Chapter 197: The Truth About Tang Ziyi
Tang Ziyi sat brooding in the chair next to his mother’s hospital bed, weighing the doctor’s ominous words that he needed to have an important discussion with her. Though she was recovering well physically from her ordeal, Tang Ziyi sensed whatever revelations awaited threatened to impact far more than just her health.
He wracked his brains trying to imagine what secrets she could possibly have kept hidden all these years to warrant such a cryptic warning from the Dr.. Tang Ziyi gazed at his peacefully resting mother, heart heavy with brewing unease about the conversations to come.
Tang Ziyi was startled from his brooding when his mother suddenly stirred awake, coughing lightly.
"Mom! You’re awake!" he exclaimed.
Madame Tang turned to him with confusion and rasped weakly, "Tang Junjie...where..."
Tang Ziyi gently grasped her hand and reassured, "It’s alright, Mom. Tang Junjie is safe. Brother Chen rescued him and he’s in a secure location until the court case ends."
Tears of relief sprung to Madame Tang’s eyes. "Oh my dear Tang Ziyi...I thought I might never see you again."
Tang Ziyi smiled comfortingly. "But I’m right here, Mom. You’re going to recover, don’t worry."
Madame Tang’s brow then furrowed anxiously. "And those men...the ones who..."
"Gone," Tang Ziyi interjected. "The men who shot you have been dealt with. We don’t have to worry about them anymore."
Madame Tang nodded weakly. "Water...may I have some water?"
"Of course!" Tang Ziyi sprang up to quickly fetch her a cup and gently helped tilt it to her parched lips.
Madame Tang gratefully sipped the cup of water her son brought over. As Tang Ziyi settled back into the chair beside her bed, she noticed him continually glancing her way with a worried frown.
"What’s the matter, dear?" Madame Tang asked with concern. "You look very troubled about something."
"Oh, it’s nothing, Mom," Tang Ziyi tried to deflect.
But Madame Tang persisted gently. "Please tell me what’s on your mind, son."
Tang Ziyi hesitated before confessing, "When you were first admitted, the doctor said you had lost a dangerous amount of blood and urgently needed a transfusion. I...I couldn’t donate. Luckily Brother Chen could...but afterwards, Dr. Huang said there was something important you should tell me about."
Madame Tang’s face instantly paled at this revelation and her eyes darted away anxiously.
Seeing her reaction, Tang Ziyi leaned forward with growing apprehension. "What is it, Mom? What’s going on?"
Madame Tang just stared down at her clenched hands, deeply conflicted.
Madame Tang had long dreaded this day of reckoning. As she met her son’s concerned gaze, emotions welled up uncontrollably. Tears shining in her eyes, she choked out -
"I’m so sorry, Tang Ziyi."
Her words puzzled him even more. Tang Ziyi took his mother’s hand, trying to soothe her distress.
"What do you have to be sorry for? You’ve done nothing wrong. Please, tell me what’s going on here. Why did the doctor say you needed to speak to me about something?"
Madame Tang just shook her head despairingly, unwilling or unable to meet his pleading look. The weight of the secret she had hidden from him all these years now threatened to crush them both.
Madame Tang took a deep, shuddering breath before beginning her story:
"20 years ago, your father worked as head of security at Jiang Group. He had a close friendship with the CEO there. One day, the CEO came to your father and said he wanted to gift him something very precious."
Tang Ziyi’s frown deepened in confusion, unsure of where this tale from the past was heading.
Madame Tang tried to sit up in her hospital bed, but flinched in pain from her gunshot wound. Tang Ziyi gently eased her back against the pillows, his mind spinning over the cryptic beginnings of her revelation. What could his late father’s old job have to do with anything? And why was it tied to the doctor’s ominous words? He waited with bated breath for his mother to continue unveiling the secret that had weighed on her for two decades...
Madame Tang pressed on with her incredible story:
"The CEO brought your father to a private room where a newborn baby’s cries could be heard. Wrapped in blue blankets, Master Jiang placed the infant in your father’s arms. He said this child was a gift."
Madame Tang paused as Tang Ziyi shook his head in frustrated confusion. "Mom, I’m not following...what does this have to do with..."
She silenced him with a raised palm, though her eyes reflected deep sadness and regret.
"Please, let me finish, son. You see...your father and I had always wished for a larger family. But I was told I couldn’t have any more children after Junjie’s birth."
Madame Tang stopped to catch her breath, then delivered the bombshell revelation-
"That baby boy Master Jiang gifted to your father all those years ago.....was you, Tang Ziyi."
Tang Ziyi reeled back in shock, nearly falling out of the chair. He braced himself on the edge of the hospital cot, staring at Madame Tang as her confession sunk in.
