Chapter 45

Qiao Jian's arrival brought a brief silence. He looked embarrassed and asked, "Am I coming at a bad time?"
"No, no, Director Qiao, please come in," the homeroom teacher said first.
Qiao Jian smiled. "Today I'm just Zhenzhen's father. Teacher Zhou, no need to be so formal."
The homeroom teacher nodded, scanned the faces in the room, and decided not to intervene. "Since Director Qiao is here, you can discuss this among yourselves. I'll go check on the students in the classroom."
With that, she found an excuse to leave.
Once she left, the atmosphere grew even more strained. Qiao Jian cleared his throat and asked Qin Jing, "So what's the situation now?"
Zhao Ying hurried to speak. "She wants Lianqiao to quit school; otherwise she refuses to withdraw the lawsuit..."
Halfway through, Zhao Lianqiao suddenly pinched her, and she fell silent at once.
Qiao Jian was quiet for a few seconds, then looked down at Qin Jing. "The college entrance exam is coming up soon. Transferring now would seriously disrupt her studies, I don't think that's appropriate."
"When you wanted Zhenzhen to quit school, didn't you think about whether that was appropriate?" Qin Jing shot back.
Qiao Jian frowned. "Those are two different things."
"How are they different?" Qin Jing asked.
Seeing that she was willing to argue with him in front of Zhao Lianqiao and her mother, Qiao Jian bit his lip and said, "...Zhenzhen's grades aren't good; keeping her here is a waste of time. Why is there anything wrong with using this as an opportunity to send her abroad?"
"My rank this time is higher than Zhao Lianqiao's," Qiao Zhenzhen, who had been quiet for a long time, suddenly said.
Qin Jing immediately responded, "So it's an even bigger waste of time for Zhao Lianqiao to stay in school? Her family has money, they can afford a hundred thousand in emotional damages. It would be better for her to drop out and go overseas."
"You..." Qiao Jian was provoked by their aggressive tones. Seeing Zhao Lianqiao and Zhao Ying with reddened eyes, silent, he grew more impatient with Qin Jing and her daughter.
Impatience aside, if Qin Jing truly insisted, there was nothing he could do about it. Qiao Jian thought for a few minutes before finally saying, "I'm only offering a suggestion. If you insist on forcing her to quit, I can't stop you."
"Uncle Qiao..." Hearing his tone soften, Zhao Lianqiao looked at him in alarm.
Worried she might blurt out their relationship in her panic, Qiao Jian's face hardened. "You're not a child anymore. Own up to your mistakes and pay the price, understand? If you keep this up, we'll really sue you."
It was the first time Zhao Lianqiao had been threatened like that; shame outweighed fear. Her face flushed and she bowed her head, clearly with nowhere to turn. Suddenly she reached out and pinched Zhao Ying's arm. Zhao Ying gasped in pain, and Qiao Jian looked over at once. "What's wrong?"
Seeing his concern, Qin Jing's hands slowly curled into fists.
Zhao Ying hesitated, then clutched her stomach. "I, I have a bit of a stomachache..."
Qiao Jian's expression changed. He instinctively moved to steady her, but halfway reached he thought better of it and stopped himself.
Seeing this, Zhao Lianqiao quickly put on a panicked face. "My mother is pregnant. There must be something wrong with the fetus. We can talk about dropping out later, please, please take her to the hospital."
"Pregnant?" Qiao Jian stepped up the stairs and supported Zhao Ying without hesitation. Seeing the pain on her face, he was suddenly filled with worry. When he turned and met Qin Jing's calm eyes, he panicked and snapped, "Enough, this matter ends here. What kind of thing is it to make life hard for a pregnant woman? If there's something wrong with her child, the one who will have to apologize and quit school will be Qiao Zhenzhen!"
With that, he and Zhao Lianqiao helped Zhao Ying out.
Qiao Zhenzhen watched them leave, both irritated and oddly relieved. She was about to tell Qin Jing to go home, but before she could speak she heard Qin Jing ask coldly, "When did you find out?"
Qiao Zhenzhen looked puzzled. "About what?"
"Are you still going to lie to me?" Qin Jing said, looking at her. "When did you know about their relationship?"
Qiao Zhenzhen froze. "Mom, how did you, "
She swallowed the rest. Of course, between her and Qiao Jian, one was a daughter and the other a husband; they were the two people Qin Jing knew best in the world. Seeing their reactions, she could guess most of it. Besides, when Qiao Jian heard Zhao Ying complain of a stomachache earlier, his worry was nearly written all over his face.
The office fell silent. After a while, Qiao Zhenzhen lowered her head and said, "Mom, I'm sorry..."
"How long have you known?" Qin Jing repeated.
Qiao Zhenzhen hesitated a moment, then gave an approximate time. "Around the start of the semester."
Around the start of the semester, two or three months, then. No wonder she had suddenly wanted a new driver back then and abruptly stopped spending time with Zhao Lianqiao. Qin Jing said nothing.
The atmosphere in the office grew heavier and Qiao Zhenzhen could no longer lift her head. When she heard a faint sob, she looked up at Qin Jing in a panic. "Mom, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to hide it from you. I just... I was afraid it would upset you. Please don't be mad at me..."
