The Terrifying Reality Beyond Betrayal

Jiang Honghui, carrying two suitcases, comically left my house in the second month after returning from his hometown.

According to the original plan, we were supposed to register a week later and hold the wedding two months afterward.

If I hadn’t accidentally seen a WeChat message on his phone, I wouldn’t have decisively broken up with him after sending out the invitations.

My name is Qian Lele, but I am not happy at all, though I do have money.

Since I can remember, I’ve lived in this riverside mansion in a second-tier city. My parents, busy making money, hired two housemaids to take care of my daily life.

So, while other kids went to the zoo with their parents, I sat on the living room sofa waiting for mine to come home. While other kids cuddled with their parents, I could only hold the TV remote and watch Teletubbies.

Gradually, I stopped expecting my parents to show up. I learned to use money to “buy” a large number of friends.

Until three years ago, when I accidentally got drunk and was carried home by a barbecue restaurant waiter, my life changed.

That incident three years ago left a scar in my heart.

Even if it scabbed over, it would be torn open again. And then, scabbed, torn, like a vicious cycle. The culprits were my parents.

I still remember clearly that night. I was partying with friends at a bar until late at night, and when I got home, it was probably too cold. I started sneezing.

So, after taking a hot shower and drinking three bags of cold medicine, I went to sleep.

The next day, I woke up at 11 o’clock, and outside the door, I heard a woman’s giggling voice: “Hey, you brought me home. Aren’t you afraid your wife and mother will divorce you?”

“My family is big, she dares not divorce me. Besides, she’s busy outside herself!” A familiar male voice followed.

I knew it was my dad’s voice, but who was the woman? Just as I was wondering, the woman spoke again: “Oh, you slow down. Don’t let your family see us. It won’t be good if it’s live-streamed on the spot!”

Dad continued, “It’s okay. There’s no one at home. After I used a large sponsorship fee to send my unreliable daughter to a prestigious high school nearby, I bought her a house there.

Then, I sent two maids along with her. My old lady went on a business trip for the company’s project just yesterday…”

Then, there was another burst of laughter.

I rubbed my throbbing head and remembered that, having drunk too much the previous night, I had set my home’s villa as the default address when I took a taxi.

And now, I wanted to know who the woman outside was.

So, I put on my pajamas and walked out of the room, looking at the man and woman embracing in the living room downstairs.

Suddenly, the woman, who was pinned down by my dad, saw me and let out a loud scream, scaring my dad who rolled off her.

When my dad saw me on the second floor, he immediately pulled up his pants, smiling and saying, “Daughter, why are you back? Is it because you’re out of money? If you need money, just call Dad. There’s no need to waste time coming home.”

I still stared at them expressionlessly, unable to determine if it was heartache or a feeling of insignificance.

Because of the lack of parental love, I always complained to my friends that my parents only knew how to make money and never spent time with me.

They told me, “Your parents not only spend money extravagantly outside but also have separate families. How could they find time to take care of you?”

In reality, most of us wealthy kids lack love, and we know our parents have extramarital affairs, but hearing it is one thing, and seeing it with our own eyes is another.

So, without waiting for my dad to finish talking, I ran out of the villa.

After coming out, I realized that I was wearing pajamas.

So, I took out my phone, called a cab, bought some clothes at the mall, played games for a while to vent, and by the time I was done, it was already eight in the evening.

I touched my empty stomach, walked out of the mall in a daze, and sat down at a roadside barbecue stall. I randomly ordered some food and asked for a dozen beers.

The barbecue stall was not big, and the owner was young and handsome. While eating, I watched him barbecue and suddenly thought of the phrase “easy on the eyes.”

But, I had truly become a child unloved by both parents. Feeling sad again, I started drinking heavily.

I don’t know when I woke up, but when I did, I found myself lying in a strange rental room.

At that moment, the door opened, and the owner of the barbecue stall from yesterday came in with two cups of soy milk and two breakfast crepes. Seeing that I was awake, he said to me:

“You’re awake. You drank too much yesterday, and your phone ran out of battery. I couldn’t leave you on the street, so I brought you here. Don’t worry, I didn’t do anything to you!”

