Boyfriend's passive-aggressive behavior, she turns the tables and makes him her backup option.

Si Nian looked at her fingers being held in Xie Jingyao's hand, which he was kneading gently. With each movement, it seemed as if he was reminding her to answer what he had just said.

Si Nian tried to pull her hand back but failed.

She looked at Xie Jingyao and said to him, "You don't need to use this method to urge me to divorce Lin Tinghan. It's a done deal that we will divorce."

Xie Jingyao couldn't help but frown.

"Do you think I did all this just to get you to divorce Lin Tinghan?"

"..."

"Ultimately, Lin Tinghan and I don't have any deep-seated hatred. There's no need for me to risk my life just to upset him or get revenge on him, is there?"

Xie Jingyao tugged at his collar, moving even closer to Si Nian. "I said I wanted to get back together with you, simply because you are you, not because you are Lin Tinghan's wife."

"Niannian, fall in love with me again. I'll be more suitable for you than Lin Tinghan. We're more compatible, both physically and spiritually. Don't you think?"

"I'm curious about something," Si Nian suddenly said.

"What?"

"When we were together, did you love me, or were you just playing around?"

"During the time we were together, I may not have realized my feelings for you, but after we broke up, I'm certain that I loved you."

Si Nian stared intently at Xie Jingyao's expression, but what echoed in her ears was Xie Jingyao's words when she was on the verge of death: "A woman like her is the easiest to get rid of."

She didn't understand if he had truly invested his feelings.

How could you say such a heartless thing?

Xie Jingyao couldn't understand what Si Nian was thinking.

He wanted to ask more questions, but his phone suddenly rang.

After receiving a call from his assistant, Xie Jingyao left Yunjin Mansion and went to the company, where he also received the latest news from Lin Tinghan.

"Brother Yao, Lairui Technology has suspended its cooperation negotiations with Lin Tinghan. I heard it's because Lin Tinghan falsified the experimental results he brought over. I just don't know what he actually brought that could have piqued Huo Xingxiao's interest so much in the first place," Liang Chengfeng pondered.

Xie Jingyao explained, "His adopted son."

"Um?"

"Huo Xingxiao's men conducted a second test and discovered that they were not related as father and son."

"Not biological father and son? Lin Tinghan directly fabricated evidence on the experimental subjects? Isn't that incredibly risky? He was exposed before the collaboration even started. What was he thinking?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that Lin Tinghan is definitely more shocked than you right now?"

Liang Chengfeng's mind raced.

He then tentatively asked, "You mean, Lin Tinghan himself didn't know there was a problem with the experimental subjects he provided?"

Five years ago, before his heart transplant, with the assistance of the Fang family's medical team, he used his own and his first love's genes to edit and reconstruct his body. Only after the cells were deemed qualified did he feel at ease to enter the operating room.

However, not long after, internal strife broke out in the Fang family, and many experimental projects in the laboratory were halted. The gene reconstruction project Lin Tinghan was involved in had embryos developing well, and after retrieving the embryos, he secretly arranged for people to continue cultivating them.

Xie Jingyao handed a stack of documents to Liang Chengfeng.

"But the investigation came to an abrupt halt when the embryo was eight months old. No information about any of the experimental subjects could be found until July of this year, when a little boy who claimed to have traveled from the future suddenly appeared and said that he was Lin Tinghan's son."

Liang Chengfeng looked at the information displayed on the document.

He concluded, "The laboratory that Lin Tinghan established five years ago was shut down by the Lin family in less than a year?"

"In the same year, not long after the laboratory closed, the Fang family and the Lin family arranged a marriage, but the marriage partner was Lin Yufeng. Lin Tinghan also completely withdrew from the core business of the Lin family that year. In recent years, he has been handling some insignificant projects."

"So at his wedding this year, when a little boy who claimed to have traveled from the past and whose paternity test confirmed he was 'his biological son' appeared, he quickly accepted the child's existence. Did he think the child was a test subject from back then?"

Xie Jingyao listened to Liang Chengfeng's analysis and nodded. "It seems that's what he's thinking."

Liang Chengfeng chuckled, "This is interesting. Who exactly dug such a big hole for him?"

Moreover, the person who dug the pit probably has a blood feud with Lin Tinghan. This kid who appeared out of nowhere not only made his wife run away, but also ruined his cooperation with Lairui Technology.

After Liang Chengfeng finished speaking, he seemed to have thought of something.

"You said the Fang family initially contacted Lin Tinghan. Could it be that the Lin and Fang families were planning a marriage alliance with Lin Tinghan from the start?"

But he quickly changed the subject, saying, "However... I remember that Lin Tinghan's wife was his childhood sweetheart, and even his adopted daughter-in-law. Shouldn't both families have known from the beginning that there was no chance that Lin Tinghan and the Fang family's woman would get along?"

Xie Jingyao's eyes turned cold. "We've known each other for a few years, but we're not even childhood sweethearts, let alone a child bride."

Liang Chengfeng was puzzled for a moment, then realized what was going on.

"I just blurted it out, pshaw pshaw pshaw."

"..."

"Speaking of which, Brother Yao, the rumors about you and that celestial beauty are all over the place right now. They're saying you two were cheating on Lin Tinghan, that someone caught you, and then you got so angry that you almost killed the person who saw you. Don't you need to do some public relations?"

Xie Jingyao, however, remained calm and composed. "The police will soon have a conclusion on the murder, and we can deal with the public relations issues then. As for whether Lin Tinghan will be cuckolded, that depends on how willing he is to get a divorce."

After listening to the analysis, Liang Chengfeng concluded that Xie Jingyao meant that if Lin Tinghan divorced him readily, he wouldn't be considered to have cheated on her; if they didn't divorce, it would eventually become a reality.

"Brother Yao, are you really planning to become a mistress for love?"

"The one surnamed Lin is the third."

"That's right. There's a saying that goes, 'The one who isn't loved is the third party.'" Liang Chengfeng took the side without hesitation.

Xie Jingyao smiled slightly.

Anyway, Si Nian now wants to divorce Lin Tinghan, and that's for sure.

All of this depends on Lin Tinghan sacrificing himself.

If he hadn't held that press conference, Xie Jingyao would have had to come up with his own ideas and push things along with Si Nian.

Unexpectedly, before he could even make a move, Lin Tinghan delivered his own head to the table.

……

Si Nian finished washing up and was preparing to go to sleep.

Lin Tinghan rang the doorbell urgently.

Si Nian, still half asleep, went to open the door. Lin Tinghan's chest was heaving violently, and his expression looked clearly wrong.

Si Nian instinctively steadied Lin Tinghan, "Why do you look so pale? Is your heart bothering you?"

"Niannian." Lin Tinghan's face was bloodless, and her eyes were filled with despair.

"Hengheng is not related to me by blood."

Si Nian paused for a moment upon hearing Lin Tinghan's words.

She subconsciously thought of the preparations she had made for her divorce proceedings.

At that time, she plucked Lin Tinghan and Lin Ziheng's hair and took them to an institution for testing. The initial report indicated that they were not related by blood.

But soon the agency called her again, saying that after a retest, they confirmed that they were biological father and son, and that the initial report was wrong.