136. Blood Kinship
Hanging up the phone, when Su Yi Cheng turned around he saw that An Ran was watching him. She was puzzled, and asked, “What happened?”
He did not want to worry her, so he shook his head and smiled at her, only said, “It"s nothing.”
He didn"t want to say, so An Ran didn"t ask, and just a.s.sumed that it was something related to his work.
An Ran felt that Su Yi Cheng had become a little strange this past week. He came home early, but there was still a lot of work, basically when he came home he"d go into the studio, and when he ate he"d hurry to eat.
An Ran still had morning sickness, however these past few days it seemed to calm down a bit, the number of times she threw up gradually went down. Auntie Zhang joked that it was because of Su Yi Cheng, because Su Yi Cheng came home to eat, seeing him, she even started to throw up less.
An Ran sometimes at night would be in his arms, and say that the ‘little sweetheart" in her belly must have been the love of his life in a past life, as every time she has a meal with him, not only was the food especially fragrant, don"t even talk about vomiting, her appet.i.te improved greatly, and she ate much more than usual. Every time he heard her say that, Su Yi Cheng would always laugh, then reach out and rub her belly, sometimes he would even put his ears against her stomach, speak with a low voice and would whisper to the little baby, but those whispers would fall on An Ran"s ears too, saying that if the little darling is obedient in there, then when she comes out he would bring her to many fun places, and eat lots of delicious food.
An Ran jeered and asked him if he would even have the time? His face would turn serious and he would turned to look at her, and said that even if he was busy he would still have time for his daughter!
This weekend Su Yi Cheng did not go to office, but instead brought the work back home, and treated his studio as an office the entire day. The phone did not stop ringing all day.
An Ran aimlessly watched some traveling channel program in the living room. They were showing a beautiful scenery, the city that they were introducing, was France"s Lyon, a place that An Ran had always wanted to go.
Lyon is a historically famous city, it has a lot of architecture from the Middle Ages. An Ran was always pa.s.sionate when looking at those buildings. In fact, ever since she was a student she had wanted to travel there and look at them, she liked the architecture from that period, however she never had the chance to go.
Suddenly the doorbell started to ring, An Ran was so entranced by the cathedral on TV that she could not take her eyes off of it, was fixed on the television, and could not turn her head back. It was Auntie Zhang who was cleaning in the kitchen that went to open the door.
“Who are you looking for?” Auntie Zhang asked the man standing at the door.
“Is An Ran there?” The man looked at Auntie Zhang, looking a little nervous. He stretched his neck and tried to look inside, and happened to see An Ran sitting on the sofa hugging a pillow, dazed while watching TV. He raised his voice and yelled, “An Ran, An Ran!”
An Ran then returned to her senses, turned to look, but couldn"t see who was at the door as her view was blocked by Auntie Zhang, but the voice was somewhat familiar to her.
An Ran put down the pillow, got up, and walked over to the door, at the same time asked, “Auntie Zhang, who is it?”
Auntie Zhang leaned to the side, turned to look at An Ran, “Madam, it"s for you.”
As Auntie Zhang leaned to the side An Ran was then able to see the man at the door. She paused her footsteps, taken aback, a little surprised. The person standing at the door was none other than Tong Wen Hai.
Tong Wen Hai saw An Ran, a little happy and glad, pushed Auntie Zhang aside and let himself in. He did not even take off his shoes, and took large strides until he was in front of An Ran. He looked at An Ran, he was smiling, “Ran, Ran Ran.” He reached out to pull on An Ran"s hand.
An Ran subconsciously pulled back. She looked at him, her expression somewhat cold. After a while she just faintly said, “May I ask, is there something?”
Tong Wen Hai sensed An Ran"s coldness, the hand that was stretched out to take her hand could only withdraw in embarra.s.sment. He looked at her, the expression on his face seemed to be truly ashamed, he was somewhat embarra.s.sed, and said, “Ran Ran, actually I…. Actually, I….” He wanted to say something, but seemed to be having trouble putting the words together.
