After Awakening, She Tore Apart Her Enemies and Joined the Army on an Island - Chapter 58

Huo Zhenhua was in a foul mood and snapped irritably, “Shut up!”

Wang Qinglin rubbed his nose sheepishly and stood up to leave.

Before going, he couldn’t resist adding, “Stubborn as a mule, still denying you like her. Hah! Serves you right!”

Meanwhile, after composing herself, Su Meng went to Xie Mian’s room.

The elderly woman happened to be there.

Su Meng greeted her with a smile and spoke earnestly, “Grandma, Uncle, I am Su Meng, daughter of Su Mianzhi from the Su family in Shanghai, and granddaughter of the late Elder Su Zhensheng.”

From the moment she laid eyes on the elderly woman, she felt she was the wife her grandfather had spoken of until his dying day.

Yet, upon hearing the names Su Zhensheng and Su Mianzhi of the Shanghai Su family, the elderly woman showed no reaction.

Her unfamiliar and bewildered gaze couldn’t be feigned.

Su Meng began to doubt her own judgment.

Xie Mian watched the young girl’s shifting expressions with surprise and a pang of sympathy. “Xiao Meng, what is it you want to say?”

Su Meng simply took out a family portrait and a stack of well-preserved photos and handed them over. “Grandma, Uncle, this is our family photo. And these are the photos Grandpa treasured.”

She pressed her lips together, clasped her hands in front of her, and twisted her fingers anxiously.

Meeting the elderly woman’s inquisitive gaze, she broke into an awkward grin.

Xie Mian took it all in, his heart aching. Looking at the family portrait, he felt unsettled. “So, are you saying we’re family?”

Su Meng’s eyes lit up, and she nodded vigorously, the unease in her smile melting away like spring blossoms in full bloom.

“Uncle, you see it too, don’t you? Look, that’s Grandpa in the middle. You look a lot like him.”

Excitedly, she pointed at the people in the family photo, her gaze shifting between the picture and Xie Mian.

Xie Mian held the family portrait, studying it closely. How had he never noticed the resemblance between himself and that man?

But he couldn’t bear to disappoint the young girl.

She had come eagerly to claim kinship, so he would simply accept it.

He had already felt a connection with Su Meng and had intended to take this pitiable girl under his wing.

This child clearly yearned for affection!

Some of her mannerisms reminded him of Xiao Qi, guarded, slow to trust, and reluctant to open up.

Though she got along well with Wu Yanru and Cheng Wangshu, chatting amiably, Xie Mian could see the wariness and detachment hidden behind her smiling eyes.

Just like Xiao Qi, she seemed to retreat into her own shell.

Holding the family portrait, he said cheerfully, “I don’t even need to look to know we’re family. Don’t forget, Xiao Qi has always been attached to you, her sister.”

Su Meng thought Xie Mian was acknowledging them as long-lost relatives and happily rubbed her hands together, taking small steps closer. “Uncle, I knew you were the most perceptive. Did you recognize me from the start? Is that why you were so persistent on the train? When that enemy agent charged at us, you pulled me aside without a second thought. You were protecting me. Hehe! We’re connected by blood, we must have sensed each other.”

In that moment, Su Meng completely forgot that she had felt no such connection with Xie Mian. Not only had she reported him as an accomplice of the enemy agent, but she had also overpowered him, knocked him out, and handed him over to the armed forces.

Xie Mian, of course, wouldn’t bring up such unpleasant memories. He went along with her words. “Yes, we must have been family in a past life.”

Otherwise, there was no explaining why he had defied orders and couldn’t bring himself to harm her.

Hearing this, Su Meng’s soaring enthusiasm was instantly doused as if by a bucket of cold water, flickering uncertainly.

She stared at Xie Mian in disbelief, her eyes instantly welling up with tears. With a helpless sigh, she said, “Uncle, you’re fooling me!”

After speaking, she pulled another yellowed book from her pocket.

The characters on the pages were in traditional script, with cursive calligraphy written vertically from top to bottom and right to left, each line meticulously recorded in brushstrokes.

“This is the Su family genealogy, documenting our family rules, teachings, and bloodline heritage.

Uncle, take a look at this section on the bloodline first.

