To My Dear Mr. Huo

“What?” The honking could still be heard from behind. Su Qingsang was a little anxious. “Huo Jinyao, stop thinking, just drive.”

Huo Jinyao started the car and drove away from the crossroad.

“Darling, I think I know who your real mother is,” he sounded much more certain than before.

“Who?”

“Li Qianxue.”

How come he never thought about that? That was highly possible.

“What did you say?” Su Qingsang opened her eyes wide. For a moment, she looked at Huo Jinyao like he were a crazy person. “Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m not out of my mind.” Huo Jinyao was never so calm in his life. “Your father is out of his mind.”

“That’s impossible,” Su Qingsang shook her head.

“Darling, listen to me.”

Huo Jinyao pulled over and turned to look into her eyes.

“You see, that is very possible.”

He looked at Su Qingsang, who seemed not to believe his words, and put his hands on her shoulders.

“First, your birthday and Su Peizhen’s are only one day apart.”

Su Qingsang knew about that. However, that didn’t mean she was Li Qianxue’s daughter.

“You see, if your father really hated Li Qianxue so much for forcing him into marrying her, he’d certainly think of a way to revenge.”

Huo Jinyao had known Su Chenghui for years. More or less, he knew what kind of a man Su Chenghui was. He was capable, and he didn’t care much about reputation or things like that.

He was proud. Huo Jinyao had been paying attention to the Li Family’s business during the past few years. When it came to anything that might cross the line, Su Chenghui wouldn’t do it.

That was why the Qiu Family was surpassing the Su Family these years. Qiu Yanbo’s father was fiercer then Su Chenghui.

Su Chenghui wasn’t like that. He had bottom lines. He wasn’t willing to play dirty tricks.

For that reason, he let two important projects fall into the Qiu Family’s hands. That was why Su Chenghui was willing to connect the Su Family and Qiu Family by marriage later on.

“But how would he get revenge? Your father wouldn’t do anything to break the law. He’s married, and he has kids. Would he do something against the company? At first, he didn’t have that kind of power, and when he finally had the power, he was no longer willing to do that. Put yourself in his shoes and think. If you were him, what would do you?”

Su Qingsang blinked, thinking about Huo Jinyao’s words.

She understood every word he said but didn’t want to believe it.

“No, I don’t believe it.” She refused to believe that Li Qianxue was her real mother. “What about Su Peizhen? Who is she?”

“That’s the point,” Huo Jinyao thought of the information that he collected earlier. “I think your mother, I mean Xiang Caiping, had premature labor. She gave birth two weeks before the due date. Li Qianxue happened to have a child at the same time. I’m thinking that Li Qianxue might have had an accident during labor too.”

One thing for sure, Old Master Li wasn’t in Lin City back then.

“That accident made your father decide to switch the two kids. He made a surreptitious decision, about switching you and Su Peizhen.”

Su Qingsang didn’t know what to say. “No, that’s impossible. Was my father crazy?”

“He was,” Huo Jinyao tried to figure out what Su Chenghui was thinking, from the angle of a man. “Think about it. Li Qianxue stole him from Xiang Caiping, but he didn’t love her. To pay his revenge on her without breaking the low, your father could do something like that. It’s very likely to be true.”

Su Qingsang couldn’t accept that. It was crazy.

“He took you away and then gave Su Peizhen to Li Qianxue. He made Li Qianxue raise the child of the woman she hated, and think of that girl as her own child. Think about it. What could be better revenge than that?”

Su Qingsang’s brain went blank. She didn’t want to believe it, but she couldn’t think of any argument to counter what Huo Jinyao said.

Before she thought it through, Huo JInyao continued with, “Giving Xiang Caiping’s child to Li Qianxue and raising Li Qianxue’s child as an illegitimate child was the worst, evilest revenge against Li Qianxue.”

“I…”

Su Qingsang couldn’t say anything. She couldn’t even let out one word.

“There was a conflict between Xiang Caiping and Su Peizhen when the former came back. Su Chenghui showed up in a haste. I’m even thinking that he wasn’t trying to protect Su Peizhen, but rather thought of explaining it to Xiang Caiping.”

Su Qingsang recalled what Su Chenghui said to Xiang Caiping at the hospital—’Do you know that Qingsang isn’t your…’

What was he trying to say? Back then, Su Qingsang guessed that he was only trying to tell Xiang Caiping that she wasn’t her daughter. She couldn’t have imagined that she might be Li Qianxue’s daughter.

What sane person would do something like that? Who would even think of something like that?

“He tried more than once to explain it to Xiang Caiping, but he never really did it. Why?”

Huo Jinyao thought about Su Chenghui’s reaction earlier today. He had been trying to say that there was no third woman. About that, Huo Jinyao believed him. There was indeed no other women in his life, apart from Li Qianxue and Xiang Caiping.

In fact, Su Chenghui had a very good reputation among his friends. He was known as a self-disciplined, calm, gentle and polite man, who never did anything that he should not do.

