Free Web NovelChapter 70: Chapter 70: The Mastermind Behind the Scenes
Tang Yuanxiao’s back stiffened. He was silent for a moment. "Is this why you want a divorce?"
Although Tang Yuanxiao didn’t know the specifics of ’what happened last time,’ he could guess the gist of it.
He was shocked and terrified in hindsight. He never knew Su Li had been living like this, never knew that these seemingly kind and amiable villagers had such a side to them...
Even more unthinkable was that his own mother had such a side to her, that she could suddenly become so unfamiliar.
The home he had thought was so happy and harmonious... once the mask was torn away, was so bloody and raw.
’No wonder Su Li is so determined to get a divorce...’
Su Li couldn’t see Tang Yuanxiao’s expression, but she could sense his mood. The corner of her mouth twitched. "Yes, that’s part of the reason."
"It’s like I was born to clash with your Xinghua Village and the Tang Family. Last time, I risked my life to save Little Tang Mo, but they accused me of selling him and nearly burned me to death. This time, they framed me for adultery and nearly had me drowned in a pig cage..."
"In just one short year, I’ve faced two deadly disasters and walked through the gates of hell twice. How can I possibly feel safe staying here? I don’t want to die, Tang Yuanxiao."
The veins on Tang Yuanxiao’s hands bulged from the force of his grip. He slowly turned to face Su Li. A thousand words were on his tongue, but in the end, he only managed one sentence.
"I won’t let you die."
"Let’s get a divorce, Tang Yuanxiao." Su Li didn’t want to say any more. freeweɓnovel.cøm
Tang Yuanxiao’s already tense jaw tightened further, but he slowly shook his head.
"No, Su Li. We are not getting a divorce. We will never get a divorce."
"On what grounds! What right do you have!" Su Li demanded, raising her voice.
"I won’t agree to a divorce. Especially after something like this has happened. It’s even more impossible now, Su Li."
Tang Yuanxiao looked at Su Li and suddenly took a step forward.
"I have no grounds, and nothing to stand on. But I can guarantee that I won’t let anything happen to you. Even if you hadn’t arranged what came after, I would have believed you today. I wouldn’t have let anything happen to you."
Su Li froze.
The question of Tang Yuanxiao’s faith in her was something she had been avoiding, but now she had to face it.
’It’s true. When I was being framed, Tang Yuanxiao believed me from beginning to end. He didn’t listen to the villagers and wrongly condemn me like I thought he would. He just... believed me.’
’Why would he believe me?’ Su Li truly couldn’t figure it out.
Seeing Su Li calm down, Tang Yuanxiao let out a breath of relief.
"Su Li, from now on, you can try to trust me. Can you tell me what exactly happened just now?"
Su Li was instantly on guard. "What do you mean? Didn’t you see what happened?"
Tang Yuanxiao sounded helpless. "Su Li, I don’t know the full details, but... I’m not an idiot. I saw what I saw. I have a brain, and I can analyze things..."
He paused. "I’m not asking to judge you. I just want to make sure you weren’t hurt."
As he spoke, Tang Yuanxiao glanced at the fool lying unattended outside the side room. The fool was dead asleep; he hadn’t even woken up during all the earlier commotion.
That one glance from Tang Yuanxiao was filled with ice, cold to the extreme. The killing intent in his eyes left no doubt that he could kill the fool in the next second.
The soundly sleeping fool seemed affected even in his dreams and shivered.
Su Li saw all of this clearly. Her face was filled with astonishment. "What... what do you mean?"
Tang Yuanxiao pointed to the oil stain on Su Li’s clothes. "When I threw the fool out, I saw oil and chili flakes on his arm, and I smelled it on him... so... he touched you, didn’t he?"
Tang Yuanxiao squeezed that last sentence through his teeth, his voice dripping with killing intent.
Su Li, however, was completely stunned. "You..." She never would have imagined that Tang Yuanxiao could be so perceptive.
"Su Li, we may not know each other that well yet, but you can’t underestimate me. I have my own eyes."
