100 ways to kill your husband

Chapter 22, Sixth time caught in the act.

Lu Heng lowered his voice and asked Wen Xu, "Why are you talking to that good-for-nothing? He can't even jump over a single obstacle. A man acting like a delicate flower all day long is disgusting."

It turns out that the silver-haired man was the last place winner in the competition. He was wearing a helmet at the time, so Wen Xu couldn't see his face and therefore had no impression of him.

Lu Heng hated being told he lacked masculinity, and would criticize anyone else for lacking it, using this to show he was different. Yet, Lu Heng also clearly showed some apprehension towards him; if he were just an ordinary guest, Lu Heng could easily find a reason to kick him out.

"I'm talking to him because he's your guest. If you don't like him, why did you invite him in the first place?"

Lu Heng's face showed a rare hint of headache. "He's my cousin Xia Zheyuan. If we don't invite him, his elders will nag us."

Lu Heng suddenly put his arm around Wen Xu's waist and hugged her head.

"Xuxu, you can't blame me. You're too beautiful. I was afraid Xia Zheyuan would take you away from me. He used to like taking things from me when we were kids. The time he fell to the ground was just a trick to make you feel guilty. You mustn't be fooled by him."

"Just call me Xiao Xu."

The one who lied to her the most was Lu Heng. Wen Xu felt utterly disgusted leaning against him; Lu Heng's so-called affection was nothing but possession. Now she understood perfectly well. Embrace him wholeheartedly. This time, she would definitely kill him.

But Wen Xu still sensed something was off. She knew Lu Heng too well; her ear was pressed against his chest, and she could hear his steady heartbeat. His movements weren't exactly rough either. At least at this moment, Lu Heng didn't intend to kill her.

Wen Xu felt uneasy. She looked in the direction where Su Yuelan was. Su Yuelan was sitting in a chair one seat away from Xia Ziling, but she was nowhere to be seen. Wen Xu looked around again, but Su Yuelan was nowhere to be found.

Wen Xu's expression changed. She pushed Lu Heng aside and walked to the chair where Su Yuelan was sitting. On the table was a palm-sized coin purse with an orchid on its blue velvet surface, which matched Su Yuelan's clothes perfectly.

Has anyone seen where my mom went?

The female guests sitting nearby all shook their heads. Wen Xu asked a few more people nearby, and they all said they hadn't seen anything. Su Yuelan had been sitting there until Xia Zheyuan appeared.

Lu Heng, however, didn't seem to care. "Auntie isn't a child. She's probably resting somewhere else on the first floor."

Wen Xu immediately went to find him, while Lu Heng, who was left standing aside, looked very unhappy. However, he still followed Wen Xu, even though he kept looking at his watch.

Wen Xu searched every corner of the first floor but still couldn't find Su Yuelan. As she walked, she suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground, where half of a broken wooden hairpin fell—the very hairpin Su Yuelan used to secure her bun.

The broken hairpin fell onto the stairs leading to the second floor, and Wen Xu headed up. At that moment, two waiters standing at the top of the stairs stopped her.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Wen, the second floor is temporarily closed."

As she entered, Wen Xu clearly saw Butler Bai heading up the stairs to the second floor. She asked the waiter, "Where is your security room? My mother is missing, I need to check her location."

The two waiters exchanged a strange look and said, "To protect our guests' privacy, we don't have surveillance cameras here."

Lu Heng also stopped Wen Xu, "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill. Maybe if you go back now, your aunt will already be sitting in her old seat."

The more they tried to stop Wen Xu from going up, the more suspicious she became. Just as she was wondering if she could climb up to the second floor from the outer wall, she heard Su Yuelan sobbing. Although it was only once, she knew that sound had been with her since childhood and she was certain she hadn't misheard it.

Wen Xu rushed forward, and when the two waiters tried to stop him, he said, "I've already heard my mother's voice. What are you trying to do by insisting on stopping me?"

The waiter knew she was Lu Heng's fiancée. Although he had been ordered not to let her go up, he couldn't afford to offend her. He only pretended to stop her, letting her push her way through and go inside.

In her past life, Wen Xu had been here with Lu Heng several times, so she was very familiar with the layout of the second floor and quickly found the room where Su Yuelan was.

Wen Xu pushed open the half-closed door. It was a small reception room for people to rest, with sofas arranged at right angles around a low coffee table. Su Yuelan was slumped on the floor, and the bamboo-green cloak over her cheongsam had been pulled down.

"mom!"

Wen Xu ran forward to help Su Yuelan up, checked her over thoroughly, and only felt relieved after confirming that Su Yuelan had no external injuries.

Su Yuelan continued to sob softly, saying intermittently, "Xuxu, Mom didn't steal anything, and I don't know how the watch ended up with me."

Wen Xu's gaze swept over the housekeeper, who had been standing aside watching the spectacle, and the two security guards standing beside her, as if she wanted to memorize their ugly faces.

At this moment, Xia Ziling also heard the commotion upstairs and came up with several people. She asked Butler Bai what was going on. Butler Bai took out a handkerchief, and when he unfolded it, he found the pink diamond watch that Xia Ziling had used to tease Wen Xu.

"Madam, she stole the watch and hid it in her hair. I caught her red-handed."

"Don't make false accusations. My mom wouldn't steal a watch."

Wen Xu then asked Su Yuelan what had happened, but Su Yuelan shook her head while crying.

"I had a drink and felt a little dizzy. When I woke up, I was in this room. He suddenly appeared and pulled my hair, and my watch fell to the ground."

Su Yuelan pointed to one of the security guards, but the guard kept his hands crossed in front of him and gave a cold laugh.

Wen Xu knew that the current situation was unfavorable to Su Yuelan, but she still held Su Yuelan's hand tightly.

"At the banquet, everyone saw Butler Bai put the pink diamond watch away. After my mother and I left the banquet hall, we went to the venue. We didn't have a chance to touch the pink diamond watch. Although my mother didn't ride a horse, she followed me the whole time. With a watch wrapped in her hair, how could it not fall off? And this watch has many diamonds on it. Whether in the sunlight or under the lights, as long as there was a little bit of hair that wasn't covered, it would emit a dazzling light. I wonder if anyone present saw my mother's head shining."

A few onlookers had gathered at the doorway. Anyone with a modicum of sense thought it unlikely that a watch could be hidden in hair, but Tang Lin, who had squeezed to the front, saw this as a good opportunity to curry favor with Xia Ziling. He interjected, "While the probability is low, it's not entirely impossible. Didn't you tell me before that when creditors came to your house to collect debts, your mother hid the money under her shoe insoles?"

Xia Ziling fiddled with the watch face with her fingernails, her expression somewhat troubled.

"Xiao Xu, I promised you I'd give you the prize for winning the competition, and this watch was originally meant for you. Sigh... I heard your dad owes a lot of money, and your mom is willing to do anything to pay it off. It's okay to be poor, but you have to have ambition. Taking other people's things is stealing. Of course, I know you're a good kid. As long as you and your mom apologize to me, I'll pretend today never happened."