Chapter 145

Chapter 145

Earlier, when Zhang Qiong had lied in 302 and claimed she was fixing the toilet, the more Huang Yuanrui thought about it afterward, the more something felt off. So she bought a pinhole camera online.

Installing that camera took Huang Yuanrui a tremendous amount of effort.

In the past, whenever she needed to buy a new appliance or have broadband installed, she would hand that kind of work over to her backup suitors. In her mind, girls were supposed to stay clean, fragrant, and soft. Climbing up and down like some monkey was the sort of thing men were meant to do.

But now things were different. Installing a hidden pinhole camera behind Qin Song’s back was something she could only grit her teeth and do herself.

She dragged over a chair and stood on it, only to find it still was not high enough. So she stacked a smaller stool on top of the chair.

After exhausting every ounce of strength she had, Huang Yuanrui finally managed to set the camera up in the corner of the wall. From that angle, it could look down over most of 302. She was very satisfied.

But getting up was easy; getting down was hard. As she braced herself against the wall and climbed down, one careless move sent her freshly done nails smashing hard against the wall.

For one full second, she froze. Then she clutched her finger and let out a sudden shriek, tears spilling from the pain.

Huang Yuanrui’s original reason for installing the camera was to prevent another incident like the so-called “toilet repair” from happening. She would not allow this “Guest Room Manager” to deceive her a second time. In her mind, she was the true owner of 302, and she had to maintain complete control over and awareness of everything that happened in the room.

By then, Huang Yuanrui had already begun living in 302 long-term.

Out of habit, she believed there was no need to check the camera while she was staying there continuously. Only when she occasionally left for a day or two – especially when she did not spend the night in the room – would the camera serve its purpose as surveillance.

As it turned out, she was wrong. If she had been a little more careful, a little more vigilant, she would have discovered that while she was at the cosmetic clinic getting aesthetic treatments done, someone had secretly slipped into the room.

This is also what I want to tell you: never assume your home is absolutely safe.

There are twenty-four hours in a day. Huang Yuanrui had only gone out for three hours that afternoon, and an uninvited guest had already entered her room.

So I think all of us should be a little more cautious about our own living spaces. Wouldn’t you agree?

All right, I’m getting off track.

Back to the point. Not long after the camera Huang Yuanrui had nearly sacrificed half her manicure to install finally began working, she caught Zhang Qiong and Qin Song’s “secret affair.”

After that, the poor little camera became even more of an idle object – because she started personally tailing Zhang Qiong.

During that time, in order to destroy Zhang Qiong and Qin Song’s relationship and break down Zhang Qiong’s mental state, Huang Yuanrui truly stopped at nothing.

She had never planned to start with Zhang Qiong’s husband. Legally speaking, he was already Zhang Qiong’s ex-husband, and to Zhang Qiong, he was basically a dispensable existence. Even if someone told him, “Zhang Qiong is a bitch,” the two of them probably would not care.

Huang Yuanrui believed that if you wanted to strike a snake, you had to hit it at its weak point. She targeted Zhang Qiong’s child, attacked from the place Zhang Qiong feared most, and at the same time used a woman’s understanding of another woman to disguise herself as a mature, gentle man…

Not only did she break up Zhang Qiong and Qin Song, she humiliated Zhang Qiong as well.

All of these things completely occupied Huang Yuanrui’s attention, so she had even less use for that camera.

Several times, she wanted to take it down and sell it secondhand. But every time she remembered the scene of herself standing on two chairs and smashing her fingernail against the wall, she lost her nerve.

Around this time, He Yuchuan, disguised as “Li Shihao,” began acting as the roadblock to Huang Yuanrui’s harassment of Zhang Qiong.

His goal was to force Huang Yuanrui to stop wasting time on Zhang Qiong and show up sooner to pressure Qin Song into marriage, so the whole matter could be settled quickly.

And so, under his guidance, Huang Yuanrui once again lost her head and went to find He Qian.

Huang Yuanrui was too impulsive, and her way of thinking was far too one-sided. She thought her marriage-pressure progress bar had already been dragged all the way to the end. She thought He Qian and Qin Song’s divorce was already a matter of course. She never expected to wait an entire day and night without receiving the “good news” of Qin Song’s divorce.

