"Mr. Tang, where are you taking me?" Zhang Jiren asked as he looked out the window of the passenger seat, where he was seated and couldn't recognize where they were.

  After he blurted out the possibility of him being Tang Lixue's son, the man suddenly felt like he was on the edge of something. It was like he was a military general in the middle of a never ending war by the way he looked.

  "Didn't you say you want to know who you really are? I'm taking you to run a paternity test with me. There's no better way to know if you are mine than this."

  Zhang Jiren nodded his head in understanding. He also knew a blood test between them could prove whether or not they were related to each other, but because he already spent a hefty amount of money for hiring an investigator weeks ago, Zhang Jiren didn't have much money left in his account.

  "What if I'm not your son?" He asked in a low voice, albeit he knew that there was a very low probability that he wasn't Tang Lingjun, the younger twin of the empress.

  "Then you are not. We part ways and pretend we've never met or seen each other." Tang Lixue said in a matter of fact tone. "But you better make sure you won't approach me or my daughter ever again. The Zhangs have already taken enough from me and my daughter. I can't let another Zhang bully my little empress."

  Tang Lixue's grip on the steering wheel tightened. The Zhang family had repeatedly tormented him and his daughter, and now, he found himself seated next to a young man that could possibly be his supposed to be dead son.

  But how was it possible? How did his son end up in Zhang Xianzhe's care?

  "Start talking. Since when did you suspect that you are my son? And how did you know about me and Moyu?" He demanded from Zhang Jiren.

  Zhang Jiren then took this chance to narrate the events from the moment he was able to be aware of his surroundings, the kind of life he had in the orphanage, and how Zhang Xianzhe appeared and claimed to be his father, taking him in as part of the Zhang family.

  Throughout his narration, Tang Lixue remained silent, his eyes focused on the road in front of him, but Zhang Jiren could tell that the older man was listening by the slight frown that appeared on Tang Lixue's face.

  Tang Lixue was already in his mid-40's but he still looked good compared to his peers around his age. Just by looking at him, Zhang Jiren could tell where Tang Moyu got the charisma she had.

  As his narration reached the part where he overheard Zhang Xiazhe in his drunken state, Zhang Jiren didn't miss the subtle change on Tang Lixue's face.

  "He said that he took in Yan Qiuyu's son and wasn't able to protect her daughter. Mr. Tang, I don't understand what he meant, but I'm sure I'm the only one he adopted from the orphanage."

  Tang Lixue remained silent for a moment, pondering the answer to his question.

  "I know Qiuyu and Zhang Xianzhe knew each other, but I never thought that they were acquainted with each other."

  He could vaguely remember Yan Qiuyu telling him that she had met Zhang Wuying's brother, begging her to break up with him and allow the betrothal to continue between the Tang and Zhang families.

  "Is that all?" He asked Zhang Jiren, giving him a quick sideway glance before returning his focus on his driving.

  "Yes." Zhang Jiren replied. "I also saw Ms. Yan's picture." A smile curled his lips as he remembered Yan Qiuyu's smiling face in the photo. "She looked very much like Tang Moyu. She is definitely the spitting image of her mother." Their mother, he thought.

  Tang Lixue agreed with him. His daughter, Moyu, was really the spitting image of his beloved. That was why seeing her growing up and looking more and more like Yan Qiuyu each day was agonizing for him. Her striking resemblance to Yan Qiuyu kept reminding him of what he'd lost and could never regain again.

  There were two types of emotional pain one could suffer. The first one was the pain of losing someone, while the other was not being able to gain or have that person no matter how hard one prayed for it.

  In Tang Lixue's case, he had experienced both. He lost Yan Qiuyu in this lifetime along with his beating heart and was left with regret for not being able to be with her, no matter how much he wanted to. It was the biggest regret in his life and he blamed himself for being too weak to protect his family from danger.

  If he also lost Moyu that day, Tang Lixue was sure that he might take his own life out of despair and loneliness. It was Moyu who kept him bound to the world of the living, because if he had a choice, he would have followed his beloved in the afterlife.

  Now, faced with the possibility of having his son survived, Tang Lixue didn't know what to feel at that moment. It had been years since Yan Qiuyu's death and he still didn't have any lead to the actual cause of her death.

  But with Zhang Jiren's sudden appearance here, there was no doubt anymore that the Zhang family was involved in the tragedy that befell his family.

  If Zhang Jiren was really Tang Lingjun, this also meant that he also needed to protect his son from both families, but how the hell would he do that when he couldn't even protect his beloved daughter from his estranged wife?

  When they arrived at their destination, Tang Lixue and Zhang Jiren immediately gave their blood samples and were oriented on what to expect and how long the test would take. Given that the lab was highly accredited, the result should be ready in two to five business days.

  Tang Lixue nodded and stepped into the hallway with Zhang Jiren.