Song Haiping was truly dumbstruck. One reason was the slap, and the second was the vicious1 scolding.
When he could finally react, he looked at Chen Linjing in disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about, ah!”
He had no idea about the whirlwind of rumors2 at the company–the employees naturally wouldn’t bring up gossip in front of the main subject. The relatives of the Song family had wanted to warn Song Haiping, but seeing that he was determined to recognize that child, they all dropped the idea.
Song Haiping’s reputation in the Song family was not very good. The cheating affair alone was considered a big stain on his life.
If nothing else, Chen Linjing had a very good relationship with the Song family. Both Grandpa Song and Grandma Song liked this daughter-in-law very much. Even after her divorce from Song Haiping, it was Chen Linjing who had helped out when Grandma Song had an operation one year.
At that time, many people joked about Song Haiping, saying that he had an affair and also didn’t know how to cover his tracks, and that he divorced because of a woman outside–how very capable.
In many men’s minds, it wasn’t a big deal to have an affair–wasn’t it a mistake that men all over the world made? But to divorce with the original spouse because of it? That was stupidity on top of stupidity. Who didn’t know that Song Haiping was dirt-poor when he was young? He and Chen Linjing could be considered a couple who had borne hardships together. It was a pity to divorce just like this.
After the divorce, Song Haiping let himself go wild–changing girlfriends twice in three days, as if to make the image of a ‘successful boss’ a reality. His private life was truly debauched, so it came to no surprise that he had an illegitimate child.
Chen Linjing looked at the person in front of her and was disgusted enough to retch. “Hurry up and take that son of yours and leave!”
“What, my child? When did I have a child and why didn’t I know?” Just when Song Haiping finished speaking, he realized that he had missed the point. “No, how did I get sidetracked–that’s not even my son! That’s your grandson!”
Chen Linjing wanted to slap him again, but just as she raised her hand, it was grabbed by Song Haiping.
A man’s strength was still greater, after all. Song Haiping said, his teeth gnashing in anger: “What I’m saying is true. I don’t hit women, especially since you’re my child’s mother, but if you provoke me like this again without asking about the truth behind the matter, don’t blame me for having a bad temper.”
Song Haiping threw her hand aside and returned to the house with a calm and collected expression.
Chen Linjing’s anger morphed into confusion. She and Song Haiping were university classmates–their understanding of the other’s temper couldn’t be clearer.
Why didn’t she heed others’ advice to block her daughter from staying in touch with him, ne? First, no matter what disgusting thing Song Haiping did, he was still Yuanyuan’s father–their father-daughter blood relation couldn’t be changed. Even if they had divorced, he still had the responsibility of being a father. Second, Song Haiping was simply not human3–it was not exaggerated to say he was not a man–but he had his good points; he was truly very good to Yuanyuan.
But what did Song Haiping just say? Not his son, but her grandson? Listen, what kind of blatant lie was this?
Chen Linjing followed him inside.
Song Yuan looked at her dad’s appearance. Although she couldn’t figure out what had happened, she knew that her father was in trouble with her mother again.
Song Haiping knew that it wasn’t good to irritate his ex-wife, but he didn’t expect her to be so violent. He came in and sat on the sofa, seething in anger. Seeing Chen Linjing come in, he snorted twice and said to Song Yuan: “Yuanyuan, Dad took a slap for you.”
Saying this, he looked back at Chen Linjing. “I’m telling you right now, you can hit me, but just try going against my daughter.”
Chen Linjing didn’t say anything, but she stared at Rong Ting.
Rong Ting was extremely sly. Seeing the handprint on Grandfather’s face, he immediately and obediently called out: “Grandmother.”
Chen Linjing’s eyelids twitched, and she felt a sudden throb in her temple. She looked at Rong Ting, then at Song Haiping, and finally her gaze stopped on Song Yuan. “You’ve got to be joking!”
Song Yuan didn’t think that things would turn out this way. Her plan was just to sit down and eat a meal as a family, then seize the chance while the atmosphere was good to tell her mom the whole story. She didn’t expect her mom to call her dad out as soon as she entered the house. She didn’t know what the two people discussed, but the situation didn’t seem very good.
She didn’t think that anyone would be in the mood to eat at this moment.
Song Yuan was very afraid of handling this matter, but she looked at Rong Ting’s wordless appearance and said: “Gugu, go back to your room, ba, I have to talk to Grandma and Grandpa. Let’s eat after we finish talking.”
Grandma and Grandpa… Chen Linjing’s brows furrowed. This was all too unbelievable!
What? Not Song Haiping’s son, but her grandson?
What was all this about?
But Rong Ting shook his head. Mother Empress was always treating him like a child. Fine, ba, he was indeed a child, but he was different from the children here. He had seen the darkest hearts of people, and he had come across the most sinister schemes.
Scenes like these were nothing.
It was just that Mother Empress always treated him like a little child who didn’t know anything. Before, he would follow along with her, but today’s spectacle was clearly not something that Mother Empress could handle on her own.
“Mother Empress, how could gu remain removed from matters related to himself?” Rong Ting said earnestly, “Gu will not let Mother Empress face it alone.”
Song Yuan felt comforted when she heard Rong Ting say this.
She felt that she had done nothing wrong.
If she had eaten the forbidden fruit and had Rong Ting at the age of fifteen or sixteen, then she would have felt very guilty facing her parents, but she did not. She didn’t do anything wrong in her time as a student except for an unsuccessful attempt at a young romance.
