Chapter 246

Chapter 246: Love and Not Loving Are Very Clear

Everyone in the room fell silent when they heard this. They had thought it was a simple story of a scumbag man two-timing, cheating with a mistress, having an illegitimate child, and wronging his first wife. They did not expect so many twists behind it.

For the moment, they really could not tell who was right and who was wrong. No wonder Mr. Liu had said this whole matter was shameful. If it were them, they would probably be even less willing to bring it up.

But since Mr. Liu’s brother was still alive, it showed that the girlfriend had not followed his grandparents’ order to abort the child. Instead, she had given birth to him safely.

“I remember you told me that you and your brother grew up together. If you weren’t born from the same mother, why did you live together?”

When Ms. Qi met her husband, her mother?in?law had already been dead for many years. The two of them had never lived under the same roof.

From the bits and pieces her husband had described over the years, and from the way he had just talked about what happened in the older generation, Ms. Qi did not think his mother was the kind of person who could generously accept an enemy’s child and let him grow up peacefully with her own son.

When Mr. Liu heard his wife ask this, his expression grew even more awkward.

“That’s because my second brother’s birth mother died of heavy bleeding when she gave birth to him. My dad brought him back and lied to my mom, saying she had given birth to a pair of twins.”

“…Your mom couldn’t tell if she was pregnant with one or two babies?”

“Pregnancies back then weren’t checked as carefully as now.” Many people did not even have prenatal checkups. Whether the child was healthy depended on luck, and whether you were carrying one or two babies also depended on luck.

Not to mention, Mr. Liu’s mother had given birth at home back then and had never gone to a hospital. Of course she believed whatever her husband told her.

She probably never imagined that her husband could be so heartless, actually thinking about stuffing another woman’s child into her belly.

“Then when did you find out that you and your brother weren’t born from the same mother?”

“When my mom was about to die.”

Mr. Liu still remembered that year clearly. He had only been thirteen or fourteen and was in middle school. His mother was dying in the old house. When he went back during a school break to visit her, he accidentally heard her arguing with his father.

In Mr. Liu’s memories, his father had never been home much, and his mother was always muttering and acting strange, not caring about household matters at all. He and his brother had been raised by their grandparents.

Every time his father came back, he was very cold to him. Even when he and his brother stood in front of their father together, the man only looked at his brother, only smiled at his brother, only picked up his brother to play. He acted as if Mr. Liu, this son, was invisible, and barely said a few words to him.

Mr. Liu had never understood why. They were both his sons, so why was his attitude so different, like night and day? He did not understand until that day…

“I had never seen my dad so angry and out of control, and I had never seen my mom so hysterical. My dad chose to tell her this when she was sick on purpose, just to anger her. He couldn’t wait for her to die earlier, so he could be free sooner.”

“My dad said that when his girlfriend gave birth to my brother and was about to die, he stayed by her side, listening to her talk about how much she hated my mom, how much she hated my grandfather and grandmother. He watched as she was tormented by this hatred right up to her last breath, struggling so hard she couldn’t close her eyes. His heart felt like it was breaking.”

“But in fact, the one she hated most was my dad. If he hadn’t betrayed their love and slept with my mom, and then weakly chosen to listen to his family and marry my mom, she would not have fallen from the first wife to a mistress. She would not have had to suffer my grandfather and grandmother’s insults and blame while carrying their child, stuck in such a shameful and painful situation.”

Everyone in the private room was silent. They had to admit that this girlfriend had been quite clear?headed. While blaming Mr. Liu’s grandparents and his mother, she had not forgotten to include Mr. Liu’s father, the true culprit who started it all. The whole family was involved together.

“After that, my dad went crazy. He went crazy wanting to take revenge on my mom, on my grandfather and grandmother, and on everyone in this family except my brother. Bringing my brother back, lying that he and I were twins, and having my mom and my grandparents raise the son he had with his girlfriend was the first step in his revenge on this family.”

Ms. Qi could not help leaning over and holding her husband’s cold hand to silently comfort him.

Mr. Liu gave a small smile. After all these years, he had already moved past it.

Even back then, he had only felt like he had been hit over the head. He suddenly realized that even for sons, there were differences.

Love and not loving were really very clear.

After hearing Mr. Liu’s story, Du An Rao only felt that being obsessed with love was truly harmful. Three?legged toads are hard to find, but two?legged men are everywhere. Why fight over a man who is already in love with someone else? One careless move and you ruin your whole life and even harm the next generation. What was the point?

[What kind of messy love story is this? She loves him, he loves her, she also loves him; she hates her, she hates him, and he also hates her. These relationships are more tangled than a ball of yarn full of knots. No wonder they could end up doing something as awful as a Fate Pattern Swap.]

Xi Jing Yue: “…”

Wasn’t that the truth? Just from listening to a certain someone’s tangled story, he felt like his own brain was starting to knot up.

“So just because the two of you are half brothers, you suspect that your own brother is the one who swapped your fate patterns?”

“Of course it’s not only because of that.” Mr. Liu pressed his lips together, turned to look at his wife, and said: “I can’t explain it clearly. It’s just a feeling. Do you remember when we had just gotten married, how my second brother was still a lazy good?for?nothing, and then at some point he suddenly changed for the better…”

Ms. Qi froze. If her husband hadn’t brought it up, she would have forgotten. When they had just gotten married, this brother?in?law really had not been very reliable. He was like some small?time punk, always coming to ask her husband for money to go have fun. He never thought about finding a steady job, just stayed at home waiting for his older brother to support him.

Back then, Ms. Qi had not fully understood her husband’s attitude. She felt that this brother?in?law was the same age, with two working hands and feet. Instead of supporting himself, he came to ask his already married brother for money every day. It really was too much.

But they were close blood relatives. To avoid arguments between husband and wife, even though she was unhappy, she kept her complaints to herself.

She had not expected that not long after, her brother?in?law suddenly changed like a different person. Not only did he find a job, his personality changed too. He became steady yet humorous. Although he would still sometimes ask her husband for money, he was somehow much more likable.

Soon after that, he quickly started dating a girlfriend, got married, and had children. In three years they had two kids. He actually realized the dream of having both a son and a daughter earlier than the two of them did.

Thinking back to when her brother?in?law’s personality had changed, Ms. Qi realized it seemed to be right around the time she got pregnant with their first child.

Then she thought about when he got married, especially when her sister?in?law got pregnant with their first child. It seemed… that was right after she had had a miscarriage and lost that child by accident.