Because I Cannot Hurt You

Zhiyuan narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Suddenly, Xinyi got a bad feeling too. She looked at Han Tian and Xia Liqin, and they had grim expressions. Her heart raced in trepidation.

She felt it. Something big was about to happen. She felt it in her bones.

But Han Huizhong said nothing.

Caihong asked, "Why are you silent now? What is the proof you are talking about?"

Han Huizhong trembled, and a tear streamed down. It was the first time the young generation had seen the mighty Han Huizhong shed a tear. He, who brought others to his knees, was weakly trembling himself.

Xia Liqin parted her lips to say it, but in the end, the words couldn't come out. It was painful to bear. And even more painful to admit it.

After this moment, everything was going to shatter.

Zizi felt irked by the silence. "Grandpa, what happened? Mom? Dad? What's wrong? What is the proof?"

They stiffened. But they were saved from saying that answer.

"You," a voice echoed from the back. "You are the proof, Princess."

Everybody turned their heads and saw Yunru solemnly standing at the room's entrance. He stared at Zizi before he finally stepped in.

He stood before her. 

"Yunru?" Zizi faced him. 

She didn't understand why, but his gaze had a glint of sadness and pain in it. As if he felt terrible for something. As if he really wished not to say it, but it was inevitable.

And as if he really wanted to protect her from something. But what? She didn't know.

Han Huizhong blinked his eyes and stared at him, horrified. "You know?"

Yunru ever so slowly nodded.

"Since when?"

"Since Princess and I went to the hospital where Aunt Han was admitted after the accident. It was at that time I knew."

Han Tian whispered under his breath. "Impossible…"

"I know. You had arranged for everyone to know that it was an accident. But it was a suicide, and I got that report."

An Guoting didn't know what they were talking about. He understood the part about Zongying's suicide covered up as an accident. But he couldn't fathom why Yunru said that Zizi was proof of something.

Xinyi asked, her breath stuck in her chest, "And what did you learn?"

There was a beat of silence.

Zhiyuan impatiently asked, "Say it, Yunru. You refused to talk about it the last time too. You have to tell the truth now."

Yunru looked at Zizi, and his eyelashes trembled. 

"The report correctly said that Aunt died due to her fall from the balcony. There was no question about it. But there was a mention of something else too. Her medical report also stated that just a week before her death, Aunt Han had given birth to a baby."

Xinyi widened her eyes. "What?"

"Yes. The baby...was a girl," he then looked at Zizi, "It was you, Princess. You are the proof. Han Zizi. Han Zongying and An Guoting's daughter."

It was so sudden that nobody could wrap their heads around what Yunru had just said. Zizi, who stood in front of him, stared at him blankly. "Huh?"

Even An Guoting, who kept his silence all this time and quietly listened to all their accusations, finally raised his head. Confusion, shock and disbelief marred his face as he looked at him.

Xia Liqin shut her eyes and broke into soft sobs.

Zizi looked at him as if he was joking. "Yunru, do you know what you are saying? This isn't the time to joke."

Yunru clenched his fist. "I wish it could be a joke. But it's not. You are Uncle An and Aunt Han's illegitimate daughter."

"Soo Yunru! Stop talking nonsense. I am Han Tian and Xia Liqin's daughter."

Yunru held her shoulders and said, "Zizi. Please listen to me carefully. I know it's extremely difficult, but please... just listen. You are not their biological daughter. They adopted you after Aunt Han died. They have only one biological child, and that is brother-in-law."

Zhiyuan felt as if he was zapped by thunder. 

Not my sister?

"It's natural that he won't remember it. He was just around two years old when you were born. There wasn't your name mentioned in the report. But that's the only thing that makes sense. Uncle Han and Aunt Xia didn't have a second child."

Xinyi stared at Han Tian as if wanting to confirm it. He faintly smiled.

"He is right. We adopted Zizi after Zongying's death."

Xia Liqin wiped her cheek. "But we always treated her as our own daughter. We never differentiated between Zizi and Zhiyuan. No matter what the report says, Zizi is my daughter," she gasped.

Caihong and Shuang glanced at each other. They couldn't believe their ears.

Zizi and An Guoting's daughter? Didn't that make her their half-sister?

An Guoting almost collapsed on his knees as they fell weak. "T-that's not possible. Z-Zongying was pregnant?"

Han Huizhong banged his fist. "Stop with your pathetic acting, you bastard! First, you forcibly sleep with her, and now you seem so shocked!? Yes, she got pregnant!"

An Guoting started shaking. He felt his heart beating faster and wilder in his chest. Sweat trickled down his forehead as he stared at Zizi.

Was that why she resembled Zongying much?

He always felt that Zizi looked a lot like Zongying. Sometimes that unsettled him. But then he thought that it might be because Han Tian and Han Zongying were siblings. So the Han genes worked that way.

But to think that Zizi was his daughter?

He paled.

"Dad!"

Caihong caught his arm as he was about to collapse. She cried. "Dad, what is happening…? Please tell us."

But he couldn't answer. He felt the whole world spinning in front of him. The revelation was too much to handle for him.

"You....for years, you kept me in the dark about this?" An Guoting looked at Han Huizhong in disbelief. "You never told me that Zongying had gotten pregnant?"