The onlookers gestured with their eyes. “N-no, it’s not a banquet. Look at the ground.”
They had just wrongly accused the people inside of being Li Jiyue, so seeing her now, they felt a little guilty and hurriedly made way for her.
Li Jiyue looked at the two bodies tangled together and the large pool of blood on the floor. Men don’t have hymens—where would the blood come from? Probably hemorrhoids bursting. In Guangdong, because of the climate and geography, most people have hemorrhoids. Looks like they were really having a great time. Liao Haiping—why call him Haiping at all? He should just be called “High-P.”
That was her inner snark. The show still had to go on.
Li Jiyue’s beautiful eyes widened, her face full of shock and disbelief. “Th-th-this… my heavens. Big brother, how did you end up on this road of no return? Sigh! I think this isn’t entirely your fault. If anyone’s to blame, it’s Mom and Dad for nagging all day about how useless they are—how our family has no backing, no connections, can’t give their son any support, and that you’d have to rely on yourself in the future. You wanted to cling to Director Liao, so in a moment of weakness you went down the wrong path. Mom and Dad cry poor to motivate you to work hard and stay grounded—but you worked your way right into Director Liao’s bed. Oh, how could you not understand their good intentions?”
Lin Fugui roared furiously, “Shut up! The one inside was supposed to be you. Where the hell did you disappear to just now?”
Li Jiyue blinked, looking innocent. “Me inside? I woke up this morning and found Mom missing, so I hurried out to look for her. When I found her, she was hugging someone else’s husband in the street, pinning him against a pillar and trying to ride him. She got beaten up by his partner, and then—and then—”
She trailed off, deliberately stopping, whetting everyone’s curiosity.
“And then what? Say it!”
The Lin family—every single one of them was a goldmine. One bombshell after another. Everyone was already full from the gossip; lunch could wait till dinner.
Li Jiyue tightened the rope and dragged Wang Aihua in. “And then she hugged someone else’s dog and started gnawing on it! That’s why—the owner was kind enough to lend me a dog leash so I could tie Mom up and bring her back. Otherwise I was afraid she’d go looking for other dogs. The dogs’ innocence wouldn’t be safe.”
“Holy shit!”
“Damn it—how desperate do you have to be to not even spare a dog?”
“That Wang Aihua usually looks pretty proper. Who knew she played so wild?”
Someone remembered a neighbor saying Lin Fugui only lasted a minute. Wang Aihua didn’t go out to work, didn’t do housework either, yet she kept herself pretty well, still looking young and alluring. Especially at forty or fifty—like a wolf or a tiger. If a man couldn’t satisfy her, no wonder she’d go crazy and run into the streets in heat.
Seeing the Lin family’s misery, Lin Yuzhu thought of how, in her previous life, this bitch had kicked her until she lost the child and could never conceive again—why Brother Chunsheng had abandoned her to have children with another woman. A tidal wave of hatred surged in her chest. She trembled with rage, cold sweat beading on her forehead.
She pointed at Li Jiyue and accused her, “It was you—you tampered with things and turned my brother and my mother into this! Why would you do this? Our family kindly took you in so you wouldn’t have to follow your parents to the northwest to feed pigs and eat sand, and you repay kindness with betrayal—you’ll die a miserable death!”
Li Jiyue grabbed her arm and lifted the under-1.6-meter-tall woman right up, leaning in to interrogate her. “Who’s the one repaying kindness with betrayal? Your mother swapped us at birth in the clinic so you could live a good life. I toiled like an ox and a horse in the Lin family while you ate and drank well in the Li family. After our identities were restored, you turned around and reported my biological parents. Even if my parents really did something wrong, they raised you for over ten years—you had no right to report them. I’ll beat you to death, you ungrateful white-eyed wolf!”
As she spoke, she swung her palm to slap her.
“Smack!—”
A figure rushed in front of Lin Yuzhu and took the slap for her.
From the original owner’s memories, Li Jiyue recognized him. Lin Yuzhu’s number-one simp—the secondary male lead from middle school, the original owner’s husband in her past life, and the future richest man in Guangzhou. In this life, without the Li family’s connections on the mainland and in Hong Kong, he couldn’t possibly become a tycoon—more like the biggest debtor.
Gu Jingcheng ignored his swollen cheek and bleeding lip, turned to check the person behind him, and asked with concern, “Yuzhu, are you okay?”
Seeing her son get hit, Gu’s mother flew into a rage. “You little bitch—how dare you hit my son? I’ll fight you to the death!”
She flailed wildly and lunged at Li Jiyue, trying to claw her face.
“I’m hitting Lin Yuzhu—what does that have to do with him? He stepped in himself. He deserved to get smacked.”
That Gu Jingcheng was no good either—only wanted to live off others and use the original owner. As soon as the Li family fell from power, he cut ties; when they rose, he clung like a fly. One slap was letting him off easy.
