Chapter 4

In her previous life, Zhou Jianguo had asked for a divorce in March 2020. By then, he had gradually moved everything of value out of the house: her premarital jewelry, their joint savings. He had even found one excuse after another to “borrow” the bank card linked to her salary.

It was September 2019 now. She still had six months.

The next day, Lin Wanqiu opened a new bank account and transferred sixty thousand yuan from her payroll account into it. Then she went home to find the jewelry she had owned before the wedding. Eight pieces in all, gifts from her parents as part of her dowry, kept in an ironwood box.

She took the box to the bank and rented a safe-deposit box.

When Jianguo came home from work, he noticed the empty dressing table.

“Where’s your jewelry?”

“I put it away,” she said casually. “It isn’t convenient to wear.”

He glanced at her but said nothing more.

For the next two months, everything appeared normal. Jianguo went to work, occasionally worked late, and continued playing the gentle, attentive husband. But Wanqiu noticed that he was seeing Xu Qingya more and more often.

The location history on her phone grew longer. Hotels, restaurants, cinemas, shopping malls… She recorded every place.

The investigator kept sending new photographs and videos, too.

On November 15, Jianguo said he had to travel to Hangzhou for a business meeting about a project.

Wanqiu waited at home for two days. On the afternoon of the third, an unfamiliar number called.

“Are you a family member of Mr. Zhou Jianguo?” a woman asked. “I’m a nurse in the emergency department at Huating Hospital. Mr. Zhou is here. Could you come in?”

Wanqiu’s chest tightened.

“What happened to him?”

“A traffic accident. It isn’t too serious—just a broken leg.”

She hung up and immediately took a taxi to the hospital. Her thoughts raced all the way there. Wasn’t he supposed to be in Hangzhou? Why was he in a hospital here?

She found him in the emergency department, lying on a bed with his right leg in a cast, his face pale.

A woman stood beside him, pouring him a glass of water.

Xu Qingya.

Wanqiu stopped in the doorway.

Qingya saw her, too. Her expression changed, and she almost dropped the glass.

“Wanqiu?” Jianguo struggled to sit up. “What are you doing here?”

“The hospital called me.” She walked in and looked at Qingya. “And you are?”

“I work with Jianguo.” Qingya quickly composed herself. “We were on our way to see a client when we had the accident.”

“Oh.” Wanqiu nodded. “I thought he was in Hangzhou.”

Jianguo and Qingya exchanged a glance.

“The plans changed. We met here instead,” Jianguo said quickly. “Qingya was driving me, and another car hit us from behind.”

Wanqiu went to the bedside.

“How bad is it?”

“The doctor says I need the cast for a month.”

“Then you should rest at home for a while.” She turned to Qingya. “Thank you for bringing him here. I’ll take care of him now.”

Qingya opened her mouth, then nodded.

“I’ll go, then. Take care of yourself, Jianguo.”

Once she had left, Wanqiu sat in the chair beside the bed.

“Weren’t you going to Hangzhou?”

“I told you, the plans changed.” He sounded irritated. “Wanqiu, can you stop interrogating me all the time? My leg is broken. Could you give it a rest?”

She stood up.

“Get some rest. I’ll arrange your admission.”

In the ward corridor, she called the investigator.

“Could you check whether there’s a police report for the accident near Huating Hospital this afternoon?”

“Of course. I’ll let you know as soon as I can.”

That evening, Wanqiu left Ningning with her mother-in-law and returned to stay at the hospital. Jianguo took his painkillers and soon fell asleep.

She sat in the chair for visiting relatives, looking at his phone. The screen lit up.

“Jianguo, does she suspect anything?”

A message from Qingya.

Wanqiu stared at it, her finger hovering over the screen.

A few seconds later, she opened his WeChat.

She knew his passcode. It was Ningning’s birthday.

The conversation was long. Since June, Jianguo and Qingya had been in touch almost every day.

“Wanqiu’s getting harder to deal with. I’ve asked her to resign several times, but she keeps refusing.”