Please, mature women, have some self-respect. I just want a raise and a promotion.

Liu Kaishan's voice exploded; you could hear him slamming something to the ground even through the phone.

Zhang Wanquan took a deep breath, stepped on the brake, and stopped the car on the side of the road.

He turned his head and glanced at Zhou Yu in the passenger seat.

Zhou Yu leaned back in his chair, staring blankly ahead, as if he hadn't heard a word he was saying on the phone.

"Liu Kaishan, I'm telling you."

"So what if I slept with Zhou Yu? You try sleeping with my wife if you dare!"

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a piercing roar filled with all sorts of offensive language.

Liu Kaishan greeted almost every woman connected to Zhang Wanquan.

Zhang Wanquan moved his phone further away, and after the cursing subsided slightly, he brought it back to his ear.

"Are you done yelling? I have things to do if you're done."

"Zhang Wanquan, I'll fucking never forgive you!" Liu Kaishan roared.

"You won't let me off the hook?"

"Who do you think you are?"

"You think I don't know what you've been doing?"

"You're trying to suppress Lin Zheng and drive up material prices, hoping to use Zhang Tianhu to get rid of him. Do you think you can hide these things from anyone?"

"Let me tell you, Liu Kaishan, if you mess with Lin Zheng, you're messing with Yang Wanshan."

"You should know Yang Wanshan's current position. Qiu Ruiming is about to be placed under investigation, and Yang Wanshan has taken over his position. You, a vice president of Tenghua Group, really think you can control everything?"

Zhang Wanquan's stiffness was laced with sarcasm, showing no regard for Liu Kaishan whatsoever.

Liu Kaishan was startled, but then roared.

"What's it to you? You're in the same grade as me, but in my eyes you're nothing."

"I am nothing?"

Zhang Wanquan laughed, and the laughter echoed in the carriage, sounding somewhat eerie.

"Your wife was in my car, and I made her kneel down, but she wouldn't stand up. And you're telling me I'm nothing?"

"Then you should try it and see who kills whom first."

"Okay, let's give it a try."

After saying this, Zhang Wanquan hung up the phone and threw it into the glove compartment.

The carriage quieted down, with only the hum of the air conditioner blowing.

Zhou Yu turned her head to look at him, her fingers, painted with dark red nail polish, lightly tapping her knee: "Are you two done arguing?"

"The argument is over."

"So what's next?"

Zhang Wanquan restarted the car, but received no response, and drove onto the main road.

After driving for about ten minutes, he stopped at a secluded side road.

There was a large expanse of undeveloped wasteland by the roadside, with weeds growing up to waist height, and the sound of train whistles could be heard in the distance.

Zhang Wanquan turned off the engine and unbuckled his seatbelt.

"get off."

Zhou Yu glanced at him, then pushed open the car door and got out.

The night breeze carried the scents of grass, trees, and earth, and she leaned against the car door, lighting a second cigarette.

Zhang Wanquan walked up to her, placed his hand on the car door beside her, and encircled her in the middle.

Zhou Yu exhaled a puff of smoke: "I don't want to know what you were talking about, and I have no interest in knowing."

"But you brought me to a place like this, you have to give me an explanation."

"You heard your husband calling and cursing my ancestors for eighteen generations."

"I heard you."

"So I need to vent."

Zhou Yu threw the cigarette butt on the ground, crushed it out with the tip of his shoe, and looked at Zhang Wanquan.

"How are you going to vent?"

Zhang Wanquan didn't say anything, but reached his hand to her waist and suddenly ripped the side zipper of her burgundy halter dress all the way down.

The fabric slid down her shoulders, revealing her fair shoulders and collarbone.

Zhou Yu did not dodge, nor did he even move.

She simply turned her head slightly, gathering her loose hair to one side, revealing her slender neck.

"Aren't you afraid he'll come looking for you?"

"So what if he comes looking for us?"

"If he comes looking for me, let him watch. See how I deal with his wife."

Zhou Yu chuckled lightly: "You're much tougher than you look."

"You'll soon find out whether I'm ruthless or not."

Zhang Wanquan's fingers slipped inside the fabric, tracing the curve of her waist downwards.

Zhou Yu trembled slightly, biting her lip and bracing her hand on the car door.

The wind blew from the wasteland, rustling the wild grass.

"Didn't you just want to hear your wife yelling outside?"

Zhou Yu's voice suddenly became very soft, with a deliberately low and teasing tone.

"Then let me show you how other women moan."

Zhang Wanquan abruptly turned her around, making her face away from him, with her hands on the roof of the car. Her silhouette was clearly outlined in the dim yellow light of the street lamp.

His fingers slid up her tailbone, the rough texture of his fingertips grinding against the skin of her back inch by inch.

Zhou Yu's breathing began to become heavy, like intermittent sobs.

Did you hear that?

Her voice trembled as she asked Zhang Wanquan.

"I've been with him for over twenty years, and I've never let him hear a sound like that."

Zhang Wanquan plowed the fields with brute force, like an ox.

Zhou Yu bit her lip, her closed eyes trembling.

"Yes...that's it..."

Upon hearing this, a mad glint flashed in Zhang Wanquan's eyes.

Each strike carried a certain vengeful ferocity.

His mind was filled with Liu Kaishan's curses on the phone and Lin Xiaoyu's shouts from behind that door.

His breathing became heavier and heavier, and his hands gripped Zhou Yu's shoulders with such force that it felt like he wanted to embed her into the car.

"Does your husband... know how loudly you shout?"

"He...he never let me shout it out loud..."

Zhou Yu's voice was intermittent.

"All he does is keep mistresses outside... He's completely incompetent..."

"He's not good enough?"

Zhang Wanquan turned Zhou Yu around and looked at her flushed face.

"What about me? Am I capable?"

Zhou Yu's lips were slightly parted, but she did not answer.

But she was trembling all over.

The trembling spread from my fingertips to my calves, as if I were being washed by an electric current again and again, with no sign of stopping.

She raised her hand, hooked it around the back of Zhang Wanquan's neck, and pulled him towards her.

"You...you experience it for yourself..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhang Wanquan launched another attack.

Zhou Yu's voice suddenly rose, and his whole body tensed up like a bow.

"Okay...you're much better than him..."

In the distance, a truck drove along the provincial highway, its headlights sweeping across the wasteland before quickly disappearing into the night.

Zhou Yu slumped against the car, her skirt bunched up at her waist, her back pressed against the cold metal, her breathing still ragged.

She turned her head, her gaze falling on Zhang Wanquan's face, and the corners of her mouth slowly curled up.

"You've fallen out with him, so how do you plan to clean up the mess?"

Zhang Wanquan lowered his head, fastened his trousers, zipped them up, took out his cigarette case, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag.

He leaned against the car door, a cold smile playing on his lips.

"He wants to mess with me, so I'll mess with him first."

Zhou Yu didn't say anything, pulled down her skirt, got into the passenger seat, and closed the car door.

The car windows weren't rolled up, and the night wind blew in through the gaps, dispersing the warm steam that hadn't yet dissipated inside the car.

Zhang Wanquan finished his cigarette outside the car, stubbed it out on the car door, opened the door, and got into the driver's seat.

He didn't start the car immediately, but instead took out his phone and glanced at it.

Yang Yun had a missed call and a WeChat message.

After hanging up, Liu Kaishan made three more calls: to Zhou Haimin, Director Li from the district, and Old He from the finance bureau.

"He's setting things up; be careful."

After reading the message, Zhang Wanquan's lips curled into a smile. He tossed his phone back into the storage compartment and started the car.