The Substitute Bride and the Cripple Chapter 41 – Will He Believe Me?  

Jiang Ming felt a chill creep down the nape of his neck. This is the Jiang household, he reminded himself, where that cripple couldn't throw his weight about as he pleased. Emboldened, he asked, “What are you glaring at me for, brother? It was Young Master Ning who said that Tang Qiu was his girlfriend, not me. Everyone in their school knows about it; just ask them. Tang Qiu was right there, but she didn't contradict him.”

“That's not true!” Tang Qiu lashed out. “I'm not dating my senior!” How does he even know what happened? Enough to use it as a weapon against her? But she couldn't let this spill into a misunderstanding between her and her husband. “We're just normal classmates, I swear.”

“Normal classmates?” Jiang Ming echoed with derision. “Why so stubborn? It's not as though you haven't already come clean to the whole school.”

“That's not true. The situation was… complicated. I can't explain now, but…” Sweat beaded Tang Qiu's forehead. “I was never dating him! Stop trying to slander me!”

“You don't have to explain yourself, Tang Qiu. No one would blame you for despising my brother, hideous and crippled as he is. Plus his… inability to satisfy you in other ways. We're all adults here, aren't we? It's only natural you would want to find a better man. But first, you have to divorce my brother properly. You can't just go about cuckolding him; it would be humiliating. And a disgrace to the Jiang family, too…”

Sarcasm dripped from his every word. Anger flooded Tang Qiu's face in a tidal wave of red. She bowed her head and stole a glance at Jiang Shaocheng. The venom in his stare felt like it had frozen her blood in her veins–a stinging gust of cold air that brought tears to her eyes. He suspects me too, she thought with a stab of pain. And who could blame him? She had brought this on herself. In order to make the bullying stop, she had taken the easy way out, and–as Qian Hongwei had said–it was too late to go back now. With a deep breath, she knelt before Jiang Shaocheng. “Dear, I promise you, I never once thought of betraying you. Nor would I ever. I swear it.”

A strange smile appeared on Jiang Shaocheng's face. “You mean with your heart or your body?”

The blood drained from Tang Qiu's face. Had she not been craning her neck to look up at him, her tears would have fallen from her eyes. She bit down hard on her lip, willing the last of her strength not to flee from her.

Jiang Shaocheng stroked her head. “Tang Qiu, if you run into any trouble in the future, you must tell me at once. Don't wait for me to find out from other people. Is that clear?”

“I…” Tang Qiu's words evaporated from her. Did he want her to tell her about how she had been harassed and humiliated in school? Was that it? But Ning Mufan and Qian Hongwei had only been trying to help her, and besides… the situation was complicated enough. There wouldn't be a point in telling him and hindering his recovery. But then she thought of how Jiang Ming had used this matter against her and her husband, and her protests bled from her.

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Her eyes dropped. “I'm sorry,” she murmured.

“What are you sorry for? For keeping the truth from me, or for dating that man behind my back?”

The words were soft, but they were a punch to her chest. Tang Qiu clenched her teeth, forcing a scream back down her throat. “This is all a misunderstanding. There's nothing–nothing–between me and Senior Ning Mufan.”

Whoever this senior was, she certainly sounded close to him. Jiang Shaocheng smothered a cold laugh in his heart–along with his jealousy. He was the young master of the Jiang family; no matter how much he cared that she was involved with another man, he couldn't show it. More importantly, she was his wife. If she had been bullied, it meant he had failed as a husband. “I know. I trust that you wouldn't betray me like that.”

Tang Qiu barely choked back a sob. She seized his hand with a teary smile. “Just as long as you believe me.”

Jiang Ming barked out a laugh. “Allow me to show you the truth, then.” With a click, a video started playing. It was of the time in the cafeteria when Ning Mufan had announced that Tang Qiu was his girlfriend. The two of them stood in the center of a noisy crowd, clear as day. After Ning Mufan had referred to her as his girlfriend, Tang Qiu had stayed silent, doing nothing to refute him.

He eyed the faces of everyone watching. “Were you thinking of my brother when you were sucking up to another man, Tang Qiu?” His voice was thick with pleasure. “Is this what you meant when you said you ‘liked him'?”

Chapter end