Chapter 170 The Grand Finale

Chapter 170 The Final Reckoning

Tang Ruomei had just hung up the phone with an old classmate, and the moment the call ended, her face fell. As she turned to face Xu Jibai, who was sitting by the bed reading a newspaper, rage boiled up inside her.

She had never encountered a more foolish family than that one.

"I just spoke to Zhao Ming."

Only then did Xu Jibai lower the newspaper, his gaze fixed on Tang Ruomei. He probably already knew what she was about to say. For a while now, the two of them had had their suspicions but hadn’t confronted the situation directly at the Big Locust Tree. Instead, they had been busy gathering evidence from various sources.

But the more they investigated, the more obvious the truth became—and the more chilling and disheartening it grew.

Tang Ruomei sneered, "They actually thought they could play us for fools. That Xu Jia isn’t our daughter at all. Back when they registered her household registration, they took a liking to our Jiajia’s name and put it on their own child. Our real daughter is Xu Meng. A year ago, they kicked her out, and the one who led her away was her adoptive mother—the wife of their third son."

Not only had they stolen her daughter’s life, but they had also taken her name.

Xu Jibai’s expression darkened instantly. "Is this what Zhao Ming just told you?"

Tang Ruomei stormed over, yanked the newspaper out of his hands, and threw it to the ground. "This is common knowledge in the Big Locust Tree neighborhood. Do I really need to go around asking? The old neighbors who’ve lived there for decades—every single one of them can tell you the jokes about that family. You can choose to believe in your aunt’s character if you want, but I don’t. That whole family is no good."

Xu Jibai still couldn’t believe it. "So that’s why you—"

Tang Ruomei’s intuition had always been sharp. From the very first meeting, she had doubted them—she just hadn’t been sure at the time.

She had chosen to keep that family at arm’s length while also observing Xu Jia. If she really had been their Jiajia, they would have taken her back and raised her properly themselves. But after several interactions—

Today’s phone call had completely confirmed her earlier suspicions. Now, she saw the Xu family for exactly what they were—wolves in sheep's clothing.

"They took so much from us back then, and yet this is how they treated my daughter. Do you know what your aunt did to her? She forced her to drop out of high school and go work to earn money for her grandson’s marriage!" Tang Ruomei had nearly smashed the phone in rage, wishing she could march over to the Big Locust Tree and slap that old witch's face. "If Mengmeng dared to talk back, she’d withhold food as punishment."

Xu Jibai said, "In that case—"

Tang Ruomei snapped instantly. "Just stay out of this!"

Xu Jibai: "We have to abide by the law."

Tang Ruomei threw the newspaper back at his face. "Relax, I won’t do anything illegal."

Men were useless anyway!

She’d handle this herself.

————

At first, the family hadn’t sensed anything wrong. After all, they had just reunited and weren’t familiar yet.

When they returned, Wang Meili still scolded Xu Jia: "Didn't you say you'd recognize your rich parents? They were right in front of you, and you couldn’t even call them ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad.’ So useless!" That’s what Wang Meili had said at the time.

But for once, Xu Jia showed some sense: "They're not going anywhere. Just because you say I’m their daughter, does that mean they’ll accept it? They know where we live. If they go out and ask around, they’ll find out the truth soon enough."

She wasn’t brilliant, but she wasn’t a complete fool. Even she understood something this simple.

Now, caught in this awkward position, was the worst possible situation.

But it wasn’t as if Xu Jibai completely rejected Xu Jia. Occasionally, Tang Ruomei would still come by to take her out.

Gradually, the Xu family began to sense something was off. At first, Tang Ruomei would pick Xu Jia up, take her shopping, and buy her new clothes. But over time, the two families grew distant. Eventually, Tang Ruomei stopped coming altogether. Sometimes Xu Jibai would stop by, but he never stayed long.

If they hadn't gotten their hopes up, maybe they might have accepted it.

But with this looming expectation, each day felt unbearable. Wang Meili initially worried that her daughter would be taken away, but gradually, she began to hope her daughter would be taken away sooner.

But they just wouldn’t come for her.

So the Xu family’s daily chatter revolved around when Xu Jia would be taken away—or if she would be taken away at all.

It was pure psychological torture.

Xu Jibai and his wife didn’t confront them outright and still maintained some contact, which made the Xu family even more distracted. Soon, Wang Meili was called in by her supervisor due to a major accident on the production line and was dismissed from the workforce.

Wang Meili had no idea what was going on lately. Her mind kept wandering, and she’d space out at work, but she never imagined she’d make such a grave mistake that would cost her her job. She barely remembered how she got home.

Back home, she didn’t dare tell her family. She’d always sneered at Feng Yanwen the most for not having a job and just staying home to take care of the kids.

