The next day, time was passing fast and going slow at the same time.
Su Qingsang was peeling an apple for Xiang Caiping in the hospital room. Staring at her, Xiang Caiping spoke carefully:
“Qingsang, have you been very tired lately?”
Su Qingsang paused. She finished peeling the apple in her hand, looked at Xiang Caiping, and said: “Oh, no. I am not tired. It’s just that I only have less than two days off, and I feel a little bit depressed.”
“I know how hard you have been working. You should take the time you have and rest well,” said Xiang Caiping.
Xiang Caiping thought that her daughter and son-in-law didn’t need to look after her every day. “It’s all right for you and Huo Jinyao to go out and have fun. You don’t need to worry about me.”
With Ning and Yu being here and taking turns to tend her, she didn’t find it necessary to have her daughter’s company all the time.
“Mom, I am all right. I am not that tired,” said Su Qingsang.
Su Qingsang cut the apple into pieces, picked up one piece with a toothpick, and gave it to Xiang Caiping. She said, “Mom, please do not overthink.”
Xiang Caiping took the piece of apple from Su Qingsang with a smile of gratitude in her eyes.
Now Su Qingsang’s feelings toward Xiang Caiping were quite complicated. Su Qingsang knew in her heart that Su Chenghui had fooled them all.
She and Su Peizhen were very likely switched when they were born.
How could Xiang Caiping suspect? She didn’t raise her, after all.
They didn’t know each other until recently. There wasn’t a long-standing emotional bond between them.
But Su Qingsang and Huo Jinyao had done so much for her, she felt so touched and of course she wouldn’t ask for more, Xiang Caiping thought.
“Mom.”
Su Qingsang could probably tell what she was thinking just by looking at her.
“Are you concerned that I might not want to take care of you because we were reunited only after I grew up?”
“What do you mean?” Xiang Caiping gave an embarrassed laugh. As a matter of fact, Su Qingsang could tell that Xiang Caiping really thought so.
“Mom.”
Su Qingsang did not say more.
Xiang Caiping looked at her. She didn’t seem to understand why her daughter was about to say something but stopped before she spoke.
“What happened?”
“Nothing,” Su Qingsang shook her head and said, “I’ve been thinking that I am so lucky. I couldn’t have had a better mother. What if… what if there was some mistake and I was not your daughter…”
Su Qingsang didn’t finish her sentence. It was easier for her to speak half in jest than in complete seriousness.
“What nonsense!” Xiang Caiping was unwilling to listen. “You are my daughter. I feel it in my heart. My own child.”
“Mom.” What Xiang Caiping said relieved Su Qingsang of her last struggle. She squeezed Xiang Caiping’s hand and said, “That’s right. I am your daughter.”
When Ning came into the room, she saw Xiang Caiping and Su Qingsang talking and laughing. She felt relaxed too.
…
The next morning, Huo Jinyao stared at Su Qingsang when he got up.
“Do you want me to go with you?”
Su Qingsang told him about the DNA test when she came back yesterday. He didn’t think the test was necessary, though. The result seemed evident to him.
However, Su Qingsang had a point doing that.
Looking at him, Su Qingsang gently nodded, but immediately shook her head.
“What do you mean?” Huo Jinyao didn’t understand. “Do you want me to accompany you or not?”
“I want you to go with me. But I also want to go alone.” Su Qingsang went over her inner thoughts and said, “Jinyao, you know, on the one hand, I want someone to share the burden with me and to accompany me to face the news; on the other hand, I want to carry all the weight of it by myself.”
In fact, the answer couldn’t have been more obvious. She, Su Qingsang, was most likely the child of Su Chenghui and Li Qianxue. There was a very slim chance of it being otherwise.
For now, she only needed to be completely sure. However, at the last moment, she was a little bit reluctant to face the result.
“I am with you,” Huo Jinyao held her hand. “Whatever the result turns out to be, I’ll be right here by your side.”
Su Qingsang looked into his eyes. She nodded heavily and said, “Okay.”
She only wanted an answer. To her, anything was better than not knowing.
As to her, it didn’t matter what the result was. Actually, she wished she could find out the truth and then put it aside forever.
However, there was no way to avoid what was in front of her.
After she took a shower, Su Qingsang called her classmate at the DNA Diagnostics Center and went there to pick up the two test reports.
One was for her and Su Chenghui, and the other for her and Li Qianxue.
If possible, she wished neither of them were her parent.
How she wished she were an orphan! She could adopt Xiang Caiping as her own mother and accept no favors from the Su Family and Li Family.
Su Qingsang didn’t stop Huo Jinyao from taking the reports. She watched him open the reports and read them.
The first report was the result about her and Su Chenghui. Huo Jinyao put the report into Su Qingsang’s hand and said, “There was never any doubt about this one. You look so similar to Su Chenghui.”
