Chapter 276 | Chapter 277 | Chapter 278
Chapter 276: Slap
Lin Zhulu’s heart beat like a frantic drum. From her perspective, Wei Yan had burst into a sudden, unhinged laugh and then just sat there completely frozen…
Did he lose his mind? Did the successive blows finally drive him insane?
Just as she was pondering whether to seize the chance to slip away quietly, Wei Yan suddenly lifted his head again and asked, “Coming here all by yourself today—aren’t you afraid of something happening to you?”
When he asked this, Lin Zhulu actually felt a wave of relief. After all, a cards-on-the-table confrontation where both sides knew the score meant he had abandoned the schemes they had already seen right through.
She replied, “I am afraid. But I didn’t want to hide. I didn’t want you to think I was afraid of you.”
What she feared was getting hurt or facing physical danger, not Wei Yan as a person.
When she was very small, she had asked her mother why all the other kids had fathers while she didn’t. Back then, Lin Yueji had tried her best to explain her failed marriage using language a child could comprehend.
Yet to the young Lin Zhulu, it was still inevitable to feel that she was a child her father didn’t love. She had grieved for a long time, only to eventually realize that her sorrow served no purpose other than to worry her mother and aunt. Thus, she gradually learned to bury her feelings deep inside.
As she grew older, she came to understand that the role of a father wasn’t an absolute necessity. Or rather, a “dad” didn’t strictly have to be a male figure. Her mother could be a dad, and her aunt could be a dad too. What truly mattered was that the love she received was never diminished by the absence of one man.
However, she also recognized that, at least to her mother, her father was a thoroughly despicable human being. In this regard, Lin Zhulu and Ai Ning shared the exact same sentiment—why did she have to be that man’s child? Why did she carry his DNA?
Even though the boundless love of her mother and aunt prevented her from ever viewing her own existence as a burden or an obstacle to her family, Lin Zhulu had still carried a deep sense of shame regarding her lineage.
Until that day, when Gu Qinghuan told her that lunch was far more important.
It really was hilarious upon reflection. She had spent so long agonizing over a single grain of sand wedged inside her shoe, only to lift her head and realize she was standing on a magnificent beach. There were countless grains of sand beneath her feet, and she could simply step over them to run toward the vast, blue ocean.
He was nothing more than a trivial grain of sand.
From that day forward, she completely ceased to care about Wei Yan and Wei Xiao.
The unwavering support she had received from everyone in Class Three over the past few days made Lin Zhulu realize that she could be even braver.
Stepping into the Wei residence today served a dual purpose for Lin Zhulu. Beyond confirming Wei Yan’s schemes and thoroughly crushing his designs, she wanted to personally confront her past shame and embarrassment. She wanted to see exactly what kind of man Wei Yan was, giving her past self a definitive sense of closure.
And the reality? He was merely this.
She could stand before Wei Yan in absolute tranquility, entirely unswerved by anything he said. In fact, she held far more leverage throughout this entire dialogue.
Compared to the countless times she had agonizingly fantasized about this confrontation during sleepless nights, the intelligence data her classmates had meticulously gathered and the various contingencies they had racked their brains to construct proved infinitely more effective.
As it turned out, they weren’t terrifying at all, and she wasn’t weak or useless. She was powerful, and she would only grow more powerful in the future.
Lin Zhulu said in a matter-of-fact tone, “Nothing is going to happen to me. Not today, and not ever in the future.”
“I will never become a breeding tool to carry on your line. My surname is Lin, not Wei. I am my mother’s daughter, and I have absolutely nothing to do with you.”
Her heart had never felt lighter.
Lin Zhulu didn’t cast another glance at Wei Yan. In truth, she was quite curious about the exact crimes he had committed, but his offenses would be made public sooner or later; she could just wait and see.
She turned and marched out of the study with long strides. Wei Yan didn’t make a single move to stop her, merely watching Lin Zhulu’s retreating figure, entirely consumed by a profound, hollow void.
