He Threw Toads, I Bombed His Helicopter

After our housekeeper Shanna threw away the ring I'd custom-made for my husband, she dropped to her knees sobbing and apologizing:

Mrs. Whitmore, I thought it was just an empty box. I had no idea there was a ring inside. I know I'm poormy worthless life isn't worth one of your rings. Please don't hold this against me.

I forgave her and helped her dig through our household trash to find the ring.

The next day, when my husband Blake Whitmore returned from his late-night business trip, he said he wanted to take me somewhere special and mysteriously blindfolded me.

He'd always loved surprising me, so I thought this was just another one.

I never expected him to use a helicopter to drop me in a landfill containing 100 tons of garbage.

That housekeeper sat provocatively beside him in the helicopter.

Blake glared at me coldly:

"Do you realize that because you made Shanna dig through the trash, she lost the only bracelet her mother left her!"

"You like digging through trash so much? Today I'll let you dig to your heart's content! Don't even think about leaving until you find Shanna's mother's keepsake!"

In the sweltering summer heat, the nauseating stench made me retch continuously.

These two had really crossed the line! In fury, I fired a signal flare at his helicopter!

The helicopter was hit by the signal flare, swaying and rocking in midair, nearly losing control.

Shanna almost fell out.

Blake caught her in his arms, still shaken, and roared at me in the garbage heap:

"Lauren Yale, have you lost your mind!"

He wore a microphone headset, his tremendous rage filling the entire landfill.

Under the night sky, several helicopters circled overheadall Blake's friends from the elite circle, men and women wearing masks and watching my humiliation from above.

"Is Lauren trying to get herself killed? Even now she's still got such a temper!"

"I think she's forgotten where she came froma nobody who became somebody! She should take a good look at herself!"

"Exactly. A scholarship student who married Mr. Whitmore, lived the good life for a few years, and now thinks she's too good to treat the household staff decently!"

"Mr. Whitmore is right to do this. If he doesn't teach her a lesson, she'll really believe she's upper class!"

They all wore microphones, their mocking laughter mixing with the pervasive garbage stench.

I couldn't be bothered with them. The signal flare had been sentit wouldn't be long before people from the organization came to deal with them.

Did they really think I was just some jealous wife?!

I might not be wealthy, but my authority was far above these people!

By crossing me, they'd triggered a bomb!

"Mr. Whitmore, Mrs. Whitmore has such a delicate constitution. Let me go down and search instead. After all, she's used to making me dig through trash anyway. I'm nobodylet someone lowly like me do the trash-digging."

Shanna put on her fake act.

Blake looked at her with heartbreak, his voice tender:

"You're too kind. Kind women get bullied. I won't let you be so understanding."

The scene pierced my heart. This housekeeper had been hired by Blake just a month ago.

Five years of marriage couldn't compete with a new housekeeper.

Seeing me cover my nose and stand frozen, Blake commanded me again with finality:

"Until you find Shanna's mother's keepsake, don't even think about leaving!"

I snorted coldly. "We'll see if I can leave or not! I was blind to marry you! Blake Whitmore, our marriage is over!"

Blake turned red with anger. "I gave you too much indulgence, and this is what you've become! I won't coddle you anymore!"

With that, he coldly ordered his subordinates over the phone:

"Release the toads. Don't stop until Mrs. Whitmore gets her precious hands dirty digging through garbage!"

He knew my greatest fear was toads.

I had a heart condition. Two years ago, I accidentally stepped on a toad in our courtyard at home. The fright caused my heart to spasm, breaking me out in cold sweat with my pores standing on end.

I nearly collapsed right there. Fortunately, I carried emergency heart pills with me.

After Blake learned about this, he personally led the household security in catching toads throughout our vast estate for an entire day and night.

He had people place toad repellent around the villa. From then on, there wasn't a single toad on the property.

Even though they were gone, whenever he was home, he would carry me so my feet never touched the ground.

I thought he was making too much of it, but he looked at me with devoted eyes and said:

"I enjoy taking care of you like this. I want to carry you for the rest of our lives, and I'll make absolutely sure you never step on another toad again."

Those memories felt like yesterday. The sweetest promises he'd made had now become poisoned blades aimed at my heart.

Soon his subordinates brought a helicopter full of toads and began dropping them one by one, aimed at my head from high above.

Because I'd left in such a hurry, I didn't have my heart medication with me.

As toad after toad pelted down on me, my innate terror made my scalp tingle. My whole body froze, too panicked to breathe.

The feeling was like being slowly cut apart by someone wielding a sharp knife, slicing skin and grinding flesh.

Panic reaching its peak triggered my survival instinct. I began running instinctively to escape.

The helicopter overhead followed me, continuously bombarding me with toads.

I felt like I'd been abandoned on a deserted island, desperately trying to survive.

