Chapter 402: It Wasn’t Me (Part 3)
The supervisor barely restrained himself from throwing his cup.
"Did you do it?" he demanded, his voice dripping with menace.
Tang Yuanxiao shook his head. "It wasn’t me."
He explained the whole sequence of events to the supervisor.
The supervisor believed he wasn’t lying, but Qin Shanshan and Mrs. Tang had sworn up and down that it was Tang Yuanxiao.
Tang Yuanxiao said it wasn’t him, but besides his own word, he had no other proof.
The doctor Tang Yuanxiao had visited could testify and serve as a witness, but it was still useless.
No one could vouch for him during the time he was agonizing in the water that night.
Meanwhile, on Qin Shanshan’s side, all the circumstances pointed to Tang Yuanxiao.
When facing human traffickers or other situations, Tang Yuanxiao could investigate. But something like this was difficult to look into. With Qin Shanshan pointing the finger and Mrs. Tang mixed up in it, the mud had been slung, and it had stuck.
In short, whether Tang Yuanxiao admitted to it or not, he was the one being blamed.
Tang Yuanxiao understood this principle deeply, and the supervisor understood it even better.
"Before this whole thing blows up, just get married."
The supervisor raised a hand to stop Tang Yuanxiao from speaking. "If you keep being stubborn like this and refuse to get married, Qin Shanshan will definitely make a scene. If this gets out, you’ll be truly ruined."
A matter like this was too serious. It wouldn’t just affect his future; it would mean he had no future.
The supervisor looked at Tang Yuanxiao’s bloodshot eyes and continued without pausing.
"Getting discharged outright is just the first step. After that, you’ll be held legally accountable."
"Marry Qin Shanshan. Take responsibility for her. It could save you from prison... In fact, it’s what you *should* do."
Tang Yuanxiao clenched his jaw so tightly a vein throbbed on his forehead. Finally, he spoke, his voice strained with restraint.
"Supervisor, it really wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. How can I take responsibility for something I never did? I can’t be responsible for this. If she wants to make a scene, let her. I’d rather die than give in."
The supervisor slammed his hand on the desk. "Tang Yuanxiao, now is not the time to be driven by emotion!"
Tang Yuanxiao looked up, meeting the supervisor’s gaze without backing down an inch.
"Supervisor, I’m not being emotional. I really didn’t do it."
His eyes were bloodshot. He ripped open his shirt, showing the supervisor the numerous, still-healing wounds on his body.
"Look! This is the proof from that night, from when I tried to stay conscious. I went to these lengths... how could I possibly marry Qin Caihua? I’d rather spend the rest of my life in prison than marry her."
He would never admit to something he hadn’t done.
"You... Tang Yuanxiao, you..." The supervisor looked at the wounds on Tang Yuanxiao’s body, his heart aching with grief.
He was no stranger to this method of using pain to stay conscious. Whether facing drugs or something else, maintaining an iron will was something everyone had to learn.
"Supervisor, you still don’t believe me?"
"This isn’t a question of belief. What good does it do if I believe you?!" The supervisor let out a long sigh, avoiding Tang Yuanxiao’s eyes.
"Tang Yuanxiao, take my advice. Marry her. Otherwise, your whole life will be ruined."
Tang Yuanxiao couldn’t believe that even after he’d said and done all this, the supervisor would still say such a thing.
His hand fell limply to his side. He gritted his teeth and said, word by word, "No. Even if my entire life is ruined, I will not marry her."
’Marrying a woman like that is what would truly ruin my life.’
His wife could only ever be Su Li.
He only acknowledged Su Li.
Seeing Tang Yuanxiao’s resolve, the supervisor finally exploded.
"Tang Yuanxiao, it’s easy for you to say! ’Even if my life is ruined, so be it.’ Have you even thought about us? You’re throwing away your future over a moment of pride. Do you think that’s fair to us?"
The supervisor raged, "We’ve invested so much effort in you, from a clueless rookie to someone who can now hold his own! And you’re just going to throw it all away? Have you ever considered us, the ones who had such high hopes for you?!"
Tang Yuanxiao’s heart was crushed. "Supervisor..."
The supervisor looked at Tang Yuanxiao’s red-rimmed eyes, his gaunt face, and the scars on his body. His chest heaved violently. He took several deep breaths to calm himself down.
He stepped forward, pulled Tang Yuanxiao’s shirt closed, and started buttoning it for him. With a stiff neck, he spoke.
"Yuanxiao... do you think I don’t want to believe you? I do. If you really didn’t do it, I would fight to the death to protect you and clear your name. But Tang Yuanxiao, your mother is involved in this. Your own mother admitted it!"
The worst part of this wasn’t anything else; it was that Mrs. Tang was involved, that she had stooped to something like drugging him.
"With your mother mixed up in it, what other way is there...?"
The supervisor looked at a button that had fallen to the floor, feeling utterly powerless. "What other way is there...?"
Ever since Mrs. Tang had started abusing Little Tang Mo, the supervisor had seen that she would likely hold Tang Yuanxiao back in the future. But he never imagined it would be to this extent. He never thought she would be this insane.
The supervisor truly wished Mrs. Tang would just disappear from the face of the earth. Even being paralyzed couldn’t stop her from causing trouble.
But he couldn’t say these things.
She was Tang Yuanxiao’s mother, the woman who gave birth to him and raised him.
As Tang Yuanxiao listened to the supervisor, his vision started to go black.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand the logic. It was precisely because he understood that he was in so much pain.
Tang Yuanxiao didn’t even know how he left the supervisor’s office.
His life, his everything... it had all changed the moment Mrs. Tang suddenly appeared in the family courtyard.
Not just once or twice, but over and over, again and again...
’Do I really have to marry that woman, Qin Caihua?’
Tang Yuanxiao’s mind flashed back to the inexplicable dream he’d had before, the one where he married Qin Caihua.
He had always thought it was just a nightmare, but was that nightmare about to become reality?
Tang Yuanxiao knew the supervisor was right. No matter how you looked at it, he was supposed to marry Qin Caihua.
But he really didn’t want to. He would rather go to prison than marry that woman.
Because Tang Yuanxiao knew deep down that if he married someone like Qin Caihua, his life would truly be ruined.
Mrs. Tang alone had already shattered his life. If he added Qin Caihua to the mix, would he have any future left?
’No, there would be none.’
Whether he married her or not, his life would be plunged into complete darkness.
Whether he married her or not, he would be letting down the supervisor and the others...
’If that’s the case, why should I marry her?’
’Then just discharge me. If I have to go to prison, I’ll go to prison. Once everything is ruined, my mother should be satisfied. She should stop causing so much trouble.’
’Any trouble she causes in the future will be at home. Just let her cause trouble...’
Tang Yuanxiao was overcome with a sense of despondency he couldn’t put into words, as if all his previous ambition had been nothing but a dream.
In the end, Tang Yuanxiao didn’t compromise. The supervisor’s persuasion had been useless.
The situation was at a complete stalemate.
Qin Shanshan waited and waited, but even with the supervisor involved, Tang Yuanxiao still hadn’t changed his mind.
She was filled with rage, grief, and despair. She watched Tang Yuanxiao as he stared blankly again at the Orchid and a pile of scrap yarn in a bag.
"Thinking about Su Li again! Su Li, Su Li, Su Li! What’s so good about her?!"
Qin Shanshan’s eyes blazed with fury, murderous intent, and indignation. "She’s divorced, but she still has her hooks in him! Bitch! Bitch! Bitch!"