TEDWR: Chapter 45

 Glossary

· Zhang Yansheng (张雁声): The female protagonist, the reborn eldest daughter.

· Auntie Luo (罗姨): The family nanny who has cared for Zhang Yansheng since birth.

· Liang Zheng (梁征): Liang Yingying's nephew from her hometown.

· Zhang Shuocheng (张硕成): Zhang Yansheng's seven-year-old half-brother.

· Zhang Huan (张寰): Zhang Yansheng's father.

· Liang Yingying (梁莹莹): Zhang Yansheng's stepmother.

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Chapter 45

Auntie Luo carried the freshly ironed clothes upstairs for Zhang Yansheng.

She paused, her hand on the doorknob about to push the door open—Zhang Yansheng's door was slightly ajar. She distinctly remembered that after Zhang Yansheng went out, she had come in to tidy her room and had closed the door properly when she left.

Zhang Yansheng particularly disliked other members of the household entering her room, so her door was always closed when she wasn't home.

Auntie Luo pushed the door open and went in, asking as she walked, "Yanyan, are you back?"

A loud noise came from the bathroom, like someone accidentally kicking a bath stool, causing it to scrape across the floor.

Auntie Luo, who had been heading towards the walk-in closet with the clothes, stopped in her tracks and called out, "Yanyan? Are you okay?"

Unexpectedly, the bathroom door opened, and Liang Zheng rushed out in a panic.

Auntie Luo was taken aback and asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"

Liang Zheng forced a smile and said, "Shuoshuo and I are playing hide-and-seek. I came in here to hide." He was Liang Yingying's nephew. Auntie Luo angrily scolded him, "A young girl's room—can you just come in here as you please?!"

Liang Zheng's attitude was quite good; he immediately admitted his mistake. "I was wrong, I was wrong. I'll leave right away." As he said this, he quickly left, almost like he was fleeing.

Auntie Luo gave a light, disdainful click of her tongue towards the doorway, then carried the clothes into the walk-in closet. After hanging up the clothes and preparing to leave, she glanced at the bathroom, frowned, and went in to take a look.

It didn't seem like anything had been disturbed, but Auntie Luo still felt deeply uncomfortable. She worried Liang Zheng might have used Zhang Yansheng's toilet without permission. If so, that would be utterly disgusting.

Cleaning wasn't part of Auntie Luo's duties; that fell under the housekeeping auntie's responsibility. But Auntie Luo humphed, went to get some cleaner, put on rubber gloves, and vigorously scrubbed the toilet inside and out, just in case.

In any case, she couldn't let anything dirty disgust their Yanyan.

When Zhang Yansheng returned home, she took some clean clothes into the bathroom intending to take a shower. As soon as she entered, she sneezed and came out pinching her nose.

"Auntie Luo! Auntie Luo!" She called out twice in the hallway. Auntie Luo heard her and came over. Zhang Yansheng complained, "What's going on with my bathroom? Why does it reek of cleaner so much? It's choking me!"

"Oh dear, I forgot to turn on the exhaust fan!" Auntie Luo hurried in and switched on the bathroom fan.

Zhang Yansheng, still pinching her nose, went over. "What happened? What's gotten into the housekeeping auntie today? How much cleaner did she use?"

But Auntie Luo said, "It wasn't her. It was me."

(read @cherrybombbertranslations.blogspot)

"Huh?"

Auntie Luo explained, "That person, that woman's nephew, came again today."

"Liang Zheng?"

"Yes, him." Auntie Luo said, frowning, her voice filled with disgust. "I came up to put away clothes, and he was in your room…"

Before Auntie Luo could finish, Zhang Yansheng's face had already darkened. "What was he doing in my room?"

Auntie Luo knew that if Zhang Yansheng found out about this, she would definitely be furious. She quickly said, "He was playing hide-and-seek with Shuoshuo and hid in your bathroom. Don't worry, don't worry! I was afraid he might have used your toilet, so I scrubbed it really hard! It's super clean now! Really!"

Even so, Zhang Yansheng was thoroughly disgusted.

Her eyebrows shot up. "Where is he now?"

Auntie Luo said, "He's already left."

