Chapter 409 What am I pretending?
He subconsciously straightened his back, frowned even tighter, and his tone unconsciously became anxious and inquiring.
"Miss Mu? What's wrong with you? Is this name... important to you? Or did I... really forget something very important?"
His eyes were as sharp as torches, fixed tightly on Mu Nanyan, not missing any slight fluctuation in her expression.
A vague but extremely strong feeling of unease began to swirl rapidly in his heart - there must be some kind of profound connection between this name that he had completely forgotten and the girl in front of him who saved his life but now seemed to have suffered a heavy blow because of his words, which he was completely unaware of but was of vital importance.
Mu Nanyan met his gaze and remained silent for a long time, so long that the air almost froze.
She finally spoke, her voice low and clear, yet with a barely perceptible tremor:
"She... is my mother."
Shangguan He looked even more confused and puzzled when he heard this.
He had no idea how her mother was related to him.
He could only look at Mu Nanyan with increasing doubts, waiting for her to continue explaining.
"She was originally the daughter of the Shen family in Haicheng."
Mu Nanyan's voice seemed to float from far away, carrying heavy memories.
"She had been doted on by her parents and brothers since she was little, leading a carefree life. Her life should have been peaceful, smooth, and happy..."
Her tone gradually became difficult:
"But because of one man, her life was completely shattered. She was forced into a relationship with him and even became pregnant with his child. Unmarried pregnancy was a scandal that the Shen family would never tolerate at the time... She had no other choice but to flee to the capital with her child."
"Later, she met a man in the capital who was willing to accept her and they got married. But because the child wasn't his biological child... he betrayed her and even conspired with another woman to kill her when she was only 29."
By the end of her speech, Mu Nanyan's voice was choked with sobs, and the look she gave Shangguan He was inevitably tainted with a hint of deep resentment.
However, Shangguan He did not look at her, and naturally did not catch the resentment in her eyes.
He was simply immersed in this tragic story, with a sincere sigh and sympathy on his face:
"Your mother... is indeed a pitiful person. But... Miss Mu, why did you specifically tell me these past events?"
His tone was still full of confusion, as if he was completely unable to connect this story with himself.
Mu Nanyan stared at his expression intently. The pure confusion that was on her face from beginning to end without any trace of pretense finally broke the string that had been taut for her.
She didn't know whether Shangguan He was truly unaware of all this, or whether his acting skills had reached such perfection that he could act so flawlessly even though he knew everything.
Had he...already guessed her identity? And just didn't want to admit it?
After listening to that story, Shangguan He's face still showed pure sympathy and regret, and even a hint of emotion about the fickleness of fate.
He really did not connect this story with himself, because deep down in his heart he firmly believed that there was only one woman for him from beginning to end, Song Yajun.
His life trajectory is clear and "innocent", and it is impossible for him to have such a deep entanglement with others, or even leave a child.
He looked at the increasingly obvious pain and resentment in Mu Nanyan's eyes. Although he felt reluctant and even more confused, he still couldn't understand why she wanted to confide all this to him alone.
His tone even had a hint of comfort:
"Miss Mu, your mother's experience is indeed heartbreaking... but the dead are gone, and you are still young, so you should be more open-minded..."
These words were like the last straw that broke the camel's back, completely crushing Mu Nanyan's tense nerves.
She kept staring at him, trying to find the slightest trace of disguise on his face, but she only saw complete confusion and a kind of detached, polite sympathy.
"Take it easy?"
Mu Nanyan suddenly interrupted him, her voice suddenly rising, with an incredible sharpness and trembling, and the calm appearance she had maintained until now was completely shattered.
"Mr. Shangguan, at this point, are you still going to pretend you know nothing?!"
Shangguan He was startled by her sudden excitement and accusation, and was completely confused:
"Miss Mu? You...what do you mean by that? What am I pretending for?"
"What do I mean?"
Mu Nanyan took a step forward. The grievances, anger and injustice that had been pent up for more than twenty years burst out at this moment. Her eyes were filled with disappointment and accusations.