“Mom, let me introduce you. This is Rong Ting. He is five years old this year, and he will be six in the spring of next year. He is my son.” It took great effort for Song Yuan to say this. “Didn’t I tell you before, when I disappeared for a week? I told you that I didn’t sneak out with my friends and that I didn’t really know what happened. Now, I think that I transmigrated to ancient times, and I’ve forgotten what happened during that time. Some time ago, Rong Ting managed to cross over from the ancient times to modern times to look for me, and he told me that he was my son. I’ve taken him to go get a DNA test, and the results showed that he’s really my child.”
Song Yuan didn’t know what to say.
Chen Linjing stood motionlessly and stared at Song Yuan.
The atmosphere was too strange. Song Haiping, who had just suffered a slap on the face, stepped forward to lighten the mood. He still understood his ex-wife very well. This moment of silence…was oddly terrifying.
“Chen Linjing, I can confirm this. Rong Ting is definitely Yuanyuan’s child. Look at him–doesn’t he look like Yuanyuan when she was a child?”
After Song Haiping said this, he realized that nobody had responded to him, so he stood up again and said solemnly: “You don’t need to remember. I’ve thought about it–Yuanyuan is not the kind of person who makes those kinds of mistakes. It’s not possible for her to make that kind of mistake when she was fifteen to seventeen. When she was in college, she didn’t study abroad and stayed here right where we could see her. We see her several times a month, and every year either you or I take her to get a medical examination. She couldn’t have hidden it from us.”
Seeing that his ex-wife still didn’t speak, Song Haiping gritted his teeth. “What I’m saying is that Yuanyuan did nothing wrong. Even if you hit me to vent your anger, you can’t hit her! I have just this one daughter–if you really dare to lay a hand on her, I won’t let you off.”
Rong Ting heard this and lifted his head to look at Chen Linjing. He couldn’t resist clicking his tongue inside; Grandmother was truly majestic.
Chen Linjing approached Song Yuan with a wooden face. She raised a hand.
Rong Ting, who had been constantly watching her, felt his heart drop with a thud. He rushed out in front of Song Yuan without thinking.
He only came up to one meter; Song Yuan was 1.56 meters. He couldn’t really block anything, but he still had his demeanor.
“Grandmother, Mother Empress is the noble mother of a nation–please think thrice!”
Mother Empress was, in actual fact, the mother of a nation. Even if it were Grandfather and Grandmother who wanted to see her, they still had to be summoned. The hierarchy in the palace was strict; Grandfather and Grandmother were Mother Empress’s biological mother and father, but to be quite honest, they had to salute after seeing Mother Empress. Rebuking her was already quite inappropriate, but it didn’t matter if people turned a blind eye [4]. To raise a hand against the empress was a great act of disrespect to one’s superiors.
And as her son, he couldn’t just watch with eyes wide open and remain indifferent as others hit Mother Empress, even if that person was his grandmother.
It was just that he knew that Mother Empress deeply respected and loved Grandfather and Grandmother.
Grandmother was also fuming in anger.
Rong Ting stood in front of Song Yuan in a protective gesture. He stared at Chen Linjing and said, word by word: “If Grandmother is angry, then hit gu!”
Nobody would accept such a declaration, and that included Chen Linjing. She had fought in the business world for many years, and she’d gone through wind and rain5. She had asked herself to be an enlightened parent, yet when she heard all this nonsense from her daughter, her first reaction was to not believe it. Yes, ah! Who would believe it! It was too ridiculous. What ‘crossing through time and space’, what ‘this little child is her daughter’s son’? She truly felt that all three of the people in this room were crazy and made up this lie to deceive her.
Chen Linjing wasn’t an unreasonable person. Even if she believed that Rong Ting was Song Haiping’s illegitimate son, she also didn’t think to vent her anger out on a child. If she really had been psychologically repulsed by the child, she wouldn’t have called Song Haiping out earlier.
As for her daughter, Chen Linjing understood her all too well. Her daughter had been clever and sensible since childhood until now and had never let people worry. Something like plucking and eating the forbidden fruit could happen to anyone, but it would never happen to her daughter.
Thus, Chen Linjing looked at the three people in the room. Finally, her gaze settled on Song Haiping. She smiled coldly. “How capable you are; you really let people open their eyes. In order to pave the way for your son, you’ve come up with all sorts of tricks.”
“???”
Song Haiping was stunned for a moment. He knew that it was very difficult for his ex-wife to accept such a thing. He had also stewed over it for a long time before accepting it. But if she couldn’t accept it, then she couldn’t accept it; why was she cursing him?
[1] 劈头盖脸: lit. splitting the head and covering the face–to strike a person in the head with a heavy blow broad enough to cover his whole face; fig. showering down
[2] 风言风语: groundless talk; slanderous gossip
[3] 不是个东西: 东 (east) and 西 (west) are compass directions and are associated with wood and gold, respectively, out of the five elements of Yin and Yang. To 不是东西 means to not be east and west, which means to be south (fire) and north (water). These two elements have some sort of association with being heartless or ruthless?? There was also another blog that said it means to call someone shit LOL. In any case, calling someone 不是东西 means you’re expressing dissatisfaction about them.
[4] 睁一只眼闭一只眼: lit. close one eye and open one eye
[5] 风风雨雨: trials and hardships