Two Beautiful Wives

Although she had received Yan Li's warning about Medusa and had arranged to meet Hua Subai in the third room, but...

Yu Xing didn't encounter a single person until she came out of the third room.

It's understandable that she didn't encounter Medusa; she might have chosen the room in Yan Li's direction, or she might not have acted according to Yan Li's expected pattern at all.

Yu Xing waited in the third room for nearly twenty minutes but Hua Subai still didn't show up. It was clearly that guy who brought it up himself; he couldn't have broken the agreement for no reason. There must have been more complications.

For some reason, this feeling of the unknown also brought a vague unease to his heart.

Fortunately, he also gained a lot from the two rooms. He managed to answer the three questions in each room by using his own identity information, since all these old stories were related to the Fang family.

The second room tells the story of Fang Deming's first wife.

She was once a stunning beauty in Nanshui Town, and was already a movie star in her youth.

Back then, movies weren't as widespread, and women who became movie stars were generally praised for their stunning beauty. They would then travel around with their teams, gaining fame.

Aside from movies, which are the most direct way for people to learn about movie stars, newspapers are the only other source.

Making great movies, making lots of money, mingling with foreign investors, entering a world of fame and fortune unimaginable to ordinary people, maintaining a glamorous facade while becoming an object of observation or even a plaything for the truly wealthy—this was the life Fang Deming's first wife, Xu Wan, was supposed to lead.

But no one knows whether tomorrow or an accident will come first. Xu Wan broke her back while filming a movie. After barely getting treatment, she even had trouble standing up, let alone continuing to film or travel around.

When she was in her late twenties, she returned to her hometown with the money she had earned. At that time, Nanshui Town was not considered backward, and it had beautiful scenery and simple folk customs, making it a good place for health preservation and recuperation.

Not long after her return, because of her beauty, she caught the eye of the most powerful young master of the Fang family at the time and was married.

That young master of the Fang family was Fang Deming in his youth. The two were a perfect match, one from a wealthy family and the other handsome and famous.

However, fifteen years after marrying into the Fang family, Xu Wan passed away prematurely at the age of forty-two due to a back injury.

Before Xu Wan passed away, she gave birth to two sons for Fang Deming. The older one was fourteen years old and the younger one was twelve. She did not have any more children, probably because childbirth had taken a heavy toll on her health. Fang Deming also showed that he loved her very much and had been taking care of her ever since.

By this time, Fang family's two sons were already quite famous in town. The elder son was precocious and acted much like Fang Deming, while the younger son was rebellious and often got beaten for disobeying, and had a somewhat gloomy personality.

Rumor has it that people often hear a woman's mournful cries coming from the Fang family at night, and the crying is much louder if the youngest son has been beaten that day.

Many people say that perhaps Xu Wan's unwilling soul is still lingering in the Fang Mansion, feeling sorry for her son.

However, rumors are just rumors, and no one can prove anything. Even the rumor disappeared a few years later because another young and beautiful woman appeared in Fang Deming's life.

The third room is about Fang Deming's second wife.

When this woman appeared, almost no one recognized her, let alone knew where she came from.

However, four years have passed since Xu Wan passed away. Her eldest son has come of age, and her youngest son went to study in another city after just turning sixteen.

Regardless of the circumstances, no one can speak ill of Fang Deming after he remarried.

But there was a lot of gossip about that woman, not for any other reason than that she was more beautiful than Xu Wan was back then.

She looked to be no more than twenty years old, so it's easy to guess why she was able to marry a man like Fang Deming, who was over fifty.

Some people in the town looked down on her, but dared not say it outright, and could only gossip behind her back.

If that were all, people probably wouldn't be talking so arrogantly behind his back, because this woman had been by Fang Deming's side ever since her first appearance, clearly showing that she was deeply favored.

However, they never held another wedding ceremony, and Fang Deming never publicly acknowledged that this woman was his second wife. Their relationship gradually became complicated amidst rumors.

However, she had a very good relationship with Fang Xiao, the eldest son of the Fang family. Fang Xiao would always call her "Mom" earnestly. Even when he accompanied Fang Deming to Never Forget Dwelling to discuss Fang Xiao's wedding banquet, it was this woman who went.

She watched calmly as Fang Deming, in a fit of anger, smashed the waiter's head with his cane.

From then on, everyone knew that this woman was a ruthless character, and no one dared to mess with her.

For so many years, the townspeople didn't know the woman's name until the owner of Never Forget Dwelling got into trouble. Only then did they learn that the woman was actually the Never Forget Dwelling's daughter, who directly inherited the entire teahouse.

A newspaper reporter once expressed his doubts to her face, asking, "If she is the boss's daughter, why would the boss disagree with the Fang family holding their wedding banquet at Never Forget Dwelling? Besides, they had never heard of the owner of Never Forget Dwelling having any children."

The reporter died a day later.

The story of the third room ends here, and many things are now connected to the clues found earlier.

For example, Fang Deming's second wife—who is also his current wife—is none other than the current female boss of Never Forget Dwelling.

Her appearance was suspicious; she was likely not the original owner's daughter, and the note hidden on the second-floor platform indicated... the resentment and hatred directed at her from an unknown perspective.

When she appeared, the character Yu Xing was in had already gone to study in another city and hadn't been home much since, communicating mostly through letters.

However, judging from the letter Fang Xiao, his adopted brother, sent him, he must have known about this young mother's existence and had even spent time with her, because Fang Xiao said, "Mom told me to tell you that he won't do anything that scares you anymore."

Yu Xing thought about this, she vaguely sensed that something was amiss.

His character must have not returned to Nanshui Town for many years, at least before Fang Xiao married Mingzhu, because he had never met his "sister-in-law".

Would he really have the opportunity to get along with his young stepmother?

Although it was just a small detail, Yu Xing intuitively felt that there was a strong sense of incongruity in this area.

Furthermore, the fact that Hua Subai had disappeared from his life affected his thoughts to some extent.

Just then, he heard that same sound again—the sound of machinery operating—that he had heard in the darkness before.

Yu Xing turned his head as if sensing something, and saw the darkness outside the second floor and at the staircase leading to the first floor surging up like a tide, as if something had broken the balance and even started to boil.