Chapter 120

Chapter 120

Faced with Yao Qin like that, Hou Mengqiu had been afraid.

She had clearly already agreed to treat Xie Qiyan well, but just as she was about to leave, Yao Qin asked her whether Xie Tianqi loved her.

Her-as in Hou Mengqiu.

Hou Mengqiu was proud, especially since Xie Tianqi truly had treated her well during those years. In front of Yao Qin, Hou Mengqiu had never been willing to show weakness, so her answer was certain.

Hou Mengqiu said a great deal. She talked about how well Xie Tianqi treated her, and how Xie Tianqi had long since forgotten Yao Qin.

Perhaps those words provoked Yao Qin. Before Hou Mengqiu could finish, Yao Qin suddenly became hysterical. She clutched Hou Mengqiu’s hand and refused to let go, crying and cursing in an extreme frenzy, “You’re lying! He promised he would love me for the rest of his life. The person he loves is me! You’re lying!”

Hou Mengqiu refused to back down and started arguing with her.

In the shoving, Yao Qin gripped Hou Mengqiu tightly as Hou Mengqiu tried to leave. Hou Mengqiu wrenched herself free in one burst of strength, but Yao Qin lost her footing and fell into the river.

At three in the morning, splashes churned on the river’s surface. There was no one around. Hou Mengqiu watched with her own eyes as Yao Qin sank beneath the water.

Hou Mengqiu couldn’t swim. She was too frightened-so frightened that she ran.

She was the only person who knew she had gone to see Yao Qin that day. Yao Qin had fallen into the river, and Hou Mengqiu didn’t know whether she was dead or alive. She had also searched for Yao Qin for many years, and had likewise found nothing.

She couldn’t find her. Xie Qiyan couldn’t find her either.

The most likely possibility was that Yao Qin was already dead.

The surroundings were deathly silent, and murderous intent spread through the air. Xie Qiyan looked at Hou Mengqiu with bloodshot eyes, his clenched fist seeming as if it would land on her face in the next second.

Hou Mengqiu had cried herself nearly limp, but the words she kept murmuring were still the same: “Xie An is innocent. Let Xie An go…”

Hou Mengqiu refused to release him, choking out, “Everything I said is the truth. What happened that day wasn’t caused by me alone. Go investigate it. You can investigate it!”

Xie Qiyan’s gaze was bone-chilling. “Let go.”

His mind was completely blank.

Yao Qin knew how to swim. It was impossible for her to have sunk to the bottom of the river.

But from Hou Mengqiu’s description, Yao Qin that day seemed to have given up on surviving and wanted only to die.

Huo Yang notified Yu Fei to come over and take Hou Mengqiu and An Bihua away. Afterward, they immediately investigated every drowning incident that had occurred around the North River more than a decade ago.

When the first search turned up nothing, they expanded the scope and pulled every case of falling into a river and drowning in all of Beicheng.

Not a single one matched Yao Qin.

Only then did Huo Yang’s tightly wound heart ease. He looked at Xie Qiyan, who appeared somewhat disheveled, and said with relief, “If we didn’t find anything, that proves Auntie is still alive.”

A faint flicker passed through Xie Qiyan’s hollow eyes. He closed them, and only uttered one sound. “Mm.”

This was the only conclusion they could think of.

And it had to be this conclusion.

“President Xie, Madam is here.” Yu Fei had his own selfish reasons for calling Xia Wanzhi Madam. He wanted Xie Qiyan to feel that he had a home to belong to.

Behind him, there was still Xia Wanzhi.

At least in that moment, when Xie Qiyan heard those words, he finally seemed a little more alive.

Yu Fei and Huo Yang exchanged a glance, then both tactfully withdrew.

Xia Wanzhi had rushed over in a hurry. Not knowing that Yu Fei had already instructed the front desk to let her come straight up, she went forward and introduced herself as Xie Qiyan’s girlfriend. Before long, news of it had spread throughout the company.

Yu Fei had already told her what had happened. She could only regret that she hadn’t stayed by Xie Qiyan’s side today.

Their eyes met. Xie Qiyan’s were faintly red. Xia Wanzhi held back the sting in her nose and ran over, kneeling with one knee on the sofa as she pulled Xie Qiyan into her arms.

“I’m late.” Xia Wanzhi held him tightly, her voice slightly choked.

Xie Qiyan closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Xia Wanzhi’s waist. Her secure embrace and the scent of her body finally allowed his taut body to relax, and the emotions he had been desperately suppressing were at last released.

