Chapter Twenty-Five

Li Tiancheng suddenly felt his knees go weak and his heart started pounding.

He suppressed his inner turmoil, scanned the house for hidden cameras, and finally looked at Teng Zhi with a furrowed brow, his voice rising: "Teng Zhi, is this some kind of new prank theme for your vlog? This is not something to joke about!"

Teng Zhi shook her head slightly: "I'm not joking, Li Tiancheng, I really want a divorce."

His wife's attitude was unusually firm. Li Tiancheng threw the crumpled lawyer's business card onto the coffee table, crossed his arms, and asked in a clearly displeased tone, "What's the reason?"

"Reason?" Teng Zhi raised the corner of her mouth. "Shouldn't you know the reason better than I do?"

She turned to Wang Shan and said, "Attorney Wang, I'd like to speak with him alone first."

"Okay, may I go to the balcony?"

"Sure, I'm sorry."

"It's okay, just call me if you need anything."

The TV in the living room was on, but the screen remained stuck on the homepage of the Xiaomi Box.

Teng Zhi took out her phone, looked down and pressed a few buttons. The TV screen flashed and went black, then after two seconds of loading, a video popped up and started playing.

"Take a look at this first."

Teng Zhi had her hands behind her back, and the clear lenses of her glasses seemed like a thin layer of ice, sealing off her eyes.

Li Tiancheng swallowed hard; the very first frame of the video made his temples throb.

It was a photo of him and Yang Jiawen together, taken from a top-down angle, showing that the two were very close, almost shoulder to shoulder.

Even Li Tiancheng couldn't recall which day it happened in a short time. Instead, the video was very "responsible" in adding subtitles, clearly indicating the time and place, as well as the names of the two people in the photo.

Li Tiancheng quickly racked his brains for an excuse to deal with the situation.

Because he and Yang Jiawen had made a "three-point agreement" that they could not be overly intimate in public while in Guangzhou, it is not possible to tell from this photo that they had any inappropriate relationship.

He was about to lie when the video didn't give him the chance and quickly jumped to the next frame.

This time, there were no photos, but just a few lines of white text on a black background were enough to cause a stir.

First, during the May Day holiday, Li Tiancheng used the excuse of a business trip to secretly meet with Yang Jiawen in Shanghai. The name of the hotel where the two stayed was also specified in detail.

Then, in mid-to-late June, it was specified that Li Tiancheng and Yang Jiawen booked a room at the Mandarin Oriental, even including the room number.

However, none of this was solid evidence. Li Tiancheng refused to admit it, loudly proclaiming his innocence: "Wife, who told you these things? Let me explain—"

“No, don’t misunderstand,” Teng Zhi interrupted him. “Li Tiancheng, I made this video not to get your explanation.”

Teng Zhi sighed, raised her chin, and gestured for Li Tiancheng to continue watching TV: "At this stage, I don't need your explanation. I only believe what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears."

The scene shifts to the parking lot of Taikoo Hui, where Li Tiancheng and Yang Jiawen emerge from the mall and get into a white BMW together, chatting and laughing.

Upon seeing the date and time marked in the upper left corner of the screen, Li Tiancheng instantly understood what was going on. His forehead felt like it had been hit with a brick, and his ears were ringing.

"Tengzhi, did you have someone follow me?..."

He was asking his wife, but Li Tiancheng's gaze was fixed on the male lawyer outside the floor-to-ceiling window.

Teng Zhi thought for a moment and said, "I guess so."

Li Tiancheng hurriedly said, "I can really explain. I met this woman at an offline event before—"

Suddenly, Teng Zhi raised her hand, startling Li Tiancheng. He thought Teng Zhi was going to slap him, so he quickly jumped back a step.

But Tengzhi simply made a gesture to stop him from continuing, her attitude decisive and firm: "I already said, I don't need your explanation."

The audio that followed, though also "no picture, no truth," made Li Tiancheng understand why Teng Zhi didn't need his explanation.

