Volume One, Chapter 14: Zhou Jinghuai, I Must Have Been Mad to Have Loved You!

Autumn days, leaves falling like rivers.

In a villa on the outskirts of the capital, a procession of sleek black SUVs pulled up—seven or eight in total—exuding an impressive aura.

The villa’s servants tried to block their way, but how could twenty or so men in black be stopped?

An elderly servant was forcibly seized and brought trembling before Ye Wu.

Her gaze was icy. “Is Bai Qianqian here?”

The old servant feigned ignorance, glancing nervously around.

Ye Wu paid her no mind and brushed past toward the villa’s main hall, followed by Annie and over twenty security personnel.

Bai Qianqian was lounging on the sofa, delightfully applying a facial mask when suddenly she found herself surrounded.

Startled, she quickly put on a bluffing front. “What are you doing? I’m telling you, this is trespassing. It’s illegal.”

“Illegal?”

Ye Wu stepped out from the crowd.

She looked at Bai Qianqian with a cold sneer. “I believe Zhou Jinghuai and I are not divorced yet. I am still Mrs. Zhou. This house belongs to both of us as joint property.”

She pointed at Bai Qianqian and the opulent hall. “Everything you have on you, even your underwear, if purchased with Zhou Jinghuai’s card, I have the right to reclaim. And all those D-brand bags in your closet? They’re part of our marital assets. This house too—I have half usage rights. Now, I am legally asking you to move out. Is that too much to ask?”

…

Bai Qianqian fumed, stomping her feet. “Zhou Jinghuai won’t let you get away with this.”

Ye Wu’s expression hardened. “Before he arrives, I won’t let you off.”

With that, she picked up a glass vase.

It was a masterpiece by a Czech artisan, worth over three hundred thousand yuan, not to mention the total worth of this lavish villa.

She had toiled alongside Zhou Jinghuai, yet others were the ones enjoying the fruits. How ironic.

With a crash, the vase shattered into pieces, its thirty thousand gone in an instant.

Ye Wu stared at Bai Qianqian’s delicate face and calmly ordered the men in black, “Destroy everything. I don’t want to see even a trace of what’s here now.”

Bai Qianqian screamed, “You can’t do this! This is my home!”

Ye Wu slapped her hard across the face.

Bai Qianqian was stunned, unable to respond for a long moment. When she finally recovered, she murmured, “This is my home, my home with Zhou Jinghuai. You can’t destroy it.”

For each word, Ye Wu dealt another fierce slap.

She exerted all her strength.

Bai Qianqian’s face quickly swelled, her hair disheveled, looking utterly miserable.

She still stubbornly insisted this was her home, forbidding the men in black from wrecking it, but those men were ruthless. Within half an hour, the villa was in ruins.

Bai Qianqian nearly lost her mind.

But Ye Wu still had reckoning to do—

Approaching Bai Qianqian, she studied the pure face. Since discovering Zhou Jinghuai’s betrayal, she had been surprisingly tolerant—only discussing divorce with Zhou Jinghuai and never laying a finger on Bai Qianqian. Yet this girl had overstepped, hurting Ye Wu’s loved ones.

Ye Wu gently reached out to touch Bai Qianqian’s belly with tender care.

Bai Qianqian trembled in fear.

She had not forgotten the chaos caused at the hospital today. Nor did she know if that old man was dead. Even if he were, she wouldn’t confess. She carried something Zhou Jinghuai desired; he would surely protect her.

Ye Wu met her gaze. “I hear you’re pregnant? With Zhou Jinghuai’s child?”

Bai Qianqian stubbornly replied, “Yes. I am carrying Zhou Jinghuai’s baby. If you don’t believe me, you can wait for the child to be born and do a DNA test.”

Ye Wu sneered, “No need for all that trouble. Technology today is advanced; amniocentesis can reveal DNA results early. The doctor will prepare a long needle, like a steel spike, pass it through the abdomen to the womb, extract amniotic fluid, and compare it with Zhou Jinghuai’s hair sample.”

Bai Qianqian was utterly stunned.

Steel spike, piercing the abdomen, extracting amniotic fluid!