Downstairs in the living room, Wei Xiao watched Lin Zhulu descend the staircase. He was just debating whether to press her on what she and Wei Yan had discussed, but before he could even stand up, Lin Zhulu snapped rapidly, “No need to see me out, goodbye!”
With that, she bolted faster than a rabbit, clearly refusing to linger a second longer.
Wei Xiao didn’t bother wasting his breath. Since Wei Yan hadn’t given any instructions, he wasn’t about to expend his own energy on superfluous tasks.
The sound of a car engine igniting drifted in from outside the villa. It made sense—the Lin family had undoubtedly arranged transportation to pick Lin Zhulu up.
Wei Xiao stood up and made his way back to the study. The door was flung wide open, and the wind surging through the window caused the curtains to whip violently back and forth—frantic, chaotic, and desperately lonely.
Wei Yan stood there, staring blankly at the curtains, completely immobile.
Something about him has fundamentally changed, Wei Xiao thought.
If Wei Yan had exuded a manic, obsessive aura before laying eyes on Lin Zhulu, right now he looked exactly like a plant whose roots had thoroughly rotted away. Even if a few green leaves remained on the surface, they were limp, withered, and soft—retaining a mere shell while the core was broken beyond repair.
It was a sense of decay radiating from the inside out.
Wei Xiao walked over to the window, shutting it tight and pulling the heavy curtains closed. There were likely people keeping tabs on the Wei residence right now; it was always better to be cautious.
The room darkened significantly. Wei Xiao reached out and flipped the light switch, but the sudden cascade of bright light made him wince with discomfort.
Wei Yan, meanwhile, seemed to jar awake from a trance, propping himself up against the executive desk as he stood up.
“Did the talk collapse?” Wei Xiao asked.
“She knew from the very beginning that you aren’t my son,” Wei Yan’s voice dropped to a guttural whisper. “She came prepared—far better prepared than we ever anticipated.”
Lin Zhulu knew? When did she find out? If she knew, did that mean everyone in Class Three knew as well?
An onslaught of questions instantly flooded Wei Xiao’s brain. Every look of disdain and every word of public scorn he had endured over the past few weeks replayed like a horrific montage before his eyes, restricting his breathing until it grew labored.
Yet, entirely consumed by his own spiraling thoughts, Wei Yan failed to notice Wei Xiao’s abnormal state.
He simply walked over to the bookshelf, staring blankly at the antique display pieces lining the cabinet as he muttered to himself, “If this were before, I could have followed your suggestion—found an opening to have her snatched and brought here by force.”
“But it’s impossible now. Based on the evidence Zhu Yuanyuan handed over alone, I’m looking at a minimum of ten years in prison, not to mention the asset forfeiture…”
“What on earth did you do?!” Wei Xiao clutched his head, barking the question through gritted teeth.
Wei Yan offered no response. Before he moved abroad years ago, the wealth he had accumulated was indeed substantial, but money alone didn’t automatically open doors in foreign territories. He had scoured his options until he found a powerful magnate who possessed an absolute obsession with domestic cultural relics, catering directly to his eccentric tastes.
Even though many years had passed, in Zhu Yuanyuan’s memory, the number of Class II state cultural relics involved exceeded three pieces, carries a minimum sentence of ten years or more.
Zhu Yuanyuan had played her hand masterfully. The moment his conviction for smuggling cultural relics was handed down, public attention would immediately pivot to slam him, fueling a massive firestorm of societal rage. She, on the other hand, could seamlessly fade into the background, ensuring she faced significantly less scrutiny upon her release from prison.
Did he feel regret? Was he in agony? Did he want revenge? The problem was that Zhu Yuanyuan was already sitting in a cell; how could he possibly exact revenge?
Hire hitmen in advance to strike the moment she stepped out of prison? He was currently under active surveillance; in all likelihood, before the hitmen could even be located, he would end up saddling himself with an additional charge of conspiracy to commit murder.
It was a devastatingly farcical dead end. In the end, he had lost completely to a woman he had thoroughly looked down upon.
