As a mother, Qiao Nuan naturally reacted in anger when someone told her that her child was dead.
She was like a lioness that had detected a predator approaching her cub, her gaze as sharp as a knife as it flew towards Hou Ting.
"How dare you curse my child?!" Qiao Nuan rolled up her sleeves and walked towards Hou Ting. "I will make you pay the same price your daughter did!"
Hou Ting stood there calmly with a half-smile plastered on her face.
"Qiao Nuan, calm down a little. Don't you want to know the truth?" Hou Ting spoke in a neither hurried nor slow tone. She looked at Qiao Lin with a smile, whose forehead was now drenched in cold sweat.
"Hubby, now that things have come to this, don't keep what happened in the past a secret from Qiao Nuan."
Qiao Nuan's attention immediately shifted to Qiao Lin. At this moment, Qiao Lin did not dare to make eye contact with her. Instead, he averted his gaze in guilt.
Seeing Qiao Lin's reaction, Qiao Nuan's heart skipped a beat, and for some reason, she started to panic.
"Qiao Lin, what does Hou Ting mean? Explain it!"
A layer of cold sweat appeared on Qiao Lin's forehead. He did not dare to provoke Qiao Nuan, who was currently in a flying rage. He looked around and said, "Nuan Nuan, how could you call me by my name? How impertinent!"
"Shut up!" Qiao Nuan took a step forward and grabbed Qiao Lin's collar. Her eyes were burning with anger; she growled, "Don't change the topic. Tell me the truth, or I'll show you how polite I am!"
Already very concerned about his reputation, his anger was only compounded by Qiao Nuan's reaction. The muscles on his face, however, stayed calm, and he reached out to push Qiao Nuan's arm away.
However, Qiao Nuan directly pinched one of the acupoints on Qiao Lin's hand. Qiao Lin's arm instantly lost all its strength and fell limply to the ground.
Looking at the bewildered expression on Qiao Lin's face, Qiao Nuan sneered coldly. "It seems that you've recognized the martial arts I inherited from my mother. If so, you should know the various methods I have up my sleeve that'd make you wish you were dead. I advise you to obediently explain everything I want to know!"
Qiao Lin displayed a complicated expression. At first, he could not believe it, but he felt humiliated after being threatened by his own daughter.
In the end, he still nodded and said, "I understand. I'll tell you everything."
Seeing this from the side, Hou Ting's face revealed a mocking expression. Qiao Lin was a man who could exchange his daughter for benefits, and now, he had been easily threatened by another daughter. The change in his attitude was genuinely ironic.
"Hubby, since you and Nuan Nuan have other things to discuss, I won't disturb you." Hou Ting stroked her hair and glanced at Qiao Lin and Qiao Nuan like a cold poisonous snake. "I hope you two have a good talk."
"You vicious woman!" Qiao Lin realized that he had fallen into Hou Ting's trap. He gritted his teeth and looked at his wife. "We were originally in the same boat. Why on Earth do you want to harm me?!"
"Hehe! I wanted to accompany you, hubby. However, you actually disregarded my daughter's life. This saddens me oh so deeply!" Hou Ting's lips curved into a thin smile. "Hubby, I'll go watch over Xiao Yu first. Take care of yourself!"
After saying that, Hou Ting tailed the stretcher from behind and left the private hospital in a hurry.
The hospital had few patients, but doctors and nurses occasionally strode up and down the hallway. Thus, they all stared at Qiao Nuan and Qiao Lin from the corners of their eye.
A young woman had grabbed the collar of the old man, looking like she was about to hit him in anger. However, that man actually had a guilty look on his face, as if he had done something wrong to the girl.
Qiao Lin's expressions crunched up even more when he noticed that the crowd seemed to be glancing at him. "Nuan Nuan, can we talk in private if there's anything? This is no place to chat..."
"It seems you've really done lots of humiliating things. Why wouldn't you dare to explain it openly, otherwise?"
Qiao Nuan didn't back down at all. She pulled Qiao Lin to a chair in the waiting area and pushed him down, "Let's talk things out here. Why did Hou Ting say that you killed my child? I was clearly with Qiao Ning just now..."
"At this point, I don't have to hide it from you anymore." Qiao Lin let out a long sigh and looked at Qiao Nuan tenderly like a dignified father. "Nuan Nuan, Daddy lied to you five years ago. Qiao Ning isn't actually your child, but that was for your own good..."
As Qiao Lin narrated, Qiao Nuan's memories flew back to the night she gave birth to the child five years ago.
....
Five years ago, Qiao Nuan was the laughing stock of S City's aristocrats. Qiao Lin hated this daughter who had been knocked up by some wild man.
To avoid getting laughed at, Qiao Lin had sent Qiao Nuan to the public maternal and child health care hospital in the neighboring city for delivery.
During that time, the weather in the southern coastal area was awful. There was first a typhoon, followed by a huge rainstorm.