Xu Jingchen took Meng Hua’s hand and gently kissed her palm.
“Shen Meng took this relationship too seriously. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get rid of her. If I kept her around and eventually became a celebrity, she could become a liability. What if she exposed my secrets? Then all the money you and I invested would be gone.”
Meng Hua pulled her hand free and lightly slapped Xu Jingchen across the face.
“That’s what you get for being unable to control yourself and fooling around with another woman! Look at all the trouble you’ve caused!”
Xu Jingchen grabbed Meng Hua’s hand again and held it against his own face, letting her slap him.
“Sister Hua, I know I was wrong. But I’m young, healthy, and full of energy… I’m still a young man, after all. You only agree to see me once or twice a month…”
Xu Jingchen sat up and wrapped Meng Hua’s arm around his waist. He leaned over, pressed her against the headboard, and kissed her.
Two years ago, when Xu Jingchen had just started working at Ping’an Auto Repair, the first major client he ever received was Sister Hua.
The two hit it off immediately and quickly became intimately involved. From then on, they began their secret relationship.
But Sister Hua was the CEO of a publicly listed company. Although she was already divorced, she was extremely busy, constantly flying all over the world. At most, she could only see Xu Jingchen two or three times a month.
Xu Jingchen knew that, to her, he was nothing more than a little pet she kept around.
But he had no intention of remaining just a pet.
He had much bigger ambitions.
Xu Jingchen knew that Sister Hua had extremely powerful connections and resources. He wanted to use her connections to completely change his life and climb into a higher social class.
“With a face like mine, I was never meant to be born in the mud!”
Every day at Ping’an Auto Repair’s main shop, Xu Jingchen saw wealthy young men who were either plain-looking or downright sleazy.
The more he saw them, the stronger his determination became to climb higher, no matter what it took.
As for Shen Meng, she was nothing more than a tool he used to provoke Sister Hua and achieve his goals.
A stupid woman who was eager to spend her own money on him and let him enjoy all the benefits for free!
And that idiot had actually wanted to marry him and spend the rest of her life with him!
How ridiculous!
An old woman who needed a loan just to buy a 320L could actually have delusions like that!
She was unbelievably foolish!
If she had been willing to part ways peacefully, she wouldn’t have had to suffer this disaster.
But she had grown greedy, so he couldn’t be blamed for being ruthless.
Xu Jingchen reached out to pull down the strap of Sister Hua’s silk nightgown, but she caught his hand and stopped him.
Meng Hua’s hand slid from Xu Jingchen’s neck to his shoulder and pushed him away.
“Getting someone killed would make things even more troublesome. You still want to become a celebrity? Wouldn’t that just drag me into the fire?”
“Don’t worry, Sister Hua. What I did was extremely discreet. It looks just like natural wear and tear. It took me a full six months to arrange everything.”
Xu Jingchen was completely confident.
“Even the traffic police issued a report saying that natural wear and tear caused tiny cracks, which led to a brake-fluid leak. The brakes failed, causing the accident. The case is already settled. Even if someone digs it up in the future, it’ll only look like an old heartbreak from my past. It might even make my fans feel sorry for me and love me even more!”
Meng Hua pinched Xu Jingchen’s chin and pulled him closer.
“But you bought Shen Meng a large personal accident insurance policy, then applied for the payout the very next day after her accident. If that gets exposed, people will definitely become suspicious.”
“Don’t worry, Sister Hua. Shen Meng was the one who bought the large insurance policy. She even bought the same kind of policy for me, with herself as the beneficiary. Besides, once I get the money, I’ll use it to do charity work in her name to commemorate her. Even if someone digs it up in the future, it’ll only add to my image as a devoted lover!”
Meng Hua laughed when she heard that. Her hand slid from Xu Jingchen’s chin up to his face, stroking him freely.
“I knew I hadn’t chosen the wrong person! You’re so young, you come from such a humble background, and you don’t even have much education, yet you have such ambition and such a ruthless mind!”
“My followers on Douyin have already surpassed one million. I’ve also shown you my loyalty and abilities. Why don’t you give me a chance, Sister Hua, and let me serve you with even more… dedication?”
Xu Jingchen narrowed his eyes slightly and gently rubbed his face against Meng Hua’s palm, like a beautiful ragdoll cat enjoying its owner’s touch.
“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”
Meng Hua moved her hand to the back of Xu Jingchen’s head, pulled him closer, and kissed his full, red lips.
Shen Meng was already shaking with rage.
When she saw the scene before her and remembered that over the past year and a half, she had once kissed those same lips and shared the same man with this woman, she felt sick to her stomach.
Shang Hong couldn’t hold her back.
Shen Meng rushed forward and started punching and kicking the two of them wildly.
Her fists passed straight through them without actually hitting anything, but it still felt incredibly satisfying.
