Tai Jing felt she was too embarrassed, so she fled abroad to avoid awkwardness.
But others did not see it that way.
Everyone thought Tai Jing had suffered severe heartbreak, running abroad to heal. This departure lasted many years.
Sigh, how pitiful!
The pitiful Tai Jing became a negative example in the circle, scaring many families from promoting their sons-in-law anymore. As soon as Tai Jing returned to the country, she heard plenty of gossip, angering her so much she almost bought a ticket to flee on the next flight.
“…So, after a woman divorces, must she find another man? If not, others will say you cannot forget your ex-husband. It is simply inexplicable!”
In the coffee shop, Tai Jing sat opposite Xie Tang.
Tai Jing was not haggard at all. She still had her youthful outgoing and talkative nature. Despite the generation gap with Xie Tang, she opened up as soon as she saw her.
Xie Tang laughed upon hearing. “Whether to marry or not is personal. Others love to meddle. As long as you do not care, it is fine.”
Tai Jing took a deep breath. “You little girl are insightful. If everyone were like you, I would not have feared returning home.”
Where there was love, there was bound to be hate.
In the first two years abroad, Tai Jing simply hated her ex-husband to death.
Thinking of how she opposed her family for that man, only for him to rekindle with his first love and try to trick her into raising his son, leading to her divorce and exile abroad, away from her previous social circle, tasting loneliness alone in a foreign land. If Tai Jing had no hate, she would be a modern saint!
However, as time passed, Tai Jing’s hatred gradually faded.
With love came hate. She had not returned home for so long, she could hardly remember her ex-husband’s face, naturally the hatred faded.
Later, Tai Jing met a new boyfriend. She had no time to think about her ex-husband.
“But you still came back, which means you have completely let go of the past.”
Xie Tang still admired Tai Jing. When Tai Jing caught the affair in bed and chose divorce, outsiders thought the Tai family would retaliate harshly against her ex-husband. In the end, Tai Jing did nothing.
Of course, without the Tai family’s retaliation, Tai Jing’s ex-husband did not fare well.
A decade ago, he was the youngest associate professor. Now, he was still an associate professor. Most of his classmates had achieved great success, while he remained stagnant!
After Tai Jing went abroad, her ex-husband married his first love girlfriend. The two lived in the school faculty building. The son left in the rural hometown was brought to the capital. That child looked so much like his father. Claiming he was a stepson was impossible. He was definitely biological! So, the ex-husband’s family of three was complete, but the school’s internal evaluation of him hit rock bottom.
If the ex-husband had outstanding ability, a conduct issue might not affect his career. Unfortunately, his talent lay in romance, not in his professional field where he never became a big shot. School leaders did not want to deal with him, colleagues looked down on him. His career stalled, a great setback for an ambitious man!
Though Tai Jing had no love or hate left, she would not be a saint and bless her ex-husband’s good life.
There was a saying: if you are well, it is like thunder in a clear sky for me. Tai Jing was very satisfied with her ex-husband’s current situation.
After chatting a few sentences with Xie Tang, Tai Jing lowered her voice mysteriously. “Let me tell you, a man who cheats in marriage is like money stained with shit. No matter how large the denomination, picking it up and pocketing it is disgusting!”
Xie Tang deeply agreed. “So I strongly disapprove of my family… What use is whitewashing peace?”
Third uncle Xie Jinghu was money stained with shit. Third aunt picking it up would stink her hands.
Tai Jing blinked. “I like you, girl, but I cannot openly help you. This is after all the Xie family’s matter. I fear the Xie family will settle accounts with me later.”
The Xie family was once similar to the Tai family, but now stronger than the Tai family.
When young, Tai Jing was immature, arguing with her family over an unworthy ex-husband, hurting their feelings.
Later, when Tai Jing caught her ex-husband cheating and did not want to stay in the country, her family disregarded past grievances, helped her, sent her abroad at the fastest speed.
Tai Jing had sworn then never to hurt her family for outsiders again.
She sympathised with Zou Weijun’s plight, admired Xie Tang for helping justice over kin, but rashly meddling in the Xie family’s affairs, Tai Jing feared causing trouble for her family.
When young and impetuous, Tai Jing had changed. Time made her “timid”, made her more mature.
Xie Tang thought for a moment. “This is indeed the Xie family’s matter. I will not make things difficult for you, Aunt Tai. As long as you provide me with a little clue, I will investigate myself. Whatever I find out has nothing to do with you, Aunt Tai. After all, it is not your romantic debt!”
Tai Jing was amused by Xie Tang, her memory flowing back to twenty years ago.
At that time, Tai Jing was still young, with many suitors.
In the circle, probably only the one who now became Xie Jinghu’s mistress had more suitors than her.
Tai Jing actually could not understand. Was it really that food in others’ bowls tasted better? Back then, Xie Jinghu liked Miss Zhuo so much. When the Zhuo family fell, Xie Jinghu still wanted to marry Miss Zhuo, but Miss Zhuo disagreed.
She could have been Xie Jinghu’s legitimate wife, but no. She had to return years later, lower her status to be a mistress.
Simply a lunatic!
Tai Jing took a sip of the coffee on the table, a mocking smile on her lips. “In male-female relationships, Miss Zhuo is not even as good as her little follower Lanlan. I heard Lanlan married south and is doing well, at least without these messy romantic histories. Miss Zhuo is different. After the Zhuo family fell, the phoenix became a pheasant. In our circle, more than your third uncle jumped out to shelter her from wind and rain. Others aside, just talking about the overseas Chinese tycoon she married. If she had no relationship beyond friendship with him, why would he recognise the child in her belly?”
This was something Tai Jing realised later.
Miss Zhuo married the tycoon three months after going abroad.
Now Miss Zhuo says the eldest son is Xie Jinghu’s, and Xie Jinghu acknowledges it. Whether a paternity test was done or not, at least it shows the two had relations back then.
So why did the tycoon think the child was his?
Before the tycoon’s death, Miss Zhuo and the tycoon were harmonious as husband and wife. Unless the tycoon had a fetish for raising others’ sons, he would never leave her so much inheritance. Later, she did not get the inheritance because the tycoon’s other children sued to change the will, not because the tycoon discovered the youngest son was not his.
Not every child with mismatched dates could be passed off as “premature”. Whether premature or not, ordinary people might not see, but doctors are not fools. Fooling rural ignoramuses was one thing, but how to fool shrewd businessmen!
So, while the tycoon was alive and did not doubt the child was not his, it must be that the child’s birth date matched.
Before Miss Zhuo went abroad, before breaking up with Xie Jinghu, she had already hooked up with the tycoon.
Both men had relations with Miss Zhuo. Whose the child was depended on whom she wanted as the child’s father. Anyway, the dates matched, no fear of exposure.
Xie Tang’s expression and worldview shattered together. “This works too?!”
Although Xie Tang hoped to find evidence that the illegitimate child was not Xie Jinghu’s biological, Tai Jing’s revelation was too explosive.
Tai Jing set down the coffee cup. “Why not? More than your third uncle and the tycoon rushed to claim paternity… I heard after Miss Zhuo was widowed and returned with the child, she reconnected with your third uncle because someone acted as a matchmaker.”