"W-what...?! Me? How...that makes no sense!" he exclaimed hoarsely. "You’re saying...I was adopted? B-but how...Dad was my..."
Madame Tang closed her eyes in pain at seeing the total bewilderment and hurt on her beloved son’s face.
"We took you home...raised you as our very own," she whispered brokenly. "Never differentiated between you and Junjie in any way. You were a precious gift - the answer to our family prayers. We thanked heaven for you each day."
She grasped Tang Ziyi’s trembling hand. "Please believe that, my son. Your father and I loved you just as dearly as if you had been born to us. You were, and are, so cherished..."
Her voice faded away as hot tears spilled down Tang Ziyi’s cheeks, his world crumbling and rebuilding itself in the space of a few dizzying, earth-shattering moments...
Madame Tang’s confession left Tang Ziyi reeling in shock and confusion. He tried to grasp the arm of the chair to steady himself as his entire sense of identity seemed to spin out of control.
"How... how could you not tell me?" he finally choked out, tears spilling down his cheeks. "My whole life... was a lie?"
Madame Tang’s heart shattered seeing her son so distraught. "No, never!" she cried, squeezing his hand fiercely. "We loved you as our own flesh and blood from the first moment we held you."
"But you lied to me!" Tang Ziyi sobbed, the hurt and betrayal naked on his face.
Madame Tang reached out to cradle his head, her own tears falling freely. "I’m so sorry, my son. We only wanted to protect you... Please, please believe me that you were the most treasured gift I could have ever received."
Tang Ziyi shook with emotion, overwhelmed by this fundamental upheaval of his identity and origins. He allowed himself to be folded into his mother’s embrace as she stroked his hair, both weeping for the innocent boy whose life would never be the same...
Still reeling, Tang Ziyi lifted his head from his mother’s shoulder to ask haltingly, "But...where did I come from then? Who were my real parents?"
Madame Tang stroked his hair gently. "You were born to a mistress of Master Jiang’s. When he refused to leave his wife for her, the mistress wanted nothing to do with you. She abandoned you at the hospital right after you were born."
Tang Ziyi stared at her numbly as she continued. "Master Jiang told his wife about you, but she refused to even lay eyes on you. So he brought you to the only people he trusted to raise you properly...us."
"My own father..." Tang Ziyi whispered in devastation. "My real father didn’t want me either?"
Madame Tang cupped his cheek, smiling at him through her tears. "But you found a family who loved you as their own blood. Please don’t ever doubt that, my son. Biology means nothing - in here is what makes us family." She placed a hand gently over his heart.
Tang Ziyi could only nod wordlessly, overwhelmed by this life-altering revelation. The foundations of his very identity now shaken irrevocably.
Madame Tang cupped her son’s face tenderly. "Master Jiang loved you dearly, but he respected his wife’s wishes not to be involved. When your father was dying, he asked us to one day tell you the truth about your roots. But I was terrified for your safety - Madame Jiang is notoriously vicious. I feared what she might do if she discovered you lived."
She grasped Tang Ziyi’s hands pleadingly. "Please try to understand - maybe I was selfish, but after your Dad passed, you were my most precious gift, the last living piece of him. Having you and Junjie made me so happy. I couldn’t bear to lose you."
Tang Ziyi wiped his eyes, still struggling to process it all. "Does Junjie know about any of this?"
Madame Tang shook her head. "We told him when he was older that you were adopted, but not the full circumstances."
Tang Ziyi stood up abruptly, running a hand through his hair. "I just...I need some air..." he mumbled.
"Of course, I understand..." Madame Tang trailed off mournfully.
Tang Ziyi headed for the door, emotions still churning wildly over this life-altering revelation. His sense of identity completely shaken to the core.
Tang Ziyi stumbled out of the hospital room in a daze, his mother’s earth-shattering confession ringing in his ears.
He wandered blindly through the halls, struggling to reconcile the loving woman who raised him with the one who had kept such a monumental secret for his entire life. His father - the man he hero-worshipped - was not actually his father at all. And his biological parents had coldly discarded him as a shameful inconvenience.
Leaning against a wall for support, Tang Ziyi’s chest heaved with dry sobs. He felt simultaneously disconnected from everything he knew to be true about himself, while also experiencing profound grief for the happy childhood that now seemed like little more than an illusion.
Orderlies and visitors side-eyed the disheveled young man warily as they passed by. But Tang Ziyi was oblivious, trapped in his private hell of anger, betrayal and loss. The underpinnings of his very identity now seemed constructed upon lie after poisonous lie.
Could he ever move beyond this? Tang Ziyi covered his face with trembling hands, uncertain if the brother and mother he cherished would ever again feel like family now that he knew the truth about his false origins. Utterly lost, he slid slowly to the floor in despair.