Xu Laoer was still unaware of what had happened and was about to discuss something with her when he noticed her absent-mindedness. He called her name several times, but she didn’t respond.

"Wang Meili, what’s on your mind?" Xu Laoer was going through a rough patch himself.

He worked at a state-owned stationery factory where business had been poor. For the past couple of years, the factory couldn’t even pay performance bonuses. Every day was just scraping by. If Xu Jibai kept dragging his feet about taking Xu Jia, she’d continue freeloading at home, and Xu Laoer had no idea how they’d survive.

"You think Third Brother knows?" Xu Laoer scratched his head in frustration. "He’s so wishy-washy. Why can’t he just spit it out? Now I can’t even focus at work. Today, I almost got hit by a car on the street."

Truth was, he’d slammed into a cyclist, but he played the victim and yelled at them. The cyclist took one look at his belligerence, didn’t bother arguing, and rode off cursing. But by the time Xu Laoer got to work, he realized he’d sprained his ankle.

Wang Meili froze. "You think he knows?"

Figuring this out wouldn’t be hard—just ask around.

Back then, it never crossed their minds that Xu Jibai would come back from the labor camp, so they hadn’t planned ahead. Xu Meng’s true identity had never been a secret.

Wang Meili smacked the table, furious. "If we’d known, if we’d known this would happen, we should’ve switched the two girls from the start."

But life doesn’t give do-overs.

Maybe if they’d known Xu Jibai would stay here, they should’ve come clean. After all, they’d raised Xu Meng for seventeen years. They might’ve at least gotten a little payoff for raising her. But now? They’d passed off their own daughter as Xu Jibai’s child, and he’d found out. Of course he wouldn’t let it slide.

Wang Meili’s dismissal couldn’t be hidden for long, and the family soon found out.

When Granny Xue learned her daughter-in-law had lost her job, she reacted as usual—first cursing Wang Meili’s ancestors eighteen generations back. She could rattle off curses like breathing. Wang Meili used to love egging her on, because Granny Xue’s usual target was Feng Yanwen. She could listen guilt-free.

But now the vitriol was aimed at her, it wasn’t so fun anymore. Wang Meili was already on edge—frustrated with her daughter, resentful of her useless husband who did nothing all day, and now this old woman pointing fingers and screaming at her. Who could take that?

Finally, snapping, Wang Meili stormed into Granny Xue’s room. "You old hag, keep cursing, go on—"

Everyone in the neighborhood knew the Xu family was toast.

Xu Jia was a hopeless case by now. She had no interest in finding a job, obsessed only with claiming her rich father. She couldn’t even stand the sight of her own parents.

Xu Laoer, who’d sprained his ankle that day and hadn’t gone to the hospital in time, now his foot was swollen like a balloon, making it hard to walk. Seeing his condition, his coworkers advised him to apply for early medical retirement.

At his age, early retirement wouldn’t bring much of a pension.

Wang Meili resented him, and the couple grew to despise each other.

The Xu family’s meltdown was the talk of the town, becoming a laughingstock among the locals. As for what happened later—when Wang Meili scraped together what dignity she had left to ask Huzi’s mother for help sourcing hot pot base to sell, only to get shot down—but that’s another story.

It was only then that Wang Meili learned the thriving hot pot base business actually belonged to Xu Meng.

The business belonged to Xu Meng!

This was a crushing blow to the entire Xu family.

They hadn’t collapsed when Xu Meng got into Peking University, but now that she had built such a thriving business, the whole family was green with envy.

They couldn’t bask in the glory of Peking University, but if Xu Meng hadn’t left home a year ago, this income would have belonged to the family.

Who could have imagined this day over a year ago? If they had known, they would never have driven the girl away. But now it was too late. Xu Meng, that ungrateful brat, had completely severed ties with the Xu family and earned so much money without giving them a single cent.

Granny Xue was sick with regret, yet she still put on a brave face: “That cold-hearted wretch Xu Meng must have been sneakily earning money outside long ago, hiding it from us all! That ungrateful little wretch!”

Wang Meili was also sick with regret. Who wouldn’t be? If Xu Meng were still at home, this business should have belonged to the entire Xu family.

She couldn’t help but curse Xu Meng a few times, only to provoke a flurry of blows from Granny Xue: “If Xu Meng can earn this money, why can’t you? Everyone has a brain—why can’t you make money? You useless thing!”

Granny Xue then started raking up the past—how Wang Meili had egged her on to scold Xu Meng, how some past incident had made her lose her temper with Xu Meng because of something Wang Meili had done...

Naturally, Wang Meili refused to take the insults lying down and snapped back: “Don’t act like a saint—we all know who you really are. You never wanted to treat her well either. You were jealous of her grandmother, weren’t you? Don’t think I don’t know. You’re just jealous of Xu Meng’s grandmother, a toad dreaming of eating swan meat. Those scandals from your youth—just because you don’t talk about them doesn’t mean I don’t know!”

