After intimidating the Tang family members, Li Yi said calmly, “I don’t care how much you dislike Xiao Xue, but as far as I’m concerned, she is my wife. Anyone who dares to lay a hand on her in front of me will meet the same fate as that chair!”
“You… do you really think the Tang family has no one left? How dare you run wild in our Tang household? You should take a good look in the mirror…”
Before Tang Jizhong could finish, Li Yi coldly cut him off: “Hmph, if you hadn’t said anything, I’d have actually thought the Tang family was out of people!”
“You…”
“Logically speaking, I should be addressing you as Father-in-Law…”
“Stop right there! A son-in-law like you—let whoever wants to claim you do so, but I, Tang Jizhong, certainly won’t!” Tang’s father snapped angrily.
Before Li Yi could say a word, Tang Xue spoke up loudly: “He’s my husband. I accept him. I don’t care whether you do or not!”
“You damn girl, are you trying to give me a heart attack?”
Tang Jizhong made a move as if he were about to strike again, but when he saw Li Yi’s cold expression, he ultimately didn’t dare to approach.
Li Yi patted his wife’s arm, signaling her not to get upset.
Then Li Yi continued, “I don’t care whether you accept me as your son-in-law or not, but there are some things we need to make clear. To say that the Tang family has no men is putting it mildly. If any of the men in this family had even a shred of backbone, they wouldn’t be sitting here discussing how to sell their daughter like this!”
“Who are you calling a daughter-seller? Who?” Tang Jizhong roared angrily.
“Isn’t that exactly what you’re doing? Forcing your daughter to marry an old widower who’s even older than you, just to secure a better job for your other daughter—what were you thinking?”
“What do you care what we think? What’s it got to do with you?” Tang Bing shouted from the side, her voice grating on the ears.
Li Yi shot her a cold glare and said, “You should be grateful you’re far enough away from me. Otherwise, I’d definitely slap your face until it swelled up!”
Faced with Li Yi’s glare, Tang Bing shuddered all over.
It was just a single glance, yet she felt as if she were being stared at by some terrifying beast.
“Don’t talk about my sister like that!” Tang Lei shouted.
Li Yi’s lips curled slightly upward, and he fixed his gaze on him. “She’s your sister? Hah. What about Tang Xue? Isn’t she your sister too? Yet I’ve never seen you stand up for her even once!”
“How can you compare them? She’s not…”
Before Tang Lei could finish, Tang Jizhong suddenly shouted, “Shut up! What nonsense are you spouting to him?”
Then, Tang Jizhong turned to Li Yi and shouted angrily, “Get out of here! You’re not welcome in this house!”
“Haha, it’s fine if you don’t welcome me. To be honest, if it weren’t for Xiao Xue, do you think I’d even be here?”
Then, Li Yi glanced at Tang Lei and said with a cold smile, “You were about to say, ‘She’s not your real sister,’ weren’t you?”
At those words, Tang Lei froze, and Tang Jizhong, Li Hongmei, and Tang Bing all froze as well.
Tang Xue, standing nearby, was even more stunned. She stared at Li Yi in disbelief, unable to fathom why he would say such a thing.
Although she had completely given up on these so-called relatives, she had never once doubted her own origins.
“You… what nonsense are you spouting? How could she not be our daughter? You…”
“1,000 yuan!”
“What?”
“Tell me Tang Xue’s true origins, and I’ll give you 1,000 yuan!” Li Yi said calmly.
In his previous life, because Tang Xue had died so young, and since these people were, after all, her biological parents—even though he knew full well they were implicated in her death—Li Yi had never pressed them for answers.
In fact, later on, he even gave the Tang family a sum of money to have Tang Xue’s grave relocated.
But after his rebirth, as he learned more and more, Li Yi began to harbor deep suspicions about her background.
They say a parent loves both sons and daughters equally—though there is a preference for sons over daughters, he had never seen such blatant favoritism toward one daughter over another.
The idea of trading one daughter’s happiness for another’s job is absurd just to think about.
No normal family would ever do such a thing!
Combining this with the various inconsistencies and oddities he’d encountered in both his past and present lives, Li Yi formed a bold hypothesis—Tang Xue wasn’t a member of the Tang family.
In other words, her current parents were not her biological parents!
