Zhou Wenwen trembled all over.
With a jolt, she sprang away, startling the two people not far off who had been completely absorbed in each other in the corner. Passersby also noticed the police nearby and curiously looked over—only to see the disheveled pair.
Everyone: ……
The police waited for Qiao Shanshan to fix her clothes before walking over with dark expressions.
“Comrades, come with us.”
Qiao Shanshan’s face turned pale with fright.
Yang Huaiyuan also lowered his head, not daring to look up.
He even felt a bit resentful toward Qiao Shanshan—why had she seduced him outside?
They had come to find his aunt to replace Qiao Wanyue’s job, but his aunt hadn’t gotten off work yet, and his aunt’s mother-in-law wouldn’t let them stay in the house. They had planned to wait at the door, but somehow, while waiting, they ended up entangled together.
“Comrade, we are husband and wife,” Qiao Shanshan said stiffly.
The officer replied, “Even husband and wife must mind the setting. You are disrupting public morals. The street is not your bed. If you want to do such things, go home. Is this a place for you to behave so recklessly?”
“Take them away.”
Qiao Shanshan tried to say something more, but the police gave her no chance.
At the same time, they gave a verbal commendation to the “good citizen,” Comrade Qiao Wanyue, for her righteous action.
Qiao Wanyue waved her hand casually, indicating it was nothing.
“Qiao Wanyue, you did this!” Zhou Wenwen’s face flushed red with anger. Qiao Shanshan must have seen her and assumed she was the one who reported them. What would Brother Huaiyuan think of her now? She would never have a chance with him again.
Qiao Wanyue jumped down from the tree.
She brushed the leaves off her body. “So what if I did? I was helping you out of kindness.”
“Who asked for your help? You must be jealous of Qiao Shanshan. I’m telling you—go explain to Brother Huaiyuan that you were the one who reported them!” Zhou Wenwen was furious. Turning around, she saw Qiao Wanyue had been hanging on the tree.
When had she climbed up there?
Qiao Wanyue had climbed up while the police were questioning Qiao Shanshan, though neither Qiao Shanshan nor Yang Huaiyuan noticed her.
Qiao Wanyue suddenly stopped walking.
Zhou Wenwen crashed straight into her back, her nose immediately bleeding.
“Qiao Wanyue, take me to the hospital!”
Qiao Wanyue: ?
Did she look like a fool to be taken advantage of?
“Zhou Wenwen, are you stupid? Your so-called good friend is about to marry Yang Huaiyuan, and you’re still helping them?” Qiao Wanyue sized her up, sensing something off.
“What does this have to do with Brother Huaiyuan? It must be that slut Qiao Shanshan who seduced him.”
Qiao Wanyue: ……
So naive.
“Weren’t you and Qiao Shanshan best friends? What, not anymore?”
“She’s not my friend.” Zhou Wenwen snorted.
“You’re so useless. She stole your man—go hit her, go send her to jail.”
Qiao Wanyue sneered. “She stole my man, not yours. Why are you so anxious?”
A shy smile appeared on Zhou Wenwen’s face.
“How do you know he isn’t my man?”
Qiao Wanyue’s pupils shrank as many things suddenly connected in her mind.
After she married Yang Huaiyuan in her previous life, Zhou Wenwen also married—right next door to the Yang family…
Zhou Wenwen didn’t have a good relationship with her husband. The man who married her was honest and simple, and she constantly scolded him for being dull. Two years later, during the year of the college entrance exam, her husband drowned.
Zhou Wenwen, however, was admitted to university and never remarried.
She lived next door to the Yang family for the rest of her life.
Qiao Wanyue curled her lips.
She had known Zhou Wenwen liked Yang Huaiyuan, but after Zhou Wenwen married, her husband and in-laws treated her well. Qiao Wanyue had thought she stayed loyal to her husband.
So it had all been a cover.
Yang Huaiyuan and Zhou Wenwen had already been involved long ago.
But whose child was Zhou Wenwen carrying?
Yang Huaiyuan’s?
After Yang Huaiyuan got married, Zhou Wenwen hastily married the man next door within half a month. Less than a month later, news spread that she was pregnant.
The family she married into had only one heir for three generations.
As soon as she became pregnant, they treated her like an empress.
So whose child was it?
Under Qiao Wanyue’s gaze, Zhou Wenwen felt uneasy and instinctively covered her stomach.
“What are you trying to do?”
Qiao Wanyue: ……
Just what she needed.
“Nothing. Qiao Shanshan and Yang Huaiyuan have already registered their marriage. It seems Qiao Shanshan forced him…” Qiao Wanyue patted Zhou Wenwen’s shoulder and glanced meaningfully at her stomach.
Then she left.
Zhou Wenwen’s legs went weak as she leaned against the wall, clutching her stomach.
Had Qiao Wanyue discovered something?
A strange sensation rose in her abdomen. She held onto the wall and began vomiting until only sour liquid came out.
Only then did her stomach feel slightly better.
She sat down against the wall, her eyes dim and unfocused.
Seeing her reaction, Qiao Wanyue knew—if this wasn’t morning sickness, what was?
She curled her lips into a cold smile.
Zhou Wenwen had come into the city without telling her family. If her mother found out she was pregnant, she would beat her to death. Sneaking around, she went to the hospital—but the hospital wouldn’t examine an unmarried girl.
She bribed a pregnant couple and used someone else’s name for the checkup.
When she came out with the results, Zhou Wenwen felt as if the sky had collapsed.
She had only thought she ate something bad.
It had only happened once without caution.
How had she gotten pregnant?
She pounded her stomach, her eyes filled with tears.
Qiao Wanyue quietly followed Zhou Wenwen to the riverbank. Zhou Wenwen wasn’t there to jump—she would never do that. She walked along the river, tore up the test results, and threw them into the water.
A determined look flashed in her eyes.
If her pregnancy were exposed now, not only would the child be lost, she herself would suffer—and it would implicate Brother Huaiyuan.
She could only choose to marry.
Her thoughts were tangled like a mess of threads.
She didn’t notice a stone underfoot and suddenly tripped, her body pitching forward—right at the river’s edge.
“Careful!”
Suddenly, Zhou Wenwen was caught in someone’s arms!
From atop the old locust tree, Qiao Wanyue stared at the man who caught her.
If it wasn’t Zhou Wenwen’s husband from her previous life, then who else could it be?
The perfect scapegoat had arrived.
Zhou Wenwen was held steady. The man thought she was trying to jump into the river and held her tightly. Clumsy with words, he didn’t know what to say, and her struggling only seemed like reluctance to live.
As if she still wanted to jump.
“Are you married?” Zhou Wenwen suddenly asked.
The man answered honestly, “No.”
Zhou Wenwen stopped struggling. The man’s hands were pressed against her chest—soft and warm. She deliberately lifted her chest slightly. The man stiffened, realizing what he had touched, and immediately let go.
Zhou Wenwen turned her head—
And jumped into the river.
Qiao Wanyue: ?
“Help! Someone save me!”
“Help!”
Zhou Wenwen splashed in the water. The man hesitated only for a moment—
Then stripped off his shirt and jumped in, swimming toward her.