The door to the hospital room swung open, and Tang Yuanxiao appeared before Su Li, a grim air about him.
She sighed inwardly. 'The inevitable has finally happened. We had to meet again in this lifetime.'
Su Li turned around to face Tang Yuanxiao.
Tang Yuanxiao looked just as he did in her memory, and yet somehow different. His sharp features remained, as did his unsmiling, taciturn demeanor. He stood ramrod straight, completely unlike an ordinary person.
He was dressed all in black. 'He's probably never worn any other color his entire life.'
After his sharp gaze swept the room and failed to find the person he was looking for, Tang Yuanxiao turned to the skeletally thin old woman by the window and asked, "Ma'am, excuse me, where is Su Li?"
Su Li laughed at his question, her face twisting into a crazed, sorrowful expression.
Tang Yuanxiao was over fifty and had wrinkles on his face, but his charisma was undiminished, and his commanding presence had only grown. He frowned at the laughing Su Li. "What's wrong? I'm looking for Su Li..."
Su Li cut him off abruptly. "Tang Yuanxiao, you're looking for someone who's right in front of you. Can you really not recognize me?"
Tang Yuanxiao stared at the skeletal old woman before him, trying in vain to find any trace of familiarity on her wrinkled, sunken-eyed face. "You're Su Li? How is that possible? You..."
For a rare moment, an expression broke through Tang Yuanxiao's stoic mask—shock and disbelief.
"You... How did you end up like this?"
Hearing Tang Yuanxiao's question, a sneer twisted Su Li's lips. "Then what was I supposed to look like? Still graceful and alluring?"
Tang Yuanxiao's lips tightened into a thin line. He had already confirmed that the person before him was Su Li from her familiar gaze.
The Su Li of the past had always looked at him with those same hateful eyes, and she was doing so now. Though her face was completely unrecognizable from how it once was, her gaze remained unchanged.
Remembering the past and thinking of the person outside the door, Tang Yuanxiao's demeanor shifted. A bleak, murderous aura emanated from him. His eyes turned bloodshot, and his face tensed until it was almost distorted.
Taking heavy steps, he walked toward Su Li. "Su Li!"
He had walked toward Su Li just like this all those years ago, grabbing her by the throat and nearly strangling her to death.
Looking at him, Su Li felt none of the fear she had in the past, only contempt. She sneered, "What? Want to try and strangle me to death again?"
A vein throbbed on Tang Yuanxiao's forehead, but he forced himself to hold back, asking in a hoarse voice, "Did you send me that letter?"
Su Li turned her head away to look out the window and hummed in assent.
"Why send it to me? Why were you looking for him?" Tang Yuanxiao demanded in a low voice. He then let out a breath and flexed his fingers to calm himself. "Even if you find Tang Mo, it can't atone for the sin of selling him all those years ago."
His voice was low and strained, but his tone was steady.
But Su Li was like a porcupine, all her quills raised. She cut him off with a shriek, "Tang Yuanxiao, I didn't sell Tang Mo! I told you, losing him was an accident! I didn't sell him!"
"You're still making excuses, even now? Su Li, you..." Tang Yuanxiao was holding back with all his might. "I really want to... I really want to..."
"Tang Yuanxiao!" Su Li's eyes were bloodshot, and her whole body was trembling. Her skeletal hand shot out and grabbed his collar. "I'll say it one last time: I didn't sell him! If I'd sold him, why would I have spent more than twenty years searching for him?!"
Tang Yuanxiao stared down at Su Li without a word.
Su Li gasped for breath as she stared at Tang Yuanxiao, her eyes fixed on his. Suddenly, she squeezed her eyes shut and slowly released his collar.
"Why am I even saying all this to you? I must be a fool to be explaining myself to you. As long as I've found him, that's all that matters. I have a clear conscience." She took a step back, then stumbled two more. "I found him, but it wasn't for you. It was for him..."
