

He waited until the sun was almost setting before Qin Song finally saw He Qian’s figure. More precisely, the first thing he saw was the Mercedes-Benz he had once bought.

Only back when he bought it, it was white. Now, the car had turned sky blue.

He Qian had wrapped it in a blue car film.

She drove the sky-blue Mercedes-Benz into the garage, and not long after, she came back out carrying a handbag.

She had actually cut her hair into a sharp, chin-length bob, and a pair of flashy oversized earrings peeked out beneath it. She was wearing a crisp white suit, paired with pointed high heels, and she looked like a completely different person.

The instant she saw Qin Song, He Qian was startled. “Qin Song?”

Qin Song stared at her blankly and nodded.

He Qian took two steps forward, then widened her eyes and bent down to look at him. “You… where have you been? I haven’t seen you in a long time. You look different.”

Qin Song held onto the step as he stood up. “You look different too.”

He Qian looked him over from head to toe again. “Come inside and talk.”

Qin Song nodded.

He Qian set down two cups of coffee on the coffee table. “Why did you suddenly come looking for me?”

Qin Song didn’t answer. Instead, he said to himself, “You’ve really changed a lot.”

He Qian tucked her hair behind her ear and smiled. “Xinxin and I opened a beauty salon together. Business is pretty good. Recently Xinxin got pregnant, so I’m the only one at the shop, busy from morning till night, hehe…”

Qin Song smiled. “That’s great.”

He Qian said, “Where have you been lately? Are you still in City A?”

Qin Song said, “I went back to my hometown.”

He Qian asked, “Do you have somewhere to stay back there?”

Qin Song nodded. “Mm. Everything’s fine.”

He Qian said, “But if you’re living in your hometown, what about the company and the hotel?”

Qin Song said, “I handed everything over to Hu Heng.”

He Qian said, “Oh, then he must be even busier than I am by a hundred times, hehe…”

Qin Song looked at her face and suddenly said, “You’re very cheerful now.”
He Qian smiled awkwardly. “I’m going out to deal with people now, so I have to be a little more outgoing. I worked really hard to overcome my old introverted personality. But deep down, I’m still an introvert. Every time I talk too much with people outside, when I get home I have to rest for a long time before my energy comes back…”

Qin Song listened with his chin in his hands, feeling very happy.

He Qian picked up her coffee cup, then set it back down. “By the way, what did you come to see me about?”

Qin Song tilted his head and thought for a moment. “Nothing much. I just wanted to come see you.”

He Qian let out an awkward “oh.” Then the two of them fell into silence.

Qin Song stood up from the sofa and slapped his legs. “I’m leaving.”

He Qian pointed at the coffee cup. “You haven’t even taken a sip.”

Qin Song walked to the door, then looked back at her. “Don’t wear high heels when you drive. Remember to keep a pair of flats in the car.”

He Qian rubbed her hands together. “Oh, okay.”

Qin Song opened the door, but didn’t step outside. He stood at the doorway for a full ten seconds before finally saying hesitantly, “Actually, I have something I want to ask you.”

He Qian closed the door for him. “I know you too well. I figured you had something on your mind, or you wouldn’t have come looking for me out of the blue. What do you have to hide from me? Take your time and say it.”

She pulled Qin Song back to the sofa.

Qin Song took a deep breath and said quietly, “Let me say up front that I know about some of the things you did, but I don’t care, and I don’t blame you. I don’t want to dig into all that…”

He Qian suspected her ears were malfunctioning. She asked loudly, “Can you even hear yourself when you talk like that?”

Qin Song covered his face. “I don’t know how to say it.”

He Qian stuffed the coffee cup back into his hand. “Take a sip and calm down.”

Qin Song brought the coffee to his lips, then put it down again. He closed his eyes, steeled himself, and blurted, “I know you and He Yuchuan teamed up to put a wiretap on me.”

At that, He Qian froze instantly.

Qin Song opened his eyes and looked at her. Her expression was stiff, and her face had gone red.

With a hint of caution, He Qian asked, “So today… you’re here to settle accounts with me?”

Qin Song waved a hand. “That’s not what I mean. You misunderstood.”

He Qian nodded. “It was me. I did do it.”

Qin Song stared at her mouth. “What else did you do back then?”

He Qian tilted her head. “What exactly are you asking today?”

Qin Song answered earnestly, “I’m just asking about this. Really, I don’t mean anything else.”

He Qian said, “If you do something, own it. I admit it. After I found out you were cheating, I started listening in on you two. Maybe my methods were indeed pretty despicable, but I think from an emotional standpoint, it’s understandable. What do you think?”

Qin Song hurriedly nodded. “Understandable.”

He Qian said, “After that, your little sweetheart even came to visit me, and then the two of us got divorced. That’s all there was to it. What are you still confused about now… wait, are you two married now?”

Qin Song was stunned for three seconds. “When was the last time you used the wiretap?”

He Qian thought about it, then rolled her eyes. “My useless little brother said the wiretap he gave me would last more than two hundred days on a full charge… Do you remember I had a bad fever around that time?”

Qin Song recalled it and said, “Yeah, you were sick for two or three days before you got better. You were running a 102-degree fever.”

He Qian nodded. “Before I got sick, I still heard you two arguing. During the time I was ill, I didn’t pay attention to your business anymore. I didn’t expect that after I recovered, the wiretap wouldn’t pick up anything at all – He Yuchuan bought a defective one.”

Qin Song said, “So you’re saying that starting from when you got the fever, that wiretap was never usable again?”

He Qian looked at him in confusion. “Why are you asking all this now? Are you planning to divorce your little sweetheart too?”

Qin Song’s eyes darted around. “Uh… there have been some problems in our relationship.”

He Qian sighed. “Learn your lesson. Love isn’t child’s play.”