Though toads posed no real threat to most people, for someone with an innate phobia of them, avoiding toads felt as urgent as escaping from crocodiles.

"Ha ha ha ha ha..."

"I told you she was all bark and no bite. What kind of future does someone who's afraid of toads have?"

"What do you mean no future? She can make housekeepers dig through trash!"

"Think Lauren will beg for mercy on her knees?"

"I bet she will. Lauren, I'm not trying to be harsh, but if you'd just obediently dug through the trash to find Mr. Whitmore's sweetheart's mother's keepsake, this wouldn't have happened. You're refusing a toast only to be forced to drink a forfeit!"

"You don't actually think Shanna is just a housekeeper, do you? She's Mr. Whitmore's precious darling now. If you're petty about it, that's your problem."

The rich kids and socialites overhead watched like I was a circus act, laughing mockingly.

Shanna pretended to be understanding as she called down to me:

"Mrs. Whitmore, stop being stubborn and just listen to Mr. Whitmore. That day when you made me dig through trash, I accidentally lost the only keepsake my mother left me."

"My mother's bracelet is somewhere in this landfill now. If you search carefully, you'll find it. The sooner you find it, the sooner this ends and you won't have to suffer like this."

In the stinking landfill, there was nowhere clean to step.

After running just a few steps, I tripped and fell into a pile of garbage. Toads continued raining down on me from above.

By my feet, beside me, near my handsthey were everywhere.

Finally, my heart seized with terror and I passed out.

As my consciousness faded, I heard Blake's subordinate report anxiously:

"Mr. Whitmore, Mrs. Whitmore has a heart condition. She's collapsed and isn't moving. What if something happens?"

Blake gave a slow, cold snort. "She's just acting! She doesn't have any heart diseaseshe's just being dramatic to make me pamper her!"

"Someone who can fight off wild dogs with her bare hands couldn't possibly be scared to death by toads!"

Shanna appeared sympathetic but was actually fanning the flames as she shouted at me:

"Mrs. Whitmore, stop pretending! Get up already. You're such a germaphobeit must be so dirty down there. The doctor already told Mr. Whitmore you don't have a heart condition."

"Why debase yourself like this? It pains me to watch."

Blake was indeed provoked by her and warned me:

"Lauren, get up right now and stop playing dead!"

Shanna wickedly suggested: "Mr. Whitmore, could Mrs. Whitmore be suffering from heatstroke? Should we send down some ice water for her?"

Now Blake believed everything she said and immediately ordered his subordinates:

"Get the coldest water you can find and wake Mrs. Whitmore up!"

Soon his men brought ice water and poured it over me like a waterfall from the helicopter.

I felt nothing except my hearing. That splashing ice water was piercingly loud and even scared away the toads.

I don't know how long passed before I groggily regained consciousness. Bone-deep cold consumed me. I felt like I was submerged in a pool, with garbage floating in the water, drifting around my nose and mouth.

Water flooding my nose gave me a drowning sensation. A violent survival instinct pulled me back again.

I sat up abruptly, choking and coughing violently, as if trying to cough up my lungs.

I trembled all over from the cold, as if my whole body was in an ice cellar. On this September night the temperature had plummeted, cold wind rustling. I felt like I was freezing to death.

"Ha ha ha! I told you she was faking it!"

"See, she can't keep up the act anymore! Women are just naturally manipulativelike onions, you have to peel away layer after layer of their pretenses!"

"Look at her nowjust like a drowned rat. Ha ha ha, so pathetic!"

"I've never seen a woman more stubborn than Lauren."

The spectators in the aircraft pulled out their phones to capture my misery, their loud mocking laughter echoing as if this moment was the happiest of their lives.

Shanna hypocritically shouted at me again:

"Mrs. Whitmore, get out of that waterit's too cold and will harm your health! Mr. Whitmore makes the decisions in this house. Even if you look down on me, at least make a show of searching around a bit."

"Don't make Mr. Whitmore so angry. Have some consideration for his healthmen shouldn't get this upset."

Her cheap words touched Blake deeply. Looking up, I saw him with one arm around the housekeeper's waist and one hand caressing her thigh through her black stockings.

The way he looked at her was heavy with lust. This man who once swore to heaven that even if every man in the world cheated, he never would.

Now he was openly flirting with the housekeeper right in front of me.

Sure enough, a man's promises are only true when written on his tombstone!

Seeing me glare at him in fury, Blake's flirtatious expression instantly turned to displeasure as he snapped at me:

"So you do know how to be angry? When you were mistreating Shanna, didn't you think about how unsanitary garbage is?"

"Just because of a stupid ring, you made her lose her mother's keepsake! Didn't you consider how devastated Shanna would be?!"

