Chapter 56: Zhou Chen's Counterattack

Hearing Nan Li’s tearful grievance, Zhou Chen was somewhat surprised, yet it was within his expectations. Even so, he asked with genuine concern, "Li Li, what on earth happened?"

"It's Tian Yulan, she..."

Upon hearing Nan Li's explanation, Zhou Chen inwardly cursed. Tian Yulan was already suspended from her post, yet she was still capable of stirring up trouble. Connecting this with Cai Juying's previous uproar at the Weinuan company, he couldn't help but suspect whether this had been deliberately instigated by Tian Yulan. In this regard, his train of thought remarkably coincided with Nan Li's.

"Your company is going too far. After you worked so hard for so long, they demoted you instead. Li Li, if you ask me, you might as well just resign outright to save yourself from suffering this unjustified grievance."

"Husband, I simply cannot swallow this anger. Why should I get nothing after working so hard for all this time? I am, after all, a graduate of a prestigious domestic university. What right do they have to look down on me? And Tian Yulan, she has gone too far. I must demand an explanation from her."

"Hey, Li Li, listen to me—beep, beep, beep..."

Zhou Chen was just about to speak when the line on the other end had already hung up. This instantly filled him with anxiety and irritation. Knowing that Nan Li must have gone to find Tian Yulan, and given the kind of person Tian Yulan was, Nan Li was bound to come out on the losing end.

Naturally, he couldn't let his wife suffer, so he immediately picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Hello, President Fang? I have a matter I'd like to trouble you with. Do you happen to know..."

After getting in touch with Fang Yuanyang, Zhou Chen quickly received a reply. He then dialed a few more numbers, and once everything was prepared, he immediately drove toward Tian Yulan's residential area. Since Tian Yulan was currently suspended, Nan Li would undoubtedly think of going straight to Tian Yulan's home to demand an account.

Nan Li had indeed gone to find Tian Yulan, intercepting her right at the entrance of the residential compound before even reaching her building.

As the saying goes, enemies meeting eyes glow with hostility. The moment the two women caught sight of each other, they immediately went at it tooth and nail. Nan Li's eloquence was quite good, but because the blow she had suffered today was too immense, and Tian Yulan had come prepared, Nan Li couldn't gain any upper hand at all. Instead, she was subjected to all sorts of sarcasm and taunts from Tian Yulan.

Just at that moment, Zhou Chen arrived in the nick of time. Seeing Nan Li and Tian Yulan quarreling by the roadside, he hurriedly parked his car and rushed over.

"Li Li, are you alright?"

Zhou Chen pulled Nan Li behind him at once, looking at her pale face with deep concern.

Before Nan Li could reply, Tian Yulan let out a disdainful sneer, "Oh, afraid you couldn't outtalk me, so you even brought a bodyguard along? Nan Li, Xia Junshan, what's this, planning to gang up on me? The two of you only have this much capability."

"Tian Yulan, you..."

Nan Li was about to speak when Zhou Chen stopped her. He then turned to Tian Yulan and sneered coldly, "It doesn't matter how much capability we have, but you truly have no bottom line. Tian Yulan, your methods are utterly disgusting. First you had your mother make a scene at Li Li's company, and then you secretly went behind our backs to write a malicious report. Behavior like yours is both mentally deficient and utterly devoid of decency. Oh, wait, you even exploited your own mother, so we have to add unfilial to the list."

"Xia Junshan, what did you just say..." Tian Yulan burst into furious rage.

"You heard very clearly what I said. I said you are unfilial. Let's talk about your mother: in order to raise you, she willingly degraded herself to become someone's mistress, working bitterly to raise you up. Yet now that she is old, you still drag her out to be used as a tool. Your mother becoming a mistress for the sake of survival might be forgivable, but your behavior is even worse than your mother's."

"Xia Junshan, I'll fight you to the death."

With a loud roar, Tian Yulan lunged forward to tear at Zhou Chen, but he was well-prepared. As she charged at him, he shoved her firmly away, sending her tumbling down to sit hard on the ground.

"Xia Junshan, how dare you hit me."

"A woman like you—hitting you would just dirty my hands."

Zhou Chen wore a look of utter contempt. He had witnessed Tian Yulan's shamelessness many times before, but this time, he simply could not tolerate it any longer.

Though burning with rage inside, Tian Yulan knew very well that as a woman, she was certainly no match for Zhou Chen. However, her upbringing and past experiences made her acutely aware of how to handle such a situation.

"Help! Someone is hitting people! A man is beating a woman..."

Their altercation had already attracted quite a few onlookers, and with Tian Yulan's crying and shouting, a large crowd quickly gathered around.

"In broad daylight, a big man bullying a woman—truly shameless."

"Yeah, yeah, beating a woman right on the street, I've really seen it all now."

"This man and woman look refined and educated, yet they're bullying a woman. What kind of world is this?"

"Don't jump to conclusions blindly; who knows what the actual situation is? Besides, is the person who gets beaten necessarily in the right? Who knows, maybe this woman is a mistress. Don't the news reports always feature stories of first wives beating mistresses? Maybe this is one of those."