She had poured more than twenty years of her life into finding Tang Mo, not for Tang Yuanxiao's sake, not to earn his forgiveness or clear up the misunderstanding. She had searched for Tang Mo simply because she was the one who had lost him.
More than twenty years ago, Su Li had been Tang Yuanxiao's wife, and Tang Mo her stepson.
When Tang Mo was five, he accompanied Su Li to the county town. There, through a moment of carelessness, Su Li lost him. After a frantic and fruitless search, she returned to their village to ask for help. Instead, she was slandered and accused of having sold Tang Mo, thus branding her with the crime of selling her own stepson. Then came accusations that she was having an affair. Su Li's tragic life began at that moment.
Tang Yuanxiao, who had rushed back from the city, believed the villagers' accusations. He misunderstood Su Li, and that misunderstanding turned into a lifelong hatred.
The hospital room fell silent, the only sound Su Li's ragged breathing.
After a moment, Tang Yuanxiao looked at Su Li and finally spoke in a heavy voice. "You don't need to explain anything to me. The person you need to explain to is Tang Mo. I only came here today to confirm that you were the one who sent the letter."
"You've seen what you came to see. Now go." Su Li didn't want to face Tang Yuanxiao any longer. She closed her eyes and pointed to the door. "Leave!"
Tang Yuanxiao gave her one last, deep look, then turned to leave. But after only two steps, he stopped, turned back around, and said, word by word, "Su Li, even if you did find Tang Mo, I will not thank you. I will never thank you as long as I live."
He felt nothing but hatred for her. It was the first time in his life he had ever hated someone so much. He hated her in the past, he hated her now, and he would continue to hate her for the rest of his life.
"I don't need your gratitude. I never wanted it!" Su Li looked at Tang Yuanxiao and gave a bloodthirsty smile. "Heh. You think you're the only one who feels hatred?"
'Tang Yuanxiao hated her, but she hated him and the entire Tang family just as much. They had wronged her, tormented her, refused to listen to a single word of her explanation, and personally shoved her into hell.'
'She was only in her forties but looked like a seventy-year-old crone. Half her life had been spent tormented by illness, and now stomach cancer meant she didn't have long to live. She had him and the Tang family to thank for all of it.'
'He hated her, but she hated him more!'
Tang Yuanxiao understood her meaning. He turned back, a sense of deep helplessness washing over him as he looked at the hatred filling her eyes. "Su Li, even now, you still do nothing but hate me, without a shred of remorse. More than twenty years ago, you never said you were sorry, and I still don't see the slightest hint of an apology from you now. You... you're hopeless!"
Su Li's face was a mask of mockery. "Tang Yuanxiao, don't you give me that high-and-mighty act of a pained, helpless man. Me, apologize to you? Why should I apologize to you? The one I let down was our son, not you. If there's one person in this world I don't owe anything to, it's you."
She spoke the last two words with extreme emphasis.
Tang Yuanxiao couldn't bear to look at Su Li any longer and abruptly turned away. "Su Li, you're utterly unrepentant! Everything that's happened... this is your retribution! This is divine retribution!"
Divine... retribution...
Those were the last words Su Li ever wanted to hear. To her, they were the most vicious, heart-gouging words in the world, each one a dagger to her soul.
"Tang Yuanxiao!" Su Li shrieked, pointing a trembling finger at him. Her vision went black with rage, and she collapsed to the floor.
Tang Yuanxiao's expression changed. His foot reflexively moved forward half a step, but he stopped, clenching his fists and holding his ground.
Completely spent, Su Li struggled to recover, pushing herself into a sitting position. She was burning with fury. "Tang Yuanxiao, anyone in the world can say that my fate is divine retribution, but you can't! My stomach cancer, this state I'm in... it was all thanks to your Tang Family..."
The rest of her words died in her throat when she saw the person standing in the doorway.
She watched the cool, elegant, jade-like young man walk toward her, step by step. A thousand thoughts flashed through her mind, and a million unspoken words coalesced into a single name.
"Tang Mo..."