Huh? Are villainous bosses this easy to flirt with?

Chapter 218 The Truth

……

Inside the police station, Xie Qing remained completely unaffected by public opinion, calmly and composedly completing her statement. Just as she was about to leave, suddenly—

"lightly……"

A trembling cry drifted down like a feather, carrying endless regret and sorrow.

Xie Qing turned around and saw a woman with an elegant updo being supported by a policewoman standing not far away. Her eyes were red and swollen, her face was covered in tears, and she was clutching her chest as if in unbearable pain, swaying as if she were about to collapse.

This person was none other than Xie's mother, whom she hadn't seen for a long time.

She looked at Xie Qing through teary eyes, and as soon as she opened her mouth, tears streamed down her face uncontrollably, "Qingqing, my child... I'm sorry... It's Mom who's sorry..."

Xie's mother choked up, barely able to utter a complete sentence; each breath was punctuated by broken sobs.

A few steps away, Xie's father was equally resolute, his eyes filled with regret and heartache as he looked at Xie Qing, silently wiping away his tears.

An hour earlier, the Xie couple were summoned to the police station in a daze. Completely bewildered, they were then taken into an interrogation room by the police.

There were three people handcuffed inside. Among them, the woman with shifty eyes seemed familiar to Xie's mother, but she couldn't remember where she had seen her before.

A police officer poured them two cups of hot water. "Don't rush, everyone's here yet."

Not long after she finished speaking, a young police officer brought in a woman in her fifties. When Xie's mother caught a glimpse of the woman's mole on her philtrum, the floodgates of memory opened.

When she was twenty-five, she was seven months pregnant and felt that the air in the city was not fresh, so she insisted on going to the mountains for a vacation.

Unable to persuade Xie's mother, whose emotions were unstable during her pregnancy, Xie's father, after several discussions, recently chose a small county town with fresh air for a trip.

On her third day there, she slipped and fell while taking a shower and went into premature labor. When she woke up in pain, she couldn't see her baby. In her panic, she grabbed the nurse who was changing her dressing and asked her what was wrong. The nurse had a large black mole on her philtrum.

"I've seen you before. Weren't you a nurse at the First Hospital of Baoshan County more than 20 years ago?"

The woman who was brought in clearly recognized Xie's mother, and kept her head down and remained silent as if facing a formidable enemy.

At the same time, when Xie Fu and Liu Guilan saw Zeng Juan enter, their last shred of hope vanished, and a belated fear gradually spread throughout their bodies.

As the Xie couple looked at the four people handcuffed to the interrogation chair opposite them, they felt uneasy, sensing that something big was about to happen.

This unease reached its peak with the arrival of Xie Nuo.

The other party was clearly also confused when they were brought into the interrogation room. Upon seeing the Xie couple, they instinctively called out, "Dad, Mom."

His eyes quickly reddened, and he longed to be pampered and loved by his parents like before, to run into their arms and tell them about the grievances he had suffered over the past few months.

He knows he was wrong, he really knows he was wrong, and he will never target Xie Qing for no reason again. Can he please be taken back?

Without saying a word, Xie's mother glanced at Xie Nuo with a pale face, then at the woman whose eyes had initially been darting away—the two women's strikingly similar appearances gave rise to a vague guess in her mind.

Perhaps it was the guidance of blood, or perhaps it was the similar appearance, but Liu Guilan, who was handcuffed to the interrogation chair, recognized Xie Nuo as her child at a glance. Her chapped lips trembled violently, and turbid tears welled up in her eyes.

This is her own flesh and blood, the child she carried for ten months. Back then, she endured the excruciating pain of sending the child away, just so that he could live a life free from worries about food and clothing.

But now, looking at the other person's pale face and emaciated body, she almost lost her mind and screamed—how could they, how could they treat their own son like this?!

The police didn't give Liu Guilan a chance to lash out; their voices, like sharp swords, cleaved through the absurd truth, "Now that everyone's here, let's begin..."

Despite having a premonition, the bloody truth still left the Xie couple feeling dizzy and overwhelmed when it was finally revealed.

Their own flesh and blood—not a careless mistake of fate, but a deliberate act of switching; not growing up peacefully in an ordinary family, but surviving through childhood abuse.

When Xie Qing's medical examination report, which he submitted as evidence, was presented to them, the words "permanent damage to the left leg" were like a poisoned dagger, slowly torturing their nerves.

But when the truth is revealed, it's not just them who find it unbearable.

After listening to the whole thing, Xie Yan stared blankly at her parents, truly recognizing them for the first time.

She once thought she was the luckiest girl in the whole village because her parents didn't favor boys over girls like other parents; on the contrary, they favored girls over boys.

She always gets to choose the best food and fun toys first, followed by her older sister, while her younger brother is practically irrelevant.

The neighbors, seeing their situation, always scolded them for being foolish, saying that raising a daughter was like raising someone else's child, while a son was the one who would carry on the family line.

"What's wrong with my daughter? She's better than ten sons!"

Her parents said this in front of her.

At the time, she was both pleased with this attention and deeply moved.

But now it all seems so hypocritical—they've already sent their real sons to luxurious homes, so they're happy to use leftovers to put on a show of "favoring daughters over sons."

At the other end of the interrogation room, Xie Nuo looked at Liu Guilan's rough hands, her sun-spotted face, and Xie Fu's hunched back and yellowed teeth. He felt nauseous and refused to admit that these were his biological parents.

She even hated them—if they chose to pull off a switcheroo, why didn't they do it cleanly?

Why not just trap Xie Qing in that remote and impoverished place?

Why did he have to let Xie Qing into his life and mess everything up?!

"Pop-pa-!"

Two loud slaps suddenly rang out. Xie's mother, in a fit of emotion, slapped Xie Fu and Liu Guilan with all her might, her voice hoarse and barely audible.

"We have no grudge against each other, why are you doing this?!"

"Why did you treat my child like this, torturing him like an animal? Are you even human?!"

The two handcuffed women couldn't escape, and their cheeks quickly swelled up. She tried to hit them again, but the police stopped her firmly. "Mrs. Xie, please calm down!"

"Mom, you..."

Xie Nuo was interrupted sharply before he could even open his mouth, "I'm not your mother!"

Seeing this, Liu Guilan became excited and looked at Xie Nuo with expectation in her eyes, "Child, I am your biological mother..."

"you are not!"

Sheno immediately denied it, as if she were being entangled by a venomous snake.

"Hahaha--"

Xie Yan, who was also handcuffed, suddenly burst out laughing, her laughter sharp and sarcastic, "You went to great lengths to send your son into a golden nest, only to find they don't even want to acknowledge you, hahaha..."

"Xie Yan, he's your brother!"

"So what? Wasn't Xie Qing my brother before?!"

"..."

The interrogation room was in an uproar, filled with cries, curses, and attempts to dissuade the other party; the scene was chaotic and absurd.

The lights became exceptionally bright at that moment, illuminating the room and exposing all the evil within.