After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 22

Li Zhi had not seen Wang Xiaochun for a very long time.

She had been abroad resting during her pregnancy, pouring almost all her energy into her belly. She rarely even called, as if she had forgotten she still had a son back home.

Therefore, when Li Zhi entered the front gates and saw Wang Xiaochun in a silk robe, directing servants on where to place a Ming Dynasty vase she had just won at auction, he was stunned.

Wang Xiaochun’s attention was entirely on the ceramic vase; she did not notice an extra person in the house at all. It was only after Li Zhi walked toward her in a trance and hesitantly called out to her that she finally turned her head.

“Mother?”

“No, do not put it there. The master said it must face East.” The sudden cry of “Mom” interrupted Wang Xiaochun’s directions. She paused, then looked to the side, her gaze falling upon the youth standing there.

Wang Xiaochun was clearly taken aback. She pulled her thin robe tighter around herself, her voice carrying a hint of uncertainty. “Li Zhi?”

Li Zhi nodded.

Wang Xiaochun stood still, scanning him from head to toe. “You cut your hair?”

Li Zhi scratched the top of his head and gave a soft hum of affirmation.

“It looks more energetic after being cut.” Wang Xiaochun lowered her head and glanced at him again. “Do not let it grow long again. And you took off your glasses? Can you see clearly without them?”

Li Zhi did not answer, asking instead, “Why are you back?”

Wang Xiaochun arched an eyebrow. “I am not allowed to come back?”

“No, I just” Li Zhi had thought she would stay abroad until after the birth and the confinement period.

“I felt unsettled being outside these past few days. I felt uncomfortable all over, so I wanted to come back,” Wang Xiaochun explained.

Due to hormonal changes, it was normal for pregnant women to be emotionally sensitive and want to return home when they lacked a sense of security.

However, she was very far along, with her due date only a month away. Returning now was incredibly unsafe. When Wang Xiaochun first made the request, Zhou Guoxiong had rejected her without hesitation.

Yet he could not withstand Wang Xiaochun’s persistent pestering. Seeing his beloved woman carrying his own flesh and blood crying so piteously was truly unbearable. Thus, Zhou Guoxiong finally relented.

Fortunately, she had landed safely, and a great weight was lifted from Zhou Guoxiong’s heart.

During dinner, Zhou Guoxiong returned. The couple and the two youths sat at the same table. Zhou Guoxiong served soup to Wang Xiaochun, and Zhou Baiyu was uncharacteristically devoid of sarcasm. This was likely because his mind was entirely elsewhere.

From the moment he sat down, he held his phone, his fingers tapping furiously across the screen as he messaged someone. Throughout the entire meal, he barely touched his chopsticks.

Wang Xiaochun took a spoonful of soup and gave Zhou Guoxiong a lingering look. She leaned over and asked softly, “Why is Baiyu not eating? Who is he messaging?”

Zhou Guoxiong squeezed her hand. “Ignore him. Just eat your food.”

Wang Xiaochun lowered her eyelids, revealing a faint smile. Suddenly, Zhou Baiyu stood up, his face an eerie shade of red. He tossed out a sentence, “I have an urgent matter to handle,” and ran out. In the blink of an eye, he had vanished.

Zhou Guoxiong could only watch as his eldest son dashed away right under his nose. Although he despised such behavior, Wang Xiaochun was still sitting beside him with her large belly, so he did not bother saying more. He simply held her and whispered a few comforting words.

After dinner, Zhou Guoxiong went out for a meeting. Wang Xiaochun, sleepy from the pregnancy, went to her room to rest. Only Li Zhi remained awake.

Li Zhi had gone to bed early today, closing his eyes at midnight. The result of sleeping early was that he woke up suddenly in the middle of the night.

Having just woken up, his eyelids felt like they were caked with cement and would not open, yet his ears were sharp. Li Zhi keenly caught a strange sound.

Then came a flurry of messy footsteps, followed by a woman’s cry that slithered into Li Zhi’s ears like a snake. He realized what that sound was, and the tips of his ears instantly turned scarlet.

Li Zhi sat up in bed and cautiously opened the door just a crack. The light in the hallway was dim, but it was enough for Li Zhi to see what was happening. He widened his eyes and involuntarily held his breath.

It was Zhou Baiyu and that Japanese woman.

They were entangled like they had no bones. Everywhere he looked was pale skin, and the faces of both individuals were flushed an unnatural red. The Japanese woman held a rolled cigarette between her fingertips; she took a deep drag with an ecstatic expression. Then, the cigarette was taken by Zhou Baiyu. He took a deep puff, his body trembling unnaturally, and his eyes turned blood red.

The two became even more crazed in their entanglement. Li Zhi was terrified and took a step back.

He did not sleep at all that night. When the sounds in the hallway finally faded, Li Zhi walked out. He went to the shadows where the two had been standing and stopped.

Li Zhi’s pupils shook slightly before finally settling on a certain spot. He squatted down and carefully picked up a cigarette butt with two fingers.

He narrowed his eyes, leaned in, and took a cautious sniff. Almost instantly, Li Zhi’s head spun and his legs went weak. His heart gave a heavy thud, and he violently threw the thing away.

A terrifying suspicion began to take root in his mind, but Li Zhi did not dare think further on it.