The temptation of a thousand yuan was still very strong; after all, that was equivalent to Tang Jizhong’s salary for three years—and that’s assuming he didn’t spend a single penny.
But if he could secure that connection with Director Liu, he might just get promoted to workshop director.
With that in mind, Tang Jizhong gritted his teeth and said, “Don’t you dare…”
“Two thousand yuan!”
“You…”
“3,000 yuan!”
“Deal!”
Tang Jizhong hurriedly agreed—this was equivalent to his total income over ten years, so he couldn’t help but be tempted.
But just to be on the safe side, he stared at Li Yi and asked, “Can you really come up with three thousand yuan?”
Li Yi didn’t beat around the bush. He pulled three neat stacks of 100-yuan bills from the shoulder bag he was carrying and shook them in his hand.
He’d brought a total of five thousand yuan with him when he left home, two thousand of which were set aside for the Tang family.
Of course, that was on the condition that everyone remained on good terms, not at each other’s throats.
Seeing those three thick bundles of cash, the Tang family members all instinctively swallowed hard.
That’s three thousand yuan—enough to buy a large courtyard house in their small town.
With this money, even without relying on Bald Old Liu, they could use it to secure a job for Tang Bing—one that might even be better than the one at the steel mill.
“The money is right here. Tell us Tang Xue’s true background, and this money is yours!” Li Yi said again.
“Alright, I’ll tell you!”
Then Tang Jizhong looked at Tang Xue and said, “Xiao Xue, you really aren’t our biological daughter…”
Hearing this, Tang Xue stumbled backward several steps. If Li Yi hadn’t been quick on his feet to catch her, she might have fallen to the ground.
This revelation was truly hard for her to accept, but upon reflection, it seemed to be the most logical explanation.
At that moment, all the unfair treatment she had endured since childhood flashed through her mind.
She had always resented her parents for treating her unfairly, but she had never once imagined that she wasn’t actually their biological daughter.
At this thought, Tang Xue didn’t even know what kind of emotions were swirling inside her.
Seeing that Tang Xue’s emotions had seemingly stabilized, Li Yi asked again, “So who exactly are Xiao Xue’s biological parents, and why did she end up becoming your child?”
Tang Jizhong replied immediately, “The story goes back 19 years. I remember that winter, Xiao Lei’s mother was more than six months pregnant when she fainted from a work-related miscarriage and had to be rushed to the hospital. They managed to save her, but the baby was lost.”
“On the very same day, a woman in her twenties was also admitted to the same hospital. She gave birth to a baby girl, but she begged us in tears to take the child away!”
“We had just lost our own child, and seeing that this baby was all alone—with her mother even trying to abandon her—we decided to adopt her. That child is Xiao Xue!”
Li Yi only believed half of what Tang Jizhong said.
While Tang Jizhong was speaking, Li Yi kept staring into his eyes. His eyes kept darting around as he spoke—clearly, he was lying about certain things.
“What was that woman’s name, and where was Xue’er born?” Li Yi asked again.
“We don’t know her first name, but I know her surname is Ye. As for the hospital, it was the Maple Leaf Town Health Center!” Tang Jizhong replied.
“Did Xue’er’s biological mother leave her any keepsake?” Li Yi asked again.
“No, no. She just gave us 20 yuan! But she was the one who named her Xue’er!” Tang Jizhong said.
“Did Xue’er’s biological mother ever come looking for her later?”
“I don’t know. We later moved from Maple Leaf Town to the county seat, so even if she had come, it would have been hard for her to find us!” Tang Jizhong said.
Li Yi looked at Tang Xue and asked, “Xue’er, is there anything you’d like to ask?”
“No, nothing!”
But she turned to Tang Jizhong and Li Hongmei and said, “Father, Mother, please let me call you that one last time. I’ve always complained that the two of you favored my eldest brother and third sister, but it turns out I was just being ungrateful. I’d like to apologize to you both right here!”
“Also, I want to say that I’m very grateful to you for raising me. Thank you. But I really can’t marry Director Liu, because not only am I already married to Li Yi, but I’m also pregnant with his child.”
“Take these three thousand yuan. Consider it my way of repaying you for raising me. From now on, just treat me as if I were no longer your daughter!”
With that, Tang Xue took the money from Li Yi’s hand and placed it on the dining table.
Then, taking Li Yi’s hand, she walked right out of the Tang household!