Chapter 124 The White Moonlight That Feels Like a Bite in My Throat

Two days later, Jiang Chuan's account suddenly received a large sum of money.

He didn't care how Cao Jing managed to raise the money without her husband's knowledge; he simply changed her contact information as agreed and deleted and blocked all of Bai Qianhe's social media accounts.

They changed their couple nickname to a cold period ("t"), deleted all their posts on QQ Space, leaving only a jarring underline, thus announcing the end of this farce.

Looking back on the past few months, every date involved him going to Bai Qianhe's school. On the surface, it seemed like he was considerate and accommodating, but in reality, it was a carefully orchestrated act of distancing himself. Bai Qianhe didn't even know which dormitory building he lived in.

As his senior year coursework decreased, Jiang Chuan used internships as an excuse to stay away from school for extended periods. Coupled with his deliberate avoidance, the two eventually lost contact and gradually disappeared from each other's lives.

Jiang Chuan heard news of Bai Qianhe again three years ago. As the law firm gradually got back on track, he decided to return the money to Cao Jing with interest, but unexpectedly learned that she had passed away from cancer two years ago.

Her husband, a man with a limp, was also imprisoned for twenty years for his past illegal activities.

Time had long since faded the past grievances, and in recent years, Jiang Chuan had rarely even thought of them. He was momentarily at a loss as to who to return the money to. After much deliberation, he went to the prison and met with Cao Jing's husband.

Through the glass, he could hardly recognize the once sinister man; it seemed that life in prison wasn't exactly comfortable.

The man was hunched over, even thinner than he remembered, yet his eyes still held a probing gaze. He slowly picked up the phone, looking at Jiang Chuan with a half-smile, as if waiting for him to speak first.

Jiang Chuan had no intention of dealing with him and stated his purpose directly. Upon hearing this, the man suddenly burst into a strange laugh, a hoarse and manic laugh that sounded like fingernails scraping against glass, sending chills down one's spine.

"Money?" He grinned, revealing yellowed teeth. "You can't spend that much inside. You might as well burn it for your short-lived old man. If that car accident hadn't gotten to him first, I was planning to send him on his way myself."

Only now did Jiang Chuan truly understand that the threat made in that phone call years ago was not just empty talk. The man recalled his meticulously planned murder scheme in a shrill voice.

Cao Jing and Jiang Yunxing had originally planned to travel together a week after the car accident, and the secluded tunnel they passed through was the place he had already chosen to strike.

But fate played a cruel trick on him, and his plan was ultimately a step too late. In the end, his damned luck of escaping death cost his mother her life.

The man was like a complete madman; Jiang Chuan couldn't have a normal conversation with him. Even as he walked out of the prison, the maniacal laughter still echoed in his ears.

He then realized that the only person he could return the money to was Bai Qianhe.

Through a friend at the police station, he eventually found her whereabouts.

A friend inadvertently revealed that she married her father's former confidant and moved to Beijing after the marriage. However, since her father went to prison, the marriage has become precarious.

Her husband was violent and would often beat her. He even used his connections to force her into a mental hospital under the pretext of "anxiety attack".

Upon learning of this, Jiang Chuan exploited a loophole in the hospital's evaluation process to apply for an emergency hearing with the court, which allowed him to temporarily release her on bail.

Upon seeing Jiang Chuan again, Bai Qianhe was overwhelmed with mixed emotions.

After their breakup, she tried to intercept Jiang Chuan all over campus, but repeatedly failed. In the end, she had to use her father's connections to find his address.

But when she went to the door, she only found Jiang Chuan's elderly grandmother. She held the old woman's hand and tearfully recounted their past, begging the old woman to help reconcile them. However, when she returned a week later, the house was already empty.

Her mother repeatedly warned her that she must never have any contact with Jiang Chuan again. She said he was no longer the boy next door she used to know, and that after the family's bankruptcy, his approach to her must have ulterior motives.

Moreover, he is currently penniless and cannot afford her future art expenses at all. If her father finds out about this, he will definitely lock her in the attic.

Under immense pressure, Bai Qianhe, who had been pampered since childhood, gradually wavered in her initial resolve and succumbed to reality.

Since Bai Qianhe's marriage to her husband has not yet been dissolved, Jiang Chuan is not in a position to transfer the debt to her in one lump sum.

He found her a temporary place to stay near his friend's law firm and regularly sent her living expenses each month. These actions were not out of old affection, but rather an attempt to make amends for his reckless behavior in his youth.

Even though Jiang Chuan didn't consider Bai Qianhe a kind person, and even though her father had plotted to murder his family, he still wanted to at least correct his mistakes and completely sever ties with these people.

However, in Bai Qianhe's eyes, Jiang Chuan's actions were given a completely different meaning. Although her mother had revealed the truth before her death, she still stubbornly believed that Jiang Chuan still had genuine feelings for her.

His timely act of offering help is the best proof of this. Perhaps men's fantasies are often based on their own desires, while women's fantasies are mostly based on men.

