Because I Cannot Hurt You

An Guoting faintly smiled. 

The truth was finally out. But he didn't care anyway. He had already stopped caring the moment Han Zongying had thrown him out of her life. Even if he was proved innocent now, he didn't feel any happiness. 

Xia Liqin leaned back in relief.

I knew it...I knew that Guoting would never betray her.

She looked at him and found no sense of joy or relief in his eyes.

But what's the use now…

Zhiyuan held Han Huizhong's frail body and nodded. "Uncle An is innocent. The culprit has finally admitted it. Believe it, Grandpa."

Han Huizhong was in a stupor. "You…"

Xinyi softly said, "Grandpa. When Aunt Guang had married Uncle Mingli, you had immediately understood that she had slept with him just for his money, didn't you? She just wanted to marry into a rich family."

He stiffened.

"But with He Lijuan, you didn't realize it. Is it because you couldn't see Aunt Zongying in pain?"

She meant that before his daughter's tears and heartbreak, he couldn't distinguish between what was right and wrong. Han Huizhong was a sharp man and just as smart. He knew such types of incidents were common in their society. The white lotuses liked to climb the ladder by climbing onto a rich man's bed first.

But when it came to An Guoting, he couldn't make that judgment. It should have been easy for him and Han Tian to understand that He Lijuan might have plotted something. The timing was suspicious that the accident happened just when he had succeeded.

But Zongying was the apple of their eye. She had cried. She had suffered. They believed what she had seen and heard. Their hearts broke seeing her hurt and in pain. And they charged An Guoting guilty. How dare anybody play with his daughter's heart? How dare anybody think of using her for benefits?

These questions raged his mind instead of rationally trying to investigate the truth.

Han Huizhong, for the first time in his life, had made an error in his judgment due to his love for his daughter.

Yunru sent He Lijuan away for some time. There was another thing she had to confess, but before that, a crucial truth was essential to be out. He helped Zizi sit on a chair, who didn't seem to be going along with the conversation anymore.

There was a deep silence.

Shuang said, "Now do you believe Dad!? Now, did it finally open your eyes to the truth? The whole Han family had always misunderstood Dad!"

Han Huizhong shut his eyes.

She suffered... just because of a misunderstanding. She went through pain for so long for something that had never happened…

Now he wondered if he had intervened by keeping a calm mind, would the result have been different?

Yes. It would have.

For a man like Han Huizhong, it was a piece of cake to expose He Lijuan. But he didn't because his daughter's pain blinded him.

Han Tian took a deep breath. "We admit that we were wrong about him," he clenched his fist. He remembered the times Xia Liqin stood up for him.

He glanced at her, who seemed to be quietly standing at a corner.

"But does that wash away his guilt with what he did to my sister!? Are you defending that?"

Caihong and Shuang froze.

"It was a misunderstanding on Zongying's part. But does that mean she deserved that as a punishment? The man she loved so much forced her and made her hate own child."

Zizi trembled.

"Was it fair to suffer what she did?"

At that point, they could say nothing because An Guoting himself had admitted to assaulting Han Zongying.

Which was when Yunru said, "No, Uncle Tian. She didn't deserve what happened to her. And it didn't. She didn't suffer anything that she didn't want."

Everybody was confused.

"What are you talking about?"

Yunru looked at An Guoting and asked, "Uncle. That night...it didn't go as what Aunt Han had told everybody, right?"

He froze. Then he paled as he seemed to understand what he was saying. And his eyes slowly widened in disbelief.

"What?"

"You know what I am talking about."

Zhiyuan narrowed his eyes. "There is something more than meets the eye, right Yunru?"

He nodded.

"When I read Aunt Han's real report, I immediately guessed what might have happened. The birth of Zizi's mention made me link to Uncle An, and I figured he was her father, and Aunt Zongying was her mother. Considering what happened to Caihong seven years back, I got the whole picture and why he hated him so much. Grandpa took revenge because Uncle An had forced himself on Aunt. But when Shuang said that Uncle An never cheated on her, I wondered why a man like him would attack Aunt so suddenly?"

Han Huizhong said, "What is so unbelievable in that? He got furious because Zongying kept blaming him for cheating on her. He lost it and then…"

"No. It didn't happen that way. Uncle An was already married and widowed when he met Aunt nine years later. He had Caihong, who was a year old. Aunt Liqin will tell you. Why was Uncle An looking for a relationship when you introduced them?"

Xia Liqin said, "His wife had passed away, and he wanted a woman who could give Caihong the mother's love she needed. She was too young to lose her real mother, after all."

"Yes. It's the same reason why he married An Meiying. To give Caihong a mother. I just want to say that when he met Aunt again, Uncle An didn't care about the past or the grievances he had faced. He only had his daughter in mind. He only wanted to give her a happy life. That's why it doesn't make sense that Aunt Han's accusations would rile him up to that extent of making him do that."

An Guoting quickly said, "Yunru, you are wrong."

He shook his head. "I am not. That's why you are panicking so much. Aunt Zongying was never raped.. She had willingly slept with you that night."