Chapter 95

Chapter 95: The Future Has Already Changed

“What? What changed?!”

Mother Du and the others, who had been quietly acting like background props off to the side, suddenly could not stay calm.

Du An Rao blinked, making sure she had not seen wrong.

When she first walked in, she had already noticed that the area between Zou Heng’s eyebrows, the glabella palace in face reading, was dark. Because of the fight, the bridge of his nose was bruised and showed a cross line. In physiognomy, that was the sign of a violent death.

That meant that even if he cleared up the misunderstanding with Liao Yu Qian and no longer killed himself like in the original plot line, he still would not be able to escape death.

But just now, when he faced the two people’s unusual way of begging him to stay, he helplessly chose to compromise and remain instead of insisting on staying far away like before. His physiognomy changed.

The bruise on the bridge of his nose was slowly fading, and the cross line that had formed from his gloomy frown was gradually smoothing out. The sign of a violent death turned into one of a narrow escape from danger.

Before Du An Rao could think more about it, she suddenly felt a flash of bright light explode in front of her eyes. Fragmented images rushed into her head all at once. Her vision went black from the impact and she almost fell.

“An An!!!”

Mother Du and Du Lian Shuang both cried out at the same time and hurriedly grabbed Du An Rao, one on each side.

Yin Bai Lu and the others were also startled. When they came back to their senses, they rushed over to help: “Are you okay? I’ll go get a doctor.”

“No need.” Du An Rao shook her head and waved her hand: “My head just suddenly went blank. I’m a little dizzy, but I’ve already recovered. I’m fine now. No need to call a doctor.”

Everyone present: “…” The way she said it did not sound like she was fine at all!

Seeing everyone’s faces still so serious, Du An Rao stayed quiet for a moment. Then she chose her words carefully: “This probably happened because I accidentally scried a trace of the Tian Ji Star.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the room went silent.

Unlike Yin Bai Lu and the others, who were shocked and curious, the way Zou Heng looked at Du An Rao was full of doubt. His expression was just short of having the words “Is she a fraud?” written across his face.

“This is…?”

Yin Bai Lu and Liao Yu Qian glanced at each other and silently understood what the other wanted to do.

“This is Miss Du, Du An Rao. She is Lian Shuang’s niece and also the benefactor of our whole family and… yours.”

“Benefactor?” Zou Heng froze. He really could not figure out how he suddenly had a benefactor out of nowhere.

“Weren’t you curious why we hid the truth about Shan Shan from you for so long, but then suddenly told you? It was because of her.”

Yin Bai Lu briefly told Zou Heng how everyone had asked Du An Rao to do face reading for Liao Yu Qian that day and what Du An Rao had said to them.

After listening, Zou Heng’s already swollen eyes widened: “So you listened to her, guessed that I had misunderstood my brother because of Shan Shan, and that’s why you told me the truth.”

“…Yes.”

“The ‘villain’ she mentioned, was that me?”

Yin Bai Lu paused, worried that the person they had just managed to talk back might get scared off again. She had no choice but to turn and look at Du An Rao for help.

The corner of Du An Rao’s mouth twitched. She sighed, accepting her fate, and asked instead: “If Uncle Liao and the others had not told you the truth, would what happened today still have happened? Would Uncle Liao have been seriously injured because of it?”

She deliberately stressed the words “seriously injured.” Zou Heng trembled all over. In his heart, he already had the answer.

If he had not known the truth, what happened today would definitely still have happened, and he might even have been one of the people in the know.

At that time, he would not have needed to do anything. All he had to do was find an excuse not to go with Liao Yu Qian.

With no one beside him to risk their life to protect him, there was no way Liao Yu Qian could have lasted until some kind stranger called the police. Most likely, before that even happened, he would have already…

Thinking of this, Zou Heng could not help feeling a rush of fear, and his face once again turned dark and gloomy.

The hearts of Yin Bai Lu and her husband skipped a beat. They were just about to say something when Du An Rao spoke first.

“Different choices lead to different results. That is true for them, and it is true for you. Because of your choice, the future for you and them has already changed.”

Zou Heng stared blankly, looking at Du An Rao in a daze.

Yin Bai Lu, on the other hand, was overjoyed. She said excitedly: “So that means this tribulation for Yu Qian is over, and the future has changed. Ah Heng and all of us will be fine from now on, right?”

Du An Rao did not answer her question. Instead, she looked straight into Zou Heng’s eyes and told him what she had just accidentally seen.

“The Tian Ji Star I just scried was about you. I saw that you have new family. It was a little girl with a dimple at the corner of her mouth. She was very cute.”

“This is… this is…” Yin Bai Lu stared for a moment, like she had suddenly thought of something. She got so excited she did not know what to say. She turned to look at her husband, and her eyes turned red first.

Not knowing why, Du Lian Shuang could only ask Yin Bai Lu with her eyes.

Yin Bai Lu sniffed and said hoarsely: “I remember Shan Shan also had a small dimple by her mouth. You could see it whenever she smiled.”

Du Lian Shuang and the others suddenly understood. When they looked at Zou Heng again, they saw that his face was already covered in tears.

Maybe fate in this world really was this strange: when life was going smoothly, it would smack you with a hard blow, and when you were in despair, it would send you a life-saving straw.

Maybe Zou Heng did not care that much about his family’s deaths themselves. He was just living too lonely a life. He did not know when he would die, and he did not know how to live well. He drifted through life aimlessly, muddled and numb, like a walking corpse.

Du An Rao suddenly understood why Zou Heng killed himself in the original plot, and why he died a sudden, violent death after leaving Liao Yu Qian.

He had lost his blood relatives, his closest kin by blood. Then he betrayed the brothers who treated him as family.

After wandering through half his life, he looked around and found that he was still all alone, with nothing to his name.

In the original plot, because of a misunderstanding, he even did something that went against his own conscience and caused an irreversible disaster.

The pain of losing all his family, the guilt of betraying his brothers, and the hatred from having trusted the wrong people all crashed down on him at once. They completely crushed him and pushed him into choosing to die to make up for everything.

Now, even though there was still room to fix things and nothing too serious had happened to Liao Yu Qian, Zou Heng’s earlier betrayal was still a thorn in his heart.

At this moment, suddenly learning that in the future he would have a new relative who was as cute as a sister, for some reason, he felt like that thorn lodged in his chest had softened.

Maybe, maybe he was not as terrible as he thought. Maybe Heaven Above had taken pity on him and had not really decided to leave him with nothing. Maybe he still had a chance to be happy, right?

A drifting water plant had finally found a harbor where it could stay, but he was still afraid that this beautiful future was just like a reflection in the water, vanishing in a blink.

As if to prove what Du An Rao had said, before anyone could react more, the ward door was suddenly pushed open with a bang. A woman, drenched in sweat and looking completely messy, rushed in: “I heard President Liao and Master were attacked and injured and had to be hospitalized. Are you… are you okay?”

The woman suddenly saw the crowd in the hospital room. For a moment her face went blank, and her voice got smaller and smaller.

Du An Rao raised her eyebrows. Her gaze swept downward, and sure enough, she saw a tightly held Red Thread of Fate on their hands.

[Oh wow, speak of the devil and she shows up. Isn’t this the legendary… baby’s mom?]

Mother Du and Du Lian Shuang: pfft…