Since that night, Li Zhi remained restless for a long time. Coincidentally, during that period, Chu Mingzhang seemed to be distancing himself; it seemed to have started from the day they ate Japanese food.

As the day of Wang Xiaochun’s delivery drew nearer, Li Zhi became inexplicably anxious. His focus worsened; for several days, he could not even write a complete diary entry. It felt as though a ball of fire was rampaging inside his body. Li Zhi desperately wanted to cut himself open just to pull that fire out.

One day, when he returned home and saw the villa filled with various baby supplies, Li Zhi finally could not take it anymore. He began making excuses not to return even on weekends, finally stealing a moment of respite.

About two weeks passed like this when tragedy struck the house.

Li Zhi remembered that the weather was very good that day. His mind was wandering during class, and his open diary was filled with nonsensical scribbles. It was then that his class advisor walked in, followed by the Zhou family bodyguards.

The advisor said, “Sean, you should go home.”

Li Zhi often had nightmares. For a period of time, he frequently dreamed of blood.

One day he dreamed of Wang Xiaochun. He dreamed of the way she used to hit him when she lost her temper. This beautiful woman screamed hysterically, lifting a high-heeled shoe to beat him mercilessly. Slowly, the high-heeled shoe turned into a dagger.

The dagger stabbed into his body over and over. Li Zhi could not escape; his hands and feet felt as though they were nailed down. He could only cry out, “Mother, no more. I was wrong. Mother, stop hitting me.”

“It hurts. It hurts so much.”

At the end of the dream, he turned the dagger around and stabbed it into Wang Xiaochun’s heart. A thick, crimson flow of blood gushed out, pooling on the floor. Every time Li Zhi recalled this dream, his heart would race.

He sat in the hospital corridor, his hands trembling neurotically against his face. Li Zhi had never thought that the horrors of his dreams would actually happen in reality.

When he had rushed home, the Zhou residence was still a mess. That Japanese woman was twitching neurotically, laughing one moment and screaming the next. She was barely dressed, yet showed not a shred of shame.

The immense terror seemed to have cleared her mind slightly. The bodyguards held her arms behind her back while she screamed at the top of her lungs, “I saw it! I saw it with my own eyes! He pushed her! He killed her! Murderer!”

She babbled another long string of words in Japanese. Zhou Baiyu’s face looked ghastly; literally ghastly. His eyes were an unnatural red, his chest heaved violently, and his nostrils flared rapidly like a bull.

The Zhou household was in total chaos. Li Zhi tried his best to calm himself and identify the words rushing into his ears like a tide. He pieced together the fragments and finally understood the general sequence of events.

Zhou Baiyu had been fooling around with the woman at home. Perhaps because they were too excited, they made quite a lot of noise, which caught the attention of Wang Xiaochun while she was resting.

She happened to catch them in the act and somehow got into a verbal dispute with Zhou Baiyu. In a fit of rage, Zhou Baiyu pushed her down the stairs.

Wang Xiaochun’s belly was so large and she was so close to delivery; how could she survive such a push? When the housemaids heard the noise and rushed over, they saw their mistress lying pale in a pool of blood. They felt like dying themselves.

The Japanese woman kept screaming that she had seen Zhou Baiyu push her. Zhou Baiyu looked at her in disbelief and shoved her hard. “Bitch! What nonsense are you talking about?! What are you saying?”

“You motherfucking, ah!”

But immediately after, a sharp pain blossomed on his face. It was Zhou Guoxiong, who had rushed back and slapped him. Zhou Baiyu’s expression changed instantly, his voice trembling, “Dad, Dad, I did not, it was not me, it was not.”

Zhou Guoxiong’s face was hideous. “What have you done? You”

His voice suddenly dropped. “What kind of stuff did you use?”

Zhou Baiyu’s lips were white with fear, yet his face still bore an unnatural flush and his eyes were unfocused. Seeing him like this, Zhou Guoxiong already knew the truth. He closed his eyes. The butler stepped forward. “Sir, should we call the police?”

“Call the police? Are you fucking insane?” At this moment, Zhou Guoxiong threw all grace and etiquette to the wind. “Do you want to fucking ruin everything?!”

“Call the doctor, dammit! Get Xiaochun to the hospital! Faster!” Zhou Guoxiong turned around in a fury, staring at Zhou Baiyu with bloodshot eyes. Every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth: “You animal.”

Li Zhi could not remember much of what happened later; his only impression was that it was chaotic.

The doctors from the ambulance mingled with the Zhou family’s private doctors. Both groups wore the same white coats, making them indistinguishable at a glance, yet the tasks they performed were completely different.

Wang Xiaochun was carried onto the ambulance. Zhou Baiyu, who was shaking like a quail, was taken away for an injection. As for the Japanese woman, she was dragged into a room by bodyguards and locked away.

“Everyone keeps their mouths shut about today. That woman” Zhou Guoxiong stopped. His assistant immediately spoke up. “Should we have someone check her background?”

Zhou Guoxiong did not answer. He stood with his back turned in silence for a long time. Even though his posture had not changed, Li Zhi felt as though he had aged ten years.

Finally, Zhou Guoxiong spoke. He pressed his brow tiredly and shook his head. “No. Do not check her background. We cannot let this matter blow up.”

“Rip her tongue out.”