Clang, clang...
"But can you tell me?" he finally asked.
After a long silence, Xiang Zi slowly began: "It was a photograph."
It was Lin Wanxing's photo, tucked inside an open English journal on Shu Yong's desk, coincidentally placed on the very page where Lin Wanxing had published her work on moral priming effects. Most people read English journals online these days—physical copies were rare outside library subscriptions.
The issue arose because Lin Wanxing had promised to include Xiang Zi's name in one of her papers, but when the final confirmation email arrived from the editorial board, his name was missing. Lin Wanxing claimed the final submission had been handled by the professor and she didn’t know how it happened. So Xiang Zi confronted Shu Yong directly.
Xiang Zi was stunned when he saw the photo. It wasn’t a group student photo or anything ordinary—it showed Lin Wanxing smiling at the camera, forming a huge heart with her hands.
In this day and age, photos are stored on phones. A deliberately developed film print was already unusual, let alone a heart-handed gesture from a beautiful female student—it felt ambiguous and unsettling.
Shu Yong’s reaction was equally suspicious. He panicked, snapped the journal shut, and shoved it back onto the shelf.
"He’s always been gentle and good-tempered—that’s partly why Lin Wanxing could manipulate him. But that time, he lost his temper at me, and we ended up arguing," Xiang Zi explained.
Wang Fa’s heart sank. He remembered the photos Lin Wanxing had sealed away in a cardboard box. He refused to believe she would ever profess affection for Shu Yong in an academic paper, much less gift him her personal photo tucked inside.
It was all Shu Yong’s doing—making Xiang Zi misinterpret the situation.
She had been so radiantly happy back then, yet all the while, she was being watched and schemed against by something dark and rotten.
"You confronted him directly with the journal?"
"As you can see, I’m blunt by nature. I snatched the journal, shook Lin Wanxing’s photo out, and demanded an explanation. At first, he denied everything. But when I threatened to ask Lin Wanxing herself, he dropped to his knees. He wept. He said it was all his fault and begged me not to upset Lin Wanxing."
"So you never went to her?" A chill ran through Wang Fa. Had Xiang Zi approached Lin Wanxing then, she would have understood the truth. He couldn’t fathom why Xiang Zi hadn’t.
"Because his wife was hospitalized with lung cancer at the time. Lin Wanxing had long wanted to take her place. The professor feared that if Lin Wanxing found out, she might escalate and harm his wife."
Click—like the sound of something shattering.
Wang Fa felt only horror.
Lin Wanxing was like a small insect accidentally trapped in a vast spider’s web, ensnared by a massive, dying spider. With decaying eyes, he witnessed her struggle—and even after his death, she remained forever entangled in that web.
Shu Yong must have feigned agony and inner conflict. Wang Fa could almost visualize him kneeling in repentance, hiding a smirk as he bowed his head.
By shifting all blame onto Lin Wanxing, he used his critically ill wife to seal Xiang Zi’s lips, forcing him to guard the secret in silence.
The imagined stories he’d woven about him and her in his mind finally had a witness.
And throughout it all, Shu Yong would endlessly repent:
He couldn’t resist the temptation, but what’s done is done—he didn’t know how to fix it.He had let his family down, yet Lin Wanxing wanted to be with him, and he was utterly captivated by her.
The deeper Xiang Zi delved into his relationship with Shu Yong, the more he uncovered the details of how Lin Wanxing, as fabricated in Shu Yong's mind, had emotionally manipulated him. Whether it was the photos or the initials on the thesis, along with other pieces of evidence, they were all Lin Wanxing's tactics.
Shu Yong treated Xiang Zi increasingly well, helping him publish papers, promising him a secured Ph.D. position, and caring for him as if he were his own.
He was tormented and fragile but insisted he would handle everything properly and would no longer hurt his wife.
Just when Xiang Zi thought something might change, he received the news of Professor Shu Yong's suicide.
Lin Wanxing was right there.
The entire space fell into complete silence.
The soft crunching sound of footsteps on snow began to echo lightly.
Wang Fa felt as if he had returned to that cold, snowy night.
He saw Lin Wanxing, called to the professor's office for work, slowly ascending the wooden stairs of that old building.
She was so beautiful, lively, adorable, intelligent, and kind—almost every perfect word to describe a girl could be used for her. More importantly, her soul was so pure that it made one unable to resist the urge to possess her completely.
She stood in front of the office door and knocked, completely unaware of the enormous trap that lay behind it.
Wang Fa felt as if he were standing behind Shu Yong, wanting to shout and warn Lin Wanxing not to enter.
But she still pushed the door open.
The night breeze lifted the strands of hair at her temples. She was like a pearl nestled in the depths of an oyster shell, and also the gentlest, most serene star in the sky.
Shu Yong had thought it through clearly.
She was too perfect—she would surely reject him, and it was impossible for any romantic feelings to develop between her and an old man like him.
More importantly, if they were to truly develop feelings, it would utterly defile her beauty, and all affection would shatter as a result. He could not bear such an outcome.