His priority now was to coordinate a legal defense with his attorney, ensuring his corporate assets wouldn’t be entirely seized so he could at least live out his remaining years in quiet comfort after prison…
Wei Yan’s train of thought was violently shattered by Wei Xiao’s frantic roar: “Speak to me! What are we supposed to do now?!”
Every bottlenecked emotion Wei Xiao had suppressed over the last few days surged into his head at this exact moment. Whether it was Wei Yan’s pathetic look of resignation or Lin Zhulu’s effortless escape, it felt like a massive, mocking joke directed squarely at him.
Why had Wei Yan given up? Why did he have to be the loser? Why could Zhu Yuanyuan so easily condemn Wei Yan to eternal damnation?
He had merely wanted to make Wei Yan suffer a bit. His destiny had consistently been toyed with like a puppet in the palms of these people; he had only wanted to carve out a better life for himself.
What did he do wrong! Why did he have to face this garbage, ruined ending!
How flippant and indifferent Wei Xiao had been before was exactly how consumed by hatred and madness he was now.
Thoroughly exasperated by his screeching, Wei Yan spun around and delivered a brutal slap straight across Wei Xiao’s face. “What right do you have to throw a tantrum! You absolute bastard!”
“And you call yourself a man? What are you barking here for? If Lin Zhulu were standing in your position, she would have done infinitely better than you!”
The slap was devastatingly heavy. The sheer impact hurled Wei Xiao sideways against the executive desk. A thick metallic tang of blood filled his mouth, and as he opened his jaws, he spat out a bloody tooth onto the desktop.
Wei Xiao stared dead at the tooth, and… an exquisitely crafted antique letter opener resting right beside it.
When they were abroad, Wei Yan had used it frequently, but after returning to the country, it was simply placed on the desk to serve as a paperweight. Right now, due to the impact against the desk, the letter opener pinning the documents down slid straight into Wei Xiao’s line of sight.
Wei Yan shook his slightly throbbing hand, turning his back to exit the study. He had an immense volume of arrangements to process and didn’t have the luxury of time to deal with Wei Xiao’s psychotic break.
Yet, he had barely taken two steps when he heard a sudden, chaotic rush of footsteps from behind.
Immediately following that, a sharp, piercing agony tore straight through his back.
He turned his head in absolute bewilderment, his body collapsing uncontrollably as he slammed heavily onto the carpet with a dull, muffled thud.
Wei Xiao tightly gripped the blood-stained letter opener, his pupils dilated into a crazed, vacant stare. “It’s all your fault… how could there be anything wrong with me? I was raised by you. I am your rightful heir…”
“Everything in the Wei family belongs to me! I am the absolute best!!!”
Chapter 277: Mocha
Starting from Monday evening, the Class Three group chat was a scene of absolute pandemonium.
First, the entire class spent over half an hour celebrating the conversation between Lin Zhulu and Wei Yan—praising Lin Zhulu to the high heavens while viciously blasting Wei Yan and Wei Xiao.
They then launched into a heated discussion about their next steps. If it hadn’t been for the fact that they still had homework to complete, interspersed with questions about textbook problems, any cyber-police officer looking at the chat history would have muttered, “Holy cow.”
Around ten o’clock, everyone’s initial fervor finally began to settle. Just as the group chat was on the verge of falling quiet, Bao Qingsong dropped a few screenshots from clickbait marketing accounts, causing the class group to instantly erupt like a pot of boiling water again.
Wei Xiao had fled the house. A short while later, a servant went into the study to confirm dinner arrangements and discovered Wei Yan collapsed on the floor. The servant scrambled to call an ambulance and report the incident to the police.
Wei Yan was rushed to the hospital, while the police deployed to track down and arrest Wei Xiao.
Despite the Class Three marmots’ extensive experience in witnessing drama, they were left thoroughly dumbfounded and wide-eyed by the news.
The specific details would have to wait for the subsequent investigation, but this single development was more than enough to keep the marmots gossiping endlessly.
