She just hadn't squeezed enough money out of him

Impossible.

Weng Fenghua dismissed the thought almost instantly.

She had been coming to this clinic for years without any problems. How could anything go wrong now?

Qiao Hua must have cursed her like that because she had heard her telling her to break up with her son.

At that thought, Weng Fenghua's expression darkened further. She pointed a red-painted fingernail at Qiao Hua and said, "The Gu family will never accept a malicious woman like you!"

Qiao Hua wasn't upset. "Don't worry. I don't want to be your daughter-in-law, either."

Weng Fenghua snorted. "Then break up with Wenze and leave him as soon as possible!"

"Mrs. Weng, I've already told you. It's not that I refuse to break up with him. Your son won't agree," Qiao Hua said. "Instead of giving me a hard time here, why don't you try persuading your precious son?"

Weng Fenghua didn't believe a word of it. Her eyes filled with contempt. "If you really wanted to break up with him, you'd find a way. You could move away and go somewhere he couldn't find you."

Qiao Hua shrugged. "I'm not the one who did anything wrong. Why should I move to another city?"

"When it comes down to it, you just can't bear to give up my son's money." Weng Fenghua grew increasingly impatient. "And you claim you love him for who he is. I've seen plenty of vain, greedy women like you. You won't leave because you haven't squeezed enough money out of him yet."

Just then, Weng Fenghua's phone rang. It was the clinic she regularly visited.

"Mrs. Weng, your appointment and Mrs. Fang's are at eleven a.m. and noon. Please arrive on time."

Weng Fenghua forced herself to calm down and murmured her acknowledgment. "I know. I'll be there shortly."

After hanging up, Weng Fenghua stood and looked down at Qiao Hua. "Think carefully about what I said. But I suggest you give up sooner rather than later, before you meet an even more humiliating end."

With that, she picked up her handbag and turned to leave, calling Mrs. Fang as she went.

"Mrs. Fang, it's me. Are you ready? Let's head over together."

Just as Weng Fenghua stepped through the doorway, Qiao Hua's inner voice sounded behind her again.

[Go on, then. In a little while, Mrs. Fang will say she has something urgent to attend to and ask to switch surgery times with you, but you'll refuse.]

[Then you'll be the unlucky one.]

[And Mrs. Fang, who escapes disaster, won't even feel sorry for you. She'll go around telling everyone behind your back that you've had work done from head to toe, dragging your name through the mud even after what happened to you.]

Qiao Hua wasn't sure whether she was imagining it, but after that thought, Weng Fenghua seemed to quicken her pace. She even twisted her ankle on her way out.

When Weng Fenghua and Mrs. Fang arrived at the clinic, the staff welcomed them warmly, served them tea, and brought out an exquisite selection of refreshments.

"Mrs. Weng, Mrs. Fang, please wait a moment. Someone will come to take you to the operating room shortly."

After the staff left, Mrs. Fang said, "You looked a little upset earlier. What happened?"

The mere mention of it angered Weng Fenghua. Her voice was full of disgust. "It's that Qiao Hua. She won't stop pestering my son. She's stuck to him like glue. I can't get rid of her."

Mrs. Fang comforted her. "There's no need to get upset over someone so insignificant. Your son is surely just having some fun with her. He might toss her aside once he gets bored."

Weng Fenghua's expression softened a little. "I hope so."

Just then, Mrs. Fang's phone rang. After reading the text, she subtly turned aside to reply, then said to Weng Fenghua:

"Mrs. Weng, something's come up at home. Could we switch appointments so I can have my surgery first?"

"They're only an hour apart, anyway."

Weng Fenghua froze for a moment at those words.

She remembered how, as she was leaving, Qiao Hua had said Mrs. Fang would ask to switch surgery times with her. Then her surgery would go wrong and leave her disfigured, and Mrs. Fang would go around bad-mouthing her.

Weng Fenghua hadn't told Qiao Hua beforehand that she was meeting Mrs. Fang. There was even less chance Qiao Hua could have known something had come up at Mrs. Fang's home.

Could Qiao Hua really predict the future?

While she was lost in thought, Mrs. Fang smiled and said, "Since you haven't said anything, I'll take that as a yes."

Weng Fenghua snapped out of it and hurriedly called out, "Mrs. Fang, why don't we both skip the surgery today?"

Qiao Hua had even predicted this. Weng Fenghua couldn't shake her unease.

"We're already here. How can we not go through with it? I'll go first."

With that, Mrs. Fang followed the staff out. The door swung shut, muffling her scornful voice as she spoke on the phone.

"I've switched appointments with Mrs. Weng."

"Let's go shopping together after my surgery."

"Why would we bring her? If my husband weren't insisting I cozy up to the Gu family, who would want to spend time with such an overbearing woman?"

Inside the room, Weng Fenghua knew nothing of what Mrs. Fang was saying outside. She reassured herself that it must have been a coincidence.

Time ticked by. The surgery was almost over, and everything outside remained quiet.

Qiao Hua really was talking nonsense, Weng Fenghua thought.

Isn't everything perfectly fine?

Just then, a scream rang out from the operating room. An assistant threw open the door and rushed out, panic written all over her face. "Something's wrong! Something's gone wrong!"

Puzzled, Weng Fenghua walked up to the operating room door, which had been left open.

One glance nearly made her faint from fright.

Mrs. Fang lay on the operating table with her face covered in blood. The surgical wounds on her face were horrifying.

Weng Fenghua went deathly pale, her heart pounding wildly.

Qiao Hua had actually been right.

Soon, ambulance sirens filled the air around the clinic. Mrs. Fang was loaded into an ambulance, and once Weng Fenghua came to her senses, she hurriedly climbed in after her.

On the stretcher, Mrs. Fang was still under the effects of the anesthetic, unconsciously mumbling incomprehensible words.

Looking at Mrs. Fang's ravaged face, Weng Fenghua shuddered at how close she had come to disaster.

If Mrs. Fang hadn't switched surgery times with her, she would have been the one lying there now.

After Weng Fenghua left, Qiao Hua took out her phone and searched for nearby hospitals.

She couldn't go back to yesterday's hospital. She might run into Gu Wenze and Jiang Nan again.

After a long search, Qiao Hua finally chose another top-tier hospital farther from the Gu family's home.

Surely I won't run into that cheating pair this time?

After booking an appointment online, Qiao Hua took a taxi to the hospital.

The waiting hall was packed. After collecting her number, she found a seat in a corner and opened her email to check on the résumés she had sent out yesterday.

No companies had replied yet.

A sudden commotion outside caught Qiao Hua's attention. She turned to look and saw medical staff wheeling in a stretcher. A woman decked out in gold and silver jewelry lay on it, covered in blood.

Just then, the loudspeaker in the waiting hall called Qiao Hua's number. She looked away, stood, and headed to the third floor.

Weng Fenghua was running alongside the stretcher when she happened to catch sight of that familiar figure.

"Qiao Hua!"