Zhang Jingchan and Li Yunmo first found Liu Ying’s old home. The house was dilapidated and had been abandoned for many years. Fortunately, Li Yunmo was sweet-tongued and Zhang Jingchan was sharp, so they quickly learned from the neighbors that back then, Liu Ying had followed her remarried mother to Nanmupu Township. Her stepfather constantly beat and cursed the mother and daughter, resenting that Liu Ying’s mother couldn’t bear him a son. After Liu Ying graduated from university and started working and earning money, her stepfather drunkenly fell into water one night and drowned. Liu Ying then brought her mother to live in the big city.

“Has Liu Ying come back these years?” Zhang Jingchan asked.

The auntie cracking melon seeds looked at the handsome young man before her, her face smiling like a wrinkled flower, “She came back a few times in recent years to visit her maternal aunt. Later, when her aunt moved to the county seat, she stopped coming. Her aunt is also from this township—otherwise, how could she have introduced her mother to remarry here? Never expected she’d introduce her to a beast!”

Zhang Jingchan asked, “A beast?”

The auntie realized she’d spoken too hastily and waved her hand, “This isn’t good to talk about, not good to talk about. It’s all gossip, village people talking nonsense.”

Li Yunmo slipped a red bill into the auntie’s hand, “Sister, what kind of talk was it?”

The auntie’s eyes shifted, “What are you two to Liu Ying?”

Li Yunmo pointed at Zhang Jingchan, “She ran off with someone else and dumped my brother. He can’t get over it, so we tracked down her hometown.”

Zhang Jingchan abruptly turned his head and stared at Li Yunmo with an unfriendly gaze.

The auntie became indignant. Such a handsome and steady young man! She slapped her thigh, “I knew Liu Ying was a little tramp! Back then, there were rumors that her stepfather… you know what I mean, right? At such a young age, just a teenager, already improper. Otherwise, how could a man not control himself…”

Li Yunmo couldn’t listen anymore and said, “That’s wrong of you to say. What does a teenage girl understand? It must have been her stepfather who was the beast.”

The auntie retorted, “Hey, it takes two to tango.”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

“You young man look decent, but how can you curse at people!”

…

Li Yunmo argued with the auntie for a bit before following Zhang Jingchan away.

Once in the car, Zhang Jingchan’s fingers tapped on the steering wheel, “Who taught you to make up such nonsense?” This style of lying with eyes wide open was far too familiar—Li Yunmo wasn’t this clever.

Li Yunmo asked, “What?”

“Me and Liu Ying.” Just saying it made Zhang Jingchan feel disgusted.

Li Yunmo coughed lightly, his eyes darting around, but under Zhang Jingchan’s intimidating gaze, he immediately surrendered, “It was sister-in-law…”

Zhang Jingchan knew it. He asked helplessly, “What did she say?”

“Let me tell you, sister-in-law is strategic! She said that going to the countryside to gather information, both of us being strangers would face difficulties. To complete it efficiently, we had to take an unconventional approach! Brother Chan, you’re so handsome and upright—if we said you were abandoned by Liu Ying, others would definitely overflow with gossip and sympathy. And look… that lady told us everything!”

Meeting Zhang Jingchan’s icy stare, Li Yunmo sheepishly closed his mouth.

Zhang Jingchan lowered his head, gripping his phone with one hand. He sent a text message, then tossed the phone aside and drove.

In Xiang City, Li Weiyi was at her sister’s house teaching her niece An’an to recognize characters when she picked up her phone and saw:

“Since you’re so strategic, think about what you’ll do tomorrow when I get back.”

Li Weiyi: “??”

Li Weiyi: “Baby, did your brain short-circuit?”

She immediately received another text message, this one from Li Yunmo: “Sister-in-law! Brother Chan found out you taught me to spread false rumors about him and Liu Ying!”

Li Weiyi replied in disappointment, “Why did you rat me out? Why didn’t you take it like a man?”

Li Yunmo: “Damn, Brother Chan’s expression, his aura was too powerful—who could withstand that!”

Li Weiyi had no choice but to text Zhang Jingchan again: “Baby.”

Zhang Jingchan was driving and didn’t reply.

She sent another: “Baby, your girlfriend was wrong. Your girlfriend will never dare again.”

After a long while, Zhang Jingchan finally replied: “Come eat oranges when I get back tomorrow.”

Was he talking about oranges? Li Weiyi’s face reddened and her heart trembled, but her reply was fearless: “How do you want to eat them? Like this, or like that?”

On the other end, Zhang Jingchan had just parked the car. Seeing this text, he raised his eyebrows, a smile playing at the corners of his lips. After slight hesitation, he replied with two words: “Juiced.”

Li Weiyi: “!!!”

Li Weiyi: “Zhang Jingchan, you’re actually making dirty jokes! Are you still that excellent, abstinent CEO?”

Zhang Jingchan: “Your boyfriend just wants to drink a glass of fresh-squeezed fruit juice. What exactly is going on in that little head of yours?”

Li Yunmo watched the once cool, domineering Brother Chan with his fingers flying rapidly across his phone, smiling with spring in his expression, even the tips of his ears turning red. He was greatly shocked and leaned over to look, “From sister-in-law?”

Zhang Jingchan tilted his hand and quickly shoved the phone into his pants pocket.

Li Yunmo pursed his lips. Over these years, he had long seen through it—men, they were all the same, choosing the opposite sex over friends. In the future, big brothers could be replaced, but as long as sister-in-law stayed the same, that was fine.

Thinking this way, he immediately felt open-hearted and calm. Looking at the fierce Brother Chan again, he was unbothered.

Li Yunmo remembered Liu Ying’s situation and said, “Never expected Liu Ying had such a tragic childhood. No wonder she became so twisted and vicious later.”

Zhang Jingchan said, “No matter how tragic her childhood was, she can’t use my family’s lives and other people’s lives as stepping stones for her wealth and success.”

Li Yunmo agreed, “Exactly right.”

They found Liu Ying’s maternal aunt’s home in Ling County’s county seat. Considering the close relationship between Liu Ying and her aunt’s family, the two didn’t go directly to their door to inquire. Instead, they first asked around among the surrounding neighbors.

The aunt’s entire family had moved from the countryside to the county seat five years ago, paying in full for a large 180-square-meter house. Neither spouse had proper work—the aunt stayed at home while the uncle did odd jobs in the county. They also had two daughters, both in school. The family had never left the county to live elsewhere.

The aunt’s surname was Wen, and the uncle’s surname was Chen.