This was likely a kind of treasuring so intense that he feared she would melt even if held in his mouth. Because he liked her too much, he grew even more apprehensive of losing her.
But as time passed, he couldn't keep the girl by his side forever. She would graduate, work, marry, have children...
What made it even harder for him to accept was that when the admissions season arrived, the girl received a full scholarship and was about to study abroad.
Once she graduated, he would lose her forever. This panic hammered at his heart day and night.
The mere thought of it made him wish for death, so he decided to die.
His death would be the true beginning of their union.
And so, Lin Wanxing stepped into his office with ease.
Like a butterfly lightly caught in a spider's web.
Under the solitary lamp on that snowy night, the girl was beautiful and fragile. He would confess his overflowing love to her and then die content.
He knew very well that no one would believe she was innocent.
Why was he so confident?
Because walls have ears in schools.
The fact that Lin Wanxing had come to his office before her death, along with that text message and his suicide note, would surely spread.
To ensure that someone would publicize everything after his death, he had even chosen the most suitable person for the task.
That person knew everything and would bring it all to light.
By then, everyone around would become witnesses to his love.
The coffee at the neighboring table seemed to have spilled, the sound of clinking porcelain startling everyone immersed in the story.
Wang Fa's gaze was deep and distant. "So, did Professor Shu Yong leave any last words for you before he died?"
He finally asked Xiang Zi.After a long silence.
"The teacher said, 'Don't tell anyone, don't hurt her'."
Chapter 122: Youting
In the café at Yongchuan University, bamboo curtains separated each booth.
Coffee had spilled over half the table in the back booth, yet no one around made any move to wipe it up.
Lin Chen slowly raised his head, looking at the woman sitting in the shadows opposite him.
"Is there any part of this you haven't heard before?" he asked.
"I don't know. Xiang Zi never told me any of this," the woman replied in a soft, hoarse voice. "Are you sure those complaint letters were sent by Xiang Zi?"
"I have a friend who's quite skilled with computers. I asked him to look into it, and he confirmed it was him."
"Why on earth would he do such a thing?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Lin Chen said quietly, "Shu Yong chose Xiang Zi after careful consideration. First, according to Fu Hao, Xiang Zi harbored innate hostility toward women due to family issues. Second, we found numerous similar anonymous letters in the email account he used to send the complaints—he often saw himself as a champion of justice. Shu Yong understood his temperament well. Finally, Shu Yong only needed to show favoritism toward Lin Wanxing to make Xiang Zi resentful, thus easily manipulating and using him."
The woman listened attentively.
After a while, she stood up directly, pushed aside the bamboo curtain, and strode toward the front booth.
"Why did you never tell me about these things?" she asked bluntly.
The bamboo curtain of the booth was swept aside with a rustle, letting in a rush of air.
A gentle yet dignified and firm voice echoed through the space, startling everyone.
Wang Fa looked up in surprise and saw a middle-aged woman.
She was short and thin, with some gray hair at her temples. Yet she wore a dark blue cross-collar thin jacket, appearing both dignified and gentle, evoking a sense of closeness.
Xiang Zi jumped up in shock. "Shimu, what are you doing here?"
Lin Chen and Xing Conglian exchanged a glance and followed over.
Seeing the group before him, Xiang Zi instantly understood.
He said angrily, "My shimu's health has just improved a little. Why did you bring her here? To hurt the victim again?"
Wang Fa quickly realized.
The elegant woman before him must be Professor He Youting, Shu Yong's widow. At this thought, his earlier sense of closeness vanished entirely.
Even Qin Ao and Wen Chengye narrowed their eyes, watching the woman warily—she looked so frail she might be blown over by a gust of wind. They had no idea what she was here for.
"No one invited me. I came on my own," He Youting said in her soft, hoarse voice. She looked at Xiang Zi and repeated her question, "I'm asking you, why didn't you tell me about these things?"
"How could I tell you? You were so ill—should I have told you the teacher was having an affair?"
"Then why didn't you say anything after he died?"
Xiang Zi hesitated, looking as if he were about to go mad.
Lin Chen answered for him: "If he spoke up afterward, many people would ask, 'Why didn't you tell your shimu earlier? Maybe the teacher wouldn't have had to die.' So, keeping himself completely out of it was the best choice."
He Youting seemed to understand everything in an instant. "He really calculated everything so well."
Xiang Zi lifted his head, hesitating as if he strongly disagreed with Lin Chen's "keeping out of it" remark. "What's the point of knowing too many details about the teacher's affair? I was protecting you," he said to He Youting."Don't use protecting me as an excuse to hurt others. I don't need it." He Youting's words rang with conviction.
"Who am I hurting, Lin Wanxing?" Xiang Zi found this utterly ridiculous. What was this situation now - the legal wife protecting the mistress?
Wang Fa also looked at Professor He in disbelief. This was somewhat different from what he had imagined.
"Now I'm asking you, when you said you saw Wanxing's photo in his office, what exactly did that photo look like?" He Youting asked Xiang Zi.
"It's... just a photo of her showing her waist while making a heart gesture, with hearts on her clothes too."
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