Marriage Seduction Addiction

Chapter 234 An Exception Among Exceptions
The door closed, and Tang Lan was led into the house by Meng Liancheng, still looking like she was crying.

Meng Liancheng led her to sit down on the sofa, and just as he was about to get up and leave, Tang Lan suddenly reached out and grabbed his sleeve.

She looked up at him, her eyes blurry with tears, a sight that evoked pity. "I'll do whatever you say from now on. Please let Yao Yao go, okay?"

Meng Liancheng looked down at her, reached out and wiped away her tears once more, then sighed softly and said, "She is your daughter, how could I harm her? How could you think of me like that?"

Tang Lan seemed not to hear him at all, and continued to plead, "Please let her go, okay? She's innocent, she shouldn't be involved in this... Please let her go, okay?"

Meng Liancheng squatted down slightly, took her hand, and said, "I know you're worried about her, and so am I. I like her very much, and I don't want anything to happen to her, but there's nothing I can do if you're so anxious. Look at your hands, they're so cold... I'll go run some water, you go take a bath, rest, and then we can discuss this further, okay?"

As he spoke, Meng Liancheng patted the back of her hand again and stood up.

He quickly went upstairs, and soon came back down, this time with a blanket in his hand.

Tang Lan sat on the sofa, almost curling herself up tightly, clutching her head in anguish.

Meng Liancheng stepped forward slowly, gently draped the blanket over her, and then gently pulled her into his arms.

"It's alright, don't worry." Meng Liancheng patted her back and comforted her gently. "Tang Xu will definitely be alright. Let's figure something out together, okay? She has your blood in her veins, how could I let anything happen to her?"

Tang Lan's body remained stiff and cold. She leaned against him for a long time without giving any response.

Meng Liancheng hugged her even tighter and whispered, "As long as we're together, there's no problem we can't solve. Have you forgotten all that?"

At this moment, Tang Lan finally couldn't hold back anymore. She tightly gripped his clothes and couldn't help but cry softly.

Meng Liancheng gently patted her head, whispering comforting words throughout: "Don't be afraid, I'm here..."

……

At midnight, Yan Shiyu's plane landed at Huai City International Airport.

Duan Siwei personally picked him up at the airport and told him all the progress of the case.

Yan Shiyu kept his eyes fixed on the window and said, "In short, there has been no progress."

Duan Siwei couldn't help but cough twice before saying, "The main problem is that the police are too forceful this time. Even Jiang Beiheng and Ren Guozhang have been brought up, but the police still insist on investigating to the end. There are very few places where we can get involved. If I want to make some moves, I don't even know who to ask."

"What's the latest news from Meng Liancheng's side?" Yan Shiyu asked again.

Duan Siwei paused for a moment before saying, "You suspect that he's involved in this matter again? But what is his purpose in framing Tang Xu like this?"

“Didn’t you say Tang Lan was back?” Yan Shiyu said.

“Yes…” Duan Siwei felt like his head was about to explode. When Tang Lan was mentioned, he suddenly remembered something, quickly turned around and dialed a number. After exchanging a few words, he hung up the phone, turned to Yan Shiyu and said, “Tang Lan went to see Meng Liancheng. The two of them are still together and haven’t gone out.”

After speaking, he pondered carefully for a moment, then couldn't help but shudder. He said, "This woman shouldn't have that much influence, right? Could it be that Meng Liancheng killed Song Yuting for her sake, and now he can't help but target Tang Xu? But that doesn't make sense. Before he fell into a coma, Tang Lan had already been married to Song Yuting for many years and had given birth to Tang Xu... It's impossible that he woke up in his sleep, realized his feelings for Tang Lan, and thus killed her?"

“If it were you, lying in bed for eighteen years, you probably wouldn’t be able to deal with the world rationally either,” Yan Shiyu said slowly. “Moreover, before that, we don’t even know what kind of relationship he had with Tang Lan.”

