My father's face was ghastly. He rarely smoked, but now a cigarette was constantly in his hand.
He didn't answer me, just looked at my mother.
My mother wiped away a tear, her tone filled with resentment. "He's having an affair with that slutty secretary of his!"
Slutty secretary? I picked up a photo and examined it closely. The woman did look familiar. Then I remembered seeing her once when I went to a tea house with Ginny Deng and ran into my father and his colleagues. That secretary was there.
At the time, I had wondered, wasn't my father's previous secretary a man? Why had he suddenly been replaced by a woman?
But I trusted my father completely. I knew he wasn't the type to mess around, so I didn't mention it to my mother.
"Mom, please don't be angry. You know what kind of person Dad is. For almost thirty years, people must have tried to set him up with women, but he never gave in. This could be a misunderstanding," I said, sitting beside my mother and patting her back to calm her down.
"That's right, I was set up!" my father finally spoke, his voice agitated. "I was dead drunk. How could I have done anything with her?"
My father's position was not an easy one to hold. He had been cautious his whole life, terrified of making a mistake. It was impossible that he would ruin everything just before retirement.
My mother leaned against me and started crying. My heart was heavy, and my brows were knitted in a frown that wouldn't ease.
"Dad, have someone investigate this woman, find out who she is," I said to my father again.
"I already have. I have her personnel file. Her name is Zhao Sufang, from City C. She's married with one child, who isn't living with her," my father said, taking another drag from his cigarette. He looked as if he had aged several years. "No useful leads."
Zhao Sufang... I committed the name to memory.
Although my father was in trouble, Zhao Sufang hadn't exposed the matter yet, so he had to go to work as usual. Soon, it was just my mother and me at home.
I felt I needed to meet this Zhao Sufang and see what she wanted. If it was just money, we could pay her off to keep things quiet for now, buying time to find a permanent solution.
Suddenly, a few fragments from my past life exploded in my mind, leaving me frozen in place.
At this time in my past life, I was probably still revolving around Hugh Pei, not paying much attention to what was happening at home. I only remembered my parents having a cold war for a while. And in the end, when Hugh Pei was destroying my family, one of his key weapons was some dirt he had on my father, things like illicit affairs, with photos published in the media.
Because I was a bit crazed back then, solely focused on breaking up Hugh Pei and Lila Wei, I hadn't read those news reports carefully. The photos in them seemed... a bit like these?
So, in the grand scheme of things, many events were being reshuffled.
I gathered all the photos and put them in my bag. Zhao Sufang must have the negatives. I had to find a way to get them all and resolve this matter completely. Otherwise, with this leverage in someone else's hands, it would be a potential threat to my family.
Even without Hugh Pei, there would be others watching my father.
"Mom, do you have Zhao Sufang's contact information? Give it to me. I'll go see her," I said calmly to my mother.
"I do. I'll go with you!" my mother said, drying her tears, her face etched with deep grief and anger.
"You rest at home. I'll go by myself." I didn't want my mother to go. A woman like that would be shameless. My mother would likely get even angrier if she went.
But my mother insisted on going. Her thirty-year marriage was at stake. If she didn't meet that vixen in person, she wouldn't be able to rest.
It seemed... I inherited this trait from my mother? In my past life, I had also tried every means to find Lila Wei, but Hugh Pei's methods were too numerous. I was no match for him.
I nodded. "Alright, let's go together."
My mother gave me a number. If she called, Zhao Sufang might deliberately not answer, so I would use my number.
The phone rang a few times before someone picked up. A woman's voice said, "Hello, who is this?"
"I'm Xu Guofeng's daughter. Come out, let's meet and talk," I said, getting straight to the point, not wanting to waste time.
"...Alright," Zhao Sufang surprisingly agreed.
After setting a time and place, I hung up and said to my mother, "Mom, get some rest today. We'll meet her tomorrow. She probably just wants to extort some money, deliberately blackmailing Dad."
A cloud of gloom hung over my mother's face. She nodded heavily.
I didn't go anywhere that day. I just stayed at home with my mother, talking to her and trying to cheer her up. When my father came home in the evening, the family had a silent dinner and then went to bed.
My mother didn't want to sleep in the same bed as my father, so she came to my room to sleep with me.
We talked for most of the night before I finally fell asleep. In a daze, I heard my mother sighing, once, twice, three, four times. I knew she hadn't slept at all in the latter half of the night.
The next morning, my mother and I went to the agreed-upon location, a Hong Kong-style tea restaurant.
Zhao Sufang actually had a decent air about her. She had a good figure and was younger than my mother, looking quite alluring. When she saw us arrive, she didn't speak, just showed a hint of a triumphant smile.
"Let's not beat around the bush. I know those photos are fake. What do you really want?" I said coldly, feeling a strong aversion to this woman.
"Miss Xu, if you think those photos are fake, you can have them authenticated to see if they've been doctored," Zhao Sufang replied slowly.
My mother had been holding back. She was a well-bred lady who valued her image and decorum. But the husband she had loved for thirty years had been involved in something unclear with this vixen before her. Even the best temper would snap. She suddenly stood up, and across the narrow table, slapped Zhao Sufang across the face.
Zhao Sufang's head snapped to the side. She immediately covered her face and glared at my mother with a venomous and sinister look.
"What were you trying to do by getting my husband drunk and taking those photos?!" my mother pointed at Zhao Sufang, her presence not at all diminished.
Actually, she knew in her heart that my father hadn't done those sordid things. Otherwise, she wouldn't have said Zhao Sufang got him drunk to deliberately take photos. She just couldn't accept that the man she had trusted for thirty years would give another woman a chance to drive a wedge between them.
Zhao Sufang removed her hand, revealing the red handprint on her face. A look of ambition flashed in her eyes, which I saw very clearly.
She stood up, picked up her bag, and completely ignored her swollen cheek. Her expression was triumphant. "What am I trying to do? I want you to divorce him. After all, I'm carrying your husband's child in my belly."
With that, she took out a test report from her bag, threw it on the table, and swaggered away.
I could feel my mother's body go rigid. She stared blankly at the piece of paper on the table, unresponsive.