An Ran frowned, and just said, “Bureau chief Tong, please leave, my house does not welcome you.” She still remembered those words that he had said to her that day at the restaurant, she does not want to hear him point fingers and criticize her again.
Tong Wen hai knew that she was still bothered by him because of that last incident, he quickly explained, “Ran Ran, last time was my fault, I did not know that you were pregnant. If I knew, I wouldn"t have said those words, really.”
An Ran smiled coldly, turned to look at him, and asked, “It doesn"t matter whether I"m pregnant or not, what qualifications do you have to say those things to me?”
“Yes yes yes, I was bad, I did not have the whole picture, if you want to blame someone blame Mo Fei, he clearly married Xiao Jie yet he---”
Tong Wen Hai was not finished, but was interrupted by An Ran"s cold voice, “Enough. I don"t want to hear your family problems, that has nothing to do with me. I don"t want to hear, and I don"t want to know.”
“Sure sure sure, I won"t talk about them.” He gave in to her, Tong Wen Hai wanted to go along with her as much as possible, did not dare to upset her.
He was truly at his wit"s end. He had thought that no one knew about the demolition funds, if they investigated they wouldn"t come after his head. At first this incident was handed to him by Ling Chuan Jiang, and a large part of the funds had been taken away by Ling Chuan Jiang, but who would have known that the villagers would make so much noise because of the money, and even alarmed Su Yi Cheng who specially came to scene. Even more, who would have thought that Ling Chuan Jiang would have this mishap at this time, and recently the disciplinary inspection commission tightened up their anticorruption policies, this time Ling Chuan Jiang"s incident pulled up a lot of people, recently Yan Li was even slowly investigating his side, touching the threads of the demolition funds. He estimates that they"ll come to him very soon, he heard that several corporation executives have already been asked to co-operate with investigations. Huang De Xing was among one of them.
“I have nothing to say to you Bureau Chief Tong.” An Ran spoke, and did not look at him, just turned around to Auntie Zhang and said, “Auntie Zhang, please help see this visitor out.” She went back inside. She does not want to see this person, instinctively rejected him.
Auntie Zhang nodded. She looked at Tong Wen Hai, and just said, “Please leave.”
Tong Wen Hai did not look at her at all, just stared at An Ran. Seeing that she wanted to leave, he quickly stepped forward and pulled on An Ran"s hand, “Ran Ran, please ask Su Yi Cheng for me, tell him not to continue with the investigation, okay? Ran Ran, you don"t want to see me in prison do you, after all, I am---”
“Tong Wen Hai!” Not waiting for Tong Wen Hai to finish his sentence, a shout came out from behind, their tone was penetrating, even more, furious.
Unknown as to when Lin Xiao Fen had arrived, the elevator door hadn"t closed yet, she directly ran over. Her eyes were red, her hair was also disheveled. From behind, Gu Heng Wen followed closely behind her. Because they were running, the two seemed to be quite tired.
An Ran stared at her parents in shock, then looked at Tong Wen Hai, not understanding what on earth was happening right now.
Su Yi Cheng was also alerted by the disturbance outside. He hadn"t taken off his golden spectacles yet, and just came out of the studio. He saw Tong Wen Hai, and his brows furrowed even further.
He walked over towards An Ran and supported her from behind. He saw that Tong Wen Hai had grabbed her hand so hard that it had become red, and his displeasure deepened even more. He reached out and grabbed Tong Wen Hai"s hand, one push, and forced Tong Wen Hai to release An Ran"s hand.
“Ah!” Tong Wen Hai let go of An Ran"s hand out of pain, then realized that Su Yi Cheng had already came out. He did not care about Lin Xiao Fen and Gu Heng Wen behind him, and just looked at Su Yi Cheng and said, “Deputy Mayor Su, Yi Cheng, you are also at home, that"s very good!”
