Tragic was the only word to describe Su Li's short life.
As she lay dying, she looked back on her life. The happiest, most carefree time had been the first six months after she married into the Tang Family. Despite the difficulties of adjusting, those days were filled with joy. Every day, she would play with Little Tang Mo. He was only a small child, but he gave her the purest form of affection.
Sadly, that sweet, shy boy who loved to laugh was gone forever...
Little Tang Mo was smart and clever, which turned out to be a disadvantage after his abduction. He remembered the names of his grandparents, Tang Yuanxiao, and Su Li. He even remembered his home address and the name and address of his maternal grandmother's home. To the human traffickers, this made him a dangerous liability.
Fearing he might expose them, they repeatedly tortured Little Tang Mo to make him forget. They drugged him to keep him from speaking, and later even poisoned him until he was mute. After a short period of inhuman torment, Little Tang Mo slowly began to forget.
All he remembered was what the traffickers had told him: that his stepmother had sold him. He remembered the abuse, memories so clear they would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He endured immense hardship until he was adopted by his current parents. They were very good to him and did everything they could to nurture his talents. The poison damage to his throat was eventually healed, but he still couldn't speak.
The experience had left him with deep psychological scars. He couldn't bring himself to speak, rendering him mute.
Tang Mo started school late, but he earned his doctorate in physics by the age of twenty and became well-known in his field. He later returned to the country and even appeared on a television program a few years ago.
Su Li had actually seen him when he was on that program. At the time, she was frantically searching the world for him, yet they came face to face without recognition. Seeing such a young man with extraordinary achievements who was also mute, she had lamented with others what a terrible shame it was.
Su Li never imagined this genius could be Tang Mo. Little Tang Mo had been cheerful and shy, innocent and full of life. But the brilliant Eisen Leonard was cold and aloof. He never smiled; he was composed and silent—a world away from the Little Tang Mo she remembered.
Many years and a roundabout journey later, she finally learned that this genius physicist was, in fact, Little Tang Mo.
The lost Little Tang Mo was finally found, but the damage was irreversible. He had become a completely different person...
After Yu Zhengqing left, Su Li lay in bed, listening to the television. She closed her eyes tightly.
A public service announcement about preventing child abduction was playing on the TV. PSAs and programs about missing children were the very things Su Li feared watching most, the hardest for her to confront, yet she couldn't look away.
After Little Tang Mo disappeared, she often found herself reminiscing, dreaming of their time together at home. But inevitably, Little Tang Mo's cries for help would shatter every beautiful memory.
She had seen and heard too many stories about the fate of abducted children, and each one brought on a torrent of nightmares. She couldn't bear to look at the small, disabled beggars on the street, the ones with missing arms and legs. The more she saw, the more terrified Su Li became, fearing that the sweet, shy boy who loved to laugh had endured the same horrors.
Su Li lived her entire life tormented by guilt and anxiety, never knowing a single night of peaceful sleep.
Her fears were not unfounded. Little Tang Mo... *Sigh*. She had failed him.
Su Li let out a deep sigh, reflecting on her short, failed life.
'Yes, a failure. My entire life has been a failure. There was nothing but pain, bitterness, and regret.'
'If I could do it all over again, I'd make sure I lived with no regrets. I would repay every kindness and take revenge for every wrong. If time could be turned back, I would never marry into the Tang Family, and I would never become the wife of Tang Yuanxiao, a man I spent a lifetime hating...'
Perhaps because her final wish had been fulfilled, Su Li passed away that night.
She had terminal stomach cancer and should have died long ago. It was a miracle she had held on for so long. If not for that one unfulfilled wish, she never would have lasted this long.
Defying the doctor's prognosis, she endured the agony of her illness day after day. She held on until she was nothing but skin and bones, holding on... until her wish of so many years was finally granted.
Tang Mo had been found. With her last wish fulfilled, Su Li passed on, her heart filled with regret and remorse.
Su Li had no children or relatives, and died alone. Her funeral was arranged by Yu Zhengqing and his wife, Ling Zhen. Yu Zhengqing notified Tang Yuanxiao and Tang Mo, but sadly, neither of them attended.
A month after the funeral, Yu Zhengqing sent a letter to Tang Yuanxiao. Inside was a short story, an adaptation of Su Li's life.
Tang Yuanxiao began to read, puzzled. After a moment, his pupils contracted sharply, his face a mask of utter disbelief.
Soon, his disbelief gave way to shock.
"...Just after being wrongfully accused of selling her stepson, Su Li was slandered again. Still a young virgin, she became a public pariah. No one listened to her explanations. In a fit of desperation, she even made the mad declaration that she was still a maiden and would submit to an examination to prove her innocence. But this wasn't met with belief, only with even more vicious insults.
No one believed her. That night, Su Li was nearly drowned in a pig cage by the enraged villagers."
"...While the villagers searched for the child, Su Li was kept locked in the family's cattle pen, deprived of food and water. Because their hatred for Su Li ran so deep, even her mother-in-law—a woman normally so timid she barely spoke above a whisper—frequently beat and cursed her. She forced Su Li to eat burnt charcoal ash, chili peppers, and spoiled food..."
Tang Yuanxiao's hand recoiled as if burned. The memory of Su Li's words flashed in his mind—her telling him that her ruin and her stomach cancer were all "gifts" from the Tang Family.
Tang Yuanxiao closed his eyes for a moment before forcing himself to read on. "...After the divorce, a half-dead Su Li was dumped at the Su Family's doorstep by the villagers. One after another, they spat on her, cursed her, and threw a bucket of feces on her before leaving.
Su Li's story had already spread. She became known as a notorious whore and a wicked woman throughout the surrounding villages, the entire county, and even the city. She was despised by all. After the villagers left, the people of her own Su Family Village pelted her with rotten leaves, stones, and animal dung. Her own Su Family disowned her and cast her out of the village..."
The story had already reached a pinnacle of tragedy, but these inhuman experiences were only the beginning. The account Yu Zhengqing had written was brief, yet Tang Yuanxiao nearly gave up reading halfway through.
He didn't know how he managed to finish it. When he was done, he sat in a stupor, not even noticing when the letter slipped from his fingers.
He remained frozen in his seat, sitting stiffly through the entire sleepless night.
「The next day, Tang Yuanxiao appeared at a cemetery on the outskirts of the city.」
But Su Li would never know that Tang Yuanxiao had come to see her. She had woken up again. Or rather, she had been reborn. Reborn on the afternoon of the day Tang Mo had disappeared, more than twenty years ago.
The day Tang Mo disappeared was a nightmare Su Li would never forget. It was the day her tragic life began. Afterward, she replayed that day in her mind countless times, fantasizing about turning back time, about all the things she would do differently...
Su Li had fantasized about it endlessly, never imagining that day would actually come.
Time had turned back. She had truly returned to that day, reborn at the most critical moment—just after Tang Mo had vanished.
The panic in Su Li's young, beautiful, and clear eyes vanished in an instant, replaced by firm resolve. She spun around, scanning her surroundings.
'Little Tang Mo, where are you?'
'This time, I will find you. I will definitely find you!'
'I won't let you suffer all that hardship again. I will never let you become mute!'