Xie Yu's mind rang, as though something had suddenly exploded.
All the blood in his body seemed to freeze, little by little.
He had set a passcode on his phone. Zhou Dalei's texts, the notifications stacked together, occupied half the lock screen. Even though the messages were not fully visible, the general meaning could be discerned by piecing together what could be seen.
......
"Dalei, he..." Xie Yu's fingers slowly curled into fists. Subconsciously, he had decided to go on keeping his secret. "He's joking. It's nothing."
Gu Xuelan had not slept all last night and had sat here from the middle of the night to midday. She wasn't sure how much time had passed. It seemed like a lot, but at the same time, not. She had only watched the sky gradually grow lighter outside.
Xie Yu was about to tack on another, 'Don't think too much,' when he heard Gu Xuelan ask, "Then what is this about?"
Her throat was dry, and her tone was different from when she had begun this conversation. She showed the sort of unnatural calm that came after violent waves of emotion. Her next words stuck in her throat and she steadied herself for several seconds before continuing.
"—For how much longer were you going to lie to me?"
Seeing her reaction, Xie Yu surmised that Zhou Dalei had unthinkingly sold him out.
Just now, his thoughts had been in disarray and he had not considered this possibility. Zhou Dalei was that sort of person. If one chased him down and asked him directly, he would panic. He couldn't hide anything.
In the face of Madam Gu's questions, Xie Yu remained silent for a while and did not reply.
Zhou Dalei had not imagined that his text messages had blindly spilled the whole truth.
Last night, he had lazily sent the last of the texts, then tossed his phone down and gotten ready for bed. Aunt Lan's telephone call had nearly made him fall off the bed still entangled in his blankets.
Before Gu Xuelan could say much, he had already told her everything, from things he was supposed to say, to things he was not supposed to say.
"I haven't known this for very long, either. Boss Xie told me not to tell, but holding it in is painful." Zhou Dalei opened a window for air and continued, "...Aunt Lan, he just wants you to live better with the Zhongs. This way, one less person needs to deal with those terrible things."
The Zhong Corporation was a prominent family business in A City.
After Gu Xuelan married into the family, the pieced-together household was in an awkward situation. The position of Madam Zhong was a hard one to fill and there was also Zhong Jie, who took every chance he could to make trouble.
Xie Yu usually kept quiet and gave the impression of not caring.
Gu Xuelan had thought that he was still young and that she could deal with the pressure on her own. But she had not expected that he was completely aware of how others looked at them and talked about them.
Gu Xuelan's hands trembled uncontrollably. She tried to lift her hand to tug at the jacket over her shoulders, but she couldn't use any strength at all.
Her mind went blank and weakness and vertigo overwhelmed her.
The last thing she remembered was Xie Yu's panicked shout. "Mom—"
All around were the sound of footsteps passing.
After Gu Xuelan fainted, the Zhong household was in chaos.
