This director is vindictive.

Chapter 566 The Absent Judge: The Accomplice Hidden in the Files of the Model Couple
Chen Mo grabbed Zhang Yuqi by the knees. The fierce woman was now as docile as a cat being stroked, her long flaxen hair swaying in Chen Mo's arms. She was nothing like the fierce woman she had been before.

The tie that had been binding her wrists was now loose and lying on the carpet—in fact, the knot had been tied haphazardly to begin with, and with her fiery temper, if she really struggled, she could probably tear the Armani tie in two.

"Now you know how to play innocent?"

Chen Mo deliberately tossed her hands, and her legs, which could kick over a coffee table, now limply wrapped around his waist. Her Jimmy Choo high heels hung precariously on her toes, swaying with her movements.

Zhang Yuqi buried her burning face in his shoulder, all the arrogance she had displayed during the live stream melting away. Her fingers unconsciously tugged at the stray hairs on the back of his neck: "Mind your own business?"

Her voice was muffled, as if she had honey in it, yet she still stuck out her canine teeth to bite his shirt collar, leaving a wet tooth mark on the silk fabric.

"Hehehe!" She suddenly started laughing to herself.

Chen Mo was truly at a loss with her. This tiger woman, what you thought was punishment, she treated as a reward.

Chen Mo deliberately loosened his grip, and she was immediately startled and squeezed her legs together, the diamond-encrusted anklet leaving red marks on her ankle.

Her previous arrogance had vanished without a trace. Now she blinked her misty eyes and pretended to be pitiful, but her nails were honestly scratching his back—she was no longer the tiger girl she once was, but rather like a cat whose neck was being pinched, its claws retracted but its tail tip still wagging restlessly.

(The 300-word account of taming the tiger girls, which was censored, is omitted here.)
Once she was placed on the bed, she suddenly became more energetic, flipping over and pinning Chen Mo down. The loose collar of her nightgown shimmered with snow-white light: "Who said they were going to give a lesson just now?"

Before she could finish speaking, she was grabbed by the waist and pressed back down. The fierce tiger-tooth could only whimper with its mouth on the pillow, its nails, painted with nail polish, scratching several marks on the gray sheets. I should have known, the fiercer this woman is, the softer her body is.

Chen Mo played the role of Wu Song again, climbing Jingyang Ridge three times and fighting the tigress three times.

The following day, online discussions about Zhang Yuqi's livestream mishap remained extremely heated, with related topics continuing to dominate the trending search lists.

However, it was mostly netizens who used all sorts of tricky angles to create memes and jokes, turning this live-streaming mishap into a nationwide carnival.

In the Weibo topic #ZhangYuqi'sReverseSalesGodhood#, the number of likes for popular discussion posts has exceeded one million.

The most popular one is a nine-grid long image that makes a dynamic comparison of Zhang Yuqi's expressions, from arrogantly throwing off her nightgown to her bewildered expression when she discovers the price error, with the caption "The birth of a contemporary master of face-changing art".

The comments section was filled with joke writers:

"Sister Qi's actions last night were nothing short of performance art—first, she killed Director Chen, then she made the merchants weep, and finally, she brought netizens to a collective climax. This move, this move, is called 'On How to Shake Three Industries with One Livestream' [laughing and crying emoji]"

"As expected of the most unruly woman in the entertainment industry, now that she's retiring, she's really letting loose and being herself, hahaha!"

"So the question is, does Zhang Yuqi really understand that she's playing a very magical marketing game?"

"Birds of a feather flock together—Chen Mo is responsible for creating myths, Zhang Yuqi is responsible for turning myths into jokes, and finally netizens collectively turned jokes into new myths. It really proves the old saying: oddballs don't gather together, and enemies don't meet! Considering her consistent actions, there's only one truth: she doesn't understand any magical marketing; it was purely a lucky accident!"

The most popular short video on Douyin is a parody edit created by netizens. A clip of Zhang Yuqi shouting "99 yuan, link here!" accompanied by the background music from the movie *God of Gamblers* and lines from *The Wolf of Wall Street*, garnered over 50 million views in just half a day. The comments section was filled with phrases like "The mysterious confidence of a business genius," "This woman's eyes light up when she's bargaining!" and "Zhang Yuqi: When it comes to spending money, I'm serious!"

Inside a Coaster minivan, Chen Mo was watching Zhang Yuqi with a speechless expression, constantly complaining about how outrageous this generation of netizens was.

This woman seems to have forgotten that last night she praised the current generation of netizens for their good taste, but after seeing today's meme-filled comments, she immediately started complaining with resentment.

Chen Mo is serious about making movies. Today's schedule was planned in advance. He hadn't originally planned to bring this tiger-woman along, but she kept acting cute and pitiful, so Chen Mo had no choice but to bring her along.

As Chen Mo's directorial debut, and given that the new film is a realistic and entirely original work, it's impossible for him to simply write the script and start filming without careful consideration.

A lot of preparations have been done, and today I'm going to meet with several victims of domestic violence.

The van rolled over speed bumps on the suburban road, and Chen Mo closed the case file folder amidst the jolting, rubbing his temples. From the back seat came the crunching sound of Zhang Yuqi munching on potato chips—this woman hadn't stopped eating since she got in the car.

"Put away the snacks, we're almost there." Chen Mo reached out and snatched the bag of potato chips from her arms, earning him a glare in return.

Zhang Yuqi licked the condiments off her fingers and mumbled, "Why are you being so fierce? You have to treat me to hot pot after we meet that person."

