Chapter 682 - 681: Dreaming of the Past Life (Part 2)

In modern times, some people undergo hypnosis, including a type of experience called "past life regression."

Whether someone can actually be hypnotized into a past life is impossible to verify, but Tang Yuanxiao had truly dreamt his way back to his.

It had all started some time ago, when Su Li was injured because of Ge Ba. Tang Yuanxiao had overheard something she murmured in her daze, and that had opened the door to these dreams.

After that, the dreams came again and again, but they were always just inexplicable fragments. He could never recall the specific details.

He had been deeply troubled and tormented back then, but he was utterly helpless.

As the troubles continued, Tang Yuanxiao eventually grew accustomed to them.

By now, even when the old dreams recurred after some time, Tang Yuanxiao was able to remain composed.

That is, until he learned that Su Li was going to marry Wu Sheng.

Tang Yuanxiao tossed and turned, unable to sleep. The moment he drifted off, the dreams would begin—new and old overlapping, reality and fantasy merging.

One was a fragment of what had actually happened: his wedding to Su Li. The memory was faint; he could barely even recall what she looked like. He just remembered the banquet, and the voices of Father Tang, Mrs. Tang, and everyone else congratulating them.

The other was the dream of marrying Qin Shanshan—a dream of something that had never happened.

Tang Yuanxiao suspected it was because Su Li was getting married, and he was unwilling to accept it.

Tang Yuanxiao was truly unwilling to accept it. He also felt an indescribable panic, the kind that comes from being on the verge of losing something vital. The feeling of a gaping hole in his heart made him frantic.

Even though he knew nothing could be changed, Tang Yuanxiao was filled with an impulse—an urge to *do something*.

After leaving the Imperial City, this impulse grew ever stronger. He had to suppress it, time and time again.

But the more he pushed it down, the stronger the urge became; the more he repressed it, the more violently it rebounded.

In the moment before he lost consciousness, Tang Yuanxiao’s heart was still brimming with that same unwillingness.

It was likely this very feeling that finally allowed Tang Yuanxiao to see the "dream" to its conclusion.

This "dream," one could say, was his past life.

A past life completely different from his present one.

Tang Yuanxiao dreamt of his past life in its entirety—a true regression to his past.

He remembered everything—strangling Su Li, marrying Qin Shanshan, all of it.

Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say that in his dream, he had relived his past life.

In his past life, Tang Yuanxiao, Su Li, Tang Mo, Mrs. Tang—everyone had been miserable. The human traffickers, the disappearance of Tang Mo... it had utterly destroyed a family and ruined four lives.

Just as Su Li had once suspected, in their past life, a series of misunderstandings had caused her and Tang Yuanxiao to hate one another for their entire lives.

Su Li’s carelessness had allowed human traffickers to snatch Little Tang Mo away. In her panic, she only knew to search the streets frantically, giving the traffickers the opening they needed to disappear with him completely.

Unable to find Little Tang Mo, Su Li was filled with panic and regret. She could only run back to Xinghua Village for help, where she was ultimately accused of having sold the boy herself.

Su Li pleaded her innocence, but no one believed her. The loss of Little Tang Mo had sent Mrs. Tang into a state of shock and hysteria.

Afterward, she was framed for adultery and abused by Mrs. Tang...

Su Li could endure the abuse, the beatings, and the scoldings, because she knew she had made a terrible mistake.

Even if Mrs. Tang hadn’t done those things to her, she felt such self-loathing that she might have done them to herself. The only things Su Li could not accept were being framed for selling Little Tang Mo and being falsely accused of adultery.

And to make it all worse, the accusations were led by Qin Shanshan, the friend she had trusted with all her heart, and validated by Mrs. Tang, the woman she had looked up to as a mother.

One could only imagine the devastating blow this dealt to Su Li.

But by a cruel twist of fate, Tang Yuanxiao, the one person Su Li had hoped to rely on, had also investigated and uncovered the "truth."

Just as Su Li had pieced together in this lifetime, upon learning of Little Tang Mo’s disappearance, Tang Yuanxiao’s immediate, first reaction had been to find the boy.

He and Yu Le hadn’t even had time to go home. They set out immediately, chasing down leads to find Little Tang Mo. Unfortunately, they were a step too late. They didn’t find the boy, but they did catch the traffickers who had abducted him.

In both lifetimes, the traffickers gave the exact same, confident answer: Little Tang Mo had been sold by Su Li.

In this life, because Su Li had desperately fought to rescue Little Tang Mo from the traffickers’ grasp, no one believed their story, no matter how convincing they tried to be.

But in the past life, Little Tang Mo was already gone. Who would have believed Su Li? Even Fang Luo was convinced she had sold the boy.

The blow this news dealt Tang Yuanxiao was unimaginable. The hatred in his heart was even greater than Su Li’s.

People are prone to preconceived notions, and society already viewed stepmothers with suspicion and innate harshness.

Already convinced that Su Li had sold Little Tang Mo, when Tang Yuanxiao rushed back to Xinghua Village and heard the accounts from the villagers and Mrs. Tang, how could he possibly believe Su Li’s pleas and remorse?

At that point, Su Li was his wife, but in reality, she was a stranger to him. It was only natural that he would believe his mother and the villagers over her.

Besides, he had found his own evidence.

Tang Yuanxiao never told her what his own investigation had turned up, leading Su Li to mistakenly believe he had simply taken Mrs. Tang’s and the villagers’ one-sided testimony at face value.

Consumed by hatred, Tang Yuanxiao had nearly strangled Su Li to death.

The last shred of hope in Su Li’s heart was extinguished.

And so, the intractable knot of resentment between Su Li and Tang Yuanxiao was tied fast.

Everything that followed was like being trapped in a vicious cycle. That knot only grew tighter, so tight that it remained lodged in Su Li’s heart for a long time even after her rebirth, preventing her from ever finding peace.

Tang Yuanxiao and Su Li, this ill-fated couple, developed the worst possible impression of each other and spent a lifetime consumed by hatred.

Tang Yuanxiao didn’t believe a word Su Li said.

And Tang Yuanxiao never told Su Li what his investigation had revealed, processing the "facts" all on his own.

The trafficker’s testimony wasn’t enough for a conviction. Furthermore, Su Li had already been tortured into a wretched state by Mrs. Tang. Tang Yuanxiao feared that if a formal investigation began, his paranoid mother—terrified of never seeing her grandson again—might actually kill Su Li. In the end, he only divorced her, without pressing legal charges for selling Little Tang Mo.

Tang Yuanxiao’s hatred for Su Li was so intense he wished she would pay with her life. But seeing her tortured to within an inch of it, with barely a breath left in her body, he could only consider her debt paid.

Everything unfolded as a matter of course.

Su Li became the outlet for everyone’s rage. Her life was ruined, and she was left with deep scars on both her body and soul.

From that day forward, Tang Yuanxiao began his journey to find Little Tang Mo.

He paid no mind to what became of Su Li in Su Family Village after she was driven out of Xinghua Village. Tang Yuanxiao focused solely on finding Little Tang Mo, searching all over the county and the city, but to no avail.

In the end, he didn’t find the boy, and he had to return to his unit. With the family in shambles, Tang Yuanxiao worried about Mrs. Tang. He had wanted to take her with him, but she refused, saying she would rather die than leave.

She said she had to wait at home for Little Tang Mo to return. Tang Yuanxiao couldn’t change her mind and ultimately had to leave her behind.

Not long after Tang Yuanxiao left, Mrs. Tang cried day in and day out, until she eventually cried herself blind.