Su Dan glanced at Tang Yuanxiao. He was a little scared of his brother-in-law, so he didn’t dare stir up any more trouble. Instead, he wrapped a possessive arm around Qin Shanshan’s shoulder.
"Get up, Shanshan. Stop going after Tang Yuanxiao. You’re my woman; it has nothing to do with him."
"Agh! I told you to shut up! Shut up, shut up! Get lost!"
Qin Shanshan shrieked and shoved Su Dan aside.
She truly couldn’t accept Su Dan. She didn’t want to admit it was him, but there was nothing she could do.
From the moment Su Dan jumped in, claiming to be the one with her that night after Tang Yuanxiao’s repeated denials, everything had been set in stone.
Qin Shanshan was drowning in hatred and regret.
’If I’d known this would happen, I never would have gone along with it and cooperated with Mrs. Tang’s plan.’
Qin Shanshan had considered every possibility, but she’d never imagined that she would be drugged too, or that Tang Yuanxiao would actually manage to get away.
And then Su Dan had shown up, taking advantage of the opening she’d created.
In truth, when Qin Shanshan had woken up to find Tang Yuanxiao gone, she’d felt a persistent unease, even if she refused to acknowledge it.
When Tang Yuanxiao denied it, her suspicions had grown.
After all, even though she’d been drugged and wasn’t in her right mind, she still had some vague awareness of what happened.
She just didn’t dare—or couldn’t bring herself—to dwell on the details, on all the things that felt wrong.
The only way she’d made it this far without going insane was by convincing herself that the man had been Tang Yuanxiao.
But in the end, all her denial, all her dreams, had been shattered.
She refused to believe it was true, but the facts were the facts.
She had no choice but to face reality.
Qin Shanshan let out a despairing wail, but no one spoke up for her or offered any sympathy.
Uncovering the truth and siding with the winner are human instincts, after all.
The people who had been on her side, or had remained neutral just moments before, now all flocked to Tang Yuanxiao’s defense, crying out at the injustice he’d suffered.
"I can’t believe it... How could she pin something like that on Tang Yuanxiao?"
"Exactly. Because of her, we almost all misunderstood Tang Yuanxiao."
"Yeah, yeah. It’s a good thing we all know it was a misunderstanding now."
Amid the crowd’s murmurs, Tang Yuanxiao felt like he could finally breathe again. It was as if he’d been brought back to life.
The supervisor also let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Alright, since it was all a misunderstanding, let’s have everyone disperse now."
He patted Tang Yuanxiao’s shoulder. "From now on, let’s not have any more idle gossip about Tang Yuanxiao. He’s been through a terrible and undeserved ordeal."
’This is great,’ he thought. ’The whole thing was resolved almost as soon as it blew up. If it had been delayed by even an hour, or just half an hour, the rumors would have spread completely. Even if the truth came out later, Tang Yuanxiao’s reputation would have been damaged.’
’Thank goodness, thank goodness Su Dan showed up when he did and the truth came to light.’
’Tang Yuanxiao was just wrongly accused and misunderstood. People will gossip for a couple of days and then move on. It won’t have any lasting impact on him.’
The supervisor patted Tang Yuanxiao’s shoulder and led him away.
As soon as they were away from the crowd, the supervisor eagerly gave an order. "From now on, Qin Shanshan and her fiancé are not to set foot in this residential compound ever again."
"Security in the compound has become too lax. It needs to be tightened. We can’t just let anyone in from now on. An incident like this must never happen again."
The supervisor’s first words to Tang Yuanxiao were, "Find a new caregiver for your mother."
’Find someone more capable, someone who can actually watch over Mrs. Tang and keep her under control.’ That would be for the best, but of course, the supervisor couldn’t say that out loud.
Tang Yuanxiao was too ashamed to even look the supervisor in the eye, so he just nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Even without the supervisor saying it, he knew what he had to do this time.
The supervisor and Tang Yuanxiao left, but the rest of the crowd remained, still gathered around Qin Shanshan and Su Dan to watch the spectacle.
