Zhou Yi didn’t know this was a fatal question!

She also didn’t know who she was talking to.

This friend Joan, whom she had met by chance on the plane and instantly clicked with, was the woman whose husband she had taken.

She didn’t want Joan to look down on her, but how should she answer this question?

“If you don’t tell me what happened, I can’t help you analyze it.”

Zhou Yi hemmed and hawed.

“I didn’t know at first, really, I swear on the five-starred red flag, I didn’t know!”

“He was transferred to Beijing from another region, and colleagues at the work unit didn’t know much about his situation… anyway, I started interacting with him.”

“He was extremely gentle back then, meticulous in his work, and even secretly helped me with work matters.”

Ye Xiaoqiong felt a bit dazed.

Why had she liked Yuan Han in the first place?

Back then, she had no family left, just a lone daughter, and Yuan Han often showed concern for her.

Yuan Han was several years older than her.

His gentleness and attention had been like a lifeline to her.

After all, Yuan Han was handsome, and though his family was poor, their background wasn’t as problematic as hers.

Ye Xiaoqiong snapped back to reality:

“Then what? You fell for him?”

Zhou Yi had countless flaws, but she had one good quality—she used to confide in Yuan Han, and now she would confide in Joan. She was selfish and thoughtless, but from another perspective, her thoughts weren’t particularly complex.

Since she had already told Joan so much, she might as well tell everything.

“Then I wanted to date him. But as soon as I showed interest, Yuan Han started avoiding me, becoming cold towards me. I couldn’t understand why.”

How could a small-town young man play hard to get when Miss Zhou showed interest in him?

Of course, Zhou Yi couldn’t figure it out.

Though Yuan Han was tall and handsome, when she looked in the mirror, she wasn’t exactly ugly either!

When you can’t have something, you want it even more.

She just wanted to date someone, not commit murder.

Yuan Han had triggered her competitive spirit.

Ye Xiaoqiong lowered her head, feeling both contempt and pity for Zhou Yi!

Contempt for Zhou Yi’s stupidity, yet pity for that same stupidity… Yuan Han was playing hard to get. Ye Xiaoqiong felt she had been deceived by Yuan Han because she was alone and helpless, and he had given her warmth, making her cling to him like a lifeline.

But what about Zhou Yi?

Zhou Yi had everything.

Both parents have a house full of relatives.

A good job, and in the prime of her youth.

Yet she could still be fooled!

“So when he avoided you, you liked him even more, not knowing he was already married!”

Ye Xiaoqiong’s rhetorical question made Zhou Yi blush. She first nodded, then shook her head:

“I didn’t know at first, but found out later. Since Yuan Han kept avoiding me, one day I cornered him and asked what he was thinking. That’s when he told me he was married back home. He said his wife had overseas connections and wasn’t focused on family, always thinking about going abroad. He happened to have an opportunity to work in Beijing, so they lived separately. He thought if he could do well in his work, maybe his wife’s heart would settle down… I was shocked, but I admired him even more.”

Shocked that Yuan Han was married.

Admired that he had candidly told her about it.

And admired this man’s ambition to strive for a career in Beijing.

Ye Xiaoqiong narrowed her eyes.

Overseas connections?

She did have a grand-uncle who had gone abroad years ago. But they’d lost contact after he left—did that count as overseas connections?

Yuan Han was telling blatant lies.

Looking back at the timeline, she had just become pregnant then, overjoyed at the prospect of having Yuan Han’s children, her heart completely devoted to the Yuan family. When Yuan Han was transferred to Beijing for work, she was the one taking care of everything at home.

Ye Xiaoqiong suppressed her mockery.

“You admired him, so you stole this man?”

Zhou Yi’s face turned bright red, “No, that’s not what I thought. After he told me, we were just normal colleagues. Sometimes he would initiate conversations with me, but mostly he avoided me. Later, he suddenly started paying attention to me again, saying the conflict with his ex-wife was irreconcilable, and she had chosen to divorce him and go abroad. Seeing him suffer, I couldn’t help but want to comfort him.”

She wasn’t completely unaware that something wasn’t right.

But Zhou Yi’s emotions had been manipulated by Yuan Han’s tactics like a roller coaster, up and down, her heart not in her chest but tightly gripped in Yuan Han’s hand.

Whatever Yuan Han said, she believed.

Subconsciously, she didn’t want to think too much because she liked this man, and now she had the chance to have him—did she need to uncover all the truth?

“…After confirming his divorce, we started dating.”

Ye Xiaoqiong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at this moment.

Zhou Yi’s account was too genuine, treating her like an insider, even analyzing her thoughts from back then!

At first, she truly didn’t know.

Later, when she had fallen completely, it didn’t matter whether she knew or not.

Zhou Yi never hid her domineering and selfish thoughts.

She only listened to Yuan Han. When he said he was divorced, she happily started dating him—why dig deeper for the truth? This was the man she liked, and she was the Zhou family’s daughter!

Casual, and willful.

Selfish, and muddle-headed.

Zhou Yi’s wrongdoing wasn’t intentional; she hadn’t instigated Yuan Han.

It was Yuan Han himself who was power-hungry. When he hadn’t gained the position he wanted in Beijing, his previous wife no longer had any value to him, and it was time to cast her aside.

Ye Xiaoqiong remained silent for a while, making Zhou Yi uneasy:

“Joan, He Shiyuan mentioned Yuan Han’s previous wife, and you’re asking about this too—what impact does this have?”

Ye Xiaoqiong raised the corner of her mouth, “No impact, probably Yuan Han told He Shiyuan something, and she just used it to insult you. While you were still in the hotel, I had someone look into He Shiyuan’s background more carefully. She’s the second daughter of the He family from Hong Kong. This He family has investments in various places. Those wealthy Hong Kong men can take concubines even after marriage, with children from different mothers, leading to fierce competition. I’ve heard these Hong Kong tycoons often test their children to see which ones are capable, then distribute more family assets to them. He Shiyuan coming to Pengcheng probably has a similar purpose, but your husband Yuan Han wasted her time… which made her very angry.”

Zhou Yi had never doubted He Shiyuan’s identity, already convinced she was a wealthy merchant’s daughter. Even Yuan Han had believed it.

After Ye Xiaoqiong’s explanation, Zhou Yi was even more certain.

She wasn’t worried about Yuan Han’s fate, but she was concerned that He Shiyuan might cause trouble for the Zhou family out of spite.

Zhou Yi said fiercely:

“He Shiyuan is demanding 150,000 Hong Kong dollars from Yuan Han to not report his acceptance of benefits. Just now when Yuan Han called home for money, his sister even suggested asking my family for it.”

Ye Xiaoqiong raised an eyebrow: “Oh, what do you think? Will you help him pay this money?”

“Of course not! I grabbed the phone and scolded his second sister for causing trouble at a time like this. They even said his mother got sick from the news—serves them right! Anyway, his family will scrape together the money; they can’t bear to see Yuan Han lose his respectable career! I guess they’ll probably have to sell their house—Yuan Han’s family still has quite a large house back home…”

Suddenly, why did she feel a chilling breeze? Zhou Yi unconsciously shrank her neck.