With no one to vent her anger on, a layer of dark irritation settled over Zhang Yansheng's face.

Auntie Luo hastened to comfort her. "I scrubbed it many times. I even used disinfectant."

Zhang Yansheng felt sickened, just utterly revolted. Auntie Luo's comfort couldn't ease it. She said irritably, "I want to hit someone!"

"Don't be angry, don't be angry." Auntie Luo soothed her. "It's not worth it, not worth it."

In the past, even though Yanyan practiced martial arts, she would always lose to Liang Yingying in verbal battles. Recently, Yanyan had wised up. Who would bother arguing with her? She just took action directly!

That was truly putting learning into practice! And it delighted the whole household!

Zhang Yansheng fumed for a long time, but she still needed to shower. She had been at the martial arts gym in the afternoon. There were many men there, and she didn't want to shower at the gym, so she came home sweaty.

When the cleaner smell in the bathroom had mostly dissipated, she took her clothes and went in.

She gripped the hem of her T-shirt to take it off, but seeing a stretch of her pale belly and slender waist reflected in the mirror, Zhang Yansheng's hands suddenly froze.

As the initial anger passed and calm returned, she felt something was wrong.

Playing hide-and-seek with Zhang Shuocheng?

Since when did Liang Zheng have the patience to play with Zhang Shuocheng? Did he think others couldn't see how impatient he was with the boy?

(read @cherrybombbertranslations.blogspot)

But if he was lying, what was he really doing in her bathroom?

…

In her past life, Liang Zheng was that creep who had secretly taken pictures of her through a crack in the door when she hadn't closed it properly!

Zhang Yansheng abruptly pulled her shirt back down!

When Zhang Huan returned home, he saw a police car driving into his family's courtyard ahead of him. Both he and the driver were somewhat surprised.

His car followed closely behind. Getting out of the car, the police officers who had just gotten out also saw him. They sized him up and asked, "Who are you to this household?"

Zhang Huan went over and said, "This is my home. May I ask why you are here…?"

The police officer said, "We received a report and are responding to the call."

Zhang Huan might be a somewhat lacking father, but outside, he was quite steady. Suppressing his inner surprise, he asked calmly, "Who reported it? What happened?"

"It was me." Zhang Yansheng appeared under the portico at the main entrance.

The police officers heard her and went over, first switching on the shoulder-mounted recorders before asking, "You reported the incident?"

"Yes," Zhang Yansheng said, her face dark and serious. "Please follow me."

Zhang Yansheng led the police into the house. Zhang Huan caught up and asked, "Yanyan, what's going on?"

Zhang Yansheng didn't turn her head and said, "You'll know if you come upstairs with me."

Zhang Yansheng's attitude left Zhang Huan shocked and suspicious. He followed the police upstairs into Zhang Yansheng's room… and then into her bathroom.

Zhang Yansheng pointed to the wall mount for the showerhead. "There."

Zhang Huan watched as the officers first used flashlights to examine the area, then took out tools and skillfully dismantled it. Finally, they removed a screw.

But that wasn't a real screw; it was a miniature camera disguised as one.

Installed in that position, if Zhang Yansheng went in to shower, she would be completely exposed. And who knows, nude photos or videos might even be circulated online.

Zhang Huan's face turned ashen!

Meanwhile, Zhang Yansheng was giving her statement to the police: "This afternoon, someone entered the bathroom in my room without permission. After I found out, I felt something was off. I searched the bathroom carefully, and it was easy to find. These things are usually aimed at the shower area. I immediately noticed that screw was a different color. Shining a light on it, there was even a reflection. So I called the police directly."

(read @cherrybombbertranslations.blogspot)

Before the police could respond, Zhang Huan, his face dark, came over and asked, "Who? Who was it?"

Zhang Yansheng glanced at him and said to the police, "My father's wife's nephew from her maternal family."

Zhang Huan was stunned.

The questioning officer mentally processed the phrase "my father's wife" and asked, "Your mother's nephew?"

A visible layer of dark anger settled over the beautiful teenage girl's face. "She's not my mother."

The officer immediately apologized. "My apologies."

He exchanged a glance with his colleague, a silent communication understanding that this must be one of those families with complex situations.

