Chapter Eighty-Four: Internal Collapse

Guo Lin had maintained a clandestine affair with Zhao Lina for three and a half years, always believing he had concealed it impeccably, and that there was no possibility of exposure. Yet, to his surprise, the truth came out.

When Xue Guilan saw Guo Lin’s face turn pale, she knew that everything circulating online was true. In a fit of rage, she grabbed the ashtray from the coffee table and smashed it violently onto the floor. “Guo, you heartless bastard! I bore your son and raised him at home, helped you earn money and build connections outside, and now you dare keep a mistress behind my back!”

Faced with the chaos, Guo Lin realized that explanations, excuses, and lies were all futile. He hastily stepped forward to apologize, “Honey, please don’t be angry. I was just confused for a moment…”

Xue Guilan exploded, reaching out to scratch his face. “Confused? You old fool! Was that ‘moment’ of confusion three and a half years long?”

Caught off guard, Guo Lin felt a burning pain across his face, with at least five or six stinging points. In desperation, he pushed Xue Guilan away, shouting, “What are you trying to do? Everyone in this neighborhood works at the mine—do you want to ruin me? If word gets out, how can I remain the mine director?”

Xue Guilan’s fury had robbed her of reason. She charged at him again, swinging her hands. “You still care about saving face? Where was that concern before? Too late now! Your affair with that floozy is all over the internet; who doesn’t know? Thank goodness for whoever exposed it, or you’d have kept it from me forever!”

Her words chilled Guo Lin’s back, his mind reeling with panic, his heart pounding as if it might leap from his chest. As he stood stunned, Xue Guilan grabbed his face, and his legs buckled, sending him collapsing to the floor.

Xue Guilan, blinded by rage, seized his hair and yanked it viciously.

For years, she had considered herself the queen of Xiling Coal Mine—commanding everyone, obsessed with makeup, beauty treatments, hair dye, and fashionable dress, styling herself like a fake foreigner. She believed she had her husband’s heart firmly in hand, but today she learned he had kept a mistress all along. The blow was immense, leaving her incapable of considering anything else.

Guo Lin, meanwhile, was seized more by terror than anger. That afternoon, he’d believed his enemies lacked any leverage against him. Less than an hour later, the secret he’d hidden for three and a half years—his affair with Zhao Lina—was exposed. Clearly, his adversary had incriminating evidence, and he had no idea what else might be known.

In his agitation, Xue Guilan attacked him again, yanking his hair. Guo Lin’s temper snapped; he shoved her to the ground, lumbered forward, and slapped her hard and loud. “Do you think I owe you, Xue Guilan? You’re really pushing your luck!”

Her face burned from the slap. Guo Lin’s infidelity had come to light, and he dared strike her—a new level of outrage. “Guo Lin, damn you! I’ll fight you to the bitter end!”

It was the hour when every family in the Xiling Coal Mine community had finished dinner and gone out for a walk. The sounds of smashing, crying, and shouting from Guo Lin’s home echoed through the neighborhood. Those living nearby heard their mutual insults, and soon a rumor spread swiftly throughout the residential area.

“Guo Lin’s been caught keeping a mistress, and Xue Guilan is tearing him apart at home!”

Guo Lin lived on the first floor. While the couple battled, neither realized that dozens had gathered at their front and back doors to listen live, with residents from the upper floors crowding their balconies, ears pricked.

Li Mu heard it too. His home was in the building opposite Guo Lin’s, his bedroom facing away from the street, allowing him to hear every word clearly from his window.

Xue Guilan was infamous as the neighborhood shrew; “fiery” didn’t begin to describe her. Rumor had it that, in her youth, during arguments, she’d pull out a bloody sanitary belt from her trousers and fling it at her opponent’s face. These days, with sanitary pads commonplace, the notorious shrew had become a foul-mouthed older woman at the peak of her combative prowess.

Li Mu couldn’t say how much the rumors spread by his hired internet trolls would affect Guo Lin’s career, but he was certain that Xue Guilan—with her formidable temperament—would make life hell for him, at least in the short term.

Countless spy dramas teach a simple lesson: if you cannot defeat your enemy head-on, start by dismantling them from within.

…

The next day, neither Guo Lin nor Xue Guilan showed up at the mine.

The gossip at the mine grew even more intense. Within hours, everyone knew of Guo Lin’s affair.

Guo Lin was beside himself, having fought with his wife until midnight, finally collapsing into separate bedrooms—a truce of sorts. His face was shredded from her nails; how could he face his colleagues?

The online negativity haunted him further.

He had almost entirely forgotten about having Chen Hailong frame Li Mu’s father; his mind was consumed with surviving the crisis and patching up his family.

He even forgot Zhao Lina was still waiting for him to deliver money.

