CHAPTER 114: 114: FEELING THE PAIN NING GUIWAN EXPERIENCED FOUR YEARS AGO (1 MORE UPDATE)

Chen Lijuan, who hailed from a mountain village and grew up doing farm work, possessed considerable strength. She slapped Ning Rongyue so hard that her ears buzzed, sending her stumbling into a wall.

"Don’t think you’re so high and mighty just because you became some rich family’s young lady! Hmph, I spit on that!"

Ning Rongyue covered her face as Chen Lijuan’s shrill scolding rang in her ears. "That lowly wretch Yun Shu secretly had affairs and bore two bastards behind my brother’s back! And my brother still dotes on them like precious treasures. It’s disgusting just thinking about it!"

"Hah! Like mother, like daughter. You used to call my son ’Cousin,’ didn’t you? What, now that there’s no blood relation, you want to be my daughter-in-law? Hmph! My family might be poor, but we don’t take in any trash!"

Chen Lijuan’s dark, wrinkled face was filled with disgust and disdain. Ever since she discovered that her brother, Chen Bingde, had unknowingly raised a wealthy man’s illegitimate daughter for over twenty years, she had never treated Ning Rongyue kindly. She also spread malicious rumors about the mother and her two daughters throughout the village.

Even so, she never stopped taking advantage of Yun Shu and Ning Rongyue.

Disdain them as she might, she didn’t miss out on any chance to benefit.

To put it bluntly, she was freeloading shamelessly while acting entitled.

People quickly gathered in the hallway to watch the commotion. Thinking of the situation in the room, all color drained from Ning Rongyue’s face.

She had been set up.

Qian Lucheng was still in the room, his condition unknown...

What should she do?

How could she break this seemingly inescapable trap?

Ning Rongyue had never felt such fear before. The person who set this trap was terrifying! Who was it? Could it be... him?

Was it for Ning Guiwan? Was that why he wanted her dead?

No, it couldn’t be like this...

Seeing the crowd of onlookers, Chen Lijuan became even more agitated in her tirade. She dragged Ning Rongyue into the middle of the hallway and pointed at her face.

"Everyone, come and look! This is the woman! Her mother shamelessly had an affair and gave birth to her, and now she shamelessly tries to seduce my son! Look at her face! How can someone so ugly have such audacity!"

Just then, Qian Zhong’s terrified scream burst from the room. "Lucheng! What happened to you, Lucheng? Someone! Help! Quickly!"

Chen Lijuan, caught in the heat of her screaming, heard her husband’s words. She stopped abruptly, paused for a moment, then rushed into the room.

A moment later, she stormed back out, grabbed Ning Rongyue by the hair, and slammed her head against the wall. Her eyes looked as if she wanted to kill her. "You evil little wretch! How could you be so vicious! What have you done to my son? If anything happens to him, I’ll never let you off!"

Before the ambulance arrived, the police came first.

"We received a report of an intentional assault here. What happened?"

"Officer, it was her!" Chen Lijuan pointed at Ning Rongyue. "She tried to kill my son!"

From Chen Lijuan’s few frantic words, Ning Rongyue pieced things together.

So Qian Lucheng was only injured.

As long as no one died, everything could be managed.

She quickly calmed down, her mind racing to form a strategy. By the time the police finished inspecting the scene and came to question her, she was already composed.

"His injury has nothing to do with me. I also don’t know how he got injured. I received his call an hour ago. He said he had been injured and couldn’t go to the hospital, asking me to come take care of him..."

With those words, she cleared herself and even positioned herself as a rescuer.

The police clearly weren’t interested in her excuses. "Please come with us."

Ning Rongyue’s expression changed. Once she went with them, she’d be treated as a suspect. Even if she were eventually proven innocent, the stigma of being a suspect would negatively affect her.

Moreover, she was currently the vice president of Tianchi Group and was a figure of some public attention.

「It wasn’t until afternoon, when Qian Lucheng woke up and stated that Ning Rongyue had nothing to do with it, that she was finally released.」

Seeing her, Yun Shu was startled. In just a few hours, Ning Rongyue seemed to have lost a noticeable amount of weight.

"Sis, Third Aunt said you and Cousin..."

"You believe her nonsense too?!"

Ning Qinghan wanted to ask more, but Ning Rongyue harshly interrupted, startling her.

"Sis, I definitely believe you, but how did Cousin get hurt so badly? I went to the hospital and saw him. His left hand is broken! It’s horrible..."

"I said I don’t know!" Ning Rongyue, who had been interrogated for hours, was in a terrible mood. "How many times do I have to repeat myself?"

The small motel had no surveillance cameras. Apart from Ning Rongyue, there seemed to be no other suspects, unless she could provide valid evidence proving her innocence. But she couldn’t say anything...

So she had been interrogated until Qian Lucheng woke up.

This bitter pill, she just had to swallow it.

No matter how bitter.