This is the most crucial line regarding the direct lineage of the Su family. Doesn’t it seem somewhat familiar?”

She believed that the birthmarks on Xie Mian and Xiao Qi’s shoulder blades, one after the other, matched the Su family’s bloodline heritage.

This couldn’t possibly be a coincidence!

Unless they were part of the Su family.

Xie Mian’s pupils contracted sharply, his hand trembling as he held the page, his expression both stern and incredulous.

He turned his puzzled gaze to the elderly woman seated nearby, who was studying the photographs as if admiring famous paintings, and softly called out, “Mother?”

The old woman seemed not to hear, her face calm, but the time she spent lingering on each photograph grew longer and longer.

The photo held between her fingers trembled slightly, like fallen leaves stirred by a gentle breeze.

The veins on the back of her hand writhed like earthworms, crawling over her bones before disappearing beneath her skin.

“Mother?” Xie Mian called out again.

The old woman had always had sharp hearing, but severe rheumatism made her suffer unbearable pain during weather changes, leaving her mobility impaired.

That’s why, whenever he went on missions, he tried to take Xiao Qi with him as much as possible.

And he entrusted the care of the elderly woman to their neighbors.

But even after Xie Mian called out twice, the old woman remained unresponsive.

She was lost in her own world.

Those photographs were the key to unlocking her long-sealed memories.

She picked up a photo of a man and a woman holding a little boy, sitting beneath a flower-covered wall, their smiles radiant and joyful. She looked at it again and again.

In the next moment, a glimmer of light suddenly shone in her clouded eyes, and large teardrops, like pearls, streamed down her cheeks.

Her trembling fingers slowly traced the images of the man and the child in the photograph.

A few breaths later, she began to sob.

The sound of her weeping seemed to burst forth from the depths of her heart, a mixture of grievance and longing, sorrowful and prolonged, bitter and aching.

Su Meng’s heart tightened sharply, a wave of sorrow and bitterness rising within her, and she found herself weeping uncontrollably.

She looked at Xie Mian in a panic, “Uncle…”

By now, Xie Mian understood everything.

He closed his eyes tightly, struggling to control his emotions.

When he opened them again, his face was calm, though the hand gripping his pant leg was tense, the muscles in his arm rigid and unyielding.

“It’s alright. Let your grandmother have some peace.”

For as long as he could remember, there had been no man in this household.

He had always been the “bastard” in others’ mouths, the target of village children’s taunts and blows.

Back then, he yearned for a father, hoping someone would come to their aid.

But all these years, no one had appeared.

And he had grown from a wild, ignorant child, a burden, into a fisherman and a soldier.

His mother, too, had aged from lush black hair to white strands, plagued by a lifetime of ailments.

As he grew older, he never asked who his father was or why he had abandoned them.

But now, just when he no longer needed a father, news of his father had surfaced.

Yet, they were worlds apart, destined never to meet again.

How cruel fate could be!

At this moment, he also understood why Su Meng’s attitude toward him had changed so suddenly and why she was so good to Xiao Qi.

It was never the innate maternal instinct of a girl but natural kinship.

“Xiao Meng, is there really no news of your father?” If that was the case, then Su Mianzhi was his own elder brother.

Su Meng wiped her tears. “There should be some, I suppose. Once Ah Da’s health improves a bit, we’ll go find my father together.”

“Ah Da? Why not go now? I’ll go with you.”

The Su family had been schemed against by treacherous people, leaving her as the only one left. Xie Mian didn’t want her to face danger alone.

After saying this, he struggled to get out of bed, eager to bring back her father, his own brother.

Su Meng quickly stopped him. “Uncle, let me meet with Commander Tang first before we go.”

Since they had come to the island, she might as well see Commander Tang.

“Commander Tang?” Xie Mian’s heart skipped a beat.

So, Su Meng still couldn’t escape being interrogated. But the micro camera had only passed through her hands once, what fault did she have?

“Go and ask Battalion Commander Huo to come in. I have something to say.”

Su Meng was puzzled. She glanced at the old woman with concern, seeing that she was still engrossed in looking at the photos. She exchanged a look with Xie Mian. “Should I call him now?”