These words were like a thunderclap, exploding in the cramped room and tearing the last veil of pretense to shreds. The air froze instantly, and even Wang Wu's groans in the corner seemed to be choked by an invisible hand.
The color drained from Li Xiumei's face in an instant, leaving it paler than the whitewash on a wall. Her eyes widened in disbelief, filled with horror and panic, as if she had heard the most unbelievable verdict in the world. She shook her head violently, her disheveled hair making her look like a madwoman: "No...impossible! Qin Tian, you're insane! You'd even fabricate such a lie to get rid of me?!"
"A lie?" Qin Tian laughed, a hoarse, sorrowful laugh filled with self-mockery. He watched the woman's final struggle as if watching a farce whose ending he already knew. He didn't roar anymore, but with an almost eerie calm, he pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from his crumpled shirt pocket.
That was a hospital test report.
He released his grip, letting the light piece of paper, like a snowflake, slowly drift down in front of Li Xiumei.
"The First People's Hospital of Jin'gang City, paternity test." Qin Tian's voice was flat, yet sharper than any knife. "It's written clearly in black and white. Do you want me to read it to you?"
Li Xiumei's gaze was fixed on the paper; the glaring black characters felt like a branding iron, searing her so intensely that she trembled violently. She felt as if all her strength had been drained away, collapsing to the ground, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.
It's over.
Everything is over.
Her last talisman, the "son" she thought she could control Qin Tian for life, turned out to be a resounding slap in the face to herself from the very beginning.
In despair, the instinct for survival made her grasp at the last straw. She suddenly looked up, tears streaming down her face again, this time not as a pretense, but from genuine fear. She crawled on her knees to Qin Tian's feet, clung tightly to his leg, and cried her heart out.
"Qin Tian! I was wrong! I was really wrong!" She raised her swollen, tear-streaked face. "For the sake of our past relationship, for the sake of the life I saved you back then, please forgive me this time! I was bewitched, it was Wang Wu! It was that beast Wang Wu who seduced me! I..."
"Save my life?" Qin Tian seemed to have heard the biggest joke in the world. He looked down at the woman at his feet, who was making a complete fool of herself. His eyes were filled with sorrow and disgust.
He recalled that rainy night many years ago. After solving a technical problem at the research institute, his bicycle chain broke on his way home. He was pushing his bike on the muddy dirt road when he slipped and fell into a deep ditch by the roadside, hitting his head and losing consciousness. It was Li Xiumei who happened to be passing by who pulled him out of the ditch and took him to the clinic.
This incident became a source of guilt in his heart, and also a shield for Li Xiumei's countless unreasonable demands in the future. He always thought that she had saved his life, and he should give in to her and treat her well.
But now...
"Qin Tian, have you forgotten? If it weren't for me that night, you might have died in that ditch! I..."
That's enough.
A cold voice interrupted Li Xiumei's sobbing.
It wasn't Qin Tian, it was Lu Linchuan.
He had finished dealing with Wang Wu sometime earlier, and stood to the side like a silent iron tower. He looked down at the woman on the ground, her ugly state exposed, his eyes devoid of any warmth, only the precision and indifference of a scalpel.
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