Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  The policewoman asked, puzzled, “How did you find out?”


  To which, she glumly answered, “One day, a woman turned up at my doorstep and gave me a slap across the face as soon as I opened the door. I was so shocked and confused when she called me a sl*t.”


  “.……A man like him isn’t worthy of your longing!” Chu He fumed.

  “I was heartbroken, and that’s the first time we had a row. I demanded in tears a reasonable explanation from him, but all I received for an answer was: ‘What’s done is done. What more of an explanation do you want?’ He even told me that he has plenty of other women, but most of them are just one-night stands. To him, women are nothing but tools for his biological needs; I only managed to stay by his side for so long because of my obedience and his feelings for me. Even so, he’d get irritated and sick of me if I tried to act out.”


  “.……” She could detect a trace of despair and heartache in the other’s calm and composed speech.

  “You should have left his side earlier.”


  “Yeah. That’s what I told myself at one point.”


  The expectant mother let out a self-deprecating laugh. “To think I was so naïve that I thought I could mend his ways! I-I could sense his love for me…… so I thought there might be a day when he’d end his philandering and be devoted to me alone.”


  “You could sense his love for you?”


  “Yes!”


  “In what ways?”


  “In many little ways. He would stay by my side whenever I came down with a flu—coaxing and hugging me as if I were a little child when I felt down. I probably mistook those actions for love since no one has ever doted on me as he did; I grew up without experiencing familial warmth, after all. He’s the only person who’s treated me so well”


  That got the cop even more exasperated. “Just like that, you fell for his tricks hook, line, and sinker? Qingxue, I must say, you are just too naïve for your own good.”


  With quivering lips, Meng Qingxue responded innocently, “N-No one has ever been as gentle and indulgent towards me as he did……”


  “Why’s that so? Do your parents not care about you at all?”


  “No. It’s because…… I’m not my father’s biological daughter.”


  “What?” The other woman was surprised by this news.

  She went to reveal it. “I heard this from my younger brother. According to him, I’m not a member of the family, for I have no blood ties with my father and him. My father took me to the hospital for a DNA test when I was three, and the results revealed that I am not his biological child. It turned out that my mother was already pregnant when they got married. From then on, my father never cared about me and left me in our hometown after my younger brother was born. My mother, on the other hand, has to consider his feelings, since it’s already kindness on his part for not kicking me, an outsider, out of the family. My entire family sees me as a disgrace, so……”


  The lady officer helplessly said, “That’s not your fault, though.”


  “That’s why I fell so hopelessly in love with him when he treated me so well.” She laughed scornfully at herself. “Sounds ridiculous, huh?”


  “No. I just feel somewhat sorry for you,” replied Chu He. “You wanted to change him, so what happened?”