At the same time, everyone unanimously advised Lin Zhulu to strictly avoid leaving her house until Wei Xiao was apprehended.
If Wei Xiao had genuinely lost his mind and assaulted his own father, who knew if he would strike out at anyone else? Lin Zhulu would undoubtedly top his list of targets.
Lin Zhulu immediately informed Lin Yueji of the situation. Following that, the students began debating whether Gu Qinghuan, Qin Yue, Song Yi, and Yu Yuan should request leaves of absence as well.
The guy had actually dared to assault his own father; who could guarantee he wouldn’t snap at the other people who had caused him to lose face?
Fortunately, a short while later, Bao Qingsong learned from Bao Rujian that Wei Xiao had been apprehended and swiftly posted the update in the group chat, allowing everyone to finally breathe a sigh of relief.
Lin Zhulu no longer needed to skip school, though she still requested Lin Yueji and Lin Aiji to dig around for the specific details of the incident.
By this time, it was already past midnight. No matter how desperate the students were to consume more drama, a wave of exhaustion finally hit them, making it impossible to stay awake.
Crucially, they still had school the next day. The marmots were forced to close their eyes begrudgingly, hoping they would wake up to a fresh harvest of news.
On Tuesday morning, due to a severe lack of sleep, the marmots walked into the classroom one after another with unsteady, hovering footsteps.
Fortunately, Jiang Chuchu had come prepared, waving her hand to supply everyone with hot Americanos.
“How sadistic,” Qin Yue grumbled after taking a sip, his tongue practically hanging out from the sheer bitterness. “Would an iced Americano be less bitter?”
“Drinking an iced Americano first thing in the morning at this temperature is a bit too much. More importantly, I don’t feel like drinking anything cold,” Jiang Chuchu said calmly.
Qin Yue: Fine, fine, fine. Classic you.
Gu Qinghuan took a sip and fell silent. She took another sip and remained silent, ultimately deciding to augment the brew.
She fished a bar of chocolate out of her backpack, broke it apart, tossed it into the cup, and poured in some milk she had brought from home. After giving it a thorough stir, she felt it was finally palatable.
Jiang Chuchu was left speechless. “You basically just manufactured a cup of mocha on the spot.”
Gu Qinghuan cradled her cup, speaking with absolute righteousness, “I did it to prevent waste!”
Yu Xin stealthily slithered over. “Qinghuan, give me a splash of that too.”
And thus, another fresh mocha was delivered.
Fueled by the coffee, the students finally regained enough vitality to endure the morning lectures.
The faculty at Mingde had also received word of Wei Xiao’s situation, particularly the homeroom teacher of Class Two.
She was thoroughly frightened out of her wits. During morning roll call, she sprinted into the classroom to earnestly urge everyone that if they ever experienced psychological pressure, they must inform their parents and teachers immediately rather than bottling it up inside.
The capybaras: Psychological pressure?
The capybaras felt too embarrassed to point out that as long as Wei Xiao wasn’t in the classroom, none of them experienced a shred of psychological pressure.
The capybaras had all more or less caught wind of Wei Xiao’s arrest. To say they weren’t frightened would be a lie; they simply prayed that Wei Xiao would never return.
Come lunch break, under everyone’s eager anticipation, Bao Qingsong finally brought the latest update.
“According to the forensic investigation of the scene, a conflict broke out between them after Lin Zhulu left, involving a degree of physical violence. Wei Xiao had a tooth knocked out by Wei Yan,” Bao Qingsong said, involuntarily sucking in a sharp breath.
To knock a tooth completely out—just how much physical force had been deployed?
Gu Qinghuan instinctively massaged her cheek, using her tongue to verify that her own teeth were perfectly intact.
She asked, “So Wei Xiao retaliated and wounded Wei Yan?”
“Yes. A letter opener bearing Wei Xiao’s fingerprints and stained with Wei Yan’s blood was recovered at the scene. According to the servant, that letter opener was routinely kept on Wei Yan’s desk, so Wei Xiao must have grabbed it,” Bao Qingsong explained.