"The man who ruined my mother's life! The man who abandoned her, made her pregnant out of wedlock, forced her to leave her hometown, and ultimately indirectly killed her—that's you!"
Her voice was filled with tears, but it spoke to Shangguan He with extraordinary clarity:
"You're telling me now that you've let it go? Telling me that my mother was just a poor stranger who had nothing to do with you? Shangguan He, how could you...how could you forget so completely?! Or are you simply too scared to admit it?!"
Shangguan He was like being struck by lightning, completely frozen in place, his pupils contracting violently due to extreme shock.
"I...? That's impossible!"
He subconsciously retorted sharply, the accusation seemed as absurd as a fairy tale to him.
"Absolutely impossible! How could I…"
Shangguan He was so excited that his breathing became rapid and his face showed fatigue and paleness after the illness.
He leaned back in his chair, his eyes filled with indigestible shock and confusion, and muttered:
"This is impossible... This is absolutely impossible..."
Seeing his reaction, Mu Nanyan's originally firm heart began to waver.
The disbelief that emanated from his bones didn't seem like an act.
Could it be... that he really has no idea?
But how is this possible?
She took a deep breath, suppressed her surging emotions, and presented an irrefutable piece of evidence:
"Hasn't it ever struck you as strange? You were so seriously ill that even your son, daughter, and all your immediate family members failed to match. Why is it that I—a 'stranger' with no blood relationship—can be a 100% match with you?"
This sentence was like a key, suddenly prying open a key node that Shangguan He had always ignored.
He was completely stunned. Before this, he was preoccupied with illness and the desire to survive, and had never thought deeply about this unreasonable "miracle".
His thoughts were forced back to when he was first diagnosed a few months ago.
At that time, he continued to feel intractable fatigue and dizziness, and inexplicable purple bruises often appeared on his body.
Until after a crucial merger and acquisition meeting, he fainted in public.
After being rushed to the hospital and undergoing a series of tests, the final bone marrow biopsy result was like a bolt from the blue - high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
The attending physician looked extremely solemn:
"Mr. Shangguan, intensive chemotherapy is the primary step in controlling the disease, but for a complete cure, allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is necessary as soon as possible. Please arrange for all immediate family members to undergo HLA typing immediately."
However, hopes were dashed again and again.
Wife, son, daughter... all the relatives' matching results were failures without exception.
The doctor's words at that time still linger in his ears, with a helpless sense of judgment:
"Mr. Shangguan, your HLA typing is extremely unique and rare. If we can't find a suitable donor, the consequences of a relapse would be disastrous..."
At that time, even the doctors had almost given up hope after learning that all of his immediate family members had failed to match.
His type is so rare that it seems like a dead end set by fate. Except for close relatives, the probability of being a match is extremely small.
The team has even begun preparing subsequent conservative treatment plans.
It was Shangguan Jiuze who refused to give up and insisted on continuing to search in bone marrow banks across the country and even the world, and only then... did he find Mu Nanyan.
As his memory returned, Shangguan He looked at Mu Nanyan in front of him again, but his eyes were different.
The huge mystery and the incredible possibility vaguely pointed to by scientific evidence caused a crack in his solid self-awareness for the first time.
Yes, why her?
Why is it that the special genes that even his own children cannot match are a perfect match for her?
Could it be...
An absurd thought, yet the only one that fits the scientific explanation, exploded like thunder in his chaotic mind—could it be that Mu Nanyan was really his daughter? !
But how is this possible?! He doesn't even know Shen Yi, let alone have a relationship with her, unless...
An even more terrifying speculation came to mind: Could it be that someone... secretly stole his genes many years ago, resulting in this child?!
Shangguan He was breathing heavily, with fine beads of cold sweat oozing from his forehead. He was trying hard to digest this terrible guess that was enough to overturn his entire life's cognition.
