Her Imperfection for Wifehood - Chapter 36.1

Chapter 36.1

That An Xi was able to bring back “good news” was thanks to the maneuvering of his new partner, Chen Kang.

They initially thought the week-long wait would pass quickly after paying Kahn the enormous liquidated damages, but the small factories that had agreed to assist with production began to break their contracts, one after another.

This was because the Haibang gang interfered, violently threatening the small-scale factories to prevent them from accepting orders from the An Corporation, leaving the An Corporation isolated.

Since the feud between the Lubang and Qiaobang gangs began, old scores and new grievances were settled together. Both sides were equally matched and fought fiercely, suffering heavy losses. The Haibang gang, which benefited from the conflict, became the dominant local power.

Jin Baolu, after joining Kahn’s unscrupulous venture, had also tasted the benefits. He didn’t care what nationality Kahn was. Anyone who could bring him profit was an ally.

For days on end, An Jing tirelessly rushed around in the business world, utterly exhausted and losing a considerable amount of money.

Five days after her birthday, when the arms smuggling scandal had slightly subsided, Tang Yunqing was finally unconfined by her father, who arranged for bodyguards to send her to the An house.

After Wei Yinxia said her goodbyes, Tang Yunqing had also returned to her family home. Knowing that she couldn’t let go of An Jing’s situation, and to prevent her from getting into trouble and bringing problems to the family, her father ordered her to be watched over twenty-four hours a day, forbidding her from going out.

She didn’t make a scene. Instead, she negotiated with her father, promising to behave but asking to borrow some money.

On this day, Tang Yunqing delivered the money to An Jing as promised, saying with a touch of apology, “This is the one hundred thousand you needed. Jing, I’m sorry. I hope I’m not too late.”

“Thank you, Yunqing.” How could she possibly blame her? Even if Tang Yunqing wanted to intervene, An Jing would stop her from getting involved.

Wanyun washed a plate of fruit and placed it on the coffee table: “Miss Tang, will you stay for dinner?”

It was getting close to evening. If Tang Yunqing were to stay, they would need to prepare dishes suitable for a pregnant woman. This was Zhang Ma’s reason for asking Wanyun to inquire.

“Don’t prepare extra for dinner,” An Jing said, looking at Tang Yunqing. “Go back early. Don’t let Boss Tang and Madam Tang worry.”

Tang Yunqing looked outside: “Mhm, I’ll sit a bit longer.”

The bodyguard who brought her was waiting in the car, and she had promised her father before leaving not to overstay.

An Jing followed Tang Yunqing’s gaze. The sky, dark and heavy, mirrored her state of mind. There were no clouds on the horizon, and her heart felt only black and white.

It was too depressing.

An Jing picked up the cigarette case and opened it, saying, “Don’t come looking for me for a while. You don’t have to worry about me too much. They want to drive me and the An Corporation to a dead end. Relying only on these methods is far too weak.”

Tang Yunqing was able to come to her house and bring this much money, so she couldn’t be completely unaware of the situation.

“How do you know they don’t have a backup plan? You’ve been an eyesore to foreign merchants for more than a day or two. Yinghua’s actions are clearly premeditated.”

“Meet force with force, suppress water with earth.” Perhaps from exhaustion, or perhaps from stress, An Jing’s hand was shaking. It took several attempts to light the cigarette.

“Besides, don’t I still have Miss Tang’s thigh to lean on? Yunqing, you are my backup, not a shield. I don’t need you to stand in front of me, nor do I need you to forge a path for me. I only hope you hold down the fort in the rear, reinforcing your city and stronghold. If I ever become impoverished and destitute, I hope you will remember our past relationship and casually give me a meal or two out of charity…”

“What are you saying!” Tang Yunqing waved her hand dismissively, snatching the cigarette before it reached An Jing’s mouth, extinguishing it, and tossing it into the ashtray.

“Smoke less. I don’t want the baby in my belly to inhale second-hand smoke here and affect its development. Are you sure you still want to be the godmother of this child?”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Yunqing. I, I was being foolish. Your child, I love them all.”

