Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Again and again, the village chief brushed Luo Xia aside. Her anxiety mounted as she imagined her kidneys deteriorating. She could not afford to wait.

One day, she returned to the village and confronted him directly.

“Who fathered the child Yang Juhua conceived after her husband died?” she demanded.

A villager had already told her that the chief had ordered everyone to keep silent. That was why every trip had been wasted. She had reached her limit.

She had to learn who her biological father was. She had to find him. She had to get a kidney.

“You won’t let anyone else tell me, and you refuse to tell me yourself. Was it you?” Her tone sharpened.

The village chief went pale. “What nonsense are you spouting?”

“Why are you sneaking around our village asking these questions?”

Luo Xia stopped hiding the truth. Staying alive mattered more. “Because I’m the daughter Yang Juhua gave birth to after that pregnancy.”

His face turned white.

The baby he had personally abandoned in the city had survived.

Luo Xia pressed a knife to his throat. “Tell me, or I’ll kill you!”

“I don’t know.” His body shook. “Several men arranged to go to Yang Juhua’s house that night. They all took turns. No one knows which of them got her pregnant.”

Luo Xia found each man and dragged them to the hospital for DNA testing.

The results arrived a week later and nearly drove her mad.

Not one was her father.

She had humiliated herself before the entire village, forcing every man involved to take a paternity test, and still found nothing.

Had there been another group?

The thought enraged her. To find her father, she had been reduced to testing the whole village one man at a time.

She sat alone in the vast villa, ensconced in her luxurious wheelchair, tears sliding endlessly down her face.

Then one of the village men called.

“There’s something I’ve gone back and forth over. I think you need to know.”

He had been among those involved that night.

The village chief, he said, had participated too.

The revelation struck Luo Xia like thunder.

No wonder that old man was so desperate to bury the truth. If she had not threatened him with a knife, she might never have learned anything.

Then another concern arose. He looked so old. Would his kidney even be usable?

Gu Xinyue returned to the villa laughing beside Zhong Mingjiang. His lust was as relentless as ever. Whenever they were alone, his hands wandered.

“We should be careful, Mr. Zhong. What if Mrs. Zhong comes home?”

Despite weeks of flirtation, Gu Xinyue had never addressed him by name. She always called him Mr. Zhong, and the mixture of distance and intimacy made his heart soar.

“Why fear her? Once I throw her out, you’ll be Mrs. Zhong.”

Gu Xinyue laughed like chiming bells, coyness woven into the sound.

“Don’t. That tickles!”

She had laughed until she ached when she learned Luo Xia was roaming the countryside, testing man after man in search of her biological father.

The thought of Luo Xia making a spectacle of herself filled her with delight.

Gu Xinyue had arranged everything with Liu Xiaoxiao in advance. Liu Xiaoxiao issued a false report claiming Luo Xia’s kidneys were failing, and Luo Xia swallowed the lie completely.

“I heard Mrs. Zhong has kidney disease, and that her legs became paralyzed for some reason.” Gu Xinyue sounded concerned.

Zhong Mingjiang gazed at her adoringly as he tugged at her buttons. “She deserves every bit of it.”

“Zhong Mingjiang!”

A caregiver wheeled Luo Xia into the room. The sight of the pair entwined on the sofa nearly made her head explode.

After Qin Jiajia’s scheme left her paralyzed and supposedly dying of kidney failure, Luo Xia had been desperately searching for a donor. Zhong Mingjiang had offered no support. Instead, he brought another woman home and pawed her on the sofa. If Luo Xia had arrived a moment later, they would have finished what they started.

Zhong Mingjiang jumped at the sight of her.

Wasn’t this madwoman spending every day outside hunting for a kidney? Why was she home?

Gu Xinyue rose and calmly fastened her collar. “Mrs. Zhong, our feelings simply became too powerful to resist.”

She smiled in open provocation.

Years ago, when Zhong Mingjiang was still Qin Jiajia’s husband, Qin Jiajia had caught him with Luo Xia. Luo Xia had used the same tone and the same look: their feelings were too powerful to resist.

Every cause bore its consequence. Every debt came due.

Luo Xia thrashed in her wheelchair, unable to reach Gu Xinyue. Zhong Mingjiang kicked the chair, sending it rolling across the room.

“Mr. Zhong, I’m frightened….” Gu Xinyue clung to his arm.

He held her hand. “Don’t be. She goes mad so often she bites everyone she sees.”

“Come on. We’ll go to a hotel.”

Luo Xia burst into tears. “You’re forcing me, Zhong Mingjiang. If you don’t stop, I’ll tell the police everything from back then! I don’t want to live like this anyway, and I won’t let you live well either!”

“Mr. Zhong, what does she mean? What happened back then?” Gu Xinyue’s eyes filled with alarm. “It sounds serious if the police are involved….”

Already shaken by Luo Xia’s threat, Zhong Mingjiang slapped her twice. “Try it and see what happens!”

Luo Xia covered her swollen face. Murderous fury gathered in her eyes.

How dare he hit her? Without Luo Xia, Zhong Mingjiang would have nothing.

“Xinyue, let’s go….”

“Wait.” Gu Xinyue stopped and looked back at Luo Xia’s wretched figure.

Luo Xia’s eyes bulged with hatred. If a gaze could kill, she would already have murdered both of them.
“What am I to you, Mr. Zhong?” Hurt shimmered in Gu Xinyue’s eyes.

