With the mother-daughter relationship, Tang Man and Madam Yang did have some resemblance in facial features. Sometimes, from certain angles, they almost looked like they were cast from the same mold. However, due to Tang Man’s personality, she had a unique aura about her that blurred much of the resemblance.

As soon as Gu Yuanke saw Tang Man, he stood up, somewhat surprised, “Tang Man, why are you here?”

Tang Man’s gaze fell on his messy shirt collar, which still had a bit of blood on it. The man’s hair was also a bit disheveled, unlike the impeccable appearance from their last meeting.

Tang Man retracted her gaze and smiled politely, “I’m here to visit my mother. I heard she got angry and was hospitalized today.”

Gu Yuanke immediately thought of Tang Man’s father. He had just beaten him up, and with the injuries on his own face, he didn’t look too good. He rarely felt awkward in front of Tang Man, his junior.

Madam Yang lay on the bed. After Tang Man entered, she didn’t speak either, her mood obviously not very good.

Seeing this, Gu Yuanke pressed his lips together, but this pulled at his wound, causing his brow to twitch imperceptibly. He sighed, leaned over to say a few words to the woman on the bed, touched her ear, then straightened up and led the people in the ward out, leaving space for the mother and daughter.

Tang Man stood to one side. While turning, she noticed a man and woman secretly observing her, mainly the woman. She was dressed very exquisitely, with a shawl draped over her, exuding an old-fashioned elegance. If not for the silver streak at her temples, she would look like a middle-aged woman in her forties or fifties.

Tang Man had some guesses in her heart. She politely lowered her eyes and nodded slightly, as a greeting.

After everyone left, the ward quieted down. Tang Man stood in place for a good while longer before slowly walking over and sitting on one side of the bed, leaning back in the chair, looking at the woman lying on her side on the bed.

She picked up the half-peeled fruit on the table and casually took a small knife to continue peeling it along the texture. In this atmosphere, it was quiet for a long time. Tang Man sliced the apple and placed it on the plate.

Pulling out a tissue, she wiped the sticky fruit juice between her fingers carelessly. She felt that she could see Madam Yang’s mood had calmed down a lot before she spoke up, “Mom, I heard you’re pregnant.”

Only then did the person on the bed move.

Tang Man continued to ask, “What are your plans, are you going to keep it or abort it?”

Madam Yang sat up. She had been lying down for a while, and even with her hair disheveled like this, she was still beautiful. This heart-stirring beauty had been fermented by the years, nurturing a different charm.

Her makeup was all removed, and only now could some fine lines be seen at the corners of her eyes, so faint they were almost invisible.

Meeting Tang Man’s calm gaze, Madam Yang’s mood also calmed down. She said irresponsibly with some struggle, so naive, as if she wasn’t someone with a daughter in her twenties, and as if she wasn’t someone who had been divorced, “Manman, I don’t want this child.”

“So Gu Yuanke schemed against you?”

Tang Man tried hard to ignore the bad feeling in her heart. After all, the person in front of her was her mom. Madam Yang had done quite a few upsetting things, anyway, surely she wasn’t the one who felt the worst, and she wouldn’t be the one to clean up the mess either.

Glancing at Tang Man, only then did Madam Yang shake her head.

Tang Man closed her eyes, trying hard to suppress the anger in her heart. If her dad found out about the matter that was still being kept a secret, someone might really get killed today.

Tang Zhengfeng was a madman. Back then, in order to keep Madam Yang, he almost strangled that kept mistress to death. Such a person had almost no sense of morality. Even if she were to have a child, the child couldn’t be born in the country, it was too unsafe.

So she said, “What does shaking your head mean, don’t tell me you actually want this child?”

“You’re not young anymore, at such an age, how can you still have no sense about these things, I told you before, take proper precautions. Now that a life has been created, what are you going to do?”

Only then did Madam Yang look at Tang Man and said softly, “But Yuanke had a vasectomy.”

“He told me about it before.”

