After the two kidnappers who released Qi Yuxuan returned, they prepared to move to a new location and kill Qi Beichen. This was of course as per Qi Yuxuan's orders. Suddenly, about 10 people abruptly rushed into the room. These people were strong and muscular. They quickly stormed in from several different directions. And with great speed and precision, they subdued the kidnappers. Wei Zhennan entered the room soon after. He walked towards Qiao Chen and crouched down to meet his eye level. Wei Zhennan reached out a hand and wiped the tears that ran down Qiao Chen's face. Then he untied Qiao Chen and helped him up.
Wei Zhennan gently reprimanded, "You obviously knew that it would end up this way. Why do you have to go ahead and put yourself through all of this? Now all you have to show for this whole escapade is the suffering and bitterness in your heart."
"How else could I completely cut off these family ties? Even though I don't value or cherish the Qi family, Qi Jianye and I are father and son. It's a matter of facts. I couldn't change it no matter what I did. Since he himself chose to cut the bonds that bound us, then I have no more worries. I can do whatever I want now." Qiao Chen explained as he rotated his wrists. They were tied up for quite some time while he was kidnapped.
Qiao Chen long knew of Qi Yuxuan's collusion with the kidnappers. He planned on taking care of this on his own, but remembered Wei Zhennan. If that control freak knew about the kidnapping attempt, then he might have rushed ahead and ruined the plan. To make sure he wouldn't encounter any bumps, Qiao Chen told Wei Zhennan everything.
When Wei Zhennan knew that Qi Yuxuan wanted to murder Qi Beichen, he was furious. He wanted to 'take care of' Qi Yuxuan before he could do it. Qiao Chen persuaded him not to make a move on Qi Yuxuan. He wanted to first take advantage of this opportunity to break ties with the Qi family. Then they could take their time in dealing with Qi Yuxuan.
"Take these men away. Take good care of them…just don't kill them. They still have some use." Wei Zhennan commanded the team who subdued the kidnappers.
'Qi Beichen' left the Qi household and changed his name to the soul's original one. He was now legally, Qiao Chen.
When Wei Zhennan knew he was going to change his name, so he pestered and tried to persuade Qiao Chen to change his surname to Wei. On this, Qiao Chen had not bothered with Wei Zhennan. However, Wei Zhennan was persistent and obsessed over the name change for a while.
"I'm not your son. Why should I have your last name?" Qiao Chen was irritated with Wei Zhennan's suggestions.
"Look, you aren't a part of the Qi family anymore. If I legally become your dad, then you wouldn't lose out in the end. After all, all of the Wei's family assets would be yours." Wei Zhennan bribed.
"Have you no shame? How would you give birth to a son my age? If you want a son, then go and make your one yourself! I don't covet your Wei estate anyways." Qiao Chen replied as he rolled his eyes.
"If you can address me as 'uncle' then why can't you address me as dad? I mean you've been missing a father figure. You haven't experienced the love from a father either. I can treat you as my beloved son. I'll make up for all the regret and everything you missed out in your childhood."
"Get lost! You're the one who doesn't have fatherly love. In fact, your whole family never had fatherly love! " Qiao Chen swatted Wei Zhennan's groping hand away from his crotch and continued, "What kind of father would do this kind of thing to his son? You can't take advantage of my body and then do the same to my name."
"If that's case, and since you don't want to be my son, then be my wife. Anyways, you just need to be a part of the Wei family. We can go abroad in a few days. Let's get married overseas. " Wei Zhennan quickly settled the matter.
Originally, he wanted Qiao Chen to enter the family register as father and son. But since Qiao Chen refused, then entering the Wei family's register as husband and wife was good too.
Initially, Qiao Chen refused Wei Zhennan's suggestions. But as he thought about it, he remembered that the loading progress on Wei Zhennan's soul was far from completion. He really didn't know when he'd complete his mission. Then, he realized that if Wei Zhennan married some other person before the task was completed, then he would have a hard time continuing his mission. The main thing was overcoming his heart. In any case, Qiao Chen knew he must stay by Wei Zhennan's side in order to complete his objective. An additional relationship tagged onto whatever this thing they had going on wasn't a huge deal.