He looked at Mu Nanyan, his eyes filled with confusion, horror, and a sense of being forced into the core of the world.
"No... this is ridiculous..."
His voice was hoarse, trying to grasp the last straw of reason.
"This is impossible... I never... I definitely didn't have sex with your mother! There must be some mistake... or... or someone..."
He could no longer bring up the absurd guess of "stealing genes", but his suspicious eyes were cast towards Mu Nanyan, as if he was examining a piece of "evidence" that should not exist and whose origin was unknown.
Mu Nanyan understood the surprise and doubt in his eyes, and even the fleeting look of objectification that flashed through his eyes.
This made her feel even more chilling and insulted than a direct denial.
All her grief, anger and grievances seemed to become a huge joke at this moment.
She straightened her back suddenly, and the last trace of fluctuation in her eyes was completely frozen, leaving only cold disappointment and an almost cruel calmness.
Her voice was as cold as ice:
"Mr. Shangguan, it seems that you have not only forgotten my mother, but you are also unable to accept my existence itself."
"You think my appearance is a mistake, a conspiracy, or even a stain on your perfect life, right?"
She said nothing more, but opened her handbag expressionlessly and took out a thin but heavy brown paper document bag from it.
Her movements were calm and almost rigid, forming a sharp contrast with Shangguan He's panic.
Under Shangguan He's confused and nervous gaze, she neatly untied the string on the file bag and pulled out the DNA test report issued by an authoritative agency.
Without any hesitation, she turned to the last page of the report - the page with the final conclusion, and then handed it to Shangguan He.
There wasn't even a tremor in her fingertips.
Shangguan He's eyes subconsciously focused on the report.
When the clear bold words "Support the biological father-daughter relationship between Shangguan He and Mu Nanyan" and the 99.99% certainty index behind it suddenly caught his eye——
Time seemed to freeze in an instant.
All the blood color on his face faded rapidly at a speed visible to the naked eye, turning as pale as paper.
His outstretched hand froze in mid-air, his fingertips trembling violently and uncontrollably. He wanted to touch the paper, but suddenly retracted it as if afraid of being burned.
All the arguments, all the self-deceptions, all the cognitive fortresses built over decades were completely and thoroughly crushed into dust in the face of this cold and absolute scientific report.
The air was dead silent.
All that was left was his heavy and chaotic breathing, and the thin piece of paper making an almost inaudible sound in the air.
Shangguan He struggled to move his gaze away from the fatal report. On his slowly raised face, the shock and pain had not yet faded, but were covered by a deeper, more acute confusion and humiliation that was almost like being slandered.
He stared at Mu Nanyan intently, his voice hoarse from emotion, but with an unusually clear, almost paranoid certainty:
"Even if...even if this report can prove that you are my daughter...so what?!"
He almost spat out these words through gritted teeth, his eyes filled with incomprehensible confusion and anger at being forcibly accused of a crime.
"Ms. Mu, I can tell you with absolute certainty—I don't know Chen Yi!"
He spoke each word with great emphasis, each word seeming to be squeezed out from his chest.
"I absolutely, absolutely never had any relationship with her!"
His breathing became increasingly rapid, as if he were suffocating, but his gaze remained fixed on her, with an almost desperate demand for confirmation and a questioning that came from being cornered:
"As for her...how did she get pregnant with you?! I want to know too! I want to ask him too! What is going on?!"
This denial was more intense and thorough than the previous confusion.
It was not forgetfulness, but a fundamental denial of this possibility, as if Mu Nanyan and the report in her hand were accusing him of something he had never done and would never do.
This sudden and categorical denial was like a basin of ice water, which once again extinguished the slight ripple in Mu Nanyan's heart that had just risen because of his collapse.
She looked at the man in front of her who was almost out of control with excitement, and the unquestionable "innocence" in his eyes that came from his own cognition. The huge sense of absurdity and the coldness that penetrated deep into her bones once again wrapped her tightly.
The truth does not seem to become clearer because of a report, but becomes even more vague.
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