He didn't know when Teng Zhi had tampered with his car, nor did he know what else Teng Zhi had done besides eavesdropping.

He thought he had everything under control, but little did he know that he had already become a sitting duck.

A sense of fear arose spontaneously.

Since things had come to this point, and Teng Zhi didn't want his explanation, Li Tiancheng simply admitted his mistake directly.

"Honey, I'm sorry, I just... I was just being silly..."

He took a step forward to hold Tengzhi's hand, but she shook him off.

Teng Zhi chuckled lightly, a hint of disdain in her voice: "Playful? Are you still a child, Li Tiancheng?"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation... That woman started flirting with me first, constantly complaining to me about how terrible her boyfriend was, how she wanted to break up with him, but he was controlling her—"

Li Tiancheng shifted all the blame onto Yang Jiawen. Teng Zhi was initially quite calm, but upon hearing one of her sentences, her anger flared up, and she muttered, "With your cowardly attitude of daring to do something but not daring to admit it, even if her boyfriend is terrible, he's still better than you!"

Li Tiancheng choked, his face alternating between cold and hot, and he stammered out many words, all of which were like shattered glass fragments scattered all over the ground.

The picture on the TV changed again; a picture appeared again.

This time, the "female lead" has changed to Liu Ni.

"This, this...!" With his heart rate so fast it was outrageous, Li Tiancheng's vision gradually turned white, and he even felt dizzy.

Teng Zhi looked up at him coldly, thinking that the way he opened his mouth but couldn't utter a word made him look like a thirsty gorilla.

She thought the video was playing too slowly, so she pressed a few buttons on the remote and fast-forwarded directly to the climax of the movie.

The scene where Li Tiancheng and Liu Ni are touching and kissing in the kitchen.

This was Tengzhi's Achilles' heel; it was this scene that made her decide to step into this abyss that night.

Since Li Tiancheng doesn't care about the little bit of affection between husband and wife, why should she continue to be his "Mrs. Li" obediently?

It's just cheating, isn't it?

She can do it too!

Teng Zhi walked to the TV, took the remote control, and banged it twice on the LED screen showing the two people embracing.

"Li Tiancheng, why don't you explain it to me? What explanation do I need?"

Li Tiancheng broke out in a cold sweat, and goosebumps rose uncontrollably all over his body.

Looking at the person in front of me now, it's as if I've never truly known them before.

His shoulders slumped, his eyes lowered, and he looked filled with deep regret: "Zhizhi, I was really confused for a moment..."

After saying that, he raised his hand and slapped himself in the face several times!

The continuous "slapping" sounds startled Teng Zhi, who took two steps to the side on high alert.

"Wife, can you forgive me just this once? I really know I was wrong. Please forgive me for all the years we've been together..." Li Tiancheng pleaded softly.

That's right. He's known Tengzhi for so many years, he knows she's easily swayed by gentle persuasion but not by force, he knows she values ​​relationships, and he knows she's easily moved to tears.

To his surprise, Teng Zhi didn't hesitate at all; instead, she became even more impatient: "What you're saying is useless, Li Tiancheng. I just want a divorce."

She nodded to Wang Shan on the balcony, then turned back to Li Tiancheng and said, "I'm being kind to you. If I didn't care about our past relationship, this video would have appeared out of nowhere at your company's Monday meeting."

She glanced at Li Tiancheng, her eyes filled with fearlessness: "Or, appear on my Weibo."

Upon hearing this, cracks began to appear in Li Tiancheng's feigned pitifulness.

The shirt on my back was soaked through, clinging to my body like a layer of paper-thin fake skin, as if it would be punctured by a gust of wind.

He knew all too well how powerful the online "judges" were, and how terrifying the power of online public opinion was. It would be a tsunami that would engulf him, Yang Jiawen, and Liu Ni, and no one could escape it.

Li Tiancheng asked in a low voice, "Are you willing to give up the account you've built up over the years? You've always cultivated a 'happy marriage' persona as a blogger. If this gets out, it'll be a blow to you, right?"

