Xie Jinghu beat Zhang Zhijun like a madman.
Zhang Zhijun did not fight back. Xie Yuping shouted at Xie Jinghu to stop, yet his efforts to separate them were half-hearted, so Zhang Zhijun took a solid thrashing.
At last Xie Jinghu had found an outlet for his rage. He had always been arrogant and had never truly acknowledged his own faults for letting his family fall into its current ruin.
Zou Weijun refused to accept Sara Zhuo’s existence and could not understand his difficulties. It was Zou Weijun who was too inflexible.
Sara Zhuo had betrayed him. She was the shameless one.
Now the blame had been thrown onto Zhang Zhijun as well.
If Zhang Zhijun had only given him the slightest warning, how would he have ended up in this situation?
Zhuo Yue’s biological father could have been anyone else, anyone except Zhang Zhijun!
The Zhang family was not as good as the Xie family.
Zhang Zhijun was not as handsome as he was.
Zhang Zhijun was not as wealthy as he was.
Why did it have to be Zhang Zhijun?
The more Xie Jinghu thought about all the times Zhang Zhijun had urged him to cherish his family, to break things off with Sara Zhuo, to repair his relationship with Zou Weijun, the angrier he became. He hit even harder.
Because even though Zhang Zhijun was inferior to him in every way, he had still cuckolded him and made him raise a little bastard for over ten years without knowing it!
Every time Zhang Zhijun advised him, had he secretly been laughing at him?
And to think he had treated Zhang Zhijun as a friend, as a brother, even made him a shareholder in Jinhu!
Since Zhang Zhijun could sleep with that woman Sara Zhuo, had he also secretly coveted Zou Weijun?
When Professor Zou, his father-in-law, passed away and Zhang Zhijun ran around helping with everything, was it really for him, or for Zou Weijun?
Zhang Zhijun had given him one green hat. Now Xie Jinghu was consumed with paranoia, convinced Zhang Zhijun was ready to weave him a second.
Only when Zhang Zhijun’s face was covered in blood did Xie Yuping genuinely step in and seize Xie Jinghu’s wrist. “Old Third, enough! You’re over forty. Can you not act like an adult? If you still feel unsatisfied, arrange another time to beat Zhijun. Don’t make such a scene in my house!”
The neighbourhood where Xie Yuping lived had few residents, and the doors and windows were well soundproofed. Otherwise he would never have dared summon Xie Jinghu here.
Zhang Zhijun certainly deserved a beating.
Xie Yuping could not do it himself, but borrowing Xie Jinghu’s fists felt rather satisfying.
Still, this was enough. If it went further and someone was seriously injured, people would notice.
Even held back by Xie Yuping, Xie Jinghu was still gnashing his teeth.
“Big Brother, Zhang Zhijun has ruined me—”
“Ruined you how? He slept with that woman surnamed Zhuo and felt he had wronged you, so he kept urging you to value your family. You also slept with that woman. You wronged Zhijun just the same… If anything, Zhijun has been the bigger man.”
Xie Yuping always spoke with an authority that brooked no argument. Even Xie Jinghu, furious as he was, faltered.
Was that really the case?
He had raised Zhang Zhijun’s bastard for over ten years, and now his anger made him the narrow-minded one?
Hou Zhixiu could no longer spare time to comfort Lu Meishu. She hurried to fetch the first-aid kit and tended Zhang Zhijun’s wounds.
Xie Yuping was right. If they wanted to fight, they could do it somewhere else. They could not let Zhang Zhijun leave the house with a face full of blood.
Zhang Zhijun looked drained of energy. His mouth was torn by his own teeth, his speech slurred, yet he accepted full responsibility without excuse.
“This is entirely my fault. Jinghu beating me is what I deserve. I do not ask Jinghu to forgive me. I only ask…”
Ask for what?
He did not finish.
Perhaps he only wanted peace of mind.
If he had not confessed today, Xie Jinghu, still wallowing in the misery of divorce, would not yet have thought to demand Sara Zhuo return everything he had given her.
Zhang Zhijun’s “confession” had ignited Xie Jinghu’s fury completely. Xie Jinghu decided he would find the lawyer’s business card the moment he got home. If he did not get back every penny he had spent on that woman over the years, he would be both a cuckold and a fool!
If Sara Zhuo could not pay, well, Zhang Zhijun was right there to foot the bill!
After Hou Zhixiu finished treating Zhang Zhijun’s wounds, Lu Meishu unsteadily rose and bowed deeply to the Xie family.
“I am so sorry.”
Sorry for her husband’s actions.
Hou Zhixiu’s heart ached. “When a man makes a mistake, what has it to do with you? Just take care of yourself.”
Zhang Zhijun reached to support his wife, but Lu Meishu flung his hand away with force.
That short walk felt impossibly long to her, yet she no longer dared rely on her husband Zhang Zhijun.
Because coming to the Xie family to apologise was only the beginning. Much harder things still lay ahead.
Lu Meishu walked ahead. Zhang Zhijun followed close behind. Xie Jinghu tried to follow too, but Xie Yuping barked, “You stay right there!”
“Big Brother…”
Xie Jinghu was not convinced.
Xie Yuping did not care whether he was convinced or not. “I’m warning you. Beating Zhang Zhijun is fine. You’re no saint yourself, and he did deserve it. But you are not to take this mess to the Zhang family home. The Zhang parents are old. If these sordid scandals give them a shock and something happens to them, the Xie family will be in the wrong!”
Whoever causes trouble takes responsibility.
Both of them were over forty, yet after creating scandals outside they still dragged the elderly parents into it!
