That day, Qin Guan spent hours lost in thought amid the chaos of his home.
Like a trapped beast, he paced back and forth in the enclosed room with restrained force. To prevent the police officers stationed downstairs from peering into his movements through the opposite building's windows, he had drawn the curtains. Fearing noise, he hadn't worn slippers, opting instead for his favorite pair of white business cotton socks—also bought by Xu Ruyi. Though unremarkable in appearance, they were shockingly expensive, nearly three hundred yuan a pair.
But Xu Ruyi hadn't hesitated when purchasing them. The salesperson had said, "Expensive items have their reasons for being pricey. Feet bear the heaviest stress in the human body. When they're comfortable, the whole body and mind relax, work feels less exhausting, and happiness follows." Comfort, happiness—yes. As long as he felt comfortable and happy, Xu Ruyi never batted an eye, whether it was three hundred, three thousand, thirty thousand, or even three hundred thousand yuan.
That woman had once been utterly devoted to him.
No—to be precise, she had been. She used to care for him wholeheartedly, a dutiful wife who cherished him. But now, this woman had dug a bottomless pit for him. She terrified him.
Qin Guan gulped down a large glass of cold water to clear his mind. It was time to strike back against that bitch.
First, he needed to unravel her scheme and her motives to bring her down.
He plopped onto the floor of Auntie Feng's room, placing the iron hammer in front of him, and meticulously retraced every detail of recent events, determined not to overlook anything.
What he knew for sure was this: After returning from the lakeside villa hotel, when Qi Min and "Zeng Demei" had jointly blackmailed him, Xu Ruyi had already been secretly tailing him. That night, it was Xu Ruyi who had followed him to the park. When Qin Guan found the name tag and discovered "Zeng Demei's" hiding place at the cleaning company, Xu Ruyi must have learned of it too. She had then gone to the same company.
Therefore, she must have also located "Zeng Demei"—after all, Qin Guan had repeatedly "bumped into" her during his own searches for the woman. She had met "Zeng Demei."
That night, when Qin Guan first followed the young man to "Zeng Demei's" residence, he had glimpsed a thin, shadowy figure hurrying away in the darkness. At the time, he hadn't paid much attention, assuming it was a passerby. Later, after learning Qi Min was alive, he had revisited the memory, thinking it might have been Qi Min—if the two women were conspiring to blackmail him, Qi Min would naturally liaise with Zeng Demei. Seeing Qin Guan, she would have fled in panic.
Qin Guan frowned and took another swig of water. This was his recurring mistake: letting his professional habits blind him, using conclusions to reverse-engineer the process, leading to repeated misjudgments.
Now he knew who that shadowy figure had been.
It was Xu Ruyi.
It had to be her.
Somehow, she had found "Zeng Demei" before him. Qin Guan remembered the grimy, cramped rental room reeking of grease—no range hood installed. A hovel fit for a lowly pauper. After leaving that place, he could still smell the stench clinging to his clothes when he returned to his car. He'd frantically wiped his face, hair, and clothes with wet wipes to dull the odor.
That same day, when he returned home just after dusk, Auntie Feng had just set dinner on the table. But Xu Ruyi had, unusually, already taken a shower. She never bathed early; she preferred washing before bed.
Ah—he also recalled her overpowering fragrance that evening. It wasn't a scent she liked. Qin Guan stood and scanned both bathrooms, confirming his deduction. Xu Ruyi typically used lightly scented shower products. Auntie Feng used a mainstream brand of soap.
As for perfume… Qin Guan opened the bathroom storage cabinet. His sharp memory scanned the contents. Last year, a female client had gifted him several perfume sets from her factory. He'd given most to Qi Min but brought one home for Xu Ruyi. She had sniffed it, wrinkled her nose, and stuffed it into the cabinet. "Too strong. I don't like it," she'd said.
Now that bottle was missing.
She must have used it that night—shower water couldn't mask the greasy stench. Worried her mild body wash wouldn't suffice, she'd mixed in the perfume. Hence, her damp hair and overpowering scent that evening.
Qin Guan finally pieced it together: That night, she had beaten him home!
She had found "Zeng Demei" and visited her residence. She had known about the woman all along. Did she now know her whereabouts? Of course, she'd never tell him. That much was certain.
What Qin Guan couldn't grasp was—why had Xu Ruyi sought out "Zeng Demei"? When he had first returned from his business trip and been blackmailed, he hadn't even known who "Zeng Demei" was! Yet Xu Ruyi had clearly known. How?
Had her surveillance started even earlier?
Further back—Qin Guan's scalp prickled. Further back was his business trip, his affair with Qi Min at the lakeside villa. Impossible. Xu Ruyi hadn't left home. He was scaring himself.
He drank more water, reminding himself not to let professional bias cloud his thinking. After all, he knew Xu Ruyi better than anyone. Even if she had stalked him and set traps, her shallow mind and mediocre intellect were undeniable.
Her interruption during the park blackmail attempt was likely to ensure she found Zeng Demei first, to gather more damning evidence against him. Her visit to "Zeng Demei's" home must have been for the same purpose—if she'd already had proof, she would have acted sooner.
Evidence!
As the wife of a criminal defense lawyer, she'd heard countless cases at the dinner table. She knew everything hinged on evidence. Evidence—the very tool Qin Guan had mastered. Just as he'd deftly wielded it in past cases, turning it to his advantage.
Like how he'd calmly handled his mother-in-law. After her scolding that day, Qin Guan had seethed with rage, smashing the laundry counter at Guanlan Court. Yet when the oblivious Xu Ruyi kept calling, he'd still attended the family dinner.
He never feared confrontation. His mother-in-law wanted to see him suffer, beg for forgiveness on his knees? Never! Showing the slightest weakness meant defeat. That night, he ate heartily, even the pork knuckle. His mother-in-law barely touched her food.
After the meal, as Xu Ruyi grew tired, her father urged them to rest early, kindly telling Qin Guan to take the leftover pork home. Qin Guan didn't refuse—why should he? He'd done nothing wrong.
But when he went to the kitchen, his mother-in-law stood there, coldly glaring as if he were a stranger. "Aren't you afraid I'll expose you?"
He hadn't feared her—or even the victim in the Shi Jie case. If they'd had evidence, they would've acted long ago. Why whine to a sickly old woman? Still, he suppressed his resentment and humbly replied, "Mom, don't listen to gossip. If she had proof, wouldn't she have already reported me?"
Exactly. Without evidence, accusations were meaningless. Even the police needed proof.
And Xu Ruyi—all her scheming was to find irrefutable evidence against him!
What about him? Qin Guan stared at the iron hammer—his sole "evidence," the rest mere speculation. But he soon realized it was worthless. The smashed doors and windows had long been replaced; the broken pieces were discarded. Even if he handed the hammer to the police, they couldn't verify it had been used that night.
Fingerprints? The hammer naturally bore Auntie Feng's prints. So what?
As for Xu Ruyi's distant errand for crayfish, Xiao Zhi's northern seasoning packet, her stalking him in the park… All conjecture. He had no tangible evidence!
No! Qin Guan stood and walked to the window, eyeing the police surveilling him below. He needed a plan. To survive, he must find that bitch's leverage!