After the Most Hated Persona Faked Their Death, the Ex-Husband Lost His Mind - Chapter 3

Chu Mingzhang seemed to possess a certain knack for appearing before him at his most pathetic moments.

A few tissues were not enough to clean the cream smeared across Li Zhi’s cheeks, nor could they erase the fact that he had clashed with Zhou Baiyu, even if it was entirely one-sided.

When Wang Xiaochun rushed over at the sound of the commotion, the first thing she saw was Li Zhi, who had not even cleaned himself up yet, kneeling on the floor to scrub the ground. Only then did she notice the two boys standing nearby, looking completely unbothered.

The clack-clack of high heels hitting the floor caught the boys’ attention. Zhou Baiyu lazily lifted his eyelids, and his gaze lingered for a moment on her hand, which was hooked around Zhou Guoxiong’s forearm.

He rolled his eyes and went back to fiddling with his phone. His companion, Han Ziyao, was the one to greet Zhou Guoxiong: “Uncle Zhou.”

Zhou Guoxiong nodded at him. Although he was smiling, the corners of his mouth were stiff, revealing that his current mood was far from pleasant.

Wang Xiaochun let go of him and lunged toward her spineless son. She hauled Li Zhi up with a rough tug and pushed him forward. “Li Zhi, hurry up and call him Dad!”

Li Zhi was forced to look up at Zhou Guoxiong, his biological father, yet there seemed to be no resemblance between them at all.

Zhou Guoxiong was the quintessential image of a successful man. His hair was slicked back with mousse and he wore a hand-tailored Italian suit; he looked sharp and vigorous.

Li Zhi opened his mouth, intending to force those two words out, but he saw Zhou Guoxiong frown and take a step back. This caused the unspoken greeting to catch in Li Zhi’s throat because he saw something in Zhou Guoxiong’s eyes: disappointment.

Yes, Zhou Guoxiong was very disappointed. He was a proud, pretentious man. A man as extraordinary as himself surely had offspring who were perfect in every way.

How could this boy in front of him, this scrawny, unrefined, disheveled boy with hair matted together by cream, be his, Zhou Guoxiong’s, son?

Yet the paternity test told him that this was indeed his child.

But this was entirely different from Wang Xiaochun’s descriptions. A father-son reunion should have been a heartwarming scene, but looking at the boy before him, the arrogant Zhou Guoxiong felt not a shred of affection.

Wang Xiaochun naturally realized this as well. She was furious. She raised her hand and delivered a sharp slap to Li Zhi’s back.

“Li Zhi! How could you let yourself get into such a state!”

Li Zhi bit his lower lip hard, his eyes stinging with tears.

He could not speak, but someone else had plenty to say. Zhou Baiyu finally deigned to put down his phone. He drawled, “Auntie Wang, I did it. Why do you not ask me?”

Wang Xiaochun had not officially joined the family yet and did not want a direct confrontation so soon. She suppressed her anger as best she could. “Baiyu, why would you do such a thing?”

Zhou Baiyu suddenly stood up. With lightning speed, he snatched a glass from the coffee table and splashed the contents all over Wang Xiaochun. “What do you think you are, daring to call my name? You want to know why? Fine, I will tell you right now.”

“Because I am annoyed. I am annoyed by the sight of you, and even more annoyed by the sight of him. So I did it. Got it?!”

Caught off guard, Wang Xiaochun was drenched. She could no longer restrain herself, but before she could shout back, Zhou Guoxiong spoke first. He frowned and said, “Zhou Baiyu, what are you doing! Apologize to your Auntie Wang this instant!”

“Me, apologize? For what? It is a miracle I did not find a gun to shoot her! Shameless!” Zhou Baiyu spat viciously on the floor and added venomously, “At your age, still dreaming of flying up the branch to become a phoenix? Stop dreaming. You are nothing but a pheasant!”

Li Zhi could not quite remember what happened after that.

He only vaguely recalled the scene being chaotic. Zhou Guoxiong stepped forward and slapped Zhou Baiyu twice. Han Ziyao had slipped away unnoticed during the fray. Even after being slapped, Zhou Baiyu would not stay quiet, trading insults with Wang Xiaochun.

Wang Xiaochun: “Keep your mouth clean! I did not know your father had a family back then!”

Zhou Baiyu: “I do not care if you knew or not! The fact is you were a mistress! Mistresses get struck by lightning and die miserable deaths!”

“Enough!” Zhou Guoxiong roared, his patience exhausted. “Anyone who says another word can get out!”

He turned around and said to Li Zhi, “Have the butler take you to bathe and change your clothes. Look at yourself.”

His disgust was palpable.

Li Zhi felt a pang of sadness. Although he did not have much affection for this father, being so openly loathed during their first meeting still left him feeling dejected.

After that day, Li Zhi and his mother moved into the villa.

While Zhou Guoxiong did not like this son, he truly could not let go of his past feelings for Wang Xiaochun. He was determined to marry her, regardless of Zhou Baiyu’s daily tantrums.

As summer break neared its end, Wang Xiaochun and Zhou Guoxiong held their wedding. Since it was a second marriage, it was low-key, but Wang Xiaochun did not complain. Simply marrying into the family smoothly was a victory in itself.

Afterward, Wang Xiaochun began frequently bringing up Li Zhi’s affairs to Zhou Guoxiong, such as changing his surname or transferring schools. After the wedding, Father Zhou had transferred Li Zhi’s records to a public middle school near the house, but Wang Xiaochun was unsatisfied. She wanted Li Zhi to attend a private school like Zhou Baiyu.