Before he knew it, Xia Wanzhi had already become someone he could lean on.

Xia Wanzhi took off his glasses, her heart aching as she wiped the dampness at the corners of his eyes. Then she kissed his eyes with reverent tenderness and comforted him softly, “Yu Fei told me everything. Your mother wasn’t in the files for any drowning incidents. She’s still alive. She must still be alive.”
As long as she was alive, that was the best possible outcome.

“We’ll take our time looking. One day, we’ll find her.” Xia Wanzhi’s eyes were full of heartache. Just seeing Xie Qiyan like this made her want to cry too.

Only after a long while did Xie Qiyan finally say, “Okay.”

He pulled Xia Wanzhi onto his lap and tightened his embrace. He didn’t speak, and neither did Xia Wanzhi. She simply wrapped her arms around his waist and gently patted his back.

Later that night, once Xie Qiyan had composed himself, he brought Xia Wanzhi with Yu Fei and Huo Yang to see Hou Mengqiu.

She was being held in a bedroom at the villa in the western suburbs. Hou Mengqiu and An Bihua were locked up separately. Xie Qiyan had no interest in An Bihua and went straight to Hou Mengqiu.

Hou Mengqiu stared fixedly at Xie Qiyan as he walked in.

After calming down, she had thought through many things. The first thing she said when she saw Xie Qiyan was, “Yao Qin isn’t dead. She definitely isn’t dead! Back then, I was just too scared, so I lost my head and thought I was the one who killed her. Even if she did die, it was because she was determined to seek death herself!”

She remembered the look in Yao Qin’s eyes that day. It had been terrifying.

Xie Qiyan merely looked at her coldly.

But that one glance was enough to break Hou Mengqiu.

“What happened with Yang Datong was my fault, but he didn’t succeed, did he? I admit I treated you badly in the past, but you never expected your stepmother to be good to you, did you?” Hou Mengqiu clutched her chest and pleaded bitterly. “Xie Qiyan, I can divorce your father. I don’t want a single thing from the Xie Family. I only beg you not to touch my Xiao An…”

Xie Qiyan had been searching for Xie An because he wanted to use him to force Hou Mengqiu to reveal what had happened with Yao Qin all those years ago.

But now, she had already said everything.

To him, Xie An no longer had any use.

Yet she kept bringing up Xie An again and again, exposing her weakness outright. The more pitifully she cried, the more it proved how important Xie An was to her.

Xie Qiyan didn’t know what he had done to make Hou Mengqiu believe he wouldn’t spare Xie An.

But he had no intention of explaining.

Did he want revenge on Hou Mengqiu?

Of course he did.

He hated Hou Mengqiu for coming between his parents. He hated what she had done to his mother back then. He also hated how, when he was a child, she had deliberately acted lovey-dovey with Xie Tianqi right in front of him just to disgust him.

Even thinking back on it now, Xie Qiyan still felt sick.

But the one who disgusted him most was Xie Tianqi.

The one he hated even more was Xie Tianqi.

Xie Qiyan was so repulsed that he didn’t want to deal with Hou Mengqiu at all.

Seeing this, Xia Wanzhi lowered her eyes to Hou Mengqiu and said slowly, “Ayan would never stoop to harming an innocent person. If he wants revenge, he’ll only take it out on you. The reason you’re so panicked is because you’re guilty. Besides, Xie An will learn the truth about his identity one day.”

“Whether Xie An comes back or not, whether he takes a paternity test or not, none of that matters anymore. Grandpa isn’t a fool. From the day he gave up searching for Xie An, he had already concluded that Xie An wasn’t of Xie Family blood. You’re the stupid one, thinking that if you played dumb and Xie An didn’t come back, the Xie Family couldn’t do anything to you.”

“You can’t hide it from Xie An. He’ll find out one day.” Xia Wanzhi’s eyes were indifferent. Thinking of Xie An’s current identity, she couldn’t help finding it ironic. “Auntie Hou, you used to say my Ayan was an illegitimate child. Then what is Xie An now?”

Hou Mengqiu’s pupils shrank sharply, and she could no longer hold back her sobs.

Xia Wanzhi held Xie Qiyan’s hand. Her gaze was calm, yet threaded with an invisible hostility. “My Ayan was never an illegitimate child. He was only cursed with a father who deserved to be cut to pieces. He is clean, honest, and upright. It was petty, vile people like you who threw dirty water on him.”

All these years, her Ayan had suffered so much.