The beloved but ungrateful girl is reborn: This time she has truly changed.

Tang Qu had long anticipated that he would say that.

He paused for a few seconds, then took out a rectangular prism wrapped tightly in newspaper from his black faux leather briefcase and placed it on the coffee table.

The newspaper was old; it was the People's Daily, and the date was three months ago.

Red Nose reached out and lifted a corner of the newspaper.

Inside were stacks of ten-yuan bills.

Ten yuan per sheet, a bundle of one hundred sheets, that's one thousand yuan.

Judging by the thickness, there must be at least a hundred stacks.

One hundred thousand yuan.

This is a huge sum of money.

An ordinary worker earns about 30 yuan a month, so 100,000 yuan is equivalent to a person working for more than 200 years without eating or drinking.

The red-nosed man's eyes widened.

He swallowed hard, ran his fingers across the newspaper a few times, then quickly rewrap it and hugged it to his chest.

"Director Tang, that's really something." He smiled, a genuine smile appearing on his gloomy face for the first time, but because of his bulbous nose and fleshy face, the smile looked somewhat ferocious.

Tang Qu smiled, but the smile didn't reach his eyes: "We're in this together. You help me deal with Wang Dong, and I'll ensure your daughter's safety. As for Aijun and Tiantian... don't worry, once we get through this, I'll take care of things."

The two understood each other without saying a word.

A somber laugh echoed in the cramped living room, mingled with the smell of tobacco and an indescribable stench.

In the bedroom, Chen Xiangqin pressed herself tightly against the door, held her breath, and pressed her ear against the crack in the door.

She could hear the conversation outside clearly.

Outside the bedroom, Tang Qu and Red Nose's conversation continued.

"When do you plan to make your move against Wang Dong?" Tang Qu asked.

"In the next couple of days." Red Nose's voice was chilling. "He's been on sick leave lately, and he's been acting strangely. It's the perfect opportunity. I'll have someone stage an 'accident,' and no one will know."

"Keep your hands and feet clean."

"Don't worry, I've worked in logistics for so many years, I know a lot of people. Find a desperate criminal, give him some money, and let him hide in another city for a few years. They won't be able to trace it back to us."

The two discussed some details in hushed tones, and then Tang Qu got up to take his leave.

Chen Xiangqin heard the door close, the sound of her husband seeing Tang Qu downstairs, and the sound of the car starting and driving away.

She slowly slid from the doorway to the floor, hugged her knees, and trembled all over.

The next morning, Red Nose went to work, and Chen Xiangqin cleaned up the dishes and sat on the stool with a blank look in her eyes.

Yesterday evening, on her way back from grocery shopping, a little girl stopped her.

The young girl said her name was Qi Weiwei and that she had something important to tell her: "It's about your husband, Zhou Lingbin, and it's also very important to you."

She didn't want to listen, because she knew it wouldn't be anything good.

She even suspected that this young girl was also one of her husband's lovers—several others had come looking for her.

But this little girl was different; her eyes were clear, and her attitude was very resolute.

She inexplicably brought the person home.

No one was home. Qi Weiwei closed the door before speaking, "Sister-in-law Xiangqin, your husband Zhou Lingbin has an illegitimate daughter named Tang Tiantian. Tang Tiantian's mother is Zhou Lingbin's sister-in-law, formerly known as Zhang Yutian, now called Su Cuilan. She is the younger sister of Tang Qu's wife, Zhang Qingtian. You know Tang Qu, right?"

Chen Xiangqin was stunned.

Illegal daughter?

"Impossible..." she murmured, "Old Zhou... he's so old..."

"Tang Tiantian is already 23 years old," Qi Weiwei sneered. "You should know what kind of person Zhou Lingbin is, someone with some power and money. If you calculate the timeline, Tang Tiantian was conceived around the time of Zhou Lingbin's first wife's death."

Chen Xiangqin's mind was in complete chaos.

Qi Weiwei continued, "Also, Sister Xiangqin, haven't you been unable to have children? Did the hospital say you can't have any?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiangqin's eyes darkened, and she nodded.

This is her deepest pain.

She's been married for over ten years, and there's still no sign of pregnancy.

She went to the hospital for a checkup, and the doctor said she had "congenital infertility" and that it was incurable.

Because of this, she couldn't hold her head up in front of Zhou Lingbin.

Fortunately, Zhou Lingbin's first wife left him with a son, who is now an adult and has moved out.

She didn't cause him to have no descendants.

Everyone in the military compound knew that Chen Xiangqin couldn't have children.

"Please take out the vitamin tablets that Zhou Lingbin gave you to supplement your health," Qi Weiwei said.

Although Chen Xiangqin was puzzled, she still went to the bedroom to get it.

It was a small white medicine bottle with a label that read "Vitamin C Tablets." Zhou Lingbin had brought it back from the military hospital, telling her to take one tablet every day to boost her immunity.

Qi Weiwei also took out a medicine bottle from her bag, which was labeled "long-acting contraceptive pill".

The two medicine bottles were placed together.

Qi Weiwei unscrewed the bottle cap and poured out one pill from each bottle.

The pills were all white, round, and exactly the same size.

Chen Xiangqin's heart skipped a beat.

"Try it." Qi Weiwei handed her both pills.

Chen Xiangqin hesitated for a moment, then picked up the "vitamin tablets," put them in her mouth, and chewed them.

A familiar bitter taste spread through my mouth.

She picked up another "birth control pill" and chewed it.

The same bitter taste.

Her face turned deathly pale instantly.

"No...it's impossible..." She shook her head and stepped back. "I've been taking this medicine for over ten years...Old Zhou said it's vitamins..."

"Vitamins?" Qi Weiwei's eyes were filled with pity. "You have to take this medicine every day, that's why you're aging so fast."

Chen Xiangqin covered her face—she was clearly almost twenty years younger than Zhou Lingbin, but she looked almost the same age as him.

Moreover, she has already gone through menopause.

Qi Weiwei then asked, "Sister-in-law Xiangqin, think again, how did Zhou Lingbin's first wife, Li Xiuying, die? Did she really commit suicide by drinking pesticide? Was there anything unusual about her before she died?"

Chen Xiangqin was trembling all over.

She recalled some details that her neighbors had mentioned.

Her words implied that there was something fishy about Li Xiuying's death.

Some people said they heard screams, and others said that Li Xiuying had asked them to go to the supply and marketing cooperative together the next day.

But Zhou Lingbin said that those neighbors were malicious and told her not to associate with them.

After that, no one told her these things anymore.

"Zhou Lingbin married you not because he liked you, but because you were cheap, easy to control, and could help him cover up his shameful deeds." Qi Weiwei's voice was soft, but every word was like a hammer blow to Chen Xiangqin's heart. "If you continue like this, when he thinks you're useless one day, your fate won't be much better than Li Xiuying's."

Chen Xiangqin rushed to the corner and vomited into the basin.

She vomited bile and was still dry heaving.

Qi Weiwei stood behind her, gently patting her back: "Sister-in-law, if you want to live, there's only one way—report him. Find all the evidence of his corruption and bribery over the years, and go to Political Commissar Liang. Political Commissar Liang and Zhou Lingbin don't get along; he'll definitely take action!"