Chapter 198: Madam Tang’s Heartache
Tang Ziyi sat numbly on a bench outside the hospital, staring blankly into space. He felt hot tears rushing down his cheeks but made no move to wipe them away. Shock and disbelief coursed through him as he struggled to process what he had just learned - the people who had raised him, who he had always thought of as his parents, were not actually his biological parents.
Fragments of memories from his childhood began to replay in his mind. Simple moments - his dad piggybacking him when he was tired, his mom’s soothing voice singing him to sleep, family meals filled with laughter and joy. He had never questioned that he belonged with them. They didn’t have much money but he remembered feeling so content, so happy, so loved.
Now everything felt like it was crumbling around him. He felt lost, confused and deeply shaken to his core. He blinked back more tears as scenes from his childhood continued to taunt him. He felt anger stirring inside him but even more than that, an profound sadness. Whatever the reasons or circumstances, in a matter of minutes he had lost the only parents he had ever known. The pain was almost too much to bear.
Madame Tang sat solemnly in the sterile hospital room, feeling utterly drained. She had never imagined this day would come - the day she would have to tell Tang Ziyi the heart-wrenching truth about his parents.
As she waited anxiously for his return, memories of her late husband flooded through her mind. She thought back to that fateful rainy day, over twenty years ago now, when he had burst through the front door early, cradling a crying infant in his arms.
20 years ago
Madame Tang was washing dishes when she heard the front door swing open. Her husband stumbled in, soaked from the pouring rain and cradling a bundle of blankets. From inside she could hear the faint cries of a baby.
"What’s going on?" she asked in alarm, rushing over.
Her husband, his eyes filled with anguish, drew back the blankets to reveal a shivering newborn. "It’s Master Master Jiang’s baby," he said, his voice cracking.
"What?" Madame Tang gasped. "How..."
"This child is the result of Master Master Jiang’s affair with a hostess at his club," her husband explained. "When she became pregnant, she demanded he left his wife for her, Master Jian didn’t agree so she abandoned the baby."
He looked down at the whimpering infant, distress across his weary features. "He gave this child to us honey... to raise him. I know its too much to take in but this is God’s way of answering our prayers for a second child."
Madame Tang’s hand flew to her mouth in shock. She felt her heart breaking for the helpless baby.
Her husband’s eyes pleaded with her. "We have to keep him, raise him ourselves."
Madame Tang hesitated, but one look at the baby melted her doubts away. She nodded firmly. "Of course we will," she declared. "Every child deserves to feel safe and loved."
They named him Tang Ziyi, and though they lived modestly, they cherished their new son with their whole hearts.
Madame Tang snapped back to the present, her husband’s anguished words still echoing in her mind. She gazed down at her clenched hands as tears stung the corners of her eyes.
Even after all these years, the memory of that rainy night was painfully vivid. She could still envision her husband’s distressed face and hear the cries of the helpless newborn Tang Ziyi. Her heart ached as she was flooded with the same mix of empathy, love and protective fury she had felt the instant she laid eyes on Tang Ziyi.
She had sworn she would do everything humanly possible to give Tang Ziyi the happiest childhood. And she had succeeded - Tang Ziyi had grown into a fine, caring young man who laughed freely and embraced life with optimism and zeal.
But now, Madame Tang felt like she was watching her world unravel before her eyes. As a mother, having to shatter Tang Ziyi’s truth and betray his trust was agonizing. Revealing that she wasn’t actually his birth mother would deeply wound them both. The weight of this secret pressed heavily on her weakened shoulders.
Silent tears fell down her wrinkled cheeks. She was anxious for Tang Ziyi’s return, yearning to hold him tightly as if that could shield him from the revelations about to upend his very identity. Apprehension coursed through Madame Tang’s veins about how Tang Ziyi would cope. But she steeled herself, willing to do whatever was needed to help her son pick up the pieces - no matter how difficult the road ahead.
Meanwhile, just outside the hospital’s sliding doors, Tang Ziyi sat slumped on a bench, frantically searching on his phone. His eyes were still puffy from tears but his expression had hardened into one of grim determination.
