Chapter 10
Chapter 10
At the villa, Gu Xinyue played a game with the drunken Zhong Mingjiang.
“Come catch me, Mingjiang!”
“You little temptress! You’re irresistible. Heaven finally showed some justice and made that hag drink all that milk. She probably won’t survive emergency treatment. Even if she does, she’ll be little better than a vegetable. My sweet Little Yueyue, I can finally marry you!”
Gu Xinyue’s stomach churned, but she answered coyly. “You had better not lie to me again.”
He lunged impatiently for her clothes. “Of course not!”
She slipped away and pointed at the bright lamp. “The light ruins the mood.”
“My Little Yueyue certainly knows how to set the mood.” He switched it off.
Click.
Darkness swallowed the villa. Night wind moaned outside, stirring the shadows of the trees.
A long-haired figure slipped into the room.
Some time later, another long-haired figure emerged, something clutched in one hand, and hurried toward the door.
The woman who entered had been Liu Xiaoxiao.
The woman who came out was Gu Xinyue.
This was Guo Lang’an’s plan.
It began at his meeting with Gu Xinyue in the cafe.
To destroy an enemy, he said, one must first identify her weakness. Liu Xiaoxiao’s weakness was Qin Mo’s fortune. Dangle the inheritance before her, and she would certainly bite.
After planning together, Gu Xinyue took a forged will to Liu Xiaoxiao.
“Xiaoxiao, do you know that Grandpa never truly stopped caring about you? He might have cursed you, but you lived together for so many years. Affection like that cannot simply be cut away.”
Liu Xiaoxiao watched suspiciously, waiting for the trick.
Gu Xinyue produced a stamped will. “Read it yourself.”
Liu Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened. The document clearly divided Qin Mo’s estate equally between Qin Jiajia and Liu Xiaoxiao.
She remembered the old man who had raised her for more than a decade, the same man whose oxygen she had disconnected with her own hands. Her body trembled. “Impossible. He hated me….”
“People have hearts, Xiaoxiao. Grandpa threw you out while he was furious, then regretted it. More than once, he wanted to bring you home.”
“You stopped him?”
“Yes. I didn’t want to share his love. I hid this will too.”
Liu Xiaoxiao surged to her feet. “Qin Jiajia, you vicious snake!”
“This isn’t the time for old grievances. I came to propose an alliance. Grandpa’s fortune is in Zhong Mingjiang’s hands now. If we work together, we can recover it. Then we’ll divide it equally, exactly as the will says.”
Liu Xiaoxiao’s eyes shifted to the document. “Why should I believe it’s real?”
Gu Xinyue pointed to the seal of Weizheng Law Firm. “Their office is nearby. We can ask the attorney ourselves.”
Clearly tempted, Liu Xiaoxiao joined her in a taxi. Luo Xia was already ruined, but toppling Zhong Mingjiang would take time. Half the fortune was still enormous. Better to secure some of it now.
At the firm, they found a sharply dressed man speaking to the receptionist.
He approached them. “Do you need legal assistance?”
Liu Xiaoxiao answered eagerly, “We’re looking for Attorney Li Wen.”
The man smiled. “That’s me.”
Gu Xinyue gave a slight nod.
Liu Xiaoxiao handed him Qin Mo’s will. “Attorney Li, you were present when this was executed, weren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And it is genuine?”
“It is.”
Liu Xiaoxiao shook with anger. “Where were you when Grandpa died? You bear responsibility for this!”
Li Wen shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I was in a car accident and lay unconscious in the hospital. How was I supposed to probate the will?”
“What about later? You had opportunities after you woke up.”
“By the time I left the hospital, you had moved. How could I find one person among millions? Now that you’ve come to me, I have a duty to distribute the estate. Where are Old Master Qin’s cash, bank accounts, real estate records, and other assets?”
Liu Xiaoxiao turned a knife-edged stare on Gu Xinyue.
Gu Xinyue drew her outside. “The past is over. We need to recover the fortune from Zhong Mingjiang. You’re intelligent enough not to fight me now.”
Liu Xiaoxiao quickly weighed the choice. “Fine. What is your plan?”
“Simple. I’ll get Zhong Mingjiang drunk. You sleep with him while I steal his keys, enter the company, break into his computer, and copy the files.”
“Why don’t you sleep with him? No. I want to steal the files.”
“Of course. But you don’t know his office. If you can’t find the confidential records, the opportunity is wasted. The company has surveillance cameras too. Do you know where they are or how to disable them?”
Liu Xiaoxiao’s face tightened. “Fine. But once you have the money, we go straight to Attorney Li.”
“Agreed.”
And so Liu Xiaoxiao remained at the villa with Zhong Mingjiang while Gu Xinyue disabled the surveillance system and entered the company.
She reached Zhong Mingjiang’s office and unlocked his computer using his birthday.
Before long, she recovered evidence that he and Luo Dayuan had trafficked drugs together. She had Gu Cangbei to thank. Without the hacking skills he taught her, it would never have been so easy.
Zhong Mingjiang had been only an accomplice, but the evidence was enough for a lengthy prison sentence.
She once wanted him dead. Now she realized that forcing him to live in misery would be far more painful.
The fire years ago had destroyed every piece of evidence against Zhong Mingjiang. But the law’s net was vast, and nothing escaped forever. Those who harmed others would one day face judgment.
Gu Xinyue uploaded the evidence to major websites. Then she altered data throughout Zhong Mingjiang’s company records and used the company seal to execute a large number of contracts.