Looking at the boy’s reddened handsome face, I suddenly thought of the term “gentleman.”

So, I graciously took the crepes from his hands and asked, “I’m homeless now. How about you take me in for a few days? I won’t freeload; I can help out at your barbecue stall.”

The boy was stunned.

Afraid he might refuse, I told him about my parents having separate families, sobbing as I recounted the details.

However, I didn’t tell him about my family’s wealth.

He felt sorry for me and agreed to let me stay.

To reassure me, he even took out his ID, telling me his name was Jiang Honghui, 27 years old, from out of town, renting the house, and agreeing to let me stay here.

Overjoyed, I danced around. After finishing the crepes, Jiang Honghui and I started skewering.

Half a month after Jiang Honghui and I set up the stall, my careless parents finally realized that I had run away from home.

When they found me in a hurry, they wanted to take me back home, accusing Jiang Honghui of kidnapping a minor.

I shook off their hands and shouted, “All you care about is money. Now that you both have new families, why are you looking for me?”

The questioning of their biological daughter left my clever parents dumbfounded.

Jiang Honghui walked over and said to them, “Uncle, Auntie, you go home first. I’ll talk to Lele.”

After my parents left, Jiang Honghui found a place for me to sit.

Then, after the last wave of customers finished eating, he packed up and took me back to the rental room.

He seemed like a sensible elf, not saying anything on the way.

Once home, he took out five skewers of meat and a dozen beers, pulled me to sit on the floor of the rental room, and ate while drinking.

It wasn’t until I had drunk enough that Jiang Honghui spoke, “Having a home outside of your parents’ isn’t bad. At least, they haven’t divorced. When I was eight, my parents were about to divorce, and I was given to my dad.

A month after their divorce, my dad remarried. The woman he married didn’t even bother to pretend, and she used to hit me every day. Later, I dropped out of junior high and started working.”

He extended his arm in front of me, showing me the scars on his arm.

After hearing Jiang Honghui’s story, I also opened up and shared every detail about my family and what I witnessed that day.

Then, we continued eating and drinking.

I woke up, finding myself naked and embracing Jiang Honghui. And there was a place that shouldn’t be sore, feeling particularly swollen.

I was already 18, so I naturally knew what had happened.

After that day, Jiang Honghui and I continued running the stall, tacitly avoiding any mention of that incident.

However, once back in the rental room, we were like dry wood and a blazing fire, tightly holding each other.

When my parents came looking for me again, it was already half a month later, and school had already started.

I pulled Jiang Honghui to my side and told my parents, “I’m not cut out for studying, and I don’t want to go to school anymore. If you want me to come home, you have to accept my boyfriend.”

Surprisingly, my savvy parents agreed.

So, Jiang Honghui moved into the house my parents bought for me, and they even gave us some money to turn the barbecue stall into a luxuriously decorated barbecue restaurant.

Just when I was puzzled, my friend called me and said, “Where have you been during this time? Yuanan committed suicide, did you know?”

Yuanan was a buddy we used to play with, also a second-generation wealthy kid. However, his family valued sons over daughters. When Yuanan’s mom gave birth to her, she suffered uterine damage. So, her grandparents supported his dad in finding another woman outside to have a son.

Yuanan’s mom blamed him for not being able to have a son, taking out all her anger on him.

Recently, after Yuanan’s dad’s outside woman gave birth to a son, Yuanan’s mom pointed at him and said, “Why don’t you just die!”

As a result, Yuanan jumped from the tenth floor. His mom, unable to bear the loss of her daughter, also jumped.

After hearing my friend’s account, tears streamed down my face. When Jiang Honghui came to my side, he hugged me tightly as I trembled.

I told Jiang Honghui about Yuanan’s story, saying my parents agreed to us being together because they were afraid I’d end up like Yuanan.

Jiang Honghui gently said to me, “Don’t worry, with me around, you’ll always be the happy Qian Lele!”