An Jing first patted her forehead remorsefully, apologizing incoherently multiple times, and then fanned the air with both hands to disperse the lingering smoke. “I’ve been too tired recently. Sometimes I don’t even know what I’m doing, or if what I’m doing is right…”

“Jing,” Tang Yunqing took An Jing’s hand, trying to transmit some confidence and strength to her. “The An Corporation is not just yours. Its success or failure is not solely your responsibility. You need to learn to share the honor and shame, and to face success and failure with equanimity. In the current of changing times, we are but tiny specks of dust in the vast crowd. Of course, we can also be bright stars. But you also need to recognize that the light of a single star is limited. What truly illuminates the night sky is the entire galaxy above our heads.”

Hearing her mention a star, An Jing’s eyes welled up.

“My mother told me when I was little that if she ever passed away, she would turn into a star in the sky to dispel the darkness for me. Later she left, but I never really looked up at the stars. Although I know life and death are beyond our control, I still blamed her for heartlessly abandoning me to suffer alone in the world.”

“And then, when I was adopted by Mom and Dad, I thought it was my mother’s spirit in heaven who sent me a complete family. But… Mom and Dad also left. Maybe I’m the jinx, that I’m the one who implicated them…”

“That’s not true.” Tang Yunqing could no longer restrain her emotions. She got up, sat next to An Jing, and embraced her tightly. “Our destiny is all arranged by Heaven. When we are born and when we die, it is all the will of fate.”

An Jing’s body stiffened, and she murmured, “The will of fate?”

Feeling An Jing’s body resist her touch, Tang Yunqing frustratedly released her: “Yes, everyone’s life, death, sickness, and aging are the will of Heaven, irreversible.”

“Since life and death are the will of Heaven, then when one is alive, one should do more things that are unrelated to the will of Heaven, wouldn’t you say, Yunqing?”

Gazing at the fierceness in An Jing’s eyes, Tang Yunqing’s throat bobbed. She couldn’t say “yes.” She was afraid that if she did, An Jing would be one step closer to madness.

An Jing, however, smiled, reached for a knife, and began peeling an apple: “The plot of land outside the house is my private property left by Mom and Dad. I mortgaged it to Changshun Foreign Firm. Isn’t your husband a real estate magnate? If he’s interested, he can take it for development.”

“It’s been empty for over ten years; a mortgage is a mortgage. I’ll ask him later.” Tang Yunqing couldn’t grasp An Jing’s emotional shift and changed the topic: “Have you found the He fellow who ran away?”

“No,” An Jing’s hand paused in motion. “If the Lubang hadn’t had trouble, finding him would be easy. The people I sent out…”

“Stop mentioning the Lubang,” Tang Yunqing, like An Xi, had always disapproved of An Jing getting too close to gangs. “Ill words invite trouble. Be careful that the police in the concession, seizing the opportunity, don’t let certain unscrupulous merchants and corrupt officials use the situation to step on you.”

“Let them step, then. Step all they want.” An Jing sneered, “Don’t forget where I crawled out from. As long as they don’t crush me, they will be the ones who die in the end!”

As Tang Yunqing was leaving, An Xi happened to return from outside.

“I say, Young Master Xi, your sister is so distraught, yet you’re out day and night! How old are you? Can’t you relieve some of the pressure on your sister?”

“Sister Yunqing, you wrong me! I was out doing business for my sister.” An Xi sighed, whispering, “I saw Brother Cheng leaving early and coming back late, acting suspiciously, so I secretly followed him. It turns out my sister took a lot of money to settle the families of those Lubang brothers who died tragically. I couldn’t stop her in this matter, and I even contributed some more money.”

“You two siblings are going to be the death of me!” Tang Yunqing also sighed heavily, instructing, “Let Lu Cheng handle these matters. You stay home more often, stick with your sister, and focus on getting the An Corporation cotton mill back to work.”

“I know, Sister Yunqing.” An Xi certainly wasn’t going to tell her that he had just met with Bo Yang of the Lubang half an hour ago.

“Who is Haibang siding with the An Corporation for?”