Each word sent chills through her teeth, yet she refused to back down or deny her pregnancy.

Ye Wu’s heart was as cold as iron. “Take her to the hospital!”

The security guards dragged Bai Qianqian away without any mercy.

Soon, her fair, tender arms and thighs were bruised and swollen, a shocking sight throughout the villa accompanied by her reckless screams—

“You old hag!”

“You’re just jealous because you can’t have a child yourself!”

“Zhou Jinghuai will never forgive you. He cares for me and will treat me better!”

…

These words were like needles piercing Ye Wu’s heart, a relentless, stinging pain.

Ye Wu stood before Bai Qianqian, raising her hand to deliver a slap.

But her hand never came down—

Zhou Jinghuai had arrived.

The dusk cast shadows over his sullen face, chilling anyone who looked.

He surveyed the destruction in the villa, Bai Qianqian’s swollen face and bruised limbs, the girl’s fragile sobbing, and the brewing storm in his dark eyes…

At that moment, Zhou Jinghuai’s fury reached its peak, blinding his reason, leading him to commit a mistake he would regret for life.

A sharp slap echoed through the empty villa.

It rang and rang…

Ye Wu’s face turned away, silent for a long time.

She was in disgrace.

Not because of the slap, not because of the pain, nor the shock to her heart— but because of her life, Ye Wu’s utterly disgraceful life…

And the overwhelming shattering pieces crashed over her like a tidal wave.

A break that would never heal.

Ye Wu smiled.

She gently touched the cheek that Zhou Jinghuai had struck, slowly turning her head to look up at her furious husband—

As if she did not know him,

As if he were not Zhou Jinghuai,

As if he were not the man she had once deeply loved.

Zhou Jinghuai supported Bai Qianqian, who leaned into his embrace, casting a provocative glance at Ye Wu—a silent mockery.

Ye Wu remembered what Mrs. Bai had said: The unloved one is the mistress.

What did her four years of marriage count for? What did being the legal Mrs. Zhou matter? Her husband had seen this scene and slapped her without hesitation.

Ye Wu whispered, “The unloved one is the mistress… It turns out to be true.”

Zhou Jinghuai didn’t hear her clearly, still consumed by anger, questioning his wife, “Ye Wu, what are you doing? Don’t you know she’s fragile? She…”

Ye Wu’s tears slipped down quietly.

But she felt nothing. She only murmured, “You can care for the woman you keep. Zhou Jinghuai, do you want me to suffer with you? Didn’t you ask why I came? Why I brought her away? Didn’t you ask what she did?”

Zhou Jinghuai looked at Bai Qianqian.

Bai Qianqian wept, her tears streaming like pear blossoms, pitiful and fragile. “I didn’t do anything! Really, I was just applying a facial mask at home. She came and tried to drag me to the hospital, to pierce my belly with a steel needle.”

Zhou Jinghuai’s dark eyes burned with rage. “Ye Wu, you’ve truly gone mad!”

“Yes! I have gone mad.”

“Zhou Jinghuai, I only loved you because I was mad.”

…

Ye Wu even spoke with a smile.

Her heart was extinguished.

From this moment on, she would never harbor any love for Zhou Jinghuai again. Otherwise, Ye Wu would be consumed by a fiery love with no end.

Without explanation, she turned and left. Just like that, she let it go.

Love, hate, obsession— in the end, none of it could withstand a simple ‘let it be.’

“Ye Wu.”

Behind her, someone called out.

Was it the young Zhou Jinghuai?

But the young Zhou Jinghuai had long died; the figure behind her was merely a shell—one Ye Wu no longer wanted.

Annie stayed close, supporting Ye Wu as they walked away, silence enveloping them.

Outside, the sky was already dimming into dusk.

Ye Wu looked up at the phoenix tree.

The wind stirred the few remaining leaves, rustling like a weeping maiden.

Ye Wu gazed for a long time, then whispered softly, “The leaves have fallen.”

Annie’s nose twitched, and tears fell.

She could no longer hold back, letting go of Ye Wu and turning back, running toward the villa, shouting at Zhou Jinghuai, “You know nothing!”