“Uncle, let me introduce you, this is Detective Luo Tan, the best private investigator in Rongcheng, I found out your little fling Pan Li is pregnant thanks to him.”
Wen Ying presented Luo Tan to Deng Shangwei.
Deng Shangwei was still reeling, while Luo Tan instinctively demurred, “Oh, not at all, I wouldn’t say the best, just a bit of experience.”
A private detective!
Deng Shangwei pushed the car door open, “I’m stepping out for a smoke.”
Neither Wen Ying nor Luo Tan stopped him.
Deng Shangwei got out, squatted by the roadside puffing away, and returned with his dishevelment tidied up.
Breaking down in front of Wen Ying was one thing, he didn’t want an outsider laughing at him.
Back in the car, he said two things.
“Pan Li isn’t my mistress, I never thought she’d get pregnant.”
That was for Wen Ying.
Then to Luo Tan, “When did my wife hire you to investigate?”
Not a mistress, just a fling, then.
Details didn’t matter.
Luo Tan glanced at Wen Ying, “Can I tell the truth?”
She gestured for him to go ahead.
Luo Tan took a deep breath.
“To be honest, Wen Ying paid me to look into you, I’ve had no contact with your wife.”
Wen Ying hired him?!
Deng Shangwei couldn’t hide his shock, a millionaire businessman, he quickly spotted the flaw, “She’s a minor, and you took her case? That’s absurd!”
Luo Tan’s face flushed, good thing the dim car hid it.
He’d known this day would come, getting chewed out by a minor’s guardian.
If rent weren’t overdue, would he have taken a kid’s money for this gig?
Wen Ying stepped in, “Uncle, what matters isn’t my age or hiring him, it’s that Pan Li’s pregnant, what’s your plan? Forget it, just look at this first.”
Luo Tan handed Deng Shangwei the pregnancy report and candid photos.
“Mr. Deng, I got the report from the hospital, don’t ask how, if Pan Li showed you one, compare them, check if she faked it, this could determine if you’re the father… *cough*.”
Deng Shangwei pulled the report from the envelope and gave a bitter laugh.
Yeah, Pan Li was pregnant.
Wen Ying, worried it might be fake, had dug up the hospital’s copy.
He didn’t know whether to praise her thoroughness.
No need for Luo Tan’s nudge, he’d compare them anyway.
“They’re the same.”
Wen Ying’s heart sank, so Pan Li hadn’t faked the timeline.
If she wasn’t lying to Deng Shangwei, would he believe her claim that Pan Li was Yu Wenhao’s honey trap?
Wen Ying wasn’t sure anymore.
No turning back now, she waited as Deng Shangwei flipped through the photos.
He frowned, puzzled, then looked up after a long pause.
“What’re you getting at?”
Lily and Wen哥?
Wen哥, meaning Yu Wenhao, was generous, plenty of nightlife girls clung to him, but Deng Shangwei had seen no hint of him with Lily (Pan Li).
Wen Ying couldn’t say she’d reincarnated, like solving a problem with the answer known, she’d traced it back from Pan Li to suspect Yu Wenhao, to confront Deng Shangwei, she’d prepped a story.
“I didn’t want to doubt you, a classmate said her dad cheated by sneaking off for calls, when I was in the hospital, I heard you take one in the hall… then I saw Pan Li at the company and couldn’t help hiring Luo Tan, she looks so much like Aunt, sneaky, claiming she’s your friend, I didn’t buy it!”
Deng Shangwei craved another smoke.
True, Pan Li resembled Chen Li a bit, seeing her at Slow Bar had startled him.
Friends teased he’d fallen for her, but that wasn’t it.
Not smitten, angered, watching men harass her twisted his gut.
He’d helped her twice, and she’d misunderstood, turning cold to others but warm to him…
“Go on.”
“She treated me like an idiot, prying about your likes, how could I not suspect her? I had your pocket money, so I hired Luo Tan, he found her at the hospital for a pregnancy test, then meeting Yu Wenhao, I was relieved.”
Deng Shangwei caught her subtext.
“Luo Tan didn’t catch me with Pan Li, she found out she was pregnant and went to Yu Wenhao first, so you thought it was his?”
Wen Ying nodded.
“I thought I’d misjudged you, told Luo Tan to drop it, but the next day, she came to the company, gave you the report, your face told me, she said it’s yours, right?”
Deng Shangwei smiled wryly.
Did it matter whose it was?
This proved to Wen Ying he’d screwed up.
Whether Pan Li’s kid was his didn’t erase his mistake, for over two months, guilt had tormented him, nightmares of Chen Li finding out, waking drenched, unable to sleep.
Wen Ying saw his regret plain as day.
But her goal wasn’t saving his marriage anymore, it was shielding him from Yu Wenhao’s scheme, ignoring his remorse, she steered toward Yu Wenhao.
“Uncle, something’s off with Yu Wenhao, he knew Pan Li was pregnant before you but didn’t warn you, let her blindside you, not very ‘big brother’ of him, if he’s not involved with her, he’d have tipped you off, if he is, how dare she come to you? I hear gang types are big on face, if his woman cheated, he’d take out both, right?”
Luo Tan listened, stunned.
Wen Ying framed it as suspecting infidelity first, then stumbling onto Yu Wenhao’s oddity.
That wasn’t the order, she’d targeted Yu Wenhao from the start, hiring him… Luo Tan had doubts but kept mum, Wen Ying had reduced her uncle to tears, he took her money to do the job, not to meddle and expose her.
Curiosity kills, he sat quiet, just listening.
Deng Shangwei was hooked on her analysis.
She was right.
Yu Wenhao had a gangster streak, married, yet never short of women.
He didn’t care about their pasts or who they’d been with, just no pregnancies from flings.
Only a mistress got that privilege.
Yu Wenhao cycled through them, but one rule held: past didn’t matter, future he didn’t touch, but while with him, no messing around.
Reputation was everything, he’d bragged publicly, anyone giving him a “green hat” got a “red hat” back: a bloody beating.
Back when his business boomed, he had the clout.
Post-gambling losses, he’d toned down, but his nature, especially with women, stayed fierce.
If he was with Pan Li, she wouldn’t dare flirt with Deng Shangwei openly.
If not, why’d she run to him first after the test?
“You mean Yu Wenhao sent Pan Li to—”
“Exactly, I suspect she’s his trap for you, why your ‘big brother’ would do it, I don’t know, you’ll have to figure that out, I’ll keep this from Aunt for now, deal with Yu Wenhao, then confess to her yourself, whether she forgives you is between you two, I’m out.”
Finally laying it bare, Wen Ying felt unburdened!
Deng Shangwei’s mess was his to clean up, it’d weighed her down more than him, unfair.
From now on, she’d focus on tutoring, ace the top school’s entrance exam, and end her days as a dunce trounced by Xie Qian.
Tonight’s bombshells left Deng Shangwei reeling, he needed time.
Wen Ying sent Luo Tan off and went home with a shell-shocked Deng Shangwei.
That night, he didn’t sleep, afraid to stir Chen Li, staring awake till dawn.
He replayed every moment of meeting Pan Li at Slow Bar, every word and act from Yu Wenhao since, missing nothing.
At last, when Wen Ying rose, he called her downstairs.
“Little Ying, you might think I’m dodging, but Pan Li’s not my mistress, when you and your aunt came to Rongcheng, I barely had time for her, I thought all night, if she’s Yu Wenhao’s setup, I might not have even messed up yet, believe me!”
Wen Ying’s jaw dropped.
“Believe you, my foot! No affair, and she’d pin a kid on you? Pan Li’s not a single-celled amoeba!”
