Qin Guan stood frozen by the window.
Everything before him had left him utterly bewildered—his once obedient, delicate wife had shattered his understanding of her, and even Qi Min, his brainless mistress whom he'd always dismissed, had dug him into a deep pit.
He was completely caught off guard, unable to react.
The "Zeng Demei" he'd met repeatedly these past few days was not Zeng Demei at all, nor was she Qi Min's biological mother.
Qi Min had actually hired a woman to play her mother!
Why?
How had that stupid, worthless woman come up with such a scheme? Hiring someone to act as her mother? And even after the ruse was exposed, she hadn't breathed a word of it! Had she planned to deceive him all along?
Before he'd gone to strangle that idiot at the Xinhe Hotel, she still hadn't mentioned anything, even crying, "My mom hit me too!"
Even in her final moments, she'd called that woman "my mom"!
What kind of madness was this?!
And that woman—the one who knew the entire story of the "disappearance," the fake "Zeng Demei"—who was she? Where was she now?
"See it clearly now, Mr. Lawyer? This is Zeng Demei, Qi Min's mother. She's the witness you claimed to have seen? You said you saw her with Qi Min in the park? Then she must have seen you too, and Qi Min, right?" Old He said coldly.
But as he spoke, he clearly had no intention of waiting for Qin Guan's reply.
The moment he finished, he flipped a switch nearby.
Instantly, the sounds from the interrogation room across the hall flooded clearly into Qin Guan's ears.
A female officer was questioning Zeng Demei.
"You're certain the last time you saw your daughter was during Qingming Festival this year? Not three days ago?"
The woman sniffled again, her thin, wrinkled hands smoothing her disheveled, graying hair. She nodded, then shook her head.
In heavily accented Mandarin, she said, "Of course I'm sure. She didn't even come home last New Year. The time during Qingming, she only came back because I called her over and over. She's never cared about me—it's fine if she doesn't visit, I've given up. Raising a daughter like this is my fate. But her father's been dead for years. Shouldn't she at least visit his grave? Burn some paper money? Not even once! Isn't she afraid people will curse her for it?"
"That's what I told her. At first, she refused to come back, said she was busy with work. Busy with what? I know the truth—she's not busy. She just doesn't want to come home, doesn't want to support me."
"Later, I got so angry I yelled at her. I said if she didn't come back, I'd go find her myself. Only then did she agree, but she was so rude, cursing at me. What a sin. Two days before Qingming, she finally came home. Hmph! 'Home'? She stayed one night. At dawn, I woke up and she was already gone. Didn't leave a penny, but took my ID card with her."
Her eyes reddened.
"Everyone says raising a daughter is like having a warm little jacket—close to your heart. I don't know why my fate's so bitter. I raised her through all the hardships, fed her, cleaned her. And for what? All in vain. Not a single cent from her all year, no visits during holidays. I'm old, sick, alone in an empty house. Who cares if I die there someday?"
She wiped her tears, weeping.
Her sorrow clearly wasn't for her missing daughter—only self-pity for her own wretched fate.
Three days ago, she certainly hadn't seen Qi Min.
Qin Guan now understood—at least this part of Qi Min's story was true. She really did have a strained relationship with her mother.
This mother had no love for her daughter.
All she cared about was her daughter's money and filial duty.
A mother this emotionally distant, with her pitiful, nagging demeanor and nearly incomprehensible Mandarin—she could never have helped Qi Min carry out the "fake death" scam.
So the fake "Zeng Demei" Qin Guan had met must have been an actress Qi Min hired specifically for the fraud.
That woman spoke clearly, looked neat and efficient—someone who could easily get a job as a cleaner at any hotel or company.
Plus, she'd used the ID card Qi Min provided—Zeng Demei's ID, swapped with a fake photo. For Qi Min, who'd once helped Qin Guan forge documents, this was child's play.
That woman was Qi Min's accomplice.
The tangled scheme gradually clarified in Qin Guan's mind.
Unwilling to be cut out of the partnership, Qi Min had set up this fake death plot against him. To make it airtight, she'd enlisted two helpers:
One was Li Yang, the pawn used to pressure and threaten Qin Guan.
The other was "Zeng Demei."
At the lakeside villa hotel, "Zeng Demei" had gotten herself hired in advance, working with Qi Min from the inside.
The two women colluded to swindle 300 million from him.
Days earlier, on the hill by the park, when Qin Guan arrived, Qi Min and "Zeng Demei" had been fighting over money—the plan had failed, the fraud exposed, and the partners turned on each other.
Yet he hadn't suspected a thing at the time!
Even after he discovered the truth, Qi Min kept acting.
She'd sobbed about her mother's lack of love—all to return to Qin Guan's side and continue scamming him another way.
Lies. Every word from that woman's mouth was a lie!
But who would believe Qin Guan now if he revealed all this?
And the actress who'd played Qi Min's mother—he didn't even know her real name. How could he find her?
As his mind churned, he heard his own name.
"Do you know a man named Qin Guan?"
The female officer in the interrogation room asked.
Qi Min's mother shook her head blankly at first. "Never heard of him. Who is he? Related to my daughter?"
The officer handed her a photo.
She took it, studying it intently, her brows gradually furrowing.
For some reason, Qin Guan instinctively held his breath. He'd never met Qi Min's real mother. Given their estrangement, logically, Qi Min wouldn't have let her mother know about him.
But reality defied logic. The dread simmering in Qin Guan's chest flared to life.
Qi Min's mother stared at the photo for half a minute before looking up. "This is my daughter's man! No mistake—this tall guy. I've seen him!"
Qin Guan cursed inwardly.
Another actress? He'd never met this woman in his life. When had she "seen" him? Since when was he Qi Min's "man"?
"I have! Really!" The woman grew agitated, standing up to rummage through her pockets for a phone.
"Last year, my brother's youngest son took his high school entrance exam. I told Qi Min to buy a gift. After endless begging, she finally sent him an… an 'iPad'! Cost thousands! I told her it was too expensive—should've saved half the money for me. She wouldn't listen. That little computer had photos of her man! My nephew showed me. Wait—I'll call my brother right now."