Chapter 838   - Madness (2)

Elder Tang was being kept in another part of the detention area. Tang Moyu fell silent as she tried to sort her thoughts before meeting the old man. Zhang Jiren was worried about her, but he didn't dare to disturb her, seeing how serious she was.

When Elder Tang was escorted to the visitation area, he wasn't surprised to see his granddaughter waiting there. What confused him was why she was accompanied by a Zhang family member?

Wasn't Zhang Jiren Zhang Xianzhe's illegitimate child from another woman that he'd taken in years ago? Since when did his granddaughter have a good relationship with that man? Elder Tang wondered.

There haven't been many changes on Elder Tang since Tang Moyu last saw him. It had been over two years since she parted ways from the Tang family, and although she had heard things about Tang Zhelan turning into a new leaf, she was certain that this old man, staring back at her, remained the same.

"Moyu…" he called out, but he only earned a scathing look from the empress. Tang Moyu was clearly mad at him, but he couldn't fault her for that.

"Why? How could you do that to my father and me?" she spat out with contempt. "You said we are family, and we should look after each other no matter how hard the situation is."

Remembering those words that her grandfather uttered in the past made Tang Moyu think how hypocritical he was right now. How could he say those words in front of her when all the time he was the one who sent Tang Lixue in despair and loneliness until his last breath?

The grief over Yan Qiuyu's death had made it hard for him to look after his young daughter without thinking of his beloved.

"I didn't have any choice… It was for Yan Qiuyu to die, or the whole Tang family would meet its end." Elder Tang cleared his throat and tried to remain calm. He already expected that his granddaughter wouldn't take the news lightly once he found out what he'd done.

To think that someone was brave enough to go after him and Zhang Xianzhe proved that their enemies couldn't be underestimated. For them to be able to uncover what had happened to Yan Qiuyu thirty years ago proved that they were powerful enough to find leads to destroy the Zhang family.

As Elder Tang looked at his granddaughter, he realized that he might have made a grave mistake choosing the Zhang family rather than keeping Tang Moyu on their side. If he'd allowed Yan Qiuyu and her twins to join the Tang family, wouldn't it mean that he wouldn't have to worry about their family's future, given how exceptional the young empress turned out to be?

Alas, it was too late to regret now, as he wouldn't be able to change the past. With the Tang Enterprise reaching the lowest low since its founding days, he had no other choice but to rely on Zhang family's help to keep their family business afloat.

He was able to save their business, but at the cost of his son's life. Elder Tang, of course, felt guilt and regret for what he'd done and knew that Tang Lixue would forever hate him if he had known what he'd done to Yan Qiuyu and his son, but what else could he do? The Zhang family wouldn't help them unless Tang Lixue married Zhang Wuying.

"You didn't have a choice?" Tang Moyu repeated his words. "Who are you trying to fool here, Grandpa?" Her tone was laced with sarcasm. She then glanced towards her twin brother who also suffered as the consequence of Elder Tang's action.

"Aren't you curious as to why Zhang Jiren is here with me?" She smiled, her eyes flashing with disgust towards the old man she once called and revered as her grandfather.

"Don't you recognize him, oh dear grandfather?" she added, which made the old man give Zhang Jiren a good look.

Elder Tang didn't know why, but his blood ran cold upon looking at the man in front of him. For a moment, he thought that he was looking at his long deceased son, Tang Lixue. Tang Lixue… it couldn't be….

"I was the child, the son you wanted to die for your own selfish needs," Zhang Jiren answered the unspoken question of the old man. Could this old man see how f.u.c.k.e.d the situation was? If he hadn't killed their birth mother and accepted them to the family instead, he and Tang Moyu wouldn't turn like this right now.

The old man stared at Zhang Jiren in shock. He was rendered speechless, not knowing how to react now that he knew that the young child he thought he had killed had somehow survived and came back alive.

"How…" His words trailed off but he could get the gist of what had happened. One didn't need half a brain to connect the dots of what had happened between Zhang Jiren and Zhang Xianzhe during that time.

"How? Is that really the question you should be asking right now?" Zhang Jiren sneered at him. All the suffering he, along with his twin sister and father endured throughout the years was because of this old man.

If he hadn't betrayed Tang Lixue and allowed Zhang Wuying and the rest of the Tang family to bully the empress, would Tang Moyu turn her back on them and crush the Tang Enterprise with her own hands?

If Elder Tang hadn't tried to kill him, separating him from his family, would Zhang Jiren have to fight each single day alone to survive, only to find out that he wasn't forgotten and abandoned by his family as he thought he was?

Elder Tang looked at the pair of twins of his son and felt an eerie feeling he'd never felt before. He didn't know why but as he stared at them, seated next to each other felt like an invisible force was trying to suffocate him, making him break into sweat.