Lin Ni had spent two months planning everything.
At last, she had succeeded in sleeping with Yang Wen.
She believed that as long as Yang Wen’s marriage to Lin Zhaoyang was called off, he would immediately marry her instead.
Next door, Lin Ni searched every room, including the storage room and the backyard.
But there was still no sign of either Lin Zhaoyang or Zou Zhengting.
Aunt Chen and the others had followed Lin Ni around until they were sweating profusely.
They finally collapsed onto the chairs in the living room, refusing to move another step.
Aunt Chen’s sharp eyes studied Lin Ni, taking in how desperately she was searching.
“Lin Ni, from what I can see, there’s nothing here that requires this many people to help. Isn’t everything already pretty much finished?”
Living right next door to the Lin family, Aunt Chen knew all of their business. She asked bluntly,
“Lin Ni, since when did you make up with Lin Zhaoyang? Why would she ask you to gather us to help her? You’re not plotting something again, are you?”
Aunt Chen liked to think she might be old, but her mind was still sharp.
Lin Ni wasn’t the kind of person who helped others out of kindness.
Why would she do Lin Zhaoyang any favors?
As far as Aunt Chen knew, the two cousins hated each other so much they probably wished the other would get hit by a car or choke to death on a sip of water.
She had only come because she expected some excitement.
Otherwise, who would volunteer to help someone in this sweltering weather for nothing?
Now that she’d come all this way and found no drama…
That simply wouldn’t do.
If she couldn’t enjoy a scandal involving Lin Zhaoyang, then she’d settle for one involving Lin Ni.
“Lin Ni, wasn’t it your eldest aunt who said two years ago that your own grandmother and your parents helped you steal Zou Zhengting away? Now that Lin Zhaoyang’s getting married again, don’t tell me you’re trying to ruin her marriage this time too because she’s found another good family to marry into.”
Hearing Aunt Chen expose her scheme in front of everyone nearly frightened Lin Ni out of her wits.
She hurriedly denied it.
“Aunt Chen, stop talking nonsense! Even if I wanted to ruin Lin Zhaoyang’s marriage, why would I drag Zou Zhengting into it?”
Not daring to continue searching so openly, Lin Ni had no choice but to suppress her frustration and find a seat in the living room.
Lin Daheng and Wang Fenglan both worked at the Agricultural Machinery Factory not far away.
After receiving the phone call, they each took two hours of leave and hurried back on their bicycles.
Calculating the timing, Zou Zhengting went to the entrance to meet them.
During the call, he had specifically told them to come quietly and had informed them that Lin Zhaoyang was currently in the house next door to her new home.
After carrying their bicycles into the courtyard, both husband and wife couldn’t help staring at Zou Zhengting.
When Wang Fenglan had answered the phone at the factory, she had already thought the man’s voice sounded familiar.
Now that she saw him in person, she instinctively opened her mouth to call his name.
“Aunt Wang, let’s wait until we’re inside before we talk.”
Zou Zhengting pointed toward the neighboring house, then tapped his ear, signaling that walls had ears.
After parking their bicycles, Lin Daheng and Wang Fenglan followed him into the room where Lin Zhaoyang was waiting.
“Zhaoyang, why are you here with Zou Zhengting? What happened?”
The moment Wang Fenglan saw her daughter, she noticed something wasn’t quite right about her expression.
“Did Yang Wen hit you?”
As she stepped closer, however, she immediately realized—as someone with experience—that the marks on her daughter’s face weren’t from being hit.
Then she noticed the silk scarf around Lin Zhaoyang’s neck, something she definitely hadn’t been wearing when she left that morning.
Without hesitation, Wang Fenglan pulled the scarf downward.
Several reddish marks immediately came into view.
It was obvious they were love bites.
“Did Yang Wen bully you?”
Anger exploded inside Wang Fenglan.
“How could he do something like this? You two aren’t even married yet! How could he behave this way?”
Lin Daheng nearly lost his breath.
Rolling up the sleeves of his work uniform, he growled,
“I’m going to settle the score with that bastard Yang Wen!”
Zou Zhengting hadn’t expected Wang Fenglan to notice so quickly.
Seeing that both she and Lin Daheng had misunderstood—and were furious—he was about to explain when he met Lin Zhaoyang’s warning glare.
She silently pointed toward the door.
She didn’t say a single word.
But the message was unmistakable:
Shut up and get out.
Zou Zhengting clenched his jaw.
Whether he was willing or not, he stuffed both hands into his trouser pockets and obediently walked out of the room on his long legs.
Tsk.
Who told her she was his little ancestor?
If his little ancestor told him to keep quiet…
Then he’d keep quiet.
“Dad, Mom.”
Lin Zhaoyang calmed them down.
She adjusted the scarf around her neck before explaining everything that had happened that morning—how she and Zou Zhengting had been set up at the new house.
“How did Lin Ni get a key to the place? Zou Zhengting said she brought him there. Once they got next door, she told him she was going to bring me over. But instead, she came back with several neighbors from our alley and a few of our relatives.”
The moment Wang Fenglan heard the word “key,” she hurriedly replied,
“My key hasn’t been touched. It’s locked inside the drawer at home, and I keep the drawer key with me even when I’m at work.”
“Lin Ni never had a chance to get the key from me either,” Lin Zhaoyang said. “That’s why I asked Zou Zhengting to bring Yang Wen here.”
“The first thing I need to know is where Lin Ni got that key.”
“Could Lin Ni have found Yang Wen’s key?” Lin Daheng guessed. “They work at the same factory. Maybe he accidentally lost it and she picked it up.”
“All of Yang Wen’s keys are on the same ring,” Lin Zhaoyang replied. “I gave him that keychain myself. Yesterday after work, I waited outside his factory. I even saw the whole key ring hanging from the lock on his bicycle and tossed into the front basket.”
The keys had still been there when he got off work.
So how could Lin Ni have picked up a key that Yang Wen supposedly lost afterward?
Yang Wen’s factory was farther away.
After receiving word that Lin Zhaoyang urgently needed him, he pedaled his bicycle toward the new house as fast as he could.
He parked outside, had just finished locking his bicycle…
…when someone suddenly covered his mouth and dragged him into the neighboring house.
In broad daylight, Yang Wen thought he was being kidnapped.
His legs nearly gave out from fright.
He was shoved into a room.
Only then did he see Lin Zhaoyang and his future father- and mother-in-law.
“Uncle, Auntie… you’re here too.”
Relieved, he stood up, dusted off his trouser legs, then looked toward the unfamiliar man standing at the doorway like a guardian statue.
“You could’ve just told me to come inside myself.”
After muttering that under his breath, Yang Wen walked over to Lin Zhaoyang.
“Zhaoyang, someone called my factory and said you had something extremely urgent you needed me for.”
He had ridden his bicycle at top speed all the way over and was drenched in sweat.
What kind of emergency could be so serious that even her parents had left work to come here?
“Uncle, Auntie, Zhaoyang… why are we at the neighbor’s house instead of your own place? Didn’t you buy the house next door already?”
He knew the neighboring house had also been sold, but he’d never met the new owner.
“Yang Wen.”
Still seated, Lin Zhaoyang simply called his name and held out her hand.
“Give me your keys.”
Yang Wen looked puzzled.
“My keys? Which ones?”
Lin Zhaoyang pointed to the key ring clipped to the waistband of his dress trousers.
Without hesitation, Yang Wen unclipped it and handed it over.
Lin Zhaoyang immediately began searching through the keys for the one to their new house—the key she had specially marked so he could easily distinguish it from the others.
She checked every single key.
The new house key…
Was gone.