Chapter 222: The Love Affair (1/2)

Madam Hu's poor acting skills gave her away at once. I didn’t need to use my Cave Vision to know she was lying.

Xiaotao took out her gun and slammed it against the table. ”We’re actually here to arrest you.”

Madam Hu's face crumpled at those words. Lips trembling, she faltered, ”D-do you have an arrest warrant?”

”Yes, would you like to see it?” asked Xiaotao without so much as batting an eyelid.

In truth, we came in a hurry so Xiaotao didn’t get a chance to submit an affidavit to the court. Perhaps due to the old lady’s guilt, such a bluff managed to fool her. She lowered her head, her wrinkled hands shaking uncontrollably. ”To be honest,” she started. “I expected you to come, but I didn't think you’d come so soon!”

”That’s because you left too many clues,” I explained.

Old Madam Hu sighed, ”I don't regret what I did. He asked for it!”

She detailed how everything came to be. Back then, she and Old Man Yang were high school classmates. With the implementation of the “Down To The Countryside” policy, the two of them relocated to Yundian Province. At the time, she was drawn to the handsome and talented young man. Having secretly fallen in love with Mr. Yang, she hinted her feelings for him, both explicitly and implicitly.

In her younger days, she too was a beautiful girl. Madam Hu made frequent overtures to Mr. Yang who paid special attention to her at first. But as the saying goes, to snag a man, let him do the chasing. Right when the couple seemed to be headed towards a union, a ”third party” appeared!

And this ”third party” was a local girl–young and beautiful, with a pair of clear eyes that seemed unaffected by the ugliness of the world. Many educated youths fell for her, claiming she was a fairy from the mountains. However, Madam Hu believed her innocence was really ignorance and lack of education, and that her beautiful skin hid an empty soul.

Every time the young Mr. Yang looked at the girl, there was something else in his eyes. Finally, Madam Hu’s greatest fear became a reality. She saw with her own eyes Mr. Yang's confession to the girl...

She spoke to the girl in private and advised her to stay away from Mr. Yang. They had different life paths and the educated young man would return to the city sooner or later, leaving the young mountain girl behind as a distant memory.

However, the most irrational thing in this world is love. Although they returned to the city with thousands of miles separating the two, the girl seemed to occupy Mr. Yang’s every waking thought. He even visited her whenever the opportunity arose. Such a distinct contrast in their identities and the backwardness of the times made it impossible for them to marry. But for her, he was willing to stay single for the rest of his life.

Madam Hu secretly shed tears of heartache over his resolve. No matter how she tried, she had no way of moving him so she decided to wait.

Thus she waited and waited as this miserable love triangle tormented the three of them for forty years. Old Madam Hu thought she would carry this regret into her grave but unexpectedly, the woman died from illness five years ago. The chance to enter the old man’s life was here and she finally married him as she had always dreamed of.

Despite being well aware she was only a substitute to fill the loneliness in his old age, she had no regrets or complaints. After all, she had loved the man deeply all her life, and every day with him was a blessing she cherished.

But who could have predicted the arrival of a girl from Yundian Province who would shatter their peaceful, idyllic life? Bearing almost the exact same appearance as the ”third party” of that year, this girl was the woman’s daughter!

Ever since the girl walked into their lives, the old man devoted all his time to her, becoming indifferent to much else. Enraged, Madam Hu watched on in hatred as she wondered if the love she had exchanged her entire life for would so easily be destroyed.