Chapter 401: Chapter 297: Shock (2)
Her gaze was dull and unfocused, as if she had lost interest in everything around her.
Furthermore, her facial muscles had atrophied, causing her cheeks to sink and her cheekbones to protrude sharply. She looked utterly gaunt.
These were the classic signs of a junkie.
Just then, Feng Mountain noticed that a number of local residents had gathered on the street. They were pointing and whispering in their direction, craning their necks with curiosity. Some had even raised their phones.
Seeing this, Feng Mountain walked right up to Yves and Valerie and said with a frown.
"Folks, unless you enjoy being gawked at like monkeys, I suggest we sit down and talk properly. How about we sort this out somewhere else?"
"Who’s he?" Valerie didn’t respond to Feng Mountain directly. Instead, she stared at him, her eyes a mixture of suspicion and confusion as she directed her question to Yves.
"My boss. A man of great integrity," Yves said softly, holding his daughter. After introducing Feng Mountain, he turned to his ex-wife, his eyes filled with a storm of emotions.
He couldn’t help but remember high school. Valerie had been the most radiant girl in school, turning heads wherever she went. She was a goddess to so many of the boys.
But now... she had turned into this. The thought alone was heartbreaking.
When they divorced, he had given her and their daughter all his money. It was enough for them to live comfortably; it even covered Fiona’s school tuition.
What’s more, all the money he’d earned in the Crown Territory had been deposited into his ex-wife’s bank account. He just wanted to make sure she and their daughter would never have to suffer.
But now... look at Fiona.
Not only was she not in school like a normal kid, she didn’t even have a single new outfit. Her clothes were filthy and tattered.
Even her breakfast was just leftover pizza from the night before.
The more Yves thought about it, the more his heart ached. He took a deep breath, looked at Valerie, and said firmly.
"Valerie, we need to talk."
"Talk about what? The child support for this month hasn’t hit the account yet. Fiona doesn’t even have money for breakfast."
At the mention of money, a flicker of light instantly appeared in Valerie’s dull eyes. It was as if money was the only thing she cared about right now; everything else could wait.
"Let’s go inside first," was all Yves said. He then silently held his daughter and walked toward a dilapidated wooden house behind them.
Valerie watched her ex-husband walk away. For a moment, a trace of fondness flickered in her vacant stare—after all, they had shared good times once. But just as quickly, the fondness morphed into an unreadable conflict, as if she were wrestling with a difficult decision.
In the end, however, she gritted her teeth and hurried to catch up.
Feng Mountain, Nash, and Director Roland were left behind. They exchanged a look, each seeing the same helplessness and shock in the others’ eyes. They all shook their heads and followed after Yves and the others.
The wooden house looked like it had seen better days. The exterior planks were mottled and peeling, with damage in several spots, giving it an air of decay.
They stepped onto the stairs. Every footstep produced a hair-raising CREAK, as if the wood might splinter at any moment.
The scene inside the house was even worse, almost too much to bear.
The hallway floor was littered with trash—used tissues, empty bottles, and the like were strewn everywhere. Discarded clothes were scattered about, adding to the extreme clutter.
The walls were covered in splotches that looked like dried glue residue, dirty and disgusting.
An awful stench permeated the air, so strong it assaulted the nostrils. It made you want to cover your nose, and breathing itself felt difficult.
As they passed the kitchen, Feng Mountain glanced inside out of reflex.
The sight was utterly revolting.
The kitchen was teeming with cockroaches. They scuttled brazenly over rotting food waste as if the place were their personal playground.
’Is this a home or a garbage dump?’
’How could anyone let it get this messy?’
The others also wore expressions of disgust, their brows tightly furrowed. They picked their way carefully down the hall, watching each step for fear of treading on something foul.
When they reached the living room, the scene was an even bigger disaster, enough to make anyone shake their head in disbelief.
A pair of panties was draped over the television. The coffee table was heaped with all kinds of junk: cigarette butts were scattered everywhere, food wrappers were piled carelessly, and crumpled clothes were mixed with foul-smelling socks. The entire table looked like a chaotic landfill.
The sofa was in no better state, likewise buried under a mountain of clutter.
Strips of tin foil and lighters were discarded carelessly among all sorts of unidentifiable junk, leaving no room to sit on the sofa. The entire living room reeked of squalor and chaos.
Watching this scene unfold, Yves’s expression was beyond cold—it was downright dark. His eyes burned with an irrepressible mixture of anger and anguish.
He never imagined that in just three years...
...their once warm and wonderful home could turn into this dilapidated, utterly filthy wreck.
It was a world away from the home he remembered.
He looked down at his daughter nestled in his arms, his expression instantly softening as he asked gently,
"Fiona, are you hungry?"
"I’m hungry. The pizza is yucky," the little girl said, pointing a small finger at the pizza box on the coffee table.
Hearing his daughter’s words, Yves reached over and opened the pizza box.
The sight inside sent a fresh surge of rage through him.
Inside were a few slices of hardened pizza. What should have been chunks of meat—God knows what kind—had turned black and shriveled. The sight was enough to turn one’s stomach.
At that, Yves could no longer contain his fury. He snapped his head up and glared at his ex-wife, Valerie, his eyes practically shooting fire as he roared,
"Fack, is this how you take care of our daughter? What the hell is she eating?"
"It fills her stomach, doesn’t it? What is that little bit of money you send every month supposed to cover?"
Valerie, however, got up nonchalantly, grabbed a slice of pizza, and shoved it into her mouth. She chewed with a deliberate, loud CRUNCH, CRUNCH. Her couldn’t-care-less attitude made it seem as if Yves’s questioning was completely unreasonable; she paid his fury no mind at all.
The sound of her CRUNCHING grated on Feng Mountain’s ears, and he felt a wave of revulsion.
He recalled when he first arrived in the Crown Territory. Life hadn’t been particularly prosperous, but it was never this grim. At least they were guaranteed meat with every meal.
Besides, he paid Yves a salary every month.
Last month alone, he had paid him 5,000 US Dollar.
Yves hadn’t kept a single cent of that money for himself. Feng Mountain had watched him hand the check to Tom and ask for help transferring the money into his ex-wife’s account, hoping it would allow the mother and daughter to live a little better.
You have to understand, in a backwater town like this, 5,000 US Dollar... while not enough to live like a tycoon, was more than enough to ensure they were well-fed and clothed. A normal life should have been perfectly manageable.
But from the looks of things now, it was obvious this woman, Valerie, had taken Yves’s money and spent it on something else entirely. None of it had gone toward caring for their daughter.
Yves took a deep breath, struggling to compose himself. He then looked at his ex-wife Valerie, his gaze firm and his tone pleading.
"I want to take back custody of Fiona. I hope you’ll agree."
The moment Valerie heard this, she shot to her feet. She started waving her arms like a madwoman, her face flushed with agitation as she shrieked,
"No way! Don’t even think about it! I will never agree! When we divorced, the court gave me custody of Fiona! It has nothing to do with you! Your only job is to put money in the account every month!"
Heh!
’What a line: "Your only job is to put money in the account every month."’
’In other words, she was using her daughter as a cash cow, a tool to extort Yves.’
Feng Mountain sneered to himself.
The others weren’t fools, either. They could all see through Valerie’s petty scheme.
They all shook their heads.
Their faces filled with contempt for Valerie and sympathy for Yves and Fiona.
....
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