Su Mianmian had envisioned countless ways to reveal the nature of her relationship with Gu Yizhou to Song Zhi. Yet, she never imagined it would happen like this—in such a helpless, forced, and utterly awkward manner. Seeing the look on Song Zhi's face change completely, Su Mianmian had no choice but to ask Gu Yizhou to leave the room first. Once Gu Yizhou was gone, Song Zhi covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes already turning red.
"Su Mianmian, do you realize what you were just doing? Acting like that with your brother-in-law—it's... it's immoral." Su Mianmian braced herself against the mattress and slowly sat up. "Zhizhi, you've got it all wrong. Let me explain." "I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear it!"
Song Zhi covered her ears with her hands and shook her head frantically. "I saw it with my own eyes—what is there left to explain?"
She shook her head again, her gaze filled with profound disappointment as she looked at Su Mianmian. "Su Mianmian, you've changed. In my eyes, you've always been kind and innocent—how could you do something like this...?" As she spoke, Song Zhi grew increasingly heartbroken; she took a deep, steadying breath. "Do you know why I just got into a fight with that 'Green Tea' Lin?"
Su Mianmian genuinely hadn't known the answer to that; she frowned slightly. "Why?" Song Zhi let out a scoff. "Because she called you shameless! She claimed you were meddling in the relationship between your sister and your brother-in-law—that you're a moral degenerate, a disgrace to society!"
"Naturally, I didn't believe a word of it. So, in a fit of rage, I fought her. I even called her a stinking 'Green Tea'—someone who does nothing but spread rumors and has nothing but crap for brains." "And what was the result?"
"The result is that one moment I was standing up for you, and the very next, you slapped me right in the face with the truth!" Song Zhi was so furious that her voice trembled with emotion. By the time she reached the end of her tirade, she simply sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees and burying her face between them, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
Seeing that Song Zhi was crying, Su Mianmian's heart instantly seized with panic. She had never imagined that Song Zhi had fought with Lin Jiaojiao and her clique *because* of her. She felt utterly terrible—how could she have been so thoughtless? Why hadn't she simply told her about her marriage to Gu Yizhou sooner?
Song Zhi had treated her like the closest of sisters, yet she—Su Mianmian—had kept such a massive secret from her. The more Su Mianmian thought about it, the more guilty she felt. She rolled out of bed, walked over to Song Zhi, squatted down, and gently touched her shoulder. "Zhi-Zhi, could you please stop crying for a moment?
Things aren't the way you imagine them to be..." Song Zhi was still fuming; she jerked her shoulder away abruptly and said in a muffled, choked voice, "Then how *are* they? I'm giving you a chance to explain yourself—go on, speak!" Su Mianmian sighed and proceeded to recount the entire sequence of events to Song Zhi.
"So, as of now, he and I are legally recognized as husband and wife. I am absolutely not—as you imagined—someone who came between him and my sister."
After saying this, Su Mianmian noticed that Song Zhi hadn't calmed down at all; in fact, her shoulders were trembling even more violently. Assuming Song Zhi didn't believe her, she said anxiously, "Zhi-Zhi, everything I've told you is the truth! If you don't believe me, I'll have Gu Yizhou bring our marriage certificate over tomorrow so you can see it yourself."
No sooner had she finished speaking than Song Zhi suddenly burst into laughter. When she finally looked up, Song Zhi's face was flushed bright red; she was shaking with laughter, barely able to catch her breath. Su Mianmian looked completely bewildered. "Zhi-Zhi... you weren't crying?"
Song Zhi let out an "Ouch!" as she laughed, clutching her stomach. "Who said I was crying? Mianmian, you really are just too easy to fool." Su Mianmian looked crestfallen, her mouth twitching slightly. "Why would you trick me like that? Do you find it amusing to play tricks on me?"
Seeing that Su Mianmian was starting to look genuinely upset, Song Zhi reined in her laughter and pouted. "Well, who told *you* to lie to me first?! Look at how close we are—yet you went and got married without even telling me!
And another thing: on the way over here, I went back and pieced everything together. The guy who gave you that butterfly necklace, who sent you those pastries from Yixin Pavilion, and who drives that Maybach—that was clearly Gu Yizhou, wasn't it? Yet you insisted on telling me his name was 'Mr. Z.'
What? Did you think it was just hilarious to watch me call your husband 'Brother-in-law' right to your face?" Song Zhi proceeded to tick off Su Mianmian's "crimes" one by one. Upon hearing this, Su Mianmian's face crumpled into a knot of distress. "I can explain all of this! At first, I really did intend to keep my marriage to Gu Yizhou a secret from you, because I was worried that you might think poorly of me for marrying my—well, my would-be brother-in-law."
This time, before Su Mianmian could even finish speaking, Song Zhi hurriedly cut her off. "No—wait, why on earth would I think poorly of you? We've been best friends for years; do you really think I wouldn't have at least that much faith in you?"
Suddenly, Song Zhi reached out and pulled Su Mianmian into a hug, resting her chin against Su Mianmian's shoulder. "Mianmian, you bravely sacrificed your own life and happiness for the sake of your sister's well-being—that is incredibly cool, okay?"
Su Mianmian hadn't expected Song Zhi to say something like that; her heart melted, and she hugged her back. "Actually, there were a few times later on when I *did* want to tell you, but things just kept getting in the way—it never felt like the right moment.
And remember that time—the time Gu Yizhou secretly arranged for me to take a photo with Allen? I was practically on the verge of telling you that Gu Yizhou was my husband, but *you* were the one who insisted on keeping things mysterious and told me *not* to say anything!"
