Returning - Chapter 119

Chapter 119: Showdown

The entire drive, Zhao Yu kept turning over in her mind where she had slipped up, how Xue Zhan had discovered her relationship with Xu Chengyan.

Her first thought was still running into Xu Chenghe at the club that night, but she had been watching carefully the whole time.

The corridor had been empty, and Xue Zhan had never come out of the private room.

Or had someone else seen her talking to Xu Chenghe and then reported it to Xue Zhan?

But she clearly remembered no one else had been around. Even if there had been someone she hadn't spotted, at that distance, there was no way they could have heard the conversation. Could that alone have really been enough to arouse Xue Zhan's suspicion? And considering she and Xu Chengyan hadn't seen each other a single time since that night, how could he have pinpointed their relationship so precisely?

Following Xue Zhan into the elevator, then descending in silence to the underground parking garage, Zhao Yu still hadn't arrived at a definitive answer.

Seeing the completely unfamiliar car in front of him, she suddenly let out a small laugh. This man had probably been lying in wait for her to walk right into this.

Since things had already come to this, she might as well understand what went wrong before dying. Abandoning any pretense of caring whether Xue Zhan was willing or not, she simply got into his car, settling into the passenger seat. She asked, "When did you find out?"

Xue Zhan wasn't planning on hiding it either. He took out his phone, pulled up a video, and handed it to her.

It was the surveillance footage from the club that night. The image was high-definition, capturing even her conversation with Xu Chenghe with perfect clarity.

Zhao Yu knew, of course, that a place like that would have surveillance. Not figuring out a way to deal with the footage, as she had last time at the mall, wasn't due to carelessness. It was simply that she had never imagined Xue Zhan would go so far as to request it. After all, he had been inside the private room the entire time, hadn't discovered anything, so there had been absolutely no reason or likelihood for him to do so.

Returning the phone to him, she asked, "Since when did Director Xue take an interest in watching these things?"

"I never expected such an unexpected bonus either." Xue Zhan smiled. "Originally, I just wanted to know exactly what those people said to curse Xue Zi'ang so I could repay them one by one. As it turned out, checking the surveillance came with a complimentary grand prize."

Zhao Yu was momentarily speechless. No matter how much she racked her brain, she could never have guessed it would be such a coincidence.

"So President Xue meticulously planned all this to give me a grand prize in return," she said, looking at the man beside her, his expression utterly calm. She had to admit she admired his profoundly calculated mind.

He had laid low to keep her complacent, faked a business trip to lower her guard, even factored in Wang Qi's menstrual cycle. The only wild card should have been the Zhuang family.

Had Zhuang Yiqing or Zhuang Ye been in Donghai, Zhao Yu, out of an abundance of caution, would certainly not have risked running this errand for Wang Qi, thereby denying him this chance to catch her red-handed. But now that he had seen the surveillance footage, the evidence was irrefutable. A crime scene like this—if not this one, he could have manufactured another.

"Your grand prize was far more astonishing," Xue Zhan said, his gaze profound as he looked at her. "Tell me, if you really did end up pregnant, whose would it be? Mine? Xu Chengyan's? Or perhaps some other man's?"

Zhao Yu looked at him silently, not speaking.

Her relationship with Xu Chengyan was now an indisputable fact, impossible to twist back. So her only option now was to consider how to fabricate a convincing reason for how it all began.

Should she say that because she recalled the past, she fell into decadence and self-degradation, thus becoming friends with benefits with Xu Chengyan? Not only would Xue Zhan never believe that, she wouldn't believe it herself.

However, before she could come up with anything plausible, she heard him continue, "Remarkable acting skills. It's a shame you didn't go into show business."

"No wonder Xue Zi'ang was kept completely in the dark from start to finish, used by someone and then discarded, yet still wracked with guilt and self-reproach every single day."

This one sentence shook Zhao Yu violently once more. She had assumed he only knew about her and Xu Chengyan, that there was still a sliver of a chance to salvage things. She hadn't expected he knew everything.

Watching her stunned expression, Xue Zhan smiled. "Still remember Gu Yunfei?"

Sudden realization dawned on Zhao Yu. A deeply suspicious man was indeed terrifying. The moment he discovered her relationship with Xu Chengyan, his doubts about her entire person resurfaced, and he had actually dug up matters from that far back.

Xue Zhan said, "She resigned from her job and returned to her hometown, bought a house and a car, and has been living quite comfortably. When I had someone investigate carefully, I discovered someone had given her a sum of money. You were very cautious; the account information was under someone else's name, making it extremely difficult to trace back to you. Pity that a person greedy for money will ultimately bend the knee for money again. I offered her ten times as much, and she told me everything. Sacrificing one of your own pieces like that—Miss Zhao, I have to admire the move."

Zhao Yu gave a self-deprecating laugh. "Thank you, Director Xue, for teaching me this lesson. I'll learn from it for the future."

"The future?" Xue Zhan scoffed. "Having had your mask ripped off here, does Miss Zhao plan to find a new stage?"

"What else? Should I switch careers to become a clown, performing exclusively for Director Xue?" Zhao Yu sighed faintly, reaching to open the door. "I'm afraid Director Xue is already tired of the show."

Before the car door could open, Xue Zhan suddenly started the engine and sped out of the parking garage.

Zhao Yu turned back, sitting calmly in her seat, and smiled. "Where is Director Xue taking me? Don't tell me I've angered the Xue family so much you're planning to dispose of the body?"

Xue Zhan didn't answer, driving extremely fast. Zhao Yu didn't make a sound either, leaving him to do as he pleased.

In the end, he actually stopped in front of a pharmacy. Without a word, he got out, went inside, and quickly emerged with a box of morning-after pills, which he handed to her.

Zhao Yu was somewhat surprised. Smiling, she asked, "Director Xue is afraid of becoming a surprise daddy?"

Xue Zhan tossed the medication onto her lap. "If you're truly smart, take the pill. Even if you conceived Xu Chengyan's child, the Xu and Zhuang families would never allow you to give birth to it."

Staring at the box of pills on her lap, Zhao Yu let out a low laugh. "Right. Women like us don't get to carry the children of men like them, do we?"

Xue Zhan froze, staring fixedly at her.

Watching the teardrops threatening to spill from her eyes, he instinctively lifted his hand slightly. But after a subtle twitch of his fingertips, he abruptly dropped it again.

He had watched too many of her flawless performances. He could no longer afford to believe her.

The pill inside the packaging wasn't particularly large. Zhao Yu popped one out and swallowed it directly, dry and bitter, the sensation scraping uncomfortably down her entire throat.

She let out a long breath and asked, "Does Director Xue need to personally escort me to the hospital for an examination? In case I am already pregnant, in case the child really is yours, we'd best get rid of it promptly."

At this, she smiled again and shook her head. "Director Xue's time is precious. How could it be wasted like this? I'll go get checked myself and personally deliver the medical report to Director Xue. Though I'll have to trouble Director Xue to spend some effort determining whether the medical report is another one of my forgeries."

Xue Zhan continued to watch her, saying nothing.

Zhao Yu adjusted her skirt, opened the door, and got out. A taxi happened to be passing by.

She casually hailed it and soon vanished from Xue Zhan's sight.

Staring at the small patch of sticky liquid left on the passenger seat, Xue Zhan clenched his fist and couldn't resist slamming it hard against the steering wheel.

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