Rebirth: Splendid Marriage in the 80s Chapter 2475: 2411: Someone Is Pulling the Strings
Previously on Rebirth: Splendid Marriage in the 80s...
Chiang Xiao kept turning the pages, discovering countess clashes and mix-ups between Meng Chaojun and Nian Chengcheng.
Eventually, Meng Chaojun got word once more that Nian Chengcheng was chatting with her old school crush, the teacher. In a fury, he dashed to the spot, but arrived to an abandoned room in a hotel, where the bed lay in total disarray, and one of Nian Chengcheng's earrings sat forgotten on it.
Meng Chaojun had gifted that earring to Nian Chengcheng right after she bore Meng Xinian, so he knew it instantly.
— At first, I had no clue what Chao Jun spotted in that hotel room. It only came out years later during a heated fight, when he blurted it out in rage. He claimed the rumpled sheets screamed of post-passion chaos. I insisted over and over that we'd only been sipping tea and reminiscing with the teacher at a teahouse, but he wouldn't buy it. And I had no answer for how my earring ended up on that hotel bed—I hadn't even noticed it was missing.
A sharp intake of breath escaped Chiang Xiao as she reached this entry.
She pressed on through the pages, piecing together the full story of those dark days.
A hidden hand had been weaving deceptions between Meng Chaojun and Nian Chengcheng, their schemes so sly that the rifts took hold deep, trapping Nian Chengcheng without a defense and forcing her to endure the agony alone.
In time, Meng Chaojun lost all faith in her, even turning his charms toward women who fawned over him. Though no real affairs sparked, it tore at Nian Chengcheng's heart to watch him share laughs and whispers with another under a rain-speckled umbrella.
Duan Qingqing's arrival shook things to the core; this woman hounded Meng Chaojun relentlessly and made sure Nian Chengcheng witnessed their intimate moments again and again.
With Nian Chengcheng's timid nature, she lacked the boldness to challenge Meng Chaojun outright, left to swallow her torment quietly.
Once Meng Xinian entered the world, her love for her husband bloomed into something profound, pouring every ounce of devotion into him, which made their emotional chasm cut even deeper.
And in the end, as death loomed near, Duan Qingqing slipped in, seizing the moment when no one else lingered.
— I jolted awake to find her there at my bedside, clad in a bold red gown, radiating youth and life, while I wilted like a dried-up bloom in comparison.
— I refused to accept the words spilling from her lips. Duan Qingqing confessed she hadn't truly desired Chao Jun at the start. She revealed she'd given in to some stranger and lost track of him, ending up pregnant and needing a husband. Someone had slipped her a letter packed with Chao Jun's pictures, his history, every like and dislike, even hinting that his marriage was crumbling—prime chance for her to step in...
Chiang Xiao slammed the diary closed with a thud.
Her eyes burned into Meng Xinian as she clenched her jaw in fury.
"Brother Xinian, it's got to be Nian Che! He was burning with envy and spite back then, stirring up all those mix-ups for your folks, and he must've been the one mailing that letter to Duan Qingqing too!"
A vein pulsed at Meng Xinian's temple.
"But didn't Duan Qingqing claim she carried that other man's baby?"
Yet, she never bore a child after that.
Meng Xinian stated coolly, "Just shy of two months into her marriage to the Meng Family, she 'fell ill' because of me and miscarried. Meng Chaojun figured I was to blame for losing his second boy, so he laid into me badly. That's why, despite Duan Qingqing never conceiving again, he never held it against her—he pinned it all on me."