In the past, this obsession might not have caused any trouble, but now that she has lost the protection of her family and is watching the once down-and-out Jiang Chuan transform into a rising star in the legal world, she can't help but see him as her last lifeline.

He was young and promising, her first love, and he extended a helping hand to her in her desperate situation. She was willing to give them both a chance to start over.

In her heart, Lin Yu's appearance was the biggest obstacle to their getting back together.

On the very day Jiang Chuan and she established their relationship, he began to deliberately distance himself from her.

Even when the divorce proceedings reached a critical stage, he used the excuse of the distance to entrust his friend in Beijing to take over her case.

She admitted that she did have ulterior motives. At the dinner with Jiang Chuan and the new lawyer, she deliberately created ambiguous physical contact, took ambiguous photos, and posted them on social media, just waiting for Lin Yu to take the initiative to come to her.

Jiang Chuan never mentioned himself to Lin Yu, and this deliberate avoidance only served as further evidence of his attempt to cover up the truth.

After all, Bai Qianhe knew all too well how to play the role of a thorn in someone's side; feigning innocence was always her forte.

Even though she knew perfectly well that she wasn't a good person, she still firmly believed that she deserved all the good things in the world, whether it was her ex-husband's huge fortune or Jiang Chuan, who no longer loved her.

On the very day she received the divorce certificate, when Jiang Chuan transferred the final payment to her, she was shocked to realize that he had already planned to use this method to completely sever all ties between them.

Bai Qianhe suddenly began to hate him.

She used to think that Jiang Chuan was naturally indifferent to emotions and stingy with warmth towards everyone, but now she realized that he just didn't want to bother with her.

Now, for the sake of another woman, he can be so ruthless to himself, even resorting to threats and verbal abuse.

He thought this would give him what he wanted, allowing him to escape and live a good life? He was dreaming. If hell truly existed, she wouldn't hesitate to send him there herself.

She has always been vengeful and vindictive. She is the one who hurts others, and no one else has the right to owe her anything.

After Bai Qianhe finished speaking, a long silence fell on the other end of the phone. She had even begun to imagine Lin Yu's shocked and speechless expression, until a soft laugh came from the receiver.

Are you jealous?

Bai Qianhe was slightly taken aback. That calm, almost indifferent tone was strangely familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had heard it before.

"What?" She was extremely confused, because Lin Yu did not collapse as she had expected.

“You’re jealous,” Lin Yu repeated calmly, with an air of knowing everything. “Jealous that after experiencing so many terrible things, he can still have a love that you can’t understand.”

Having gone through so many twists and turns with Jiang Chuan, she was already certain of his unwavering feelings for her. At this moment, Bai Qianhe's provocative words only made her see through everything more clearly.

It turns out that he and Bai Qianhe were never in love. All the help he gave her was just repayment, an important part of his attempt to rebuild his sense of morality.

Bai Qianhe's decision to reveal this secret only after the divorce confirms Yao Fangfang's earlier suspicions, completely exposing the resentment and unwillingness in her heart.

"You are ridiculous, utterly stupid..." Bai Qianhe suddenly stood up, her whole body trembling, her voice filled with sharp anger.

"After all I've said, don't you understand? Jiang Chuan is a complete hypocrite! A two-faced scoundrel!"

"They may seem gentle and considerate on the surface, but they're secretly plotting to ruin you. Never offend this kind of person, or one day you'll end up like me."

"Miss Bai, thank you for your concern." Lin Yu's voice was as calm as a deep pool, silently swallowing all of Bai Qianhe's malicious intent.

"This information is very helpful to me, and I wish you all the best in the future."

There was no anger as expected, no hysterical questioning. Bai Qianhe's long-prepared attack was like hitting a ball of cotton, leaving no echo whatsoever.

On the other end of the phone, Lin Yu felt a strange sense of relief upon learning the truth, for Jiang Chuan and for himself.

Bai Qianhe suddenly remembered where this familiar feeling came from.

It's Jiangchuan.

They were so alike that even the subtle pauses in their speech were identical.

This realization drained all her strength from her, and the phone slipped from her hand. She slumped into a chair in the lounge, covering her face and sobbing silently.

After hanging up the phone, Lin Yu sat quietly in the car for a while, holding the hot phone.

Despite Bai Qianhe's best efforts to portray herself as an innocent victim, lured into a love affair by Jiang Chuan, she could still see through Jiang Chuan's restraint and struggle between the lines.

Lin Yu had always thought that before his family went bankrupt, Jiang Chuan was a favored son of heaven, nurtured by love. But only now did she truly see the scars of his past.

She understood the true origin of his twisted loss of control and his near-obsessive desire for control. She also finally understood his urgent desire to regain control of his life through revenge and professional success.

After hesitating for a moment, Lin Yu opened Yuan Jie's chat window.

"Senior brother, there's something I'd like to ask you..."