Helping Beautiful Women Become Stronger, I Have a Love System

148: Chapter 148 Lin WanqingNanhe County, the Zhao family villa.

Lin Wanqing was arranging flowers when she received a call from her husband.

She was forty-three years old this year, but she was well-preserved and looked less than thirty-five.

As a Chinese teacher at Nanhe County No. 1 Middle School, her gentle and intellectual image was deeply loved by her students.

But only she knew that beneath this gentle exterior lay a heart that had long since grown cold.

”Wanqing, come home immediately. There is an emergency.” Chairman Zhao’s voice on the phone was exceptionally urgent.

Lin Wanqing put down her scissors and said calmly, ”I am preparing lessons. There is a parent-teacher meeting tonight.”

”Tianyu has been kidnapped!”

The scissors fell to the floor.

...

Twenty minutes later, Lin Wanqing rushed into the villa’s living room.

Chairman Zhao was pacing in the living room. Cigarette butts were scattered on the coffee table; he had quit smoking five years ago.

”What happened? How could Tianyu...”

Lin Wanqing’s face was pale.

Chairman Zhao told her about the video but concealed the specific demands of the kidnappers: ”They want money, a lot of money. I am already raising it.”

”Just money?” Lin Wanqing stared at him, her eyes sharp. ”Chairman Zhao, look into my eyes and tell me, is it really just money?”

Chairman Zhao avoided her gaze: ”Of course! What else could it be?”

”Chairman Zhao, tell me the truth. Is it because of those dirty things you’ve done?”

Their eyes met, and the air seemed to freeze.

Chairman Zhao saw something in his wife’s eyes that he had never seen before.

It was not surprise, nor fear, but a kind of... understanding.

A terrible thought emerged in his mind.

”You knew all along?” His voice was hoarse.

Lin Wanqing did not answer and turned to walk toward the study.

Chairman Zhao followed her, watching as she opened the bottom drawer of the desk.

That was a drawer for which he thought only he knew the password.

There were no documents or jewelry in the drawer, only an old mobile phone.

Lin Wanqing turned it on, entered the password, and opened an encrypted folder.

Inside were photos.

Many photos.

Chairman Zhao’s pupils contracted.

Those were the children he had ”sponsored” over the years. Each child had a detailed file, including their home address, school, last contact time...

There were also a few photos taken near the abandoned villa, blurry but identifiable as his figure.

”You... you were stalking me?” Chairman Zhao’s voice trembled.

”Starting seven years ago.” Lin Wanqing turned around, her face devoid of any expression. ”From the moment I discovered those... disgusting things in the secret compartment of your study.”

Chairman Zhao took two steps back and bumped into the bookshelf: ”Why? Why didn’t you expose me?”

”Expose you?” Lin Wanqing laughed, her laughter filled with bitterness. ”If I exposed you, what would happen to my Tianyu? What about my job? What about everything we have painstakingly built?”

She walked to the window, her back to her husband: ”I have endured it for seven years, Chairman Zhao. For seven years, I have lectured my students every day about truth, goodness, and beauty, about morality and virtue.”

”But when I come home, I have to face a husband who is a beast in human clothing. Do you know what that feels like?”

”I... I was just sick. I couldn’t control myself...” Chairman Zhao tried to defend himself.

”Sick?” Lin Wanqing turned around abruptly, her eyes bursting with anger that had been suppressed for years.

”Is that a sickness? That is demonic! The oldest of those children was only eight! Eight years old, Chairman Zhao!”

”Have you ever thought about what would happen to me if Tianyu had met someone like you when he was little?”

”I didn’t hurt Tianyu! I love him!”

”Your love is truly disgusting!” Lin Wanqing grabbed the teacup on the table and threw it. Chairman Zhao dodged, and the teacup shattered against the wall.

”You love him, so you give him the best life, the best education, and then turn around and destroy other people’s children!”

”What about those children’s parents? Don’t they love their own children too?!”

The roaring echoed in the study.

Chairman Zhao had never seen his wife lose her composure like this.

In his impression, Lin Wanqing was always gentle, restrained, and elegant.

Even after discovering his secret, she would only give him a cold look and then continue to maintain their superficial marriage.

So she had been enduring it all along.

Enduring for seven years.

”Now, karma has arrived.” Lin Wanqing panted, tears finally sliding down.

”Because of your evil deeds, our son has been kidnapped. The kidnapper doesn’t want money; he wants you to be disgraced, right?”

Chairman Zhao was silent, which counted as an admission.

”What does he want you to do?”

”Start a live stream... and expose all my crimes.”

Lin Wanqing closed her eyes, and after a long while, opened them slowly: ”Then do as he says.”

”What?!” Chairman Zhao could not believe it. ”You want me to expose myself? Then my life is over! The company, my reputation, everything!”

”Compared to the lives of those children, what is your reputation?!” Lin Wanqing roared.

”Besides, if you don’t do it, Tianyu will die! Do you really think the kidnapper is joking? He knows all your secrets and could easily kidnap Tianyu; such a person means what they say!”

”I can find him! I have already sent people...”

”What about before you find him? Tianyu might already be dead!” Lin Wanqing grabbed his collar.

”Chairman Zhao, let me tell you, if anything happens to Tianyu because of your disgusting habit, I will never forgive you in this life! I will make everything I know public, including these photos!”

Chairman Zhao looked at the determination in his wife’s eyes and finally realized that she was not threatening him; she was stating a fact.

This woman, with whom he had shared a bed but not a heart for twenty years, this wife he thought he had completely controlled, had long been secretly collecting evidence that could ruin him forever.

”Why...” he muttered, ”Why only now...”

”Because it hadn’t touched my bottom line before.” Lin Wanqing let go and took a step back.

”Tianyu is my bottom line. For him, I can endure anything, but now, your crimes threaten his life.”

”So, make your choice, Chairman Zhao.”

”Either keep your hypocritical reputation or save our son.”

The study fell into dead silence.

The clock on the wall ticked, each sound like a strike on Chairman Zhao’s heart.

He thought of his son’s face.

He remembered the sound of his laughter when he rode on his shoulders as a child, and the look in his eyes when he said, ”Daddy is my idol”...

He also thought of the faces of those children, those young lives he had ended with his own hands...

”I...” his voice was dry, ”I need time...”

”You don’t have time.” Lin Wanqing glanced at the clock.

”There are two hours until eight o’clock. You can use these two hours to find people, or you can use them to prepare for the live stream.”

”But I warn you, if you haven’t found the kidnapper by eight o’clock, you must start the live stream.”

She walked out of the study and stopped at the doorway: ”At eight, I will be waiting in the living room.”

The door closed gently.

Chairman Zhao slumped to the floor, burying his hands in his hair.

It’s over.

Everything is over.