Chapter 29: The Heart That Hung in Suspense Has Finally Died

Jiang Yang suppressed the shock surging within him and, feigning calm, walked through every corner of his thirty-square-meter apartment. Whether he stood in the bathroom, the kitchen, the living room, by the bed, or even near the window, the detector in his pocket never ceased its frantic wailing.

Manager Cai had explained that the device only sounded when in close proximity to a camera, a design intended to pinpoint the exact location of hidden lenses. Now, this meant the entire room was riddled with them.

Dammit! How twisted must someone’s psyche be to do this?

The detector’s incessant "beep-beep-beep" shattered the foundation of his feelings for Ruolan with every pulse, his mind instantly flooded with fury. He had initially hesitated about whether to expose all the cameras, but that hesitation had vanished. He fetched a chair and began with the bathroom, where the detector’s shrieking was most frequent—there might be more than one hidden there.

Just as he prepared to climb onto the chair, his phone rang. It was a video call from Ruolan. The shrill ringtone echoed piercingly through the empty room. The timing was too coincidental; it confirmed that the person behind the screens was undoubtedly her.

He answered, forcing down his rage. "Hey, honey, I’m back."

Ruolan’s face appeared on the screen, looking flustered. "Honey, what are you doing? Why are you standing on a chair?"

"I found a mouse in the house. I'm trying to flush it out."

Ruolan gasped. "Oh? Don't bother with that. Wait until I get back tomorrow and have a professional exterminator handle it."

"No need for all that trouble. Don't worry, I can handle it," Jiang Yang said, hanging up the phone without further discussion. He could hear the panic in her tone, which only deepened his suspicion that she was hiding something sinister.

He swept his phone light over the bathroom’s square ceiling panels and caught a faint glint reflecting from a gap. He stood directly beneath the panel and prepared to pry it open. At that moment, his phone rang again—another call from Ruolan.

Jiang Yang ignored it, hanging up, and sent a voice message: "Honey, I'm busy. We'll talk later."

The phone began to ring again the moment the screen went dark, persistent as a death knell. Ignoring the noise, he set the phone aside and began to dismantle the ceiling.

As expected, a tiny camera was hidden within the gap. He pulled it out and smiled into the lens. If it were possible, he truly hoped the person on the other end wasn't Ruolan. But, regrettably, it was.

Over the next hour, Wang Ruolan clutched her hair, eyes wide, watching as Jiang Yang systematically located and dismantled every single camera in the room. When the final feed on her computer went black, she realized her relationship with Jiang Yang was likely over.

Perhaps one or two cameras could be explained away as a precaution against burglars; some people did that. But eighteen pinhole cameras in a thirty-square-meter room? Even a prisoner in a cell would find that unbearable.

Jiang Yang looked at the pile of cameras on the table, his heart sinking into a cold abyss. Though he had six-pack abs and a great physique, Ruolan had been watching him naked for over a dozen days; she had measured every inch of him with her own eyes. He didn't even know what there was to see, yet she had installed four cameras in the bathroom alone. The bed was even worse—with seven cameras focused on it from the ceiling, the bedside lamp, the footboard, the headboard, and the sides. This was no longer mere peeping; it was more like a biological study.

No matter how hard he tried to process it, he couldn't fathom why she would do this.

The phone on the table had finally gone silent. Ruolan didn't dare call again, and he had no desire to reach out to her. A tacit, heavy silence hung between them. He wanted to call the police, and he suspected the officers would be stunned by the sight, but he held back. If Ruolan was responsible for all of this, she would face prison.

They had been husband and wife for a night, let alone the last half-month of intimacy. But now, he only wanted to get away from this woman—if only to save his own life. He now deeply suspected that the car accident from that night was her doing, as was their marriage...

Wait, how did he even end up marrying a woman like this? Was her mental state truly sound?

He began to frantically search the room for their household register and marriage certificate. Ruolan had only shown them to him three times. At the time, he felt he had married a beautiful, kind woman—a dream come true for any man—and he hadn't thought to question the authenticity of the documents. Later, they had gone straight abroad on vacation, and he hadn't seen the papers since. Looking back, there were so many red flags.

He searched everywhere, but found nothing. It seemed she had taken such important items with her. Never mind; he would check the government website online later. Everything would be clear then.

The room now made his skin crawl. He feared there might be more cameras he hadn't found, so he decided he had to leave and figure out his next move tomorrow. He grabbed his backpack, packed all the cameras, and threw in a couple of changes of clothes.

Before leaving, he took one last, long look at the room, especially the bed. The days he had spent with Ruolan felt like a dream, and it was time to wake up.

As Jiang Yang walked downstairs with the bag of cameras, wondering where to spend the night, Yang Xiaoran called. He needed someone to talk to, so he answered.

Her voice was as languid as ever. "Hey, why haven't you checked in with me today?"

"I was busy with work. Don't I have to work to make a living?"

"Oh? Your tone sounds off. Did something happen?"

Jiang Yang thought to himself, *This woman reads me like a book. How does she know something's wrong from a single sentence?*

Before he could speak, Yang Xiaoran continued, "I'm at the clinic. Come over if you want to see me." She hung up.

Every time he dealt with this woman, he felt manipulated, yet he always ended up doing exactly what she said. He touched the bag; it was best not to bring these cameras to her clinic. Until he understood the full scope of the situation, he didn't want Ruolan to get into even more trouble because of them. He stored the backpack in a locker downstairs and hailed a cab to the clinic.

...

On the other side of the screen, Wang Ruolan clutched her hair, pacing barefoot in her room, muttering, "He found them. What do I do? What do I do?"

She stopped at the table, stared at the computer, suddenly ripped out the power cord, and smashed the laptop against the wall, screaming, "This is all your fault! He found them, what am I supposed to do now?!"