What drove her even crazier was that after Qin Song went home, he disappeared completely. He would not answer her calls, nor would he reply to her messages.

Huang Yuanrui imagined a hundred different scenes of Qin Song kneeling before He Qian, weeping and begging for forgiveness. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. The more she dwelled on it, the more she fell apart. She paced back and forth in the room, calling Qin Song over and over again, only to be met with an even more dramatic ending – Qin Song had blocked her outright.

Huang Yuanrui’s mental state exploded in an instant. She raised her hand and hurled her phone viciously onto the bed.

Misfortune never comes alone. The phone, as if refusing to behave, slid off the bed and landed on the floor with a sharp smack.

Huang Yuanrui grew even more irritated. She kicked the phone under the bed, then turned and went into the bathroom to splash cold water hard onto her face.

After finally calming down, she lay down on the floor in a pathetic state and reached under the bed for the phone. She pressed her face very close to the ground, narrowing her eyes as she searched for where it had gone.

Afraid her clothes would pick up dust from under the bed, she held her breath and, in an extremely awkward posture, used the tips of her fingers to scrape the phone toward herself. It was then that she suddenly noticed something under the bed that she had never seen before:

A large thermos cup.

She froze.

She was certain it was not hers. She never used thermos cups for water.

Something that did not belong to her had appeared abruptly in the room, and the alarm bells in Huang Yuanrui’s mind instantly began blaring.

She carefully thought back. When she had first moved into this room, there had not been any thermos cup under the bed.

Because she was extremely particular about cleanliness, in the beginning, she had even used a vacuum cleaner to clean under the bed until there was not a speck of dust left. It was only later, after she felt vacuuming under the bed every single time was simply too tiring, that she gradually gave up on keeping that area spotless.

Therefore, she was absolutely certain that during the days when she had still insisted on cleaning under the bed, this thermos cup had not existed.
She reached in, pulled out the thermos, and gave it a shake. When she heard water sloshing inside, she went to the bathroom and poured everything out.

A foul smell rose with it. Pinching her nose, she looked at what had come out: a yellowish liquid with a few bits and pieces floating in it.

She studied the scattered “dregs” more closely, and suddenly realized they were tiny flowers.

Huang Yuanrui’s eyes flew wide open.

She suddenly remembered that once, in bed, Qin Song had told her He Qian had made him Three Flowers tea.

She tried hard to recall their conversation that day. It seemed to have gone something like this:

She had asked, “Why are you breaking out?”

Qin Song had answered, “Too much stress lately. Too much internal heat.”

She had said, “Your wife really isn’t taking care of you properly!”

Qin Song had said, “What’s that got to do with her? She even made me Three Flowers tea. I just didn’t have time to drink it.”

Something occurred to Huang Yuanrui. She sprang to her feet and ran to the cabinet to take out a vacuum cleaner.

She drew the curtains and turned off all the lights. Once the room had gone completely dark, she switched on the vacuum’s searchlight and shone it under the bed.

In the past, whenever she was bored, her favorite thing to do was turn off all the lights, switch on the searchlight, and use the vacuum to clean the dust off the floor inch by inch. It was practically a leisure activity capable of giving anyone with OCD or a cleanliness obsession a brain-gasm. She had simply never imagined she would one day use it in a situation like this.

The searchlight illuminated every dusty and dust-free patch under the bed with perfect clarity. Huang Yuanrui narrowed her eyes and carefully examined the floor around the thermos. The dust there clearly recorded traces of someone rubbing against the floor and lying prone. She even saw a palm print.

Huang Yuanrui slowly stood up.

She did not turn on the lights or open the curtains. She simply stood there quietly in the darkness.

Someone had entered her room. Someone had hidden under her bed. That person had even carelessly left traces behind, and she had known nothing about it all this time.

In that moment, what Huang Yuanrui felt first was not anger, but her own incompetence.

She began checking the surveillance footage on her phone, starting from the very first day the camera had been installed. At last, in the recordings, she saw He Qian.

Huang Yuanrui thought she had seen wrong. She rubbed her eyes and zoomed in on the video.

In the footage, He Qian walked in through the door as if she knew the place well. She did not look surprised or nervous. She looked around, taking in the items in the room.

Huang Yuanrui paused the video and tried hard to remember what she had been doing at that time on that day.

