Reborn: The Return of the Villainous Mr. Liu-Chapter 1199: The spilling truth

"Oooo, the drama is thickening."

Alix, who had also accompanied everyone to the private room, commented from a distance. She was eager to know the next Chapter of this drama.

A slightly concerned Jin leaned closer to her. "I don’t think that part you said just now should fall upon their ears."

She looked at him and blinked. "You are such a softie feeling bad for them."

His brow twitched. "It has nothing to do with that."

"What do you think any family in the world is? For more than half of them, I could imagine a dramatic series being adapted based on the cliche drama and tears."

"..."

"Don’t worry, the Liu family’s drama adaptation would top the charts for sure. Record-breaking views," she nodded.

"..."

While Jin was being occupied in his conversation with Alix, Zhong Heng held a similar dumbfounded expression as he stared at Shui.

"Excuse me? Do you even know what you are talking about? My mother planted that letter?"

He glanced at Zhong Sihan once, who he thought would show some ridiculous reaction to Shui’s claim but instead, his own gaze was laced with a strange surprise - as if he hadn’t expected Shui to know that.

"You can ask Mrs. Zhong if you want."

"I don’t need to ask Mom anything! You are just concocting bullshit out of nothing."

"Bullshit? If you want, I can call my cousin here. He is a cop and he is the one who helped me find out that the letter was fake because she wrote the letter herself."

Shui glanced at Zhong Anrui. "Isn’t that right? You had practiced writing your husband’s handwriting over the years. It was almost perfect, yet Mr. Zhong still recognized the difference."

Zhong Anrui held her breath which was trembling a little.

"He could have easily confronted you, but..." she dropped a quick glance toward Zhong Sihan and said, "I guess he didn’t. From you writing that letter to planting that letter in his room and then planning for your son to find it - Mr. Zhong probably realized your trap. But he went ahead and accepted the accusations anyway."

"What handwriting differences? What planning and what letter?" He was speechless. "You are talking nonsense about some elaborate plan as if she is some criminal."

Shui remained quiet for a long moment and then said, "You are right. Mrs. Zhong is not some seasoned criminal. That’s why the officer handling Mr. Zhong’s case at that time had also figured out that the letter was fake. Matching somebody’s handwriting a hundred percent is a monumental task. She did a good job but not the perfect job. I was able to find that through Yijun."

A chill swept across the room and Zhong Anrui’s fingers tightened around her shawl. "I don’t know what this girl is talking about."

Her voice trembled only slightly, but in a room full of people who had known her for decades, that slight waver screamed more like a helpless defense.

Zhong Heng scoffed. "Mom, you don’t need to respond to this nonsense-"

Shui cut him off but continued calmly. "Mrs. Zhong, the officer back then had found inconsistencies in the strokes. Specifically the way the curves tightened around some letters and how the spacing between certain words didn’t exactly match your husband’s style. He didn’t push the matter because Mr. Zhong himself refused to pursue it."

Zhong Anrui swallowed hard but remained firm in the face of the accusations.

"That’s ridiculous," She breathed out. "The cops never said such a thing."

"Not to you," Shui said. "But they did to Mr. Zhong."

All eyes snapped to Zhong Sihan, and only a blank expression remained on his face by that point.

"Tian’s granddaughter..you dug in too far. You had no business with Zhong family’s matters."

"The truth just happened to spill, Mr. Zhong," she smiled. "This is what happens when you try to put a lid on a boiling pot of water. The water can only be contained for so long."

Ru Yi’s brother broke into a sardonic laughter. "Oh really now? So you are saying Grandma pulled all that stuff and Granduncle knew everything, yet he kept quiet. He chose to not expose his brother’s wife - the same brother he hates so much."

Her gaze darkened. "Your stupidity has no end if you still cannot figure out that Mr. Zhong never truly hated his Mr. Yuhang. Do you think a ruthless man like Zhong Sihan would have bothered to keep his brother’s silly childhood drawing as a momento after so many years had passed? Do you think he kept quiet about your grandmother’s trap and spent ten years in prison because he enjoyed it? He could have easily exposed her and it would have been her who would have been spending time in prison, not him."

Zhong Anrui shivered.

"And even after all that, your family hates him. In fact...she knows that Mr. Zhong knows it was her. Because imagine this," she looked at Zhong Heng. "You called the cops and gave them the letter that apparently, Mr. Zhong was hiding. The cops figured out that somebody had tried to impersonate Mr. Yuhang’s handwriting and make it look like Mr. Zhong hid it with him all this time. So who would they have pulled in for questioning? You."

His eyes widened.

"Isn’t it obvious? You were accusing Mr. Zhong with evidence. Now that ’evidence’ turned out to be fake, so who would the cops doubt? You, who started the whole case. You had the means and the motive too. You could learn your father’s handwriting and I don’t think we need to talk about motive. A resentful son who lost his father and an uncle who kicked him away and was now torturing his family? You wanted revenge. Does a motive have to be any clearer than that?"

He trembled.

"But the cops never got to that point. They never accused you of planting a fake letter, did they? Because Mr. Zhong knew that it wasn’t you but Mrs. Zhong Anrui. When this reached her ears, what would any mother’s reaction be? She panicked because she thought you would be put in jail for something that you didn’t even do. She thought that was the end of it and she would have to confess, but Mr. Zhong...he kept quiet."

Zhong Anrui bit her lip hard.

"Neither he let that accusation fall upon you, nor let the cops arrest the real culprit. Instead, he went to jail and your mother continued enjoying her life with her son and grandchildren. So really, Mr. Zhong Heng. Can you, for once, start questioning your mother?"