Chapter 390: Revenge Begins
The moment Jiaqi said those words, tears burst from my eyes.
What was I... what was I even doing?
I had stood in the darkest corner of this world, telling someone I least wanted to be with, "I'll do anything." And I had shown my most unwilling side to the only person in the world who actually liked me.
I felt so miserable.
The kinder Jiaqi was to me, the more I wanted to run away.
I shouldn't be dragging him down any longer.
"Chenze... what's wrong with you?" Jiaqi helped me put my clothes back on and smoothed my hair. "Did something happen last night? Do you need me to help you deal with it?"
"I..."
I knew that if I told him, it wouldn't just be my problem anymore. Jiaqi would be inevitably caught up in it.
Even if I were the one to kill that family of three, Jiaqi would become an accomplice for knowing and not reporting it.
"It's nothing..." I could only shake my head, burying all the past deep inside me, just like every day before.
According to Article 274 of the Criminal Law, anyone who extorts a relatively large amount of property or engages in multiple acts of extortion shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years, criminal detention, or public surveillance.
If Chengcai served three years in prison, it would mean nothing to me. After he got out, the eternal hell awaiting me would be far worse.
Jiaqi stared at me for a long time, then slowly gave a bitter smile. "Chenze, I came across an interesting question. Let me ask you?"
"Mm." I snapped back to reality and nodded.
"If someone gave you ten million, would you want it?"
"What?" I didn't quite understand.
"Suppose someone wanted to give you ten million right now. Would you take it or not?" Jiaqi repeated.
"If someone were giving it to me for free... then of course I'd take it." I looked at him blankly.
Xiao Sun smiled and nodded. "Then what if, after giving you ten million, you would die by the time dawn came tomorrow? Would you still take it?"
"I..." I sighed bitterly. "Then I definitely wouldn't."
"So in your eyes, waking up tomorrow morning is more important than ten million." Xiao Sun held my shoulders and said earnestly, "So every day when we wake up, we have to tell ourselves that this day is more precious than ten million. We absolutely cannot waste it."
"What...?"
"Chenze, every day you wake up is more important to me than countless ten millions." Xiao Sun still wore that resolute, clear expression. "Our future is still long. Let's cherish every day and keep moving forward together."
He buttoned up my shirt one by one, then patted my head. "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do in front of me. Because I don't just want to be your 'boyfriend'—I want to be your true other half."
Ha, my life.
My miserable life—one wrong step, and every step after is wrong.
If only I had accepted Jiaqi's love a little earlier, maybe my entire life would have been different.
If there was someone in this world who could love me like this, I could completely abandon that illusory family affection, stop harboring any hopes for those blood-related family members.
I could never naively go home and give my little brother a red envelope as his elder sister.
I could never naively think that after being away for twenty years, their hostility toward me would lessen. Or that after twenty years away, my hometown would have changed much.
And I would never be locked up in that dark room again.
But I was never a smart person—just a stubborn ordinary person. Every time I made a choice, I could never foresee my own ending.
So this was all my fault. I couldn't blame anyone else.
Stop being good to me. I don't want any hope anymore.
Because I was about to "wipe out my own family" and become the undeniable devil of this world.
For the next few days, I pretended nothing was wrong and stayed with Jiaqi, just waiting for the fifth day to come.
On the morning of the fifth day, I turned on the air conditioner and TV at home, then went downstairs and unplugged the power cord from my car's dashcam. I turned off the location services on my phone.
Then I went online and contacted the most expensive ticket scalpers. But I didn't call them—I insisted on communicating via WeChat.
After spending eighteen thousand yuan, I successfully bought an inner-field ticket for Jay Chou's concert from a scalper. Then I bought some Jay Chou fan merchandise from him for two hundred yuan.
I took a photo and posted it on my Moments, blocking Chengcai, with the caption "So excited."
After I saw people start liking it, I anonymously posted the QR code from the ticket stub—the one that said "Do Not Disclose"—on Jay Chou's forum, asking "Is this ticket real?"
Barring any accidents, even if I didn't actually go to the concert, the ticket would still end up being used.
Next, I contacted a few "gray-area" people who had asked me to help with lawsuits before. I had them discreetly buy me some essential items for "murder and arson" and paid them a generous hush fee.
The last step was to go to a print shop by the roadside and print out two blue-background numbers, which I would use to change my license plate. I didn't need to change all the digits—just two numbers, and my car would no longer be mine.
After preparing everything, I drove toward "home" in the morning sun.
I didn't take any highways or national roads. I cut through small paths in villages as much as possible. Even though I had changed the license plate, I still had to avoid cameras as much as I could.
By evening, I had finished the last stretch of mountain road. I parked the car in an inconspicuous spot at the entrance of the village, then opened a ride-hailing app and ordered a car from my home address to the Jay Chou concert venue.
A few minutes later, the driver called.
"Hello?"
"Miss, I'm here. Where are you?"
"Driver, I won't get in. Just drive straight to the destination. I'll pay the fare."
"What?"
"Just like that. Bye."
Seeing the app display "Trip Started," I locked my phone, set it to silent, and put it in my pocket. Then I picked up my handbag and walked toward the village.
I chose the least conspicuous path, avoiding everyone's gaze along the way, until I reached my "home."
I hid my handbag by the water tank near the door and knocked.
They seemed to be watching TV. The whole family was laughing loudly. It took a long time before someone came to the door.
"Zhang Laidi?" Chengcai's face lit up with surprise when he opened the door. "You're back?!"
"Yeah, let me in." I smiled at him. "I want to talk with you all."
"Mom, Zhang Laidi's back!" Chengcai called out.
"Son of a bitch!"
The woman, who had been happily watching TV, stormed out of the house as soon as she heard Chengcai's words. "You son of a bitch, you still have the nerve to come back?! What did you do? How come the cops took Old Ma away?"
She waddled over to me with her bulky body in just a few steps, pointed at my nose, and yelled, "The whole village says you're a husband-killer! What the hell did you do?!"
"Hey! Enough! Enough!" My old man smiled and pulled the woman back. "Laidi finally came home, don't scold her."
Seeing my father's beaming face, I smiled back at him, walked over, pushed him aside, and stepped into the room behind him.
This cozy, happy room was plastered with photos of me.
In every single photo, I was crying.
But they had just been laughing here.
Yeah, I used to never understand why my old man always smiled when he saw me. Now I get it.
Every time he looked over my body, he had that same smile.
My newlywed sister-in-law was using my photo as a tray for her melon seed shells. She kept laughing at the TV without even glancing at me.
"Sister-in-law," I called.
"Hahaha!" She spat out a shell and glanced at me sideways.
If possible, I didn't want to lay a hand on this girl. She might have a story just like mine.
Before I could say another word, she held out the pile of melon seed shells in front of me. "Hey, throw these away for me."