Lihua said, "This was your plan to break off the engagement?"

Jiang Ruiling bit her lip and clenched fist. "It was supposed to work but-"

"'But' is exactly the problem here!" She exclaimed. "And not just that. Your plan is wrong on so many levels. Where do I start from?" She pressed the space in between her brows.

"Do you know how dangerous your plan was? You planned to call Wen Yaoting so that he would force himself on you - that in itself is so dangerous! Anything could have gone wrong in the plan and it did. Your whole plan depended on Shen Yang's return to save you, but do you understand how risky that is? I am not doubting his capabilities to protect you, but at least you should have had a backup in case he faced any problems on his return."

Shen Yang was just as horrified. "Young mistress you…Madam is right. How could you think of doing something so dangerous all by yourself! Do you know that I was locked up in the meter room?"

She widened her eyes. "What?"

"Yes. I got a bad feeling about all this. The lights were gone and then I was locked up. I don't know who did it, but I had to break the door open and rush at once. But if I couldn't have escaped, what would have happened then? That man…" his gaze darkened as he thought of the worst outcome.

"T-that…" she lowered her head.

Lihua shook her head. "That and how could you let people think that you were compromised?"

She pursed her lips. "It was all for the sake of my plan. I don't care what anybody thinks about my reputation. This was the only way I could have gotten Old Madam to agree to Shen Yang and my marriage."

She glared at her. "Forget about Old Madam for once. Do you think Uncle Weiyuan and Aunt Ninghong deserve to see their child belittled like this? Do you know how society looks at women who are…" her lips straightened into a thin line, "And do you realize how much your parents would have to bear seeing others mock you?"

She quickly said, "It's not like that. After my marriage with Shen Yang, I was going to tell them the truth."

"But you aren't going to tell the truth to the whole world, right? That is even worse. Your mother, father, brother will have to bear everything knowing that you are innocent. No parents would want their child to suffer such words and disdain from society. How will they feel when they will see the whole world sneering and laughing at you?

Wen Yaoting or this man would have gotten their due punishment for sure, but do you think you would have been spared? It's an even worse life for victims. It is unfortunate, it is bitter but it is the truth. The world, no matter how much it pretends to be open-minded, isn't like that.

Uncle and Aunt would be so heartbroken to see others treat you like that. They can bear if somebody insults them, but they cannot see somebody pointing a finger at you. They cannot see their child living a hard life, especially when she hasn't even suffered. Jiang Ruiling, you might not care about your reputation, but they do."

Jiang Ruiling trembled.

"Imagine yourself in their place. Would you as a mother one day in the future agree to this if your daughter had cooked up this plan?"

Silence.

Shen Yang held her hand and softly said, "Young mistress, it's not just your parents or brother but I care about you too. You cannot hurt yourself to this point. Do you expect me to live a happy life knowing that you would be suffering behind my back?"

Lihua nodded. "Jiang Ruiling. I understand that you are desperate, but for Shen Yang's sake, you cannot hurt your family who cares about you. The vice versa is also true."

Jiang Ruiling shivered and burst into tears. "I...I am sorry...I am really sorry. I didn't think about Mom, Dad, big brother. You are right. They don't deserve this."

She sighed and patted her head.

Jiang Ruiling wiped her tears and said, "But I don't know what to do now. I don't even know how this man came here instead of Wen Yaoting."

Lihua touched her chin. "This is a serious problem…"

As soon as Wei saw that his wife also wanted to know what happened, he immediately came forward and said, "It is Shi Ruomei and Wen Yaoting."

Lihua was startled. "Huh? How is it them who did all this?"

Wei slightly coughed.

He already knew about their plan the moment Ruomei triggered a search about Lihua's past. When she asked her spy to dig something about Lihua, Wei got to know that somebody was looking into Lihua's information.

And as someone who had deleted her whole identity, how could he have let someone get closer to his truth?

That's when he came to know that Ruomei had ordered her spy to search anything he could find about Lihua and Jiang Ruiling.

He could have dealt with that spy and simply killed him, but he wanted to avoid any troubles for now. Of course, if he still persisted to dig about her, he would be more than happy to shoot him in the head.

Wei didn't let the spy find anything about Lihua, but he had no reason to stop him from finding anything about Jiang Ruiling so he let it pass. Plus, the Mafia King was still vengeful about her talking harshly to Lihua.

Wei said, "I received a report from Renshu that someone was digging about her. That's how."

Jiang Ruiling had her jaw dropped wide open. "You knew that Shi Ruomei was planning something with Wen Yaoting to harm me?"

Wei coldly glanced at her and simply hummed.

Lihua exclaimed. "Then why didn't you say it to her before!?"

Jiang Ruiling had the same question in her mind and so did Shen Yang.

He raised his brow as he looked at his cousin. "Why should I help her? Or my wife in that case? Didn't Ruiling say that she can handle everything by herself?"

She froze as if lightning struck her.

"When she says that she can handle it herself, for me, it also means that she is ready to face the situation even if her plan backfires. She has contingencies in place that can get her out of any pinch. That is what I call handling everything on one's own," The Mafia King declared.