“Everything I was taught says becoming a married man’s mistress is wrong. I only crossed that line because I love you too much. Do you think I’m some kind of easy woman?”

“Gu Xinyue, you bitch,” Luo Xia hissed.

“Mr. Zhong, she cursed me.” Tears immediately spilled down Gu Xinyue’s cheeks.

Luo Xia had already driven Zhong Mingjiang into a rage, and the sight of Gu Xinyue weeping tugged painfully at his heart. “Don’t push your luck, Luo Xia. Look at the state of you. The fact I haven’t divorced you already is more generosity than you deserve. Keep this up and I’ll throw you out without a cent!”

Again. He kept threatening to leave her with nothing.

Qin Jiajia’s entire fortune had fallen into Zhong Mingjiang’s hands. Luo Xia had trusted him too completely, convinced his love for her ran bone-deep. She had never protected herself from him.

She had spent half her life scheming, manipulating her best friend with ease, only to lose everything to a man.

“I hate you, Zhong Mingjiang!”

He sneered. “Plenty of people hate me. What makes you special?”

Seeing them locked in battle, Gu Xinyue tugged at his arm. “Mr. Zhong….”

“Yes?”

The moment he answered her, his voice softened.

“I want to do it upstairs. May we?”

“Upstairs?” He blinked.

“I want to know whether your bed is large and soft. I want to feel the sheets and see their color, their pattern.”

Her fingers traced his chest. Every suggestive word set his nerves alight.

“Yes. Of course!” he answered as if enchanted.

Luo Xia’s face twisted like a maddened animal’s. “You have gone too far!”

She hurled a glass from beside her. It struck Gu Xinyue.

Gu Xinyue gave a soft cry and stepped in front of Zhong Mingjiang as though shielding him. Brows drawn in pain, she looked straight into his face. “Ah! Mr. Zhong, that hurts!”

The glass had struck her back before shattering on the floor.

Fury flooded Zhong Mingjiang’s eyes. He seized Luo Xia by the hair and dragged her bodily from the wheelchair.

Then he smashed her head against the wall. “You filthy shrew! You dare touch Xinyue? Try it again and I’ll kill you!”

“Mingjiang, it hurts!”

“Zhong Mingjiang! Ah! Help me! Stop!”

Gu Xinyue watched in silence, the corner of her mouth lifting.

Only when blood ran from Luo Xia’s forehead did Zhong Mingjiang release her.

Gu Xinyue could have left then, but she wanted to use Zhong Mingjiang to strike Luo Xia where it hurt most and make her understand what it felt like when your own husband took another woman.

Upstairs, the sounds of a man and woman carried without pause to Luo Xia below. A servant helped her from the floor, leaving her humiliated and disheveled.

When it was over, Gu Xinyue dressed and came downstairs. She had once spent years as Zhong Mingjiang’s wife, yet this time the disgust felt more real than ever.

Many parts of her reconstructed body were lifelike silicone. For revenge, she had forced herself to endure.

Luo Xia was still there, staring at her with naked hatred.

Tormenting Luo Xia this way had cost Gu Xinyue dearly, but seeing her rival reduced to this state brought savage satisfaction.

Luo Xia had been her dearest friend. Again and again, she had used Qin Jiajia like a fool. She had slept with Zhong Mingjiang while he was still Qin Jiajia’s husband, never once considering Qin Jiajia’s pain.

She had ordered Qin Jiajia’s uterus removed. She had killed her grandfather.

Gu Xinyue learned that last truth only later. To get the inheritance into their hands sooner, Luo Xia had gone to the hospital herself and disconnected Qin Mo’s oxygen, hastening his death.

“Mr. Zhong was so rough. What a shame someone else will never enjoy him again.” Gu Xinyue cast Luo Xia an icy, victorious look and walked away.

She had gone only a few steps when Luo Xia’s elderly caregiver hurried after her.

“My daughter is about your age, so listen to an old woman’s advice. Don’t pursue a married man. He has a wife. If my daughter behaved this way, I’d beat her to death!” The woman sighed and scolded her with every breath. “People must not violate their consciences. Heaven sees everything. You’ll be struck by lightning and sent to hell when you die!”

“You don’t know what I’ve lived through. You aren’t me. What gives you the right to judge my choices?” Gu Xinyue snapped.

The old woman was not wrong. But she knew nothing of Gu Xinyue’s life.

“I don’t care. A person must live with a clean conscience. You’re too vicious!”

“Enough. I don’t want to curse at you, so stop preaching.” Gu Xinyue strode away before the woman could continue.

Guilt? Shame? Why should she feel either?

Luo Xia found the village chief, revealed her identity, and took him to the hospital for a DNA test.

At first, he refused to donate a kidney. Only after Luo Xia alternated threats with persuasion did he reluctantly agree.

The test confirmed that he was her biological father. Luo Xia finally felt a sliver of relief.

Then a second report plunged her back into despair.

“Kidney… stones?”

The village chief had kidney stones.

“How could this happen?” Her eyes reddened.

Was heaven itself determined to kill her?

“My kidney isn’t usable. There’s nothing I can do. Luo Xia, let it go.” The village chief visibly relaxed.

Luo Xia lay awake all night. Then she suddenly sat upright.

During her visits to the village, someone had mentioned that the chief had two sons.

A half brother’s kidney might still be a match.

Hope surged through her once more.