TSDT - 11

With a strong man to carry her groceries, Jiang Ying efficiently picked out a whole week’s worth of food, stuffing the large bags that Meng Jingshu carried. Just before getting into the car, she received a notification from her mentor, urgently asking her to send an express document.

She returned to the law firm, sent the email, and brought her work laptop home just in case.

During afternoon working hours, people constantly moved in and out of the adjacent buildings, but their law firm’s entrance remained conspicuously bare, exuding an inappropriate sense of calm.

With limited time, Meng Jingshu didn’t stop underground but circled the area twice. Jiang Ying was looking down, replying to his WeChat message. Suddenly, in her peripheral vision, a pink blur rushed straight towards her, a gust of wind accompanied by a woman’s shrill voice,

“Jiang Ying, you bitch—”

A slap flew towards her face, and Jiang Ying turned her head, retreating a step sharply. The person didn’t manage to hit her face as intended and immediately lunged again. Jiang Ying, holding her laptop, couldn’t use her hands and lost her balance, falling directly.

The woman pressed down on her, shaking her violently, crying and yelling, “Give him back to me—ah—”

“Wuwuwu—”

Shaking her and crying at the same time.

Jiang Ying recognized the person through her blurry, shaking vision. Rage ignited. She put down her laptop and immediately used her hands and feet to push her, shouting, “Get your fucking hands off me!!”

The person had cried herself into a wet, sticky mess, clinging to her leg, hitting and patting without letting go.

“Waaaaah—How could you, hic, do this...”

Meng Jingshu parked his car. From a distance, he saw the chaos and strode over, shouting sternly, “Stop!”

A man’s strength was indeed great. He instantly pulled the woman away, rescuing the flailing Jiang Ying. Meng Jingshu pulled Jiang Ying up from the ground. Before she could even brush her hair, the woman with the tear-streaked face tried to lunge again.

Meng Jingshu blocked her in front, restraining her with one hand and pulling out his phone with the other, preparing to call the police.

Unexpectedly, Jiang Ying took two breaths, directly pushed him aside, yanked her hands free, moved close to the woman, grabbed her collar, and angrily yelled into her face, “Hu Ruochen, you idiot!!!”

Actually, they were almost the same height, but Jiang Ying purely overwhelmed the other woman with her aura.

Hu Ruochen, grabbed and yelled at like that, instantly deflated like a punctured ball, trembling, cowering, collapsing, and bursting into loud sobs.

Meng Jingshu: “...”

He spent a few seconds processing the complex emotions and asked, “Should I call the police?”

Jiang Ying brushed dust off her clothes, her fierce expression still intact: “No need.”

Meng Jingshu paused, then asked, “What’s going on?”

Jiang Ying stared at the trembling pink blob on the ground, saying with disgust, “That’s my ex-boyfriend’s mistress.”

Hu Ruochen sobbed, looked up, and glared at her: “She’s his current girlfriend!”

Jiang Ying: “Right, mistress turned current, current will soon turn ex again, congratulations!”

Hu Ruochen wailed, “It’s all your fault... wuwu... hiccup, you give him back to me...”

Meng Jingshu turned to look at her, his gaze probing. Jiang Ying helplessly explained what happened yesterday to Meng Jingshu in a few sentences, getting angrier as she spoke, and began to mock Hu Ruochen: “I think you two idiots are a perfect match, why didn’t it last?”

Hu Ruochen wailed, “It’s all you! You seduced him!”

Jiang Ying said coldly, “Today I’m going to clean out your brain.”

She took out her portable voice recorder and played yesterday’s recording for Hu Ruochen. When encountering unclear situations, if conditions allowed, she would habitually record, keeping evidence for future use.

Hu Ruochen had been whimpering and sobbing, but upon hearing Chen Tianjing’s voice, she suddenly froze. It wasn’t until she heard the line, “You meet the wrong person to know who is the right one,” that she let out a desperate cry, then fell into a state of numb tears.

The voice from the recorder continued: “Xiaoying, you’re being so decisive, is it because of that last time...” Jiang Ying cut it off at the right moment.

Meng Jingshu gave her a subtle look.

Jiang Ying ignored it.

She nudged Hu Ruochen’s shoes: “Are you clear-headed now? Get up, and go home.”

Hu Ruochen seemed not to hear, squatting on the ground, unmoving.

“Hey, aren’t your feet numb?”

Still no movement, tears just falling.

The two looked at her in silence for a while. Jiang Ying said, “What should we do? Leave her here and just go?”

Meng Jingshu: “Sure.”

Jiang Ying: “...”

Jiang Ying hesitated for a moment, then said, “Or should we call a car to take her away?”

Meng Jingshu smiled, took out his phone to call a car, and asked Jiang Ying, “What address should I put?”

Jiang Ying immediately rattled off a string of street names and residential areas.

Meng Jingshu’s fingers were typing. He casually said, “How do you know that so clearly?”

Jiang Ying sneered, “When I was first cheated on, I was so angry that I looked her up, planning to pour sulfuric acid on her.”

Meng Jingshu: “...”

Hu Ruochen finally reacted, glaring at them with rabbit-like eyes.

Jiang Ying crossed her arms, looking down at her: “What are you glaring at? Are you very wronged? Didn’t you think about retribution when you messed with someone else’s boyfriend?” She finished, then suddenly fell silent.

She knew Meng Jingshu was looking at her, but she didn’t want to respond.

Hu Ruochen mumbled tearfully, “I didn’t know... I only found out later... later...”

Jiang Ying watched the approaching taxi, pulled her up, “No need to explain, it doesn’t matter anymore. I should even thank you for letting me cut my losses in time. Figure things out for yourself, and just don’t bother me again. Scram.”

She shoved the woman into the car, neatly closed the door, and the car drove away.

Meng Jingshu was still looking at her.

She said coldly, “What are you looking at?”

Meng Jingshu moved closer, his brow furrowed: “You’re hurt.”

Jiang Ying was surprised: “Ah?!”

The area he was looking at gradually began to sting painfully. Jiang Ying immediately took out her phone to check. There was a one or two-centimeter blood mark on the side of her nose. It wasn’t deep, but it hurt quite a bit. It must have been scratched by a fingernail when she couldn’t dodge in time.

She pouted: “Karma, I’m going to be disfigured...”

“Don’t overthink it,” Meng Jingshu looked directly into her eyes, his tone serious, “I wasn’t in a relationship then, so you don’t need to feel like you did anything wrong.”

Jiang Ying inhaled, saying, “I know.”

It’s just that I originally had ill intentions, wanting to take revenge on someone I held a grudge against in this way, genuinely wanting to destroy her beautiful love. I cannot weigh which is heavier, the past resentment or the current revenge. Therefore, for a moment, my own sense of good and evil wavered.

But it doesn’t matter. Beyond the law, good and evil only exist in the heart. I have my own measuring stick in my heart. This is not something to regret, and it’s certainly not worth tormenting myself over.

On an autumn afternoon, the sunlight was thin, the light falling obliquely, clearly illuminating their faces. A breeze passed, stirring her slightly disheveled black hair, and her eyes were clear.

Meng Jingshu nodded slightly: “Good that you know.”

Jiang Ying shrugged, intending to find a pharmacy for a plaster. The moment she moved her foot, a sharp, piercing ache immediately shot through her ankle.

Her features crumpled, and with a tearful face, she stood rooted to the spot, wailing, “Ah, ah, my foot, my foot is hurt too!”

Her earlier composure instantly vanished, thrown into the Atlantic to feed the fish.

Meng Jingshu bent slightly, circled her with one arm, and directly picked her up: “To the hospital.”