She really could not recall, so she started going through her WeChat chat history. Finally, she remembered: she had gone to a plastic surgery hospital at the time.

She resumed the video and saw He Qian answer a phone call.

“Xiaoyu, I saw another ashtray.”

Then He Qian picked up an ashtray and walked toward the window as she said, “The one I put in her office.”

He Qian went to the window and examined the ashtray carefully. Then she looked at the vanity and said,

“There’s another one on the vanity.”

“I can’t quite tell which one is which.”

“Then how am I supposed to tell them apart?”

After saying those three sentences, she tapped the two ashtrays with her hand, placed one back on the vanity, picked up the other, and went into the bathroom.

Huang Yuanrui was completely dumbfounded. What on earth was He Qian talking about?

She replayed that section of the footage four or five times before she barely managed to understand one thing: it seemed He Qian had tampered with the ashtray on the vanity.

But what Huang Yuanrui found even more baffling was this: why was He Qian able to come and go from this room so freely and so familiarly?

Bewildered, she walked over to the vanity and cautiously examined the ashtray.

This was the first time Huang Yuanrui felt afraid. In the past, she had been used to being the observer in the dark. She had always been the one controlling others. Yet now, she had actually become someone else’s subject of observation.

She checked the later surveillance footage as well. He Qian never appeared again.

In other words, He Qian’s purpose in coming that time seemed to have been this ashtray. Once she had set it up, she could rest easy and never come again.

Huang Yuanrui placed the two ashtrays together and examined them, then copied He Qian’s movements and tapped them back and forth. At last, she discovered that there was indeed something odd about the one on the vanity. She picked it up and weighed it in her hand, and found that the one on the vanity was especially heavy.

What had He Qian put inside the ashtray? A camera?

With that thought, Huang Yuanrui hurled the ashtray hard onto the floor. She expected to see it shatter into pieces and reveal whatever was hidden inside, but to her surprise, it hit the floor and remained perfectly intact.

Now Huang Yuanrui was even more stunned. She threw the ashtray into the trash can, then tore two towels off the drying rack in the bathroom and covered it with them.

She tried calling Qin Song a few more times, only to find that she was still on his blacklist.

She put down her phone and began thinking about why He Qian had done this.

After some thought, she was basically certain that He Qian already knew about her and Qin Song.

So… He Qian was collecting evidence? So she could take Qin Song for a huge sum when they divorced?

Huang Yuanrui was sure He Qian would show all that evidence to Qin Song and use it to negotiate with him. But so far, Huang Yuanrui had not received any message from Qin Song saying that he had been “set up.” Instead, Qin Song had blocked her.

In other words, Qin Song might already know about He Qian’s little “tricks,” but he did not care. He had forgiven her. He wanted to return to his family.

The thought made Huang Yuanrui feel like a ridiculous clown. She had gone to all this trouble putting on a grand show, only for everything to end up right back where it started.
That night, she couldn’t sleep.

At one o’clock, she was remembering all the sweet moments she had shared with Qin Song.

At two, she was remembering all their fights.

At three, she was telling herself to let it all go, return to her hometown, and live beautifully on her own.

At four, she imagined how she might take revenge on Qin Song and He Qian.

At five, she thought again of the ashtray in the bathroom trash can.

At six, she fished the ashtray back out and put it on the table.

At seven, she got up and looked in the mirror.

She felt like she was on the verge of turning into a lunatic. Her heart was packed full of anger and hatred toward Qin Song and He Qian.

She grabbed a random outfit and changed into it, then left without brushing her teeth or combing her hair.

She bought a new SIM card, then went to the area around Qin Song’s home.

Qin Song and He Qian went to an amusement park. She secretly followed them there.

After a sleepless night, she was exhausted. She hadn’t figured out how she was going to get back at them, but the hatred inside her had grown so thick it was almost impossible to breathe through. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t understand how, after she had exposed Qin Song’s cheating, the two of them could still go on a date so casually, so naturally.

Qin Song and He Qian got on the Ferris wheel. She followed right after them and got into a gondola of her own.

The Ferris wheel turned slowly, and outside the window was a beautiful, fresh landscape.