"Makes sense. Two women and one man, it really is a possibility."

"Why don't we just call the police and let the officers handle it?"

"..."

In this country, there is never any shortage of people gathering to watch a spectacle. Looking at Zhou Chen and the others, they began chattering excitedly, their fires of gossip burning brightly.

"Husband, let's just go."

Facing such a scene, Nan Li lost her nerve a little. Although she was furious at Tian Yulan's underhanded tactics, she had no desire to be watched by so many onlookers. If word got out, she would lose every ounce of face.

However, Zhou Chen did not agree. Instead, he lowered his voice and said, "Don't rush. If we don't teach this woman a lesson today, she'll only bring us more trouble in the future."

Before coming here, he had already anticipated that Tian Yulan would be extremely difficult to deal with, which was why he had deliberately made preparations.

Seeing the crowd gather around her, Tian Yulan sat on the ground and wailed loudly, "Everyone, please judge for this for me! This couple is bullying a weak woman like me and even physically assaulting me, just because they think I'm the one who caused them to lose their company positions. You must know we are relatives! To resort to hitting people without even figuring out the whole story, what kind of relatives are they..."

It had to be said that Tian Yulan had truly inherited the true essence of her mother Cai Juying; her talent for making a scene and playing the victim was top-tier, launching straight into a tearful complaint purely to win the crowd's sympathy.

Just at that moment, several people carrying camera equipment and holding microphones suddenly squeezed through the crowd.

"We are reporters from the television station's street interview program. Could you please tell us what is happening here?"

Upon seeing reporters, Tian Yulan became even more energized. Instead of getting up, she remained seated on the ground and complained to the journalists.

"Mr. Reporter, you must expose them! This couple is bullying a woman like me, and we are even relatives, yet they actually physically assaulted me..."

Instantly, cameras and microphones were aimed squarely at Zhou Chen and Nan Li, frightening Nan Li so much that she immediately tried to pull Zhou Chen away.

Zhou Chen, however, did not leave. Instead, he sneered at Tian Yulan and took the initiative to step forward to meet the reporters.

"Sir, this lady claims that you physically assaulted her, and that the two of you are relatives. We'd like to know what kind of matter could possibly make you disregard family ties and hit a woman. As you know, this is extremely immoral and illegal behavior. Sir, you owe us an explanation."

"Right, you must give an explanation."

"Indeed, this kind of behavior absolutely cannot be condoned. They should be exposed; it's too shameless to bully a woman."

"Why ask anything else? Just expose them directly so they won't have the face to show themselves in public anymore."

The angry denunciations from the crowd made the usually capable Nan Li tremble. She gripped Zhou Chen's arm so tightly that her fingernails nearly broke the skin.

Nan Li was already in a fragile mental state today, and now, being berated by journalists and countless onlookers, she had completely lost her usual composure, wishing only to escape this place as quickly as possible.

Zhou Chen, however, showed no fear whatsoever. Glancing sideways at Tian Yulan, who wore a triumphant look on the ground, he sneered, "Since you aren't afraid of losing face, let's see whose face really gets lost."

He then spoke directly into the reporter's microphone, "You want an explanation? Fine, then I will give you one."

"That's right, I did push this woman down, but I must state clearly: she rushed over to attack me and fell only because she didn't succeed. She threw the first punch. Some friends were passing by just now; surely someone must have seen it."

As soon as his voice fell, someone immediately called out, "That's right, I saw it! It was indeed that woman who made the first move."

"I saw it too."

"I've been here all along and saw the whole process. First, those two women got into an argument; then the man arrived. I don't know what was said, but that woman charged at the man like a madwoman, and the man pushed her away in self-defense, after which she fell down."

The previously one-sided public opinion instantly shifted into debate. While a man hitting a woman was wrong, if the woman threw the first punch, the situation became entirely different.

Seizing the momentum, Zhou Chen continued, "Mr. Reporter, you heard it yourself—she struck first."

The reporter immediately countered, "Even if this lady made the first move, she didn't actually injure you, sir, yet you pushed her to the ground. As a man, hitting a woman—isn't that going too far?"

Zhou Chen retorted instantly, "Mr. Reporter, I cannot agree with your phrasing. Does that mean a woman is allowed to hit a man, but a man is not allowed to defend himself? Must I just stand there and take a beating from her simply because she's a woman, and if I don't let her hit me, I'm the one in the wrong?"

"Sir, that's not what I meant, you misunderstood my point. I meant..." The reporter tried to defend himself, but the surrounding crowd had already erupted.

"I think this guy has a point. Why should a woman be allowed to hit a man, while a man can't fight back? What kind of logic is that?"

"Yeah, I thought this woman was being bullied at first, but now it doesn't seem to be the case at all."

"I told you not to jump to conclusions too early. Look at that slap in the face now."

Hearing the murmurs of the crowd, Tian Yulan's expression turned exceedingly ugly. This was completely different from what she had anticipated; shouldn't reality dictate that everyone stood on her side and condemned Zhou Chen? Why was the backlash turning toward her instead?

Naturally, Zhou Chen had no intention of wasting this opportunity and pressed on, "Mr. Reporter, since you want to know what happened, let me tell you clearly why we reacted the way we did."

