Chapter 410 Do you have a photo of your mother?

Mu Nanyan stared at him blankly, her face full of confusion and disbelief.

"What makes you question my mother like that?"

Her voice trembled slightly with excitement, and carried the pain of being insulted.

"You keep saying you don't know her, and she doesn't know you either! Why would a woman who doesn't even know you go to such lengths to steal your genes and get pregnant with your child, ultimately ruining her reputation, forcing her to flee her homeland, and even dying in a foreign land?! What good would that do for her?!"

Her words were like a sharp awl, piercing Shangguan He's chaotic logic.

Each question was powerful and shattered his absurd hypothesis of "stealing genes".

Shangguan He was left speechless by her question and completely frozen in place.

Yeah...why would a woman who had nothing to do with him do this? It doesn't make sense!

He himself knew very well that he had never donated sperm to any institution. In theory, his genetic material could not be easily obtained by outsiders.

So...what's the problem?

A huge, inexplicable black hole appeared between Mu Nanyan's statement and his own cognition and the most basic logic.

His thoughts were completely mired in chaos, and all his inferences and assumptions were shattered by this deadlock.

My head was splitting with pain, and fragments of memory were tumbling through my mind like sharp shards of glass, but I couldn't piece together a complete truth no matter what I did.

He raised his hand and pressed hard on his throbbing temple. His face was pale and his eyes were dull. For the first time, he showed a sense of complete helplessness and collapse.

"I...I don't know..."

He finally squeezed out a voice from his dry throat, filled with unprecedented confusion and powerlessness.

"I really... don't know what went wrong..."

At this moment, he was not the business tycoon who was strategizing, but just an ordinary man who was completely crushed by the sudden and incomprehensible reality.

The solid worldview was shattered into pieces, but there was no foundation for reconstruction.

The truth seems to be shrouded in a thick, impenetrable fog.

On the one hand, he has firmly believed in his own loyalty and innocence for more than 20 years - he has never betrayed his marriage, and there has only been one woman, Song Yajun, from beginning to end.

On the other hand, there is absolutely authoritative scientific evidence - Mu Nanyan is undoubtedly his biological daughter.

This devastating contradiction was like two huge forces tearing him apart, almost driving him to the brink of madness.

"No... this is impossible..."

He muttered, his voice broken and hoarse.

But this time, the object of his rebuttal was no longer Mu Nanyan, but his own memory, which seemed indestructible but was actually full of cracks.

A terrible thought popped into his mind uncontrollably:

Could it be... that he really violated the woman named Shen Yi without knowing it?

The thought made him feel like he was falling into an icy cave.

He raised his head with difficulty, his eyes filled with bloodshot and an almost pleading inquiry, looking at Mu Nanyan:

"Do you... do you have a photo of your mother? Can you... show it to me?"

Upon hearing this, Mu Nanyan was silent for a moment, and finally found an old photo with soft light from the depths of her mobile phone album - it was a photo of her and her mother when she was a child.

She handed over the phone.

Shangguan He took it with trembling hands, his eyes greedily focused on the face of the woman with a gentle smile in the photo.

A vague, elusive sense of familiarity passed through my mind, as if I had seen it somewhere, but it was so vague that I couldn't grasp any specific clues.

Could it be... that he really had an intersection with her, but completely forgot about it?

His thoughts were suddenly pulled back to the only night of blankness and confusion - the night he had sex with Song Yajun after being drugged!

Before this, he had always been reluctant to think about what happened that night, or even to delve into it, because that night also changed his life.

But now, he must remember!

He gripped the phone tightly, his knuckles turning white, and forced himself to sink into the chaotic swamp of memories.

The shattered light and shadows, the scorching, unfamiliar body temperature, the uncontrollable, primitive impulses... and the next morning, Song Yajun's perfectly radiant, tearful expression as she claimed he'd "forced" her...

In the past, guilt and regret for losing control blinded his eyes and made him believe Song Yajun's words.

But at this moment, a living daughter with his blood was standing before him, like the sharpest searchlight, forcing him to look back on the night that determined half of his life with the most demanding and scrutinizing eyes.

Loophole... Where is the fatal loophole? !

