Chapter 193 Gambling on Hearts

Chapter 193: Betting on Human Hearts

"If I leave, there'll be no one here. It's not right to leave you here alone. I thought about it—I've got the contact info of someone from the nearby village. I can pay them to bring some stuff over."

"Leaves are everywhere, right?"

Her eyes crinkled as she smiled back.

Tong Xiaoya's eyes went cold.

One minute, two minutes...

As the minutes ticked by, Tong Xiaoya brought up a few more things, but Qin Shuyi still didn't budge.

"This is a client's request, Miss Qin. Is this how you treat a client—a dying person? Where's your professional integrity?"

Qin Shuyi didn't take the bait on professional ethics. Instead, she asked calmly, "Ms. Wang, you seem really eager for me to go into those woods. What's in there waiting for me?"

Tong Xiaoya stared at her darkly. "Maliciously speculating about a client—that your attitude?"

Qin Shuyi replied, "It's not right for a client, but for you, even worse wouldn't be too much. Ms. Wang, or should I say Tong Xiaoya?"

Tong Xiaoya's bony fingers suddenly gripped the wheelchair armrests.

"You know who I am."

Qin Shuyi nodded. "I figured it out the second time I saw you."

Qin Yuan had told her never to trust coincidences.

If at Bai Ling's farewell ceremony, a woman who felt a kindred spirit just happened to show up and played the part of a kind stranger giving flowers, then her specific request—showing up in front of Qin Shuyi a second time and insisting she handle her funeral—that directly raised Qin Shuyi's suspicions.

Similar age, pretty face, paralyzed legs, always watching and sizing her up during interactions.

She quickly matched it to what she remembered.

Tong Xiaoya.

That woman who loomed large in Qi Manjun and Ling Mufeng's marriage, and even in Ling Jue's upbringing.

Even though she'd kept a low profile for seventeen years because of her health, no one had forgotten her.

Not long ago, Ling Jue even used her to force Ling Mufeng to divorce.

She'd heard Tong Xiaoya was in bad health.

Qin Shuyi hadn't expected her to come for her first.

Maybe she figured, given the Ling family's nature, they wouldn't air their dirty laundry to outsiders.

She should've known nothing about her.

Of course, Qin Shuyi's caution was also thanks to Ling Jue being open.

After they got back together, Ling Jue had laid out his whole family background, including his dad's messy past.

This was something Ling Jue would never have brought up on his own during their first relationship.

"You'll regret it if you don't go."

Tong Xiaoya, now found out, calmed down.

"Your colleagues aren't coming back. I set up a little accident for them.

If you walk in there now, you can still wait for Ling Jue to come save you. I don't want you dead."

She wasn't lying about that. She'd never been after Qin Shuyi.

She was just a good way in.

Ling Jue loved her a lot.

That cold, sharp kid who seemed emotionless—he'd grown up and learned to love.

It was amazing, and also pissing her off.

Her kid was long since bones. Why should Ling Mufeng's son get to live so happily?

All she wanted was to make Ling Mufeng and Ling Jue hurt.

Qin Shuyi said, "Instead of counting on your conscience, I trust myself."

"My colleagues are already back at the company safe. Thanks for your 'care.'"

She wasn't about to risk her colleagues' safety just for a quick test.

They'd already been picked up by a car when Tong Xiaoya sent them off.

Sure enough, Tong Xiaoya's phone went off.

She took a few calls, and the people she'd posted all reported they'd come up empty. The two colleagues hadn't gone where she'd told them to.

"You're clever, and quick on the draw." Tong Xiaoya's face was blank.

She glanced at the calm girl.

"Since you figured it was me, you must've already talked to Ling Jue? Or maybe today was all a setup so you could watch me put on a show."

"According to your plan, he should be here by now. But he hasn't shown. You know why?"

Qin Shuyi looked up at her.

But Tong Xiaoya didn't explain. Instead, she hit a button on her wheelchair.

A harsh sound screeched out.

The woods beside the lawn stayed silent, no one came out.

"So they've already been taken care of."

She looked at Qin Shuyi's unbothered face and let out a disappointed sigh.

"There's a flower coffin in the woods, just like this one. It's beautiful. I ordered two of them."

I originally just wanted you to go in and sleep quietly."

Sleeping underground, to see if Ling Jue could find you before the oxygen I prepared for you ran out.

But you were very alert.

You also knew better than to face danger alone.