He came home early, even when he had to have dinner outside. Many of his friends said that Li Qianxue was a very capable and charming woman and that her husband was very loyal to her.

However, it turned out to be a part of Su Chenghui’s revenge.

“Your father doesn’t think it is time to enjoy the victory yet, so he won’t, and he doesn’t dare to tell Xiang Caiping and Li Qianxue the truth. He’ll wait until the end.”

“The end?” Su Qingsang opened her eyes wide again and looked at Huo Jinyao. She understood everything that he said, except for the last part. “What end?”

“It’s not yet the time to tell the truth,” Huo Jinyao thought about what happened earlier. Su Chenghui was still tolerating Li Qianxue, meaning that it wasn’t the right time for him to tell the truth yet.

“I guess he’ll wait until Li Qianxue is old, or…”

Huo Jinyao looked at Su Qingsang and made another guess. “When Su Peizhen gets the Li Family’s wealth, and everything else that belongs to the Li Family, your father will tell the truth.”

Hearing all that Huo Jinyao said, Su Qingsang felt so confused and lost.

“He… Is he crazy?”

“He isn’t crazy,” Huo Jinyao gave her a firm answer. “I think he clearly knows what he’s doing.”

Su Qingsang pressed her lips together, gazed into the street and the people on the outside.

The past few days were sunny days, but today was cloudy. It was dark at the moment as if the rain was coming soon.

She turned, looked at Huo Jinyao and said to him, “If what you said is true, if I’m really Li Qianxue’s daughter, isn’t Su Peizhen…”

“Yes,” Huo Jinyao nodded.

Su Qingsang weakly leaned against the back of her seat, and again fell into a daze.

She thought of what had happened between Xiang Caiping and Su Peizhen, and the fact that Xiang Caiping confronted Su Peizhen to defend her.

If what Huo Jinyao said was right, the truth would be that Xiang Caiping brought trouble to her own daughter, in order to protect Li Qianxue’s daughter.

She took Xiang Caiping’s side without thinking, but then she thought of Li Qianxue.

What did Li Qianxue do wrong? Decades ago, Xiang Caiping left and gave up on her own daughter.

What about Li Qianxue? She loved Su Peizhen so much ever since the girl was born. She took care of her carefully and gave her everything she had.

How would Li Qianxue react if she knew that the daughter, whom she had been loved and taken care of for so many years, wasn’t really her own?

What about Xiang Caiping? She never looked after her daughter during the past twenty years, but now she would try everything she could to protect that girl. What would she do if she found out that the girl was actually Li Qianxue’s daughter?

Su Qingsang didn’t even dare to imagine that.

She stayed silent. Huo Jinyao looked at her patiently, seemingly waiting for her decision.

“Huo Jinyao, what should I do?”

“Whatever you want,” Huo Jinyao held her hand tightly.

Her hand was icy cold. Sensing the coldness from her hand, Huo Jinyao frowned slightly and said, “If you want, we’ll return to the Su Family now and tell Li Qianxue the truth.”

“Just like this?”

“Sure,” Huo Jinyao rubbed her palm and said to her, “It’s going to be very simple if you want it.”

“But…”

Su Qingsang couldn’t convince herself to accept the whole thing so easily and to believe it.

“But what if we’re wrong?”

“I’m ninety percent sure,” Huo Jinyao thought through everything that he had said. The more he thought about it, the more strongly he felt that he was right.

“But, but…” Su Qingsang still had doubts. “What if Li Qianxue refuses to believe us or Su Chenghui denies it all?”

“Easy.” Huo Jinyao could tell that not even Su Qingsang herself was willing to believe it. “We’ll do a DNA test.”

The test result would prove everything. Everyone knew about that clearly. Once the test result was delivered, Su Chenghui would have no chance to deny it.

“What if the test proves that I’m not Li Qianxue’s daughter?”

“It’ll be fine,” Huo Jinyao squeezed her tender palm and said, “You are an adult anyway. You don’t need Li Qianxue or Su Chenghui. Whether they see you as their daughter nor not, you won’t lose anything.”

He was pretty sure that Su Qingsang and Su Peizhen were switched when they were babies.

He made it sound easy, but Su Qingsang knew that things wouldn’t be so easy.

“Okay, so, even if it’s real, even if everything you said is real, what about my mother? What will she do?”

She was, of course, talking about Xiang Caiping. Hearing that, Huo Jinyao fell into silence as well.

To be honest, neither he nor Su Qingsang cared about the Su Family people.

They maintained the family relationship with them only in a superficial way.

Xiang Caiping was different. She sincerely treated Su Qingsang as her daughter, and honestly tried to make it up to her daughter and rebuild the mother-and-daughter relationship that they had missed for over twenty years.

If Su Qingsang turned out to be the daughter of Li Qianxue, how would Xiang Caiping react?

…