Chapter 46 Violent: The Unreachable Phone Call.
The car was moving, and the air conditioning was blowing cool air onto her skin. Ji Jiazhen was stunned for a moment after hearing Shi Kuang's words, her thumb pressing against the edge of her phone case.
"Where did they go?"
She turned her head to look out the window, her furrowed brows relaxing after asking that question.
Shi Kuang's voice lacked confidence, and after stammering for a long time, he managed to cobble together a sentence: "Sister, I'm sorry..."
“Then tell him that if he did something wrong and ran away out of guilt, let him die out there. I'll kill him if he comes back.”
Fang Wei glanced over, then quickly looked away.
"If he has no other choice, I can give him a chance to explain. Three days. In these three days, whether he calls or comes to see me in person, he has to give me an explanation. Playing disappearing is pointless. If he really wants to disappear, he can just die."
Ji Jiazhen hung up the phone and turned to Fang Wei, asking, "You can't possibly contact him too, can you?"
Fang Wei didn't reply, but unlocked his phone and tossed it to her.
Ji Jiazhen scrolled through the call logs. The most recent call between Fang Wei and Wen Siyu was on the day they went viral. Without hesitation, she dialed the number directly.
I still can't get through; no one answers.
She wanted to laugh rather than be angry.
Unrelated people can contact him, but she and Fang Wei, the two most anxious and upset people, can't get in touch with him.
She rested her elbows on the windowsill, idly turning her phone, trying to figure out what reason Wen Siyu could possibly have for suddenly disappearing.
As familiar buildings gradually came into view, Ji Jiazhen remembered something.
Are you and Duan Lan actually friends?
Fang Wei glanced at you meaningfully, "She told you we're friends."
Ji Jiazhen sat up straight.
Well, there's something else she doesn't know about; she's been tricked by Duan Lan again.
*
Duan Lan seemed to have anticipated that Fang Wei would come to her door, but she didn't expect that she would bring Ji Jiazhen with her.
Fang Wei walked behind, unhurried. Ji Jiazhen rushed forward, aggressive.
Did you release the video?
Ji Jiazhen shouted these words when he was still seven or eight meters away from Duan Lan.
Duan Lan's eyes were fixed on Fang Wei behind her, and she only glanced at her lightly after she finished speaking.
"I'm not so idle as to enjoy spying on the lives of you young people."
Fang Wei then spoke up: "Long time no see. I didn't know that you considered us friends."
Duan Lan met her gaze. "Isn't an ally also a kind of friend?"
"What kind of ally stabs you in the back?"
Ji Jiazhen glanced sideways at Fang Wei's expression, hoping to glean clues about the past from their eye contact.
The wind tousled her hair, and another gust of wind blew, making her hair all messy and obscuring half of her face. She turned around, reached out to brush it aside, and unexpectedly bumped into someone's shoulder.
A dull ache throbbed in her temple. She frowned and looked up, seeing herself reflected in Duan Qiyin's eyes.
He stroked the painful patch of skin with his thumb, his expression as calm as ever.
"Zhen, don't be so reckless."
Ji Jiazhen shook off his hand, her eyes filled with utter disgust, and immediately threw the question at him.
"Did you place the security cameras in Wen Siyu's house?"
Duan Qiyin put his hands in his pockets. "You said it's his house, how can I put anything in? He only lets you in his house."
"I don't believe you didn't pull some dirty tricks on me."
"You don't believe him either, do you?"
Ji Jiazhen frowned, trying to find a hint of evasion in Duan Qiyin's eyes, but he always maintained that indifferent and profound demeanor, and no one could easily understand him.
She was about to speak when Fang Wei nudged her from behind, gesturing for her to follow him inside.
*
Fang Wei's attitude destined this to be a serious confrontation that had to have a result.
She used to be a smiling tiger, saying one thing to one person and another to another. But in front of Duan Lan, she wouldn't show even the slightest smile, and she would respond to his smiles and questions with sarcasm and ridicule.
"I'm not taking the blame for being stabbed in the back; I'm just stating the facts."
Fang Wei sneered, "So you're admitting you did it?"
Duan Lan laughed, "There's nothing to deny. I neither distorted the facts nor reversed right and wrong."
"There was no distortion of facts or reversal of right and wrong? You clearly know that the phrase 'knowing someone is a mistress' has nothing to do with her!"
Ji Jiazhen was initially confused, but Fang Wei's words enlightened her.
They were talking about that trending topic.
Duan Lan's reply was utterly shameless.
