Chapter 684 - 683: Dreaming Back to a Past Life (Part 4)

Qin Shanshan got her wish and married Tang Yuanxiao. Since he had decided to take responsibility by marrying her, he naturally did things by the book.

Going back to their hometown for the wedding would require leave and wasn’t realistic, so they held a simple ceremony.

On their wedding day, Tang Yuanxiao thought about his previous two weddings, about Mrs. Tang, about Tang Mo, and about Su Li. He was in a terrible mood, so he ended up drinking a little too much.

Once he started drinking, he couldn’t stop.

Tang Yuanxiao got drunk.

When Tang Yuanxiao was drunk, you couldn’t tell from the outside unless he was completely wasted. However, Yu Le and the others noticed something was off. They playfully carried out the traditional wedding night pranks for a short while before leaving the couple to their wedding night.

Qin Shanshan was nervous, expectant, and shy, waiting for Tang Yuanxiao to make his move.

But Tang Yuanxiao was drunk. He looked normal on the outside, but in reality, he wasn’t.

His mind was muddled, so how could he possibly remember to consummate the marriage? In the end, he just passed out.

In Qin Shanshan’s eyes, Tang Yuanxiao’s behavior meant something else entirely. She completely misunderstood him, believing that he hated and detested her, which was why he wouldn’t touch her.

Tang Yuanxiao slept soundly through the night, dead drunk, while Qin Shanshan sat by the bed all night. The next day, Tang Yuanxiao woke up to a scene identical to what he had experienced in his dream.

Qin Shanshan, her face streaked with tears, slapped him and cried out, "Tang Yuanxiao, I hate you!" before running out, sobbing.

Tang Yuanxiao was stunned by the slap but knew he had done something wrong. He wanted to make it up to her, but unfortunately, Qin Shanshan had already vanished without a trace.

Tang Yuanxiao spent the next two days searching for Qin Shanshan but couldn’t find her. The day he finally found her, his wedding leave was already over.

Just like in this life, Tang Yuanxiao still chose to undergo the hellish training back then.

He didn’t get a chance to say much to Qin Shanshan, let alone make up for their unconsummated wedding night. Tang Yuanxiao went directly to participate in the selection trials.

Tang Yuanxiao was gone for a full six months.

This was actually quite normal. It was much better than the situation for those who had married wives back in their hometowns. After all, other army wives were lucky if they got to see their husbands once a year.

But Qin Shanshan couldn’t understand. Or rather, she was still misunderstanding Tang Yuanxiao, and that misunderstanding had not been cleared up. So, the six months he was away were sheer hell for her.

Qin Shanshan was in agony. The more she had liked Tang Yuanxiao before, the more she hated him now. Just as her hatred reached its peak, she happened to overhear someone talking about getting revenge on a cheating husband.

Qin Shanshan listened and subconsciously took the idea to heart. With Yang Xiangyun constantly egging her on, she eventually snapped. In a fit of pique, she got drunk and cheated on him out of pure spite.

She hadn’t actually intended to betray Tang Yuanxiao; she just wanted to make him angry. She never expected that after getting drunk, she would provoke the wrong person and be taken advantage of.

Qin Shanshan was utterly devastated. At first, she was filled with mortal regret, but then the man kept coaxing and pursuing her. He had a bit of money and plied her with good food and drinks.

Compared to Tang Yuanxiao, Qin Shanshan, having had her first taste of a romantic affair, couldn’t resist a second and then a third time.

A woman’s feelings for her first man are always the most special.

In the end, Qin Shanshan couldn’t hold back and her heart strayed.

When Tang Yuanxiao returned six months later, Qin Shanshan’s heart and body already belonged to her lover. Not only had she thoroughly cuckolded him, but she was also pregnant with another man’s child.

It was impossible for Qin Shanshan’s affair to go unnoticed. Everyone had long since realized what was happening and had cursed her plenty in private. But with Tang Yuanxiao gone, no one felt it was their place to intervene.

