"Don't look at me like that! Zhou Qiqi, let me tell you, I'm in this situation because of you! You forced me into it all!"
Xu Zao's accusations, which twisted the truth, left Zhou Qiqi completely bewildered; they were utterly inexplicable!
"Me? I forced you? When did I force you?"
Zhou Qiqi was almost laughing in exasperation; she tried hard to recall...
"Back then at the Discipline Inspection Commission, you were the one who followed Lin Yao and my brother around, falsely accusing me. You were taken away by the police, and that was your own doing, you deserved it! I haven't even seen you since then, how did I force you?"
Xu Zao suddenly pointed a finger at Zhou Qiqi, her eyes wide open, her voice becoming sharp and shrill with excitement, and said:
"If it weren't for you! My brother and sister-in-law wouldn't have been arrested! They still don't know when they'll be released! I finally made it out of that hellhole, thinking I could finally go home... but look what happened?!"
"When I got home, I found that even my parents had been imprisoned by you! Our family is completely ruined! It's all your fault! Zhou Qiqi! You ungrateful wretch! Our Xu family raised you for over ten years, and this is how you repay us? You've ruined our family!"
She became more and more agitated as she spoke, tears streaming down her face mixed with makeup, as if she had suffered a tremendous injustice.
She will never forget those two weeks she was locked up in the detention center.
It was a dark and gloomy time; she couldn't eat or sleep well, and the guards never gave her a kind look. No matter how much she tried to please them, it was no use.
After finally making it out, I was full of hope that I could go home, but all I saw was a mess with the courtyard wall collapsed and the stove and pots cold.
When she learned from her neighbors that her parents had also been arrested and might never come back, she felt like the sky had fallen!
And the culprit behind all of this was none other than Zhou Qiqi!
All the resentment in her heart instantly focused on Zhou Qiqi alone!
She stared intently at Zhou Qiqi, her eyes filled with a frenzied hatred:
"And you?! You culprit! You're doing so well! Contracting factories, making the newspapers, living a glamorous life, making so much dirty money, living such a comfortable life! How could I just stand by and watch you live so well?! I must get revenge on you! Avenge my brother! Avenge my parents!"
Hearing her words, Zhou Qiqi first felt it was absurd, and then a surge of anger welled up inside her.
She sneered, struggling to her feet from the cold ground. Despite the sharp pain from her bound wrists, her spine remained ramrod straight, her gaze piercing as she stared directly at Xu Zao, demanding:
"I caused the Xu family to be destroyed? Xu Zao, put your hand on your conscience and ask yourself! Which one of these things did I provoke? Your brother and sister-in-law, it was their own evil intentions that led to their false accusations backfiring!"
"Your father and mother, that's what they schemed for over a decade to get the little bit of wealth my parents left behind, treating me like livestock. They finally got their just deserts! Their current predicament is entirely their own doing, retribution! What does it have to do with me, Zhou Qiqi?!"
She took a step forward, took a deep breath, and questioned sharply:
"You say you want to avenge them? You make it sound so noble! Let me ask you, after you got out of jail, did you even visit them once in the detention center? Did you show them any concern?"
Seeing Xu Zao's instantly guilty expression, Zhou Qiqi knew the answer. As she spoke, she spat fiercely in Xu Zao's direction.
Stop deceiving yourself! Bah!
She had previously harbored a sliver of hope for Xu Zao, thinking that she was young and perhaps still salvageable.
But now she sees it all clearly. Like begets like. Xu Zao has the selfish and self-serving blood of the Xu family flowing in her veins. She never reflects on herself and only complains about fate!
There's no point in reasoning with this kind of person!
Her eyes were sharp, filled with contempt and mockery, as if she had seen through Xu Zao's dark thoughts.
Xu Zao felt uneasy under their gaze, as if her dark thoughts had been laid bare.
Zhou Qiqi is absolutely right.
She kept clamoring for revenge, but she knew in her heart that it had little to do with her parents or her brother Xu Shu.
Even though her parents were imprisoned in the county detention center, not far away, she never once thought of going to visit them.
After witnessing the prosperity and bustle of S City, she could no longer bear the impoverished and dilapidated life of Xujia Village, where she could see the end from the beginning.
And then there's laundry, cooking, earning work points...
She used to leave all the rough and tiring work to Zhou Qiqi, but now she has to do it all herself!
She can't live like this for even a day longer!
Unable to face the reality of having nothing and having to fend for herself, she could only blame all her resentment and frustration on Zhou Qiqi.
She stubbornly believed that if Zhou Qiqi hadn't blocked her way, she would have been living a life of luxury long ago!
It's all Zhou Qiqi's fault!
Zhou Qiqi ruined her life!
On what grounds?
Why is it that Zhou Qiqi can live in a bright house in the military compound, marry a capable and handsome man like Shen Huaichuan, and even open her own factory to make a lot of money, living a life of endless glory?
In what way is Xu Zao inferior to Zhou Qiqi?
She even had a dark suspicion that Zhou Qiqi might have secretly used some kind of evil magic to take away the good life that should have belonged to Xu Zao.
All that glory and wealth should have been hers!
This resentment grew wildly in her heart like poisonous weeds, and her mind was filled with only the word "revenge," leaving no room for anything else.
So, after being released from the detention center, she only stayed in that dilapidated home in Xujia Village for a few days before she couldn't stay any longer.
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