Chapter 3 — Blindly Dutiful

The mother-in-law violently shoved his hand away, turning her gaze back to my parents with a face twisted in righteous indignation.

Respected in-laws, both of you need to arbitrate this situation for me. I was recently involved in a terrifying car accident, yet she selfishly forbade Ming Xuan from returning to care for me. Not only that, she actually forced Ming Xuan to halt the car right in the middle of a high-speed expressway, and then she willfully jumped out of the vehicle and fled into the distance.

Such a reckless and dangerous stunt! If Ming Xuan had not possessed lightning-fast reflexes and kept his wits about her, he could easily have been dragged down and killed alongside her!

Let us not even speak of other matters. I have already forwarded the dashboard camera footage of her leaping from the moving car, along with the official police documentation of my accident, directly to her corporate office. I am quite eager to witness whether her company is willing to harbor such a thoroughly unfilial and treacherous daughter-in-law!

A tremor of pure rage wracked my entire frame from head to toe. Just as I parted my lips to launch a scathing rebuttal, my father spoke first. Though his voice carried the natural frailty of age, it possessed an unshakeable solemnity that brooked no argument.

My dear in-law, are you truly so oblivious as to why my daughter was forced to jump out of that car? Do you honestly expect us to believe you do not know the reason?

For a fleeting second, the mother-in-law looked utterly stunned, but she swiftly recovered by dissolving into a fresh deluge of theatrical tears.

How could I possibly have known anything? She was merely harboring resentment because she was not permitted to return to her parents house for the holidays two years ago, but surely I did not do it with any malicious intent! Which daughter-in-law does not endure such traditional trials in her husbands home?

Is that truly so?

A chilling, mirthless laugh escaped my lips as I reached into my coat pocket and withdrew my smartphone.

Allow me to play a brief recording for everyone present to hear with their own ears.

Both the mother-in-law and Gu Ming Xuan whipped their heads toward my phone with identical expressions of sudden dread. I pressed the playback icon, and the mother-in-laws shrill, unmistakable voice echoed clearly through the silent room. You must find a way to trap Nian and Ming Xuan here this year without fail. I have everything prepared; the sleeping pills are sitting right on the bedside table, and when the time comes, you simply need to claim that my chronic illness has flared up again. My father-in-law could be heard sounding genuinely hesitant and uncomfortable. Dear wife, are we certain this is the right course of action? It hardly feels proper. After all, our daughter-in-law has not been allowed to visit her family in two full years. The mother-in-law immediately shot back with venomous insistence. What on earth is improper about it? Whoever heard of spending the Lunar New Year away from the husbands family? If word of that ever leaked out, where would we ever hide our faces in shame? Once she grows accustomed to it, she will eventually stop throwing these disgraceful tantrums demanding to leave. The recording was remarkably concise, yet it provided more than enough damning evidence for everyone to absorb. The color drained entirely from the mother-in-laws face, leaving her a ghastly shade of white, while Gu Ming Xuan stood frozen like a statue carved from stone.

This... this entire thing is a malicious fabrication!

The mother-in-law shrieked in sudden panic, her voice cracking with hysteria.

Nian, you manufactured this fake audio file simply to slander and ruin my reputation!

Whether it is a fabrication or not can easily be verified through professional forensic analysis.

I stated with an icy composure that chilled the air around us.

Furthermore, I happen to possess the complete medical records proving that you personally visited the hospital to obtain a prescription for those sleeping pills. Would you perhaps care for me to retrieve those documents and read them aloud as well?

And there is more.

I cast a sideways glance toward Gu Ming Xuan, who was standing mutely by his mothers side, offering not a single word of defense while silently sheltering her from accountability.

All of this irrefutable evidence has already been uploaded and published across public internet platforms. Instead of wasting your precious energy obsessing over my career and employment status, the two of you would be infinitely wiser to worry about the survival of your own sons multi-million-dollar business partnership.

Gu Ming Xuan snapped out of his trance and lunged forward with a desperate urgency. He opened his mouth to speak, but the shrill, persistent ringing of his mobile phone abruptly shattered the tense atmosphere. Catching sight of the callers ID displayed on the screen, he hastily swiped to answer. Yet within a single heartbeat, the confident smirk he had attempted to muster froze and dissolved into absolute horror.

