Chapter 654: Chapter 562: Part 3

For example, every two or three years, Ai Baoguo would go back to his hometown to pay respects to his ancestors, but he never took his wife and children with him. Whenever she asked about his relatives there, he would just be evasive, saying his hometown was deep in a forested mountain and the journey was long and treacherous. He insisted it was better for him to make the trip alone and quickly, unwilling to make his wife and children endure such an ordeal. Hao Hueling believed him, thinking her husband was just being thoughtful and protective of her.

The Hao Family owned a private enterprise at the time, and with their vast assets, they were very well-off and wanted for nothing. Hao Hueling had her own job and salary, but she never had to spend any of it. Worried that Ai Baoguo might need money for social obligations related to his work, she always kept his wallet stuffed with cash. Out of concern for his health, she forbade him from smoking cheap cigarettes or drinking cheap alcohol, making sure he was always well-stocked with premium tobacco and fine liquor. As for Ai Baoguo’s own salary and other benefits, he never once brought them home to contribute to the household, and Hao Hueling never thought to ask. To a woman of her privileged upbringing, his salary was practically worthless.

This oblivious life went on for more than a decade. Then, tragedy struck. Their beloved son was killed at school during an argument, supposedly "by accident." At first, Ai Baoguo was utterly enraged, comforting his wife and promising he would avenge their son. However, after learning the details and discovering a powerful rival was behind it, he abandoned the pursuit of justice. Ignoring the tearful pleas of his wife, daughter, and in-laws, he just fell silent and locked himself away in his study.

But the events that followed were the cruelest of all. They came like a series of bolts from the blue, striking Hao Hueling and her daughter, Ai Wenli, so hard they were left shattered and reeling.

Bowing to pressure from certain powerful figures, Ai Baoguo made a decision. He announced he was dissolving his marriage to Hao Hueling and severing all ties as husband and wife. He framed their decade-long marriage as a regrettable mistake, claiming he had been seduced by Hao Hueling’s beauty, which led him to err and betray his first wife and children back in his village... Only then did Hao Hueling and Ai Wenli discover that Ai Baoguo had been married all along. His original wife, their three children, and his parents and brothers in the countryside were all alive and well!

All those years, he had actually been sending his entire salary back to his village. And his large family there, in order to keep receiving that money, had agreed to let him marry another woman in the city, have children, and establish a separate household!

As a final blow, Ai Baoguo also revealed that Old Mr. Hao had a secret: a hidden room beneath their garden villa, where a vast trove of ancestral treasures was concealed!

Soon after, his original wife from the countryside showed up. She and Ai Baoguo remarried, and he left with her, returning directly to his hometown.

The psychological trauma and physical suffering drove Hao Hueling into a state of madness, reducing her to a mere shell of her former self. Old Mr. Hao and his wife, elderly and frail, could not withstand such a devastating blow and the unending mental anguish; they both passed away within a week of each other. Hao Hueling wasn’t even able to arrange for her parents’ burials. After a harrowing ordeal where she nearly lost her own life, she was ultimately sent away to a remote area and imprisoned for eight years.

Meanwhile, amidst the chaos, Ai Wenli was secretly whisked away and sent overnight to a poor, remote village as an "educated youth." This was arranged by relatives and friends who had managed to avoid being caught up in the disaster. She, too, was unable to pay her last respects to her beloved maternal grandparents; their friends and family had to handle all the arrangements. Her younger maternal aunt, who had grown up in the countryside, was married to a capable yet discreet man, and this couple had been watching over the Hao Family’s affairs all along. It was thanks to them that Ai Wenli was spared further harm. Later, they also helped Hao Hueling return to the city, successfully pass a political review to have her name cleared, get her job back, and reclaim some of the family’s property.

After this ordeal, Hao Hueling and Ai Wenli learned to let go of many things, but a certain door in their hearts had also been sealed shut forever. They wished they could scrub away every last trace of Ai Baoguo, their so-called father and husband. Yet, in a cruel twist of irony, the Ai Family now had the audacity to come looking for them, hoping to reclaim them as kin.

Ever since Ai Baoguo brought his whole clan from the village to the city, Ai Wenli and her mother had been constantly harassed by them. The two women had to remain on high alert, using an icy demeanor to keep them at a distance. Yet even after several years, the Ai Family refused to give up. Ai Wenli used to think that some people were simply shameless beyond belief, but now, her feelings had hardened into pure, unadulterated rage.

Xiao Man hated people like that, too, people like Wu Xiaowen and Lin Aizhen. She wished she could cast a Spell to seal them away so they would never bother her again.

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