Chapter 390: Revenge Begins

Hearing Jiaqi’s words, my tears welled up uncontrollably.

What… what exactly am I doing?

In the darkest corner of this world, I once told someone I least wanted to be with, “I’d do anything.” And in front of the only person in this world who truly cared for me, I revealed the side of myself I least wanted to show.

I’m so heartbroken.

The kinder Jiaqi is to me, the more I want to run away.

I shouldn’t drag him down any longer.

“Chenze… what’s wrong with you?” Jiaqi draped my clothes back over my shoulders and smoothed my hair. “Did something happen last night? Do you need me to help?”

“I…”

I knew that if I spoke of this, it wouldn’t just be my problem anymore—Jiaqi would inevitably be dragged into it.

Even if I were the one to kill that family of three, Jiaqi would become an accomplice for knowing and not reporting it.

“It’s nothing…” I could only shake my head, burying everything deep inside, just like every other day.

Article 274 of the Criminal Law: Extortion involving a large sum or repeated offenses is punishable by up to three years in prison, detention, or surveillance. For extremely large sums, the sentence ranges from three to ten years.

If Chengcai only served a few years in prison, it would mean nothing to me. The moment he was released, an eternal hell would await me.

Jiaqi studied me for a long moment before giving a bitter smile. “Chenze, I once heard an interesting question—let me ask you.”

“Mm.” I snapped out of my daze and nodded.

“If someone offered you ten million, would you take it?”

“What?” I didn’t quite understand.

“Suppose someone wanted to give you ten million right now—would you take it or not?” Jiaqi repeated.

“If someone was giving it to me for free… of course I’d take it.” I stared at him blankly.

Xiao Sun nodded with a smile. “Then what if, after taking the ten million, you’d die by sunrise tomorrow? Would you still take it?”

“I…” I let out a bitter sigh. “Then I definitely wouldn’t.”

“So in your eyes, waking up tomorrow morning is worth more than ten million.” Xiao Sun placed his hands on my shoulders and spoke earnestly. “Every morning we wake up, we should remind ourselves—this day is more precious than ten million. We can’t waste it.”

“What…?”

“Chenze, the fact that you wake up every day is worth more to me than countless millions.” Xiao Sun’s expression remained firm and clear. “We still have a long future ahead of us. Let’s cherish every day we have together.”

He buttoned my coat one by one, then gently patted my head. “You don’t have to do anything in front of me that you don’t want to. Because I don’t just want to be your ‘boyfriend’—I want to be your true other half.”

Ah, my life.

My wretched life—one wrong step, and every step after was doomed.

If only I had accepted Jiaqi’s love sooner, perhaps my entire life would have been different.

If someone in this world could love me like this, I could have easily abandoned that illusory notion of family, stopped clinging to any delusions about those bound by blood.

I could never naively return home, handing my brother a red envelope as his sister.

I could never naively believe that after twenty years away, their hostility toward me would lessen. That after twenty years, my hometown would have changed enough.

I would never have been locked in that dark room.

But I was never a smart person—just a stubborn ordinary woman. With every choice I made, I never once foresaw my own ending.

So this is all my own fault. I can’t blame anyone else.

Stop being kind to me. I don’t want to hope anymore.

Because I’m about to “wipe out my entire family” and become the most deserving devil in this world.

For the next few days, I pretended everything was fine while staying with Jiaqi, waiting only for that day to arrive.

On the morning of the fifth day, I turned on the air conditioner and TV at home, then went downstairs to unplug the power cable of my car’s dashcam and disabled my phone’s location tracking.

Then, I contacted the most expensive scalper online—but I refused to call them, insisting on communicating via WeChat.

After spending eighteen thousand yuan, I successfully bought an inner-section ticket to Jay Chou’s concert, then spent another two hundred on some fan merchandise.

I took a photo, posted it on my Moments with the caption “So excited!” and blocked Chengcai from seeing it.

Once people started liking it, I anonymously posted the ticket’s QR code (marked “Do not leak”) on Jay Chou’s fan forum, asking, “Is this ticket real?”

If nothing went wrong, even if I didn’t show up at the concert, the ticket would still be used.

Next, I reached out to a few “gray-area” contacts from past legal cases, asking them to discreetly procure some “essential tools” for me—paying them hefty hush money.

The final step was visiting a print shop to make two blue-background number stickers to alter my license plate. I didn’t need to change all the digits—just two, and my car would no longer be recognizable as mine.

With everything prepared, I drove toward “home” under the morning sun.

I avoided highways and main roads, weaving through village paths instead. Even with the altered plate, I had to steer clear of cameras as much as possible.

By evening, I’d navigated the last stretch of mountain road and parked my car in an inconspicuous spot at the village entrance. Then, I opened a ride-hailing app and booked a car from my apartment to Jay Chou’s concert venue.

Minutes later, the driver called.

“Hello?”

“Miss, I’m here. Where are you?”

“Just drive to the destination without me. I’ll pay the fare.”

“What?”

“That’s all. Bye.”

Watching the app display “Trip started,” I locked my phone, silenced it, and slipped it into my pocket. Then, carrying my handbag, I walked into the village.

I took the least noticeable path, avoiding all eyes until I reached my “home.”

I hid the bag beside a water vat by the door and knocked.

They seemed to be watching TV, laughing loudly—it took a while before someone answered.

“Zhang Laidi?” Chengcai’s face lit up the moment he opened the door. “You’re back?!”

“Yeah. Let me in.” I smiled at him. “I want to talk.”

“Ma! Laidi’s back!” Chengcai called out.

“Damn bitch!”

The woman, who’d been laughing at the TV, stormed out the moment she heard him. “You dare come back?! What the hell did you do? Why’d the police take Old Ma away?”

Her bloated body shuffled forward as she jabbed a finger at my face. “The whole village says you’re a husband-killer! What the hell did you do?!”

“Ah, enough!” My father grinned and pulled her back. “Laidi’s finally home—don’t scold her.”

Seeing his beaming face, I smiled back, pushed past him, and stepped inside.

The cheerful room was plastered with photos of me.

In every single one, I was crying.

Yet they had just been laughing here.

Yeah, I never understood why my father always smiled when he saw me. Now I know.

Every time he eyed my body, that was the smile he wore.

My newlywed sister-in-law was using one of my photos as a tray for sunflower seed shells. She’d been laughing at the TV, not even glancing at me.

“Sis-in-law,” I called.

“Hahaha!” She spat out a shell and finally flicked her eyes toward me.

If possible, I wouldn’t have wanted to harm this girl—she might have suffered like I did.

Before I could say another word, she shoved the handful of shells at me. “Here, throw these away for me.”