Zhang Zhijun had already confessed here, and his wife Lu Meishu now knew, so the Zhang family would find out sooner or later.
Xie Yuping did not care how Zhang Zhijun explained it to his own family. He simply forbade Xie Jinghu from storming over there and making a scene. If Zhang Zhijun had been involved with Zou Weijun, Xie Jinghu would have every right to march in and demand answers. But over a mere mistress? Xie Yuping would lose face.
Though reluctant, Xie Jinghu knew Xie Yuping was right and could only obey.
Once that troublesome creature Xie Jinghu had left, Hou Zhixiu was so exhausted she could barely speak.
Xie Yuping poured his wife a glass of water. She drank it down in big gulps and let out a long sigh. “What a mess. One Old Third was already enough headache, and now Zhijun too. I can see the Zhang family is about to become the next Xie family, turned completely upside down by that woman surnamed Zhuo…”
Would the Zhang family become the next Xie family?
Xie Yuping had no sympathy to spare.
The Xie family troubles were not limited to what Hou Zhixiu knew.
He took her hand. “There’s something I need to tell you. Stay calm and let me finish, all right?”
He told her about Xie Qian’s car accident.
About secretly arranging DNA tests for Zhuo Chen and Zhuo Yue.
About why Xie Jinghu had finally agreed to the divorce.
Hou Zhixiu’s emotions went up and down like a rollercoaster. “You kept something this big from me? How is Xie Qian now? No wonder Mother suddenly fell ill. You hid everything from me so thoroughly!”
“I didn’t want to hide it from you, but I had no choice. With me in Shanghai, the petty villains could not touch Xie Qian. But Beijing needed you. I needed you to hold the fort for the Xie family.”
His grip tightened. “Only once Xie Qian woke up, only once he was out of danger, could I tell you!”
Tears welled in Hou Zhixiu’s eyes, but she forced them back.
She had had it hard.
Xie Yuping had had it harder.
“It will be all right. It will all be all right. Everything is over now.”
Hou Zhixiu murmured to herself.
Xie Yuping said nothing. He gestured for her to follow him upstairs.
In the study, with only the two of them present, Xie Yuping’s expression turned grave. “Do you remember anything in the house that Zhang Zhijun gave us? Don’t alert anyone else. Find everything he ever brought here. I’ll have Zhong Yong take it all away for testing.”
Hou Zhixiu’s mind could not keep up.
Why test things Zhijun had given them?
Before she could ask, she heard Xie Yuping say coldly, “I suspect there is more to Xie Qian’s accident. Xie Qian secretly tested DNA between Old Third and those two bastards. The results showed both children were Old Third’s. Xie Qian didn’t trust it, so he took Zhang Zhijun’s sample too. The moment those results came out, the accident happened… So you’re wrong. It’s not that everything is over. Everything has only just begun.”
Hou Zhixiu was stunned.
No matter how highly she thought of Zhang Zhijun, the person she trusted most was still her husband Xie Yuping. Under his gaze, she slowly nodded.
“Whatever has just begun, I am not afraid.”
Had they not been through enough these past years?
How many nights had she lain awake with worry?
How many times had she had to remain calm both inside and outside the home?
They had survived then. They would survive now, because her husband was Xie Yuping.
This man would never make the mistakes Xie Jinghu or Zhang Zhijun had made. With husband and wife united, Hou Zhixiu feared no difficulty!
…
While the Xie couple stood united, a deep rift had opened between Zhang Zhijun and his wife Lu Meishu.
Accompanying Zhang Zhijun to the Xie family had already been the limit of what Lu Meishu could bear.
She truly did not want to care how he would explain the truth to the rest of the Zhang family.
A woman whose heart had been shattered, a woman exhausted in spirit, Lu Meishu fell ill the moment she returned home and developed a high fever.
Zhang Zhijun stayed up all night looking after her. When the fever broke, Lu Meishu refused to speak to him.
The couple had always been loving, so the Zhang family quickly noticed something wrong with Lu Meishu.
Had they quarrelled?
The family showed concern for Lu Meishu, but she remained ice-cold.
Not wanting them to misunderstand her, Zhang Zhijun steeled himself and confessed the mistake he had made over ten years ago.
The entire Zhang household exploded.
The most devastated was Zhang Nan!
Zhang Nan looked at Zhang Zhijun with completely unfamiliar eyes. The man before her looked like her uncle, yet his soul seemed to belong to a stranger.
How could her uncle do something like this?
From what Zhang Zhijun said, Sara Zhuo was demanding he take responsibility for raising the child and that the Zhang family acknowledge Zhuo Yue.
The Zhang living room fell deathly silent. In front of everyone, Zhang Nan could not hold back the nausea that surged from her stomach.
Yes, Zhang Nan vomited from sheer disgust, violently and uncontrollably.
“If you recognise that bastard, I will jump from the tallest building in Beijing!”
It had to be tall enough to make the fall fatal.
Fatal enough that no one would recognise the body.
It was too disgusting, utterly disgusting.
Zhang Nan wept as she vomited.
Zhang Zhijun was only her uncle, and even she could not accept it.
It was impossible to imagine how Xie Qian had managed to accept it!
…
While the Zhang family in Beijing was experiencing an earthquake, in the Shanghai hospital Xie Qian’s periods of consciousness grew longer each day.
It was already the third day since he had first opened his eyes. Xie Qian still could not control his body, but he was gradually regaining command of his mind.
Speaking remained exhausting, and communicating smoothly with the idiot doctor was no easy task.
After stammering for ages, the doctor finally understood.
“You want your phone? You want to send a message to someone?”