“The current situation is quite complicated—Wei Yan’s injury is exceptionally severe. His spinal cord was severed, and he is currently undergoing emergency medical procedures. There is a very high probability of permanent lower-body paralysis.”
“Paralysis?!” Lin Zhulu’s eyes widened. She didn’t experience a shred of sympathy, but for a man who had been perfectly healthy yesterday to face paralysis today—the sheer drop in fortune was staggering.
“Yes. Furthermore, securing a criminal conviction right now is highly problematic,” Bao Qingsong said, finding the matter quite convoluted himself.
There were no signs of a mutual brawl inside the room. According to Wei Yan’s statement, he had merely delivered a single slap to Wei Xiao.
Although the strike was heavy enough to knock Wei Xiao’s tooth out, he had turned to leave immediately afterward without continuing the assault, which meant Wei Xiao’s actions could not be legally classified as self-defense.
Furthermore, judging from the blood splatter patterns preserved on the floor, it was verified that when Wei Xiao stabbed him, Wei Yan was facing the door—evidently in the middle of exiting.
Add to that the fact that the two were father and son, and the prosecution of domestic violence within a household had always faced severe systemic criticism, making this specific case exceptionally difficult to adjudicate.
Having realized the high probability of his permanent paralysis, Wei Yan was adamantly demanding that Wei Xiao be thrown into prison.
Wei Xiao, on the other hand, was maintaining that he was under eighteen years of age, hoping for a lenient sentence.
And then, Wei Yan threw down Wei Xiao’s official birth certificate.
“Huh?” The marmots were almost too stuffed with drama to digest any more. “He exposed Wei Xiao’s true identity?”
“Exactly,” Bao Qingsong agreed that the twist was spectacular. “Wei Xiao isn’t Wei Yan’s biological son, after all. Zhu Yuanyuan gave birth to him before she ever conceived Wei Yan’s child. So when you calculate the timeline, his actual age puts him exactly at legal adulthood.”
“Simultaneously, Wei Yan is accusing Wei Xiao and Zhu Yuanyuan of conspiring to defraud him for decades solely to usurp the Wei family fortune. He plans to prosecute not just Wei Xiao, but Zhu Yuanyuan as well.”
“However, Wei Yan himself is currently facing two major charges: forging official identification and smuggling cultural relics. In short, the lawsuits among this family of three are so tangled that even the judge found it dizzying.”
Just as Gu Qinghuan was about to nod, she suddenly registered a discrepancy. “What did you say Wei Yan’s charges were?”
She had actually heard it perfectly clearly, she just couldn’t believe it.
“Smuggling cultural relics,” Xu Xinghe said flatly, though his posture looked as if he were ready to flip a table.
Smuggling cultural relics? He must be tired of living! A literal traitor to the nation!!!
“I wish him a speedy onset of paralysis,” Ming Xiaolan said, concise and to the point.
Everyone cursed until their throats were dry. By the time they finally calmed down, they felt that this catastrophic resolution was the ultimate manifestation of poetic justice.
“But then again, with things turning out like this, there’s no way the Wei family can ever pester Lin Zhulu again, right?” Xie Xiangxue looked at Lin Zhulu, feeling genuinely happy for her from the bottom of her heart.
“Most likely,” Jiang Chuchu nodded. “Do you need me to have my secretary keep an eye on the Wei family’s legal proceedings?”
Lin Zhulu shook her head. “My aunt already has people monitoring it. Although the updates won’t come that fast, there’s absolutely no need to rush anymore.”
“True. The absolute disaster that the Wei family has become won’t allow them to harbor designs on you ever again,” Jiang Chuchu agreed.
“Mhm!” Lin Zhulu flashed a brilliant smile. “Let those people remain entangled together, to rot and fester into nothingness!”
As for her, she would possess a future infinitely more glorious and radiant than anything the Wei family could ever dream of.
Chapter 278: Karma
The drama surrounding the Wei family caused a massive storm, landing on the trending searches countless times.
