Zong Jinghao felt that the only way to calm the wild emotions in his heart was by hugging her warm body.
He rubbed his face against the soft and thin fabric of her dress. He could feel the warmth of his wife’s skin, and the heartbeat of the baby in her womb. At that moment, he knew that he wasn’t just hugging one person, but instead, he had two people in his arms.
One of them was the woman he loved the most, and the other was his flesh and blood.
He wondered whether his life was terrible.
His identity was kept a secret, and his biological mother was right in front of him. Yet, he hated her for over two decades.
Twenty years was a long time, and in all that time, he thought she was the woman who destroyed his parents’ marriage.
However, Zong Jinghao also had a happy life. He was with the woman he loved and had twins with her. He had the ordinary family he craved.
His home had everything he ever wanted. His wife, his kids…
Lin Xinyan kept stroking his hair as she asked, “What’s wrong? You can tell me. Let me share this burden with you. We’re a married couple, after all.”
“I feel terrible. Did it hurt a lot when you give birth to the twins?” asked Zong Jinghao with his eyes closed, his face still buried in her tummy.
It had hurt badly. The contraction came in waves and each wave was worse than the previous one. Even after all those years, Lin Xinyan could still remember the excruciating pain she had to endure.
However, that was all in the past.
“You’re upset because of that? Then why not just be nicer to me in the future?” said Lin Xinyan as she lifted his chin. She had her head down and was staring at him with the help of the dim light.
“Don’t I already treat you extremely well? I almost sacrificed my life for you,” reminded Zong Jinghao as his hand slid downwards.
Lin Xinyan frowned and slapped his hand away.
Zong Jinghao chuckled at that before instructing, “Go have dinner. I need to go run some errands.”
“Aren’t you going to eat something?” asked Lin Xinyan.
“I’ll eat out tonight,” replied Zong Jinghao.
Lin Xinyan sensed that Zong Jinghao was still hiding some things from her, so she stood there. Zong Jinghao stood up when he noticed that she was standing still. He offered, “Do you need me to carry you down the stairs?”
“No, it’s fine. Okay, I’ll go have dinner now,” replied Lin Xinyan. Cheng Yuxiu and her kids were still waiting for her in the dining room, and they would worry if she stayed for too long.
Zong Jinghao pinched her nose before saying, “Go on then.”
Lin Xinyan walked down slowly while Zong Jinghao sat on his own for a while. He stayed there until it was almost eight o’clock. After that, he got up to change his clothes. As he undressed, he heard the piano playing the tunes of Marriage D’Amour.
That was the first time he heard Lin Xinyan playing the piano, and he was mesmerized by it.
The beautiful tune danced in the air and stirred every heart and soul it touched. It was as if the melody was showing them their most serene and most beautiful moments in their life…
Zong Jinghao had a black suit on when he walked down the stairs. He saw his kids sitting on either side of Lin Xinyan while listening to her play. He wasn’t sure if they could understand the complex emotions expressed by the melody, but he could tell that they were definitely mesmerized.
Their tiny heads danced to the tunes, and they were so engrossed that they never noticed the man standing by the stairs.
Cheng Yuxiu sat on the sofa with her tears blurring her vision.
She knew that song well because she heard Wen Xian played it before.
When Cheng Yuxiu watched Lin Xinyan sitting there, she felt like she had traveled back in time to all those years ago…
Lin Xinyan’s fingers stopped dancing on the piano keys after she finished playing one song. It seemed that she was in the zone as well, and the kids’ and Cheng Yuxiu’s applause brought her back.
“It’s been so long since I last played, and I am all out of practice.”
Cheng Yuxiu wiped the tears off the corner of her eyes and complimented with a smile, “You played beautifully, and I was completely engrossed.”
“Yeah, it’s lovely. Mommy’s amazing!” added Lin Ruixi as she dashed into Lin Xinyan’s arms.
Lin Xichen had spent the entire day trying to figure how the piano works, so he turned to Lin Xinyan and asked with a straight face, “Mommy, please teach me how to play.”
Lin Xinyan agreed to it while stroking her son’s tiny head. She later saw Zong Jinghao standing by the stair, so she asked, “Are you heading out now?”
Zong Jinghao nodded and said, “Yeah. Rest well tonight. Don’t wait up.”
