The staff quickly arranged a room.
It was an empty cement room with a single glaring incandescent bulb hanging from the ceiling.
Zhan Beijue, impeccably dressed in a suit, sat behind the bare table, his handsome face devoid of any emotion.
He stared straight ahead, waiting several minutes until the iron door finally opened.
Jiang Nanfang’s familiar face finally came into his sight.
After twelve hours, the two, who had been sweet and planning to go to the ends of the earth to forget their troubles yesterday, met again in such a pathetic manner.
The matter was not yet settled. Jiang Nanfang was only being held temporarily.
She was still wearing yesterday’s clothes and had her hair styled as it was yesterday.
Apart from a pair of silver bracelets on her wrists, she seemed completely unharmed, beautiful and clean.
Zhan Beijue’s heart ached.
How could such a woman, who was beautiful enough to make his heart flutter at every moment, such a seemingly lively and innocent woman, harbor so many despicable secrets?
Jiang Nanfang was unaware that she had been set up.
At this moment, her image had undergone a drastic change in everyone’s eyes.
She thought Zhan Beijue had come to comfort her.
She smiled slightly, as if to reassure him, and sat down, her tone relaxed.
“I’m alright, I’m not eating or sleeping poorly as you might imagine. I’ve lasted twelve hours, don’t worry.”
Looking at her like this, Zhan Beijue’s emotions were too complex to describe.
There was heartache and reluctance, but also anger and contempt.
She was clearly so capable, young, and beautiful. Why didn’t she take the many broad paths laid out before her?
Why did she have to choose the narrow single-plank bridge?
He had a belly full of fire he wanted to unleash, to question why she did it.
But facing her directly, seeing her composed expression, he suddenly couldn’t ask anything.
After a two-second pause, he gestured with his chin towards the uniformed legal representative behind him.
“I’ve brought a lawyer. Do you know what that means?”
Seeing his serious expression and the heavy atmosphere, Jiang Nanfang wasn’t foolish.
The charge of harming Tang Xueying must have been confirmed.
She just couldn’t understand how Tang Xueying managed to fake her death, deceiving both Zhan Beijue and the police.
“I guessed as much. I’m afraid I won’t be getting out anytime soon.”
She smiled mockingly.
“The verdict is too quick. Tang Xueying and Tang Yuanshan must be overjoyed hearing this news outside.”
Her lips were indeed tight.
If Tang Xueying hadn’t disappeared right before her eyes, Zhan Beijue would have believed her words again.
“Besides this, do you have anything else to say?”
Anything else to say?
Jiang Nanfang suddenly recalled watching a TV drama as a child where, just before a condemned prisoner’s head was about to be placed under the guillotine, the judge asked him a final question.
She never expected to hear those words from Zhan Beijue’s mouth one day.
What did he mean?
Did he also believe Tang Xueying was truly dead, that she had killed her, and deserved to be punished?
He had held her and vowed to help her find the truth just a moment before she was brought in.
That sentence felt like a huge joke, stunning Jiang Nanfang.
She dropped her smile, leaned forward incredulously, and looked at Zhan Beijue with complex eyes.
“What do you mean?”
Her plan had failed.
She thought winning Zhan Beijue’s heart would clear all obstacles and erase all past unpleasantness.
Now that her plan had fallen through, was she finally panicking?
Zhan Beijue met her gaze expressionlessly, suppressing the venomous words on his lips.
“You know perfectly well what I mean. We’re adults. I’ll pay for my gullibility and blindness, and you should learn to do the same.”
“Don’t look at me like that. I don’t owe you anything.”
Jiang Nanfang understood.
Tang Xueying’s scheme had succeeded.
A rift had reappeared between her and the self-important, arrogant, and indifferent Zhan Beijue.
Zhan Beijue had come to humiliate her.
Heh.
She never expected this.
When others make friends, they become sworn siblings who protect each other for life.
But she, after fifteen years of friendship, had exchanged it for bankruptcy and imprisonment.
Indeed, in this world, no one could be relied upon except oneself.
Look at it, best friends, lovers – when disaster strikes, they all run away as fast as they can.
Jiang Nanfang once again accepted the fact that she was a jinx.
Mr. Zhan’s social status did not allow a woman like her to reach too high, and she would never try again.
“I’m sorry. I really shouldn’t have looked at you like that. It was presumptuous.”
Though a storm raged within her, she refused to let it show on the surface.
“You’ve only come to bid me farewell. You’ve said what you needed to say, and I’ve received your message. Thank you for making the trip. You can leave now.”
Was he becoming irritable and sarcastic because his plan had failed?
Zhan Beijue lost the last shred of his desire to maintain appearances.
He tapped the table lightly with one finger, suppressing the anger that was about to erupt, and said sarcastically.
“Madame Pierre, we do have a few children we raised together. Even if I can’t help you with this matter, there’s no need to fall out completely, is there?”
“I consider myself to have always been generous and tolerant towards you. Aren’t you satisfied?”
Madame Pierre?
Hearing Zhan Beijue call her that suddenly struck Jiang Nanfang like lightning.
“You… you investigated me in Dan Country?”
See, she was panicked.
One sentence, one glance, seemed to confirm all of Zhan Beijue’s suspicions.
So it was she who had been lying all along!
He felt even worse.
“Even if I didn’t investigate, the police would have. Paper cannot wrap fire. Are you surprised by this outcome?”
Jiang Nanfang was indeed surprised.
She hadn’t expected Tang Xueying to have planned so meticulously to leave herself an escape route.
Even Zhan Beijue couldn’t find any flaws.
It seemed she was destined to be defeated by those closest to her, just like her mother.
At this point, other than stubbornly refusing to plead guilty, Jiang Nanfang seemed to have no other recourse.
She had already foreseen her future.
But before Zhan Beijue left, she still wanted to ask him a question with a flicker of hope.
“Are you falling out with me because I married Pierre Paul, or because you believe I’m a wicked person?”
“What’s the difference?”
Having admitted to remarrying a foreigner, was that not considered wicked?
Jiang Nanfang forced a bitter smile and shook her head.
“It’s different. Of course, it’s different. You must be wanting to find out why I married that foreigner now, right?”
“It was for the children.”
There was a rare glint of moisture in her eyes.
“You know, people from our Nan City, if we don’t have a green card abroad, not only can we not find employment, but our children cannot be registered.
“Without registration, they cannot enjoy local education and medical benefits. To get medical treatment for my child, I had to find someone to marry to obtain a green card.”
“This shouldn’t be hard to understand. Mr. Zhan, movies often portray it this way.”
It had to be said.
At this crucial final moment, Jiang Nanfang played a strong hand.
She attributed her remarriage to her children, successfully defusing half of Zhan Beijue’s anger.