Killing Marriage [ABO] - Chapter 13

Chapter 13; Deception

It was five in the afternoon.

Mi Tong was picking up her daughter Mi Li from school and ran into Ren Zhong, who was heading home in his electric wheelchair.

“Hello, Uncle Ren!” Mi Li, full of energy, waved to him. She ran up to his side, her little backpack bouncing, and asked in a dramatic, dubbed-movie accent, “Hey, my Captain, how was your rehabilitation today?”

Fearing the child might fall, Ren Zhong slowed his wheelchair down. “It’s going well,” he replied. “I can walk a few more steps holding onto the bar.”

“That’s great! Uncle Ren will get better soon. By the way, once you’re all better, can you teach me how to assemble a gun dug up from the sand?” Mi Li asked excitedly.

This startled Mi Tong. She quickly pulled Mi Li back. “What are you talking about, playing with guns? That’s scary for a little girl!”

“That’s not entirely true,” Ren Zhong said, looking up at her. “There are many women in the military.”

Mi Tong’s already pale face grew even paler. She quickly apologized, “I’m sorry, Captain. I spoke out of turn.”

Her overly pale and sallow complexion seemed off, catching Ren Zhong’s attention.

He asked, “Ms. Mi, you don’t look well. Are you feeling alright?”

“Oh! Do I?” Mi Tong nervously touched her face. “Maybe… maybe I didn’t apply my makeup well…”

Ren Zhong didn’t say anything else, just told her to get some rest and then went home.

With many things on her mind, Mi Tong took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself before opening her front door.

“Vivian, I’m home!” Mi Li dropped her backpack and shoes, and ran to hug Shang Liwei.

Although it hadn’t been long since her mother and stepmother married, the stepmother’s influence on Mi Li seemed to already be on par with her biological mother’s.

“Our little Li Li is home!” Shang Liwei lifted Mi Li, spun her around, and then placed her back on the ground. “Li Li, meet my sister. She’s your Aunt Maggie.”

Aunt Maggie knelt down and extended her hand to Mi Li. “Hello, Li Li. My name is Mai Qi. I’m a lawyer. You can just call me Maggie.”

“Hello, Auntie,” Mi Li said, shaking her hand like a little adult.

They didn’t notice Mi Tong’s face shifting from white to yellow to green, like a disco ball come to life.

She couldn’t see anything while hiding in the storage closet, but she could hear everything.

“Aunt Maggie’s” voice was identical to that lawyer, Mai, who had been in contact with Zhang Qingyuan.

Not just the tone, but every syllable, intonation, verbal tic, and turn of phrase matched perfectly. They were the same person.

Help!

This lawyer Mai even suspected her of having an affair with Zhang Qingyuan.

Heaven help her!

Her and Zhang Qingyuan’s bond was just a sisterly friendship between a housewife and a househusband!

Mi Tong used the excuse of helping Mi Li with her homework and backpack to quickly pull her daughter into the room to hide, giving her a chance to collect her thoughts and figure out how to explain her “pure friendship” with Zhang Qingyuan later.

However, at the dinner table, Mai Qi was surprisingly kind and friendly towards Mi Tong, rendering all of her rehearsed defenses useless.

It was as if this person truly believed that she and Shang Liwei were a match made in heaven and was genuinely happy for them.

Was this the masterful disguise of an Alpha? Thinking of killing you while smiling brightly?

Mi Tong shivered.

It was over. She felt she was about to be cast out of the house with nothing again.

“Tong Tong,” Shang Liwei called her name.

Mi Tong’s back straightened, and she jumped like a startled rabbit.

“I’m sorry I hid the fact that I was unemployed from you before. But you don’t have to worry about money. I have plenty of savings, and my parents are well-off. You don’t have to worry about money for Li Li or for anything else.”

Shang Liwei spoke softly, confidently, and handsomely.

Without explicitly saying it, she was confirming that she knew Mi Tong had learned about her unemployment. This undoubtedly meant she knew Mi Tong was present when she was complaining at Ren Zhong’s house earlier.

Mai Qi, who was focused on eating, showed no change in expression and didn’t object.

Mi Tong, who was fearless in the face of conflict, became even more suspicious after this strange exchange.

Shang Liwei glanced at her sister and teased, “Maggie is just sensitive because her own Omega cheated on her, so she thinks everyone is cheating. It was a huge misunderstanding all day.”

“Right?” Mai Qi shrugged. “It felt like a thrilling, scheming, all-out game of Werewolf. Only after the game was over did we realize that the people who were arguing the most were just townspeople accusing each other.”

Mi Tong was still confused, but she did confirm one crucial piece of information: she and her daughter were safe.

That’s good!

Just then…

BANG!

THUMP!

A few loud noises came from the small building next door.

