Chapter 1
Edward Quan ·
1
Lin Ran’s voice was loud enough to silence the relatives chatting around us.
Mum frowned in our direction.
I had no idea why Lin Ran imagined there was anything between me and my honorary uncle, Zhou Yu.
I explained quietly.
“I scraped my wrist on a glass I accidentally broke this morning. I didn’t… cut myself, as you seem to think.”
Zhou Yu rebuked her under his breath.
“I opened a bottle of water. What are you making such a fuss about?”
“A fuss?”
She gave a cold laugh.
“The moment Ruan Qiaoqiao puts on that little voice, you can’t bear it, can you? You rush straight to her defense.”
She turned to me with open contempt.
“Dragging out your words on purpose. Perfectly healthy, but acting helpless so your uncle will pity his poor little niece.
“Nineteen, and already such a scheming little innocent. What will you be like later?”
I was speechless.
My voice had always been soft. People had mistaken it for an act since I was little.
I was used to that.
But seducing my uncle?
Ridiculous.
Zhou Yu was only the man my father had taken as a sworn younger brother.
He was capable and tactful, so Dad had entrusted a branch of the company to him.
Seven years older than me, and forever acting like an elder.
Always lecturing the child.
Two years earlier, when I adopted a stray cat, he repeated the same things every day.
“Too much play ruins your prospects.”
“No man will marry a girl who keeps cats.”
Even a dress invited his judgment.
“Girls shouldn’t show so much skin.”
Always, “You’re too young to understand.”
Finally, I lost patience and called him an old fossil for three straight hours.
Only then did he stop.
I wanted as little to do with Zhou Yu as possible.
But today was Mid-Autumn.
And Mum’s birthday.
I didn’t want to argue in front of the elders.
I held my temper.
“Lin Ran, you really are overthinking this.
“Blood relation or not, I wouldn’t want him if he were the last man on earth.”
Zhou Yu paused.
Then he caught her hand, his face dark.
“Enough. I’ll open yours too. Stop making trouble.”
“You think I care about the bottle?”
She snatched his phone and slapped it onto the table despite his attempts to stop her.
A WeChat conversation filled the screen.
Someone saved as “Qiaoqiao” had sent a message at midnight.
[Miss you.]
Lin Ran looked at me mockingly.
“You don’t like him? Yet you send your uncle messages like this in the middle of the night? Stop pretending to be innocent.”
I stared.
My mind went blank.
The profile picture was my selfie.
The saved name was mine.
But I had blocked Zhou Yu long ago.
2
The relatives looked from me to him, their expressions changing.
His face darkened.
He pulled Lin Ran up.
“It’s one message. It could have gone to the wrong person. Why invent all this nonsense?
“Come on. Stop embarrassing me.”
“Stay.”
My voice was cold.
“Nobody’s leaving until this is clear.”
Mum spoke too.
“With so many relatives here, we will settle this. Otherwise, how is my daughter supposed to hold her head up?”
Under everyone’s gaze, I put my phone on the table and opened my blocked contacts.
There was Zhou Yu’s account.
Then I opened the “Qiaoqiao” conversation on his phone and started a voice call.
Panic flickered across his face.
He instinctively reached to snatch it back.
I stopped him.
“What are you afraid of, Uncle? Something on your conscience?”
He forced a smile.
“No. It’s just… the battery’s nearly dead.”
The call rang out.
Nobody answered.
My phone made no sound throughout.
“Look properly, Miss Lin.
“He’s blocked on my phone. We can’t contact each other, and those are two completely different accounts.
“The person in his WeChat isn’t me.”
She still refused to believe it.
“Who knows? It could be your other account.
“Your phone isn’t ringing because you blocked that one too.
“You knew you might get caught tonight. Now you’re acting clueless.”
I nearly threw the phone.
Instead, I pushed it toward her.
“Check. Whatever you like.
“If you find nothing, apologize.”
She grabbed it.
Contacts. Account switching. Even the app settings.
Nothing.
She frowned, bewildered.
Zhou Yu sighed helplessly.
“You’ve checked. There’s nothing. Satisfied?
“Maybe WeChat’s malfunctioning. That’s why the call went through. Stop losing your mind. Apologize, and let’s go.”
Lin Ran persisted.
“Perhaps she logged out of the other account!
“Then explain this photo. Another system error?”
This time, she showed us her own phone.
It was a screenshot from “Qiaoqiao’s” Moments.
Zhou Yu lay on a bed with a woman in his arms, her face buried against his neck.
Only her smiling eyes showed.
Even the little scar at the corner of her eye looked like mine.
The caption read:
[I hope I can stay with Uncle forever.]
I stared.
For a moment, I wondered whether I had some kind of split personality.
Everyone saw it.
Shock and disdain mingled in their looks.
Mum froze for a second, then seized my hand and pulled me behind her.
“That picture has to be fake.
“I raised Qiaoqiao. I know my daughter. She would never do this!”
Lin Ran sneered.
“You can know someone’s face without knowing their heart. You can’t watch her every hour of the day.
“I didn’t want to spoil your Mid-Autumn dinner. Or your birthday.
“I only wanted you to teach your daughter better. Is she so desperate she can’t even leave her honorary uncle alone?
“People will think the Ruan family’s daughter is mad for a man!”
Zhou Yu slapped her.
“Have you made enough trouble?”
3
“You bring a doctored photograph here and make a scene. You’ve disgraced me!”
He tried to drag her away.
Crying, she wrenched free.
“You hit me for Ruan Qiaoqiao? I knew there was something between you! Still denying it?
“My reputation’s ruined anyway. What’s the point of living? If I die, you two can be happy!”
She rushed to the banquet room’s balcony and threatened to jump.
The relatives cried out.
Nobody dared approach her.
Instead, they crowded around me.
“Qiaoqiao, you’re the one who did wrong. You went after her boyfriend. Apologize and talk her back inside.”
“Bloodshed on a holiday would be such bad luck.”
Anger and humiliation choked me.
She invented the accusation.
Why should I apologize?
Then Zhou Yu made it worse.
To soothe her, he announced in front of everyone, “Ranran, calm down! Ruan Qiaoqiao was shameless enough to seduce me, but you’re the only woman in my heart!”
I stared at him.
He was sacrificing my name to buy himself peace.
He lowered his voice.
“It’s only for now. Put up with it. Do you want Lin Ran dying at your mother’s birthday dinner?”
My chest tightened.
Apologize, and I admitted to seducing him.
Refuse, and if something happened, Mum would carry it for the rest of her life.
As I hesitated, Mum tightened her grip and pulled me back.
“Don’t apologize! You did nothing wrong!
“If she wants to jump, let her!”
My eyes stung.
Mum still believed me.
Lin Ran heard her and laughed through her tears.
“Ruan Qiaoqiao, stop playing the victim.
“Shall I say it plainly? You’re pregnant with your uncle’s baby, aren’t you?”
The room fell silent.
Her phone hit the floor.
A video played on its screen.
Zhou Yu was leaving a hospital with a woman in his arms, gently touching her belly.
The brief glimpse of her face in profile looked exactly like mine.