It turned out that when they asked, they found out it was a romantic mess their son had stirred up. Lin Guozhi didnât say a word and gave Lin Yinghui a slap. From childhood till now, heâd never really disciplined his son. These past few years living together, his son had satisfied him in every way and had never once let him down. But what happened today caught them completely off guard; they never saw it coming.
After slapping Lin Yinghui, Lin Guozhiâs heart ached too. His son was already so grown, and hitting him like that was a bit much, but the slap had already landed, and maybe itâd serve as a lesson. Then Lin Guozhi took his son into the study and personally asked him what had happened, to see what was really going on.
When Lin Wan came home with Saozi, she caught sight of the woman in the living room at a glance. Neither of them had expected that woman would actually come to their home to make a scene. As soon as Saozi saw her, she got anxious, pointed at her, and said, "Who told you you could come here?"
The woman snorted at them, then smiled and touched her belly. "Iâm pregnant with Ah Huiâs child. What can a woman like me do? I can only come over and ask Ah Hui if he wants this child or not. And have your parents judge it fairly while Iâm here. Their son did something like this; he canât just wash his hands of it. Iâve already suffered a loss as a woman, and if I get beaten by you on top of that, wouldnât that be a huge injustice to me?"
"Xiao Wan, Qingqing, youâre back," Liang Hongmei came out from inside just then. Hearing what this woman said, she let out a sigh. Then she looked at Qingqing and said, "Itâs all our fault as parents, we didnât discipline Ah Hui properly, thatâs why something like this happened."
"Mom, donât say that, this isnât your fault. I know about this whole thing, and you mustnât let yourselves be fooled by this woman. Sheâs the one with bad intentions who deliberately climbed into Ah Huiâs bed. At the time Ah Hui was drunk like a puddle of mud, how could he possibly have touched her? Who knows which manâs child is in her belly. Now that she sees our Ah Hui is easy to talk to, she wants him to be the sucker."
"This..." Liang Hongmei was a bit stunned by what her daughter-in-law said and was momentarily confused.
She hadnât known things like this even existed in this world.
"What was your name again? Wang Rui, right? Such a neither-male-nor-female sounding crappy name. Basically youâre just a piece of goods. Climbing into another womanâs manâs bed without his consentâI really have never seen someone as shameless as you. You sleep next to him for one night and you can get pregnant? Then what, from now on if people just hold hands theyâll pop out a whole pile of kids? You want to pin it on my man, at least come up with a decent excuse. Using this kind of lame pretext, who would believe you?"
"Plenty of people would. Just now your uncle and aunt believed me, didnât they? As long as I yell about this outside, believe it or not, eight or nine out of ten people will stand on my side. Donât forget, Iâm a woman, the victim here. I came today just to tell you: the child is already here, your Ah Hui has to give me an explanation. Either you give me money, enough to make me satisfied, or you divorce her and marry me. Itâs up to you to decide."
"Mom, you see that? See how arrogant this woman is? Iâm telling you, you canât go soft on women like her. Sheâs the one claiming the child is my brotherâs, right? I heard that now you can do an amniocentesis to test DNA. Letâs see whether this child is actually my brotherâs or not." Lin Wan said to her still-dazed mom.
Now Liang Hongmei finally understoodâso this woman had come to extort her son. The things sheâd just said clearly showed she wasnât someone to be trifled with.
"Comrade Wang Rui, we still donât have the full picture of what youâre talking about. As the elders in this family, we need to hold a family meeting and figure out exactly what happened. If this really is my sonâs responsibility, we absolutely wonât shirk it; weâll definitely think of a way to resolve it. But if it isnât, then what you did today gives us every right to sue you. Our family isnât someone just anyone can extort. Before you do anything, youâd better think it through. I wonât keep you today; you should go back for now. Once we have a result, weâll contact you ourselves." As Liang Hongmei spoke, she made a "please" gesture, then said to Lin Wan, "Xiao Wan, see our guest out. And donât go dropping her. Make sure she leaves the compound in one piece."
Lin Wan smiled faintly, then turned to the woman whoâd been so overbearing just moments ago and said, "Comrade Wang Rui, do you need me to hold your arm?"
"No, no need." Wang Rui had assumed that in a situation like this, the parents would at least do what they did earlierâgive their son a beating and then believe what she said. After all, she was a woman, and the woman is supposed to be the victim. But now the situation seemed to be shifting in a different direction.
Wang Ruiâs mind spun, and she decided it wasnât suitable to stay any longer today; she needed to go back and discuss countermeasures.
Lin Wan shot Saozi a look, then followed alongside Wang Rui to see her out.
On the way, Lin Wan kept observing this woman. Her looks were decent, she had some beauty, but compared to her sister-in-law, she was a bit short. Her brother had always liked tall girls; someone like this wasnât his type at all.
Besides, her brother was always so attentive to her sister-in-law; theyâd been married for so many years and were still glued together like newlyweds. How could he possibly have done something like this?
The only problem lay with this woman. Lin Wan analyzed it and figured she must have taken a fancy to her brotherâs family background and had done her homework on them.
"Comrade Wang, which department are you in?" Lin Wan suddenly asked.
"The testing department, with only one office between me and your brother." Wang Rui answered truthfully.
"...Oh. I think there are quite a few female comrades in my brotherâs department, right? Iâve seen them, they all look pretty good. But my brother is at least a minor section chief now; he has his own office, and his dealings with you should all be in an upâdown relationship. As far as I know, my brother gets along very well with his colleagues and has never flirted with anyone. Going by what youâre saying, he probably hasnât spoken much to you at all, has he... Ah, could it be that that night, you deliberately insisted on walking my brother back to his room? And then took advantage of him being out cold to strip off his clothes?"
"I... How would a woman like me take the initiative? It was your brother who forced me. Iâm a woman, how could I possibly be stronger than him?"