"Alright, Qinghan. Yueyue was just released; she needs to rest," Yun Shu said gently. Although she was also eager to know the truth, she was more concerned about her daughter’s suffering.

"Don’t worry too much. Although Lucheng has many injuries and they look frightening, most of them are superficial, aside from a fractured left wrist. He’ll be alright."

"There’s one more thing..." Yun Shu seemed to want to say something but couldn’t bring herself to start.

"Mom, whatever you want to say, just say it," Ning Rongyue urged, her mind preoccupied with another issue. Was that all there was to it? Such a big fuss, just for a few hours of interrogation? She had a nagging feeling that it wasn’t that simple.

As they spoke, the family of four walked out of the police station lobby.

Yun Shu reconsidered. She decided it was best not to bring up that particular matter while her daughter was in such a foul mood. She forced a smile and said, "You’re tired. Let’s go home and rest. We can talk about it tomorrow."

She had barely finished speaking when a group of reporters suddenly swarmed them.

In an instant, a crowd of people surged forward, completely surrounding the family of four, leaving no way out.

"Miss Ning, is the online video true? Did you really hire someone to assault another person out of shame and anger when your seduction attempt failed?"

"The video claims your mother, while married, had an affair with the former chairman of Tianchi Group, resulting in your birth and that of the second Miss Ning. Is this true?"

Years ago, when it was revealed that Ning Rongyue and Ning Qinghan were Ning Honghua’s illegitimate daughters, the fact that Yun Shu was already married had been concealed. Outsiders had only assumed Yun Shu was a mistress.

Although both acts were immoral, adultery within a marriage was considered far more reprehensible than an affair by an unmarried person.

"This is your mother, correct?" The reporters’ focus shifted to Yun Shu. "There are reports that your husband fell down the stairs four years ago and has been in a coma ever since. Could it be that he fell because he was devastated after learning he had raised another man’s daughters for over twenty years?"

Yun Shu’s face turned deathly pale.

Ning Rongyue looked no less disturbed. What video?

Ning Honghua shielded his wife and daughter, his arms around them, and angrily berated the reporters. Having been a chairman for so many years, his imposing aura was not to be trifled with. The nearest reporters timidly retreated a few steps, but soon, their attention shifted back to him.

The questions they posed were even more insidious.

Finally, the police intervened and managed to push the reporters back.

On the way back, Ning Rongyue saw the video the reporters had mentioned.

It was a clip of Chen Lijuan loudly berating and cursing her at the motel. Her hair was disheveled, and she looked utterly wretched and humiliated.

The video had been posted on a very popular short-video platform. Someone was clearly manipulating things behind the scenes. It had already amassed nearly a million views, over five hundred thousand likes, and hundreds of thousands of comments. It was also being widely reposted, with all sorts of vile comments directed at her.

"AH!" Ning Rongyue’s eyes reddened.

She cared so much about her reputation and appearance, yet now, the whole world was laughing at her.

「The next day, the newspaper headlines brazenly featured Ning Rongyue’s photo.」

The headline read: "Disfigured Woman Hires Thug in Fit of Rage After Failed Seduction."

The derogatory terms used to describe her in the article were even harsher than anything the media had ever used against Ning Guiwan.

Ning Rongyue smashed everything in the room.

She had always projected an image of being docile and obedient, so this outburst genuinely frightened her family.

However, considering she was being so unjustly accused, her anger was understandable.

Yun Shu and Ning Qinghan stood guard at her door, afraid she might do something desperate. Even the servants felt sympathetic towards her.

Ning Honghua frantically sought connections to suppress the scandal. However, while people outwardly agreed to help, they took no real action. The rumors not only persisted but intensified.

The insults became louder and nastier.

Ning Rongyue finally experienced what Ning Guiwan had felt four years ago. Those vile words piled up like a mountain, suffocating and driving her to despair.

Amidst the wreckage in her room, Ning Rongyue sat despondently on the floor. "You will help me, won’t you?" she asked, her voice almost pleading, into the phone.

"You were foolish. How can I help you?" The voice on the other end of the phone was cold and devoid of emotion, exuding an almost insurmountable detachment.

The voice continued lightly, "Because of your stupidity, I’ve lost a pawn."

"Oh, no. Including you, that makes two pawns."

The casual yet blunt words were so heartless.

"You’re going to abandon me? You can’t!" Ning Rongyue trembled violently, a profound fear gripping her. "I’ve done so much for you! For you... I ruined my own face! I made it so Qinghan can never have children again! And my dad... You can’t just abandon me like this!"

She had lost so much; this couldn’t be the end!

"What do you want me to do? That newspaper agency I’d painstakingly cultivated was for critical moments. Because of you, Quan Yu has completely uprooted it."

"I did it for you too! All your efforts were to make Ning Guiwan’s life a living hell and to ensure Chi Tingshuang would find no peace even in death, weren’t they? Look how smug Ning Guiwan has been lately! I was doing it for you..."

"Don’t abandon me. I can do anything for you. Really, anything..."