Han Tao arrived at City Y the very next day. Although he had no idea where Xu Lifen lived, the investigator he hired had been able to trace her down to her Flower shop.
Now looking at the shop ahead of him, he was quite surprised. It was much bigger and much more flourishing than he'd imagined. He was just about to walk in and ask questions when he suddenly caught sight of something and froze.
Coming from a different section of the shop were Xu Lifen and two adorable little boys. One of the boys had a flower pot in his little arms whilst the other one was happily stuffing his face full of what appeared to be chocolate cake.
At that moment, Xu Lifen looked down at the second boy and lifted a dainty hand to her lips to laugh. Once she was done laughing, she lowered herself to the ground and gently wiped the little boy's mouth with a handkerchief.
The first boy holding a flower pot quickly placed it on the ground and rushed over to copy his mother and clean his brother's mouth with his own colourful handkerchief too.
Xu Lifen laughed some more and placed a kiss on the cheeks of both boys. Around them, a few customers watched this scene and either smiled warmly or laughed happily.
Han Tao's eyes went out of focus. His mind went back to the first time he met Xu Lifen. The cute cashier had greeted him happily and sincerely suggested the best flowers to get for his mother when she saw how lost he looked.
From then on, she'd always welcomed him with a smile and said goodbye to him with a smile too. Although she had grown up in unfortunate circumstances, she was still sweet and elegant in her own simple way.
Han Tao's focus returned and he watched the three people in the shop closely. Xu Lifen and the boys looked so beautiful and happy. At this moment, it truly dawned on him what he'd lost. How much time he'd missed.
He clenched his fists. Why had he even preferred Chen Meili over Xu Lifen? He had such a beautiful family and had given it up for a woman who had immediately married his brother less than a month after she heard he was dead.
Even if he had truly died, was that how she would've mourned the love they had supposedly shared? By marrying his brother?!
Inside the shop, Xu Lifen finally rose to her feet. "Alright, we need to go now." As soon as Xu Cai pointed at more chocolate cake, she shook her finger at him. "No way. You can't have any more."
When his face turned sad, she felt a little bad but she really couldn't give in. He'd had enough so she carried him, twirled him and when he was laughing happily, she placed him down.
Xu Xiaoli: '...'
Xu Lifen laughed at his eager expression and twirled him too. When both boys were satisfied, she nodded at the employee at the counter before walking out.
And then she ran into someone.
Han Tao opened and closed his mouth two times but nothing came out. The third time he opened his mouth...
A small figure suddenly dashed out of nowhere and latched onto him. "Brother Tao!"
Xu Lifen blinked in supprise and immediately held her boys tighter.
On the other hand, Han Tao's eyes widened in shock as he looked down on Chen Meili. What was the woman doing here? He sneered. "Let go."
Chen Meili frowned. She'd tried all she could to see brother Tao but without success. Now that she finally found him, how could she bear to let him go? No way. She tightened her hold on him and looked up at him with teary eyes. "Brother Tao~"
Disgust. Pure disgust was what Han Tao felt as he looked down at the woman sticking to him. Hw violently pushed her away. "Get lost!"
Chen Meili fell to the ground but a second later, she dived forward and held onto Han Tao's leg. "Brother Tao! Don't push me away. The triplets are gone, we can start over! I'll have lots of kids for you!"
Xu Lifen calmly watched the two of them display. Countless times she'd imagined what meeting Han Tao and Chen Meili again would be like. She'd imagined raining curses on them for all the times they'd wronged her -both in this lifetime and her past lifetime.
She'd imagined beating Chen Meili up for daring to demand possession of her children and even playing numerous tricks to take them.
Xu Lifen had imagined so many things but at this moment of truth, she felt calm. Calm and disgusted. These fools before her did not deserve her time, energy or even her hatred. They were too cheap to occupy a space in her mind.
She already had her twins and had found happiness so why continue to dwell on all they'd done to her? What a waste. At that thought, Xu Lifen simply walked away with her boys.
Seeing this, Han Tao panicked and viciously kicked Chen Meili's hands off his leg, causing the woman to roll over a few times. Naturally, he did not care about this. Instead, "Lifen, wait for a moment!" And then he speedwalked over to block Xu Lifen's way. "Please here me ou-"
"MEILI!"
At that moment, a severely panicked Mother Chen quickly ran across the road towards her daughter. Behind her were two policemen.
When she got to Chen Meili, she quickly helped her daughter up and held her hands tightly. "Meili, quick, explain to them!" She pointed at the policemen behind her. "Explain to them that you didn't sell your own children to traffickers!
-Tell them the triplets are yours. You would never sell them! It was that Gu person who had kidnapped them and sold them off! Quick tell the truth!"
Xu Lifen paused and looked back. What was this about?
Even Han Tao frowned.
As soon as the policemen caught up, they presented their ID. "Miss Chen, you're under arrest as an accomplice for child trafficking."
When Mrs. Chen had come to the police station to file a complaint the day before, they'd taken action immediately and after verifying that Miss Chen had indeed picked up the boys from the daycare, they sent out notices with a picture of the triplets to major facilities in the country before they began searching every possible place.
5 hours later, they received a call from an international airport. The airport CCTV cameras had caught sight of children who looked like the triplets with a young couple.
The police officers swiftly reached out to the airport security and fortunately, they were able to stop the young couple from boarding the plane.
