Chapter 346 - When It All Started

Han Huizhong weakly opened his eyes. His gaze fell upon everyone one by one. Xinyi wiped her cheeks and sat beside him. 

"Grandpa," her voice choked, "Grandpa…"

He smiled. "You look ugly when you cry, granddaughter-in-law."

"Then take care of yourself and don't make me look like an ugly woman."

"I am sorry."

His gaze fell upon An Guoting and Caihong, and he narrowed his eyes. He trembled in anger and slowly got up. Zhiyuan quickly went to his side and helped him.

He glanced at Zhiyuan and Xinyi and asked with a hint of coldness in it. "How did you get to know about Zongying?"

Xinyi recalled the conversation she had heard between Liao Junjie, Liao Yuan's grandfather and An Guoting. That was the first time she learned of the existence of Han Zongying.

"You should have kept your noses out of this business. It's got nothing to do with you."

Zhiyuan stared at him. "She was part of the family. My Aunt. Why shouldn't we know about her? Especially when something that happened to her caused you to plot that night seven years back."

"You are annoying, Zhiyuan."

"I have inherited it from my grandfather."

Caihong, who was unaware all this time and kept out of the loop because of Xiaosi's health concerns, asked, "Who is she? And why is my Dad beaten up like that?"

She cast an accusing stare at Han Tian.

Han Huizhong smiled. "Why don't you ask that question to your father instead?"

Shuang gritted her teeth. "Grandpa, I really respect you. But that doesn't mean I will bear the nonsense of you accusing my father of being a rapist!"

Caihong froze. Her eyes widened in disbelief. "What!? What nonsense! Where is this blatant accusation coming from?"

An Guoting didn't respond.

Shuang looked back and held his hand. "Dad. Tell the truth."

Han Tian exclaimed. "What will he say? What does he have left to say?"

Han Huizhong was quiet for a beat and stared at his grandson. "How much do you know?"

Zhiyuan paused and told everything that they knew up to this point.

Caihong looked at them, stunned. The more she heard, the more she felt as if this was some bad joke going on.

An Guoting and Han Zongying? Her father and his aunt were in a relationship?

She stared at Shuang. "You...So much happened. Such a big thing was going on, and nobody bothered to tell me about it?" She felt extremely hurt for being kept in the dark. "Am I not his daughter? Don't I have the right to know?"

Shuang said, "We wanted to but decided against it. Xiaosi needed you, Caihong. Your presence was more required at his side, especially because of his health. And then your relationship with him was also beginning to get on track. You two really needed that time to sort your differences and get closer. This thing would have just put you on another stress."

Caihong clenched her jaw. She couldn't find any flaw. Everybody cared about it but still…

"You should have still told me about it. I am not so weak, Shuang."

Han Tian wryly chuckled. "So you know that this bastard cheated on my sister!"

Shuang glared at him. "Enough! Dad never cheated on Aunt!"

"Like father, like daughter, I guess," he ignored her claims, "You have no idea how heartbroken he left her. Years passed by, but the wound he gave her never healed. Then when she was just about to move on and forget him, my ex-wife brought him back into her life! And everything went downhill after that... Right, Liqin?"

Xia Liqin stood silent.

Caihong was confused. "I don't understand. Why would they meet years later again? Dad had already been married to my Mom by then. And if I think it correctly, I might have been one year old. He wouldn't meet Aunt Han to reunite."

"But your mother had already passed away by then. An Guoting wasn't somebody's husband anymore."

Zizi frowned. "Mom brought him back?"

Caihong, too, anxiously asked, "Dad?"

Neither Xia Liqin nor An Guoting said anything. Finally, Han Huizhong said, "It was nine and a half years later that they met again. I wanted to find a suitable man for Zongying to marry. But she refused every single time. She hated him, but she couldn't move on. She went on many dates on my insistence, but she never accepted any man. Naturally, I was furious that she was giving so much importance to An Guoting for wasting her years on him who cheated on her."

An Guoting was silent.

Han Huizhong looked at Zhiyuan. "That's why I was so adamant in making you marry Xinyi. I didn't let you do as you pleased because you would have never forgotten Caihong. Maybe you would have been just like your Aunt, refusing to look at any other woman."

Zhiyuan and Xinyi remained quiet. She thought back to when Han Huizhong had given her the marriage contract and forced her to sign them. He didn't hesitate to threaten her with Yunru and Soo Enlai's careers just to make her agree.

Now she understood where that desperation stemmed from.

Zhiyuan faintly smiled. He was furious back then for forcing his decision on him. But now, he only felt gratitude for bringing Xinyi into his life.

Han Huizhong continued, "Then one day, Liqin said that she had the perfect match for Zongying."

Xia Liqin bit her lip. That was the start of everything. Now she could only feel guilty for making them meet again.

"I asked who he was, but she said nothing about him. She only said that he was her good friend, and we will really like him. If Zongying agrees, she will tell me his identity. He was a capable businessman and a man with a gentle and kind heart. Zongying would definitely like him. I trusted her, so I said okay. Zongying wasn't ready to meet him, as always, but I somehow convinced her."

His bony fingers clenched together. "And now I hate myself for convincing her.. The tragedy would have never happened."