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of the shocking crime scene photos on the file in his hand, and his voice stopped abruptly.

The man lay supine in a pool of blood, a fruit knife protruding from his chest. Close-up photos of the knife taken by the police showed that the handle was wrapped with pink Hello Kitty tape—the same color tape as the female suspect Tang's nail polish.

"36 years old, CFO of a foreign company."

Chen Mo tapped the case file lightly with his fingertips: "The neighbors testified that they had never heard them argue, and the residents in the community praised them as a 'model couple'."

Zhang Yuqi leaned over to look at the wedding photos on the profile page. The bride was smiling radiantly, arm in arm with the groom. Who could have imagined that five years later, these same hands with nude nail polish would stab the groom twelve times in the dead of night?

"The medical examination report shows..."

Chen Mo flipped to the forensic record: "She has old fractures in three ribs on her left side, and there are traces of healing of a perforated eardrum, but there are almost no bruises on her body surface."

The gray walls of the prison came into view through the car window. Zhang Yuqi suddenly grabbed his wrist: "Wait!" She pointed to a line of text in the case details: "Look at this—"

In the notes on her husband's phone before his death, there was a neat record of the "living expenses" he gave to his wife every day: 20 yuan on Tuesdays (groceries), 15 yuan on Thursdays (bus card top-up), and 50 yuan on Saturdays (red envelope for his mother-in-law's birthday).

"grass!"

Zhang Yuqi swore: "Is this raising a pet or raising a wife?"

As the car stopped at the entrance to the visiting area, Chen Mo noticed a "Civilized Family" certificate posted on the wall of the reception room—dated three months before the incident. On the visitor registration form handed to him by the prison guard, Tang's reason for detention was clearly printed as: Intentional homicide (aggravating circumstances).

The pen scratched on the paper. Chen Mo stared at the passage behind the iron fence, wondering how perfect a mask would be needed to disguise the truth revealed by the twelve knife wounds as a fairytale of a model couple.
This visit was selected by Chen Mo from among many "special victims".

The scraping sound of the iron gate sliding open pierced his eardrums. As Chen Mo sat down in the meeting room, his fingertips unconsciously rubbed the edge of his notebook.

Through the plexiglass, he saw a woman in an orange prison uniform—Tang, 36 years old. The gentle oval face in the case file photo was now so thin that her cheekbones were prominent, but her nails were trimmed exceptionally neatly, as if she was still maintaining some kind of dignity.

"Old Xu and I are what outsiders call a model couple."

Her voice was so soft, as if she were talking about someone else's business, as if it had nothing to do with her.

“He never yells at me in front of outsiders. Once, a neighbor praised him for helping me carry groceries, and he turned around and suffocated the live fish I bought in a plastic bag in the elevator.”

Chen Mo noticed that as she said this, her fingers were drawing circles on the table, and the white mark on her ring finger was two shades lighter than the surrounding skin—she had taken off her wedding ring less than half a year ago.

"We met through a blind date. I still remember that the feeling he gave me was that of a gentle and refined person who was incredibly considerate!"

"There's something I don't understand. You have a respectable job with a good income, so why are you financially controlled?" Chen Mo asked.

This was also a question that he couldn't understand.

She suddenly laughed: "That's where it all started, like opening Pandora's box. Actually, he wasn't like that at first."

"Because he lost his job, he was very unhappy for a while. To cheer him up, I said I would give him my salary card from now on."

"And then the nightmare began!" she said quietly.

“He gives me 20 yuan a day for grocery shopping, and if I ask for even a penny more, he says I’m being wasteful.”

His voice was so soft it sounded like he was talking about the weather: "The neighbors praised him for loving his wife because he 'allowed' me to grow scallions on the balcony."

"Team building? Hahaha! He pretended to have depression and begged me not to go, then secretly put sleeping pills in my water. When I woke up, he was using my finger to send bizarre resignation text messages to his colleagues, every single one of which was sarcastic."

"Did you know? During that period, he read all sorts of psychology books every day."

"I don't know when it started, but I had to come home on time every day. Later, I even had to ask permission to go to the bathroom. He would gently say, 'My sweetheart is so good.'"

"He knew I liked small animals, and he gave me a kitten for my birthday. But one time I came home late, and the kitten died!"

"I buried it under the pear tree in the backyard."

Tang's pupils dilated into black holes: "He squatted down next to me and handed me tissues, saying, 'I'll give you an even better one next time'—guess what I found in the litter box?"

She suddenly lowered her voice: "Half a bottle of pet euthanasia, produced on my birthday."

Chen Mo and Zhang Yuqi exchanged a glance, listening to each other's calm and collected explanation, which sent chills down their spines.
"Fifth birthday."

Tang pressed his forehead against the glass: "He gave me a fruit knife wrapped with tape and said, 'Since you like cutting vegetables so much, why don't you try cutting me?'"

Her pupils suddenly contracted: "That night, when he was drunk and criticizing me for cutting the cabbage too thick, his eyes widened as if he were seeing me for the first time when he made the third cut."

Do you know how many stabs he was stabbed before he finally died? The eighth stab. The next four stabs.

She licked her canine teeth: "It's for my scallions and my cat."

The visiting hours ended with the ringing of the bell.

"correct."

She turned around and grinned, revealing a chipped canine tooth: "Thank the mediator for me. If he hadn't said 'all men are like this when they're drunk,' I probably wouldn't have been able to stab him twelve times."

(End of this chapter)