As she spoke, thinking of the suffering the mother and daughter had endured across two lifetimes, she couldn't help but choke up.
"I'm not angry with you, I'm just, " Qin Jing wiped a tear, and at the thought of something else the tears began to fall again. "I just feel like I've failed as a mother. When my daughter goes through something like this, her first instinct isn't to come to me for help but to hide it to spare me pain. I'm such a failure..."
"No, you're the best mom. I really love you..." Qiao Zhenzhen cried as she hugged her.
Tears welled up even more in Qin Jing's eyes as she held her daughter tight. "You've been wronged."
"Mom is the one who's been wronged." Qiao Zhenzhen felt a sharp ache.
When the homeroom teacher came in, she saw the mother and daughter clinging together and sobbing; she paused, then asked, "What's going on?"
Qin Jing hurriedly wiped her eyes. "It's nothing, sorry to make a scene."
After saying that, she led Qiao Zhenzhen away.
Half an hour later, in a private room at a restaurant near the school.
Qiao Zhenzhen sat opposite Qin Jing, stealing cautious glances now and then; each time their eyes met she quickly looked down.
"Is that child Qiao Jian's?" Qin Jing asked.
Qiao Zhenzhen nodded.
"Zhao Lianqiao's name... is it related to Qiao Jian?" Qin Jing looked at her.
Qiao Zhenzhen hesitated for a moment, then answered, "Yes. Zhao Ying changed it after she got together with Qiao Jian. Now that Mom knows what he's really like, I don't call him 'Dad' anymore."
"I remember she was already using that name when you first met; it seems her mother and Qiao Jian had been involved for some time," Qin Jing inhaled deeply. "Did you go to your grandfather because of this?"
Many things are like a tangled skein: left alone, they seem impossible to sort out, but once you find a loose end you can pull thread by thread and everything connects.
Qiao Zhenzhen nodded again.
"Have both him and your uncle been told?" Qin Jing asked again.
Qiao Zhenzhen nodded for the third time.
Qin Jing snorted through her anger. "Qiao Zhenzhen, you're something else."
"...I just didn't want to hurt you," Qiao Zhenzhen mumbled.
Qin Jing gave her a cold look. "So now you won't hurt me?"
Qiao Zhenzhen hesitated, looking at her with worry. "Mom, will you get depressed?"
"Me, depressed my foot!" Qin Jing swore, a rare curse escaping her. "How could I be depressed before I've finished off those two scumbags!"
Qiao Zhenzhen froze for a moment, clearly not expecting that reaction; for a second she even thought the woman before her had been swapped out, like Zhao Lianqiao. Then she reconsidered and found it understandable.
In her previous life, Qin Jing had been living in a harmonious, loving marriage when she suddenly encountered a pregnant other woman; before she could react she was told to leave empty-handed, multiple blows that left her broken.
In this life, long before anything came to pass, Qin Jing had been peeling away Qiao Jian's mask; in her heart he was no longer a godlike husband but an irritable, jealous, despicable man, forcing Chi Shen to drop out at first, then pushing her to do the same, bit by bit destroying her love for him.
The less love she felt for him, the less pain the truth brought, and the more anger grew.
Qiao Zhenzhen looked at Qin Jing, who was grinding her teeth with rage, and couldn't help laughing. She would rather Qin Jing stay angry than sink into depression; anger can be vented, while some other feelings can't.
"You're about to become a single-parent family and you can still laugh?" Qin Jing tried to look stern, but her gaze softened. Her daughter knowing the truth so early had struck her so hard that when she learned of Qiao Jian's affair her first reaction wasn't sorrow but pity for her daughter.
Qiao Zhenzhen paused. "Are you going to divorce him?"
Qin Jing was silent for a second, then said, "Honestly, I'm hesitating. You're about to take the college entrance exam; if I divorce now it might affect you."
"No, no, I'll study hard," Qiao Zhenzhen quickly said. "And you don't have to worry about where we'll live after the divorce, Grandfather has already arranged a place for us; we can move anytime."
"...You've really thought this through." Qin Jing was speechless, but seeing her daughter untroubled strengthened her resolve to divorce.
When Qiao Zhenzhen saw her decision, she breathed a silent sigh of relief and sidled up to loop her arm through hers. "Whatever you do, I'll support you."
Warmth flooded Qin Jing; she patted her hand. "Then let's figure out how to get all his money over to us."
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Qin Jing raised an eyebrow.
Qiao Zhenzhen swallowed. "I thought you'd see money as worthless." She had even worked out how to persuade her to fight for the assets.
"I'm not that foolish. Besides, I'm not fighting for myself, I'm fighting for you," Qin Jing scoffed. "Given his character, I don't think he'd leave that share to you when he dies."
"He definitely wouldn't, this time it's a son he's carrying; he's so biased toward men," Qiao Zhenzhen egged on. "So have you decided how to force him out empty-handed?"
Qin Jing shot her a sideways glance at the obsequious expression and couldn't help teasing her a little. "You even know he's carrying a son, are you telling me you don't know how to make him leave empty-handed?"
"I know a little bit," Qiao Zhenzhen said modestly. "Actually Grandfather and I have already worked it out; we're just waiting for your nod."
Qin Jing: "?"