Chapter 708 - 611
Chapter 708: Chapter 611
Xiao Man sneered. ’It’s a good thing I went back to the South to visit family just a few days into winter break. If I had stayed in Beijing and hadn’t rushed over to treat Mr. Bai when he was dying, that Bai Qingyue would have probably started some nasty rumors about me, too.’
The usual public face of the Sun Group was Sun Yinong, while Sun Jingzu appeared at only the most important occasions. If anyone from the Sun Group had dealings with the Bai Family, it would have been one of them. Sun Yiming didn’t really have any contact with the Bai Family, so Xiao Man knew she wouldn’t be able to learn the cause of Mr. Bai’s death from him. She decided to ask about it when she got home.
This semester, her courses were more advanced and her schedule was tight. Her advisor in the Chinese medicine research group had changed her schedule at De Ren Hospital from once every two days to twice a week, on the weekends. She was also required to live on campus, leaving her with basically no free time. Xiao Man could only make a trip home on Saturdays to play with her two little siblings for a few hours and have dinner with the family before rushing back to school.
However, due to his work, Tang Qingshan couldn’t make it home for dinner with Xiao Man. Unable to ask him the questions on her mind, she casually brought it up with Mrs. Hao. Hao Wenli knew that as soon as Xiao Man returned to work at De Ren Hospital, she was bound to hear about the whole mess with the Bai Family. The family hadn’t told her, not to deliberately hide it, but simply because they didn’t want their daughter’s mood to be ruined by irrelevant matters. It was the New Year, after all; it was much better to keep things pleasant and carefree.
But now that Xiao Man knew, it didn’t matter. Hao Wenli raised an elegant eyebrow and let the whole story tumble out.
It turned out that Bai Qingyue had come to the Tang family residence to beg for life-saving medicine for Mr. Bai’s illness. But with Grandma Tang around, she didn’t get what she wanted; she couldn’t even get a meeting with Grandpa Tang. Unwilling to give up, Bai Qingyue came back several times to no avail. So, she took a page out of Wu Xiaowen’s book and started causing a scene at the Tang family’s main gate. She had even less shame than Wu Xiaowen, kneeling directly outside the iron gate in the snow and rain, wailing and screaming for them to save a life!
And you know Grandma Tang’s personality. There was no way she would ever yield to such a spectacle. She had the plainclothes guards drag Bai Qingyue out and dump her at the end of the street. So what if she was some young lady from an aristocratic family? If anyone, even the emperor himself, dared to be unreasonable and provoke her, this old lady would toss them out all the same!
This infuriated Bai Qingyue. Deciding to go all in, she began to harass and slander Tang Qingshan, thinking it would surely make the Tang family panic.
She started showing up at Tang Qingshan’s office and appearing suddenly at various important events he attended. At first, she would desperately plead with him to save her father’s life. Tang Qingshan would state that he wasn’t a doctor and there was nothing he could do. At that, Bai Qingyue’s demeanor would flip instantly. She would put on the act of a frail, deeply lovesick damsel, clinging to him relentlessly. Of course, event staff would intervene and drag her away, but they couldn’t shut her up. In full public view, with reporters present, she would cry her eyes out, shouting that she and Tang Qingshan were childhood sweethearts and had been lovers for decades. She claimed that for his sake, she had endured immense pain and inhuman suffering!
As she made these tearful accusations, she would pull out photos of herself and Tang Qingshan from their childhood and teenage years. She’d say that if anyone didn’t believe her, they were welcome to investigate; she had more evidence to prove that she and Tang Qingshan had once been a couple, and that the prominent aristocratic families they socialized with could all testify! She shrieked that now that she was old and past her prime, Tang Qingshan had abandoned her to marry a young wife and have children. He was a modern-day Chen Shimei, a heartless monster whose actions were an affront to justice! He was unfit to be a government official, let alone be respected by the people!