If I guessed correctly, the people waiting in the woods are probably the ones Ling Jue sent to protect Qin Shuyi.

No wonder she felt bold enough to call me out by name.

Tong Xiaoya let her shoulders drop, as if she'd already given up.

But then she added, "You didn't invite my old friend, but I did."

Qin Shuyi's eyebrows knitted slightly.

Tong Xiaoya laughed out loud.

"He's not here because the location I told him for the farewell ceremony wasn't this one to begin with."

Ling Mufeng refused to see her.

Back then, when she kidnapped Ling Jue, he ran away, and his own son died instead.

In a no-win situation either way, she took a gamble, saving Ling Mufeng at the last second when he came to pay the ransom but fell into the trap, leaving her legs paralyzed.

After that, she kept up the act of being crazy and dumb.

Ling Mufeng did protect her.

She didn't go to prison and even received treatment.

But once she was out of danger, Ling Mufeng never came to see her again.

He paid for her medical bills and living expenses without holding back.

He just didn't want anything more to do with her.

Too bad. She'd planned, once she got her strength and freedom back, to either become Mrs. Ling or drag Ling Mufeng to hell with her.

Life in this world meant nothing to her.

Her life was ruined, her family was gone, even her son was dead. She couldn't stand to see the man who destroyed her living so well.

But she waited and waited, wiping that knife by her bed over and over, and he never showed up.

Even this time, when Ling Jue took her from the sanatorium and cut off her meds, he just rescued her and never came to see her.

As her days got shorter, she couldn't even find a chance to make a move.

She took another gamble.

The doctor who treated her had known her for more than ten years.

He felt sorry for her.

With that sympathy, seducing a guy was a piece of cake.

He always went above and beyond to take care of her, trying countless times to pull her out of the abyss of her past.

But someone living in hell doesn't want to be saved.

Having survived her father's creditors and had a kid, she was never the pure, innocent flower Ling Mufeng remembered.

The doctor helped her come back home and faked it so it looked like she was still getting treatment in Country M.

She couldn't waste her last days in a dark hospital room.

He made her wish come true.

...

With the Ling family's huge influence, she was just a cripple with nothing but the scraps Ling Mufeng gave her—she could barely get near them.

Let alone pull off another kidnapping like before.

That's when Qin Shuyi came into her sights.

She watched them from a distance for a long time, and though she was shocked, she had to admit Ling Jue really loved her.

His love was more decent than his father's.

She thought, such an unbreakable love—let her put it to the test for them.

Ling Mufeng, because of his soft heart and guilt, had let her down his whole life, and Qi Manjun too.

Where would his son trip up?

The location Tong Xiaoya gave Ling Mufeng was the abandoned building where her son was thrown down by the kidnappers.

She'd prepared a big surprise for him there.

She'd originally planned to get Qin Shuyi settled first, then give Ling Jue a choice.

Save his father or save Qin Shuyi.

They were at opposite ends of the city.

No matter who he saved, he'd suffer for the rest of his life, and it would drive a wedge between him and the other.

"You're safe now. Good."

Tong Xiaoya smiled.

"You being alive is better than someone like Ling Mufeng being alive. I'd rather meet him down there."

Since he didn't want to see her while she was alive, she'd respect that.

They could catch up properly down there.

She glanced at the time on her phone.

"By the time Ling Jue gets there, it'll already be too late."

A smile played on her lips.

When she came to find Qin Shuyi, she'd already imagined getting caught.

She made sure their eyes were on this farewell ceremony.

Meanwhile, Ling Mufeng was moving in secret.

Ling Jue was so wrapped up in Qin Shuyi that he didn't even think about Ling Mufeng.

In fact, Tong Xiaoya didn't even tell Ling Mufeng to go until the ceremony started.

The window was so tight that the person being threatened couldn't think straight—they just acted on instinct.

They wanted to catch her red-handed and throw her back in jail for what they couldn't before, because the evidence was destroyed years ago.

They thought they were just going along with her little act, no big deal.

But what they didn't know was, she was gambling on human nature too.

Ling Jue and his father, Ling Mufeng, were at odds.

They never talked, never showed weakness.

"Do you know why Ling Mufeng went to that place he knew was a trap?"

She stared at Qin Shuyi, her face icy.

"It was because of you."

"I sent him photos of you and the flower coffin, and I told him if he didn't want his son to live with the same regret he did, he'd better come see me."

----------------------------------------