When Granny Xue heard her daughter-in-law airing her dirty laundry in front of her sons, she was itching to slap Wang Meili’s mouth shut.

Overwhelmed by fury, her head spun, her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed onto the bed.

Meanwhile, standing in the alley, Xu Jibai’s face was like thunder, his expression so dark you could’ve wrung water from his scowl.

He had never heard Wang Meili’s accusations about Granny Xue’s jealousy toward his mother before. But now, thinking back, the old woman had indeed been overly kind to him while never giving his wife the time of day.

The truth was now clear: the girl named Xu Meng, who had left the Xu family a year ago, was his real daughter.

The Xu family’s current complete mess was Tang Ruomei’s revenge.

Everyone knew the Xu family was beyond saving.

Tang Ruomei had merely used their greed and materialism to use a feather to tip the scales and play them like a fiddle.

After some deliberation, the couple decided to visit Feng Yanwen.

They arrived bearing expensive gifts.

Following the address provided by a classmate, they found Yanwen English Training School in Changchun Alley. They entered during a break between classes.

The place was lively, with many children running and laughing in the courtyard. A young, pretty girl sat at the front desk. When they asked if Teacher Feng was there, the receptionist assumed they were enrolling their child and said registration could be done with her. Tang Ruomei shook her head and said she was a friend of Teacher Feng.

The receptionist, completely clueless, pointed them toward the back.

Tang Ruomei exchanged a glance with her husband and headed to the rear courtyard.

Further back were several offices. She quickly spotted one that was occupied—two people inside. The seated woman seemed the elder of the two, perhaps in her thirties, while the standing girl rang a bell. Tang Ruomei suddenly remembered—she had seen her at Peking University not long ago. What had they called her then?

She dug her nails into her palm and looked at her husband.

The same confusion mirrored her bewilderment.

"...The one who spoke earlier is Xu Meng, this year’s third-highest scorer in liberal arts in the capital’s college entrance exams..."

Both had sharp memories, but they hadn’t connected that scene to their daughter. Now, recalling their encounter at Peking University and that student’s speech, Tang Ruomei remembered vividly—her English had been impeccable, her eyes sparkling with intelligence.

Could that be...?

Xu Meng was just discussing with Feng Yanwen the idea of adding an IELTS training course: “We could start with a small trial class. There might not be much demand now, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be in the future. Overseas study will only grow, and the need for this training will only grow.”

Feng Yanwen also expressed her own views; she disagreed somewhat.

She only agreed to add a Gaokao prep course, which was a safe bet. In the second half of the year, they had used Xu Meng for advertising and recruited many students, but none of them had been brought over yet.

Xu Meng sighed and said, "But the difficulty of the college entrance exam questions will increase every year. Spending time on this will be inefficient."

Tang Ruomei and her husband lingered quietly by the office door, listening to the mother and daughter argue. As their argument escalated, neither backed down—especially Xu Meng, who already had strong opinions. Even Feng Yanwen couldn’t out-argue her now and was so frustrated that she rapped the table with her pen.

Tears welled up in Xu Jibai’s eyes. Only at this moment did he truly understand what his wife had always emphasized—that feeling.

She had said, "When you see your own biological child, you’ll feel something different."

Last time, he had sensed it—among so many people, he had felt something special about this girl.

This time, he felt it even more intensely, something he had never experienced when meeting that "Xu Jia" before.

Xu Jibai’s palms grew sweaty with nervousness until the other party also looked over. Both composed themselves and walked inside.

The woman inside also changed expression, her smile fading.

Seeing them enter, the woman said to the girl, "Xu Meng, go get some water."

Xu Meng glanced at them, a sense of familiarity nagged at her. She scrambled to remember where she had seen them before, but still obediently went out to get water, still trying to place them.

Unable to recall, she gave up and silently went to pour the water.

Once Xu Meng left, the couple placed the gifts they had brought on the table.

Feng Yanwen held up a hand to decline, first gesturing for them to sit before speaking. "So you’re here?"

Tang Ruomei’s throat was so dry with tension that even she, usually eloquent, didn’t know how to respond.

Feng Yanwen smiled. "You’re Xu Meng’s real parents, aren’t you? I see you’ve been back for a while. Why only come now? It wouldn’t have been hard to track her down. Is there something you want to confirm?"

Xu Jibai quickly waved his hands. "No, it’s not like that."

But Tang Ruomei said, "No, he’s partly right. Actually, it is like that. We haven’t seen our child in so many years, and unlike in novels, she doesn’t have any obvious birthmarks or anything. She was so small back then, without even a freckle. Even if she walked right past us, I couldn’t guarantee I’d recognize her."

