After the first month of the pregnancy, Xu Lifen noticed that the state of things had inexplicably gone from Chen Meili being a gestational surrogate and carrying her's and her husband's children to Chen Meili just being pregnant with Han Tao's twins.
No one treated Xu Lifen like the mother of the children and even when she tried to give suggestions and be fully involved in the birth process like was originally intended, the others just hushed her, mentioned the accident where she'd lost her baby and called her ignorant.
Three months into the pregnancy, the other women suggested that Chen Meili was moved from her own wing, that she had originally shared with Han Jinhai, to Xu Lifen's own family wing and this was allowed by the Han Madam.
There were times when Chen Meili would bypass Xu Lifen and go straight to Han Tao with a look of long sufferring to talk about her various experiences in the preganancy and Han Tao, who had always been a seemlingly busy man, would have time to accompany Chen Meili with a look of guilt, deep gratitude and goodwill on his face.
Soon enough, Xu Lifen couldn't take it anymore and requested that she be in sole control of the process and would prefer it if Chen Meili came to her, a fellow woman who had more chances of empathizing with the pregnancy worries, instead.
Chen Meili had smiled warmheartedly and agreed quickly but this only made the other Hans to dislike Xu Lifen even more. They felt that Xu Lifen's attitude made it seem like she didn't want Han Tao to be involved in the pregnancy but they were also his babies!
At some point, the Chens began to cause trouble. Although they'd been aware of the entire ordeal right from the start and only agreed because Chen Meili had wanted to do it, they soon began to feel like their Chen Meili was being used by the Hans.
Since they were also a traditional family, they felt that every mother deserved to have the child they personally gave birth to so with that logic, the babies rightfully belonged to Chen Meili.
To this, the Hans just replied with a placating smile and halfhearted words weakly saying that the babies were Xu Lifen's and blah, blah, blah. They were so unconvincing in their support that Xu Lifen screamed furiously at every one of them.
From that moment on, she brought up her initial idea of moving out of the Han family home with Han Tao and their children once they were born. Han Tao didn't even consider it before refusing strongly so she took back her words.
Finally, the twin boys were born in the tenth month.
Xu Lifen was glad as she felt all her troubles were over but when it reached the time to handover the babies, Chen Meili looked to the other Hans and good naturedly said that the kids were so small and pitiful. Rather than bottle feeding them like Xu Lifen planned to, wasn't it better if she just fed them directly?
The others felt that this made sense. Afterall, breastfeeding had always been a better option right from the time of their ancestors and they wanted the boys to have the best in order to grow up strong and smart.
Xu Lifen went crazy and looked to Han Tao for help but the man in question was once more looking to Chen Meili with guilt, deep gratitude and goodwill so she painfully choked on her words -effectively conceeding.
The Hans all unanimously decided that the twins would move into Chen Meili's room so she could take care of them better and feed them immediately the situation arose.
Whenever Xu Lifen wanted to bond with the babies, it was simply one excuse or the other. It was either they just fell asleep after eating or that she needed to be watched so as not to clumsily harm the kids as she'd done with the child she'd conceived.
It began to appear as if Chen Meili and the Hans were all delibrately keeping Xu Lifen from her kids and whenever Xu Lifen screamed about it, Chen Meili broke down in tears and denied the accusations whilst everyone else called Xu Lifen paranoid and unfit to have access to their precious heirs with her crazy state.
Once this finally reached Han Tao, the man merely looked at Xu Lifen in disappointment and adviced her to behave as Chen Meili was doing this for Xu Lifen's own good.
At that moment, something finally snapped in her head. Xu Lifen refused to take it anymore and clamored to leave the Han family with her kids. She didn't want to marry Han Tao anymore.
After numerous struggles, she finally succeeded and ran away with her babies.
In the Han family home, everybody went crazy and cursed Xu Lifen to die. It was so hard for them to have an heir and now two had been born yet the uncouth woman had selfishly snatched them away.
Xu Lifen finally decided to leave them an opening and give Han Tao access to his kids to be fair but the Han family had still cursed her and sympathized with Han Tao and Chen Meili as if the both of them had lost their children because of Xu Lifen's decision.
Han Tao soon became saddened at living seperately from his kids. This was never what he wanted. He couldn't understand how Xu Lifen had gone from the sweet woman he married to what she was.
Chen Meili was also saddened at losing the babies she'd painstakingly carried for ten months.
Due to the common plight of 'losing their kids,' Chen Meili and Han Tao became close. Seeing Chen Meili's kindness and warm nature, old and buried feelings began to flow once more in Han Tao's heart.
In fact, Han Tao and Chen Meili had been in love with each other even before she married Han Jinhai. They had been secretely dating in high school.
Han Tao had graduated first and joined the police force whilst Chen Meili had graduated two years later and proceeded to go abroad to study medicine in university. The different life paths had caused the love birds to be apart for a while.
Once Chen Meili returned, she'd heard the news that Han Tao was dead -due to a mission that had falsely proclaimed him dead- and she was heartbroken.
She'd always considered the Han family her end goal and in the end, decided to settle for Han Jinhai. Who knew that Han Tao would return six months into her marriage with his younger brother? Chen Meili regreted deeply but there was nothing she could do.
Han Tao was also very devasted by Chen Meili's and his brother's marriage.
When Han Jinhai died six months later, Chen Meili was sad but couldn't deny the hope that sprang up in her heart once more. Sadly, she knew that the Hans would never let Han Tao get married to a widow so she opted to stay.
Watching her love from afar was also good.
With Xu Lifen leaving with the twins, Chen Meili automatically became eligible for Han Tao -since he'd also been married once- and the two decided to get together with the Hans backing them in satisfaction.
Afterall, Chen Meili had carried Han Tao's babies before, she should be quite fertile.
At this moment, Chen Meili was still a little sad at the loss of 'her kids.' Some of the Hans were also angry that Xu Lifen had taken their heirs away so they colluded with the Chens and set up an accident for Xu Lifen.
In the end, Xu Lifen lost her life and her twin boys were taken away and given to Chen Meili. Both Chen Meili and Han Tao had three more boys but in the end, the inheritance of the Han family was handed over to the first born son that Chen Meili had given birth to when she got together with Han Tao.
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