Seeing that Xu Jingchen and Meng Hua were about to enter a scene unsuitable for children, Shang Hong had no choice but to rush over and forcibly drag Shen Meng away.
“Shen Meng! Are you seriously going to… watch this?!”
Shen Meng glanced at the two filthy creatures on the bed and slowly closed her eyes.
“Take me back to your house.”
Shang Hong carried a bowl of instant noodles and opened the guest room door.
She walked around the peony-embroidered screen and saw Shen Meng curled up into a ball on the traditional wooden canopy bed inside.
“I never thought someone so tall could curl up into such a tiny little ball.”
Shang Hong placed the instant noodles on the round table outside, then walked over and nudged Shen Meng.
“Hey! You’re actually lying on the bed in the clothes you wore outside! That’s so unhygienic! And you’ve been lying here for three whole days. You haven’t eaten, drunk anything, showered, changed your clothes, or even gone to the bathroom. Are you seriously planning to stink to death in my house?!”
Shang Hong waited for a moment, but Shen Meng didn’t respond.
She nudged her again.
“Come on, get up! Go take a shower and change your clothes!”
Shen Meng kept her eyes closed and pushed Shang Hong’s hand away.
“Didn’t you say one day here is only one minute in my world? I won’t stink after three days without food or water, and I won’t die either!”
Shang Hong forcibly pulled Shen Meng into a sitting position.
“That may be true, but there are still twenty-four hours in a day here, and the human body functions the same way! While you’re in this space, you still need three meals a day and eight hours of sleep. If you keep this up for too long, you’ll still die!”
After Shang Hong shook her several times, Shen Meng finally opened her eyes.
“Stop shaking me. If you keep going, you’ll shake my brain loose. Then I’ll be neither alive nor dead, and I’ll see how you deal with me.”
“Tch.”
Shang Hong let go, but she hadn’t expected Shen Meng to immediately collapse again the moment she did.
“Seriously, you!”
Shang Hong ground her teeth in frustration.
“If you’re angry and sad, then cry! If you don’t want to cry, smash something! Just let it out! Anything is better than making me watch you like this! It’s suffocating!”
Shen Meng sat at the dining table in silence, eating the bowl of instant noodles that had swollen from soaking too long.
She had already taken a shower and changed into antique-style home clothes. Her wet hair dripped water onto her shoulders.
“Shen Meng, you really don’t have to be this upset. Finding out that a man is trash isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It’s better than being deceived by him forever!”
Shang Hong forced herself to comfort her.
She was terrible at comforting people.
“Using death to see through a scumbag—is that supposed to be a good thing?”
Shen Meng’s voice remained calm.
“My life, not even thirty years long, has been miserable. I’m their biological daughter, and I was their first child, yet I was the one they refused to love. My own mother was filled with hatred and disgust toward me. Tell me, why?! I’ve spent my entire life desperately searching for an answer, but I died without ever finding out.”
“Everyone says there’s nothing like a mother’s love in this world. They say maternal love is the greatest and most selfless love there is. But why did my mother have not even the slightest bit of love for me? Why were her heart and eyes filled with nothing but hatred and disgust?!”
Shen Meng spoke with an eerie calmness.
She was so calm that Shang Hong couldn’t sense even the slightest emotion from her.
That only made Shang Hong even more uneasy.
“Shen Meng…”
“After all that, someone finally appeared. He loved me, protected me, and gave me the warmth I had never received before. And he turned out to be a liar! A scammer who targeted me for money! Every bit of love and tenderness he showed me was nothing but an act!”
“I never imagined that someone would even have their eyes on the little bit of money I had! A 320L—what is that worth in Nancheng?! I even had to buy it with a loan.”
“Oh, right. Maybe that’s exactly why Xu Jingchen thought that since someone like me had managed to date a young, handsome man like him, I would definitely cling to him and never let go. That must be why he decided to get rid of me.”
“And after all these years of working so hard, I had finally gotten a stable job and a decent income. I was finally about to start living a good life, and that scumbag didn’t just deceive me—he actually plotted a car accident to have me killed! You call that a good thing?! If you think it’s such a good thing, do you want it for yourself?”
Shang Hong watched Shen Meng finally lose her temper, and there was something strangely familiar about the sight.
For more than a thousand years, Shang Hong had traveled through countless parallel spaces searching for Shen Meng’s reincarnation.
She had finally found her this time.
But the timid, submissive woman standing before her now felt completely unfamiliar.
“Shen Meng, you want to be reborn so you can get revenge on that scumbag and that wicked woman?! Fine. I support you! Only after you settle this grudge can you truly begin a new life.”
The moment Shang Hong finished speaking, a deafening crack of thunder exploded outside.
Heavy rain began pounding against the windows.
Shang Hong looked toward the enormous floor-to-ceiling window in the living room and rolled her eyes.
Shen Meng also looked at the glass, which had instantly been obscured by the downpour.
“Does it always start raining this suddenly here?”