"You can’t hide these details from me. I’m only asking you now to confirm if you were hurt and to understand what happened, so I can figure out how to deal with the fool."
Su Li’s expression grew stranger and stranger as she looked at Tang Yuanxiao. The more she listened, the more she felt like she didn’t recognize the man in front of her.
’Alright, this feeling has been lingering for the past few days, faint but present. But I’ve been ignoring it, single-mindedly focused on the divorce.’
She could ignore it before, but not anymore.
Su Li thought she knew Tang Yuanxiao well enough—after all, she had been through so much in her past life. But the Tang Yuanxiao before her now felt like a complete stranger.
’Is this really the same Tang Yuanxiao from my past life, the one who believed the villagers’ rumors and misunderstood me?’
’Was Tang Yuanxiao always like this, or was the version of him I saw in my past life a distorted one?’
Su Li’s face was a mask of conflicted silence. Tang Yuanxiao prompted helplessly, "Su Li?"
Su Li was jolted from her thoughts. Suppressing the suspicion in her heart, she asked, "What... what exactly did you figure out? Tell me."
Tang Yuanxiao didn’t answer. He had figured out far too much and simply didn’t want to lay it all bare.
He paused for a moment. Seeing her staring at him, stubbornly waiting for an answer, he chose his words carefully before speaking.
"You arranged the situation with Qin Shanshan, didn’t you? Turned her own plot back on her?"
’Turning things back on someone like that...’ Tang Yuanxiao was all too familiar with it. He’d done it countless times on missions.
Su Li’s eyes narrowed dangerously as she looked at Tang Yuanxiao.
’Yes, Tang Yuanxiao was right. She had arranged everything herself.’
Time rewound. When she was in the side room, held in the fool’s death grip and unable to break free, she had been so desperate she nearly went mad. The accusation of ’adultery’ that had plagued her in her past life flashed through her mind.
How could she not be terrified? Any woman would be, let alone her.
Su Li was so scared she almost fainted, but in the end, her hatred and her reason prevailed.
After the fool grabbed her, he slowly began to get aroused. He was too strong, and since he was holding her from behind, none of the self-defense moves Su Li had learned to ward off creeps were of any use. freewebnσvel.cøm
The fool stood six-foot-three, a big simpleton. In the village, forget women—even a man wouldn’t be able to break free right away if he got ahold of them.
Qin Shanshan had been so confident and daring precisely because she was counting on this. But she never expected that the reborn Su Li was no longer so simple.
"Fool, you’ve been drinking again. If you’ve been drinking, you should be sleeping quietly. Let go of Mom, or I’ll beat you to death..." At the critical moment, Su Li remembered the fool’s mother.
That pitiful yet respectable woman. The fool had loved her the most and also feared her the most. Although she had been dead for many years, he still hadn’t forgotten her and would often look for his mother.
Su Li took a guess and tried to imitate her tone of voice. To her surprise, it actually worked.
The fool let go of Su Li and, looking wronged, crawled onto her bed and went to sleep.
Su Li tried to get him out, but she couldn’t budge him.
She looked at the oil stains on her clothes, and after a moment of careful thought, she understood what had happened.
"Qin Shanshan!" A bloodthirsty light flared in Su Li’s eyes.
’Qin Shanshan wanted to ruin her without drawing blood, so she would return the favor in full.’
The moment Qin Shanshan left, Su Li picked up the clothes the fool had strewn all over the floor, went out the door, and slipped into the Qin Family’s home.
While Qin Shanshan was hiding to one side, counting down the time, she had no idea that Su Li was in her bedroom, setting everything up.
The bloodstains on her bed were from Su Li cutting her own arm. She was the one who had arranged the realistic "maiden’s blood."
In her past life, she had died unmarried, but she had seen plenty while cleaning houses. Setting up a scene like that couldn’t have been easier.
After returning, she went straight up to the attic, then sat and waited for Qin Shanshan to put on her show, ready to trap her for good.
Su Li had arranged everything flawlessly. None of the villagers suspected a thing. She never thought that Tang Yuanxiao would see through it all in an instant.