Duan Siwei couldn't help but frown again before muttering, "It's all your fault. Of all the women you could like, why did you have to fall for one with such a complicated background—"

Yan Shiyu glanced at him slightly, and Duan Siwei immediately cleared his throat again, saying, "What do we do now? It's inconvenient for you to show up at the police station, and even if you go, you won't be able to see Tang Xu... Are you going back to Qiushuitai first?"

"To the company," Yan Shiyu replied.

Duan Siwei's eyes widened slightly upon hearing this. "The company?"

“There has to be a reason for coming back,” Yan Shiyu said slowly, looking at the dark sky outside the window.

Is this creating a crisis for his own company so that he can have a legitimate reason to come back?

Duan Siwei was stunned for a moment, unsure how to respond. After a long while, he simply gave him a thumbs up.

……

The following day, around noon, Tang Lan appeared at the police station again.

At that moment, Jiang Muchen had just finished a meeting and came over to inquire about the progress of the case, so the two unexpectedly met in the police station compound.

In just one night, and with instructions from above to be polite to Tang Xu, the case, in short, made no progress whatsoever.

However, Jiang Muchen could tell at a glance that Tang Lan was no longer as flustered and at a loss as she had been the night before.

Clearly, her eyes were still full of worry, but her complexion and overall condition were much better than yesterday.

Jiang Muchen looked at her and suddenly asked, "You didn't go back to the hotel last night. Did you rest somewhere else?"

Tang Lan paused slightly, then simply nodded.

"That's good," Jiang Muchen said. "I was worried that you might get into trouble because you were too anxious."

Tang Lan lowered her eyes before saying, "I'm fine... I believe she'll be alright too."

Jiang Muchen looked at her quietly for a few seconds, then suddenly asked, "Do you know something?"

Tang Lan looked up at him, a fleeting look of undisguised panic in her eyes. "What?"

"You know who's behind this frame-up against Tang Xu, right?" Jiang Muchen cut to the chase and asked directly.

Tang Lan's face paled slightly again in an instant, and she shook her head, saying, "How would I know this? If I knew... how could I still be standing here safely?" Jiang Muchen stared intently at every change in her expression, and in the end, he didn't say another word.

Tang Lan didn't continue to defend herself. After a long silence, she finally spoke, "I've just been very worried that something like this would happen... After all, she runs that company all by herself. I'm really afraid something might happen to her... That's why I hope you can take good care of her, protect her, and let her live a safe and peaceful life..."

She continued talking incessantly, but Jiang Muchen seemed to have lost his patience, coldly saying, "You seem to have foreseen that Tang Xu would be in trouble from the very beginning, so you repeatedly instructed me to protect her during your last visit to Huai City. Since you knew she would be in trouble, you must know why, but you refuse to say anything, only asking me to protect her. Forgive my bluntness, but you've seen how things will unfold when the opponent and the danger are completely unpredictable—if you still think that a simple 'protection' will keep her safe in the face of such an outcome, then I can only say that you are incredibly naive!"

Tang Lan was stunned by his words. After a long silence, she only managed to utter three words: "I'm sorry..."

“You don’t need to say those three words to me,” Jiang Muchen said. “After all, although I promised you, I didn’t actually do anything and suffered no loss. You don’t need to pretend to care about Tang Xu in front of me anymore. I’ve already seen through how much of your concern is genuine.”

After saying that, Jiang Muchen turned to leave.

Tang Lan grew anxious and quickly stepped in front of him, saying, "Please believe in my sincerity. I genuinely hope Yao Yao can be alright, and I also hope you can be happy—"

Jiang Muchen curled his lips into a sarcastic smile. "You might have some sincerity, but you abandoned her for over a decade. A mother's instinct makes you worry about her, but her safety isn't that important to you. I'd even dare to say that even if Tang Xu is tried and sentenced this time, you'll spend the rest of your life in guilt, but that's all. You'll still live a good life, enjoying the glory and family bliss of being Mrs. Shao. Tang Xu is just a needle stuck in your heart; it might hurt occasionally, but once the pain is over, it's over. She's not that important. Her life, her very existence, none of it matters—at least not as much as the person and secret you're protecting."

These words struck Tang Lan's heart like a heavy hammer blow.

