Chapter 14

Epilogue

I am Ding Ning.

That night, Zhao Ben hadn’t planned to call two people.

It was me who told him to call one more person.

He was surprised, holding me tightly: “Xiao Ning, this is too much for you!”

I sneered inwardly. Men are truly hypocritical creatures.

Oh, so if one person humiliates me, it’s not too much, but if two people do, then it’s unbearable?

Why did I do this?

Zhao Ben asked me.

I told him, I know Zhong Huiming too well.

He’s someone who values planning above all.

With him, you have to catch him off guard-only then is there a chance to turn the tables.

Zhong Huiming, that cowardly hypocrite, that spineless man.

He arranges such filthy things for his own wife, and actually expects her lover to carry it out?

When the hospital found out he was azoospermic a year ago, he refused to admit it, claiming it was just stress and a false result.

Instead, he made me go through all sorts of tests.

I suggested we be DINK, and he solemnly refused: “Normal Chinese men, very few would want to be DINK. If we choose DINK, people will definitely speculate which one of us has a problem.”

“Although you have a minor issue, I don’t want others making baseless guesses about my wife.”

God, does he even listen to what he’s saying? Does he have any shame left?

I said, how about I go for sperm donation, and he rejected it instantly, telling me clearly he couldn’t accept it.

Later, his sister got pregnant.

Several times, he hinted that I should raise his sister’s child, saying things like “keep the fat in the family.”

Isn’t that ridiculous?

But men like him, so hypocritical, are actually easy to deal with, because when it comes to his privacy, he doesn’t dare to tear things apart completely.

That’s when I thought of Zhao Ben.

Actually, I’d been training with him for a long time, always keeping a decent boundary.

Until one day, a thought surfaced.

I seduced him.

Zhong Huiming never noticed.

Later, I got impatient waiting, thinking about what I could do to get his attention.

So I cut the nails I’d kept for years.

My original plan was to get pregnant no matter what, and if Zhong Huiming freaked out, I’d threaten to expose his azoospermia.

But this genius actually came up with the idea of having Zhao Ben find someone to humiliate me.

So I played along.

But just thinking about how he could come up with such a vicious scheme, wanting me to be ruined and kicked out of the marriage with nothing, made me furious.

During that time, when I slept with him, I used my newly clipped, stubby fingers to scratch his back raw!

As for Zhao Ben, he wasn’t utterly devoted to me, but he was at least convinced.

Faced with Zhong Huiming’s proposal, maybe he hesitated.

But in the end, he chose me.

When he handed me Zhong Huiming’s cufflinks, the gears of fate quietly began to turn.

I collapsed into his arms, sobbing.

“I really can’t bear to let you suffer like this. Why don’t we run away together?” he suggested, feigning concern.

I touched his cheek, “Then what about your father’s kidney transplant?”

“How about this, listen to me-when it’s done, you won’t just get three million, but thirty million. How about it?”

“Really?” His eyes lit up.

“But…” he hesitated again, “You’re the only one suffering, while I get all the benefits.”

“I can’t get past this.”

I persuaded him instead, “Don’t see me as a victim. See me as your accomplice.”

“Accomplice?”

“Yes, let’s con Old Zhong out of tens of millions together. How about it?”

He held my hand, smiling without warmth.

I sneered. I knew it-there’s no such thing as absolute loyalty.

If the price is high enough, anyone can betray anyone.

After that, everything unfolded according to my plan.

Fortunately, nothing was beyond my expectations.

Everything was completed under my control.

Zhong Huiming thought I was the kind of woman who lost control during sex, so he cleverly deduced that I cut my long nails for Zhao Ben.

In reality, I never left a scratch on Zhao Ben.

Just like now, as I sip champagne in a hotel in Ginza. With a click of the mouse, the profiles of the two men Zhao Ben found, along with Zhong Huiming’s damning voice recording, were all packaged and sent to Officer Zhang via a disposable email, routed through layers of proxies.

All traces are left in the cloud.

Whether Officer Zhang decides to investigate, how far he’ll go, and whether I can keep myself completely clean-

If Zhao Ben confesses that it was all my plan, will he believe it?

I have no expectations, nor hopes.

I am very clear: I have never had any accomplices.

I have always had only myself.

(The End)