After five more hours of questioning, tracking and investigations, it was discovered that the young couple were child traffickees and had bought the children from Mr. Gu and Miss Chen.
Although the police officers were not so surprised to encounter such a situation, Mrs. Chen refused to believe it but the traffickers had provided proof. From the evidence gotten, It wasn't that hard to track down Mr. Gu in City B and through him, they found out that Miss Chen was in City Y.
At the moment, Mr. Gu was locked up in at station and with the conclusive evidence, a swift trial and sentence for both him and Miss Chen was not far off.
Chen Meili stared at the handcuff in the hands of the policemen with wide eyes. "I- I'm not a child trafficer! I only sold my children so me and brother Tao could start afresh! They're my children and I gave birth to them so I can do whatever I want with them! You have no right to arrest m-"
SLAP!
Chen Meili's head whipped to the side so fast that a loud crack was heard.
Mother Chen did not stop there. With red eyes and a heaving chest, she directly began raining slaps on her idiot daughter.
"Do you think I don't want money too?!"
SLAP!
"Do you think I feel no shame about our current situation?!"
SLAP!
SLAP!
"I stooped so low to become a dishwasher in order to take care of my grandchildren! And you dared to sell them?!"
SLAP!
SLAP!
SLAP!
As satisfying as it was to watch, the policemen had to step in at that point.
As soon as Chen Meili was rescued from her claws, Mother Chen directly turned around and walked away without looking back. She was done with that daughter of hers.
Chen Meili held her bruised face as she watched her mother leave. Next she turned to the side and locked eyes with Xu Lifen. Something sparked in her head.
How did things get here? Just a month ago, she was happily married to Han Tao and living the life that so many wished for. Just how did things get here?
How was it that brother didn't want to set eyes on her but had flown all the way to City Y to chase after Xu Lifen? Xu Lifen of all people?!
Angrily, Chen Meili reached out to push a flower vase in front of the shop.
CRASH!
The ceramic shattered to pieces and Chen Meili picked up a large piece and sprinted over to Xu Lifen with a vicious look in her red eyes.
The two policemen and Han Tao reached out to stop Chen Meili but before any of them could succeed, Xu Lifen's body automatically reacted.
Holding both twins in her arms, she lifted her leg and delivered a firm kick to Chen Meili's stomach -effectively knocking the air out of the crazy woman.
THUD!
Chen Meili landed on the ground and fainted immediately whilst the other three people present turned to stare at Xu Lifen in shock.
Xu Lifen herself was also suprised but thinking of all she'd seen and experienced since she died in her past life, it wasn't hard to adjust.
A policeman turned to secure the unconscious Chen Meili with cuffs and Han Tao recovered from his shock
Although his reason for coming had been the twins, seeing Xu Lifen had brought up old feelings and now, he wanted all three of them. He walked even closer to the woman in question and smiled gently. "Lifen I-"
"You what?" Xu Lifen cut in with a disgusted sneer. "You want a kick too? Or maybe a slap?"
The memory of the slap Xu Lifen had given him on the day the divorce papers were signed resurfaced and Han Tao winced in imaginary pain.
Seeing this, satisfaction bloomed in Xu Lifen's heart. She was not a fool and it wasn't hard to figure out that with what Chen Meili had done, Han Tao would try to take the twins from her.
It had happened in her past life but never again! She turned to the remaining policeman. "Kind Sir, I have a restraining order against this strange person but he keeps stalking me! Better to take him in for a warning."
Han Tao's eyes widened. "What do you mean by that?!"
The policeman stepped in. "Mister, please come with us."
Han Tao frowned. "I'm a policeman myself so-"
"-So you're trying to use your position to oppress civilians!" Xu Lifen cut in again.
The policeman's eyes narrowed and Han Tao closed his eyes. The minute he opened them and looked at Xu Lifen. He truly knew all was lost. He nodded at the policeman and dejectedly followed after them.
.
.
.
The minute Xu Lifen got home, she just stood at the entrance and stared down at her boys with a lost look.
At that moment, Xu Xiaoli reached out and placed a chubby hand on his mother's face. "Mama!" And Xu Cai copied him.
Xu Lifen's mood flourished and she looked towards the garden. She still had no idea how she'd managed to take down Chen Meili like that but she wasn't complaining. She smiled at her precious babies. "Come! Let's go burn some more paper money for our benefactor!"
And then she walked in the direction of the garden.
Yin Xin, who was just coming out of the kitchen to welcome her employer: '...'
Where did this benefactor even come from anyways?
-------------------
Gu Longwei and Chen Meili were sentenced to 10 years in prison each, Mother Chen moved to the countryside with the triplets and as for the Hans.
It turned out that Han Wen had had a child in her university and he was the reason she hardly returned to the Han family. With Han Yuanjun's words, the last born of Han Tao's generation brought her child home and although she adamantly refused to tell anyone who the father was, the boy became sole heir of the Han family fortune.
To Min Yanyu's heart ache and Han Tao's regret.
On the other hand...
Xu Lifen and the twins were living their best lives. The flower shop business flourished so much that she ended up opening several branches throughout the country.
Not just that, she learnt more about investments and became a major shareholder in top companies -effectively raising the status of the twins to rich second generations.
Months after Xu Lifen forgot all about her past life, the contract space and meeting He Yuan, she still burned incense and paper money at the altar in her garden with her boys out of habit.
Whenever anyone asked, she just said it gave her good luck -because she inexplicably felt it did.