As if she had heard the biggest joke in the world, Teng Zhi grinned and chuckled: "What kind of blow is this? Yes, I was the one who was happy in my marriage back then, but I am also the one whose marriage has broken down now. Whether it's good or bad, a blessing or a curse, it's all something I'm going through right now. What does it have to do with my persona?"

She chuckled and sighed, "If this blogger's identity is worthless except for 'happy marriage,' then this account is better off not existing."

Wang Shan walked over and naturally stood in front of Teng Zhi, saying to Li Tiancheng with a forced smile, "Mr. Li, I will now talk to you about Ms. Teng's divorce request."

At the same time.

Yang Jiawen cried uncontrollably on the sofa: "Ye Yin, believe me, that man made the first move! He clearly has a wife, but he always fussed over me, and later he kept asking me out to dinner... I refused, I refused so many times, but... but..."

Ye Yin sat casually on a single sofa, with a few stale cigarette butts crammed into the ashtray on the coffee table in front of him, and many photos of Yang Jiawen and Li Tiancheng together next to him.

—To avoid being falsely accused, Ye Yin and Teng Zhi used different evidence. What he presented to Yang Jiawen were more of the photos that he had previously had someone investigate.

Even if no particularly obvious transgressions were captured, the sheer number of photos displayed together is quite impactful.

"But what?"

Ye Yin took another cigarette, lit it, and smiled, but there was no real smile in his eyes. "I'd like to hear your explanation."

Yang Jiawen wiped away her tears and sobbed, as if she were the most wronged person in the world: "Sometimes when you're so busy with work, I just chat with friends...it's just a moment of playing around..."

Before Ye Yin produced any evidence, she could still stubbornly deny it, but now that the evidence was overwhelming, her prepared excuses and lies became torn pieces of paper. So she could only play the victim and try to arouse Ye Yin's pity.

"Playful?"

Ye Yin couldn't help but burst into laughter, almost choking on his smoke. "Yang Jiawen, are you playing a stamp collecting game or a fish-raising game?"

"I'm so sorry, honey, I'll do it from now on—"

"Stop, there's no future for us." Ye Yin tossed the couple's ring from his pocket onto the pile of photos, his voice growing colder. "Yang Jiawen, this is the end for us. I won't take back the things I gave you before. You can do whatever you want with this ring."

He said "Oh," then, as if remembering something, added, "If you sell it on Xianyu (a second-hand marketplace), you might be able to get two or three thousand yuan for it."

Yang Jiawen was stunned for a moment before she understood Ye Yin's meaning. Her face flushed red, and she said angrily, "What do you mean? Do you think I'm only with you because of your money?"

Ye Yin shrugged: "I didn't say that. Well, for your mother's sake, if we can part amicably, I won't make a big deal out of it. As for the reason for the breakup, you can make up whatever you want, say I'm impotent or that I'm frigid."

He exhaled a puff of white smoke, which swirled around his cold and stern brows, obscuring whether his gaze was serious. "Fake me cheating, or say I've secretly fallen for someone else, that's fine too."

At that moment, Yang Jiawen, who was crying so hard that she was dizzy, couldn't understand the hidden meaning in Ye Yin's words at all.

She stiffened her neck, her eyes red-rimmed: "What if I don't want to break up?"

Ye Yin silently watched her for a few seconds, then bent down, pinched the still-sparkling cigarette butt between two fingers, and pressed it directly onto Li Tiancheng's face in the photo.

In just one second, the photo was burned with a black hole, and Li Tiancheng's hideous face was completely disfigured.

"Whether you want to or not is not up to you. Yang Jiawen, as you often say, I am indeed not well-educated and am just a rough man."

Ye Yin sneered, his eyes filled with an unusual ruthlessness.

"Therefore, I advise you to take care of yourselves."

————Author's ramblings————

Friendly reminder: Once the knockout is over, we'll almost start wrapping things up. (Applause and confetti)