His brain was working rapidly, trying to separate the deliberately concealed truth from the blur.

Shangguan He closed his eyes tightly, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead, and tried his best to recall that chaotic night.

The fragments of memory are like dusty glass, blurry but with a stinging feeling.

He still clearly remembers the scene when he woke up the next morning - the dazzling sunlight shone through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating Song Yajun, who was naked and sleeping soundly beside him.

And the incredibly precise performance she gave after she woke up.

She first pulled the quilt over her body in panic, then her eyes quickly turned red, tears rolled down like beads from a broken string, her voice choked with sobs, with just the right amount of grievance and fear:

"Last night... I heard you weren't feeling well and were resting in your room upstairs. I was worried something might have happened to you, so I came up to check on you..."

She paused here and sniffed, as if she found it difficult to speak.

"But as soon as I came in, you... you..."

Her words were interrupted at the perfect moment, leaving a blank that made people think a lot, and then turned into a lower and more aggrieved sob:

"You're too strong. I... I can't break free at all..."

Deep in his memory, there were indeed some hot, chaotic, and uncontrollable fragments of love.

These fragmented sensory memories matched perfectly with Song Yajun's tearful accusations, making him firmly believe at the time that it was the effects of the drugs that caused the big mistake.

Huge guilt and regret instantly overwhelmed him.

His first thought was to make amends.

"I will give you enough compensation to ensure you have comfortable food and clothing for the rest of your life."

He tried to settle the accident with money.

However, Song Yajun's reaction was extremely intense.

She raised her head suddenly and looked at him with tearful eyes, as if she had suffered a greater insult:

"I don't want your money! Who do you take me for?!"

Then, the matter came to the attention of her father, who was the Secretary of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission at the time, at an incredible speed.

The subsequent developments were completely out of Shangguan He's control.

Faced with the pressure from the other family and their coercive attitude, in order to calm the situation and out of his self-righteous "responsibility", he was eventually forced to marry Song Yajun.

After many years of marriage, he always had only a heavy responsibility towards her, but never developed true love for her.

At this moment, when he was forced to re-examine this past with the most skeptical eyes, Song Yajun's overly fluent crying, her determination not to make amends but to quickly make a big deal out of it, and her father's timely and forceful intervention...

All of this, when put together, actually exudes a chilling, carefully designed flavor.

A terrifying conjecture that almost froze his blood suddenly popped into his mind—

Could it be that the woman that night... wasn't Song Yajun at all? !

But... someone else? !

Could that person... be Mu Nanyan's mother? !

He turned his head suddenly, his eyes shot towards Mu Nanyan, his voice a little rough due to his eagerness:

"You...how old are you now? When is your birthday?"

Mu Nanyan was startled by his sudden question. Although she didn't understand why, she still answered truthfully:

"I'm turning 29 soon. My birthday is in February."

Upon hearing this, Shangguan He was struck by a silent lightning and froze in place!

Mu Nanyan was a few months older than his son, Shangguan Jiuze! And that chaotic night happened in May. Ten months of pregnancy... the timing matched perfectly!

All the clues, all the doubts, all the irrefutable evidence of science, at this moment converged into a torrent, breaking down the last dam of self-deception in his heart.

A frighteningly clear answer has emerged.

That "mistake" he'd felt guilty about for over twenty years, that "responsibility" he'd shouldered for half his life...could it have been a calculated, complete scam from beginning to end?!

This thought was like a poisonous snake that had been dormant for a long time, suddenly baring its fangs and biting fiercely into his heart!

Over the years, whenever Song Yajun mentioned that night, she would always look away unnaturally or hastily change the subject.

He had kindly interpreted the subtle avoidance and fleeting guilty conscience as a woman's shyness and embarrassment when talking about her privacy.

However, at this moment, under the dual scorching heat of the DNA evidence and Mu Nanyan's angry and grief-stricken gaze, those details that had been ignored turned into countless poisoned silver needles, fiercely piercing into the deepest part of his consciousness!

Not shy!

It was fear! The fear that someone would delve into it and discover the shocking secret that had been carefully concealed for over twenty years!