Tang Yuanxiao returned, having gained new insights from numerous life-and-death situations. He had even brought gifts to apologize to Qin Shanshan, intending to properly take responsibility for her. Instead, he was greeted with the fact that he had been cuckolded.

Even though he had only married Qin Shanshan out of a sense of responsibility, she was still his wife. Tang Yuanxiao was a man, and he simply could not accept being cuckolded with a calm heart.

Tang Yuanxiao was about to lose his mind.

He knew the situation with his first wife. His second wife, Su Li, had caused a scandal by supposedly having an affair and selling Little Tang Mo. And now his third wife, Qin Shanshan, was like this too. It was as if he were cursed.

Tang Yuanxiao was a man of passion. Faced with Qin Shanshan’s infidelity, his first instinct was to not let it go and make the adulterous couple pay the price.

But Qin Shanshan knelt and begged him to let them go, saying how innocent the child in her womb was. She also brought up the matter with Mrs. Tang from before.

He owed Qin Shanshan such a great debt of gratitude. What could Tang Yuanxiao do? In the end, he could only divorce again, let Qin Shanshan go, and allow them to be together. From then on, all ties between them were severed.

And so, Tang Yuanxiao’s three absurd marriages came to an end.

He had married three wives, yet through a strange twist of fate, he had never touched any of them. In the end, he was still... a virgin.

A bona fide old virgin.

A sad, old bachelor who had married three times and was still a virgin...

From that day on, Tang Yuanxiao truly lost heart. He devoted himself entirely to searching for Tang Mo and never married again. More than twenty years flew by just like that.

The rest of his life’s work was searching for Tang Mo.

Later, Su Li found Tang Mo. Tang Yuanxiao went to see her as she was barely holding on in the final stages of stomach cancer. Su Li had resented him her entire life, and she continued to resent him until the very end.

After Su Li passed away, it was through Yu Zhengqing that Tang Yuanxiao finally learned the whole story from Su Li’s side.

One can only imagine the shock and regret that filled Tang Yuanxiao’s heart.

Later, Tang Yuanxiao found the human trafficker who had been released from prison years ago. From the trafficker’s own mouth, he finally got the true story.

After dealing with the trafficker, Tang Yuanxiao also sought out Qin Shanshan, whom he hadn’t contacted in decades.

Qin Shanshan, who he had assumed would be living well, was destitute and surviving by collecting trash. She had lived quite well in the early years, but her husband later got involved with new women, one after another, and she was kicked out.

Destitute and miserable, when Qin Shanshan saw Tang Yuanxiao again, she broke down, wailing with immense regret.

When a person is on their deathbed, their words are often true.

Having reached such a state, Qin Shanshan had nothing left to hide. She told him everything that had happened back then and admitted it all.

This included deliberately leading the villagers to misunderstand Su Li and slandering her. Her sole purpose had been to drive Su Li away completely so she could take her place.

"...Su Li was the most foolish person I’ve ever met. I got rid of her without even breaking a sweat, HA HA HA... I even got rid of that eyesore Tang Mo, HA HA HA..."

"...But what was the point? In the end, what was the point? I ended up like this anyway... This is heaven punishing me! This is divine retribution!"

Screaming and laughing like that, Qin Shanshan vanished from Tang Yuanxiao’s world.

Tang Yuanxiao only saw her that one time, which was also the last time. Qin Shanshan later died of alcohol poisoning.

Tang Yuanxiao later retired when he reached the age and tried his utmost to rebuild a close relationship with Tang Mo.

Unfortunately, Tang Mo had a cold and distant personality, and they never managed to become very close.

Tang Yuanxiao had carried too much in his heart for too many years. After finding Tang Mo and retiring, his body began to break down bit by bit not many years later. He passed away in his sixties.

Over the course of three days and three nights, Tang Yuanxiao relived his entire life in a dream, right up until he breathed his last.