Su Yi Cheng drew An Ran into his embrace, his eyes still on him, he asked expressionlessly, “Bureau Chief Tong, what are you trying to do here?”
“Yi Cheng, I will take out all the demolition money, please do not look into the matter any further, how about that!” Tong Wen Hai looked at him with antic.i.p.ation. Now some words have nothing to hide, actually now that he made this step today, everyone knew what the intention was. It would be extremely bad for him to hide anything, might as well reveal everything, ask him to forgive him once, no matter how the relationship between him and An Ran are, Su Yi Cheng would not be unwilling to give him face.
Su Yi Cheng snorted coldly, and said, “Bureau Chief Tong, you are really funny. I am not the one who has the final say to the investigation, I am not the discipline inspection commission nor an officer, you should already know that Bureau Chief Tong.”
“Hehe.” Tong Wen Hai forced a laugh, looked at him, and said somewhat flatteringly, “You can certainly find methods.”
“Why should I help you?” Su Yi Cheng countered. Why would he help him, he has neither the duty nor the obligation!
Asking for what reason, Tong Wen Hai seemed to have too much confidence. He looked at him and said, “Why wouldn"t you help me, don"t you know me, I am Ran Ran"s---”
“Tong Wen Hai, don"t you dare, don"t you dare say….” Lin Xiao Fen seemed to go mad and stepped forward, grabbed onto Tong Wen Hai and started to ruthlessly hit him, as she hit him she said, “You b.a.s.t.a.r.d, you better not say it, you better not say it!” Her tears could not be contained and fell as she hit him. From the side Gu Heng Wen did not move, and simply watched her, his two hands balled into a fist, as if he were holding in his anger.
An Ran half leaned into Su Yi Cheng, she was completely speechless, but her body couldn"t stop trembling. Her teeth was biting tightly into her lips, and held onto Su Yi Cheng"s hand so tightly that it was hurting him, while she did not notice it at all.
Su Yi Cheng looked at An Ran worriedly, reached out and patted her hand.
And the most clueless one of all was Auntie Zhang, she did not understand what on earth is going on right now! It was such a mess.
“Enough!” Tong Wen Hai was aggravated by the hits, he pushed away Lin Xiao Fen.
Lin Xiao Fen lost her footing, and almost hit the floor, luckily Gu Heng Wen was quick, and caught her. He glared at Tong Wen Hai, and howled at him, “Tong Wen Hai, what are you trying to do!”
Tong Wen Hai knew that he was in the wrong, and looked away. A while later, does he finally say, “I know I have wronged you mother and daughter, but after all I am still An Ran"s---”
“You shut your mouth!” This time it was not Lin Xiao Fen who spoke up, but An Ran!
Everyone turned to look at An Ran, only to see her push Su Yi Cheng away. Her mouth was closed tightly, with tight fists she walked over to Tong Wen Hai. She stared at him, and said, “You shut up!”
Tong Wen Hai looked at her, somewhat scared by An Ran. He stumbled for words, “Ran, Ran Ran….”
“Do not call me that, it just makes me sick that you call me that! You so casually calling my name!” An Ran bit out each and every word, her two hands balled into a fist to control her emotions.
“I, I am your---” Tong Wen Hai started to speak, wanting to explain.
“Shut up!” An Ran roared at him, somewhat madly.
“Ran Ran….” Lin Xiao Fen and Gu Heng Wen were looking at her with concern.
Su Yi Cheng was also uneasy, and stepped forward to hold An Ran, but she pushed him away.
An Ran stared hard at Tong Wen Hai, somewhat gnashing her teeth as she said, “Don"t you say it!
Su Yi Cheng looked at her, his heart skipped a beat, when he suddenly realized that An Ran had already known something.
An Ran closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened her eyes to look at him and said, “Please leave, our family does not welcome you. Whether dead or alive, all have nothing to do with us, do not say that we can help, even if Yi Cheng can help you I will not let him help you! If you don"t want to be investigated, don"t do so much unethical things!