He forgot Zhao Lina, but Xue Guilan did not.

Sleepless, seething with anger, Xue Guilan spent the night plotting, and at dawn, she began asking friends about someone named Zhao Lina.

Her information was limited: the woman’s name was Zhao Lina, age between twenty-two and twenty-four, three years ago a junior at Haizhou Normal College, graduated two years ago.

Luckily, Haizhou was small, making the search easy. By noon, she had precise news.

The Zhao Lina she sought graduated from Haizhou Normal in 1999—the only student with that name that year—and now worked in Haizhou. The match was exact.

When Xue Guilan learned Zhao Lina was now a full-time civil servant at the Education Bureau, her rage flared even higher.

No wonder! Last year, when her brother’s daughter graduated from college and asked for help getting into the Education Bureau, Guo Lin refused—he had already installed his mistress!

Hatred consumed her. Looking at the bruises on her face from Guo Lin’s beating, Xue Guilan pushed all else aside. She called her brother and sister, told her brother to pick up her sister and then fetch her, determined to confront the mistress face-to-face.

The Xue family had benefited greatly from Xue Guilan and Guo Lin, so she remained the clan’s central figure; one word from her, and her siblings followed without question.

Hearing Xue Guilan slam the door as she left, Guo Lin, hiding in another bedroom, finally breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t bother to wonder where she had gone; first, he called someone with whom he shared significant interests—a man named Wu Dong, who monopolized eighty percent of the mine’s coal. Guo Lin had received considerable bribes from him; they were bound together by mutual interests.

Wu Dong wielded power in Haizhou. Guo Lin asked him to try to wipe the online posts. Wu Dong agreed immediately; Guo Lin was his golden goose, and he couldn’t afford to let anything happen to him.

Then Guo Lin called his old boss, Han Lu.

Guo Lin had few connections in Pengcheng, Han Lu was the closest. He needed Han Lu to help within the group, promising not to let him act without reward.

Han Lu scolded Guo Lin over the phone, blaming him for carelessness and for stirring up trouble at such a critical moment, but ultimately agreed to help. Their interests were intertwined; he would not abandon Guo Lin now.

As for Jinling, Guo Lin felt uneasy—his connections there were weak, and deleting posts would be difficult.

He thought it over and called Wu Dong again, offering money to see if he could get the Jinling websites to remove the relevant content.

After these arrangements, Guo Lin finally remembered Zhao Lina.

Now, her name and their love nest’s location had been exposed online. Fortunately, the exposer didn’t know her current position and hadn’t revealed her workplace.

Clearly, he should avoid seeing Zhao Lina for the time being, and warn her not to return to their apartment at Wanying International Gardens. They should stay apart until the storm passed.

He called Zhao Lina and explained the situation.

Zhao Lina was at work. Her Education Bureau colleagues whispered behind her back all day, making her nervous, though she hadn’t realized she was also exposed until Guo Lin’s call.

Upon learning her name had been revealed, Zhao Lina’s already tense nerves tightened with fear and anxiety.

For a young woman who had been kept by a wealthy older man, Zhao Lina had relied on her looks and her civil servant position, confident that once she left Guo Lin, she could find a reliable young man, fall in love, and, after marriage, tell her husband tearfully that he was her second lover, her first having occurred during a drunken night at college, after which she had never been with anyone else. Thus, she would bury her past and begin a new, beautiful life.

But if her status as a kept woman were exposed…

Zhao Lina panicked, like a deer trapped by wolves. Guo Lin tried to comfort her over the phone. “Baby, don’t worry too much. Right now, only your name has been posted. I’m working to get everything deleted.”

“What were you doing last night?” Zhao Lina’s voice carried blame; she’d been exposed since yesterday evening, and he hadn’t even tried to remove the posts until now.

Guo Lin sighed. “I fought with my wife all night.”

Zhao Lina pressed, “What? She knows?”

Guo Lin confirmed, and was about to say more when Zhao Lina suddenly let out a bloodcurdling scream…

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From January 11th, when I uploaded the first chapter, to today, it’s been exactly a month and a half. If I remember correctly, I haven’t missed a single update, and the word count has reached 230,000. Looking at those books with better performance, by this point, their collections have broken ten thousand, but mine is still under four thousand. Others’ recommendation votes have long surpassed ten thousand, while mine are fewer than the collections.

To be honest, seeing these results is disappointing, and it’s affected my motivation a bit. Facing this situation, I can only do two things: write the book well, and ask everyone to support it as much as possible. I really am writing with care, so what’s missing now may just be your support. I’ll give 120% effort to repay you for all the encouragement you’ve given me.

By the way, I’ve set up a reader group: 526459805. I’m the group owner, and I look forward to your joining.