Chapter 282 - 257: Nowhere to Hide (Part 2)
Chapter 282: Chapter 257: Nowhere to Hide (Part 2)
"I know. I’ll always stand with my sister!"
Grandpa Tang smiled and nodded. "Siblings can only go far in life if they are of one heart and mind, supporting each other along the way."
On the twenty-seventh of the twelfth lunar month, the Tang Mansion held a welcome banquet. Eight tables were set, and relatives and old friends were invited to gather and celebrate.
Tang Qingshan had personally called to inform Tang Qingyun. The couple didn’t arrive together. Tang Qingyun came alone first, and half an hour later, Wu Xiaowen appeared. Her expression was stubborn and determined, and she held tightly to Tang Yaxuan’s hand. The mother and daughter’s eyes were both slightly red, as if they had recently been crying.
Today, the iron gates of the Tang Mansion were thrown open to welcome guests. Wu Xiaowen led Tang Yaxuan inside, greeting people as they went. When someone praised Xuanxuan on how beautiful she was becoming, Wu Xiaowen broke into her usual, genuinely delighted smile and responded with a few polite, humble remarks.
As was customary, many from the younger generation were present. Gu Shaoling and a few other girls spotted Tang Yaxuan, and they quickly came over to surround her. Being old acquaintances reunited, they had plenty to talk about and chattered away incessantly. Tang Yaxuan, after all, had grown up in this circle. She was well-versed in social etiquette and showed no stage fright, smiling as she gracefully handled each conversation with poise and consideration. Meanwhile, Wu Xiaowen was laughing and chatting with a few other young wives of similar age and standing. Since they were all mothers and were standing near the girls, the conversation naturally turned to their daughters. After listening to the others boast, Wu Xiaowen couldn’t resist joining in. She casually mentioned Tang Yaxuan’s recent achievement of placing first in her grade on the final exams. Just as she’d hoped, her announcement was met with envy and praise, and she beamed with pride. Her laughter rang out, crisp and clear, as if she had forgotten all the trouble centered around Tang Yaxuan.
Grandma Tang, Grandma, and Granny Gu were standing on the steps, chatting with a few other elderly women. Every so often, Grandma Tang’s gaze would sweep coldly over the mother-daughter pair. Though her expression remained neutral, she was inwardly cursing her son for his spinelessness. ’He can’t even control his own wife,’ she thought, ’and now he’s let her bring Tang Yaxuan here to disgrace us.’
Of course, Wu Xiaowen hadn’t come just for a meal, and Grandma Tang saw right through her motives. She watched the mother and daughter, surrounded by people who didn’t know the truth, effortlessly navigating the social scene and looking utterly delighted. Grandma Tang snorted under her breath. ’The higher you climb, the harder you fall. Doesn’t she understand something so simple? No one is taking a single thing that belongs to my granddaughter!’
Meanwhile, Xiao Man was still bustling back and forth between the kitchen and the dining room. The Tang Mansion hadn’t hosted a banquet in a long time, but when Grandpa Tang saw that Grandpa and Grandma had brought so many ingredients from the south, along with homemade rice wine and mountain grape wine, he decided he wanted to throw an extraordinary feast. Xiao Man had told Grandma Tang to keep Grandma company and volunteered for the task herself. After Tang Qingshan reviewed the menu she’d organized, he hired three chefs and two kitchen assistants to help her. Xiao Man only needed to prepare the side dishes and adjust the seasonings, leaving the rest to the chefs. Even so, she had been busy for the better part of the day.
Only when the dishes were nearly all prepared and ready to be served did Xiao Man, at Grandma Tang’s repeated urging, finally return to her room to bathe and change her clothes before coming downstairs to greet the guests.
Once all the guests had arrived and the small talk began to wane, the hosts invited everyone to be seated. When people saw the spread of dishes on the large round tables, their eyes widened in amazement. They realized the tempting aromas that had been wafting through the air were nothing compared to this. The delicacies before them, perfect in color, aroma, and flavor, were so exquisite they seemed unreal. A single glance was enough to make mouths water. A second glance was almost too much to bear; they nearly cast aside their etiquette, wanting nothing more than to snatch up their chopsticks and be the first to indulge!
Grandpa Tang seemed to understand his guests’ anticipation. With a chuckle, he raised his glass, gave a brief toast, and announced the start of the banquet. The dining room was instantly filled with the clatter of chopsticks against bowls and plates, followed by wave after wave of praise.
Once everyone had eagerly sampled every last delicacy and eaten their fill, they began to savor the fine wine. It was then that Grandpa Tang led his son and granddaughter around to toast his old friends.
Wu Xiaoyun looked up and saw Xiao Man by Grandpa Tang’s side, and she quickly signaled for Tang Yaxuan to go over as well. Tang Yaxuan had just gotten to her feet and taken a couple of steps when Xiao Zhang intercepted her. He leaned in and whispered something in her ear. Tang Yaxuan’s face flushed crimson. Looking utterly wronged, she returned to Wu Xiaowen’s side with tears welling in her eyes. Wu Xiaowen’s heart ached seeing this, and she shot a fierce glare at Xiao Zhang.
Xiao Zhang pretended not to see the glare. He simply stood a short distance away, smiling as he watched the Tangs make their rounds of toasts. When they reached Grandma Tang’s table, she rose. Together with Grandpa Tang, they guided Xiao Man by the shoulders to the center of the hall. It was time to formally introduce their relatives and friends to the eldest granddaughter of the Tang family: Tang Manman.
With that, the full story was laid bare: Tang Manman was the biological daughter of Tang Qingyun, switched at birth by mistake with Tang Yaxuan. Grandpa Tang explained, "Our true granddaughter, Tang Manman, has returned to us. For certain reasons, she will be officially placed under Tang Qingshan’s name. All you need to remember is that she is Tang Qingshan’s daughter. The girl formerly known as Tang Yaxuan has been returned to the Mo family and has no further ties to the Tangs. As for Tang Qingyun and Wu Xiaowen, they lost their daughter for over a decade, so their relationship with her is distant. They have voluntarily chosen to move out of the Tang household to live with their adoptive daughter. That is a matter for their nuclear family, and as an elder, I won’t meddle."
After his speech, the crowd’s sentiment was almost entirely one-sided. Sympathy and pity were lavished upon Tang Manman, while many began to criticize Tang Qingyun and Wu Xiaowen for being so unreasonable. No matter how much they cherished their adoptive daughter, their biological child was their own flesh and blood. How could they push away their own kin for an outsider? They had clearly lost their senses!
Facing the crowd’s condemnation, Tang Qingyun was so ashamed he wished the ground would swallow him whole. Wu Xiaowen, however, was completely stunned. She had never imagined Grandpa and Grandma Tang would do something like this. ’Announcing Manman’s identity unilaterally without consulting us is one thing,’ she thought, ’but to twist the facts like this! What does he mean, "their bond with their biological daughter is distant" and they "voluntarily chose to leave the Tang family"? The reality is that we were thrown out of the Tang Mansion in the middle of the night!’
’Are there really such heartless parents in the world?’ she fumed internally. ’To kick us out so bluntly, and then to twist the truth with such blatant lies, with no regard for Tang Qingyun’s future, or mine...’ As the shock wore off, Wu Xiaowen was filled with a burning urge to march right up to Grandpa and Grandma Tang and scream at them, ’Did you have to go this far?! Are you even his parents?! Are you trying to ruin our lives?!’