After coming into the living room, Tang Chuan found both his parents wearing cold expressions and sitting far apart from each other; the atmosphere seemed a bit off.
What the heck is going on?
Did Dad and Mom have a fight???
Tang Chuan furrowed his brows slightly.
He realized that something seemed to have flared up between his parents over the past two days.
The long-married couple appeared to be in a cold war......
But considering time was tight—every second of delay and that poor girl might fall into the beastly cousin's clutches—
Tang Chuan decided to ask his parents for help first......
"Dad, Mom! I have something I want to discuss with you."
"What is it, son?"
On the sofa, Xu Shuyun—who had been sulking—looked up in surprise; at the same time, Tang Guoan also turned his head at the sound.
"What I want to talk about has to do with Cousin...."
"???"
Hearing it concerned their nephew, the couple both frowned, puzzled.
Because of the unpleasantness back then, they had cut ties with Lin Xuan for years.
They'd thought the Tang family would never have any dealings with him again in this lifetime—so how was their son entangled with him once more???
Soon, after Tang Chuan's righteous, vivid recounting, the couple finally understood the ins and outs.....
"Hmph! Bastard! That punk really can't stop being a dog who eats shit!"
Tang Guoan snorted coldly; he was utterly disappointed in this nephew of his, hating the iron for not becoming steel.
When his younger sister died unexpectedly back then, he'd wanted to do his best to support Lin Xuan and shoulder an uncle's responsibility.
But no matter how sincerely he treated Lin Xuan, the boy only met him with cold looks and harsh words.
He even listened to Lin Jianjun's instigation and absurdly blamed his own mother's death on the Tang family.
In truth, Tang Guoan could still endure those things and chalk them up to Lin Xuan being young and having a stress reaction after losing his mother.....
But to satisfy his animal lust, Lin Xuan actually peeped at his precious daughter bathing and stole her underwear!!!
What enraged him the most was....
That beast had even tried to take advantage of an empty house to molest Tang Rou.
If he hadn't happened to return to fetch a forgotten document, the consequences would have been unimaginable!!!!
And it was after that incident that the Tang family completely severed relations with Lin Xuan.......
"You haven't even figured the situation out yet! Don't bring too much of your subjective bias into it. Maybe Lin Xuan really is doing a good deed and helping that girl find her parents?"
Xu Shuyun spoke in an even tone, without much emotional fluctuation.
Unlike Tang Guoan and the others, her work was closely tied to the internet, so she'd naturally learned a fair bit about Lin Xuan's recent doings.
Whether it was him marrying into the Su family to "ward off bad luck," or righteously denouncing his own father, everything seemed to indicate....
This nephew really wasn't quite the same person as before!
"Hmph! Rivers and mountains may change, but a person's nature is hard to move! Even Jesus couldn't teach him, I say!!!"
"If he's really that kindhearted, I'll kowtow and apologize to him on the spot!"
Tang Guoan snorted again, expression icy.
Especially whenever he recalled his precious daughter with her clothes disheveled, crying her eyes out back then—
As an old father, his face flushed red with anger all over again.
Then, without looking back, he left the villa, not wanting to hear anything about his nephew at all......
"(#`O′) Dad! Where are you going?"
"Son, ignore your father! You said that girl looks a bit like me? Where's the video? Let me see?"
Paying no mind to Tang Guoan's departure, Xu Shuyun kept a cool expression and turned to hold out her hand to Tang Chuan.
She had dominated the business world for many years and had her own knack for reading people's words and expressions.
By watching a video, she could quickly tell whether someone was acting or expressing true emotion, and glean a fair sense of the girl's situation.
"Mom, more than just a bit! She's practically the spitting image of you when you were young!"
"If I didn't know it was impossible, I'd really think she was my long-lost biological sister!"
"......."
At Tang Chuan's fussing, Xu Shuyun still didn't react much.
There are billions of people in this world; it's common to find lookalikes—nothing to be surprised about.....
She briskly took the phone and tapped play.
"!!!!!!!!!"
The instant she clearly saw Chu Ling's face in the video, Xu Shuyun's mind buzzed and went blank.
The previously calm expression instantly turned to shock and terror.
Her eyes widened; she sat bolt upright, staring unblinkingly at the screen.....
After watching the video in full, Xu Shuyun felt nothing but shock, and an unbelievable suspicion surfaced in her heart?!
Eighteen years ago? Chu Family Village?!!
This girl....
Could she actually be my biological daughter???
But Chu Ling...
Xu Shuyun's breathing quickened as she recalled eighteen years ago.....
At that time, she was still willful; even with a big belly she insisted on traveling to get some fresh air.....
And she wouldn't allow bodyguards to follow, finding them annoying—who could have known that when passing through Chu Family Village.....
Her water suddenly broke and the baby was about to be born early; at that time, it was definitely too late to rush back to the city....
Facing this sort of situation for the first time, the couple had no idea what to do.
In a pinch they heard there was a household in the village that had just delivered a baby that morning and had a lot of experience with midwifery.
So, they immediately went to ask for help, and with the family's assistance, she successfully gave birth to a daughter.....
"The man of that farm household seemed to be named... Chu Xiong!"
"To thank them, we also left a large sum of money; after staying the night, we boarded the motorcade that came to pick us up and left safely!"
"Because the whole process was so dangerous, I still remember some of the details very clearly...."
"......."
Xu Shuyun's face changed again and again.
She no longer knew how to describe her feelings at this moment....
Even without a paternity test, when Chu Ling said she had a [?]-shaped birthmark on her butt, Xu Shuyun's eyes reddened instantly.
She was almost one hundred percent absolutely certain!!!
Chu Ling was her biological daughter, and the girl had had her fate switched with Tang Rou's for the past eighteen years.
Because of that [?]-shaped birthmark....
She had the exact same one on her own body, and she vaguely remembered that.....
After giving birth, she seemed to have glimpsed a birthmark on the baby's butt.
But at that time, she had exhausted all her strength to deliver, and in utter fatigue, she fainted the moment the child was born.....
By the time Xu Shuyun woke again, the baby they brought to her had no birthmark at all.
Back then she even muttered to herself, thinking she must have seen it wrong in her daze......