After Encountering My Deceased Wife, I Became the Male Lead's Love Rival - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: The Episode

Ling Qiu, held in Fang Ziyue’s arms, finally recovered after drinking a cup of warm milk tea. Sweets bring happiness, and at this moment, it allowed her to relax slightly. As a woman who had weathered many storms, she thanked Fang Ziyue once she regained her composure. She felt quite embarrassed about her earlier loss of control in the other woman’s embrace.

Looking at her wife’s eyes, red from crying, Fang Ziyue felt both heartbroken and self-reproachful for not arriving sooner. But since things had come to this, the most important thing was to strike while the iron was hot and tell Ling Qiu the whole truth. She took out a file and handed it to the woman sitting on the bed, who was still trembling, letting her read it for herself.

Ling Qiu’s mind was blank; she couldn’t focus on much, so she instinctively took the documents. After flipping through a few pages in silence, her expression grew increasingly grim. The slender woman huddled on the bed gripped the papers so hard they became distorted and deformed; even with such intense restraint, she couldn’t stop her teeth from chattering.

Ling Qiu took a deep breath, looked up at the woman sitting opposite her, and asked hoarsely, “Is this everything?”

Although she had long let go of her feelings for Lin Mingcheng and felt nothing but disgust for him after this incident she had thought that, at the very least, they had been sincere when they were together. These documents, however, gave her a harsh slap in the face.

Shaken and enraged, Ling Qiu felt her vision go dark and her ears ring. She wanted to close her eyes and faint, but reality would not allow her to escape. The file detailed Lin Mingcheng’s calculations against her: from their first meeting to the “accidental” encounters, the pursuit, the confession, and the proposal it was all a meticulously planned scam.

It was all to seize the resources in Ling Qiu’s hands, her high-end endorsements, and to use her to expand his professional network.

One could say Lin Mingcheng had spared no effort to climb to the position of Best Actor, using every crooked means imaginable. Their first meeting occurred shortly after Ling Qiu had lost a loved one; she hadn’t yet emerged from her grief when she was surrounded by paparazzi while out buying flowers.

It was Lin Mingcheng, “happening” to pass by, who rescued her, led her out of the crowd, and handled the aftermath. Now, the file told her those paparazzi were all hired by Lin Mingcheng himself.

The documents bore the mark of a prestigious investigation firm whose conclusions were never issued without absolute certainty, making forgery impossible. Ling Qiu took a deep breath, feeling a throbbing pain in her temples and a suffocating tightness in her chest. It was terrifying—she had been plotted against for so many years without ever noticing. No wonder Jinyu called her simple-minded, her manager said she was a pushover, and Fang Ziyue didn’t feel safe leaving her alone.

Right, speaking of Fang Ziyue Ling Qiu rubbed her eyes and continued reading. Besides Lin Mingcheng’s schemes, Lin Mengyan had her share as well. Especially the disastrous wedding; five whole pages were dedicated to the investigation of that event. The conclusion was simple: Lin Mingcheng and Lin Mengyan had been involved for a long time; the plan to ruin the wedding was Lin Mengyan’s idea, and Lin Mingcheng had condoned it.

And the person sitting beside her was merely a scapegoat a scapegoat who, at the time, had been fooled so thoroughly she willingly took the fall.

Ling Qiu pressed her temples, unsure of how to react, and eventually let out a hollow laugh. In one room, one on the bed and one in the chair, sat two “big suckers.” One had been a voluntary sucker, and the other a forced one.

Ling Qiu closed her eyes and exhaled, her tone unable to hide her exhaustion: “Thank you for today.” If Fang Ziyue hadn’t arrived in time, she didn’t know what state she would be in now. At the thought, Ling Qiu’s hands and feet turned cold, and her body gradually curled up.

It was a posture of extreme insecurity, and seeing it made Fang Ziyue’s heart ache. She unconsciously clenched her hands, her nails digging deep into her palms, her subconscious relentlessly blaming her for not realizing sooner that the Lin couple would do this. She had installed cameras and bugs in their room but had missed this specific plot.

Fang Ziyue’s condition visibly deteriorated, but Ling Qiu, caught in her own lingering fear, failed to notice the abnormality immediately. It wasn’t until her manager called the phone having been placed on the table by a staff member, likely per Director Chang’s arrangement. Ling Qiu went to get the phone and only then saw Fang Ziyue’s distress.

