Chapter 3 You are the real third party
1615 Words
When Wen Ruan returned to Huatang Bay, it was already nearing midnight.
The lights in the living room were still on. Jiang Qingyan had come back.
She dropped her car keys, slipped into her slippers, and turned to walk inside. After just a few steps, she suddenly stopped.
Her heart, which had been wavering the entire night, plummeted, falling into an abyss.
Jiang Qingyan had drunk too much again. His neck and face were flushed, and he was leaning crookedly against the sofa.
Yao Man sat beside him, her arms wrapped around his neck, her body nestled against his chest as she kissed him slowly.
Jiang Qingyan kept his eyes closed, his hands hanging loosely by his sides, seemingly asleep, with no reaction to her actions.
Wen Ruan had stepped out of the car and accidentally stepped into two puddles. Her shoes were drenched, and the cold seeped up from her feet, numbing her entire body. She shivered slightly, almost losing her balance.
She froze for a few seconds, then walked over, grabbing Yao Man by the back of her collar and forcefully pulling her away.
When Yao Man was removed, Jiang Qingyan lost his support and collapsed back onto the sofa, furrowing his brow, looking somewhat uncomfortable.
Slap!
Wen Ruan raised her hand and slapped Yao Man.
"Ah!" Yao Man cried out in pain, clutching her face, staring at Wen Ruan in disbelief.
"You dare hit me!"
She was the young lady of Rongli Group, raised with a golden spoon in her mouth, the center of attention wherever she went. No one dared to make her suffer.
She was thirty years old, and this was the first time she had ever been slapped.
Wen Ruan shook her slightly numb hand. "You're coming into my house in the middle of the night, playing with my man. Don’t you deserve to be slapped?"
Yao Man's voice became sharp. "Playing? Jiang Qingyan loves me. We’re mutually in love, I..."
"It’s not about love now; it's about morality and shame," Wen Ruan interrupted. "Let me ask you, did Jiang Qingyan ever tell you to your face that I am his girlfriend?"
Yao Man furrowed her brows. "He did, but it won't be for long!"
Wen Ruan rolled up her sleeves, her emotions relatively calm as she smiled faintly.
"For long? So you know we haven’t broken up yet, and you dare to come to my house to disgust me? Why shouldn’t I hit you?"
She pointed at Jiang Qingyan, who was still drunk.
"You’re taking advantage of my boyfriend being drunk, harassing him. I could call the police on you."
Yao Man clutched her face, glaring at her with hate. "What do you have to be so arrogant about?"
For the first time, she had been slapped, and her face stung with pain. She gritted her teeth, her eyes dark with a vengeful intensity.
"Wen Ruan, have you always thought that I am the third party in your relationship with Jiang Qingyan?"
Wen Ruan found the question absurd. "You certainly know your place well."
Yao Man sneered. "Wen Ruan, you are the third party!"
Wen Ruan felt offended, staring at her with a look of ‘If you’re insane, go get treated.’
Yao Man continued, "Jiang Qingyan never mentioned the past between us, right? But we’ve known each other since we were children."
Wen Ruan was about to grab a broom to throw her out but paused.
They had known each other since childhood?
No one had ever told her that, and she truly didn’t know.
Yao Man was not lying. She and Jiang Qingyan had indeed known each other for years.
Jiang Qingyan's mother had been her dance teacher, hired by her family, teaching her from elementary school until high school before she went abroad.
She was talented in dance but struggled academically, while Jiang Qingyan excelled, topping his class year after year. His grandfather had heard of it and often had Teacher Jiang tutor him.
From middle school to high school, she had improved, but still, her college entrance exam was a failure.
Because of a love affair.
She had been dating a rich second-generation troublemaker from the next class. That boy didn’t care about studying and took her out the day before the exam, deceiving her into going to a hotel.
The next day, she overslept and missed the exam.
Her family was afraid she’d get entangled with that boy, so they sent her abroad. She rebelled and didn’t return for years.
Yao Man was certainly not foolish enough to share this embarrassing first love story with Wen Ruan.
What she intended to tell Wen Ruan was something far more cruel, enough to carve into her heart.