Upon hearing that, Tong Wen Hai looked at her, put on a deceiving smile and shook his head, only said, “No, that is because you do not know who I am, if you knew my relationship with you, you would not be like this!”
“You are a stranger to me, nothing!” An Ran said, then turned her head to look away from him.
Tong Wen Hai shook his head and said, “No, but, actually, I had a relationship with your mother, and you were---”
At the same time---
“—Shut up, Tong Wen Hai, you shut up!” Lin Xiao Fen yelled out, rushed over and tired to cover his mouth.
“Shut up, don"t you say it!” An Ran roared at him too, her emotions were somewhat out of control.
But—
“I"ve dated your mother, you"re my daughter, you"re my own daughter!” Tong Wen Hai said it at the same time as they were crying out, uttering his relationship with An Ran, and also uttered the secret that Lin Xiao Fen and Gu Heng Wen had been clinging onto for 29 years without daring to say it. Everything then quieted down, no one dared to speak. An Ran stared blankly at Tong Wen Hai, her teeth clenched into her lips, so much that it drew out blood.
Lin Xiao Fen slumped down to the ground, her strength had drained out. Behind, Gu Heng Wen hurriedly ran to her side, and held her up by the arms.
Su Yi Cheng glared fiercely at Tong Wen Hai, his eyes were burning with flames of anger!
Auntie Zhang was stunned silly, she could only stare on blankly, in disbelief.
The first to react was Tong Wen Hai, completely unaware of everything. He smiled remorsefully at An Ran, reached out to pull her hand, and confessed to her, “But, sorry, father did not know that you existed. At that time father was not good, I did not know your mother was pregnant, when we were apart, I had no idea that I had such a beautiful and intelligent daughter. Until before, until a few months ago after we met, I only knew later that I actually have such a wonderful daughter!”
Tong Wen Hai said his speech, his expression very moved. Watching her, he continued, “I know you hate dad, blame dad, I also know it"s all my fault, I do not blame you if you hate me. But then, after all, we are blood relatives, blood is thicker than water ah, is it not. In fact, I had known a few months ago when I had gotten to know you, but I was afraid that you would not accept it, afraid that you would resent me, so I was not in a rush to say this to you, and did not dare tell you that in fact I am your real father!”
A while later, An Ran finally had a reaction. She did not look at him, looked at anywhere but him, with no focus, somewhat hollow, she just flatly spoke without emotions, “Then why would you say it now!”
Tong Wen Hai sighed and said, “There are no fathers who would not want their daughter to call them father, there are fathers who could endure for a long time, clearly knowing that the other side is their own daughter, but with their own child is so cold and polite like a stranger, that just left a bad taste.”
“Hehe…” An Ran just sneered. “Hehe….”
Tong Wen Hai looked at her carefully, and weighed in, “Ran Ran, you will help dad, right? You won"t let dad just go to jail, will you?” He could only rely on her now. He looked into it, Yan Li and the Su family were good friends, if the Su family asked him to not investigate, then that would be useful. It"ll be impossible to call up the Su family directly, but through An Ran, wouldn"t it be the same.
An Ran coldly moved her shoulders, pulling on her lips, but could not say a word.
Seeing her speechless, Tong Wen Hai coaxed, “An Ran, call me father, okay? I"ve always dreamt of you calling me Dad!”
Hearing those words, Lin Xaio Fen somewhat crazily said, “Tong Wen Hai, you do not deserve it, you do not deserve it at all!”
And on the side, Gu Heng Wen stared closely at An Ran, hand tightly grasped with Lin Xiao Fen"s hand, he was so nervous that he couldn"t take another breath.
Su Yi Cheng stepped forward, and held An Ran. He just felt that she was completely tense.
He glared at Tong Wen Hai with anger, and coldly said, “Bureau Chief Tong, please leave. If you don"t, don"t blame me for calling security.”