The girl's father, without a word, strode out. Soon, the officers heard him roaring in the hallway, "Liang Yingying! Get down here!"

The police officers looked at each other. The beautiful girl, however, gave a slight curl of her lip and walked out, saying, "Don't bother shouting. She's not home."

It seemed this Liang Yingying must be the girl's stepmother and the suspect's aunt.

The police had handled many cases like this. They had brought a laptop and specialized software. Right on the coffee table in Zhang Yansheng's room, they connected to the camera.

"Is this him?" They moved aside to let Zhang Yansheng look at the screen.

When installing these kinds of cameras, the installer basically gets recorded by the camera themselves. This time was no exception. The footage clearly showed Liang Zheng huffing and puffing as he installed the camera.

Zhang Yansheng gave a cold laugh. Instead of replying to the police, she looked at Zhang Huan.

Zhang Huan felt his face burn with shame.

"It's him! It's definitely him!" He was furious. "Arrest that despicable scoundrel immediately!"

After leaving the Zhang residence and returning to his own place, Liang Zheng was still chuckling to himself. He didn't know how many times he had opened the monitoring software that afternoon. Unfortunately, Zhang Yansheng didn't seem to be back yet; there was no one in the bathroom.

He could only regretfully close the software.

He messaged one of his buddies on his phone: "It's installed."

The buddy said: "Damn! For real?"

(read @cherrybombbertranslations.blogspot)

Liang Zheng: "Of course. You think I was just talking nonsense?"

Buddy: "Awesome! Show the footage, bro!"

Liang Zheng proudly: "Not only will I show you, I plan to upload it to the XX website!"

Liang Zheng gritted his teeth: "That little brat, daring to offend me! I'll show her!"

As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Liang Zheng's buddies were naturally no good either. The buddy cackled for a bit and said, "You can make it even worse. Post her phone number online too!"

"Damn!" Liang Zheng had a sudden moment of clarity. "You're a genius! Why didn't I think of that? That's exactly what I'll do!"

He opened the software again for a look. Zhang Yansheng still wasn't back. It seemed this couldn't be rushed; he had to be patient.

Liang Zheng suppressed the itch in his heart and started playing games. Once he got into gaming, he lost track of time. Unconsciously, several hours passed. Hearing a knock at the door, Liang Zheng shuffled over in his slippers. "Who is it?"

It was the beginning of the month, so he thought it might be someone to check the water meter and opened the door directly.

When he opened it, he was stunned. It wasn't the meter reader standing outside, but police officers wearing caps and uniforms.

Liang Zheng's heart instantly sank...

But it was too late.

Liang Yingying hurried to the police station. Seeing Zhang Huan, she quickly quickened her pace towards him. "I'm here, I'm here. What's going on? You couldn't explain clearly on the phone…"

Before she could finish, Zhang Huan stood up and backhanded her across the face!

Liang Yingying was stunned by the slap.

Zhang Huan truly wasn't the type to hit women, but this time he was genuinely furious! He was practically faint with anger!

"Look at the wonderful thing your good nephew has done!" he said through gritted teeth.

When Liang Yingying heard the police explain what had happened, she was even more stunned, stammering, "C-could there be a mistake?"

"Mistake my ass!" Zhang Huan slammed some papers in front of her and roared, "See for yourself!"

The police had already confirmed it was Liang Zheng based on the surveillance footage at the Zhang residence.

When Liang Zheng was brought to the station, he tried to flatly deny it. Unfortunately, he had recorded his own crime. Seeing the video, he wilted and had to confess.

(read @cherrybombbertranslations.blogspot)

The police asked for his purchase records. He said dejectedly, "I added the seller on WeChat to buy it."

The police then opened his WeChat to gather evidence. Who would have thought the top chat was with that buddy of his, who had sent a message saying, "Nude videos can be sold for money. Don't upload them for free."

The police opened it and saw—well, well. So it wasn't just about voyeurism? He also planned to upload the girl's nude videos to porn sites?

Human garbage!

What Zhang Huan slammed in front of Liang Yingying were printed copies of the purchase records and chat logs.

Liang Yingying's vision went dark.

This nephew who dug a pit for his own aunt!

(End of Chapter)

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