PTM 79

Chapter 79: This Matter is a Bit Bizarre

I pushed the door halfway open, but hesitated and loosened my grip before closing it again.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the handkerchief I had used to knock out Aunt Chun. Ether evaporated quickly; in less than an hour, the handkerchief was already completely dry. I deftly poured the liquid back in, watching it rapidly soak into the fabric, before carefully folding it and putting it back in my side pocket.

I took a deep breath and opened the heavy iron door to the rooftop again.

What appeared before me was a luxurious, spacious rooftop garden. As Baiyujing’s most upscale private hospital, even the rooftop of Bazel was filled with an exquisite sense of luxury built on money.

A large expansion of bright yellow pansies and pure white daisies formed the base, interspersed with tall, vibrant red tulips and blue-purple grape hyacinths.

In the center of the garden, a big cherry tree was in full bloom, its pink and white petals were like clouds and mist. Under the interplay of night and lamplight, it made one feel as if they have stumbled into a fairy tale world.

There was a secluded smoking area under the cherry tree. I glanced at the ashtray above the trash can, where a half-smoked cigarette lay, its butt still burning, the tip flickering a scarlet ember in the night breeze.

Someone had been smoking here just now.

As I was pondering this, I felt a dangerous aura coming from behind me.

Before I could react, a hand grabbed my right arm and twisted it behind my back. Then, another hand viciously gripped the back of my neck, using the force to slam me face down onto a nearby bench.

“You still dare to come?” Zong Yanlei’s emotionless voice rang out from behind.

“I…” I tried to struggle, but the more I moved, the tighter his grip on my body became. I could only relax my body as much as possible, feigning weakness and ceasing to resist, “I came to see Xiao Mitang… um!”

“Don’t call him that.”

He seemed stung by the address, he suddenly increased the pressure on the back of my neck. I felt pain in my cervical spine. I groaned, convinced that he wanted to break my neck.

My unrestrained left hand gripped the edge of the bench, my muscles tensing under the stimulation of pain. I frowned and said, “Shouldn’t you explain to me why he has Wo blood?”

Caught off guard by the question, Zong Yanlei’s movements froze, and his grip loosened slightly.

I seized the opportunity and twisted my body to the left with my waist while sweeping my right leg toward the back of his knee.

Caught off guard, Zong Yanlei lost his balance and fell to one side. I took advantage of the situation and rolled in the opposite direction, completely breaking free from his grip.

We both fell to the ground across the bench, but quickly got up, panting and looking at each ​Read on​other. But neither of us immediately launched another attack.

“I just saw Madam downstairs, and she told me everything.” I knelt on one knee, one hand on the soft grass, my eyes fixed on the person not far away. I was ready to run away at any moment.

Zong Yanlei was wearing a white shirt and beige trousers, which were the most susceptible to getting dirty. He just fell to the ground, and his clothes were covered in dust and grass sap.

He propped himself up on the ground, raised an eyebrow, and slowly stood up: “What? You think he’s your child?”

My gaze gradually shifted from level to looking up: “He is my child.”

“No, he isn’t.” Zong Yanlei slowly unbuttoned his cuffs, rolling up his sleeves to his elbows to reveal his powerful forearms. “You’ve already signed the agreement to relinquish parental rights. He’s my child alone. You’re not his ‘father,’ nor do you deserve to be his ‘father.'”

“Back then, I had no idea what was written in that agreement. If I had known, I definitely wouldn’t have…”

“Wouldn’t have what?” Zong Yanlei interrupted me coldly. “You wouldn’t have signed it? You wouldn’t have left? You wouldn’t have come back? Or you wouldn’t have planted that bomb in the concert hall that almost killed him?”

He reached up and unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt, loosened the collar slightly, and curled his lips into an arrogant and sarcastic smile: “Don’t think so highly of yourself. He doesn’t need your cheap affection. If I wanted to, there would be plenty of people willing to be his ‘mother’.”

That was true.

Leaving aside Chu Luo, even if it were Lance, as long as Zong Yinzhuo was willing to call him “Mom,” he’d be the first to an visit our site swer, more willingly than anyone else.

I pursed my lips, stood up from the ground, and distanced myself from Zong Yanlei.

“If I hadn’t accidentally discovered the truth today, were you planning to keep it from me forever?”

Zong Yanlei cracked his knuckles, looking ready for a fight.