When Su Dan had been speaking earlier, the parents in the crowd had been scrambling to cover their children’s ears.
Wherever there was a commotion, children were sure to be found.
Some of the children had even been Qin Shanshan’s former students. With their ears covered by the adults, they didn’t understand what was happening and chattered amongst themselves, asking what was wrong with Teacher Qin.
The parents felt a headache coming on just hearing the two words "Teacher Qin." It was only then that they remembered this Qin Shanshan was a teacher.
’A person like that as a teacher... She’s a corrupting influence on the students.’
Although Qin Shanshan hadn’t revealed every detail, the smarter people in the crowd had already put the pieces together.
Combined with the obviously calculated scene she had just caused, Su Dan’s appearance, and the things he’d said, the whole situation was just outrageous.
"How can someone like that be a teacher? What if she’s a bad influence on our children!"
"Exactly! With her as a teacher, I wouldn’t even feel safe sending my kids to school."
As everyone began to condemn her, the principal of the small school that had reluctantly employed her immediately announced that Qin Shanshan was fired and would never be hired again.
Afterward, Qin Shanshan and Su Dan were unceremoniously "asked" to leave the residential compound, with express orders not to be allowed back in.
The series of shocks and blows Qin Shanshan had endured throughout the day finally caused her to have a complete emotional breakdown.
As she was being "escorted" out, she completely snapped.
"By what right do you fire me?! By what right do you talk about me?! It was all Tang Yuanxiao and his mother’s fault! They’re the ones who ruined me!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?! Daring to tell me what to do! Who the hell do you think you are!"
Qin Shanshan grabbed a rock from the side of the road and hurled it at one of the residents. And as luck would have it, she hit a child.
That single act ignited the fury of the entire crowd.
The child’s mother and a group of the child’s friends grabbed whatever they could find—rocks or anything else—and started throwing them straight at Qin Shanshan.
Yang Xiangyun, having finally processed the sudden turn of events, took advantage of the chaos to spit right in Qin Shanshan’s face. "Ptooey!"
In the end, Qin Shanshan was beaten, cursed, and driven out of the residential compound, covered in filth and grime. Su Dan, who tried to shield her, got caught in the crossfire.
When a child gets hurt, a mother will fight with everything she has.
By the time it was over, Qin Shanshan was covered in welts, with several large bumps on her head from the thrown rocks.
Just a couple of days ago, she had egged on Mrs. Tang, helping her go after Su Li. Now, in a twist of fate, she was the one getting pelted with objects.
Her predicament was far more miserable than Su Li’s had been.
Su Dan tried to protect her, but having been pampered his whole life, he had never known real hardship. He just yelped in pain as he was hit, offering her almost no real cover.
And this was only the beginning.
They had just been thrown out of the residential compound when they ran right into Mrs. Tang.
Mrs. Tang had been shoved aside by Qin Shanshan earlier. She’d tried to follow but couldn’t keep up, falling several times along the way before finally reaching the gate of the residential compound.
Unaware of what had just transpired, the moment she saw Qin Shanshan, her eyes lit up like a wolf spotting its prey. She lunged forward, grabbing on and refusing to let go.
The hatred Mrs. Tang felt for Qin Shanshan, the woman who had tried to ruin her son’s future, was immense.
And when Qin Shanshan saw Mrs. Tang, her own hatred burned even hotter.
’It was all because this old hag kept tricking her and even drugged her! Otherwise, how could she have ended up in this state, taken by Su Dan?’
’And to think of how she had patiently taken care of the old woman, swallowing her disgust and enduring so much humiliation! And for what?’
’Her entire life, her perfect dream—utterly destroyed!’
’And the main culprit was Mrs. Tang!’
When enemies meet, their eyes burn with a special kind of hatred.
The two of them, once as close as mother and daughter, now turned on each other, each wishing the other dead.
Almost instantly, the two of them were locked in a tangled brawl.
Mrs. Tang could only use one of her hands, which reduced her fighting ability, so she resorted to using her teeth.
Qin Shanshan’s eyes were bloodshot with rage; she wanted Mrs. Tang dead!