Madam Yang lowered her voice as she said this. She was embarrassed to talk about this aspect of her boyfriend with her own daughter.

“…”

After a long silence, Tang Man still asked doubtfully, “Are you sure?”

Madam Yang nodded, “He had a vasectomy in his twenties, at that time…”

Tang Man hurriedly stopped Madam Yang, feeling that if she continued, she might not be able to look Gu Yuanke in the eye in the future. She also had no interest in prying into the private matters between this man and woman. She just wanted to solve the problem now.

She had heard that due to unsuccessful vasectomy surgery, it was also possible for someone to get pregnant, or if it had been too long, there might also be some issues. But this probability was so low that there might not even be one in ten thousand people.

Madam Yang’s luck was really at rock bottom. Taking night strolls too often, she was bound to run into a ghost.

However, “You didn’t have your period for several months and didn’t notice?”

Missing it for a month could go unnoticed. Tang Man was also that kind of person, not very attentive to her own body. She often had irregular periods, and Du Henian even took her to see a Chinese medicine doctor for it, prescribing a bunch of Chinese medicine. For a while, she drank so much medicine that she lost her appetite and lost ten pounds. Later, when Du Henian saw that it really wasn’t working, he cut off her Chinese medicine and helped regulate her body through diet.

But Madam Yang’s situation must have been going on for about two months, surely she should have had some awareness.

But Madam Yang had a point, “I thought I was getting old and going through menopause. Isn’t it common for periods to be irregular? Who would have thought in that direction.”

Who would have known that she could still get pregnant at her age, and Yuanke had even had a vasectomy. They had taken precautions before, only getting reckless once or twice.

“So you don’t want this child?” Tang Man didn’t want to say more and asked directly, too lazy to make any comment on Madam Yang having a clear awareness of her own age.

She knew Madam Yang was the kind of person who struggled over matters big and small, especially having a bit of kindness that ordinary people had. The most decisive thing she had done in the past was divorcing Tang Zhengfeng. Oh no, maybe it was also getting married because of a child in college.

Now Madam Yang fell silent. She didn’t want it, but she also didn’t want to abort it. She was afraid of pain. She never thought she would have an abortion in her life. When she got pregnant with Tang Man in college, she also hesitated, but in the end, she still decided to have the child.

Did she regret it later? Of course she did, especially when she found out that Tang Zhengfeng had cheated and kept a mistress outside.

At that time, she vomited for a day, feeling disgusting from head to toe, as if a rat had crawled over her. So she couldn’t help but develop some negative emotions towards Tang Man, who was still a child, feeling that Tang Man, who had Tang Zhengfeng’s blood flowing in her, was also disgusting.

That’s why she left so decisively at that time, without even a bit of reluctance for the child she gave birth to. Maybe there was a bit of reluctance, after all, it was a piece of flesh that had fallen from her own body after ten months of pregnancy. But that bit of reluctance was not enough to outweigh the disgust towards Tang Zhengfeng.

But later, every time she saw Tang Man growing up, that hint of disgust gradually flattened. She watched the child who looked similar to herself grow up bit by bit, changing in appearance every time they met, growing into a young lady who didn’t resemble Tang Zhengfeng at all.

Those feelings of disgust and regret seemed to have become the past. So she suddenly felt fortunate that she had decided to keep Tang Man back then and hadn’t abandoned this child.

From Madam Yang’s silence, Tang Man knew what she was thinking. This woman was probably still struggling. If there was a way now to just close her eyes and the child would be gone, and she wouldn’t feel any pain, as if nothing had happened, Madam Yang would definitely not want this child.

But reality would not be like this. This woman, on one hand, was afraid to take responsibility, and on the other hand, was afraid to endure the physical pain. So she was unwilling to make the choice herself, and thus liked to procrastinate.

Tang Man tugged the corner of her mouth and laughed, “What does the Gu family think?”

This was what she found troublesome.

So many people from the Gu family came today, probably all for the lump of flesh in Madam Yang’s belly. Gu Yuanke was in his thirties and still not married. Now all of a sudden, skipping marriage, he directly had a child. For most parents, this should count as good news.

