Chapter 72

After a few days of mental preparation, Yu Lei finally stood in front of Tong Jiayu's ward door, holding the DNA test report of Tong Jiayu and Tang Ruxin in his hand.

He raised his hand to knock on the door, paused, and then put it down. He turned around, lowered his head, took a few deep breaths, and then carefully knocked on the door.

Tong Jiayu was listening to a crosstalk, and a moderate laugh came from the tablet computer.

"Officer Yu, long time no see." Tong Jiayu greeted with a smile, with surprise in her eyes, "I thought you would never come to see me again."

Yu Lei suddenly remembered that the last time he'd seen Tong Jiayu was in this ward. She'd pinned him to the ground and punched him several times, even though she was limping. It had been only a month ago, but it felt like a lifetime ago. Back then, he hadn't understood the source of her sudden outburst of anger, assuming she simply didn't want him and Tang Ruxin to get close. Now he understood.

It wasn't sudden; this anger had been burning for over twenty years. A mere beating wasn't enough to repay the debt he owed him.

She'd actually recognized him the moment she saw him, in the central control room of the Donghe Refining Plant. Her first words to him were, "Where have I seen you?" He shamelessly replied, "All handsome men look the same."

Why didn't he look at her carefully? Wasn't this face anything like the seven-year-old Zhao Zheng he remembered? Probably not. Although the gender was different and the face had been retouched, there must have been traces of the past, he just hadn't looked closely enough.

Yu Lei walked to the bedside, sat sideways on the edge of the bed, looked at her with a serious gaze, but said nothing.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Tong Jiayu's pale, round face suddenly blossomed into a brilliant smile. "Are you in love with me?"

Yu Lei didn't respond, handed her the two DNA test reports, and then quietly looked down at the tip of his shoes.

I could hear the rustling of papers beside me, the occasional pause before continuing. A breeze blew in through the open window, bringing a chill from outside. It wasn't cold against me, just a touch of chill—just enough to keep me awake.

"I don't understand." Tong Jiayu handed the report back to him, laughing as usual. "My brain is not very good, I can't read a lot of words. Can you read it to me?"

Yu Lei took the report and read the conclusion to her word by word in a slow and gentle tone, as if he was reading a story to a child.

Tong Jiayu looked at him, and the smile on her lips deepened.

"You're so amazing! You've even found evidence for this. Don't tell Xiaolan, or she'll be mad. She cries when she's angry and is hard to comfort."

Yu Lei couldn't understand her calmness. It was like a joke, a casual admission. He'd expected her to panic and tense for a moment, but she wasn't. Not even surprised, so calm and unconcerned. His heart felt like it was being squeezed, and the rise and fall of his chest, necessary for breathing, became incredibly difficult.

There were so many questions he wanted to ask, but he couldn't utter a single one. Yu Lei lowered his eyes, the test report in his hand being squeezed out of shape.

He rubbed his sore eyes, sniffed and said:

"Don't you have anything to say to me?" His voice was so hoarse that even he could hardly hear it.

"What do you want to hear?" Tong Jiayu blinked. "I just wanted to change my way of life, so I had a sex change. I was afraid Xiaolan wouldn't be able to accept it, so I kept it a secret from her. That's all, there's nothing much to say."

"How did you live originally? Why did you want to change?" Yu Lei insisted without giving in.

Tong Jiayu paused, a mocking smile on her face. "Guess what? What kind of life would make me deny my gender? What kind of life would force me to become a woman in order to accept myself? You're a police officer, can't you guess?"

The blood drained away from Yu Lei's face in an instant. He looked away in panic and embarrassment. His hands at his sides were clenched into fists, his nails digging deep into his palms. He couldn't help but tremble in pain.

"If you want to hear it, I'll tell you." Tong Jiayu straightened the quilt covering her knees and said slowly, "After my grandparents died, I went to an orphanage. The director and his friends all favored boys around ten years old, especially those with delicate and delicate looks. I was so stupid and naive at the time that I didn't understand what they were doing..."

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Yu Lei interrupted her in a panic. He held her shoulders, lowered his head deeply, and apologized repeatedly in a hoarse voice, "It's all my fault. I, I will kill them, I can... Tell me their names, their names. I will kill them..."

Looking at Yu Lei, who was forcing himself not to cry, she suddenly felt that he was quite pitiful. For so many years, he had been living in that night, the night when the whole world collapsed. Like him, he had been unable to find relief for more than twenty years.

She held his face in her hands, smiled, and said, "Forget it. It's been more than 20 years. Maybe they are all dead now."

"Why didn't you come to find me? For so many years... I have been looking for you. I became a policeman just to find you. Where did you go after the orphanage was demolished?" Yu Lei's eyes were red as if blood was dripping, and every word he uttered seemed to be filled with great pain.

"I'm here to look for Zhao Lan. She's living a good life and doesn't even know I have a brother. I don't want to disturb her."

"Then why don't you come to me? I..."

"Yu Lei," she looked him straight in the eye and said frankly, "You don't know how much I hate you."

Yu Lei felt as if someone had poured a basin of ice water over him, chilling every pore. He had forgotten how proud Zhao Zheng used to be. Though frail, he was always strong-willed and would never seek help from someone he hated.

She suddenly lowered her head and smiled, saying, "When you appeared before me again—so majestic, so tall, full of righteousness, standing before me fearlessly and calmly. At that moment, I really hated you... I also wanted to stand upright in the sun like this and tell the girl I met for the first time that all handsome men are the same. Hahaha..."

If words were knives, Yu Lei felt like he'd been tortured to death, the pain starting to numb. He knew he had no right to feel pain; the one who was truly hurting was Zhao Zheng, both physically and mentally. Even his existence had become part of her suffering.

"I'm sorry." Yu Lei lowered his head, his face pale as if he had died.

There was no way to ask any more questions. Having said that, he no longer had the right to ask any further questions.

He wanted to ask where the real Tong Jiayu was, why he had taken Tong Jiayu's identity, how he knew Ding Xinqiao, why he had killed Yu Zhe, why he had targeted Tang Jiulin. But he couldn't ask. All his words were blocked by her using his mistake that day.

He even knew that what Tong Jiayu said today was likely prepared by Ding Xinqiao. But there was nothing he could do. Like a gamble whose outcome was already known, he could only sit at the table and wait to lose, without the right to change the game or leave.