Shang Liwei and her Ragdoll cat both craned their necks to look out the window, equally curious. The outside was calm. Seeing nothing, they both turned back and continued eating. It seemed the cat really was like its owner.

Mai Qi, who hadn’t heard the commotion, asked, “What was that?”

“Probably our neighbor, Captain Ren, doing his upper body training,” Mi Tong said, as if she were used to it. “He likes to do extra workouts in his gym. Sometimes when he slips and can’t hold on, the weights just clang down.”

Mai Qi gasped and shook her head. “Disciplined people are scary.”

Despite her words and admiration, she didn’t hold back on her meal, finishing two bowls of rice with chicken soup.

Meanwhile, at Ren Zhong’s house.

Zhang Qingyuan was pinned to the floor by Ren Zhong.

He couldn’t even move a single finger.

He, a strong, adult Alpha who regularly worked out, was being held down by a temporary disabled, wheelchair-bound Omega with no way to fight back.

One year of mixed martial arts was no match for ten years of military combat.

The newlywed Omega wife was about to hand her state-assigned Alpha husband over to the authorities.

Wherever you come from, you’re going to jail.

Zhang Qingyuan should have noticed the change when Ren Zhong switched from an electric wheelchair to a lighter, manual racing model.

But even if he had, what could he have done?

To prevent him from escaping, the captain, whose legs had no strength, had to get tough and dislocated both of Zhang Qingyuan’s shoulders.

Above the sleek, minimalist, and high-tech black wheelchair was an even more impressive captain.

Zhang Qingyuan’s eyes welled up with tears, not just because his dislocated shoulders and the wheelchair on his legs hurt so much, but because he was filled with regret.

He regretted everything!

If he had known this would happen, why did he go to so much trouble and expense to contact an overseas medical equipment team to get such a high-performance wheelchair?

He had just picked up a wheelchair to crush his own legs.

Ren Zhong’s voice sounded almost lazy, as if dealing with Zhang Qingyuan was as easy as blowing a breath of air. He said unhurriedly, “This is a civilized society; we can’t use torture. Just be honest and confess.”

What kind of thing was that to say?

“You dislocated my shoulders—isn’t that torture?” Zhang Qingyuan’s breath caught in his chest, nearly suffocating him.

Ren Zhong remained calm. “That’s different. Your injuries are the result of violently resisting arrest. I didn’t hit you when I asked you questions. You’re just being interrogated while injured.”

“You’re a military officer on leave. You don’t have a search warrant, no law enforcement authority, and no right to interrogate me,” Zhang Qingyuan sneered. “Public officials have to follow due process. You’re overstepping your bounds. Why should I be interrogated by you?”

Ren Zhong also let out a cold snort. “Fine, then I’ll just hand you over to the people who do have the right to interrogate you, and your gang of criminals, that knock-off KFC and hybrid McDonald’s.”

This was the first time since KFM was founded that it had been described this way!

The moment Ren Zhong pulled out his phone to make a call, Zhang Qingyuan gave up.

“I’ll talk.”

There was not much humiliation on his face, just resignation.

“What do you want to know? Just ask,” Zhang Qingyuan said with a bitter smile. “But please, let me sit up first. My arms are useless. I can’t do anything. I can’t fight you. Please, Captain, just give me a break, okay?”

Ren Zhong released him as requested.

He didn’t trust that Zhang Qingyuan was really giving up and wouldn’t try any tricks; he simply trusted that he could overpower this man.

“You chose to marry me, and it wasn’t just because of the big data matching system, was it?” Ren Zhong stated. “You knew who I was before the matching system sent you my profile.”

Logically, even with his military service record, an older Omega like Ren Zhong would have a low score in the matching system. Even if his superior had pulled some strings for him, the choices the system offered him would definitely not be in Zhang Qingyuan’s league.

It was like how Mi Tong wasn’t qualified to be matched with Shang Liwei in the system, but Shang Liwei could express a strong preference to be matched with Mi Tong.

Zhang Qingyuan must have actively applied to be matched with Ren Zhong to be on his list of potential partners.

Zhang Qingyuan nodded, confirming this. “Yes. While I personally didn’t want to get married, if I couldn’t avoid it, I at least hoped the marriage would bring me some benefit.”

“If your goal was a military marriage, why me?” Ren Zhong looked down at him. “There aren’t many people my age with a higher rank, but there are plenty of younger, naive Omega soldiers with connections. Wouldn’t they have been a better choice?”

Zhang Qingyuan leaned against the wall, defeated, his arms dangling like overcooked noodles, and his facial muscles twitching in pain.

But he smiled.

“Because I knew… Captain, you’d be one of us.”

His gentle face contorted, veins popping out.

“Because you want to kill that damn marriage, too.”