Chapter 178: A Fate Worse Than Death
Chapter 178: Chapter 178: A Fate Worse Than Death
Qing Qing was so angry she almost laughed!
No wonder Lin Xiang confessed so quickly at the beginning. She was probably holding this back as her trump card!
In Lin Xiang’s mind, even though she’d committed a crime, just because she hesitated and gave Qing Zhi a slim chance of survival...
...that meant she wasn’t truly wicked to the core!
She was kind! Innocent!
’Qing Qing’s family should even be grateful to her for showing mercy!’
—What a ridiculous and shameless idea!
Just hearing it was enough to make Qing Qing sick to her stomach.
"Are you taking us for fools? Xu Dong told you to k... to harm Zizhi. Was it that you wouldn’t, or that you didn’t dare? If you truly felt guilty, why didn’t you tell the truth back then? And why have you spent all these years too afraid to show your face?"
Qing Qing didn’t waver in the slightest. Her words were as sharp as a knife, slicing away Lin Xiang’s phony facade bit by bit.
The only hint of hesitation, perhaps, was when she mentioned her daughter, Zizhi.
She couldn’t even bring herself to say the word "kill."
Just the thought was excruciating.
In the study on the second floor, Fu Chao suddenly slumped into his chair, drained of strength.
He raised his hands to cover his face and laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Yeah, she’s absolutely right. If that Lin Xiang truly had good intentions and wanted Zizhi to live, why didn’t she call the police instead of leaving a little girl in the snow? Xu Dong was caught soon after, so no one was threatening her... She was obviously scared of our retaliation, that’s why she didn’t dare go through with it! Heh, and I actually felt grateful for a moment because of what she said! How ridiculous!"
Fu Yunfeng, just like Qing Qing, was not swayed by Lin Xiang’s words.
But he understood why his son had wavered.
"It’s not your fault. Villains are cunning."
Fu Yunfeng raised a hand and patted Fu Chao’s shoulder.
Fu Chao managed to force a smile that was uglier than a grimace.
Down on the first floor, after tearing off Lin Xiang’s phony facade, Qing Qing did not let her off the hook.
Instead, she pressed her relentlessly, digging for more information.
This included the matter of who, exactly, was helping Lin Xiang.
By now, Lin Xiang was in a state where she’d answer any question asked of her.
But when asked this particular question, her whole demeanor seemed off.
"I don’t know... I forgot... I can’t remember her face..."
Qing Qing found this strange.
She asked repeatedly, only managing to get that "the other person was a young woman."
But in a vast sea of people, how was this single clue enough for them to find anyone?
Fortunately, Lin Xiang revealed one crucial piece of information—
When that young woman came to her, she had personally said that Qing Zhi was alive, and that she knew Qing Zhi’s whereabouts.
When Qing Qing heard this, she was so shocked that her mind went completely blank.
Once she recovered, a wave of overwhelming joy gradually flooded her.
Although they had their suspicions...
...suspicions and solid information were two completely different things!
Qing Qing was in high spirits.
Knowing that there was nothing more to be gotten from Lin Xiang, she ordered the bodyguards to take her away and keep her comfortable—under guard.
"Oh, right. As thanks for your help, I’m going to give you a ’big gift’."
Lin Xiang turned around in a daze, wanting to ask something, but was led away before she had the chance.
Qing Qing’s steps were light as she went up to the second floor.
The father and son, Fu Yunfeng and Fu Chao, were already waiting for her, their faces alight with joy.
And this was just the afterglow of their initial celebration!
Fu Chao suddenly had a thought.
"That Lin Xiang... she’s acting so strange. ’Can’t remember her face’... you don’t think she was hypnotized, do you?"
He had once played a serial killer who was a former psychologist. That character’s specialty was hypnotizing his patients and then making them commit suicide.
So Fu Chao had some professional knowledge on the subject, and seeing Lin Xiang’s strange reaction on the monitor made his imagination run wild.
His line of thinking was novel; even Qing Qing and Fu Yunfeng hadn’t considered it.
Qing Qing nodded in approval.
"Not bad. That could be a lead."
Fu Chao finally grinned.
"So, are we going to investigate that person’s identity next? If we find that person, we’ll find my sister, right?"
Qing Qing hesitated.
It was Fu Yunfeng who said in a low voice:
"Let’s prepare a two-pronged approach. We’ll keep investigating the old leads, and we’ll also try to find this person... I just feel like there’s something uncanny about her."
Logically speaking, the latter method should be faster.
The former method was time-consuming and labor-intensive, and they had already invested huge amounts of energy into it with no results.
No wonder Qing Qing was hesitant.
But what Fu Yunfeng said made sense.
And the term he used was "uncanny," nothing else.
This verged on the supernatural.
At any other time, Qing Qing would have probably made a sarcastic remark or two about "feudal superstition."
But having dealt with Lin Xiang herself, she found herself, strangely enough, in agreement with Fu Yunfeng!
So Qing Qing agreed.
"...It’s never wrong to be cautious."
This husband and wife, who were constantly at odds, were, for the first time in a long while, on the same page.
Fu Chao’s grin grew even wider.
"Ah, and that ’big gift’! Mom, what did you mean by that?"
Qing Qing and Fu Yunfeng simultaneously glanced at Fu Chao.
"To arrange a reunion for the old lovers, of course!"
The two of them spoke at almost the exact same time.
After speaking, they couldn’t help but look at each other.
Fu Chao was dumbfounded.
"You two are really in sync."
Qing Qing scoffed softly and turned her face away.
Fu Yunfeng lowered his head, a smile playing on his lips.
Neither of them refuted it.
Fu Yunfeng made the arrangements quickly.
He considered himself a compassionate man.
He even let Lin Xiang rest for a night before sending her to the prison to see Xu Dong.
Before Lin Xiang arrived, Xu Dong had already watched the surveillance video of Qing Qing interrogating her, and he had heard with his own ears Lin Xiang say, "Qing Zhi isn’t dead."
Xu Dong was about to lose his mind.
All these years in prison, he had endured the daily torment, sustained only by the joy of his revenge.
He told himself that everything he had suffered had been worth it.
Even in prison, the real winner was him, not Fu Yunfeng!
But now he was being told—
—that this stupid woman, Lin Xiang, had ruined his entire plan?
Even though Fu Yunfeng hadn’t shown up in person, Xu Dong could almost feel his omnipresent mockery.
"AHHHHH!"
Xu Dong, his eyes red, roared and suddenly lunged at Lin Xiang!
He choked her so hard that her eyes rolled back in their sockets from lack of oxygen!
Fortunately, the prison guards rushed in just in time to stop Xu Dong and dragged him away.
But he continued to curse Lin Xiang with the most vicious words, wishing he could drag her to hell with him!
Lin Xiang sobbed uncontrollably.
That very night, Xu Dong attempted suicide.
He stabbed himself viciously in the throat with the handle of a sharpened plastic spoon.
Unfortunately for him, his wish to die was not granted; he was saved.
However, his vocal cords were damaged, and he would never be able to speak again.
When Fu Yunfeng received the news, he sneered.
"I want him to live."
Alive, and living a life worse than death.