Madame Tang’s earth-shattering revelation about his parents had left him reeling. He felt his entire identity crumbling around him. In a daze, he had stumbled out here to the courtyard, needing fresh air to prevent himself from suffocating.
As soon as his legs gave out onto the bench, Tang Ziyi had grabbed his phone. His fingers trembled as he typed one name into the search bar - Master Jiang Honglin - the man Madame Tang had claimed was his biological father. The wealthy businessman who had callously discarded Tang Ziyi as a helpless newborn because he was inconvenient.
Bile rose in Tang Ziyi’s throat as his search results loaded. He braced himself against the wave of anger, bitterness and anguish that crashed into him as he scanned the articles about the rich, well-respected Master Jiang Honglin and his lavish lifestyle. This man had robbed him of growing up with his actual parents and Tang Ziyi had suffered because of his cruelty.
Tang Ziyi’s shaking finger hovered over Master Jiang’s company address. Suddenly, all he wanted was to confront this stranger who had so heartlessly abandoned him. To look into the eyes of his biological father for the first and last time. For answers that could help him make sense of his shattered identity.
Tang Ziyi’s finger froze over Master Jiang Honglin’s address. Suddenly, an image flashed into his mind - it was of Mr. Tang. Tang Ziyi remembers his adoptive father smiling warmly as he hoisted a giggling young Tang Ziyi up onto his shoulders for an adventure. Mr. Tang had loved Tang Ziyi unconditionally like his own blood, until the day he tragically passed when Tang Ziyi was seven.
Madame Tang’s kind, smiling face appeared next. Tang Ziyi saw her bowed humbly over his schoolwork, patiently explaining concepts as she nurtured not just his academic dreams, but his very character. He heard her sweet singing as she lulled him to sleep every night. She had selflessly poured her soul into caring for him since the moment she decided to make him her own.
These memories pierced through the vengeful fog that had clouded Tang Ziyi’s perspective upon learning the devastating revelations about his parentage. His anger melted away, replaced by grief as he fully realized that while Master Jiang Honglin was his biological father, this heartless stranger had never earned the honor of being his dad.
Mr. Tang, through his compassion and sacrifice, had been a better father figure to Tang Ziyi than that wealthy businessman could ever strive to be. And Madame Tang was already the best mother he could ask for - she didn’t need to share his DNA to prove the depth of the maternal bond they shared.
Blinking through fresh tears, Tang Ziyi exited the webpage. He wouldn’t confront Master Jiang Honglin. That man didn’t deserve any more of his hurt or attention. Instead, Tang Ziyi would go back inside to wrap his arms around his Mom - the woman who had selflessly loved and cared for him all these years. Blood relation or not, she was his family.
Tang Ziyi rushed back into the sterile hospital room, his eyes red-rimmed but a sense of resolve shining through the grief still evident on his face. Madame Tang looked up in surprise from the bed.
Without a word, Tang Ziyi strode forward and enveloped his adoptive mother in a fierce yet gentle embrace. Madame Tang flinched slightly from the pain, but welcomed the warmth of her son’s arms. Tears spilled down both of their cheeks as they held each other tightly.
"You are my real mother," Tang Ziyi whispered hoarsely. "You and dad took me in and gave me the childhood I never would’ve had. You are my family - you and Tang Junjie - no one else."
Madame Tang stroked his hair affectionately. "I’m so sorry for hiding the truth from you all these years," she replied, emotion causing her voice to crack.
Tang Ziyi shook his head firmly. "You were just trying to protect me. I understand why you did it." He pulled back to meet her glistening eyes. "If it wasn’t for you and dad’s compassion that rainy night, only god knows what would have happened to me. I probably wouldn’t even be alive right now."
Madame Tang squeezed his hand, shaking her head slightly as if to brush away the dark what-ifs that hung over them. "Raising you was the biggest blessing of our lives," she said sincerely.
Tang Ziyi managed a small but genuine smile. "And being your son has been the greatest gift of mine," he responded quietly.
The two embraced again, the unbreakable bond between parent and child transcending any bloodlines. They had suffered a painful truth, but emerged stronger from it - their little family bound tightly together by the shared hardships and joys of a life lived in love.