As for his signature, she had practiced until her imitation was flawless.
Zhong Mingjiang operated a limited liability company, not a public corporation. He alone controlled every major and minor decision. That concentration of power gave Gu Xinyue the opening she needed.
By morning, his company would be an empty shell.
Liu Xiaoxiao was calculating, but she knew little about corporate management. Gu Xinyue had also rushed her, leaving no time to investigate the arrangement. The trap had closed perfectly.
The money would ultimately reach Gu Cangbei and several of Qin Mo’s old friends. Liu Xiaoxiao would receive nothing.
Worse, she now faced an unprecedented danger.
Using an unregistered phone card prepared in advance, Gu Xinyue called Zhong Mingjiang.
“Do you remember me?”
Still lost in passion, Zhong Mingjiang recognized her voice. The alcohol haze cleared. “What’s happening? Then the woman in my bed…”
Gu Xinyue laughed coldly. “My friend Liu Xiaoxiao. I asked her to take my place.”
Understanding dawned. “You little temptress. You certainly know how to play.”
“I do. I just finished playing at your company. I borrowed your seal and copied your handwriting to sign quite a few contracts. Oh, and I recovered the evidence of your drug trafficking from your computer. It’s already online. I imagine the police will arrive first thing tomorrow morning.”
Zhong Mingjiang began to shake. “Why are you doing this?”
Before he could record the call, Gu Xinyue hung up.
With a roar, he closed his hands around the throat of the woman beneath him. “You conspired with her to destroy me! I’ll kill you!”
Liu Xiaoxiao had grown suspicious during the call and tried to escape, but Zhong Mingjiang’s body pinned her down. Now he had become a rabid animal, stripped of reason. She was no match for his strength.
Soon she stopped moving.
Her eyes remained wide, her limbs rigid.
She was dead.
The police moved quickly. They knocked on the villa door before dawn.
“I didn’t do any of it!” Zhong Mingjiang shouted. “That woman Gu Xinyue framed me!”
No one believed him.
Police saw the evidence online and the naked body of a woman in his villa. Testing found Zhong Mingjiang’s semen inside Liu Xiaoxiao, and investigators classified it as a brutal crime of passion.
The will found in Liu Xiaoxiao’s pocket proved invalid. Weizheng Law Firm had no attorney named Li Wen. Guo Lang’an had asked a friend’s firm to help him and Gu Xinyue stage the deception.
Unwilling to surrender, Zhong Mingjiang accused Gu Xinyue of entering the company and signing contracts without authorization. But the surveillance system had failed that night. There was no footage.
Gu Cangbei joined forces with several of Qin Mo’s old friends and rapidly enforced the contracts, hollowing out Zhong Mingjiang’s company before anyone could stop them.
When police investigated, they discovered that Gu Cangbei and the others had already donated every cent they “earned” to social welfare organizations and impoverished mountain communities.
How could such charitable people have framed Zhong Mingjiang?
The matter went no further.
Some time later, Luo Xia exhaled her final breath in intensive care and was declared brain-dead.
Zhong Mingjiang was convicted of both drug trafficking and murder, and sentenced to death.
Justice endured between heaven and earth. Every villain received the punishment they deserved.
Gu Xinyue stood inside the home she had shared with Gu Cangbei and quietly packed her belongings.
“Goodbye, Cangbei.” She touched the cherry tree beside the door, tears slipping soundlessly down her face.
She was damaged beyond repair. Worse than damaged. Her body was filled with medical materials, her abdomen empty of a womb. In every way that mattered, she believed herself unworthy of Gu Cangbei.
He deserved better.
She remembered him scolding her for being foolish and useless, his fury when he learned she had given herself to Zhong Mingjiang, and the gentle way he looked into her eyes and called her Xinyue.
They had shared so much, yet they were never meant to be together.
The cherry blossom was said to be a flower of death, growing more brilliant with every breath of death it absorbed. Did this tree represent the love that had just begun between her and Gu Cangbei, only to die before it could bloom?
She took a taxi and told the driver, “The airport.”
Behind her came Gu Cangbei’s desperate shout. “Xinyue, wait!”
Gu Xinyue hardened her heart. “Drive. Don’t listen to him.”
The driver pressed the accelerator and sped away.
Holding Gu Yiman’s hand, Gu Cangbei quickly stopped another taxi.
The first car fled. The second pursued.
At a bend in the road, Gu Cangbei finally caught up. He leaned toward the other driver and shouted, “Let my wife go, or I’ll report you for abducting her!”
Intimidated by his expression, the driver lost the nerve to continue. After another short distance, he pulled over and ordered Gu Xinyue out.
Gu Cangbei swept her into his arms. Again and again, he said, “If you leave, what am I supposed to do alone?”
The raw sincerity in his voice would have moved anyone.
Behind them, Yiman tugged at his sleeve. “Daddy, you still have me and Mommy.”
Gu Xinyue stared at Little Yiman. “What did you call me?”
“Yiman never had a mommy. I’ve wanted one for a very long time. I looked at everyone and, even though you aren’t perfect, I suppose I chose you!”
Her comically grown-up manner made them laugh.
Gu Cangbei drew both of them into his arms. “I have a wife. I have a child. Heaven has treated me, Gu Cangbei, with extraordinary kindness.”
Gu Xinyue rested against his shoulder and wept again.
This time, her tears were filled with happiness and peace.
A gentle wind moved beneath a sky aflame with clouds.
The last light of sunset fell across the three of them, drawing their shadows long upon the road.
The End