Pei Jiangmu's words were like the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle, crashing violently into Du Feng's muddled mind and shattering all his illusions and pretenses.
He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed firmly on Pei Jiangmu's handsome but demonic face.
An absurd yet crystal - clear thought popped into his mind.
"You... You're the one she was with in France..."
His voice trembled, filled with disbelief and horror.
"The... old man who got her pregnant and then... abandoned her?"
He said the last three words with great difficulty, a sense of absurdity even he couldn't believe.
Old man?
The young, noble, and powerful heir of the Pei family in front of him couldn't possibly be the "old man" who, in his imagination, had toyed with Meng Ruozhao!
"Shut up!"
Pei Jiangmu interrupted him sharply. His voice was like a blade coated with ice, filled with a violent anger as if his most sensitive spot had been touched.
He took a step forward and kicked Du Feng hard on the shoulder. His scarlet eyes were ablaze with a paranoid fire.
"What do you mean by 'being with'? What do you mean by 'old man'?"
He enunciated each word slowly, as if squeezing them out between his teeth, with a strong smell of blood and an almost twisted possessiveness.
"We were in a normal relationship. She was my girlfriend. Our being together was perfectly legitimate."
He stared into Du Feng's pupils that contracted in fear. Uncontrollably, memories of the bone - gnawing pain and the day - and - night panic during those six months of separation welled up in his mind.
He blamed all the faults and all his unease on the man in front of him.
"If it weren't for you!"
Pei Jiangmu's voice suddenly rose, filled with hysterical hatred.
"If it weren't for you secretly taking her away from France while I was seriously injured and in a coma, we would never have separated! She wouldn't have..."
He paused for a moment. A flash of extreme pain crossed his eyes, but it was quickly covered by deeper paranoia.
"She would have fallen in love with me again long ago! We would have gotten married abroad. She would have been my wife, and we would have been together forever."
"She would never have returned to China, never met Yan Qiubai, never opened any studio, and definitely... never ended up lying in the hospital like this!"
The more he spoke, the more excited he became. The destructive aura around him almost became tangible, as if it could set the entire factory on fire.
In his twisted logic, the root cause of everything was Du Feng's forcible abduction of Meng Ruozhao.
It had interrupted his carefully - planned "love story" and the process of "making her fall in love with him again".
He refused to admit Meng Ruozhao's desire to leave him.
Nor did he want to recall the psychologist's advice to give Meng Ruozhao some free space.
Those six months of separation were now completely interpreted by him as Du Feng's malicious obstruction and conspiracy.
"It's all your fault!"
Pei Jiangmu suddenly reached out and grabbed Du Feng's collar, his strength so great that he almost lifted Du Feng up. His eyes were crazy and terrifying.
"You ruined everything!"
Du Feng was choked and had difficulty breathing. His face turned from white to blue, and his heart was filled with extreme horror.
He never expected that Pei Jiangmu's obsession with Meng Ruozhao had reached such a morbid level.
What he couldn't understand even more was -
"No... It's impossible!"
Du Feng struggled and shouted with all his might, trying to make a last - ditch effort.
He clung desperately to the information about Meng Ruozhao's "low - born" background in his mind.
As if this was the only shield that could hurt the other person and protect himself.
"Meng Ruozhao... She... She got lost when she was a child and grew up in an orphanage. Her status is low, and her origin is unknown!"
"How could she possibly know someone of your status? Young Master Pei, wake up!"
"Don't be deceived by the background and lies she fabricated. She's just a liar!"
He shouted hoarsely, trying to prove Pei Jiangmu's "deception" with Meng Ruozhao's "shameful" past.
However, what responded to him was Pei Jiangmu's even more cruel sneer and another hard kick in his abdomen!
"Ugh!"
Du Feng let out a pained cry and staggered back after being kicked. He bumped into Xia Lian and Du Xixi behind him, and the three of them fell into a heap.
Pei Jiangmu looked down at them from above, as if they were a pile of disgusting garbage.
He slowly paced forward. His shiny leather shoes made a terrifying sound on the concrete floor.
"Got lost? Or were you the ones who maliciously abandoned her?"
His voice was cold, with a mocking tone as if he knew everything.
"Du Feng, Xia Lian, do you really think you did that thing seamlessly all those years ago? Do you think no one in this world knows?"
These words were like a thunderbolt out of the blue, exploding in Du Feng and Xia Lian's ears.
The two of them instantly turned pale, looking even more panicked than when they first heard Pei Jiangmu's identity.
It was the dirtiest secret buried deep in their hearts for more than a decade, a secret they thought would never be exposed!
"You... What are you talking nonsense about?!"
Xia Lian shrieked. Her voice was distorted due to extreme fear.
"Zhaozhao got lost because she was naughty! It was her own fault!!"
"Shut up!"
Pei Jiangmu didn't even glance at her. His eyes were still fixed on Du Feng's ashen face.
He leaned forward slightly. The cold and cruel light in his dark eyes seemed to be enjoying the prey's last - ditch struggle before death.
"Do you need me to help you recall? President Du, and your... virtuous wife."
His tone was filled with a cat - and - mouse kind of playfulness.
"Thirteen years ago, in the west of the city, near the barren mountain five kilometers away from the Bishui Lanting Resort, at nine o'clock at night, it was completely dark."
As he described, Du Feng and Xia Lian's bodies began to tremble uncontrollably. The fear in their eyes was almost overflowing.
Although Du Xixi and Du Changlin didn't know what was going on, they were also frightened by their parents' unprecedented loss of composure.
"On that day, you took Zhaozhao to a business partner's party."
"On the way back, your good wife..."
Pei Jiangmu's eyes finally swept over the trembling Xia Lian, as if she were a bug.
"Using the excuse that Zhaozhao 'didn't know the rules' and 'offended an important person' at the party, she scolded her mercilessly in the car."
"Then, when you reached that winding mountain road where there was no village in front and no store behind, she ordered the driver to stop and forcibly pushed the ten - year - old Zhaozhao out of the car."
"She told her to 'walk back by herself', claiming it was to 'teach her a lesson'."
"And you, President Du, were drunk. Instead of stopping her, you followed her lead and severely scolded Zhaozhao."
"No... It's not like that..." Xia Lian shook her head frantically, tears streaming down her face.
Pei Jiangmu ignored her denial and continued in his cold, calm but heart - stabbing tone.
"But in fact, your dear wife had already arranged people to lie in ambush nearby."
"Just waiting for Zhaozhao to be scared and at a loss in that desolate place, they would kidnap her and then... sell her to the most remote mountainous areas."
"In this way, she would disappear forever, never 'getting in the way' of your precious son and daughter again, and never 'taking away' a single bit of the Du family's resources, right? President Du?"