Volume 1, Chapter 144: If Not You That Night, Then Who Was It

Huo Cong and Huo Xiaobei stared at each other face to face, utterly dumbfounded.
Twin brothers? Biological?
Are you two talking about us?
Although the two boys often addressed each other as "brother," it was merely an expression of fondness—a habit Huo Xiaobei had picked up from Third Uncle.
Wan Sandao had "my own brother" on the tip of his tongue every single day.
Yet, if they truly were real brothers, there would be no need to constantly emphasize it.
Huo Mingting was struck as if by lightning, the blood in his veins turning instantly cold.
The very moment Ye Sheng flipped open the DNA test report, Huo Mingting had charged in, snatching the document straight from her hands and quickly scanning through the pages.
The freshly printed paper still held a crisp edge, rustling noisily as he flipped it.
He stopped abruptly.
Line after line of text flashed before his eyes, but that single result was magnified countless times, striking his mind like a bomb.
"Impossible, this is utterly impossible..."
Huo Mingting’s face turned ashen, his mind wandering in a daze as he shook his head.
Seeing his reaction, Ye Sheng’s heart filled with sudden panic and doubt, and she snatched the test report back.
She, too, flipped through the pages with a rustling sound.
Huo Lingdong was standing right beside her. Being tall, his view was completely unobstructed, and the words on the report were displayed with absolute clarity.
Just as expected—the same as him, and the same as Ye Zhun.
—Huo Cong and Huo Xiaobei were both Huo Lingdong’s children.
And, naturally, they were Ye Sheng’s children as well.
The air in the consulting room grew heavy and viscous, and in the silence, only the sound of Huo Mingting’s heavy, labored breathing could be heard.
His heart could not bear such a shock. The bones throughout his body turned weak, unable to support his frame. His waist buckled, and leaning his hands against the edge of the table, he desperately gasped for breath.
Like a dying dog, his breathing was heavy, strained, and desolate.
Ye Sheng was in no better shape than Huo Mingting.
Her entire mind went completely blank.

What on earth was going on?
Cong'er was, of course, her child, but how had Xiaobei somehow become hers as well?
And how had Cong'er suddenly turned out to be Brother Ling’s child...
She and Brother Ling, they...
The instant Huo Mingting and Ye Sheng locked eyes, it felt as though a bolt of lightning had simultaneously cleaved open a rainy night from six years ago.
"That night..." The corners of Huo Mingting’s eyes were bloodshot, his hands gripping the table so tightly that the voice he managed didn't sound human, hoarse and terrifying, "Wasn't it you?"
Ye Sheng’s body swayed violently, but a large hand reached out to steady her back.
A shudder ran through her entire frame as she raised her head to look at Huo Lingdong.
Her pupils dilated and trembled violently.
That night... was it you?
—
Wan Sandao had gone off to handle some other matters today and missed out on all the excitement.
Rushing to the hospital only to find empty rooms, he called Ye Zhun, who simply told him to come straight home, saying everyone was there.
Wan Sandao was completely baffled. On a regular weekday, nobody had to go to work?
With such a thing having happened, who could possibly have the heart to work?
The moment Wan Sandao returned home, he learned this earth-shattering news from Ye Zhun and was so shocked he tumbled right out of his chair.
"What on earth?"
Ye Zhun belonged to the category of bystanders who saw things clearly. With his sharp eyes, the moment he saw Huo Xiaobei and Huo Cong sitting together, he sensed they were biological brothers.
They say a nephew takes after his uncle; Ye Zhun had previously felt that Xiaobei resembled him, sharing an instant sense of familiarity upon meeting, though he hadn't given it much thought back then.
As the children grew older, however, their features became more distinct and they looked more and more alike. The moment doubt took root in Ye Zhun’s mind, he took immediate action.
Huo Lingdong had harbored no such suspicions, having never once imagined that he and Ye Sheng could have had any prior connection.
Yet Ye Zhun’s doubts were obvious to him at a glance.
That night, Ye Zhun had slipped into the room and deliberately plucked a few hairs from each of the two boys, only to be caught red-handed by Huo Lingdong. When Huo Lingdong told him to stop messing around, Ye Zhun had reached out and plucked a few strands from him as well.
"Let the facts speak for themselves," Ye Zhun had said. "If it's not true, well and good. But if it really is..."
Recalling how deeply invested Huo Mingting had been in Huo Cong, an indescribable feeling welled up in his chest, and he sighed, "Then things are going to get terribly complicated."
And complicated things certainly became.
Ye Sheng and Huo Mingting sat on the sofa, with a pile of test reports spread out across the coffee table.
Huo Xiaobei and Huo Cong’s, Huo Mingting and Huo Cong’s, Huo Lingdong and Huo Cong’s, Ye Sheng and Huo Xiaobei’s... they had checked every conceivable combination at the hospital.
Yet no matter how they tested it, the results remained identical.
Huo Cong and Huo Xiaobei were fraternal twins, born to Ye Sheng and Huo Lingdong.
They had no relation whatsoever to Huo Mingting.
"Why?"
Huo Mingting’s hair was already rumpled and messy, his clothes creased. Plunged into a state of utter confusion and unprecedented despair, he asked Ye Sheng, "Why?"
Ye Sheng wanted to ask the exact same question.
As she met Huo Mingting’s gaze, it was impossible to tell whose eyes were redder.
"You're asking me?" Ye Sheng’s voice was dry and hoarse. "I don't know."
"Then who does know? Who knows?!" Huo Mingting’s voice suddenly rose in pitch.
Huo Lingdong’s dark, fathomless eyes fixed on him. "Huo Mingting, calm down."
"How do you expect me to calm down?" Huo Mingting abruptly stood up. Unable to steady himself, standing on the very brink of a complete emotional collapse, his eyes were so red they looked as though they might bleed. "The son I raised with my own hands isn't mine?"
He pointed at himself and suddenly began to laugh. That laughter, laced with sobs, echoed through the vast living room, laden with desolation.
Wan Sandao and Ye Zhun looked over at Huo Mingting.
No matter how unfavorable their usual impression of him might be, at this moment, a sliver of sympathy welled up within them for Huo Mingting. Placed in such a situation, anyone would have collapsed.
It was impossible to face it with a calm and level mind.
"Ye Sheng, tell me."
With bloodshot eyes, Huo Mingting glared at Ye Sheng. "If that night wasn't you, then who was it? Since the child you carried wasn't mine, why on earth did you marry me?"