"I thought you could recognize your mistakes, but I see your attitude is still defiant. I've given you too much confidence!"

"From now on, I won't indulge you anymore!"

I laughed coldly in proud anger. "Are you done spouting your bullshit!"

Instantly the spectators in the aircraft erupted:

"Damn, she's got guts! First time I've ever seen anyone dare talk to Mr. Whitmore like that!"

"Someone who dares tell Mr. Whitmore he's spouting bullshitI've never seen that in my life."

"Even at this point Lauren's mouth is still so sharp. She really doesn't fear death!"

Blake's expression turned severe, his eyes boring into mine:

"Since you're not afraid of humiliation, I'll make sure you're thoroughly humiliated!"

With that, he used his radio to order the other helicopters full of spectators:

"Don't hold back anymore. Go ahead and livestream this."

His friends got excited like they were high on drugs.

They all pulled out their phones and aimed them at me in high definition livestreams.

They enthusiastically discussed livestream titles:

"How about 'Mr. Whitmore's Wife-Taming Chronicle'?"

"What about 'Mrs. Whitmore Humiliates Servant and Gets Taught a Lesson'?"

"How about 'Mrs. Whitmore Searches for Bracelet in 100 Tons of Garbage'? I think that one's good!"

Blake pretended to think and joined the heated discussion:

"The last one'Mrs. Whitmore Searches for Bracelet in 100 Tons of Garbage.' Use that title."

He deliberately paused, looking at me like a rebellious student who'd driven the principal to fury!

Once the livestream started with Mrs. Whitmore's name attached, tens of thousands of viewers instantly flooded each person's stream, with numbers continuously rising.

They deliberately stirred things up in the livestream:

"Hello everyone, good evening. We're bringing you a live broadcast of Mrs. Whitmore personally searching for a bracelet in 100 tons of garbage."

"What you're seeing is the usually dignified Mrs. Whitmore. She humiliated the household housekeeper and caused the loss of the only keepsake the housekeeper's mother left behind. Now Mr. Whitmore is making her personally find the housekeeper's mother's keepsake."

They deliberately read the harshest livestream comments aloud to me:

"Mr. Whitmore is doing the right thing! People who look down on others deserve this treatment!"

"Lauren isn't some heiress herself. What right does she have to humiliate us ordinary people!"

"Look how pathetic she isI'd love to go there in person and slap her a few times!"

I was numb from the cold, using all my strength to struggle out of the ice water and stumble toward the distant exit.

The helicopters' blinding searchlights above shone directly into my eyes.

Seeing I still wouldn't submit to him, Blake played his final card:

"Lauren, I'm asking you one last timewill you search for Shanna's mother's keepsake or not? Or would you rather have your mother's ashes scattered in the garbage just to maintain your pride?!"

My heart lurched painfully. I steadied my weakening body and looked up at Blake.

He held my mother's urn in his hands, coldly staring into my eyes as he opened the lid. The urn tilted, and I watched as my mother's ashes were about to spill out.

I gave in, screaming at him through my tears:

"I'll search! I'll search! Blake Whitmore, we were husband and wifeI'm begging you not to be so heartless."

I was truly afraid he'd scatter my mother's ashes. I immediately began pawing through the foul garbage heap, digging while pleading with him:

"I'm searching right now. Please put my mother's urn away safely. I'm begging you."

Shanna maliciously fanned the flames again: "Mrs. Whitmore, why do this to yourself? You said it yourselfyou were husband and wife. But why did you try to blow up Mr. Whitmore's helicopter earlier? You really hurt his feelings."

I ignored her and just kept digging through the garbage.

Shanna continued stirring trouble: "Mr. Whitmore, the way Mrs. Whitmore is just randomly digging around, this will take forever. If she's not going to search sincerely, forget itlet me go down and search instead."

Blake, provoked by her words, lost all patience. He tilted the urn downward and coldly threatened me:

"Lauren, I don't have time to waste on you. I'm setting a timer now. If you don't find it within half an hour, your mother's ashes will be scattered like dust across this garbage heap."

I broke down. One hundred tons of garbagehalf an hour was impossible.

But no matter how much I begged, he remained unmoved, constantly reminding me of the time.

I could only pray for luck, but after using all my strength to dig through garbage for half an hour, I still hadn't found Shanna's mother's keepsake.

Just as I was about to beg Blake again, I watched him with his cold, heartless expression tip my mother's urn and pour out the ashes.

I watched my mother's ashes scatter like dust in the air, falling downward. I completely shattered inside, desperately running over with outstretched hands: "No!"

Above me came their roaring mocking laughter. Suddenly the sound of hundreds of aircraft approached from all directions, drowning out their derisive laughter.

These aircraft surrounded Blake's helicopter. I finally heard a reassuring voice:

"Which bastard is bullying Lauren? Take him down!"