But Tang Qingshan had been navigating the political world for many years; how could he be so easily manipulated? With a few swift and decisive moves, not only was Bai Qingyue suddenly unable to track his movements, but all of her so-called truths vanished into thin air. They didn’t even make a whisper, let alone get circulated in any news reports.
When Grandpa Tang found out, he was enraged. From that moment on, there was no need to maintain even the slightest pretense of a relationship between the Tang and Bai families.
Hao Wenli let out a cold, mocking laugh. "That Bai Qingyue is truly shameless. When she couldn’t get to your father, she actually dared to come after me!"
"What? She didn’t hurt you, did she?" Xiao Man’s eyes went wide.
"Of course not! Your mother is no pushover!"
Hao Wenli snorted. "I don’t know if Bai Qingyue did it on purpose or not, but on the sixth day of the New Year, the nanny and I took the two little ones to the public square to play, and she showed up. She must have thought I was a total pushover, because she came right up to me and started crying, wailing at the top of her lungs that I’d stolen her man. You know how many people are at the square, right? A crowd formed around us so thick you couldn’t see through it, all of them waiting for a show. Luckily, our two boys don’t scare easily, so they didn’t cry or make a fuss. But they’re still so little. Normally they’d be running wild and laughing at the square, but at that moment, they were frozen stiff, their eyes wide as saucers, their little hands clutching my clothes and the nanny’s for dear life. Oh, I was livid. I calmed the kids and told them to stay with the nanny. Then I turned around, and without a second thought, I kicked Bai Qingyue right over. I pounced on her and landed two hard slaps that stunned her before she could scream, and then I just started ripping at her clothes! I tore off her scarf and her coat. If she hadn’t been wearing a pullover sweater underneath, I would have unwrapped her like a zongzi!"
"Wow, that’s so badass! You’re amazing, Mrs. Hao!"
"You know it! They say motherhood makes you strong, and she dared to scare my children? I’d have torn her to shreds! At first, the crowd was condemning me, calling me a shrew and saying I had no morals. So I asked them: ’If this happened to you—if some shameless woman tried to destroy your family, steal your husband, and threaten your children—wouldn’t you be furious? Wouldn’t you be filled with hate?’ After that, the crowd went silent. A few women even rushed forward to help, kicking Bai Qingyue a few times and spitting on her!"
Recalling Bai Qingyue’s sorry state, Hao Wenli chuckled with satisfaction, and Xiao Man laughed along with her. After having children, Mrs. Hao was still curvy and full-figured, but it was a healthy plumpness, not the doughy fat she’d had before. Xiao Man had almost forgotten that her mother had a false Spirit Root. Tang Qingshan had said that childbirth takes a toll on the body and that he wanted her to recuperate fully. He would wait until the children were at least two before personally guiding her Cultivation. For now, she was just practicing the thirty-six forms of Tai Chi with Grandma Tang, taking the medicinal and floral baths Xiao Man prepared for her, and eating the special ingredients Xiao Man often swapped into their meals. Her bones and meridians were already unlike those of an ordinary person; in a fight, she could probably take on two Bai Qingyues and still win.
"Mom, so you believe there was nothing between Dad and Bai Qingyue?"
"Of course! Who does Bai Qingyue think she is? She isn’t fit to carry your father’s shoes! I saw exactly what kind of man your father is from the moment I met him, otherwise I never would have fallen for him and agreed to marry! Plenty of men used to chase after me, you know, but I was dead set against marriage back then and wouldn’t give any of them the time of day!"
Xiao Man was speechless. ’Weren’t Talented Women supposed to be reserved and quiet? Mrs. Hao sure could brag.’
"Mom, Mr. Bai got one of Grandpa’s pills before and made a full recovery. I heard he also practiced some kind of secret technique for Cultivation, so how could he just drop dead like that?"
"I’m not sure. I just went with your grandmother to a few banquets over the holidays and overheard some things about the Bai Family. Their affairs are a complete and utter mess, like a tangled ball of yarn. My guess is that Mr. Bai was probably angered to death by his own unfilial children and grandchildren!"