In his towering rage, Xie Jinghu genuinely felt the impulse to strangle Sara Zhuo.
Their eldest son was already an adult, yet Sara Zhuo remained very beautiful. She had always been willing to spend lavishly on her own maintenance.
A woman’s age shows not only on her face but also on the backs of her hands and her neck. Sara Zhuo’s neck was fair, slender, and free of lines. Xie Jinghu had once caressed it obsessively.
The more he had adored it before, the more he hated it now.
When they were young, Sara Zhuo had rejected his proposal. While he knew nothing, she had married the old overseas Chinese merchant while pregnant with Zhuo Chen.
Xie Jinghu had suffered terribly at the time. He hated her for being vain and for not believing in his future.
After they reunited and he learned Zhuo Chen was his own flesh and blood, Xie Jinghu had felt surprise mixed with contempt for Sara Zhuo. He had even secretly mocked the old merchant as a fool.
What was the point of earning so much money?
While alive, the man had been deceived for years by a vain woman and had raised another man’s son. After death, his reputation was ruined and he was laughed at as a green-headed old turtle. Truly tragic.
Little did he expect that karma cycled without fail. The old merchant had raised his son for a few years, and now Xie Jinghu had raised another man’s daughter for over ten years.
Precisely because Zhuo Yue existed, this extramarital affair had never ended.
Thinking how he had fought his family for this promiscuous woman and for a girl who was not even his daughter, Xie Jinghu’s grip on Sara Zhuo’s neck tightened.
Kill her.
Kill her and be done with everything.
As long as this woman lived another day, people would laugh at Xie Jinghu for another day.
First strangle this woman, then strangle the little bastard.
Those were the only two thoughts left in Xie Jinghu’s mind.
Sara Zhuo soon struggled to breathe.
Even in such a perilous moment, she was breathtakingly beautiful, like a delicate, enchanting flower, and Xie Jinghu the cruel villain destroying it.
Bang!
Xie Jinghu’s head jerked sideways and his hands left Sara Zhuo’s neck.
Zhuo Chen had punched him hard.
Xie Jinghu tasted the metallic tang of blood. He touched his lip and, sure enough, there was blood.
He looked at Zhuo Chen in utter disbelief.
A son striking his own father?
Zhuo Chen supported his sister with one arm and helped his gasping mother with the other, avoiding Xie Jinghu’s gaze. “I’m sorry. I have to protect my sister and my mummy. Daddy, you still have another family, many relatives. They only have me.”
Xie Jinghu pressed his lip and gave a cold laugh. “Good, very good. You really are your mummy’s dutiful son.”
Xie Jinghu was arrogant by nature and hated anyone opposing him most.
In the past, Xie Qian had opposed him, so Xie Jinghu loathed Xie Qian.
Now Zhuo Chen declared he would stand with Sara Zhuo and Zhuo Yue. What was such a son worth protecting?
Sara Zhuo pushed Zhuo Chen away and smoothed her dishevelled long hair. “Direct your anger at me. You can curse me for deceiving you, but this has nothing to do with Yueyue, and even less with A-Chen. What did A-Chen do wrong? If you had been capable of protecting me back then, would I have married abroad while pregnant with him? As for Yueyue… Yueyue knows nothing. She has always treated you as her real father.”
Xie Jinghu stared at Sara Zhuo.
The first love who had once infatuated and tormented him was still so alluring. Why did the sight of her now make him want to vomit?
Actually, Sara Zhuo had never changed.
She had always been this way. Xie Jinghu had simply refused to see it.
“Whose child is Zhuo Yue, exactly?”
When anger reached its extreme, a strange calm took over. Xie Jinghu spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. “This little bastard doesn’t look mixed-race, so it can’t be from your flings abroad. Her biological father is here in the country, isn’t he… During the time you were pregnant with her, we were practically inseparable every day. Yet you still found time to sleep with other men. You really are impressive.”
Regardless of gender, once someone discovers they have been cheated on, apart from rage and pain, they desperately want to drag the hidden adulterer and adulteress into the light.
Legal spouses are always determined to tear apart the mistress. Nothing less will vent their fury.
Xie Jinghu was no exception.
He had assumed Sara Zhuo would speak softly, admit fault, make excuses.
Instead, the cheating party turned out far tougher than he imagined. “I slept with other men? Xie Jinghu, I was a widow at the time. I could sleep with you, so naturally I could sleep with others. What right do you have to curse me? Or did you really believe that after all these years of following you without name or status, I was willingly content to be your shameful mistress by your side?”
Xie Jinghu was already shameless enough.
Now it seemed he was no match for Sara Zhuo, because he was bound by marriage, by morality, by public opinion, while she was bound by none.