Still concerned, Jiang Honghui took me to see a psychologist. I jokingly said to him, “Psychologists are just scamming money.”

He, however, looked serious, watching me take my medication and ensuring I went for regular check-ups. Three years had passed when the psychologist declared I had recovered.

These three years of constant companionship made me feel that Jiang Honghui was an indispensable part of my life. My parents saw how good he was to me.

So, they agreed to our marriage and started arranging for our wedding. Jiang Honghui said getting married is a big deal and wanted to visit his hometown.

I initially wanted to go with him, but Jiang Honghui said, “Darling, my hometown is in the mountains, with earthen beds and walls. Scorpions and centipedes run around freely. You won’t eat well or sleep well. Be a good girl and wait at home; I’ll make them come out of the mountains to see you!”

After spending a week in his hometown, Jiang Honghui returned. We then went to take wedding photos.

Coincidentally, it rained on the day of the photoshoot, and Jiang Honghui’s phone got wet. I directly bought him a new one, but he said a lot of customer information was on that phone.

I told him, “Fixing a phone is a small matter; I’ll take care of it. You focus on work.”

His phone had just gotten wet, and when they dried it at the repair shop, it turned on. I was curious about the surprise Jiang Honghui had prepared for me before the wedding.

So, I opened his WeChat.

However, a message popped up on the WeChat interface: “Son, your dad and I discussed it. We’re afraid things might be exposed if only the two of us attend your wedding. If those people ask, I’ll say your dad’s woman died, and we remarried for the sake of our son. Is that okay?”

Even in my naive state, I knew something was wrong.

So, I added some extra money and asked the phone repair person to help restore the chat history. But as I looked at the chat records, it felt like a bolt from the blue.

It turned out that after Jiang Honghui carried me back to the rental room, he thought that being of a young age, helping me would earn him a gratitude fee from my parents when they found me. Unfortunately, I said I didn’t want my parents.

Seeing my young age, he thought that as long as he treated me well, I, being a young girl, wouldn’t demand a dowry and would eagerly become his wife.

Later on, when my parents appeared and he learned about my family’s wealth, he concocted a web of lies, hoping to deceive me into a marriage for financial gain.

In WeChat, his mom even said, “Lele has depression, a mental illness. Can a child born from her be healthy?”

But Jiang Honghui insisted, “It’s already cured. With money, I won’t have trouble finding a woman to have a child for me.”

Considering breaking up with him, the three years of his gradual companionship had already imprinted into my bloodstream. Moreover, in a week, I would turn 20 years old, eligible to obtain a marriage certificate.

Two months later, I would become his bride.

Thinking about Jiang Honghui’s tenderness and the hidden agenda in his WeChat messages, my heart couldn’t help but shiver. The melodramatic plot from TV dramas was unfolding in my own life.

After agonizing for a few days, I still decided to break up with him.

Jiang Honghui knelt down, begging and admitting his mistakes, claiming true love.

But my mind was made up, and I told him, “My dad is a businessman with connections in both legitimate and illegitimate circles. If you linger at my house, I can’t guarantee what might happen!”

Jiang Honghui had to compromise.

However, opening the closet, I noticed everything, from outerwear to underwear, was bought by him.

He looked at me helplessly.

I nodded, indicating that he could take those belongings with him when leaving. Three hours later, Jiang Honghui left my house, comically dragging two suitcases.

After Jiang Honghui left, I called my parents and explained everything. Then, I bought a ticket to Tibet.

Because, as the psychologist told me, to forget the past, I had to forgive myself. Despite my parents continuing to live recklessly outside, their care for me never diminished.

After Jiang Honghui left, it was crucial for me to forgive myself. And traveling was the best option.

On the day I arrived in Tibet, my mom called to say that my dad had used his connections to drive Jiang Honghui back to his hometown, and he would probably spend the rest of his life in the mountains…

After hanging up the phone, I looked up at the distant snow-capped mountains and suddenly felt relieved.

Because I had loved Jiang Honghui, choosing to let him go was just to avoid becoming a blood bag in their family.

Now, everyone is back on track, and life will only get better!