Her eyes were red and she stared at Jiang Muchen in shock, as if she had a thousand words to say, but she was as if she was imprisoned by something and could not say a word.

Seeing this, Jiang Muchen continued, "Even if Tang Xu manages to get through this time, such things may still happen again in the future, once, twice, three times... Even if she manages to escape danger every time, she will spend the rest of her life in such turmoil—being abandoned by you for eighteen years is definitely not the greatest pain in her life, because the greatest pain you brought her is not in the past, but in the future."

"Stop talking!" Tang Lan's composure was finally shattered. Tears streamed down her face as she looked at Jiang Muchen. "Stop talking—"

“I can remain silent, but the situation won’t change because of my silence,” Jiang Muchen said. “I originally thought all mothers in the world would love their children unconditionally, but it turns out that’s not the case; there are exceptions. And Mrs. Shao, you are that exception. Even more unfortunately, Tang Xu is the exception among exceptions, an exception who was abandoned twice by her own mother—”

Tang Lan couldn't help but hunch over, her emotions on the verge of collapse.

Jiang Muchen grabbed her wrist and pressed, "Under these circumstances, you still refuse to tell me what you know?"

Tang Lan was clearly completely devastated by his words. She looked at him, sobbing uncontrollably, "No...no..."

Seeing her repeatedly shake her head in denial, Jiang Muchen said again, "Then tell me, who exactly is trying to harm Tang Xu? And why does he want to harm Tang Xu? Only then can I clearly know how to protect her—"

Tang Lan was already sobbing uncontrollably, "Yes...yes..."

She was sobbing, and had only managed to utter two words when a car suddenly pulled up right next to them.

Immediately afterwards, Meng Liancheng got out of the car, glanced at the scene in front of him, and then reached out to help Tang Lan, who was crying with her head down.

Tang Lan looked up and seemed to pause for a moment when she saw him, but the next moment, she uncontrollably leaned into his arms and continued to cry.

At this moment, she seemed to have completely forgotten her identity as Mrs. Shao Qingyun. She was just a little woman, a little woman who was full of panic and in dire need of comfort.

Meng Liancheng protected her, just like last night, gently patting her back while whispering comforting words, "It's alright, don't worry, nothing will happen..."

As he spoke, he glanced up at Jiang Muchen in front of him.

Jiang Muchen met his gaze, and after a moment, curled his lips into an almost mocking smile.

Meng Liancheng remained calm, withdrew his gaze, and got into the car with Tang Lan.

Jiang Muchen remained standing beside the car, watching the man and woman inside with a cold gaze.

He was just a hair's breadth away from forcing Tang Lan to say it.

It's more than just a name.

For Jiang Muchen, that name was almost a foregone conclusion.

Meng Liancheng is such a deliberate person. Whether it's Song Yuting's matter or Tang Xu's matter, it seems that he is involved in everything.

But the more important reason is...

Jiang Muchen wanted to hear Tang Lan tell him the reason himself.

In the end, it was still... just a little short.

The car slowly drove away. Tang Lan's emotions spiraled out of control in the enclosed car. She looked up, her eyes brimming with tears, at the man holding her close. "I'll listen to you. I'll listen to you from now on. You won't hurt Yao Yao anymore, you won't hurt her anymore, right? I'll do whatever you say. I beg you, I beg you—"

Meng Liancheng looked down at her for a long time, then stroked her face and sighed softly: "I told you, she is your daughter, I won't let anything happen to her... Don't you believe me?"

Tang Lan couldn't help but shake her head repeatedly.

But what exactly did that head-shaking mean? Even she herself probably couldn't figure it out.

She buried herself in his arms once more and burst into uncontrollable sobs.

Meng Liancheng simply held her, gently patted the back of her head, and comforted her with kind words.

……

Almost at the same time that Meng Liancheng's car drove away, another car stopped in front of the police station. Immediately afterward, a person got out of the car, carrying a computer. He glanced at Jiang Muchen as he passed by, and then quickly ran towards the police station building.

Jiang Muchen narrowed his eyes slightly.

That's... Lu Xingyan.