She slapped Chen Hong's back of the hand with her free hand and secretly pushed Chen Hong's hand away with force. "Divination is okay, but before that, I'd like to ask Ms. Chen Hong a few questions."
Having nothing to hold onto, Chen Hong had to hold the disposable cup filled with hot tea with both hands. Her eyes were still brimming with tears, looking extremely pitiful. "Please go ahead, Master."
Rong Lan secretly shook her little hand that had been uncomfortably grabbed. "Ms. Chen Hong, do you know how your biological child is doing now?"
Chen Hong was stunned for a moment. Her eyelids fluttered slightly, and a tear rolled down from the corner of her eye. "I... don't know. My biological child... should be living well, right?"
Rong Lan, who was asked in return, looked at Si Mo. Si Mo understood and took over the conversation. "Yes, he's living quite well, better than Miss Xie Xinxin."
Chen Hong broke into a smile through her tears. "That's good."
"Ms. Chen Hong, what was your purpose for swapping the children back then?" Rong Lan continued to ask. She couldn't determine through the causal line that it was Chen Hong who swapped the children, but she was sure that Chen Hong was somehow involved. So she decided to take a gamble and guessed that Chen Hong was the mastermind.
"Master is really amazing. You can even tell what I did so many years ago." Chen Hong's hand holding the disposable cup gradually tightened. "My purpose for swapping the children was actually very simple. It's just that the Xie family wanted a boy, and I gave birth to a girl this time." She said it lightly, but only she knew how much determination she had made to keep that decision a secret from everyone.
"My husband didn't know about this, and my parents didn't either... I thought I could slowly grow old with this secret that only I knew. I didn't expect that my silly girl could meet a real master who could detect the past." She sighed. There was no trace of regret for the wrong thing she had done back then in her tone, only a sense of pity for not being able to keep the matter completely secret.
Rong Lan frowned and put a tissue beside Chen Hong. "Have you ever thought that your actions were irresponsible to two families?"
"Of course I've thought about it, but there was no other way." Chen Hong picked up the tissue and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. Her voice was choking. "Master, you're still young. You can't understand how difficult it is to live in a family with extremely serious son - preference if you can't give birth to a baby boy."
"???" Rong Lan really couldn't understand. What she couldn't understand even more was Chen Hong's actions. How could there really be a mother who would cruelly abandon her own daughter just to have a baby boy? Moreover, Chen Hong was so heartless that she had never cared about her biological daughter's life. "If you had a hard time, why didn't you get a divorce?"
The little fox counted the benefits of divorce for Chen Hong on her fingers. "First of all, as one of the few triple - award - winning actresses in movie history, even if you left the Xie family, you could still get endorsement and acting opportunities and wouldn't starve yourself. Secondly, the Xie family doesn't like Xie Xinxin at all. If you got a divorce and fought hard, you could definitely get the custody of Miss Xie and create a normal living environment for her."
"Sure enough, Master is still young. You missed considering one aspect. My husband and I love each other. How could I divorce my lover because of such a small thing?" Chen Hong cried so much that the tissue in her hand was soaked with tears.
Such a small thing? The little fox was shocked. In her opinion, this was not a small thing at all. Before Xie Feng was born, the Xie family raised Xie Xinxin as a boy. After Xie Feng was born, Xie Xinxin became an outsider in the Xie family. How much harm would this do to a sensitive girl? As a mother, didn't Chen Hong feel the slightest bit of pity for Xie Xinxin?
"Do you have some misunderstanding about love?" Rong Lan handed another tissue to Chen Hong. "If your husband really loved you, how could he bear to let your children be wronged like that? If he really loved you, he would naturally persuade his family to accept your children, instead of forcing you to swap the children to gain a status in the Xie family."
"Master is still young and doesn't understand how involuntary one can be when love is combined with daily necessities." Chen Hong sighed.
Rong Lan didn't like this tone of educating a child, but she had no choice. In Chen Hong's eyes, she was just a child about the same age as Xie Xinxin.
"I can't argue with you on this matter, but have you ever thought that Xie Feng is not really a child of the Xie family? Won't people suspect him because he doesn't look like his parents? Once you tell a lie, you'll need countless other lies to cover it up. Isn't it tiring to live like this?"
Si Mo always felt that every question from the little fox seemed to hit the nail on the head. She was always good at finding the key points when she was serious.
As for the previous question, he could even answer for Chen Hong.
After seeing the answer to the first question from Chen Hong, he didn't even want to pour tea for her anymore.
"Xiao Feng had plastic surgery on his face." When it came to this topic, Chen Hong's tears soaked another tissue.
Rong Lan couldn't stand people crying. Her head was about to explode. She put a whole pack of tissues beside Chen Hong and even grabbed some candies from the drawer and put them there, coaxing Chen Hong like a child.
"Although I'm really sorry for him, I just wanted the family to be more harmonious, so I considered this situation from the very beginning. When Xiao Feng was five years old, I burned his face, and then I got the Xie family's consent to have plastic surgery. The plastic surgery was extremely successful. Even if someone says that Xiao Feng doesn't look like his parents in the future, it won't matter, because this face is not his original face." Chen Hong laughed while crying.
Rong Lan: "..." What did she just hear? Did she miss something and hear it wrong?!
The little fox couldn't believe it. "You said you... deliberately burned a five - year - old child's face?" Although she hated Xie Feng very much, she still thought that Chen Hong, who did such a thing, was crazy.
How innocent was the five - year - old child back then? Just because he wasn't a child of the Xie family and would not look like his parents when he grew up, someone burned his face. A five - year - old child had to endure the pain of being burned and the pain of plastic surgery... She even felt that Xie Feng was quite pitiful now. His life was swapped because of his gender. He had endured such severe physical pain at a young age and was raised as a good - for - nothing by the stupid Xie family...
"I had no other choice." As if she was too tired from crying, Chen Hong took a sip of the already cold tea. "As soon as he started to look more like an adult, people said that he didn't look like his father or mother. If this went on until he grew up, how many people would talk about his appearance? Since I brought him back and raised him, I regarded him as my own child. I didn't want him to be bothered by these things."