Blood fell onto the floor without a sound, yet it was shockingly vivid. Ling Qiu practically jumped off the bed and forced open Fang Ziyue’s clenched hands; several bloody pits had been gouged into her palms by her nails. The woman’s face was deathly pale, her lips a sickly blue-white, and large beads of sweat were pouring down her face.

Ling Qiu’s first instinct was to call 120, but her sleeve was caught by the gasping woman. Following Fang Ziyue’s struggling lips, Ling Qiu could only make out a few faint phonetic sounds. “Doctor,” “Chen” the words and syllables stammered out made Ling Qiu break into a sweat of her own.

Completely disregarding what had just happened to her, Ling Qiu stopped her fear and disgust; she was now filled with worry and anxiety. She gripped Fang Ziyue’s wrist, trying to hear exactly what she was saying. But besides the woman’s weak gasping, she couldn’t hear another word.

Cold sweat stung her eyes, but Ling Qiu ignored it and continued to dial 120. Just as she was about to finish the call, a sudden realization hit her; she found Fang Ziyue’s phone in her pocket. It wasn’t locked thank God. With her heart thundering, Ling Qiu opened the contact list and searched for the name “Chen.” Very quickly, the name “Chen Yueyu” appeared. Without hesitation, she dialed it. The call was picked up almost instantly.

“Son, how…”

The stranger’s teasing was interrupted by Ling Qiu. She tried her best to remain calm and said, “Hello, is this Doctor Chen? Fang Ziyue’s condition is wrong she’s sweating profusely and having difficulty breathing. She’s falling unconscious. I’ve already called 120. If you are her family, I hope you can get to the First Hospital as soon as possible.”

“She can’t go to the hospital!” Chen Yueyu, who had already rushed out with her medical kit, didn’t even have time to lock her door. She sprinted, shouting urgently, “She has major psychological issues; she absolutely cannot go to a hospital!”

In the past, when Fang Ziyue had fainted during an episode and was sent to the hospital by servants or staff, she would appear fine upon waking, only to turn around with a smile and try to jump from a window. She once said her lover was in the hospital, calling her to leave together.

Every time she entered a hospital, Fang Ziyue would suffer from intermittent high fevers for at least a month and a half. Mental issues repeatedly tortured her, and though she took medication constantly, certain pains simply wouldn’t leave her.

Having run countless red lights and been cursed at by drivers as a “moron” or “suicidal,” Chen Yueyu finally arrived at the address Ling Qiu gave her before the ambulance did.

The following ambulance didn’t take Fang Ziyue; instead, it took the heavily injured Cang Jinyu and the leg-broken Cang Jinyao. Cang Jinyao, who had knocked Jinyu out, was completely unprepared for her to wake up. Consequently, while she was still changing, Cang Jinyu broke her leg with a club. Jinyu had used a clever angle to ensure the club would break both of the other woman’s legs before snapping under the pressure.

At the time, most people had been drawn by the sound of Fang Ziyue breaking down the door and subsequently discovering Lin Mingcheng’s foul deeds, so no one noticed the situation with the Cang sisters. When Director Chang finally went to find them, pushing the door open made the poor director scream in terror. He thought he had walked into a murder scene!

Cang Jinyu was slumped by a table, her head covered in blood, her life or death uncertain. Cang Jinyao’s legs were twisted at an odd angle, and she had fainted from the pain, lying on the floor like a corpse. As Director Chang roared for 120, the ambulance called by Ling Qiu happened to arrive.

After the Cang sisters were taken away, Director Chang went to check on Ling Qiu, only to find the room empty. His superstar Ling Qiu and financial backer Fang were gone?!

Director Chang immediately pinched his philtrum hard and said in a trembling voice, “Quick, check the surveillance, make calls, find out where they went…”

the program team was in total chaos. Staff members were so busy they barely touched the ground, and they wished they could beat Lin Mingcheng’s head in. If it weren’t for that lecherous man, how could any of this have happened?! If this blew up and caused Best Actress Ling to direct her fury at the program team, who among them could withstand the aftermath? Even Director Chang was grinding his teeth in hatred—was this Lin Mingcheng a total idiot?!

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