Madam Yang was puzzled, “What do they think?”

Tang Man’s gaze fell on the row of health products on the table not far away, meaningfully saying, “Mom, what do you think Gu Yuanke’s parents specially rushed over for? The lump of flesh in your belly counts as the Gu family’s first child – the eldest grandson. I think they quite want this child.”

Tang Man glanced at the watch on her wrist. It was already late. She let her gaze fall on Madam Yang’s face again, too lazy to say more. The person in front of her was twenty years older than her, and those years weren’t lived in vain. At least most of her life was spent in happiness. In the end, there would be people to clean up the mess of whatever decision she made. Tang Man didn’t need to worry too much.

So she said, “Anyway, you know your body’s condition best now. Whether to keep this child or not, make the decision yourself. I won’t help you decide on this matter. You can’t push it onto others either.”

Tang Man stood up. She just came to check on Madam Yang. The other looked fine, not like she had been shocked into sickness, probably just sickened by Old Tang. After all these years, her mom still had no resistance against her dad, easily getting allergic.

“By the way, I sent Grandma a message. She knows you’re hospitalized, but doesn’t know your old tree has blossomed again. She’ll probably come see you in the next couple days. Think about how to appease Grandma and Grandpa yourself.”

Madam Yang was usually domineering, changing boyfriends one after another, but she just feared her own mother. This was like a habit embedded in her genes. Hearing Tang Man’s words, the forty-something-year-old still couldn’t help but tense up.

“Manman, what did you say?! Grandma is coming?”

Madam Yang almost jumped out of bed, quickly stopped by Tang Man, “Alright, Mom, you still have one in your belly. Be mindful. Grandma won’t come right away. Besides, at most she’ll scold you a bit, she won’t hit you.”

She felt that her dad was scary enough when he went crazy, yet she had never seen her mom cower. Her mom would directly confront him with a tender white face, so how could she not stand up to Grandma, who had a kind and gentle appearance?

This was something Tang Man had always been unable to understand. After all, because Tang Man’s parents divorced when she was very young, the elders on both sides doted on her and wouldn’t engage in violent behavior. So in her memory, Grandma was a very gentle person.

Although Madam Yang was cute and pretty when she was young, she also did quite a few aggravating things. It was not uncommon for her mother at that time to chase and beat her with a rolling pin, almost staging a scene in the alley once a week. The scene always involved Madam Yang leading a group of boys from the alley, just like an eagle catching chicks. A large group would rush ahead, followed by a woman chasing after them with a rolling pin, her roar almost penetrating half the alley.

Moreover, she felt that Madam Yang was a person who lacked a sense of propriety. It was just as well that her grandma was coming to keep a close eye on this woman. Otherwise, with this woman’s temperament, she might be shouting and clamoring to be discharged after staying in the hospital for a while. That man, Gu Yuanke, also didn’t seem like someone who could stop her.

At Madam Yang’s age, pregnancy was not like young people. There were certainly many more aspects that required care and attention.

After saying this, Tang Man offered a few pretentious words of comfort and prepared to leave. She still had to solve the trouble with Xie Li later. Tang Man didn’t think Xie Li was any less trouble than Madam Yang.

In her mind, Si Jiahe was the easiest person to deal with, followed by Du Henian. Xie Li was a person who easily made one feel guilty. Getting involved with this man always gave her a feeling of deceiving a good husband, making one reluctant to do so. The key was that she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Moreover, Xie Li’s elite appearance at work truly made her keep her distance. The aura of a patriarch was too strong.

She had never concealed most of her romantic experiences from this person, almost laying them out in the open. Even quite a few ex-boyfriends had passed through this man’s hands. So some things were not easy to say. At least the things she could say to Si Jiahe and Du Henian, she couldn’t say to Xie Li. It wasn’t that she was embarrassed, but that she couldn’t deceive him. She was half-transparent in front of this person.

If they broke up in the future, it would make her feel like she was abandoning a poor wife.