For Gu Qinghuan, however, none of the gossip sounded as sweet as the system’s sudden notification: [Mission Complete.]
Yet, when the system prepared to display the standard evaluation report this time, Gu Qinghuan called an emergency halt.
“Just give me a rough summary—don’t show me the actual footage directly,” Gu Qinghuan requested with a strained expression within the system space.
Since she already knew the nature of Lin Zhulu’s most desperate fate, she truly couldn’t bear to look at the graphic details. Whether a woman chose to bear children or not was her innate capability; it should never be exploited or stripped away by anyone.
Though Gu Qinghuan had glimpsed various forms of darkness and despair through her previous missions, Lin Zhulu’s original trajectory remained profoundly heavy and cruel.
The system agreed readily, summarizing the sequence of events for her.
In reality, Lin Zhulu’s most desperate fate and Yu Xin’s most desperate fate would not have occurred simultaneously. If Wei Xiao chose Yu Xin as a toy to kill time, it meant his engagement to Yu Yuan was still active, and the fact that he was not Wei Yan’s biological son remained completely hidden.
Conversely, once Wei Xiao’s true identity was exposed to Wei Yan, he would turn his designs toward Lin Zhulu.
“So this single cockroach was the architect behind the most desperate fates of both Xin-bao and Lin Zhulu? He really is pure evil!” Gu Qinghuan clenched her fists.
It made perfect sense. Just as Gu Qinghuan could steer her classmates toward a more radiant path, a person like Wei Xiao possessed the terrifying potential to plunge numerous individuals into utter despair.
From the perspective of the world’s probabilities, the system noted that humans like Wei Xiao were best kept to an absolute minimum.
In that original trajectory, it wasn’t Wei Xiao, but Wei Yan who chanced upon the truth first. Flying into a towering rage, Wei Yan used the pretext of a vacation to send Zhu Yuanyuan abroad, where he hired hitmen to eliminate her.
Initially, he intended to erase the stain that was Wei Xiao as well, but having invested so many years into raising him, he ultimately arrived at the exact same conclusion the current Wei Xiao had.
From this perspective, while Wei Yan and Wei Xiao shared no biological ties, they were cut from the exact same cloth when it came to being absolute human garbage.
To protect his own wealth and prestige, Wei Xiao naturally accepted the proposition, and together, they began plotting against Lin Zhulu.
“Hold on, did the Wei and Yu families dissolve their engagement in that trajectory?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
The system replied: [No. On paper, Lin Zhulu was Wei Yan’s daughter, and Wei Xiao was Wei Yan’s son.]
With Zhu Yuanyuan dead, as long as no one conducted a paternity test, no one in the world would know Wei Xiao’s true lineage. Furthermore, Wei Yan had no intention of letting society know he had been played for a fool by Zhu Yuanyuan for nearly two decades.
“If the engagement wasn’t dissolved, did the Yu Yuan in that timeline ever get to become Yu Yuan?” Gu Qinghuan pressed.
The system stated slowly: [No.]
The system’s reply was brief, yet the sheer volume of imaginable horrors made any further speculation entirely unnecessary.
Gu Qinghuan fell into a brief silence before redirecting her focus back to the current mission.
“In that most desperate fate, was Lin Zhulu deceived by Wei Xiao?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
“Not just deceived, but entirely imprisoned,” the system replied. “Just as you and your classmates previously deduced, they struck after Lin Zhulu entered university. Capitalizing on her distance from the Lin family, they bribed her roommate.”
Throughout his high school years, even if a few people at Mingde knew about Wei Xiao’s dark childhood history, they paid it no mind because his behavior on campus remained perfectly normal. One could even say his high school life appeared fulfilling and glorious.
By then, Xia He had already committed suicide. Bai Hanshan was entirely consumed by managing the massive volume of affairs Xia He had left behind, resulting in lax oversight of the Student Council.
Under those circumstances, though Wei Xiao failed his initial interview, he bribed the student ranked ahead of him, ultimately sliding into the Student Council as an alternate.
