"He panicked when Mrs. Dai was stirring back to consciousness. He had expected her to be dead just like Miss. Ma. The plan would fail if he would be forced to save her. So before she could ask for his help, he clamped her mouth shut this time. She was already in a fragile condition because of the previous attack. It was only a matter of time that her body wouldn't be able to take it."
Ma Yanyu asked in disbelief, "But what about the time he attacked Mom at the park? Why would he do that if he had a hand in killing her too?"
Dai Fengge collapsed on his knees, his shoulders repressing his regretful sobs. His palms grew moist as he covered his face, breaking down into the remorse that was burrowing a deep hole in his heart. "I am sorry…I am sorry, Mom…"
Dai Meihui was still unable to fathom Dai Fengge's involvement in his mother's death. The imagination itself was so bizarre that she couldn't wrap her head around it. "But you always loved your mother so much. You always listened to her and happily did everything that she asked for so-"
"I wasn't happy…" Dai Fengge said with a crushed voice, embracing defeat. "I wasn't happy, Meihui. She loved me so much that it was difficult to live with it! It was frustrating. It was annoying. I felt chained. She wanted to always stay beside me, make all my decisions for me, do things her way and everything just became too suffocating for me! I never felt free. Even when…"
He bit his lip, trying to hold his choke back, "Even when I fell in love with a woman and wanted to marry her…Mom didn't like her for me and was totally against our marriage."
She swayed lightly on her foot as this unexpected news hit her.
Fengge had somebody he loved…?
Dai Meihui might have been hit by this unforeseen news, but Jia wasn't. When she had zoned in on one of the culprits being Dai Fengge, it had come as a shocker to her too. But when she began to dig for a motive, she found that there was a brief period of his relationship with a woman named Chun years ago, which fell apart because of Dai Yaling. She then slowly began to piece that Dai Fengge's love towards his mother might not be so genuine after all.
Jia watched his gaze filled with guilt that she understood wasn't a lie. It had taken her by shock too to know that he was inwardly struggling because of his toxic mother but keeping the facade of a good son outside.
"I thought that I have been a good son all this time, always listening to her wishes. But no! No matter how obedient I had been until then, nothing budged her. It was the first time I remained stubborn, and what did she do? She started harassing Chun! She blamed her for my rebellion and hurled insults at her.
Then there was emotional blackmail that I don't love her, I don't care about her. She fell ill and if I didn't want her health to worsen, then I had no choice but to break up. And Chun…she didn't want to live with such an overbearing mother after marriage either."
His fingers curled into a fist, his fury leaking out through the tremors of his knuckles. "Then she brought you, Meihui. She decided that I would marry you. She didn't give me any choice on the matter! Every last thing in my life had been dictated by Mom! I tried and tried but couldn't go against her…And then some few weeks ago, I saw Chun again."
He laughed with a gaze that lacked warmth. "She was with her husband and daughter. It was a happy family. That laughter on her lips tore through my heart. It just reminded me how helpless I was before my Mom and before all her decisions! That's why…I couldn't be nice to you," he pinched his lips with remorse,
"I know you were a good woman. But you were forced upon me. You always reminded me of Mom's tyranny and how I had to bend to her will. Everyday, you kept reminding me of my failure and I just…couldn't throw away the resentment."
Dai Meihui placed her trembling hand on her chest, trying to process his feelings. "You never…" she clenched her fists, "never shared this with me."
"I didn't want to because I felt that you were on the same team as Mom. As years passed, I realized that you were finding her overbearing too. But after shouldering this miserable slave life for so long, I had no interest in helping you who I was forced to marry. I…regret that now…" his eyes reflected his broken and crushed spirit.
Jia exchanged glances with Huojin, and he turned his attention towards him. "When did you learn of Mrs. Dai Meihui's plan and what is your relationship with Miss. Yin then?"
He pressed his lips. "Xiaoling…there was nothing between me and Xiaoling."
Dai Meihui froze.
"She is someone just like Meihui who Mom had dumped upon me. Mom didn't tell me the reason, but I strongly felt that something major had happened between her and Meihui. Strong enough for her wanting to throw Meihui away and bring another woman in my life who she could control. I just acted to go along and so did Xiaoling because I knew Mom…She would have raised hell. But soon enough, Mom was beginning to irk her too, and she wanted out of this fake relationship."
Yin Xiaoling bit the corner of her lip, looking away as fear gripped her heart.
"Mom had realized the signs of her dislike, but after speaking to Aunt Yin Chin, Xiaoling had no choice but to stay."
Jia raised her brow at Yin Chin. "What did she talk to you about?"
Yin Chin stiffened with the sudden attention on her. "...We had set up Xiaoling and Fengge together. Fengge is from a good family and she had promised me that my life would be comfortable…" She cleared her throat.
"Comfort as in monetary, right?" She smiled.
Her face reddened with shame. "My husband and I w-were going through some difficult times! Fengge had a very good job and financially was very secure. So…"
"You thought some of that money could flow towards you too, right?"
She bit her lip. "Yes. But one day I got a call from Mrs. Dai that Xiaoling was being defiant sometimes and she wasn't liking it. If she didn't behave, then she would make our lives very difficult "
Yin Xiaoling trembled in fury. "As if she wasn't already being a pain in the ass! She was being pathetic towards me! Always coating her poisonous words behind her fake sweetness! She was low-key threatening me that she would spread nasty rumors and lies about me if I didn't act as a good girl!"
Jia scanned the guilt in her eyes and said, "So ignoring Yun's calls wasn't because of frustration over Mr. Dai attending to his wife's calls. You and Mr. Dai were in it together. You also knew that Mrs. Dai's left seat's neighbor was there to kill her and you feigned ignorance."
"T-that…!" She caressed the nape of her neck, breathless with jumpiness and her mouth becoming dry.
Huojin tilted his head. "But then why did you throw away the inhaler if you knew about the plan anyway?"
"I-I didn't know anything! I swear!"
"You did know, Miss. Yin. If Mr. Dai hadn't filled you in, there might be a greater possibility of you responding to Yun's calls and witnessing the attack on her. That is the normal response of anybody calling out to you for help. He couldn't have just assumed that you would definitely not pay attention to Yun. That was unpredictable, so he did include you in the plan. Since you had your own clashes with Mrs. Dai, you didn't hesitate to join in. But then why did you throw the inhaler? That was unnecessary if you knew she was going to die anyway."
"Because she acted like an ass in the restroom!"
It was as if the lid sealing her resentment and powerlessness violently broke off like the cork of a whiskey bottle and her emotions flooding out like the stream of liquor gushing out with force.