Chapter 1649 — More and More Alike

"Would they dare?" Bing Tang said with contempt. "It isn't that I think poorly of them — wiping them out would take no more than a thought."

Hearing this, Wei Zhao clicked his tongue in secret admiration. This Heaven-rank girl was imperious beyond words — though given the strength of the Ice Palace behind her, such a boast was hardly out of place.

"A Heaven-rank girl is really something!" Wei Zhao said. "Looks like I'd better start working harder!"

"Heh heh heh... hm!" Bing Tang shot Wei Zhao a cold glance.

"So, Yunyun... what do you think about me staying here?" Xiao Ming cared a great deal about Tang Yun's opinion.

"Of course that would be wonderful! Then I'd have two mothers!" Tang Yun said frankly.

"Thank you..." Hearing Tang Yun say this, Xiao Ming was overjoyed...

Mother Tang had finished packing the luggage at home and was waiting for Tang Yun and Wei Zhao to return. They had agreed to set out together the next morning, but she waited and waited and neither of them appeared. It was already dark, and she was just about to phone and ask when the two of them would be home, when the doorbell rang.

"Why are you back so late? Have you got your things packed... hm?" Mother Tang opened the door and was still grumbling at Tang Yun when she suddenly noticed that two more people were standing behind Tang Yun and Wei Zhao. She froze on the spot!

Xiao Qing and Feng Xiaoxiao had not come along this time; the two outside the door were, of course, Xiao Ming and Bing Tang.

"We have guests?" Mother Tang asked curiously, without looking closely.

"Sister..." At the sight of Mother Tang, a hundred feelings surged in Xiao Ming's heart; tears fell again, and she choked out the word.

To hear herself called "sister" in so familiar a voice startled Mother Tang. She raised her head and peered closely, then stood transfixed like a wooden statue: "You... you... are you Xiao Ming?"

"Sister..." Xiao Ming rushed in through the door and, unable to restrain herself, threw her arms around Mother Tang, sobbing: "Sister, it's me..."

"Xiao Ming, it really is you — you've come back..." Mother Tang had once harbored resentment toward Xiao Ming, but after Tang Jucheng's explanation that resentment had faded somewhat. Now, seeing her, she could not help recalling the past, and for a moment a hundred feelings crowded in on her. She held Xiao Ming and patted her gently on the back: "Xiao Ming, don't cry, don't cry. Out there all these years, did you suffer a great deal of grievance? Tell me... I'll have your niece's husband go and settle the score for you!"

Your niece's husband? Wasn't that Wei Zhao? At Mother Tang's words Xiao Ming nearly burst out laughing through her tears, but then she remembered that the whole matter had not yet been explained, so she said nothing more...

And Wei Zhao and Tang Yun, hearing this, could not help exchanging a smile...

Just then Tang Jucheng came out of his room. Seeing Mother Tang and Xiao Ming weeping in each other's arms, he was taken aback: "What's going on here?"

"Dad... I... Auntie is back..." Tang Yun had wanted to say "Mother", but then she remembered that her father did not yet know the truth, and that saying it now would only make the explaining more troublesome. Better to call her auntie for the time being.

"Xiao Ming? Xiao Ming is back?" Tang Jucheng was astonished. Scarcely daring to believe it, he looked at the woman beside Mother Tang: "Is that Xiao Ming come back?"

"It's me, brother-in-law..." Xiao Ming lifted her head, rather agitated: "Brother-in-law, I've come home..."

"It's good that you're back, good that you're back! All these years I've carried the guilt in my heart — I should never have taken you to the Hidden Tang family; it brought trouble down on you for nothing..." Seeing Xiao Ming, Tang Jucheng felt a sharp ache in his heart. Though what had happened back then was not his fault, it had in the end been because of the people on the Tang family's side; the Hidden Tang were, after all, Tang Jucheng's own clansmen, and so he had always felt a heavy share of the responsibility.

"And this is..." Tang Jucheng caught sight of Bing Tang at the door. Bing Tang was at that moment sizing up her own biological parents. These two were plainly much older than Tang Lingtou and Xiao Ming; they looked like ordinary folk from a poor household, yet the house was lavishly furnished — which left Bing Tang rather puzzled about Tang Yun's family circumstances.

Could it be that the hardships of their early years had aged the two of them before their time?

"This is my cousin... well, my cousin on my father's side and on my mother's side both — Bing Tang," Tang Yun said, introducing her to her father, and then: "Dad, Mom! Don't just stand at the door — shall we go inside and talk?"

"Yes, yes! Look at me, so excited I've blocked the doorway — if the neighbors saw, I'd never hear the end of it!" Mother Tang shook her head with a wry smile, then said: "Everyone come in and sit! Quickly now... So this is my eldest niece? Her name is Bing Tang? What a lovely name!"

"Heh..." Tang Yun gave a dry laugh, thinking to herself: Mom, I'm the one who's your niece... but with the way things stand between us...

"Yunyun, this isn't the place for me. I'll go on ahead; I'll come back in the morning to see you all," Wei Zhao said, feeling that he was in the way. What remained was a matter for Tang Yun's own family, and there was nothing more he could do.

"Mm, that works too!" Tang Yun thought so as well and nodded to Wei Zhao. The scene to come was indeed no place for him.

After Wei Zhao left Tang Yun's house, he gave no further thought to how they would settle things afterward; he could not be part of it anyway. He drove straight back to the Gu family villa.

As soon as he came through the door, Feng Xiaoxiao, Xiao Qing, Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu came up to meet him: "Wei Zhao, how did it go? Over there... did Mother Tang accept them?"

"I came back first — I wasn't in on the details!" Wei Zhao shook his head with a wry smile. "I really couldn't be part of that sort of thing!"

At his words everyone nodded silently. He was right; what remained truly was a matter for Tang Yun's family alone...

The night passed without incident. Xiao Qing slept in the guest room, while Gu Mengyao, Shen Yushu and Feng Xiaoxiao naturally shared a room. The three had not seen one another in a long while and were naturally close; and since Feng Xiaoxiao had lived in the villa before her illness, none of them were strangers to one another. Once they were in bed, they fell to laughing and teasing.

"Wow, Xiaoxiao, your body is so cool — just the thing to beat the heat, I'm dying of it!" Shen Yushu said, hugging Feng Xiaoxiao tightly.

"You wicked Xiaoshu, are you trying to murder me? Quit squashing me with those big breasts of yours — you'll smother me!" Feng Xiaoxiao pushed her away.

"Ha..." Gu Mengyao could not help laughing at their exchange.

"Yaoyao, I've noticed that you and Arrow Brand Bro are more and more alike — especially when you laugh!" Shen Yushu said suddenly.

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