Chapter 34
She looked as if she had given up all hope, and said word by word, "Last year on the night of the Lantern Festival, you got drunk, barged into my room, and forced yourself on me."
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Zhong Ning (screaming chicken version): "Aaaaah! What kind of horror story are you telling?!"
Xie Shiqing (eavesdropping): "Oh?"
Always remember, this is a one-on-one, mutually pure love story.
And this is a very serious matter!!!
Zhong Ning stood stiff like a piece of wood, with a layer of cement coated over, as hard as it could be.
Who am I, where am I, what is this person talking about...
The words coming out of the woman in the server’s uniform hit Zhong Ning with a shock no less than the one she felt that morning when she woke up naked beside Xie Shiqing.
The woman stared at her without blinking. The hatred and sorrow in her eyes were so intense they could split a person alive, as if she had experienced utter despair, and this pain had turned into fuel, igniting her soul and driving her words and actions.
Zhong Ning had never seen such an expression directed at her.
It was too intense.
She had only ever received gentle, grateful, tolerant, and admiring looks. She had never encountered anything associated with such negative emotions.
Zhong Ning instinctively avoided her gaze, nearly wanting to find a place to hide.
The woman continued, "I found out I had been... The next day, I bought emergency contraception and went to the police, but you called and said we were in a normal relationship. The police wouldn’t handle emotional disputes, so they just asked me to leave."
Hatred flared in her eyes. "I didn’t expect that I would still get pregnant. The doctor said my body isn’t suitable for abortion and that it could leave irreversible consequences."
"So I dropped out of school and gave birth to the child. Miaomiao was born prematurely and has congenital heart disease."
Her tone was even colder than her eyes. "You gave me some money when I first found you. You wanted to use that money to silence me, using the influence of the Zhong family to shut my mouth."
"I’ve been sensible. I never came looking for you or clung to you, did I? But recently, I told you about Miaomiao’s condition, and you just deleted me."
"Miaomiao’s illness can’t wait. She’s in the intensive care unit, and the daily expenses are astronomical. If it weren’t because I couldn’t afford it, I wouldn’t have come to find you."
Tears welled up in the woman’s eyes. She wiped them away casually with her hand, eyes never leaving Zhong Ning. "I only want money. I just want to cure Miaomiao’s illness."
Zhong Ning was still trying to process everything, but Fu Nanshuang suddenly slapped the table and glared at her. "What nonsense are you talking about? That day, Little Ning was with us the whole time. She never went to Lingyun Hotel!"
She sneered, "You want someone to take the blame, just biting random people. Just because you had a child, it’s Little Ning’s? I could say I’m from Mars, so I am from Mars? If you’re going to talk, show evidence. Otherwise, I can sue you for defamation."
But Zheng Xuan frowned deeply and tugged at her arm. "You got drunk early that day, and the driver took you home directly. But Little Ning, it was indeed I who took her to Lingyun Hotel."
"Because of that incident... she didn’t want to go home."
She changed her tone, "But Little Ning was also dead drunk, couldn’t even walk. I watched her fall asleep and even asked the hotel staff to keep an eye on her, in case she started vomiting all over the place. There’s no way she could have barged into your room."
"The security at Lingyun Hotel shouldn’t be so lax that a drunk person can just open someone else’s room, right? And we don’t even know you, which means you’re not from an elite family. So, how could you afford to stay at a five-star hotel? And how did you know that the person was Zhong Ning?"
Faced with these questions, the woman in the server uniform remained unflustered. She took out her phone and pulled up her award documentation from Fengcheng University’s scholarship travel program. The date indicated the three days of the Lantern Festival last year, along with cooperation agreements for free access to various tourist spots.
The joy she felt when receiving the award was matched by the despair she experienced afterward.
She also showed her chat history with Zhong Ning. The profile picture was the same, along with records of bank transfers.
"I was able to find Zhong Ning because she left me her phone number and name, even said I was quite the taste and that she wanted to keep me."
After the others looked through it all, no one knew what to say for a while.
She sneered, "I already said, I only want money. I never want to be entangled with you for the rest of my life. You’ve already ruined everything for me. I just want to save Miaomiao."
Zhong Ning steadied herself, looking at the slightly reddened eyes of the woman, and after some thought, she spoke slowly, "I need to do a paternity test."
She couldn’t be sure whether what this woman said was true or false. She had had the phone for several days now and had more or less gone through all its secrets. There were no traces related to this incident.
Perhaps it was kept only in memory out of fear of being discovered, which was why she, as a later arrival, knew nothing about it.
Or perhaps it had never happened at all—it was entirely a false accusation, a misunderstanding.
That was a child, not a stone or a blade of grass that could be picked up or discarded casually. To agree to this lightly, she would have to take responsibility.
If this was a lie, then there was more to consider. Why would someone fabricate all this? The target being her—how strange. She hadn’t done anything to offend anyone, had she?
Ever since she transmigrated, she had maintained a very harmonious and good relationship with both the heroine and the villain. There was no reason for her to fall into the same fate as in the novel.
Zhong Ning wasn’t someone skilled at conspiracy theories. She couldn’t think of any reason why she would be targeted, and especially in such an absurd way!
Was it to ruin her reputation?
But if… if what this woman said was true, then what would she do? The engagement invitation with Xie Shiqing had just gone out, and then something like this happened. Could the wedding still go on?
But abandoning this mother and daughter, abandoning a child related to her by blood, and watching the child die due to lack of treatment—that was something Zhong Ning absolutely could not accept.