Free Web NovelChapter 252: Chapter 252: The Truth of That Year
Su Li sensed Tang Yuanxiao’s stare and glanced down.
"You..." Tang Yuanxiao looked up at Su Li. "You’re determined to fight for custody of Momo?"
’She’s even started investigating Mo Jianjun...’
Su Li exhaled and lowered her voice. "What choice do I have? Didn’t you see what he was like just now?"
Tang Yuanxiao took a step back. "So you investigated Mo Jianjun?"
"He could be Little Mo’s biological father. Of course I need to get the facts." Su Li raised the folder in her hand.
"I’m going to read this now. You... should leave."
Su Li turned to close the door to the room, but Tang Yuanxiao stopped her.
"There are very few records of what happened back then... It’s been so many years. Can’t you just let him rest in peace?"
"Rest in peace?" Su Li pointed to Little Tang Mo on the hospital bed. "If Little Mo is his son, how could he possibly rest in peace knowing this? Could he?"
"Tang Yuanxiao, instead of stopping me here, you should be telling me the truth and giving serious thought to what’s best for Little Tang Mo."
Su Li raised her hand as if to speak, then let it fall helplessly. "It’s already come to this. The rumors are spreading, and everyone has their suspicions. Your insistence that Little Mo is your biological son and your silence about the past are pointless now."
Seeing Tang Yuanxiao’s silence, Su Li shook her head, said no more, and simply shut the door.
With a sigh, Su Li checked on Little Tang Mo, then sat down by the bed, opened the folder again, and continued to read.
Outside the door, Tang Yuanxiao stood frozen to the spot, unmoving for a long time.
’What happened back then... What happened back then...’
For the past two years, Tang Yuanxiao had found himself thinking about those events less and less.
But ever since he rushed back from the training base, the memories from that year had come flooding back, replaying in his mind with stark clarity, one after another.
Back then, Tang Yuanxiao, Yu Le, and Mo Jianjun, all the same age, had started their jobs at the same time.
The three of them, from different regions and with vastly different personalities, were thrown together.
They started spending a lot of time together at work, and gradually they became an inseparable trio.
To outsiders, it looked like the three of them were great friends, always together. But that wasn’t the reality.
He and Yu Le hit it off immediately and got along great. The same went for Mo Jianjun and Yu Le. But him and Mo Jianjun... that was a different story.
Their personalities were polar opposites. Tang Yuanxiao was stern, serious, and by-the-book, while Mo Jianjun was brilliant but had a nonchalant attitude about everything.
Mo Jianjun disliked Tang Yuanxiao’s rigidness and how he took everything so seriously. Tang Yuanxiao, in turn, disliked Mo Jianjun, always thinking of him as a slacker and irresponsible.
It was a classic personality clash.
If it weren’t for their job, and if it weren’t for Yu Le, they never would have spoken a word to each other.
Under normal circumstances, once they went their separate ways, they would have become mere acquaintances, if not complete strangers.
But that’s not how things turned out.
During an experimental test on a work trip, Tang Yuanxiao made a mistake, creating a dangerous situation.
Mo Jianjun, the man Tang Yuanxiao had always seen as irresponsible, noticed the danger and sacrificed himself to save Tang Yuanxiao—to save everyone.
Tang Yuanxiao nearly lost his mind.
Mo Jianjun died instantly, without a chance to say a single word.
When the news of Mo Jianjun’s sacrifice reached his hometown, Grandma Mo was so devastated she collapsed and fell gravely ill.
But Grandma Mo wasn’t the only one who fell ill. There was also Cui Yun.
Mo Jianjun had been in love with Cui Yun. He had fallen for her at first sight right after they started working.
He courted her in secret for two years before she finally returned his feelings.
Back then, relationships were kept secret. They were only made public once a couple was formally engaged.
No one knew Mo Jianjun and Cui Yun were dating. The only ones who knew their secret were Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le, who had accidentally stumbled upon it.
Mo Jianjun had spent half a year saving up money, buying the betrothal gifts piece by piece. He was planning to go to the Cui family to formally propose as soon as he returned from that assignment.
But in the end... he never came back.
How could Cui Yun possibly accept such a reality? freewebnøvel.com
Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le, knowing about her relationship with Mo Jianjun, rushed her to the hospital.
They went themselves, not wanting anyone else involved, so they could comfort her in private.
But at the hospital, they received a shocking diagnosis: Cui Yun was pregnant.
And the child was Mo Jianjun’s.
In that moment, Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le didn’t know whether to rejoice or to weep.
Mo Jianjun was the only heir to the Mo Family. With his death, their family line would end. If Cui Yun could give birth to this child, it would mean Mo Jianjun had a descendant, which was a blessing in a way.
But the terrible part was that Mo Jianjun and Cui Yun weren’t married.
Nowadays, or in the future, getting pregnant before marriage and then getting married is perfectly normal. People would even offer their blessings.
But in that era, at that time, getting pregnant out of wedlock was an absolute taboo.
An unwed pregnancy was a source of unbearable shame.
For a man to get a woman pregnant before marriage, or for a woman to be pregnant before marriage—both were enormous scandals with no easy explanation.
If this got out, it would have been a huge mess even if Mo Jianjun were still alive.
With Mo Jianjun gone, if the story got out, his name would be tarnished even in death, and he would be endlessly condemned.
Cui Yun wouldn’t have been able to survive it either. The public scorn would have been enough to drown her. Her family would never be able to hold their heads high again, and her younger sister would have no hope of ever getting married.
Had this happened just a few years earlier, it’s possible Cui Yun would have been beaten to death or even drowned for the offense.
Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le were tormented by the dilemma.
When Cui Yun woke up and learned she was pregnant, she broke down, wailing. She wanted to give Mo Jianjun a child, to leave a piece of him behind, but in those days, how could it possibly be that simple?
To allow Mo Jianjun to rest in peace, to prevent his name from being dragged through the mud after his death, to ensure Cui Yun could survive, and to give the child a legitimate identity, Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le both arrived at the same solution.
In the end, Tang Yuanxiao was the one who spoke to Cui Yun first, proposing a fake marriage.
Cui Yun didn’t want to ruin Tang Yuanxiao’s future, but she ultimately accepted. She wanted to have the baby, to continue the Mo Family’s line. She needed a reason, the strength and courage, to go on living.
He eventually convinced her, and she agreed to the sham wedding.
After Mo Jianjun’s funeral, Tang Yuanxiao married Cui Yun as quickly as possible, registering the union and holding a wedding banquet. To hide her pregnancy, which would soon become obvious, he sent her back to her hometown in their second month of marriage, using the excuse that she was suffering from severe morning sickness.
Once she was back in her hometown, they told everyone she had gotten pregnant a month later than she actually had.
Because the pregnancy was already a "fact," and there weren’t all the modern prenatal tests back then, no one questioned it. Plus, Cui Yun had become so thin that her belly hardly showed, so no one grew suspicious.
Mrs. Tang said Little Tang Mo was born prematurely, but he wasn’t. He was a full-term baby.
It was just that Cui Yun was overcome with grief and had grown terribly thin, so Little Tang Mo was simply small from lack of nutrition.
Little Tang Mo was born safely, but the ordeal had destroyed Cui Yun’s health. She passed away not long after giving birth to him.
That was the story of what happened. Complicated, yet simple.
Besides Cui Yun, who was gone, only Tang Yuanxiao and Yu Le knew the truth. They guarded the secret with their lives. Even Grandma Cui and her family had no idea.