“So what if I did?”

Seeing his aggressive demeanor, which showed he had no intention of speaking to me politely, I took two steps back.

Wuxi Li was right. He was furious right now. I was really asking for trouble.

“I’ll come back to you once you’ve calmed down.” I was wary of him and moved toward the exit.

However, he didn’t give me a chance to escape and charged at me.

Seeing that things were going badly, I grabbed a red ceramic basin the size of a basketball from beside the bench and threw it down at his feet.

With a crisp “crack,” shattered [visit our site]pottery shards, along with flying dirt, temporarily halted his momentum.

Taking advantage of the brief moment, I ducked into a thicket of greenery behind me and sprinted towards the safety door in the shortest straight line. But just as I was about to reach the door, I discovered a shovel had been wedged into the doorknob. Zong Yanlei had already blocked my escape route, preparing to trap me like a turtle in a jar.

The shovel was stuck very tightly. I pulled twice but it didn’t budge. Then I heard Zong Yanlei’s calm voice behind me.

“What? Are you in such a hurry to complete your revolutionary cause?” He was like a shrewd hunter watching his prey struggle in the trap.

I had no choice but to give up on opening the door and adopt another strategy. I pulled a bamboo pole used to support the roses from a nearby flower bed, then crossed the trickling stream feature in a few steps, and held the bamboo pole horizontally in front of my chest.

“I have been quite busy lately.”

He sneered and walked across the water feature with astonishing speed. I swung the bamboo pole at his shoulder, trying to force him back. He didn’t dodge or flinch, but instead raised his strong forearm and withstood the blow.

The sound of the bamboo pole hitting flesh was teeth-grinding. I was startled and paused for half a second. He seized the bamboo pole and yanked it, the momentum pulling me into his arms.

“Do you even know what you’re doing? Do you think that by instigating the Wo rebellion and disrupting the political situation in Penglai, you can win?” He whispered in my ear, his tone sinister. “The old king will not compromise, and Wuxi Kunpeng will not back down. Once the revolution is ignited, what you will gain is not freedom, but even more bloody suppression.”

“Then what do you suggest we do? Be lowly for the rest of our lives, to be the dogs of you Penglai people?” I took advantage of the moment he tried to grab the pole and swung a punch to his face. “It can’t get any worse than it is now.”

He easily caught my fist, and slammed his knee into [stolen content]my stomach. I barely managed to block it, my arm went numb, and I staggered, my back slamming into a beech tree. The impact knocked the breath out of my lungs.

“When internal strife breaks out, the first to starve to death will definitely not be the nobles.” Zong Yanlei broke the bamboo pole in his hand into two pieces and threw them aside.

I coughed twice, clutching my chest, and saw the long-handled pruning shears that the gardener had left on the ground.

“Young Master, do you have some misunderstanding about the Wo people? We are not going to ‘starve,’ we have been ‘starving’ all along. Isn’t the purpose of the uprising to snatch some food from your mouths?”

I grabbed the pruning shears. I didn’t use the blades but rammed the handle’s end into Zong Yanlei’s shoulder.

He gripped the pruning shears tightly, his eyes filled with anger: “Then you shouldn’t light the fire.”

“If we don’t light the fire, we’ll forever be begging for scraps on our knees!” Not only was he furious, my temper was also ignited. “You’re a nobleman from Penglai, you have your vested interests; I’m a commoner, I have my own principles for survival. You won’t change for me, and I won’t stay for you, so what’s the point of arguing about this?”

After saying that, I pushed off the tree trunk with one foot to gain leverage, and we both fell towards the bright flower bushes not far away.

We rolled around in the sea of ​​flowers, mud covering his white shirt and obscuring my vision. Finally, this struggle ended with him pinning me down and holding my shoulders.

“Chaos is not the cure.”

He was breathing heavily as he stared down at me. The adhesive bandage on his forehead had come off, the wound had reopened, and blood trickled down, precariously pooling beneath his jaw. As he spoke, it landed on my cheek, so hot it made my eyelids flutter.

“‘Stability’ is not necessarily mercy.” I secretly reached into my pocket and grasped the slightly damp handkerchief.

“Where do you get the confidence that a new world and a new system are necessarily better? What if you lose your bet?”

“The Wo people gamble every day. The difference is that before we gambled for one more day of life, now we gamble on living like a human being. You ask me what happens if I lose the gamble? Then I die.” I didn’t shy away from the question, “I have no choice.”

