Chapter 685: Separate Ways
“A test-tube baby?”
The presiding judge carefully read the return receipt from Changjiang Hospital, and then he lifted his head to look at Su Li and Ning Wanxiu. “Can you tell me why Su Jing chose to impregnate herself through in vitro fertilization?”
“Let me explain this, your honor.”
Bai Yuquan, who had kept silent this entire time, finally spoke, albeit a little ill at ease. He looked at Su Li, and then said icily, “When your sister chose to impregnate herself through in vitro fertilization at that time, she had done so just to tie me down. Am I right?”
Su Li was silent, her countenance aloof and cold as ice.
Bai Yuquan laughed in self-deprecation and said, “I’ve slept with your sister a few times, but she’s never once gotten pregnant, and she was worried that she would lose me. Then, under your mother’s instigation, she went to that d.a.m.ned hospital and accepted in vitro fertilization treatments to impregnate herself. At the end of it all, she returned and told me it was mine.” The more he spoke, the colder his expression grew. “How cunning of her… How truly, brilliantly, cunning. To think I genuinely believed that I had wronged her. Now that I think about it, it’s a good thing she’s dead. That vile woman should have been burned at a stake!”
Boom!
He slammed a palm down forcefully onto the tabletop, his eyes alighted with rage and the vein in his temple throbbing.
Bai Yuquan could not accept this truth. To him, he had not just been lied to—he had been humiliated, and this humiliation was worse than being ordered to crawl between someone’s legs.
“Vile woman! She’s truly a vile woman. I’ve never once met someone as vile as her!”
Bai Guoxiong was thoroughly enraged. It was no longer speculation that Su Xiaobei was not his great-granddaughter—it was a fact. There was no way the hospital’s receipt would be erroneous. If the director of the hospital’s signature was on it, then there was no way it could be false. It was so laughable and so pathetic that he could mistake some child for his own great-granddaughter. The entire Bai family had been played like a fiddle by a woman.
How outrageous! How utterly outrageous!
Bai Guoxiong was so angry that his body started convulsing. Rage and gloom were written all over his wizened visage.
“Shameless and despicable. There isn’t a single good person in the Su family. This Su Li, I bet she’s just as vile!” Bai Xuenan gritted her teeth, defending her brother’s honor.
Xiao Luo turned over and glared at her. “You shut your d.a.m.n mouth. Curse who you want, but don’t talk about my woman like this!”
This one glare was enough to shut Bai Xuenan up, and she forced the rest of her words down her throat.
Shen Qingyan was so shocked that her mouth was slightly hanging open. She had tried time and time again to ask Su Li what the trump card to winning this case was, but to no avail. There was no way she would have figured out that Su Xiaobei was actually not Bai Yuquan’s daughter.
Su Li, who was seated in the plaintiff’s side, stood up for the first time. Her red lips parted slightly as she said to Bai Yuquan, “I have no interest in what happened between you and my sister Su Jing. All I want is Su Xiaobei.” She turned and faced the presiding judge. “Your honor, Su Xiaobei has no blood relations to the Bai family at all. If Changjiang Hospital’s receipt is not proof enough, then the court can order for Su Xiaobei and Bai Yuquan to do a paternity test to see if they’re actually related.”
Her chilly voice reverberated in the large, expansive courtroom. She knew that she was not doing right by her sister Su Jing like this, and she had wanted to guard this secret forever. However, she had not expected Bai Yuquan to suddenly appear from nowhere and s.n.a.t.c.h Su Xiaobei from her. She had no choice but to resort to this.
The presiding judge found it reasonable and so nodded.
This hearing ended on the note of its greatest mystery. The court sent an authorized certification agency to the Bai family’s house where they would bring Su Xiaobei off to conduct the paternity test. Once the results proved that Su Xiaobei was not Bai Yuquan’s daughter, her custody would be handed to Su Li.
After the hearing came to an end, the Bai family had sour faces.
Xiao Luo felt a mix of emotions—it was a mixed bag of emotions, and he felt all sorts of emotions.
After taking a few strands of hair from Su Xiaobei, the paternity test was conducted in a hospital approved by the court. Meanwhile, after Su Li and the Bais left, Xiao Luo quietly handed strands of his hair along with Su Xiaobei’s for a paternity test. Since it was urgent, he would have the results in three days.
The Bais were all waiting in the long hospital corridor. They had still been a little hopeful that Su Xiaobei was part of their family, but the results of the paternity test killed any sort of hope they had harbored.
“According to the results of the DNA test, Su Xiaobei and Bai Yuquan have no blood relation at all. They are not father and daughter,” the doctor reported the results of the test clearly.
On the other hand, the report that Xiao Luo received indicated that he and Su Xiaobei were related by blood. In other words, he was Su Xiaobei’s biological father.
“This…”
Xiao Luo was taken aback. He had never once thought that this would be the outcome.
No wonder he felt an inexplicable emotion towards Su Xiaobei… No wonder the little girl would scream “daddy” when she saw him, certain that he was her father, that he was the exact same dad she had seen in her dreams.
It turned out that he was her father.
Was he happy? No.
Was he emotional? No.
Xiao Luo had no words to properly encapsulate what he was feeling—at the end of it all, this was another responsibility to shoulder. He could not help but be in awe of how chaotic this world was. It was just as Zhang Dashan used to say: this world is f*cked up.
…
…
It was already late by the time the court issued its litigation outcome. Xiao Luo was driving his car, rus.h.i.+ng Su Li and Shen Qingyan to the front yard of the Bai family’s home.
Bai Yuquan had Su Xiaobei’s hand in his, and they had been waiting there a long time. As compared to how he had flown off the handle in court, Bai Yuquan had now gone back to normal. He was back to being refined and elegant, as if nothing happened.
Of course, Bai Guoxiong, Bai Ying, and the rest of them were not present.
“Mommy! Daddy!”
Upon seeing Xiao Luo and Su Li, Su Xiaobei immediately let go of Bai Yuquan’s hand and dashed over to the two of them like a happy little elf.
Su Li squatted and held the little girl tightly in her embrace. She could not hold back her emotions anymore, and she sobbed silently. The little girl, on the other hand, was over the moon. She hugged her mom, Su Li, and she did not forget to tilt her head up to blink at Xiao Luo.
Xiao Luo stepped forward and reached a hand out to gently stroke her little head.
“I told you before, Mr. Xiao Luo, that I’d accept the outcome for what it is, no matter what it was. Take Xiaobei with you. She might not be my daughter, but she is truly adorable. Our whole family very much adores her,” Bai Yuquan said with a smile.
“You’re a good man,” Xiao Luo complimented this man sincerely, from the bottom of his heart. If it were anyone else, they might have lost their minds at this point.
Bai Yuquan shook his head. “I’m no good man in comparison to you, Mr. Xiao Luo. I’m just more sensible than an average person.”
“The Bais should consider themselves lucky that they have you in their family, Bai Yuquan.”
The corners of Xiao Luo’s lips curled up into a smile. Were it not for Bai Yuquan, he would probably have wiped out the Bais on his trip to Jingcheng this time.
Bai Yuquan could read between the lines. He was taken aback and immediately changed the topic of the conversation, saying, “What I said before still holds, Mr. Xiao Luo. The Bai family will always leave its door wide open for Mr. Xiao Luo, and I hope we can become true friends.”
“I appreciate your sincerity, but we must go our separate ways,” Xiao Luo rejected the man curtly.