"I said I was just stating the facts and I couldn't control what the audience thought. They wrote the trending topics, and I can't change what they think."
Fang Wei's chest heaved, clearly very angry, and he suddenly stood up.
"State the facts? Why emphasize that she interfered in your marriage? You were already divorced before she met Wen Qinsheng!"
That's the sentence.
This is exactly what Duan Lan was waiting for and wanted to hear.
She also stood up, looked Fang Wei at eye level, and took a step forward.
“You seem to have missed one thing. My relationship with Wen Qinsheng wasn’t as simple as a marriage. Various entanglements of interests made divorce not so easy. I filed for divorce the year Qi Yin was born, but the formalities were only completed a month after Wen Siyu was born. In other words, from the time Meng Xu and Wen Qinsheng got together until she gave birth to Wen Siyu, Wen Qinsheng and I were still legally husband and wife, and she was indeed the third party.”
Ji Jiazhen looked at Fang Wei's profile, observing the details of her expression. The change in her eyes was the prelude to her outburst.
Ji Jiazhen roughly guessed what Fang Wei was going to do, so he stood up in advance and pressed down on Duan Qiyin's shoulder.
At the same time, a crisp sound rang out.
*Smack!*
Duan Lan was stunned by the sudden slap. She had always been of a higher status and had always felt superior since birth. She had never been hit before and never thought she would be hit like this.
Ji Jiazhen almost wanted to applaud, but she had to hold Duan Qiyin back.
Duan Qiyin was also stunned. His view was blocked by Ji Jiazhen, so he didn't see what happened, but he could guess from the sound. He tried to stand up, but she pressed him down. It wasn't just a simple pressing down with her hand; her knee was directly pressed against his thigh.
“You lied to us! That’s not what you said when you wanted to cooperate with us! My sister really thought that there was mutual appreciation between you two women.”
When Duan Lan and Wen Qinsheng divorced, she didn't fight for custody of Duan Qiyin, but for the company shares. Wen Qinsheng wouldn't budge an inch, and Duan Lan only wanted her share. After years of this entanglement, she knew Wen Qinsheng wouldn't give Meng Xu a formal title, so she approached Meng Xu as Wen Qinsheng's ex-wife, talked to her extensively, and shared many heartfelt words. In the end, she appealed to Meng Xu's emotions, posing as a mother figure who was already pregnant at the time.
Meng Xu was moved.
It was this touching moment that led Wen Siyu to become Duan Lan's godson.
Duan Lan sneered, "I don't deny that there was a mutual appreciation between us, but when it comes to interests, everyone looks out for themselves."
Ji Jiazhen keenly caught those two words, "Interests? What interests are worth waiting over twenty years to come and collect? Meng Xu has been dead for over twenty years, what does she owe you that makes you want to ruin her reputation today?"
Duan Lan looked at her, the sarcastic smile in his eyes completely gone, and his arrogant expression was eight parts like Duan Qiyin's.
“Wen Siyu”.
Ji Jiazhen frowned, and Fang Wei also narrowed his eyes slightly after hearing her words.
“Wen Qinsheng’s success today is thanks to me. Without my money, how could the Wen family have made a comeback? When I divorced him, I only took my share of the shares and didn’t take a penny more because I believed that those things would eventually be inherited by Qi Yin.”
Duan Qiyin looked up.
"In the end, he didn't treat Qi Yin as his son at all. In his heart, there was only Meng Xu and his child, only Wen Siyu. Everything under his name was reserved for Wen Siyu. Not to mention shares, Qi Yin didn't even get a house. Why? Without me, Wen Qinsheng wouldn't be where he is today, but in the end, my son didn't get any benefits. That's impossible."
For money.
It's all about money.
It was all for money.
Fang Wei shook her head; she couldn't understand it, and she couldn't imagine it.
"Wen Siyu has sincerely called you godmother for twenty years, and now you're scheming against him and his own mother because of a man with absolutely no credibility. Duan Lan, are you getting more and more confused as you get older? You actually believe Wen Qinsheng's words? He has only ever loved himself in his life. Do you really think he loves my sister that much? Do you really think he would give those things to Wen Siyu?"
Duan Lan tucked her hair behind her ear and said, "He might not actually give it to him, but he definitely won't give it to Qi Yin. Whether he takes these things to his grave or leaves them to Wen Siyu, I will fight for a share for Qi Yin and for myself."
