LIGHTNOVELONLINE
Chapter 114
With Gu Huaian's help, the investigation progressed exceptionally quickly.
Shen Tang was basically Shen Yu's lost older sister. Judging from the photo, she looked exactly like Shen Yu's aunt, so it was no wonder she was mistaken for her.
The next steps would be easy to handle. They just needed to verify it with a DNA test together with Shen's family.
That day, Shen Tang took a day off and arrived at Gu Hospital early to wait.
She looked composed on the surface, but was actually very nervous deep down.
She couldn't help but start imagining what her relatives all looked like, whether their personalities were good, and whether they would accept her and like her.
Gu Huaian rushed over hurriedly from the other side, still looking exhausted after working all night.
Apparently, he had pulled an all-nighter to clear his schedule for today.
Gu Huaian grabbed Shen Tang's hand and said gently, "Don't be afraid."
"I'm a little worried..."
She didn't have to say it out loud. Gu Huaian had already heard all of Shen Tang's uneasiness loud and clear.
"Don't worry. I've already investigated. Most of the Shen family are good people."
If they had extremely bad characters, he wouldn't have agreed to let her find her family.
Shen Tang sighed, "I hope so..."
After waiting a while longer, shuffling footsteps sounded from across the hallway. Shen Tang took a deep breath and looked over.
A middle-aged couple and Shen Yu came over together. The man resembled Shen Yu to some extent, which also meant he resembled Shen Tang as well.
The woman also looked at her with maternal love on her face.
After the man saw Shen Tang's face clearly, his eyes instantly turned red. "Like, so alike..."
"Shuqin, doesn't she look exactly like Xiuxiu?"
The middle-aged woman also nodded with tears in her eyes, "Very much so. Poor child, you've suffered these years..."
The woman held Shen Tang's hand and patted it gently.
For some reason, just that one gesture made a surge of emotions well up in Shen Tang, suddenly making her want to cry.
She forced out a smile. "Uncle, auntie, we—"
"Call me uncle. I'm your uncle!" the man said.
Shen Tang hesitated a little. "We haven't done the test yet..."
"No test is needed. I know you're my sister's daughter. You might not know, but you look exactly like her."
The man's hands trembled as he took out an old photo from his pocket and handed it to Shen Tang. "Look, aren't you two exactly alike?"
Shen Tang accepted the photo and examined it carefully.
The woman in the photo did look very similar to Shen Tang. Wearing a cheongsam, holding a paper umbrella, smiling charmingly at the camera—it was clear she had been a great beauty.
To be precise, Shen Tang wasn't quite as good-looking as her.
A sour feeling suddenly welled up in her heart, and her throat felt a little choked up. Shen Tang blinked, trying to keep the tears at bay.
She gently caressed the photo. Was this her mother?
She was so beautiful.
"How did she..."
"Ah, it's a long story..."
Although Shen Yu was also curious, there were more important things to do right now. He tactfully said:
"Mom, Dad, let's catch up later. Should we get the test done first?"
The man hastily nodded. "You're right, let's do the test first."
It was also at this time that they finally noticed Gu Huaian's presence. They briefly greeted him, then started the testing process.
The waiting time for the results was quite long. The group didn't stay at the hospital, but went to a private room at a hotel instead.
In Shen Boyuan's—Shen Tang's uncle's—account, Shen Tang heard a tragic story.
The Shen family was a scholarly family, and Shen Xiuxiu was their one precious daughter whom they doted on dearly.
When she started college, Shen Xiuxiu met Wei Xuan. It was like she was bewitched—she started becoming rebellious and insisted on being with him.
Her family didn't forbid her from dating, but after investigating Wei Xuan, they found out he was from a rural village.
Of course, that itself wasn't a big issue.
The main problem was that he had five older sisters who had all dropped out of school early to get married, and their earnings went to subsidizing him as the only son.
His family practiced heavy son preference and daughter discrimination. He also had a girlfriend back in his hometown whom he had gotten pregnant in high school.
But Shen Xiuxiu didn't believe any of it at all. She didn't know if Wei Xuan had brainwashed her, but she felt it was all deliberately fabricated by her family because they looked down on Wei Xuan's background.
In Shen Xiuxiu's eyes, the bowl of plain congee Wei Xuan had personally cooked for her and his attentive caring words allowed her to experience what true love was.
When she heard this part, Shen Tang's expression had already changed.
What? Just a bowl of congee counted as true love?
Her mother was really too naive!
Glancing to the side, Shen Yu's expression was also hard to articulate, but Shen Xiuxiu was still an elder after all so he didn't have the right to criticize.
Shen Yu's mother also helplessly shook her head. She had already married Shen Boyuan back then, so she naturally also knew how ugly things had become in the family.
In the end, Shen Xiuxiu had gotten pregnant out of wedlock.
The Shen family's intention was to make her get an abortion, but with Wei Xuan's goading, Shen Xiuxiu actually ran away from home instead.
When she left, she didn't take a single valuable belonging from the house. All she left behind was a letter.
Shen Tang's grandmother fell ill immediately. She worried all day long, unable to eat or sleep well, and regretted intensely that she hadn't agreed to her daughter's relationship, which led to her running away.
Shen Tang opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but swallowed the words back down in the end.
"What happened next?"
A regretful expression appeared on Shen Boyuan's face, and his tone was very heavy. "At first, we thought she wouldn't be able to endure the hardship and would come back soon. But there was no news at all.
When we went to her university, we discovered she had stopped going to class. That was when we realized something was wrong. We hurriedly started looking everywhere for her, but only found out she had left with Wei Xuan. No one knew where they went.
We even went to Wei Xuan's hometown to look, but they weren't there either."
"Then a year passed, and suddenly we received a call from Xiuxiu. She gave us an address and cried for us to go get her. We immediately set off, but by the time we arrived, she had already..."
Shen Boyuan turned his face away, covering it as he wept.
Sometimes he couldn't help but think that if they had been just a little faster, his sister might not have died.
Shen Yu's mother gently patted Shen Boyuan's back to comfort him.
She said softly, "When we arrived, we discovered your mother looked much more haggard than before, and her body was covered in bruises from long-term abuse. This time, she had been beaten in the head and was already on the brink of death when a neighbor sent her to the hospital."
"We went to their home to look for Wei Xuan and the child, but discovered he had vanished without a trace, and you were gone too. Over a decade has passed in the blink of an eye, yet here you are before us again."
Shen Tang suddenly felt a little guilty. She had Wei Xuan's blood flowing in her veins—she felt so filthy...
She could never have dreamed she had such a vicious father. Her mother had actually been...
Gu Huaian put his arm around her. "Tangtang, he and you are two separate individuals. This has nothing to do with you."
Shen Yu's mother also quickly added, "Poor child, don't think too much. You're just an innocent child. You are one of our Shen family, unrelated to that man."
"That's right, you're my sister's child, unrelated to that man, that scum. You must not overthink this."
"That's right, sister..."
Seeing how much they genuinely cared about her, it made Shen Tang want to cry even more.
Having been alone for two lifetimes, she never expected that coming here would give her a family too.
But...
Shen Tang lowered her eyes. All this was stolen by her.
These were the relatives of the original body, not hers...