After all of these considerations, Qiao Chen agreed to marry Wei Zhennan. Of course Wei Zhennan was very happy he received Qiao Chen's consent.
Three years had passed since Qi Beichen was taken away by the kidnappers. No one in the Qi family had seen Qi Beichen since then. However, they weren't capable of even finding out whether he was dead or alive. They were too busy dealing with the matters at hand to do anything else. Ever since Qi Beichen disappeared, the Qi family's company had been suppressed in a joint effort by the Wei conglomerate and several other companies' secret efforts.
Even Qi Yuxuan's own aunt, Chumei, was under fire. After her son, Wang Mingqiang returned, she pulled some the strings to get him a position at the hospital she worked at. Then, Wang Mingqiang, who worked as a doctor, made a huge mistake involving one of his patients. The patient's family was furious. They filed a lawsuit against him for medical malpractice. They insisted for an investigation to be conducted on whether or not Wang Mingqiang was criminally irresponsible. They definitely did not want settle the lawsuit out of court.
The previous Wang Mingqiang also committed the same exact accident to the same family. The only difference was that in the previous life, Chu Mei went to Qi Yuxuan. She promised him that if he gave her a lump sum to privately compensate the patient's family, then she would never look for him anymore. With the agreement in place, Qi Yuxuan helped pay the settlement.
However, the Qi family's company was now in a constant red. Qi Yuxuan simply had no time or patience to deal with Chu Mei. Even if he had the time, he had no money to help her out. So no matter how Chu Mei threatened him, he couldn't bail them out.
On the flip side, Qiao Chen sent someone to find the patient's family. Not only had he given them a bunch of money, but he also helped them hire a very good lawyer to represent them. To further sweeten the deal, he promised them that if they successfully put Wang Mingqiang in jail, then he would arrange a place abroad for their son to go to. He assured them that he would pay the bill for the overseas' treatments. Thus, the patient's family had their sights set on Wang Mingqiang. The family was dead set on holding on to him until he went to jail. Eventually, Wang Mingqiang was convicted of medical malpractice and sentenced to prison.
Every day in prison, he was tormented and beat. He was a sobbing mess each time Chu Mei visited him. He cried as he begged Chu Mei to find a way to get him out. Chu Mei was filled with heart ache and grief over her son's torment. She, as his mother, would rather take his place then have him suffer so. Unfortunately, she had no way to relieve him of his pain. Both the mother and son could only bite the bullet as they bitterly cried together.
Qiao Chen sat in his car. Then he saw Chu Mei exit the prison. His assistant walked over and said a few words to her. Then, the two got into a different car and drove off. They arrived at the entrance of a café that was flowing with a nice ambiance.
Then Qiao Chen walked in. He saw an older version of the Chu Mei. She looked a couple decades older than he remembered. She also looked uncomfortable while she sat in her seat. Qiao Chen's assistant saw him enter, so he got up from his seat and left the café to wait in the car. Chu Mei saw Qiao Chen enter too.
Not many people even knew about the kidnapping incident. However, Qi Yuxuan and Chu Mei kept in contact, so she was in the know. She was shocked beyond words. After Qiao Chen was kidnapped, there were no further updates about his well being. The Qi family figured that he very likely died since there had been no news from him for over three years. However, this supposedly dead man was before her- alive and well.
"Long time no see Aunt Chu Mei." Qiao Chen greeted as he sat in the seat opposite to her.
"You're alive?" Chu Mei asked in surprise.
"Who told you I died?" he replied.
"Yuxuan said you had been kidnapped. I thought that you…why do you want? " Chu Mei asked. She really had no idea why. I thought to herself, ''Qi Beichen' should have returned home if he hadn't died' and 'how did you even find me?'
"Isn't your son in jail?" Qiao Chen asked.
Chu Mei was silent. She wasn't surprised that 'Qi Beichen' knew about the sentencing. Her son's medical malpractice court case had been blowing up in the media.
"Your son has suffered a lot while in prison, hasn't he?" he continued.
"If you've come here to laugh at me, then we no longer have anything to talk about. You don't need me here to be able to mock my situation." Chu Mei snapped. Then she got up to leave.
"I was the one who hired that lawyer who sent your son to jail. I was also the person who arranged your son's suffering while in prison." Qiao Chen leisurely informed Chu Mei before she left.