As much as she knew it was true, Feng Yanwen couldn’t help but frown.

"Then why didn’t you come looking sooner?"

Xu Meng, holding the teacups, froze in the doorway. This was something she had always wanted to know—why hadn’t they come sooner?

"We did look, but to no avail," the woman said. "For seven or eight years, we tried to reach out, but you know how things were back then. Before we left, we had almost cut off contact with relatives here. The only ones we were close to were that family—otherwise, we wouldn’t have left our child with them."

Tang Ruomei’s tears fell instantly. "In 1976, with a friend’s help, her father and I went to Hong Kong. After settling there, we did write to the Xu family. From 1978 to 1994, we sent many letters and money back through contacts in the south, but those letters went unanswered. At the time, we didn’t leave through proper channels, so returning from Hong Kong was difficult. A friend suggested we go to the U.S. first, obtain proper status, and then come back..."

There were many twists and turns. Back then, Hong Kongers’ understanding of the mainland’s situation wasn’t complete. For a time, they struggled to even eat and feared being deported—those with one-way permits faced severe consequences if sent back.

They could only rely on friends traveling between the two places to continuously deliver letters and money.

Feng Yanwen closed her eyes, mourning life’s twists. During that time, she had just entered university—the years when her relationship with the Xu family was most strained. With only one day off each week, she would return from school and work hard to please the family, terrified they might cause trouble at her university and get her expelled.

Getting into university back then was no small feat, and schools had strict rules. No one could guarantee nothing bad would happen.

So Feng Yanwen had never noticed any letters arriving from the south.

But Xu Meng, standing outside the door, understood. All along, someone in the Xu family had known—they had taken the money and known her parents were looking for her, but told no one.

And the only one who could have done all this was Granny Xue, as almost all the letters in the household passed through her hands, and she was greedy.

Now she remembered who this couple was. She recalled seeing Xu Jia with an elderly pair at an exhibition in her past life, though they had looked much more weathered and elderly back then, making it hard to connect them at first.

This explained why Xu Jia had turned on her violently in her past life—she knew Xu Meng had met her biological parents.

She was terrified. She was afraid.

Even Xu Jia’s later fortune and cutting off her old neighbors made sense now.

The demolition of the big locust tree neighborhood happened relatively early, around the early 2000s. Compensation back then was usually just a few hundred thousand, hardly enough for a three-bedroom apartment, leaving many residents resentful. Only the Xu family signed the relocation agreement early, in a hurry to move out. Xu Jia’s later successful investments also had an explanation—Xu Jibai and his wife wouldn’t have come back with nothing after so many years in the U.S. They likely had savings and possibly even family assets, all worth a considerable sum.

Xu Jia feared that Xu Meng, having met her biological parents, might uncover something. In her panic, she didn’t care about the consequences.

Getting rid of her was the best solution Xu Jia could think of.

Many unanswered questions now had explanations. Xu Meng’s knees buckled, and the cup in her hand slipped to the ground.

The sound of shattering porcelain jolted the three back to reality. Xu Jibai, standing closest to the door, rushed out first and saw Xu Meng, pale but unharmed, the cup shattered at her feet.

He let out a relieved sigh. "Xu Meng?"

Xu Meng blinked, tears rolling down her cheeks in large drops, uncertain if it was relief or heartache.

She couldn’t pinpoint any special emotions toward this couple, nor could she summon resentment. Her mind was blank.

Even in the late '70s and early '80s, when educated youth still couldn’t return to the cities, many parents sent their children to live with urban relatives just to secure them an urban residency status. The big locust tree neighborhood alone had several such cases. Growing up, Xu Meng had befriended many of these children and never felt different from them. If her parents hadn’t reclaimed her, was it because they didn’t love her?

Yet she still felt wronged. No wonder the old saying went, "A child bursts into tears at the sight of their mother, for no reason at all."

From silent tears to uncontrollable sobs, Xu Meng broke into loud, heaving sobs.

The two mothers’ hearts broke watching her. Tang Ruomei stepped forward, but Feng Yanwen stopped her. "Let her cry. Once she’s done, she’ll be able to accept this calmly."

She sighed. "She’s truly hurt. You don’t know how she’s lived all these years, unsure whether she was abandoned or just fostered. There were many children like her in the big locust tree neighborhood. At first, she found common ground with them, but as she grew older, she felt different—because some of those children’s parents eventually returned to the city, or they at least lived with grandparents or other relatives. She was the odd one out. Thankfully, she later found friends. Now she’s just crying out years of bottled-up grief. Let her cry."

A life begins with a wail, welcoming a new existence.

And now, for Xu Meng, everything finally made sense. She found peace.

This was her farewell to the past, embracing the life ahead.

This cry marked the start of Xu Meng’s new life.