He was silent for two seconds. During those two seconds, the wind in the garden seemed to stop flowing, and I could feel the low air pressure around him.

“You have no choice?” Finally, he chuckled, his eyes filled with deep and unforgettable resentment. “You chose to lie to me; you chose to use me; you chose to hand the knife to someone else; you chose to let the child lie on the operating table… You didn’t have no choice, you just didn’t want to choose.”

His hands gripped my shoulders tightly, as if he were about to crush them.

I reluctantly reached out and grabbed his arm, racking my brains for a topic that could distract him at this moment.

“The night you gave me the truth serum, what was the last question you asked me?” I suddenly asked.

This sudden question caught him off guard, causing a momentary lapse in his thinking.

Now!

I forcefully pulled his arm to the side, and with a burst of strength from my core, I quickly shifted my position, pinning him down.

Before he could react, I took out the handkerchief that I had prepared in my pocket and covered his mouth and nose.

He stared wide-eyed, looking incredulous. It was hard to tell whether he couldn’t believe I was being so despicable and cunning, or that he had fallen for it so easily.

One hand gripped my wrist like a claw, while the other pulled at my chest. Like a trapped beast making a desperate last stand, he unleashed astonishing strength, trying to throw me off.

I could only put all my weight on him, and I dared not loosen my grip on his mouth and nose for even a moment, my knuckles turning white from the exertion.

The cloying smell of ether filled the air between our rapid breathing. His strength waned, and a few seconds later, his hands fell limply to the muddy flowerbed.

Seeing that he had lost the ability to move, I moved the handkerchief away. My hands were even trembling slightly from the force I had used.

Just then, a night breeze suddenly blew, scattering cherry blossom petals like clouds from the branches. A shower of pink and white petals drifted in. A single petal gently fell and landed between Zong Yanlei’s slightly parted lips.

I stroked his face. In that moment, after the fight, I lowered my head and kissed the petal, then kissed him as well.

The wound at the corner of my lip throbbed faintly; it was a kiss tinged with bitterness and the taste of rust. I kissed him, almost plundering the lingering tobacco scent between his lips and teeth. My fingertips traced the wound on his foreunauthorized copyhead, leaving a mark of dirt and blood on his defined features.

Under the influence of the drug, his body was limp and powerless. He wouldn’t resist, wouldn’t refuse, and wouldn’t get angry or say those hurtful things to me anymore…

No, I have to leave.

I forced myself to stop, but I still dawdled.

It wasn’t until another gust of wind blew that I finally ended the kiss, got up from the ground, and prepared to leave.

My white coat was covered in mud, so I simply took it off, threw it aside, and turned to walk towards the emergency exit.

“Jiang Man, do you even have a heart…? Did you… ever love me?”

I paused, and turned around.

Zong Yanlei on the ground was not completely unconscious. His eyes were half-closed, and his gaze was unfocused as he stared at the cherry blossom branches swaying in the wind. His voice was even softer than the rustling leaves.

“This was the last question I asked.”

“What was my answer?” I asked.

He closed his eyes, his eyelashes trembling slightly, and whispered: “Get out.”

It took me a moment to realize that this wasn’t my answer, but rather that he was telling me to get lost.

This time, I didn’t linger.

I walked to the door, pulled out the shovel that was wedged in the doorknob, threw it on the ground, and left Bazel without looking back.

‎

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It was late at night when I returned to the cabin.

I took a can of beer from the refrigerator, dragged my heavy steps, and sat down on the carpet in front of the sofa.

“Crack—” The sound of the pull tab opening was particularly jarring in the quiet room.

A child……

I have a child with Zong Yanlei.

I took out my phone and searched for the three characters “Zong Yinzhuo” online.

There weren’t many photos in the media; most were distant silhouettes or blurry images with pixelation. But I still looked at them one by one, patiently zooming in on every detail.

Before I knew it, the can of beer was empty. I put the empty can on the carpet, hugged my phone, and drifted off to sleep against the sofa.

The next morning, with my head and stomach feeling extremely uncomfortable, Ye Shuer called and woke me up.

“Ge, while I was collecting evidence of the old king’s body transplant, I discovered something…” He sounded rather hesitant, “This matter is a bit bizarre.”

I rubbed my throbbing temples and sat up: “What?”

“Yu Xuan has a child.”