"What did you just say?" Chu Mei seethed "Why are you doing this?" The glare in her eyes showed just how much she wanted to eat him alive.
"You're asking me why I did this?" Qiao Chen glared at Chu Mei, "Well then why did you switch Qi Yuxuan and me at birth? Why did your whole family beat me day in and day out? Did I do anything to you back then?" Qiao Chen's eyes burned with a hate stronger than Chu Mei's.
Chu Mei's legs collapsed beneath her and she plopped back down on to the chair. 'Qi Beichen' really didn't wrong her. Chu Mei knew it was she herself who truly wronged him and it came back to bite her in the end.
She pleaded, "Everything is my fault. I'm the one who was wrong. This has nothing to do with Mingqiang. Take your anger out on me. Please just leave Mingqiang out of this."
"Wang Mingqiang made his bed, and now he has to lay in it. Well, it was Wang Mingqiang himself who caused an injury that resulted in significant damages. He does deserve to serve out his sentence…"
"Please, please get Mingqiang out. I'll do anything you want." Chu Mei begged as she knelt down before Qiao Chen. She knew that if 'Qi Beichen' was able to get Wang Mingqiang in jail, then he'd be able to get him out too.
Qiao Chen felt that Qi Yuxuan's habit of kneeling down and acknowledging his mistake was hereditary. Maybe everyone in the family had this problem… thinking that all their problems would go away or they'd be forgiven after kneeling on the ground for a bit.
"Wang Mingqiang needs to serve his full sentence. I can't help you release him. However, as long as you promise me one thing, then I will no longer have him suffer any other beatings or tortures. You can choose whatever you want." Qiao Chen said.
As she thought of how her son was tormented daily and remembered the look of dread on his face, Chu Mei was willing to do anything. She would do anything that Qiao Chen asked as long as it could relieve her son from his pain.
"You will be making a public announcement on the news. You're going to tell everyone about how you switched Qi Yuxuan and me at birth. Then you're going to reveal everything between you and Qi Yuxuan. Talk about your interactions and how you've been receiving the Qi family's money all these years. For example, Wang Mingqiang spent so many years abroad. All that time overseas must have been expensive. I know it was Qi Yuxuan who funded Wang Mingjiang's overseas studies. He even provided extra funds so Wang Mingqiang could live in luxury. Finally, you're going to go straight to the police station and turn yourself in for the crime you committed." Qiao Chen laid out his terms. He stood up and left Chu Mei with one more condition as he left, "Wang Mingjiang's torment will stop only when you finish your end of the deal."
It wasn't long before the scandal rocked H city's news headlines. It was reported that a certain hospital's head nurse of the OBGYN department admitted to purposefully switching two babies at birth. One of the children involved was from the Qi family. It turned into a huge discussion piece.
Mr. Qi finally understood that there was a huge conspiracy behind Qi Yuxuan's and 'Qi Beichen' 's switch. It was the Chu family who switched the children so they could snatch a piece of the Qi family's assets. What's more was that he raised that child as his own flesh and blood for over 20 years. And then, even while he knew that the child was not his son, he had no intentions of chasing the boy out. In fact, he even traded his biological son's life in exchange for said person's life.
To make matters worse, Qi Yuxuan knew about it when he was 16 years old and hid it, planning on taking that secret with him to the grave. Just when Mr. Qi thought it couldn't get any worse, it was revealed that Qi Yuxuan used the family's money to fund his biological aunt's living expenses and cousin's study abroad expenses as well.
All of this was just terrible. Even just thinking about the circumstances made one's blood run cold. Mr. Qi was devastated after he knew the truth about it all. But there was nothing could do about it. He couldn't kick out the only person who would take care of him and his family in the future.
As the story came to light, many families were fraught with worry and paranoia. They went to the hospital to have their DNA tested, especially the families who gave birth at the hospital that Chu Mei worked at. Then, because of Chu Mei's handiwork, the hospital's reputation was damaged. Numerous people refused to go to that specific hospital due to the scandal. The hospital promptly fired Chu Mei and took her to court.
The Chu family got their just deserts. In addition to the Chu family, there were also Qi Yuxuan and other people who were spared for three years. They didn't have much more time left to be free from worry.
After all, all debts should be paid in full…