What do you mean? What kind of ridiculous statement is that, claiming the chosen contractor is not our company? Surely you must have dialed the wrong phone number by mistake!

I remained standing quietly to the side, observing his collapse with cold detachment. Throughout the entire grueling bidding process for this lucrative project, Gu Ming Xuan had relied entirely upon my tireless efforts to keep his head above water. His company's initial project proposal was riddled with fatal structural flaws and possessed virtually zero competitive edge in the open market. It was I who sacrificed three consecutive nights of sleep to completely rewrite, overhaul, and patch every single deficiency, even optimizing their execution strategy just so he could barely scrape together the minimum qualifications required to enter the bidding pool. Now that I had resolutely chosen the path of divorce, it went without saying that I would no longer pave his way to success or fight his battles for him. Gu Ming Xuan ended the call in a daze, the phone slipping slightly in his grip as he turned a pair of venomous, bloodshot eyes toward me.

It was you! You are the one orchestrating this behind the scenes! Nian, did you go behind my back and speak poison to Director Li? Why would you deliberately sabotage our cooperation?

Why on earth should I have agreed to help you succeed?

I countered with a sharp, rhetorical question, my voice dripping with undisguised contempt and mockery.

Do you honestly possess so little self-awareness that you have no idea what your own meager capabilities are? If you had not continuously relied on me to carry you, you would not even have possessed the basic qualifications to step foot into that bidding room in the first place.

Gu Ming Xuans complexion shifted through a grotesque palette of sickly greens and pale whites, leaving him standing rigid and utterly speechless for a prolonged moment. Seizing the opening, the mother-in-law instantly stepped forward to shield him and resume her vicious attacks against me.

Nian, Ming Xuan is your legally wedded husband! How could you possibly allow such petty personal grievances to cloud your judgment and completely destroy his entire future and livelihood?

The sheer absurdity of her words struck me so forcefully that I laughed out loud, though the sound was devoid of any humor. Just as I drew a sharp breath to unleash a furious retort, my voice was violently cut off by a terrifying, animalistic roar echoing through the room. Without any warning, Gu Ming Xuan lunged forward like a rabid beast straight toward my aging father, his fingers curling into iron talons as he slammed them directly around my fathers defenseless throat.

You worthless old bastard! This is entirely your fault! If you had not fallen sick and made such a pathetic fuss, would Nian have ever grown furious enough to abandon me and refuse her help? My entire future, my whole career, has been utterly ruined because of you! I am going to choke the life out of you right here and now!

Gu Ming Xuan! Have you completely lost your mind?

The exact microsecond my eyes registered Gu Ming Xuans hands constricting around my fathers neck, I felt a surge of scalding, blinding fury rush straight to my brain, threatening to burst my temples. Operating entirely on pure primal instinct without a second of hesitation, I hurled myself directly at him. I rained heavy blows upon his back and sank my teeth deeply into his flesh with every ounce of physical strength I could summon. The sheer intensity of my bite sent a sharp, agonizing shockwave through my jaw, and the copper taste of warm blood instantly flooded my mouth. Gu Ming Xuans features were distorted into a mask of pure demonic frenzy, the veins in his neck bulging and turning a deep, angry crimson from his overwhelming agitation. The crushing force behind his grip only grew more relentless with every passing second. My fathers face was rapidly turning an alarming, asphyxiated shade of purple-blue, his trembling hands clutching desperately at Gu Ming Xuans thick wrists in a pitiful, losing struggle for oxygen, while his eyes dilated with the sheer, blinding agony of suffocation. My heart constricted into a painful knot of pure terror, accompanied by a murderous urge to tear the man before me limb from limb. My mother, entirely paralyzed by the sudden, horrific violence of the scene, let out a piercing shriek of sheer terror before flinging her frail body directly onto Gu Ming Xuans back, clawing blindly at him.

You vile beast! Let go of him this instant! If you want to take a life, take mine instead! Leave my husband alone!