Although Xie Jinghu had long enjoyed having both wife and mistress, once the affair was exposed, his excuse was always “the children are involved”, never loudly proclaiming that he and his mistress were true love and that he would never leave her even if it killed him.
The children truly were his shackles and his shield against public pressure.
Sara Zhuo was far more “above board”. She made no attempt to conceal her view of their relationship.
A moment ago Xie Jinghu had been the star debater. Now it was Sara Zhuo’s turn to counter-attack. Her slender, pale neck bore livid strangulation marks, shocking to behold.
Even so, she seemed unafraid of provoking Xie Jinghu further. She even stepped closer to him deliberately.
The betrayer, yet utterly defiant and aggressive.
“Is it strange that I slept with other men? In all the years since we got back together, can you swear you never touched your wife when you went home? There’s no reason you can have two women while I must remain faithful to only you… Listen carefully, Xie Jinghu. I have never regretted leaving you and marrying abroad, because you lacked responsibility when you were young and you still lack it now that you’re older. Since you never intended to divorce, since you couldn’t give me a proper marriage, why did you come provoking me in the first place?”
Sara Zhuo accused him. “My surname is Zhuo. Had the Zhuo family not fallen on hard times, you wouldn’t have been worthy of me then and you still aren’t worthy now. I’m not one of those shallow women you meet at business dinners. You flash a little cash, buy flat, give few handbags, and they throw themselves at you. So when you go home to your wife and enjoy your intimacy, of course I’m going to find other men for my own pleasure.”
“Mummy!”
Xie Jinghu was stunned speechless. The person who stopped Sara Zhuo from continuing was Zhuo Chen.
“Mummy, please stop. I don’t believe you’re that kind of woman. If you really were so… casual, you had plenty of chances to remarry and take me with you.”
Pain filled Zhuo Chen’s voice.
In hindsight, there had been no need to rekindle the old flame.
A beautiful woman with only a young son could easily have remarried, especially abroad where it would hardly have been an issue.
“I’m begging you, Mummy, don’t speak of yourself as though you’re worthless. You’re not that kind of person…”
Her son’s pleading drained Sara Zhuo of all energy. She looked fragile, extremely fragile, yet extremely beautiful. She forced herself to stay upright. “A-Chen, remember this: once you betray a relationship, no matter the reason, no matter how many times you cross the line, you become the betrayer in everyone’s eyes. One betrayal means lifelong suspicion. Begging is useless; it only makes people despise you more. The only way to keep a shred of dignity is to admit openly what you’ve done and then walk away with your head high.”
What did that mean?
It meant that when Xie Jinghu went home to his wife, Sara Zhuo, in a moment of despair, had deliberately thrown herself away, slept with some random man, and fallen pregnant with Zhuo Yue in a single encounter.
So in the end, Xie Jinghu being cuckolded was his own fault.
Sara Zhuo still had the pride of the Zhuo family’s eldest daughter. She had never wanted to be a nameless mistress. It was Xie Jinghu who had insisted on pursuing her.
Outside the lounge door, Zhong Yong had listened to the second half of the debate and summarised what Sara Zhuo wanted to convey.
It sounded somewhat reasonable.
Yet something felt off.
Zhong Yong’s scalp prickled. Xie Yuping, who had also heard the latter half, cut straight to the heart of the matter. “Third brother is a scoundrel who thought he could have the best of both worlds. He really was too arrogant. But it takes two to tango. If the man wants to rekindle an old romance and the woman knows he’s married, if she truly wanted to refuse him she could have slapped him hard and told that shameless toad dreaming of swan meat to get lost.”
What people call “unable to help themselves” is usually just half-hearted resistance.
Sara Zhuo’s sophistry might dizzy Xie Jinghu, but the more Xie Yuping listened, the more revolted he felt.
Still, Zhuo Chen had one point right: fifteen years ago Sara Zhuo could have remarried. She could have found any man abroad, become his legitimate wife again. Why on earth did she return to the country and rekindle things with Xie Jinghu?
Today’s Jinhu Group is valuable, but back then it was nowhere near this scale. Xie Jinghu should never have been Sara Zhuo’s target.
Unless Sara Zhuo approached Xie Jinghu not simply for money.
The more Xie Yuping thought about it, the more alarmed he became.
If Zhuo Yue was not third brother’s daughter, could she actually be Zhang Zhijun’s?
Zhong Yong’s phone rang. He glanced at the number and whispered to Xie Yuping, “The lawyer from Shanghai has arrived.”
Xie Yuping nodded. “Good. Leave third brother alone for now, let him keep arguing inside. In half an hour, take the divorce agreement in for him to sign.”
