Chapter 11

I slammed my right fist hard against the railing of the bridge, the pain bringing tears to my eyes.

This is outrageous.

Absolutely outrageous.

Thinking about the nearly three million left unsettled, I felt a headache coming on.

I could afford to pay that sum.

But what if he comes back to blackmail me again? What should I do then?

Next time, how much more will he demand?

This has to end. It can’t go on like this forever.

Lost in thought, my sister suddenly called me: “Brother, I just heard that something happened to your wife. No matter how busy you are at work, you should at least go and be with her these days!”

I pressed my temples.

Ding Ning, really-why drag my sister into our affairs?

Suppressing my anger, I asked, “Did she tell you exactly what happened?”

“She gave me a rough idea… Honestly, she just made a foolish mistake. If you think about it, her intentions were for the sake of your little family.”

“In any case, nothing really bad happened this time. Just forgive her.”

I said nothing.

My sister paused for a few seconds: “Brother, I’m just saying, your company is about to go public. If too much comes out, it won’t do you any good.”

Our parents are gone; my sister is the closest person I have left in this world. She’s pregnant, about to give birth. I remember her due date clearly, but I still made small talk: “Stop worrying about me. When are you due?”

Her voice brightened: “The 21st of next month. Almost time to deliver.”

I reminded her to go for her checkups, then hung up.

Looking at my phone, I saw Ding Ning had called me ten times and sent messages, begging for my forgiveness and asking me to take her home.

My heart softened. Forget it-no need to go overboard.

This time, I really did scheme against her. I owe her. We’re even now.

Anyway, she’s taken birth control pills, so she can’t be pregnant. Life has to go on.

The doctor had originally told us to stay in the hospital for another day of observation.

But Ding Ning insisted on going home. After signing the papers, the hospital let her go.

Once home, I told Ding Ning to take a shower first.

She sat there, unmoving.

“Go take a shower,” I urged.

She stared at me. “What, you think I’m dirty?”

I raised my eyebrows. “What’s this about? Don’t you think you’re dirty?”

She crossed her legs. “No matter how dirty I am, I’m not as dirty as you.”

What did that mean?

Did she want me to remind her about sneaking around with her lover?

This woman, really-give her an inch and she takes a mile.

I turned to leave.

Ding Ning spoke: “I’ve long suspected what you and Zhao Ben have been up to.”

I stopped in my tracks.

Suddenly, a sharp pain hit the back of my head.

With a clang, something struck my head and fell to the floor.

I picked it up. It was the missing cufflink.

A white horse head, gold-rimmed enamel, with the character ‘Zhong’ engraved on the back.

Ding Ning had designed and custom-ordered it for me for my birthday last year.

I played with it in my hand as if nothing had happened. “I just went to meet your lover and threatened him to stay away from my wife, that’s all.”

Ding Ning tilted her head and laughed. “You really won’t cry until you see the coffin.”

She pressed her phone. “That day, you took the initiative to ask Xiao Ning out and slept with her…”

I was shocked. She knew? When did she find out?

Ding Ning seemed to see right through my thoughts.

She smiled lightly. “The day after you assigned that ‘task’ to Zhao Ben.”

“He went hiking with his father, and on a whim, I decided to stop by his place. The room was so dirty that I ended up cleaning it a bit. I accidentally swept your cufflink out from under the sofa.”

“That recording… was it Zhao Ben who played it for you?”

“How could that be?” She shot me a look of disdain. “Knowing you as I do, you wouldn’t go to him for no reason, and especially not to his home.”

“So I concluded that the two of you must be plotting something.”

“It took a bit of effort to get into his computer, but in his hidden folder, I found that recording.”

I was stunned. I hadn’t expected Ding Ning to have uncovered so much already.

All of a sudden, I found this woman terrifying.

After learning all this, she could still live with me as if nothing had happened. Just a few days ago, we had been intimate in bed, and she was as passionate as ever. Her nails had been trimmed, so she simply pinched my back with her fingers. Afterwards, there were clusters of red marks…

“Since you knew so early, why didn’t you confront me?”

She spread her hands. “If disaster is coming, you can’t avoid it. What’s the point?”

She sighed. “Honestly, I wanted to see if you could really be that ruthless to me…”

With that, she began to sob.

My eyes grew moist as well, and I couldn’t help but say, “That day when Zhao Ben asked you out, you knew you might be in danger. Why did you still go?”

“If you hadn’t gone that day, if you had chosen to cut things off with him, I would have called off the whole plan.”

She lifted her tear-filled eyes. “If I told you that I went to see him that day to break up with him, and that nothing happened between us, would you believe me?”

“If something really had happened between us, then why would I have bothered to go to the reproductive hospital that afternoon to try to get pregnant through donor insemination?”

I thought about it carefully.

The forensic report found DNA from three men. Two were her assailants, one was from the sperm bank. If she and Zhao Ben had done it, there should have been a fourth man.

But Zhao Ben said that he was too nervous, and nothing happened between them.

I shook my head.

No, something still didn’t add up.

I remembered-the police asked her how many people assaulted her. Why did she sometimes say two, and other times three?

Even at night, even if you can’t see clearly, you wouldn’t mistake how many people touched you.

Is it possible that she and Zhao Ben were intimate that day, but it didn’t go all the way, so she wasn’t sure how many men’s DNA were inside her?

That’s why she sometimes said three, sometimes two.

Between her and Zhao Ben, who should I believe?

At that moment, my phone rang.

It was Officer Zhang from the Public Security Bureau.

He said there was a new discovery in the surveillance footage and asked Ding Ning and me to come to the police station as soon as possible.