After that, Zong Jinghao turned to leave the house.
Lin Ruixi ran over before he got to do so. She asked, “Daddy, when will you come home?”
Zong Jinghao scooped his daughter up and planted a kiss on her forehead before replying, “Soon. Let’s not go back and stay here tonight, okay?”
It wasn’t ideal for Lin Xinyan to leave the house given her current condition, and with the kids there, they could keep her company.
“Okay,” agreed Lin Ruixi gleefully. Her parents were living in that house, so she was more than happy to stay there too.
“Run along now,” said Zong Jinghao as he placed his daughter back down.
Lin Xinyan turned to him from the living room and said, “Come home soon, okay?”
Zong Jinghao agreed to it before he left the house and went to Lotus Park.
He parked his car after arriving at his destination, and an attendant came up to welcome him. “Hi, you must be Mr. Zong, right? Mr. Wen is waiting for you inside.”
Zong Jinghao nodded slightly to gesture the attendant to lead the way.
The private room had a small pond with pink flowers on it. The water plants stood up straight as they floated in the middle of the pond. The water was clear, and the pond’s sophistication made the entire place look classy.
Zong Jinghao entered the room, circled around the pond, and headed toward the pavilion where Wen Qing was. The coffee table was right in the middle, and Zong Jinghao strode towards it.
Wen Qing heard the footsteps, and he already knew who those footsteps belong to without even needing to turn his head. “Looks like you are the only one who truly knows me,” commented Wen Qing.
Li Zhan’s a fool if he actually thought he pulled something like that off.
If Wen Qing hadn’t deliberately let Li Zhan know about the computer’s password, Li Zhan would’ve never gained access to it.
Zong Jinghao sat quietly on the opposite side.
“I am getting too old,” added Wen Qing. His face looked pallid, but no matter how terrible he looked, there was one thing he could never let go of. It was the obsession that had taken root in his heart.
He simply couldn’t lose his sister’s only son.
Hence, Wen Qing placed a file in front of Zong Jinghao and informed, “The police will announce that the case is solved tomorrow. They will claim that He Ruize escaped from prison and was shot by the police. Lin Xinyan had nothing to do with his death, and all the evidence previously held against her will be destroyed. There will be no trace of it.”
Zong Jinghao didn’t check the file. Instead, he stared calmly at Wen Qing.
The turn of events was too big and too sudden for him.
Wen Qing sighed, “I know that if I were to go through with it, you and I will never have a proper conversation again. She gave birth to your children, after all, and if it were me, I would’ve gone all out to protect the mother of my children as well.”
Zong Jinghao listened quietly without saying a word.
“Wen Xian had always been beautiful, even when she was a kid. Everyone loved her, and she was the only sister I had, so naturally, I cared for her as well. Our parents were loving, and I was close to my sister. Perhaps it was the way we were brought up, but I have always seen my family as the most important people in my life. I was only a kid when Wen Xian was born, but despite my young age, I remembered how my father told me that the baby is my sister. He told me to take care of her and love her because she and I were related by blood. He also said that we were born from the same womb and that there was no one more important. I remembered his words to this day, and I loved and cared for her as he instructed,” shared Wen Qing.
He then tilted his gaze up to Zong Jinghao and continued, “She passed away when she was so young, and I honestly couldn’t bear it. It hit me hard, and I was tempted to carve a hole in your father’s head to see if he actually had a brain. Because if he did, then why didn’t he treasure her and take care of her? She was so young, so why did he let her…”
Wen Qing was in pain, and he looked haggard.
Zong Jinghao looked up slowly. He stared at Wen Qing without saying a word.
There were too many twists and turns in that story, and Zong Jinghao didn’t know most of it. All he could do was wait for his people to report their investigation to him.
Wen Xian, the woman he thought was his mother… What role did she play in the incidents of the past? Why doesn’t Wen Qing know anything about it?
“I know that we probably won’t ever be as close as we used to be, but I still wish that you will forgive me. I still can’t let go of Wen Xian’s death, and it is likely that this will be the one pain I can never let go of in this lifetime.”
Wen Qing stood up after that. He was not as strong as he used to be, but he could still stand up straight.
“Tell me something. Did you come up with this plan? Or did someone give you the idea?”