Tong Wen hai turned to look at him, staring. Somewhat in disbelief, he raised his voice and said, “Didn"t you hear it just now? I am the father, that is, your father-in-law!”
Su Yi Cheng looked at him coldly, and firmly said, “I only have one father-in-law, that is Gu Heng Wen, will always only be him!” He"s embarra.s.sed for this man, why does he still have the face to say these!
Hearing what was said, An Ran finally returned to her senses. She set her eyes on Su Yi Cheng, hand tightly grasped with his hand.
Tong Wen Hai turned his head to not look at him, only looked at An Ran and said, “But, you—”
An Ran looked up at him, interrupted him and said, “I only have one father, and that is Gu Heng Wen!” Word for word, she put it clearly.
“He is not your father, I am. You and I are biological relatives, father and daughter!” Tong Wen Hai said, in a hurry to explain, “So, we can go to the hospital, we can go to the hospital and do a paternity test, so you know, that you and I are father and daughter, he, Gu Heng Wen, is simply an outsider!” Tong Wen Hai knew that does if he does not cling to the last salvation that is An Ran, then his efforts over the past 30 years.. In the first place he had to give up so many things to achieve his present status and wealth, then there really will be nothing, then his past 30 years of efforts, would be for nothing!
“No need!” An Ran refused, her tone firm. She questioned him, “Even if you were related to me, so what? What have you done for me, where were you when my dad was carrying the me who had a 39-degree fever and rushed me to the hospital overnight? Where were you when he taught he every single word? Where were you when I fell and he hugged me for comfort? He didn"t sleep for a few nights and finally finished marking his student exams, and because he knew that my work was not going well he gave up his rest to talk to me, to give me advice all night, where were you? Where were you doing when he was doing all of this for me, why should I recognize you, a complete and total stranger, as a father, just because you say so?”
“I, at that time, I didn"t know, I didn"t know you existed!” Tong Wen Hai explained, “If I had known this, I would have—”
“You would have what?” An Ran sneered, “You knew that I was your daughter when you came to me to accuse me of wrecking Tong Xiao Jie and Mo Fei"s marriage, because Tong Xiao Jie and Mo Fei fought you came to me and denounced me as someone with no proper upbringing. Besides accusing me, what have you done for me?”
“I…” Tong Wen Hai was stumped from her questioning.
An Ran looked at him, she looked at him with unwavering determination and said, “He cherished me, loved me dearly, from childhood to adulthood he accepted everything about me, what I didn"t do well, he would criticize me and allow me to make it right, from my errors I matured, what I did well he would encourage me, let me persist so that I would do even better, from childhood until now, he never showed lack of paternal love, had never alienated me because he wasn"t blood related to me, rejected me, not cherished me, this kind of man deserves to be called a father, you are nothing at all! You don"t deserve it!”
At the side, Lin Xiao Fen because of An Ran"s words couldn"t help but cry out, and holding her, Gu Heng Wen"s eyes were also red. That was the secret that the two of them had been hiding for nearly 30 years, had been afraid to let An Ran know, had been worried about An Ran if she had known, sometimes even often awakened by nightmares, in which An Ran would know, then would stop a.s.sociating with them, there were countless days that they were in constant worry and fear. But as it turns out, as it turns out after it came out it wouldn"t be like that. Of course, An Ran had always been a good girl, why would she stop seeing them just because of this, it was they who had no confidence in themselves, it was they who had worried so much that they were in fear!
“An Ran, look at me, I am the person who is related by blood, although I have not done anything for you, but we are biological father and daughter, this is a fact that no one can change ah!” Tong Wen hai was making the final struggle!
An Ran shook her head and looked at him with a freezing cold expression, “You are nothing to me! If people only recognized each other by blood, by usefulness, does not recognize kinship, does not know how to be grateful, how sad would that be!”
---END OF CHAPTER---