Chapter Five: An Unexpected Surprise

When Tang Wei saw Tian Meiling again, she noticed how haggard she looked, but instead of feeling hatred, she felt an unexpected calm. Suddenly, she realized she neither resented Tian Meiling nor wished to be entangled with her any longer. The question she had always wanted to ask—why Tian Meiling had harmed her—no longer seemed important. She gazed at her deeply for a moment, then turned to leave.

“Aren’t you curious? You clearly saw me push you in secret. Don’t you want to know why?” Tian Meiling called out from behind as Tang Wei reached the door.

“I don’t care anymore. None of this means anything now. Since I don’t intend to hold you accountable, there’s no point wasting time here. From now on, if we meet again, we’ll just be strangers.” Tang Wei didn’t turn around, answering from the doorway.

Tian Meiling shot to her feet, her voice raised, “Don’t act so superior in front of me. What gives you the right? What makes you better than me? You have no figure, no looks, just a country girl from a rural village, always playing sweet and flattering others. Why do people like you?” She seemed to realize she was getting too agitated, took a deep breath, and continued in a low voice, “I met Minghui before you did, but he chose you. Do you know how much time and effort it took for me to win him back?”

At those words, Tang Wei turned and said two words, “It was you?”

Tian Meiling seemed not to hear and went on, “You just act a little cute and the old lady is over the moon. But with me, no matter how I try to please her, she always thinks I’m wrong, that I’m not good enough for her precious son. That wretched old woman! She even threatened Minghui, saying if he stayed with me, she’d disown him. But what now? Hmph! In the end, she had to accept us being together.” At the end, her tone carried a trace of triumph.

She paused, then suddenly stroked her belly and laughed, “You don’t know this yet, but I’m pregnant. I’m carrying Minghui’s child. You were with him for years, but you couldn’t win his heart, and now I’m the one who’s pregnant. You! Maybe you deserved to be dumped! Ha!”

At that, Tang Wei could only find it ridiculous and said helplessly, “Do you want me to congratulate you? Honestly, you can relax. I’ve let go for a long time and won’t get in your way. Besides, I don’t think he’s all that great anyway.”

Tian Meiling seemed further provoked by those words, snapping, “I was going to take you out, talk things over, give you some advice. After all, you never dared to fight for what you wanted, nor did you know how to say no. I could have introduced you to someone better, and we’d still be best friends. You’d just pine for him in your heart. But you moved on so quickly! Do you know you wasted three years of my and Minghui’s time? It took me three years to win him back. Now, without him, you can still smile like nothing happened! So you never loved him at all, did you?”

Tang Wei sighed, “So what do you want from me? Do you really want me to pine for him in despair just to make you happy? Then you could use your clever words to come up with a hundred excuses for yourself, and instead of blaming you, I’d still let you lead me around by the nose. Would that give you a sense of achievement?”

“Yes! I want to see you heartbroken, devastated over him! I worked so hard to be with him, only to find you didn’t care about him at all. How can this be? I would rather see you dead!” Tian Meiling shouted. “Go ahead, sue me! That old woman loves you so much, doesn’t she? I don’t believe she’d watch her precious grandson suffer along with me!”

Tang Wei shook her head. “Is that man really worth all this? I’ve said what I needed to say. I won’t argue with you anymore. He’s not worth my longing, and you’re not worth my kindness. From now on, if I see either of you, you’ll be nothing but strangers to me.” Without looking back, she walked away, thinking silently, “Still, I should thank you. You made me discover myself. No longer will I be weak and self-effacing, always yielding to others. You gave me the courage to face whatever challenges lie ahead, and for that, you’ve given me the Purple Pearl Space!”

~

Alone on the train home, Tang Wei began planning, “Never again will I seek someone just to get married. I’ll find a shop, open a flower store, secure my livelihood, and fulfill my long-cherished wish. Life doesn't have to depend on a man, but if I meet the right one, I wouldn’t mind marrying.”

Her parents didn’t know what had happened—otherwise, she’d never hear the end of it. The pressing issue now was how to appease her eldest sister when she got home. She couldn’t reveal the real reason for the breakup, nor mention falling from the cliff; she’d have to say it was just a careless accident and downplay everything. Otherwise, knowing her sister’s temper, she’d probably turn the other family upside down. Just thinking about it made Tang Wei shudder. Since she didn’t want to get tangled up with them anymore, it was best not to stir up unnecessary trouble. Besides, given the personalities of Tian Meiling and Fang Minghui, she had no reason to get involved—they’d make each other’s lives interesting enough. When their relationship turned to open warfare, that would be the greatest punishment fate could give them—and that day was surely not far off.

Outside the T City train station stood a woman in her early thirties, dressed in a red dress. Her curvy figure drew surreptitious glances from passing men, but she seemed oblivious, her face a mask of worry as she gazed toward the station entrance, muttering, “That girl, just wait till I get ahold of her!” This woman was Tang Wei’s eldest sister, Tang Feng.

When Tang Feng had received a call from Tian Meiling, she’d nearly fainted. Although the woman had only said Tang Wei had fallen down a mountainside and was still missing, Tang Feng knew it must be serious. She couldn't leave immediately, as her three-year-old daughter Niu Niu had no one to watch her, and she couldn’t tell their parents for fear of shocking them. Only when Niu Niu’s father returned could she go. By the time she’d bought her ticket, Tang Wei herself had called to say she was safe. After confirming she was all right, Tang Feng had given her a scolding on the phone and ordered her to buy a ticket and come straight home.

When Tang Wei saw her sister waiting at the train door, she was moved in a way she’d never been before. As she approached, tears welled up in her eyes. “Sis, I’m home,” she whispered. Seeing her like that, Tang Feng was momentarily speechless, but she gave Tang Wei a hard smack on the back of the head and said, “You little rascal! Get in the car.”

Tang Feng drove straight to the hospital. In this state, Tang Wei dared not argue. On the way, she gave a brief account of what had happened; during this period of investigation, it was best to be honest. At the hospital, after a battery of tests—CT, scans, EKG, chest X-rays, and more—the two sisters finally met the attending physician, who, after a long wait, dropped a bombshell: “All indicators are normal, nothing serious. But it seems you may be one or two months pregnant. To confirm, you’ll need to consult the gynecology department.”

“Congratulations! You are eight weeks pregnant, and it’s twins. The fetuses are healthy. As long as you attend your check-ups regularly and take care...” Tang Wei was so stunned by the news that she was pregnant—twins, no less—that she didn’t hear anything that followed. Not until Tang Feng drove her home and pulled her upstairs did she snap back to reality.

“What are you planning to do?” Tang Feng asked as they sat on the sofa.

Tang Wei sat there dazed, replying, “I don’t know.”

At the sight of her like that, Tang Feng grew anxious. “You absolutely cannot have these babies. You and he have broken up! You can barely support yourself as it is—how will you support them? Do you still plan on getting married?”

“Sis, can I think about it a bit longer? I’m tired, I want to sleep.” With that, she went straight to the bedroom.