"Jiang Qingyan has always loved me."
Yao Man was dressed in a luxurious brown cashmere coat, her outfit ostentatiously branded, the diamonds on her earrings glistening. Her makeup was bold and striking.
She approached the sofa, bent down to pick up her bag, took out a letter, and then walked up to Wen Ruan, handing it to her.
"This is the love letter Jiang Qingyan wrote to me the day before I went abroad."
At the time, she hadn’t liked Jiang Qingyan.
Because back then, he was a bookworm, quiet, dull, not humorous, not like the boy who sweet-talked her and took her on wild adventures.
And she hated studying; Jiang Qingyan’s academic background bothered her. He was everything she didn’t want.
So when she received the love letter the day before leaving for abroad, she mocked him, telling him a toad couldn’t dream of eating swan meat, and tossed the letter without reading it.
It wasn’t until last weekend that she discovered what was written in that letter.
That day, when she learned Jiang Qingyan and Wen Ruan were going to the movies, she couldn’t think of a good reason to sabotage them and went to see Teacher Jiang.
Teacher Jiang had always liked her, and she planned to have him convince Jiang Qingyan to come home.
But then, by chance, she found that letter.
Teacher Jiang had said that after she left, Jiang Qingyan had picked it up.
Teacher Jiang had said, "Manman, Ah Yan never forgot you. He has always been waiting for you."
What else Yao Man said, Wen Ruan didn’t catch, her gaze fixed on the thin piece of paper before her, her expression dazed.
The years had yellowed the paper, but it was still well-preserved, and the writing was clear.
There were many of Jiang Qingyan’s old books in the study, books from his high school days with annotations in them. Wen Ruan had read them all.
She had seen his handwriting from high school—neat and disciplined, unlike the sharp and restrained style he used now, which concealed a powerful force.
The handwriting on the letter was indeed his high school handwriting.
Only when she clearly read the writing did she look at the contents.
She was no stranger to love letters. In the past, her bag and desk were often filled with them. This one, like all the others she had seen, was filled with flowery language expressing affection.
But this letter had been written by Jiang Qingyan.
For Yao Man.
In it, he promised, "If you leave, I will wait for you at Rongli. As long as I am in Rongli, I will wait for you forever."
...
In the living room, Yao Man watched Wen Ruan's face turn pale. The anger from the slap she had received earlier was now fading.
But that wasn’t enough; she had even harsher words to provoke Wen Ruan.
"I heard that it was you who pursued Jiang Qingyan first. He rejected you, and only three years ago, on this very day, did he agree to date you. Do you know why?"
As expected, Wen Ruan didn’t respond, and Yao Man didn’t care. She continued talking to herself:
"Because three years ago, on this day, was my wedding day."
She married her first love.
At the time, her father had wanted to find a well-matched man for her, but she had secretly been in contact with that troublemaker, who sweet-talked her and led her to secretly marry him.
She thought she was marrying for love, but after the wedding, she realized she had been deceived.
That man didn’t strive for anything and was caught cheating with a younger model. He indulged in gambling, drinking, and all sorts of vices. His family just wanted to use the Yao family for connections.
She wanted a divorce, but he refused, and since she didn’t want to sue and bring shame, she dragged it out.
Six months ago, when Jiang Qingyan went on a business trip there, her father had him intervene, and he actually managed to convince that man to let her go without any cost.
She hadn’t seen Jiang Qingyan in years, but when they met again, she was completely captivated.
The boy who had been stiff, boring, and wore thick black-rimmed glasses had now grown into a mature, elegant, and handsome man.
His face was perfect, with sharp features and a tall, graceful figure. When he looked at her, she was hooked.
She had to have him.
So she returned, spent two months settling things abroad, and then joined Rongli Capital.
She thought it would be easy to win Jiang Qingyan over, after
all, she had been his first love.
But Wen Ruan ruined her plan.
Wen Ruan was the one who had been secretly coveting Jiang Qingyan all these years.
Wen Ruan looked at the letter with a complex expression. At that moment, a deep sense of guilt began to overwhelm her.
- Writer