Ji Jiazhen was not involved in this struggle for interests. She didn't care whether Wen Siyu could get a share of the property, or whether Duan Lan could get her share. She only cared about Meng Xu.
"If that's the case, why don't you go find Wen Qinsheng? He's clearly the one at fault. Instead of going to the man who owes you the most, you're going to harm a woman who's just as innocent as you."
Duan Lan chuckled, looked at her, and walked towards her. She raised her hand to straighten Ji Jiazhen's slightly disheveled collar and said, "You've been through it all. You understand the power of public opinion best. It can kill. The words 'illegitimate child' weigh heavily on your head, and many things change. If Wen Qinsheng wants to give Wen Siyu something, fine, but he has to give Qi Yin the same thing."
Fang Wei spoke up: "Wen Siyu won't take a single cent, and Duan Qiyin won't get a single cent either, you..."
Ji Jiazhen interrupted her, "The title of illegitimate child and your efforts to clear Meng Xu's name are not interfering with each other."
She continued, "Don't you just want everyone to know that Wen Siyu is an illegitimate child? That doesn't stop you from clarifying that Meng Xu didn't know she was a third party. She didn't know you weren't divorced from Wen Qinsheng at that time. She was also an innocent victim. Neither she nor Wen Siyu knew. What you've been insisting on all along is Wen Qinsheng's unfair attitude, right? Then let Meng Xu go. She has never wronged you. That way, the public opinion you want will still exist, but Meng Xu will be cleared of all wrongdoing."
Duan Lan didn't speak, but Ji Jiazhen knew she had taken it to heart and that she was wavering.
At this moment, she needed space to calmly think things through. Fang Wei knew this, so he exchanged a knowing glance with Ji Jiazhen, glanced at the door, and left Duan Lan with a message: "Think carefully about the pros and cons yourself. I'll wait for your answer."
After saying that, he prepared to leave with Ji Jiazhen, but before they reached the door, Duan Lan called him back.
Fang Wei turned around, "Have you thought it through?"
Duan Lan took a deep breath. "Upstairs, I want to talk to you alone."
Ji Jiazhen watched them enter the elevator, and then, only she and Duan Qiyin were left.
He was sitting, she was standing, separated by half the living room.
"You're waiting for a phone call."
He suddenly spoke, crossed his hands in front of his knees, and looked at her.
"From the moment you sat down, you kept holding your phone and staring at the screen, glancing at it every now and then."
Ji Jiazhen crossed her arms, waiting for his next words.
"Waiting for him?"
"What's it to you?"
Duan Qiyin took out his phone, unlocking it as he asked her, "Have you called him?"
Not getting a response from her, he looked up to see her expression.
"So you called, but he didn't answer?"
Ji Jiazhen walked over and sat down opposite him.
"What exactly are you trying to say?"
"He went abroad, did you know?"
She was silent for a few seconds, her face paler than before, and said, "You know he went abroad too."
Duan Qiyin scoffed, "I know too? It sounds like someone else knows, and you're not the first to know."
He put his phone on the table and showed the screen to Ji Jiazhen. His hand was suspended in the air; if he lowered it even slightly, he could dial Wen Siyu's number.
Ji Jiazhen didn't speak, or rather, didn't interrupt him.
She wondered if this was another unanswered phone call.
She watched Duan Qiyin's hand, watching the back of his hand gradually move downwards, watching his index finger lightly touch the screen.
Beep—beep—
Beep—beep—
"……elder brother."
The call went through.
The moment Wen Siyu's voice rang out, Duan Qiyin hung up the phone. If he had been a second later, Ji Jiazhen would have exploded.
She angrily took out her phone, dialed the same number, and waited with her last bit of patience for the call to connect.
No one answered the phone.
He can clearly answer the phone; he clearly just answered the phone.
He just wouldn't answer her calls.
Duan Qiyin stood up, walked to her, placed his hand on the back of her neck, and helped her stand up.
"He was given so many opportunities, but he didn't really cherish them."
"..."
"I suspect I planted the video, but I didn't tell him not to answer the phone, did I?"
"..."
"Zhen, you always trust the wrong people."
Ji Jiazhen looked into his eyes.
"After all these years, he tried to trust me this once, but he's not worth it."
After he finished speaking, he placed a kiss on Ji Jiazhen's forehead, which lingered there for a long time.
She didn't push her away.
-----------------------
A note from the author: After a few days of adjusting my emotions, I'm slowly rediscovering the joy of writing.
First, I want to apologize to all the babies who have been waiting.
Thank you again.
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