Feng Rou set aside her jealousy and spoke from a desire for the Xie family's well-being: "Zhan Jiayi isn't exactly shrewd or resourceful. Whose child is in her belly..."
"I will personally verify the bloodline after the child is born. I care more about the lineage than you do!" Xie Zhendong couldn't stand her words and impatiently dismissed her again, "I still have official business..."
Feng Rou turned and left the office before he could finish, but as soon as she stepped out, she lost her footing and leaned against the wall, feeling as though she was about to faint.
The secretary hurried forward to support her, "Madam, are you feeling unwell? I'll have someone escort you back."
She pushed the secretary away, steadying herself with dignity, unwilling to lose face in front of the group's employees.
"No need, the driver is waiting downstairs for me."
The secretary respectfully escorted her to the elevator.
As the elevator doors closed, her hatred surged within her!
She had a bad feeling that Xie Zhendong's involvement with Zhan Jiayi was not just a fling, nor was it solely for the child in her belly... He had truly fallen for that bitch!
Love, what is love?
After a lifetime with Xie Zhendong, she realized there had never been love between them.
She hadn't understood before, thinking that after marriage, if her husband tolerated her, didn't fool around outside, and didn't speak harshly to her... that was his love for her.
Now she understood that it wasn't love, but rather the forbearance of settling for a life together.
Xie Zhendong, in his old age, no longer wished to forbear and seemed to have found true love.
But she had only just realized and awakened, her beauty faded. What was she to do from now on?
...
Shasha sat restlessly at the Xie residence, unsure of what Feng Rou's conversation with Xie Zhendong would entail or if it would waste the information she had painstakingly gathered.
She played with the child in the living room, occasionally glancing towards the entrance.
Two hours later, the car Feng Rou had left in finally returned.
Shasha quickly handed the child over to the nanny and went to greet Feng Rou at the door, immediately noticing her pale complexion.
"Mom..."
Feng Rou tossed her bag into Shasha's hands, her expression dazed, "The old man knows everything. He's truly in love with that woman."
"Ah, Dad investigated that woman too?" Shasha was slightly surprised.
Feng Rou spoke with complete despair, "Forget it, we can't beat her. The more I target that woman, the more the old man dislikes me. Maintaining even the basic dignity will be difficult in the future."
As she spoke, Feng Rou felt a headache coming on and wanted to return to her room to rest.
"Mom, the more it's like this, the more you need to deal with this woman!" Shasha, seeing Feng Rou's fighting spirit wane again, could only incite her, "If Dad has fallen for her, you absolutely cannot let it slide. If it were just a fling, then you wouldn't need to care so much."
Feng Rou felt Shasha's words had merit at first, but recalling what Xie Zhendong had said in his office, she realized he was somewhat wary of Shasha.
She couldn't help but stare at Shasha, not responding.
Xie Zhendong had called her full of wicked ideas, which should have been directed at Shasha, as all those schemes were Shasha's brainchild.
Shasha felt a pang of unease under Feng Rou's gaze, unsure of what was wrong. "Mom, did I say something wrong?"
"No, let me think about it. I'm tired." With that, she went straight upstairs and returned to her room.
Shasha contemptuously watched Feng Rou's retreating back, knowing her mother-in-law was both foolish and incompetent. It seemed she couldn't be relied upon; she would have to take action herself.
Xie Zhendong had purchased a villa in the newly developed area under Zhan Jiayi's name, and Zhan Jiayi was now living there to rest during her pregnancy.
Xie Zhendong had not returned home recently because he had been returning to the newly purchased, fully furnished villa every day.
During the day, when Xie Zhendong was not present, only Zhan Jiayi and two nannies resided there.
Shasha planned to have people stake out the area, looking for an opportunity to make a move.
But first, she had something else to do: she intended to leak Zhan Jiayi's past illicit relationship with Zhao Jianhua online and find people to hype it up.
She would mobilize netizens to dig into Zhan Jiayi, the mistress, making her infamous and seeing if Xie Zhendong would still dare to acknowledge the illegitimate child in her womb.
Ideally, she wanted Zhan Jiayi to miscarry. If she gave birth and her reputation was ruined, she would be no threat.
She decided to act immediately, hiring a large number of internet trolls online at a considerable cost.
A few days later, posts attacking Zhan Jiayi began to flood the internet, appearing everywhere without anyone noticing.
Shasha woke up early and opened the first post she had arranged to be put online on her phone. She couldn't believe that the comments section already had tens of thousands of replies.
The power of public opinion on the internet was immense. She hadn't expected to achieve such results with such little effort.
Zhan Jiayi was completely unaware of the situation. She was having breakfast with Xie Zhendong in the spacious dining room when she suddenly heard a noise from the window and looked over.
She saw a stone hitting the window. Fortunately, all the villa's windows were shatterproof, and the stone did not break through.
"Whose mischievous child is throwing stones so early in the morning?" Zhan Jiayi didn't pay it much mind and continued drinking her milk, smiling at Xie Zhendong.
Xie Zhendong also assumed it was just some neighborhood children playing pranks. He placed an egg on her plate and said, "You must eat a boiled egg every morning, and an apple too."
"But I don't like boiled eggs, they're so hard to swallow." Zhan Jiayi looked at the egg on her plate with a troubled expression.
Xie Zhendong chuckled, "Even if you don't like it, you must persist. It's good for the baby in your belly and can supplement your nutrition."
"Alright," Zhan Jiayi said, closing her eyes playfully as she began to eat.
One of the nannies in the house noticed another stone hitting the window and hurried to the window to look.
The nanny's expression immediately turned panicked. She rushed to the dining table and exclaimed, "Sir, Miss Zhan, something is wrong!"
Xie Zhendong disliked people who were too flustered and asked coldly, "What is it?"
"There are some people gathered outside, and they look hostile. Those stones were thrown by them," the nanny quickly replied.
"What?" Xie Zhendong, not knowing what was happening, got up and went to the window.
Zhan Jiayi carefully stood up, her belly protruding, and followed behind him. She saw that indeed, a crowd of people, men and women, had gathered outside, throwing things towards their house and shouting curses.
Xie Zhendong noticed reporters among the crowd, filming with their cameras.
"What's going on?" Zhan Jiayi asked, confused.
But no sooner had she spoken than she noticed her phone vibrating incessantly. She quickly looked at it; it was an unfamiliar number, so she didn't answer.
Since she had been having breakfast with Xie Zhendong, she had set her phone to silent, so there were several hundred unread messages.
She clicked on one at random and saw messages calling her a mistress, extremely vulgar words. Her face instantly turned ashen.
Sensing that something was wrong, Xie Zhendong remained relatively calm. He took the phone from her hand, glanced at it, and immediately deleted all the messages.
He then called his two other assistants and instructed them, "Hurry over here and find out what the people gathered around my current residence want."
The assistants responded, "Understood."