After listening to Su Mianmian's explanation, Song Zhi thought it over carefully; it actually did seem to have happened exactly that way. Her lips fumbled for words for a moment. "Well, anyway—you lied to me, and I just lied to you, so I guess that makes us even!" A few seconds of silence hung in the air before both girls burst into laughter at the same time.
Su Mianmian let out a sigh of relief. Even-steven it is, then. Although Song Zhi had given her quite a scare just now, she had to admit that she was the one at fault in the first place. "Oh, by the way—how did you find out that I'd married Gu Yizhou?" "I heard Assistant Gao talking about it in the private room just now."
Song Zhi said this as she helped Su Mianmian climb onto the hospital bed. "You have no idea—when Assistant Gao announced that you were Gu Yizhou's wife, I was completely stunned; I actually thought I was having hearing trouble.
""Lin Can's uncle—that guy Manager Cen—had an even more priceless reaction. He had just been kicked flying by Gu Yizhou and couldn't catch his breath for ages; but when he heard you were Gu Yizhou's wife, the last shred of breath he was clinging to nearly vanished. He went completely limp and collapsed on the ground, looking just like a dead fish.
""Even more despicable was that bitch Lin Jiaojiao. Even with her own downfall staring her in the face, she still refused to accept reality. She kept screaming that Assistant Gao was lying, insisting that unless he produced proof of your marriage to Gu Yizhou, she would tell the whole world that you—Su Mianmian—were having an affair with your own brother-in-law." Su Mianmian knew that, given Lin Jiaojiao's character, she was absolutely capable of doing something like that. "And then? How did Assistant Gao prove it to her?" Song Zhi gave a dismissive "Tch." "You'll never guess what Assistant Gao said.
""Assistant Gao told them not to worry, because once they got to the police station, he would personally present whatever evidence they wanted to see." "The police station?"
Song Zhi nodded. "That's right! Assistant Gao filed a joint complaint against Lin Jiaojiao, Lin Can, and that group of women who helped beat me up earlier—charging them with disturbing the peace, intentional assault, and defamation of character."
"Mianmian, you should have seen the look on their faces when the police came to take them away! They were so terrified their legs went soft—they were practically like noodles, and the police had to drag and haul them out." Su Mianmian bit her lip slightly. "What about Manager Cen and that group of accomplice security guards?"
Song Zhi blinked. "They got sent to the police station too. Oh—though before that happened, Assistant Gao fired all of them on the spot. My conservative estimate is that Manager Cen—that scumbag—can forget about ever making a living in Jiangcheng again." "Assistant Gao fired Manager Cen and the others?"
Su Mianmian's brain struggled to process this for a moment. Song Zhi frowned. "Yeah! Su Mianmian, don't tell me you're as clueless as I was? The Yunfan Club is actually an establishment owned by your 'darling husband'!" As soon as the words "darling husband" left her lips, Su Mianmian's face instantly flushed crimson. However, when it came to the businesses under Gu Yizhou's control, she truly didn't have the slightest clue.
Now that she knew the group of people who had bullied them had received their just punishment, Su Mianmian finally breathed a sigh of relief. "By the way, Zhizhi, you still haven't told me exactly what went down with Lin Can and her crew. How did you end up in their private room, and why did they try to beat you up?"
Song Zhi felt a pang of frustration just thinking about it. "It's all that scumbag Cheng Yuli's fault! Didn't his mother set him up with a girlfriend? Well, that girl turned out to be Lin Can. She probably has quite a crush on Cheng Yuli and just couldn't stomach the fact that he already has a 'girlfriend'—namely, me."
"Somehow—I have no idea how—she got hold of my phone number today and asked to meet me at Yunfan to 'talk things over.' She sounded pretty sincere on the phone, and I figured if I could convince her to give up on Cheng Yuli sooner rather than later, my mission would be accomplished. So, I agreed to meet her."
"As it turned out, the moment I walked in, something felt off. Sitting in the room were three or four other women, all looking like they were up to no good. First, they grilled me about my relationship with Cheng Yuli; then, they took turns verbally abusing me, calling me a shameless homewrecker."
"I figured Lin Can was just bitter about having her man snatched away, so she'd rounded up a few cronies to gang up on me and blow off some steam. That's why I slipped away to the restroom midway through to give you a call."
"But I totally underestimated them. When I came out of the restroom, their insults turned even more vicious. Lin Jiaojiao, in particular, started dragging you into it—subtly at first, then more openly—implying that you were sleeping with your brother-in-law. I can't even bring myself to repeat the things she said; they were just so damn vile."
"I couldn't take it anymore, so I started trading insults right back. We kept going back and forth until—I'm not sure who threw the first punch—but things escalated into a brawl. And that's the scene you walked in on when you arrived." Having finished her story, Song Zhi seemed to notice the bandage on Su Mianmian's forehead for the first time.
Pursing her lips in a look of heartfelt concern, she clasped her hands together—mimicking the formal bow of an ancient scholar—as if to offer a humble apology. "In any case, my dear Mianmian—you beautiful maiden—by risking your life to save me today, you have left me deeply and eternally indebted. I vow that, in due time, I will repay your kindness in full."
Su Mianmian let out a soft chuckle, casting a sidelong glance at a certain figure peeking furtively from just outside the door. "No need to wait for 'due time'—let's settle this right now. I'm dizzy, my heart aches, and I simply can't stand your incessant chatter. Do me a favor: get out of my hospital room—immediately. Right now."