83: Chapter 83 Stop Hypnotizing Yourself

Lin Moli sat blankly in front of the camera, as if her soul had been drained away.

The tissue in her hand had long since soaked through, crumpled into a wrinkled little ball.

She stared fixedly at Su Yun on the screen, tears welling up in her eyes, her voice trembling violently.

"Master Su, you are joking with me, right? How is this possible?"

She took a deep breath, as if trying to find some courage, and waved her hands frantically at the phone screen.

"Chen Bin is really good to me; we video call every single night."

"Sometimes we chat for two or three hours at a time. If he really had a family, where would he find so much time to keep me company? Is his wife just a decoration?"

Su Yun leaned back in his chair, looking at the girl on the screen who was crying like rain-drenched pear blossoms, and shook his head helplessly.

He reached out and picked up the enamel cup from the table, which had the words "Serve the People" printed on it, and took a slow sip of warm water.

"You are still too naive."

"In the eyes of such professionals, time management is just a basic operation."

He put down the cup and tapped his knuckles lightly on the tabletop twice.

"You just said you met his parents; did that old couple look particularly kind?"

"When you met last time, did they hold your hand, stuff a big red envelope of five thousand yuan into it, and insist that you were the daughter-in-law recognized by their Chen family?"

Lin Moli nodded hastily, a glimmer of hope showing in her eyes.

"Yes! I haven't even been able to bear spending the money in the red envelope yet!"

"The old couple was dressed neatly and spoke slowly and methodically; they looked like a family with good breeding at a glance."

Su Yun snorted with laughter, his laughter filled with thick mockery.

"Good breeding? The parents you met are actually temp actors who hang around the North Square of the train station."

"That old man's surname is Zhang, nicknamed 'Zhang the Bad,' and he specializes in taking these 'meeting the parents' gigs."

"That old lady is his temporary partner; the two of them have been working together for several years."

He changed to a more comfortable position, his tone becoming unusually teasing.

"This kind of work has a market price: a salary of fifty yuan a day, plus a box of braised pork rice from across the train station."

"If you don't believe me, go to the North Square exit tomorrow morning; you might just see that 'Daddy Zhang' squatting there waiting for work."

"As for that five-thousand-yuan red envelope, that was a prop Chen Bin handed to them; it went from his left hand to his right, and finally into your pocket. This is what we call 'the wool comes from the sheep's own back.'"

The comments in the live stream exploded at this moment.

"Holy crap, hiring a dad for fifty yuan? This Chen Bin is a talent!"

"He just needs to provide food? Has the threshold for actors become this low now?"

"Hangcheng Young Master: I'm familiar with this move; I once went to the train station to find one to avoid a parent-teacher meeting! But I had to pay more that time, it cost me eighty."

"I feel bad for the young lady; this isn't dating, this is like performing in a large-scale immersive play."

Lin Moli's face turned deathly pale, she shook her head desperately, and bit her lips until they were almost bleeding.

"No... this isn't right."

"What about the video calls? He works overtime in the office every night, and I've seen the background."

"The bookshelves are full of professional books, and there's the company logo; that can't be fake, right?"

Su Yun sighed, a touch of pity in his eyes.

"Overtime? That's him at another home three kilometers away!"

"He leaves your place at 7:00 every night on the dot, saying he's going to the company to handle urgent business."

"In reality, he's back at his real home by 8:00, just in time to bathe his eldest son and make formula for his youngest daughter."

"The office background you see is nothing more than a highly realistic wallpaper stuck to the wall of his study."

"As long as the camera angle is right, you see a busy, overbearing CEO on your phone."

"He's over there keeping his wife and kids warm, while you're here wiping away tears and waiting for him to reply to your messages."

"Young lady, you really need to take a remedial class from this 'Time Management Master.'"

Su Yun's words completely collapsed Lin Moli's last line of psychological defense.

She collapsed onto the sofa, her eyes unfocused, muttering 'impossible' over and over again.

By now, the audience in the live stream had started to show off their skills.

Based on the scattered information Lin Moli had previously revealed, some people were frantically searching on social media platforms.

In less than a few minutes, some experts had dug up Chen Bin's real account.

"Everyone, go look! I've found this Chen Bin's real WeChat Moments! The account is called 'Young Master of the Chen Family,' and the content is full of holes!"

"I see it too! That Porsche is rented; I just checked the license plate, and it belongs to a car rental company! And those high-end wine parties he posts are all pictures from groups of 'socialites who split costs'; even the vase in the background is exactly the same as everyone else's!"

"This guy is something else; he manages his Moments to look like an elite worth over a hundred million, but in reality, he's been unemployed for three years and has been living off the money he scams from women!"

Lin Moli watched the comments flying by on the screen, her whole body trembling like a sieve.

With trembling hands, she clicked on the intimate photos Chen Bin had sent her.

Those photos once made her feel so happy; now, looking at them, each one felt like a loud slap across her face.

Su Yun watched the tragic scene on the screen and felt the timing was just about right. He cleared his throat, his voice sounding exceptionally clear in the live stream.

"Alright, stop hypnotizing yourself here."

"If you really want to see the truth, go to your bedroom right now."

"That large wardrobe in your bedroom, the bottom layer—has it always been locked?"

Lin Moli paused, looked up at her phone, her eyes full of confusion.

"Why go to the bedroom? He said it contains some commercial secret documents, contracts involving hundreds of millions, and he absolutely won't let me touch it."

"He also said that if I lose them, our lives would be ruined."

Su Yun sneered, his tone full of disdain.

"Contracts involving hundreds of millions? What's inside is his real life!"

"You've tried many times, but none of them were right, right?"

Lin Moli nodded, and tears flowed out again.

"I've tried our anniversary, his birthday, and my birthday, but none of them are right."

"He said it was a random code automatically generated by the system, which even he couldn't remember, and could only be opened with a fingerprint."

Su Yun pointed at the screen, his tone firm.

"Go try 190812; that's his eldest son's birthday."

"People like him are most accustomed to using such special dates as passwords because, for him, that is his only achievement."

Lin Moli stood up mechanically, took her phone, and walked into the bedroom.

She stood in front of the huge solid wood wardrobe, her fingers trembling.

The two million viewers in the live stream all held their breath, staring fixedly at the screen.

Lin Moli squatted down and, facing the electronic lock at the bottom of the wardrobe, tremblingly entered the string of numbers.