The Villain's Wife

The first thing that Qin Mo noticed when he entered Lily's office was its calm and luxurious environment. The room was painted in a mixture of black, white and gray and everything inside the room looked… simple, clean and sophisticated. He instantly eyed the big painting to his left. "Beautiful painting," he noted.

"Take a seat," Lily replied with a smile. In response Qin Mo took a seat opposite Lily's desk. "Coffee or tea?"

"Coffee. One cube of sugar, no cream." In response, Lily dialed a number on her office phone and repeated Qin Mo's preference. She then looked at her father and gave him a smile.

"I did not realize that seeing my own daughter would require so much effort," Qin Mo said. "Are you the kind of person who forgets everyone after they reach the pinnacle of the business world?"

"I am only like this to you," she responded, making Qin Mo stare coldly at her. "What brings you here, Mr. Qin?"

"To negotiate," Qin Mo answered. "The Qin Industries is a lost cause. Your husband has ruined it. We are in debt and I need your help."

"I am truly surprised that you still have the guts to come in here and make a request like this despite knowing exactly what you and your family did," Lily answered.

"I would rather do this than pointlessly scheme behind your back," he answered calmly.

"Point taken," she answered before someone knocked on the door. Yang Mi pushed the door open and entered, followed by Miss Xi and another secretary. Yang Mi slowly placed the coffee before Qin Mo while the other two pushed carts into the room and carefully arranged the snacks from the cart on the coffee table near Lily's desk.

Seeing this, Lily rose from her desk chair and gestured for Qin Mo to have a seat on the couch. They sat across from each other as the secretaries continued to place snacks on the small table.

"Isn't this a little extravagant?" Qin Mo eyed the various snacks in front of him. He wondered if this was Lily's way of showing him goodwill.

"It's not for you," Lily took a grape and ate it. "It's for me. I'm a little hungry."

Qin Mo's face darkened at her words but he was quick to control himself. "About the thing that I want…"

"No," Lily interrupted him. "Learn your place in the world, Mr. Qin. You don't get to say whatever you want in front of me."

The words that Qin Mo wanted to say instantly got stuck in his throat. He opened his mouth wanting to say something but ended up closing it instead.

"One question, one answer, Mr. Qin. If I am satisfied I will help your company," she added. She had actually prepared these snacks because she knew that they would be having a very long conversation today.

"What do you want to know?" Qin Mo asked, wondering what Lily wanted. Does she want him to punish Tang Lingyun and everyone who schemed against her?

"When is my mother's birthday?" Lily asked, once again rendering Qin Mo speechless. Birthday? What is Lily talking about? When he saw that Lily was waiting for his answer, he immediately realised that she was serious.

"I… January… I…"

Lily let out a snort. "You don't know," she stated as she leisurely ate the grapes. "When and where did you two met?"

"Why are you asking these questions? It was so long ago that I have already forgotten," Qin Mo answered, still a little confused by Lily's line of questioning. Slowly, an uneasy feeling and a  sense of dread spread through his heart. It was as if Lily was staring straight into his soul as she asked those questions. Qin Mo stared at her as his heart skipped a beat. He didn't know if he was actually nervous because of her questions or if he was infuriated because it seemed like she was playing him instead of taking him seriously.

"So you didn't know the answer to that either...." Lily noted, her tone stern but it also contained a tinge of laziness in it. This reminded Qin Mo of a bored interviewer. "Tell me Mr. Qin… what do you remember about my mother?"

When Qin Mo just stared at her in a daze, Lily smiled. "Anything? Nothing at all?"

"I…"

When Lily saw Qin Mo's tense reaction, a flash of unfathomable emotion was seen in her eyes but it was too quick for Qin Mo to notice. "You knew that your wife was bullying us back then."

"I did."

"Honest. I like it," she said. "You knew that she had been scheming to hurt my mother and yet you did nothing. Mr. Qin, I am not that smart but my brain functions well enough to know that you did not care about my mother at all. Now… I want to know why that is?"

"It was in the past. I have forgotten a lot of things already," Qin Mo quickly answered. He was still confused by these questions that seemed to come out of nowhere but he was sure that Lily was waiting for him to give the wrong answer. She was laying a trap for him and Qin Mo was adamant that he would not fall for it.

"Hmmm…" Lily nodded, her gaze still aimed straight at her father. "Mr. Mo, after the scandal of me being with an unknown guy was posted online you immediately abandoned me and my mother. You did not listen to my explanations and you just threw us out on the streets as if we were unwanted dogs. Tell me… did you also know that it was Tang Lingyun who schemed against me?"

"I did not know this," Qin Mo answered honestly.

"After the car accident, I was unconscious for three days. When I woke up, they gave me my mother's ashes. Were you the one who ordered them to cremate her without waiting for me to wake up?"

"I did," he nodded. "The doctor did not inform me of when they expected you to wake up so I ordered them to do it."

Silence followed Qin Mo's answer as Lily stopped eating and stared at him with her eyes completely devoid of any expression, and frankly it made Qin Mo extremely uncomfortable. "Mr. Qin…" Lily paused deliberately, her eyes boring into his, "Did you do it because you wanted her out of your life completely... or because you wanted to cover up a crime?"