“Who else? Kahn, the boss of Yinghua. This man not only opposes the An Corporation at every turn and associates with the underworld, but he also boasts that he’ll pay a hundred thousand betrothal gift to marry the Wei family’s second daughter. Now that he has the money, I suspect Yinghua will soon be in cahoots with Zhengqing Department Store.” Tongues wag at the cocktail parties. Even without being published in the newspaper, the gossip had long since spread.

“Would a foreigner like him be willing to pay so much as a personal betrothal gift to marry a Chinese woman?” Tang Yunqing’s news wasn’t blocked. An Jing hadn’t mentioned the hundred thousand betrothal gift, but she had learned about it from her mother after returning to the Tang house.

“The key is that we’re the ones who compensated him with that hundred thousand,” An Xi said, looking up through the window towards the living room. “My sister… she treats Second Miss Wei like a sister. She can’t let her marry Kahn.”

“But Wei Zhengqing is the one in charge.”

“Shhh! Sister Yunqing, don’t let my sister hear that.”

“Just kidding.” Tang Yunqing felt a pang of bitterness. “Yinyin is my sister now too. Her brother-in-law should at least be someone I can approve of.”

“Alright, Sister Yunqing, go home and rest. I’m worried about you being dragged around like this,” An Xi said, looking at Tang Yunqing’s slightly swollen belly. “The little baby is suffering too. In the future, Uncle An Xi will cover all of your toys from childhood up.”

“You promised, it’s a deal, Uncle An Xi.” Tang Yunqing patted his shoulder. “You’re a man. You better get your act together and stop letting your sister carry the family business all by herself.”

“I won’t.”

After seeing Tang Yunqing off in her car, An Xi sat on the long bench in the courtyard for a while.

Last night, when Lu Cheng returned, he slipped a note to An Xi behind An Jing’s back, saying it was from Bo Yang.

It only had two words: Fuhe.

He met Bo Yang today.

Bo Yang told him: “The explosion at the Fuhe Hotel five years ago was not an accident. It was orchestrated by Kahn to eliminate Chen Dong out of personal revenge. The deaths of Boss An and Madam An at the Fuhe Hotel five years ago were also not an accident. Someone paid a street urchin to give them false information to lure them there.”

Before An Xi went abroad, Bo Yang hadn’t been following Xu Weiqiang, so they didn’t know each other. After returning, things were chaotic, and An Xi hadn’t interacted with Xu Weiqiang, let alone Bo Yang.

It was Lu Cheng who vouched for Bo Yang’s reliability to An Xi, and the two words “Fuhe” meant so much to him that he decided to meet with Bo Yang.

Looking at Bo Yang, who seemed a few years younger than him but was mature and steady, An Xi was half-skeptical: “Evidence?”

“We caught a subordinate who had followed Chen Dong for many years. He knew that Strong Lord was devoted to Boss Jing, so he traded this secret for his own life. Years ago, shortly after Kahn arrived in Shanghai, he was at a nightclub seeking pleasure and snatched a woman Chen Dong was interested in. Chen Dong taught him a lesson and thoroughly humiliated him. After a year of enduring it, Kahn established himself and sought revenge. He bribed the assistant chef at the Fuhe Hotel to tamper with things. Chen Dong was lucky, but his eyes and ears were injured in that explosion.”

“Kahn, seeing the situation turn bad, fled Shanghai to save himself. The police quickly closed the case, but Chen Dong ordered a continued investigation and found the assistant chef, who was also preparing to flee. Under duress, the man confessed the truth. The Qiaobang gang took all the money he had and broke one of his arms and a leg. That man was also resilient and has survived to this day by changing his name.”

An Xi already knew Kahn was the culprit. Bo Yang provided the details, revealed Kahn’s motive, and produced a witness.

But what he wanted to know more was the second “accident”: “Who paid the street urchin?”

As he asked this question, An Xi vaguely had a suspect in mind. He hadn’t just started doubting this person today; he was missing the evidence.

“Someone you know.” Bo Yang took a letter from his pocket and handed it to An Xi. “This is the testimony.”

An Xi took out the letter and a piece of paper inside.

After reading the content of the letter, he punched the table, gritting his teeth as he spat out three words: “Wei Zhengqing!”

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