Su Qingsang knew it. No matter how much she wished otherwise, she could not deny she was Su Chenghui’s daughter.
Huo Jinyao opened the other report. Su Qingsang slowed down her breathing and stared at Huo Jinyao nervously so as not to miss a single word.
The test result was just a single sheet of paper. Huo Jinyao looked up at Su Qingsang, his expression self-explanatory.
“Qingsang, the likelihood that Li Qianxue is your biological mother is 99.9%.”
Su Qingsang had guessed that earlier. It didn’t come as a surprise.
Huo Jinyao nervously gazed at her, not knowing what she was going to do.
What could she do? There was nothing to be done now.
She folded the report carefully after reading it. In the end, she looked up at Huo Jinyao.
“You know my dad. He is really a scumbag, isn’t he?”
Huo Jinyao didn’t expect she would say that.
He wanted to say something, but no words seemed adequate.
“Sweetie…”
“He is such an asshole,” she sniffed, squeezed the two reports in her hands, and tried to seem relaxed. “Can you tell me why he is such a brute?”
Looking at her, Huo Jinyao threw his arms around her and hugged her.
He gently patted her back. “Do you want to take revenge on him?”
Su Chenghui hurt Su Qingsang. She could have been born with a silver spoon in her mouth and brought up as a rich girl, but because of him, she was raised as an illegitimate daughter.
It was not the most important thing, however. Su Chenghui was responsible for the fact that she had been deprived of maternal love for over twenty years.
In Huo Jinyao’s opinion, Su Chenghui was completely out of line.
“I don’t want to.”
Su Qingsang pressed her face against his chest, blinking her tears away.
“Jinyao, I won’t hate him because hatred is exhausting, but I will not forgive him either. I want us to go back to Rong City. What do you think?”
“Sure.”
“I am thinking about us taking my mom back. We can stay away from Su Chenghui and the Li Family.”
Li Corporation, Li Qianxue, Su Chenghui… All of these had nothing to do with her.
“I will cut off contact with them. From now on, I am Su Qingsang only, an illegitimate daughter who has a mother but no father.”
“No,” staring at her, Huo Jinyao reached out and took her hand. “You are also my wife. My precious wife.”
When speaking, he reached over to kiss her cheek. Su Qingsang felt a subtle and spreading warmth flowing through her heart.
The pain she received from her biological father seemed to fade away with her warm feeling.
“Huo Jinyao, thank you.”
“You already said that.”
“Then, Huo Jinyao, I like you.”
“You have already said that as well,” Huo Jinyao teased her.
“Emm…” Su Qingsang was out of words. She thought for a while and finally said, “Huo Jinyao, I really really like you. I like you a lot.”
She hadn’t said this before, had she?
Huo Jinyao kissed her cheek again, with a smile on his face. “I didn’t hear it before. Maybe you could repeat it.”
Su Qingsang couldn’t help but smile.
“Jinyao.” She hugged him around his waist and said with a voice tinted with delight, “It’s so good to have you here.”
Huo Jinyao didn’t say anything but held her tighter.
Su Qingsang could just let it go, but Huo Jinyao was unwilling to allow it.
He didn’t take any action before because he didn’t want to upset Su Qingsang. However, given the current situation, he needed to do something.
…
Last year, Tianyu Group had three projects on which they cooperated with Li Corporation. Among the three projects, there were two that Su Chenghui supervised himself.
Therefore, in the past, when Huo Jinyao showed up at his office, Su Chenghui didn’t feel surprised.
However, today was different than before. Huo Jinyao looked different today. It reminded Su Chenghui of the day when Li Qianxue overheard his conversation with Huo Jinyao.
Irritated, Li Qianxue flew to the United States even though it was during the Chinese New Year.
She has been gone for a few days but never called him.
Except for the one phone call she made per day to check in with Old Master Li, she seemed to have nothing to do with him now.
Right now, Su Chenghui felt uneasy when looking at Huo Jinyao. After all, it was dishonorable for his son-in-law to witness his fight with his wife.
“The holiday is not over yet. Why did you come in?”
Su Chenghui was the general manager. It was OK for him to be late for work, even not to show up for a few days.
However, he didn’t want to stay at home alone, faced with the strange and inquiring gaze from his son and seemingly accusatory look from Old Master Li.
“I have something to tell you,” said Huo Jinyao, a casual look on his face.
“What is it?”
Huo Jinyao looked at Su Chenghui and couldn’t believe it. Judging by appearance alone, Su Chenghui didn’t look like the person who could have done such a thing.
However, who knew him inside out?
“Qingsang and I made a decision. We decided to move to Rong City after the Lantern Festival.”
…
