Zhang Ling was very excited when he heard Tao Hongmei's reply. He was about to speak but Tao Hongmei raised her hand to stop him. He stopped and heard Tao Hongmei say in a pretentious manner, "You can cooperate, but there is a price to pay."
"What's the price?" Zhang Ling asked without hesitation.
Tao Hongmei rolled her eyes and said, "We'll talk about this later."
"Okay, okay." Zhang Ling nodded and replied without any objection.
Tao Hongmei smiled again and said, "Then let's discuss the plan."
Zhang Ling immediately leaned forward and asked Tao Hongmei for advice.
In another ward, after Ruan Zhengsheng and Ruan Mengmeng finished discussing things, they fell into silence again.
Ruan Mengmeng and Ruan Zhengsheng moved their lips at the same time: "That..."
The two looked at each other and stopped at the same time.
Ruan Zhengsheng said to Ruan Mengmeng, "You speak first."
Ruan Mengmeng pinched her fingers and looked down at the lines on her sweater. She was silent for a few seconds and then slowly said, "What kind of person is my mother?"
Ruan Mengmeng couldn't help but ask this question. Even though she tried to ignore her feelings, her mind was still occupied by this thought. She just wanted to know what kind of person her biological mother was.
After Ruan Mengmeng asked this question, Ruan Zhengsheng looked at Ruan Mengmeng in surprise. Seeing that her eyebrows and eyes were similar to those of her biological mother, a look of pain flashed across his face. He clenched his fists, and then let go again.
The look in Ruan Mengmeng's eyes paused for a moment. Ruan Zhengsheng took a look and guessed that Ruan Mengmeng believed the comments on the Internet.
Just as Ruan Zhengsheng expected, when Ruan Mengmeng saw the news from the "insider" and heard Tao Hongmei's words, she also thought that she was born to a dancer.
What Ruan Mengmeng cares about is not the identity of her biological mother or other people's opinions. What she cares about is what kind of person her mother is.
But in fact, the moment Ruan Zhengsheng explained the identity of Ruan Mengmeng's biological mother, her tension eased a little, her voice hitched a few times, and she asked, "Then what?"
Ruan Zhengsheng looked at the bouquet of flowers beside the bed and began to recall the past. He said slowly: "The year we first met, Ruan was facing a production crisis. I went to a small town to discuss business. It happened to rain heavily and I couldn't return in time, so I stayed at the town's primary school for one night.
"Your mother was a teacher in that primary school at the time. She was very beautiful and hardworking. There were only three teachers in the whole school, and she was one of them. However, she had to manage the affairs of the entire primary school. It was she who arranged my accommodation that night.
"Later I found out that she gave up her room and slept in the students' dormitory for the night," Ruan Zhengsheng said with emotion.
Ruan Mengmeng listened silently to what Ruan Zhengsheng said: "I wanted to say goodbye to her when I left the next day, but something happened to her family, and she had already left school by then."
At this point, Ruan Zhengsheng's eyes showed a look of regret: "Half a year later, the client invited me to the Fengqing Bar to discuss cooperation, and that's where I met your mother again."
Ruan Mengmeng shifted her gaze from the finger to Ruan Zhengsheng, and heard Ruan Zhengsheng say, "She passed by our booth that night to sell wine, but was stopped by someone. I thought she looked familiar, and after taking a closer look, I realized it was Xiaoyue."
"At that time, her good friend, your Aunt Zhao, mistakenly thought that we were bullying her, so she came to help her. After the misunderstanding was resolved, I learned that Xiaoyue's father committed suicide because of debt, and her mother couldn't stand it and followed him. "So all the debts fell on Xiaoyue alone. She quit her job as a primary school teacher and went to work as an assistant at your Aunt Zhao's bar. It happened that the staff was too busy that day, so she went around to sell alcohol."
When Ruan Zhengsheng said this, he opened his mouth and took a breath of cold air, which caused him to cough violently, causing the water in the cup in his hand to spill out.
Ruan Mengmeng quickly took out the water cup, then took a few tissues and carefully wiped the water stains off Ruan Zhengsheng's clothes.
Ruan Zhengsheng looked at his daughter's gentle and focused expression, and recalled her mother's almost identical expression in the past. His eyes gradually turned red.
Ruan Mengmeng noticed that something was wrong with her father. She looked up at him. The close distance allowed her to see the dense wrinkles on her father's face and the many more silver hairs between his temples.
Ruan Mengmeng was stunned for a moment, and the next second she sat back in her chair, her face regaining its indifferent expression, and asked: "What happened afterwards? How did she get involved with you?"
Ruan Mengmeng asked the key question: how did her biological mother have a sexual relationship with Ruan Zhengsheng?
Ruan Zhengsheng smiled bitterly and began to talk about what Ruan Mengmeng was most concerned about: "I couldn't bear to see her working in a bar. I thought she should go back to school to be a teacher, so I paid off all her debts without her permission."
"Payed it all back? And hid it from her?" Ruan Mengmeng asked.
Ruan Zhengsheng nodded and replied, "Yes, I paid it in full, but she found out later."
Ruan Zhengsheng's eyes flashed with embarrassment, which was still caught by Ruan Mengmeng. She asked calmly: "So she came to see you?"
Ruan Mengmeng was just guessing. If her mother and she both disliked owing others anything, then her mother must have gone to find Ruan Zhengsheng later.
Ruan Zhengsheng smiled bitterly and continued with Ruan Mengmeng's words: "One day I was drunk in the bar, she sent me to the room, and then we had sex."
Just as he expected, Ruan Mengmeng sneered and said, "Is it so casual? No feelings at all?"
Ruan Mengmeng thought of all kinds of possibilities, but she never thought that Ruan Zhengsheng would have such a "casual" relationship with her biological mother.
Ruan Zhengsheng didn't mind Ruan Mengmeng's misunderstanding and random guesses, but he still explained the "whatever" in Ruan Mengmeng's mouth: "You don't understand, we still had feelings for each other at that time, but I was already married and knew that it was impossible to be with her, so I wanted to withdraw from her life, but I still couldn't escape the arrangement of fate."
Ruan Mengmeng listened to Ruan Zhengsheng very quietly: "Maybe I shouldn't have gotten drunk that night, shouldn't have let her send me off, and shouldn't have had sex..."
Although Ruan Zhengsheng expressed regret, his eyes were full of fascination, a deep nostalgia for the past. Ruan Mengmeng saw it but did not say anything to disturb his memories.
Ruan Zhengsheng said slowly again: "We spent a lot of happy days at that time. Everyone knew that we couldn't make it to the end, so no one mentioned it. Your Aunt Zhao once came to talk to your mother, but then she didn't care anymore."
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