He secured the member roster of the Student Council, which Wei Yan utilized to expand the Wei family’s network and elevate their corporate status. By the time Wei Xiao entered university, the Wei family had established a firm enough foothold to completely shield their actions from the Lin family’s detection.
Shortly after Lin Zhulu stepped onto her university campus, she began facing an onslaught of overt and covert psychological strikes.
Slander, rumors, emotional manipulation, and information cocoons… all of it ultimately severed her connections with the outside world. Aside from the roommate who “consistently believed in and supported her,” she ceased to trust a single human being.
The roommate suggested she take a trip during the break to clear her head. Yet, the moment she stepped off the transport vehicle, what awaited Lin Zhulu was the Wei family’s private car.
She was confined by the Wei family, ultimately sinking into that most desperate fate.
Gu Qinghuan opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again, letting out a long, heavy breath. Even though she had deduced most of it, hearing the system simplify the events still made her feel immensely stifled.
She hadn’t anticipated that the original Lin Zhulu would endure the betrayal of a trusted roommate. The university life she had looked forward to became the dawn of a living nightmare; Gu Qinghuan couldn’t begin to fathom the sheer psychological devastation of that impact.
She, too, eagerly anticipated her future university life—moving away from home to live independently, sharing a space with roommates, experiencing military training, joining clubs, and participating in campus activities. She couldn’t imagine how excruciating it would be to find herself trapped in such a web, let alone one entirely woven from malice and calculated lies.
“For them to face their current endings—it really is karma. They brought it entirely on themselves,” Gu Qinghuan stated.
The system said: [My database does not contain a definition for ‘karma.’ In my view, this outcome is the collective product of the efforts made by you, Lin Zhulu, and many others.]
“True,” Gu Qinghuan pondered for a moment, then asked softly, “I want to know, did the Wei family face any retribution in Lin Zhulu’s original most desperate fate?”
“Yes.” The system’s confirmation brought a sudden wave of relief to Gu Qinghuan’s heart.
“Lin Zhulu did not conceive the male heir Wei Yan desperately craved; if anything, she never became pregnant.”
Extreme psychological stress exerts a severe impact on a woman’s endocrine system. Lin Zhulu was inherently sensitive, and in that suffocating environment, conception was biologically impossible.
This outcome, in turn, magnified Wei Yan’s psychological strain. Unable to bring Lin Zhulu to a proper medical facility, he redirected his explosive fury onto Wei Xiao.
Yet, Wei Xiao had been bold enough to slash a blade across a child’s face since his youth, let alone after reaching adulthood. By then, he had begun carving out his own business ventures; although he still relied heavily on the Wei family background, he had increasingly less respect for Wei Yan.
Thus, when Wei Yan unleashed another barrage of vitriol at Wei Xiao, the latter struck back.
“Just like what happened now?” Gu Qinghuan was astonished.
“Far more severe than the present,” the system stated. “A brutal brawl erupted between them. While Wei Xiao initially held the physical advantage, Wei Yan drew a firearm.”
As a side note, Wei Yan actually possessed a firearm in this trajectory as well, but Wei Xiao was oblivious to it—otherwise, Wei Yan would likely be facing far more than lower-body paralysis right now.
Gu Qinghuan was startled. “A murder occurred?”
“Wei Yan shot through Wei Xiao’s leg. Wei Xiao wrestled the gun away and severed Wei Yan’s major artery. Upon realizing Wei Yan was dead, Wei Xiao decided to commit arson to fabricate the crime scene. Lin Zhulu, confined within the basement, perished from asphyxiation and the raging heat.”
Gu Qinghuan felt a tightness in her chest, taking a long moment to collect herself. “Was the truth eventually exposed?”
“Yes. Wei Xiao faced a combined sentence and was executed,” the system answered.
But even if Wei Yan and Wei Xiao had both perished, what of it? The Lin Zhulu who deserved to witness the destruction of her enemies had already died long before them.