Li Jiyue clamped both hands around Gu’s mother’s arms and shoved her into the wall.
“Bang!”
The back of Gu’s mother’s head hit the wall, raising a big bump. Dizzy and reeling, the world spun; she slid down like a limp noodle.
“Mom, Mom…” Gu Jingcheng hurried over to help her up, his eyes bloodshot as he glared viciously at Li Jiyue.
Li Jiyue glared back. “What are you staring at? That was self-defense. She attacked me first—everyone can testify.”
The people who had followed her home to vouch for her immediately nodded.
That plump auntie said, “That’s right. This girl is filial, never abandoning her crazy mother. She comes back and gets wronged by you lot—she deserved to hit someone. One slap barely settles it.”
At that moment, the drug effects on the two people on the floor finally wore off. Hearing the clamorous arguing, they regained some awareness. Lin Tianbao felt someone pressing on him, and below it hurt as if it had been run over by wheels. He looked down and let out a beastlike howl.
“Ah!—”
He had actually been raped—by which damned turtle bastard?! He was going to kill her! Kill her!!!
“Ahhh!!!” he roared with all his strength, every muscle in his body locked stiff.
Behind him, Liao Haiping howled in pain. “Hiss! Ah! Don’t move—don’t move yet! It hurts, it hurts! If you move again, I’ll die…”
After watching for a while, everyone felt their eyes burning. Someone found a bedsheet and covered the two bodies.
Li Jiyue picked up the teapot from the table and splashed it onto the half-conscious Wang Aihua.
“Bang!”
“Who—who dares splash me?”
She pointed at Lin Tianbao on the floor, his face deathly pale. “Mom, something’s happened to Brother—something terrible! Look, quick, look at the floor!”
Lin Fugui and Li Aihua tried to step forward to pull their son out, but the moment they moved him, the blood flowing beneath him increased.
Lin Tianbao and Liao Haiping both screamed in agony. “Ahhh! It hurts—stop moving!”
Someone suggested, “Send them to the hospital. If they don’t go now, they’ll bleed to death.”
The neighbors might enjoy gossip, but when it came to a matter of life and death, they were still willing to lend a hand. They found a few strong young men and carried the two of them to the hospital.
As they passed through the streets, passersby stared curiously at the stretcher, at the two men in that bizarre, overlapping position, utterly confused.
Two hours later, word spread about what had happened.
It turned out that a young man, desperate for a promotion, had offered himself to a balding leader in his fifties. They’d ended up stuck together and had to go to the hospital to find a doctor!
Everyone’s worldview shattered.
Ordinary workers hated nepotism the most—people who snatched away the fruits of their hard work with ease. Someone immediately filed a report.
Lin Fugui and Wang Aihua stayed at the hospital to take care of Lin Tianbao. Lin Yuzhu had no idea where she’d gone.
She was the only one left at home. With the Lin household in complete chaos, she had no intention of cleaning it up. She locked herself in the storage room and entered her space.
The next day, Li Jiyue used high-tech makeup techniques to transform her smooth, porcelain skin into a wrinkled, dark, weathered old face. She put on a gray wig, changed into patched dark clothes and trousers, and slipped on black cloth shoes. In an instant, she looked exactly like a white-haired, hunched old woman. Leaning on a cane, she made her way to the hospital.
Around noon, the hospital wasn’t busy. Three nurses at the front desk were chatting idly.
Nurse A said, “Some people take leave every few days. Now she doesn’t even bother asking—comes or goes as she pleases, like the hospital belongs to her. Why does she get that privilege?”
Nurse B said, “Of course it’s because of her relationship with Dr. Fu.”
Nurse A scoffed sourly. “True. Dr. Fu has a great background—his grandfather is a three-star general, his father is the hospital director. He’s handsome, gentle, well-mannered. How could he possibly fall for her? We’re not worse than her in any way.”
Nurse C said, “They grew up together—childhood sweethearts—so it makes sense. But nearly all the young male doctors in the hospital like her too. I really don’t get it.”
If the other party were truly outstanding, they might have accepted it. But she wasn’t—yet she somehow attracted the attention of every young doctor, driving the nurses mad with jealousy.
Nurse A said, “She’s just good at putting on an act—one face in public, another behind the scenes—bullying us because no one wants us.”
…
The three were too busy chatting, and with the counter blocking their view, they didn’t notice the hunched “old woman” standing in front of them.
Li Jiyue listened long enough, then poked her head out and let out a hoarse, elderly chuckle. “Heh heh!!”
The three nurses jumped in fright, clutching their chests. “Oh my!”
“Sorry, sorry,” the “old woman” said. “Nurse comrades, may I ask which ward my grandson is in?”
Nurse B asked, “May I ask who your grandson is?”
Li Jiyue replied, “My grandson is called Lin Tianbao. He was carried in yesterday with someone else. Oh, right—my granddaughter also works here as a nurse. Her name is Lin Yuzhu. Do you know her?”