Zhou Guoxiong was largely compliant with her wishes, but whenever these topics arose, he would dodge the question.

In his heart, he still favored his eldest son and wanted him to be the sole heir. Changing the surname would imply that the younger son would want a piece of the family business later on.

As for the school transfer, Zhou Guoxiong said, “He would not be able to keep up in a school like that. Public school is perfectly fine; the teaching staff at X Middle School is not bad.”

Unable to persuade him, Wang Xiaochun stopped bringing it up. She seemed to have given up, but she had not.

Wang Xiaochun believed the reason Zhou Guoxiong did not value Li Zhi was the poor first impression he had made. If she could change that impression, she would get her way.

And how to change it? It just so happened that after summer, Li Zhi would be in his third year of middle school, facing the first major turning point in his life: the High School Entrance Exam.

“As long as you do well on the exam and make your father see you in a new light, we can get these things done. Show some backbone, do you hear me?” Wang Xiaochun lectured repeatedly.

Could Li Zhi say he did not hear her? He could only nod desperately. Wang Xiaochun was somewhat satisfied and patted his shoulder. “Good boy.”

Li Zhi instinctively flinched. He had developed a Pavlovian response; he always felt that whenever Wang Xiaochun raised her hand, she was about to hit him. In the Zhou household, Zhou Guoxiong actually treated her quite well; it was Zhou Baiyu who gave her grief.

Zhou Baiyu was a boarding student and only returned on weekends. Whenever he returned, Wang Xiaochun would get angry, and Li Zhi would suffer.

Because every time she was insulted by the son, she would take it out on Li Zhi.

After moving to the Zhou house, the beatings were not as hysterical as before. It was usually a few insults and a few slaps.

The slaps did not hurt much, but after being hit so often, a servile nature began to take root, and Li Zhi’s spine grew more and more curved.

Where he used to scramble to hide, he eventually stopped trying. His body was numb to it; he was used to it.

Wang Xiaochun was a typical Chinese-style parent. She would tell Li Zhi: “Beating is affection, scolding is love. Mom is doing this for your own good. All parents are like this. If you do not hit your child, that is just spoiling them!”

Li Zhi did not dare question her, nor did he resent her, because he knew Wang Xiaochun could not really control her emotions. He had caught her taking medication several times.

He could only constantly comfort himself: “Mom is doing this for me, Mom loves me.” Meanwhile, Wang Xiaochun was pleased with his obedience but worried about his dullness. Li Zhi really was not scholar material.

The goal Wang Xiaochun set for Li Zhi was to surpass Zhou Baiyu. But how easy was that?

Zhou Baiyu had received top-tier education since childhood, learning English like a native speaker. How could Li Zhi, who came from a village within a city, compete with him?

In truth, Li Zhi’s grades were not terrible. In his old school, he was steadily in the top ten of his class. After transferring, he hovered around the lower-middle tier. But middle tier was far too mediocre for Wang Xiaochun to endure.

She began scheduling his life, filling his weekends with extracurricular tutoring.

From 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM, he went to a training center for Math and Chinese, two hours each. From 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM, he went to a teacher’s house for Science. From 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, he went back to the training center for English. After dinner, he went to another teacher’s house for Math until 9:00 PM.

Saturday was like this, and so was Sunday. Every teacher assigned homework, such as a practice exam. Li Zhi had to finish those along with his regular school assignments, often staying up until 2:00 AM.

There is a phrase: “the opposite of the intended effect.” This high-intensity tutoring did not improve Li Zhi’s grades; instead, his total score regressed. Li Zhi was too tired. He was so exhausted he could not process the lessons; he was so exhausted he just wanted to cry.

How hard could middle school questions be? If Li Zhi could just listen properly, he could certainly raise his scores. The problem was, he could not listen.

Weekends should have been happy, relaxing days, but for Li Zhi, they were a form of torture.

He had originally thought that being out of the house was a good thing because he could avoid Zhou Baiyu’s bullying. Li Zhi was too naive; he did not realize he was merely jumping from one fire pit into another.

Inability to focus, dropping grades, being beaten and scolded; it was a vicious cycle. At the end of the first semester of his third year, Li Zhi received an abysmal score, so bad he could not believe he was the one who earned it.

Wang Xiaochun shook with rage. She reverted to her hysterical violence, throwing her high-heeled shoes at Li Zhi.

It happened to be a pair of chunky heels. When they slammed into Li Zhi’s arm, he almost felt like the bone had snapped.

Wang Xiaochun rushed over, kicking and hitting him like a madwoman. Li Zhi’s head rang from the slaps, his vision blurred, and he felt something warm and sticky gushing from his nose.

Li Zhi wiped it; his hand was covered in blood.

He cried, wailing as he tried to flee. But wearing slippers made it hard to move; he slipped and sprawled onto the floor, his glasses flying off, landing right by the front door.

Li Zhi did not have the strength to stand up, so he could only crawl toward them. Just as his fingertips were about to touch the frame of his glasses, the door was pushed open. A pair of snowy-white, limited-edition sneakers stepped onto the frame of his glasses, mere centimeters from his fingertips.

He looked up at the owner of the sneakers. It was a face he had only seen once, yet could never forget.

It was Chu Mingzhang.

Li Zhi thought later that Chu Mingzhang seemed to possess a certain knack for appearing before him at his most pathetic moments.

Every time it was a coincidence, and every time, he appeared.