Huang Yuanrui had no heart to take it in. Her eyes were blank as she stared at He Qian and Qin Song. From her angle, she could just see Qin Song’s back, along with half of He Qian’s shoulder and half of her head.

Just then, He Qian saw Huang Yuanrui. She gestured for Qin Song to look behind him, so the two of them looked over at Huang Yuanrui together.

As if on purpose, He Qian gently reached out and took hold of one of Qin Song’s arms. The gesture stabbed deep into Huang Yuanrui’s heart.

Worse still, to comfort her, Qin Song gently patted her hand.

The two of them began whispering to each other, looking at Huang Yuanrui as they discussed something, as if they were watching a monkey at the zoo with great interest.

Huang Yuanrui didn’t know what Qin Song had said, but He Qian even gave a soft little laugh.

Huang Yuanrui’s insides were already churning like a storm-tossed sea. She lowered her head and typed a text to Qin Song:

I will follow you both until I die.

She raised her phone and waved it at Qin Song.

When Qin Song saw it, he replied: Then go die.

The rage Huang Yuanrui had been nursing for a day or two exploded completely. Sitting inside the narrow gondola, she roared, “That woman next to you! She tampered with my ashtray! She must have been spying on us! You idiot! You bitch! Did you know about this? Did you know? Why haven’t you gotten divorced yet!”

As she screamed, she pounded the gondola door with her fists, making the entire gondola tremble slightly.

In that instant, Huang Yuanrui felt blood rushing straight to the top of her head. She wanted nothing more than to crawl out, climb along the Ferris wheel’s beams all the way to Qin Song’s gondola, and drag both of them down with her so they could all die together.

Qin Song and He Qian watched her silently as if they had gone deaf, giving no reaction at all.

After shouting for a while, Huang Yuanrui finally wilted like a deflated balloon.

All of a sudden, she felt very hungry and very dizzy. Thinking carefully, the last thing she had consumed was the strawberry milkshake she drank before going to find He Qian.

Huang Yuanrui felt as if she had become a robot, neither eating nor sleeping. But even a robot wouldn’t be able to hold out if it never charged.

She staggered off the Ferris wheel and followed Qin Song and He Qian from a distance.

She saw the two of them holding hands and jogging ahead, but she truly couldn’t run anymore. She could only force herself to keep walking slowly.

Before long, she lost them completely.

With no other choice, Huang Yuanrui could only follow the amusement park’s main road and slowly make her way toward the exit. The world before her eyes was growing darker and darker. All she wanted was to go back and sleep.

Unexpectedly, when she reached the area near the roller coaster line, she saw He Qian and Qin Song again: Qin Song was on the roller coaster, while He Qian was waiting below.

Huang Yuanrui’s adrenaline spiked again – she was so sleepy and hungry she was about to faint, and yet those two were still going on rides!

She stared at He Qian’s back and slowly walked toward her.

As she walked, she lifted her head and met Qin Song’s eyes. At the same time, she raised her hand and made a slicing motion across her throat.

Seeing this, Qin Song shouted something in terror, but his voice was quickly swallowed up by the excited screams of the tourists.

Huang Yuanrui kept walking toward He Qian. Suddenly, her legs went weak beneath her, and the world before her eyes rapidly began to go black.

Through the haze, she saw He Qian slowly heading toward the exit. She really didn’t have the strength to keep following. Instinctively, she braced a hand against the ground, crouched down, and gasped for breath.

A woman’s concerned voice drifted over from beside her. “Girl, are you okay?”

Huang Yuanrui said softly, “Do you have any candy?”

The woman quickly said, “Oh, so your blood sugar’s low? I have Coke, but I drank straight from the bottle…”

Huang Yuanrui weakly stretched out one arm, and the other woman pressed a plastic bottle into her hand.

She plopped down on the ground, twisted off the cap, and drank it down in great gulps until it was empty.

Another half minute passed before light finally began returning to her vision little by little. She rubbed her eyes and saw a girl wearing a LinaBell headband looking at her cautiously, while a man stood beside the girl with a hand on her shoulder.

The girl asked, “Girl, are you feeling better?”

Huang Yuanrui pushed herself up from the ground and looked at the girl, then at the man.

She nodded. “Thank you.”

She slowly walked toward the exit. Then she looked back and smiled at the girl. “That’s a pretty headband. I used to have one too.”