"It's this lady sitting on the ground here. Do you know what her relationship is to us? She says we are relatives, and she isn't entirely wrong, but do you know what kind of relatives?"

"This lady's mother is a mistress who broke up my wife's biological father's marriage, resulting in my wife and her mother being abandoned. Later, this lady's mother rose from mistress to become the wife of my wife's biological father."

"That's right, calculated this way, we are indeed relatives, because this lady and my wife are step-sisters."

"And the reason for today's confrontation is that this mother-daughter pair harbor deep resentment toward my wife. They went to my wife's company to cause a scene and submitted malicious reports, resulting in my wife being demoted. When my wife came to demand an explanation, she attempted to physically attack us, leading to the scene you all just witnessed."

"I won't hide it from everyone—incidents like today's have happened more than once. This mother-daughter pair even came to our home to cause trouble before. Today, I simply reached my absolute limit, which is why I pushed her. But who would have expected her to turn around and play the victim?"

"If I put it this way, Mr. Reporter, should you understand the whole picture now?"

Although Zhou Chen's explanation was somewhat winding, everyone in the surrounding crowd understood completely. Their gazes toward Tian Yulan shifted instantly, filled with contempt.

Although mistresses were hardly a novelty in this world, having it exposed out in the open still invited universal scorn—just like the looks coming from the crowd right now.

Tian Yulan's face had turned pale and livid. She shouted in fierce refutation, "That's not true! Everyone, please don't believe his lies, I..."

"Then tell me whether what I said is a fact. Didn't your mother steal someone else's husband?"

Tian Yulan roared angrily, "No! Their relationship broke down naturally and they got a divorce, it had nothing to do with my mother!"

Yet the more she offered such explanations, the more people tended to believe Zhou Chen's version of events, because in the public's mind, mistresses invariably used these exact excuses to defend themselves.

At that moment, the reporter reacted with extreme agility, instantly pivoting the camera and microphone toward Tian Yulan.

"Madam, is what this gentleman said true? Was your mother indeed a mistress who took another woman's place? And did you harbor resentment and take revenge by sabotaging someone's career and causing her demotion, Madam..."

"No, it's not true!"

Tian Yulan screamed in fury. The contemptuous stares of the crowd and the aggressive questioning of the reporter pushed her to the brink of losing her sanity entirely.

"Madam, please answer my question. Was your mother a mistress..."

"Get lost! Get lost right now! Your mother is the mistress! Your mother is the mistress who stole a husband!"

With a frantic roar, Tian Yulan shoved the reporter aside, then lunged at the camera: "Stop filming! Get lost, stop filming me..."

At that point, she no longer cared about Zhou Chen or Nan Li. Covering her face, she squeezed through the chaotic crowd and fled toward the residential complex at top speed, terrified that the reporters and onlookers might chase after her.

Though Tian Yulan had fled, the surrounding crowd continued buzzing with discussion, though the public mood had completely reversed into angry denunciations of Tian Yulan and her mother.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Zhou Chen pulled Nan Li away swiftly.

Sitting inside the car, Nan Li had still not fully recovered her wits. The events that had just unfolded delivered a massive psychological shock to her, leaving her stunned.

"Wife, do you feel a bit better in your heart now?"

Hearing Zhou Chen's words, Nan Li turned her head and suddenly asked, "Husband, were you doing this on purpose just now? Did you arrange for those reporters?"

She hadn't reacted while her mind was in a panic, but the more she thought about it now, the stranger it seemed. It had all been far too coincidental, and Zhou Chen's reaction had been entirely too calm, as if he had prepared for it all along.

Zhou Chen laughed, "As expected of my wife, you guessed it in one."

"You really arranged for them?" Nan Li stared at Zhou Chen with her mouth agape.

Zhou Chen replied, "Don't you think this was the absolute best way to deal with her? Since she wanted to use public opinion to frame us, I simply gave her a taste of her own medicine."

Nan Li swallowed hard, "Aren't you being a bit too ruthless? How is she going to show her face around here anymore? And besides, will that footage actually get broadcasted?"

Zhou Chen chuckled, "I'm not that foolish. If it gets broadcasted, it wouldn't do us any good either. I paid them for their time, but the cameras weren't even turned on. Tian Yulan was too panicked at the time to notice a detail like that."

"As for Tian Yulan, she brought this completely upon herself. After today's incident, the next time she tries to stir up trouble for us, she'll have to think twice. If it really comes down to a final showdown, the one who loses face will only ever be her."

Nan Li gazed at Zhou Chen with an unreadable expression, making him feel rather uncomfortable. "Wife, what kind of look is that?"

"Husband, I've realized I seriously underestimated you before. You actually managed to come up with such a devious trick."

"I was just driven to it by necessity, wasn't I? Well, tell me, was it satisfying or not?"

"Well... it certainly was satisfying to a certain degree."

"As long as it was satisfying. I've got plenty of tricks up my sleeve. If she ever dares to act up and pick a fight again, I have plenty of ways to deal with her."

"Give you an inch and you take a mile..."