A terrible lie that had entangled him for half his life was like a gorgeous but long-decayed oil painting, shaking violently before his eyes. The hypocritical oil paint peeled off in large pieces, completely exposing the ugly and disgusting truth underneath.

“It’s her…!!”

Shangguan He suddenly jumped up from the chair. The huge impact force made his eyes go black and his body shook violently involuntarily. He had to stretch out his hands to hold on to the table to barely stand firm.

However, after the violent turmoil, his eyes became frighteningly clear and cold, as sharp as a tempered ice blade, with rage and overwhelming humiliation surging deep within them after being completely fooled and trampled upon for half his life!

Shangguan He had been sitting in the reception area for a long time. In addition, his emotions had experienced drastic ups and downs. His body, which had just undergone major surgery and chemotherapy, could not bear it and showed obvious signs of fatigue.

He felt a strong dizziness coming over him, his vision went black, his body swayed uncontrollably, and he fell to the side!

At this moment, Mu Nanyan, who had been paying attention to his condition, was quick to step forward and firmly supported his body as he was about to fall.

Almost at the same time, the door of the reception area was pushed open, and Shangguan Fuling walked in with a blooming wintersweet in her hand and a cheerful smile on her face.

She saw at a glance the shocking scene of her father's pale face, shaky and being supported by Mu Nanyan, and she was frightened out of her wits!

"dad!"

She cried out in surprise, not caring that the plum blossom in her hand fell to the ground. She rushed forward like a frightened deer, almost subconsciously passing Mu Nanyan and holding her father's arm on the other side, her voice filled with tears:

"What's wrong with you? Don't scare me!"

Under Shangguan Fuling's anxious guidance, Mu Nanyan and she carefully supported the almost exhausted Shangguan He on both sides, and slowly sent him back to the bedroom to rest.

Shangguan He lay on the bed, closed his eyes and gasped for a moment. Only then did his overdrawn strength return a little, and the severe dizziness gradually subsided.

He slowly opened his eyes, and what he saw was the crying and panicked face of his little daughter Fuling.

Under normal circumstances, he would have used gentle words to comfort this easily frightened darling.

But at this moment, what was surging in his heart was only the raging rage of being deceived for more than twenty years and the urgency to seek the truth. The rage burned so hard that his internal organs were in pain, and there was no longer any extra warmth.

His gaze passed over Fuling's tears, becoming unusually sharp and cold. He practically squeezed out the command word by word through his teeth. Although his voice was weak, it carried an unquestionable and decisive tone:

"Go...go call your mother...call her over!"

Shangguan Fuling was so frightened by the terrifying look she had never seen in her father's eyes and the cold and urgent order that she even forgot to cry.

She had no idea what was going on. She only saw that her father had almost fainted just now, but now he looked as terrible as if he was looking for someone to settle a blood debt.

She didn't dare to ask more questions and could only nod timidly and hurriedly:

"Okay, okay... Dad, don't get excited. I... I'll go find Mom right away."

After saying that, she almost staggered and turned around, running out of the room quickly, her heart filled with great anxiety and confusion.

Mu Nanyan stood stiffly in the corner of the bedroom, as if isolated by an invisible barrier, her heart filled with unprecedented confusion and embarrassment.

Shangguan He's order, filled with immense anger, hit her heart like a dull hammer.

Who was the "she" he was referring to? Was it Song Yajun? Why was he so furious, as if he harbored an irreconcilable hatred for the wife he had treated with such respect for over twenty years?

She was completely unable to comprehend this sudden turn of events.

A few minutes ago, they were still facing off against each other over the secret of her life experience. Although it was painful, there was at least a clear thread.

But at this moment, he seemed to be completely consumed by another darker and more intense emotion, and he was even willing to drag his sick body to settle the accounts immediately.

What made her even more at a loss was her extremely embarrassing position.

Looking at his chest heaving violently with extreme anger and his face as pale as paper, a trace of instinctive concern came to my mind - he had just undergone a major operation, and it was dangerous for him to be so excited.

But as soon as this thought of concern emerged, it was suppressed by the cold reality.

In what capacity did she comfort him?

A "daughter" whom he had just been vehemently denying and even doubting her origin?

An existence that perhaps was not expected at all, or even seen as a product of trouble and conspiracy?