"I still remember the big scandal when Yang Huixian and her younger sister Yang Huishu fought over the same man. Is it possible that Yang Huixian, bitter over losing that fight, deliberately switched the children out of spite?"
"Very possible—that whole two-sisters-fighting-over-one-man affair was a huge deal back then…"
Clearly, there's never a shortage of clever people in this world.
The moment An Ran merely stated the fact that she wasn't the biological daughter of Yang Huixian and An Hegui, someone immediately pieced together the truth from back then.
An Ran, playing the part of someone hearing this for the 'first' time, wore a shocked expression at just the right moment: "What do you mean, two women fighting over one man? Who were they fighting over? My uncle? Then how did she end up marrying my dad afterward? You all knew my mom and my aunt were fighting over my uncle, but there's no way my dad didn't know. So why would he marry my mom? Didn't he feel uncomfortable about it?"
Granny Liu chuckled slyly: "That just shows your mom had some tricks up her sleeve!"
Then again, if An Hegui knew that Yang Huixian had deliberately switched the children because she lost the fight for a man, would he still be able to accept her without any resentment? After all, it would mean her heart might still hold a place for his own brother…
An Ran only knew the general outline of how Yang Huixian and her twin sister Yang Huishu had fought over the same man back then. Now, hearing everyone spill the details, she learned that Yang Huixian had been so desperate to marry An Heping that she'd thrown aside all feminine modesty and gone to the An family home to curry favor with An Heping's parents. Not only that—at the engagement ceremony of An Heping and Yang Huishu, Yang Huixian had gotten into a physical brawl with Yang Huishu on the spot. The two sisters had cut ties for a long time afterward, and it was only when Yang Huixian was pregnant with her second child that she took the initiative to apologize to Yang Huishu, and the sisters finally reconciled.
Now it was clear—this wasn't a true reconciliation at all. It was simply biding her time for revenge. The sheer scheming was enough to send chills down anyone's spine!
Before An Ran could fan the flames any further, the righteous-minded mothers and grandmothers had already reached their limit. They grabbed An Ran and first went to find An Ran's biological mother, Yang Huishu, who lived in another building of the family quarters, to explain the situation. Then they dragged the shocked, disbelieving Yang Huishu to the factory to confront An Ran's biological father, An Heping, along with An Hegui and Yang Huixian.
An Heping was the head of the factory's security department. Upon learning the truth from the group of mothers and grandmothers, he was equally stunned. However, adhering to the principle that family scandals shouldn't be aired in public, An Heping dismissed the women and brought An Ran and his wife, along with An Hegui and Yang Huixian, into his office to handle the matter.
One couldn't blame An Heping and Yang Huishu for never having suspected the identity of their daughter An Shu—because An Shu's blood type was A, and Yang Huishu's blood type was also A. Although An Shu looked more like Yang Huixian, Yang Huixian always talked about atavism, so they subconsciously assumed their daughter had inherited genes from her maternal grandfather.
Now it was clear: An Shu had indeed inherited her maternal grandfather's genes, but she'd also inherited her biological mother's genes.
An Heping and Yang Huishu looked at An Ran's blood test report, then at how much she resembled his wife (herself), and their emotions were complicated—but so was their fury.
An Heping slammed the blood test report onto the table and demanded to know what Yang Huixian had to say for herself. At the same time, he demanded to know whether his elder brother An Hegui had been aware of this.
Based on the mothers' and grandmothers' speculation, Yang Huixian had likely been jealous of Yang Huishu back then and deliberately switched the children. He found this theory quite credible—he just didn't know whether his brother had been involved.
An Hegui shook his head blankly, saying he didn't know. Though he was reluctant to believe Yang Huixian had deliberately switched the children back then, thinking about how she'd treated An Ran with such peculiar coldness over the years made it hard not to suspect.
Yang Huixian, of course, vehemently denied it: "Something must have gone wrong somewhere, but it definitely wasn't me. If I really wanted revenge, why wouldn't I have just thrown the child away or sold her? If I wanted revenge, I'd have wanted to make you suffer. But have you suffered all these years? You didn't even know the child had been switched! Tell me—if I truly wanted revenge, why would I choose to switch the children without a sound?"
Seeing everyone's expressions begin to waver, Yang Huixian turned to An Ran with a mix of anger and hurt: "I only scolded you a few times this morning. You flipped the table at home, and I let that slide—but then you went behind my back to get a blood test? Are you that desperate not to be my daughter?"
An Ran let out a cold snort: "You only scolded me a few times? You wanted me dead. Never mind the unfairness you've shown me my whole life—just look at the sent-down-to-the-countryside business. Two years ago, before An Xin had even graduated high school, you were already arranging a job for her so she could stay in the city. As for me, I found my own job and asked you to buy it for me—you brushed me off with 'no money.' No matter how I begged, it was useless. Then you went behind my back and signed me up for the countryside program. When I went on a hunger strike to protest, you told me that as long as I wasn't dead, you'd carry me onto that train yourself. Is that something a real mother would do or say?"
"Even a tiger won't eat its own cubs. You've done something even a beast wouldn't do. Isn't it normal for me to suspect I'm not your biological child? And what about how you treated me this morning? I was starving and came out to eat, and you didn't offer a single word of comfort—instead, you snatched my bowl to stop me from eating. When I refused to wash the dishes, you slapped me so hard my nose bled. Look at all this blood on my clothes—that's the proof."
"Do you know why I went for a blood test today? Because I've reached my limit. When I went to the hospital, I'd already made up my mind: if I really am your biological child, then I'll accept my bad luck and blame only myself for not being born into better circumstances. But if I'm not your biological child, then we're going to settle all the old grudges and new grievances from all these years, one by one."
"You say you didn't deliberately switch the children, right? Then do you dare swear on An Quan and An Jue? Swear that if you switched the children back then, An Quan and An Jue won't live past sixteen, that they'll die in the most horrific way, and that they'll never be reborn, haunting you every night to demand your life. If you swear that, I'll believe you."
Yang Huixian's eyes reddened at An Ran's words: "Shut up! No matter what, they've called you Second Sister for over a decade. How can you curse them so viciously?"
An Ran: "They've told me more than once that they wished An Shu were their real Second Sister. If they knew An Shu really is their biological Second Sister, they'd be jumping for joy. That's fine—I don't like them much either. In comparison, I think the brothers An Jianshe and An Jianbang are far better than An Quan and An Jue. They're better looking and more polite. Even An Shu, whom I despise the most, seems better than An Xin. It seems there's good reason you lost to my biological mother in the fight over one man back then. Setting everything else aside, just on raising children alone, you're far inferior to my biological mother."
The thing Yang Huixian hated most in her life was being compared to Yang Huishu, and what she hated even more was having the matter of two women fighting over one man brought up. Now An Ran was not only comparing her to Yang Huishu but also dredging up that old rivalry, which shattered Yang Huixian's composure in an instant. She immediately admitted that she had deliberately switched the children back then:
"If I'd known it would come to this one day, I would have just thrown you away back then and watched your biological parents raise my daughter as their precious treasure…"