214 — How Did You Confirm That Birthmark?

Qiao Mingran was still lost in her thoughts, "Yueran. What a beautiful name. My daughter." Her eyes had already turned red again, making her son sigh. He handed her a handkerchief.

"But will asking her to provide material for the evidence make her feel bad? We might not need it. Let's just trust our instincts, okay?"

Gao Tinghua shook his head. This mother of his always thought everything was so simple. Without solid evidence, who would be convinced?

"Mother, have you forgotten that this concerns not just us, but the entire Qiao and Gao families? How would you convince Eldest Uncle? What about Father's relatives? Do you think any of them will just allow her into the family based on a birthmark? And what, will we ask her to expose her chest for them to see?"

Aristocratic families were very complicated, and even though Qiao Mingran could just stubbornly acknowledge her daughter without the support of the family, things will be very difficult.

She would be treated like an illegitimate child, unable to claim her birthright as the first born. That was not something she, who felt she owed her daughter seriously, would want to see.

Qiao Mingran sighed sadly before nodding. He was right. Their extended family was full of tigers that would draw blood at the hint of a threat to their interests. If they really couldn't give substantiated evidence, they would tear her daughter apart.

Suddenly, she thought of something else and frowned.

"Tinghua, about that birthmark, how did you confirm it?"

Gao Tinghua shifted uncomfortably.

Seeing his uneasy look, her eyes widened, "Don't tell me you, you, ...her—" Try as she did, she couldn't bring herself to complete her sentence.

He tried to defend himself, "Mother, that's not the point. The important thing is that I was able to confirm it. Does it matter how?"

Qiao Mingran was so angry that she didn't know when she knocked his head, "How could you? That's your elder sister! You, you—"

It took a bit before she realized what she had done. She hesitated, torn between anger and worry. In the end, worry won out.

"How do you feel? Does it hurt?" She asked, checking his head as if looking for bumps or bruises.

Gao Tinghua stood still. He knew his mother had changed, but when she displayed her changes so clearly, especially on him, he was still amazed.

In the past, his mother could not even look at him, much less hit him. She usually treated him like a stranger, as if she was the subject and he was the master.

People around him were right. If he could feel this happy because his mother knocked him, then maybe he truly needed therapy.

Maybe he was indeed crazy.

He even tried to console his mother. "It's fine Mother, it doesn't hurt. I'm sorry I did that, but I've already paid for it. Elder sister slapped me, and her husband also gave me a business warning."

"Serves you right." Qiao Mingran muttered under her breath.

Gao Tinghua: "..."

It was a good thing that he had booked all the seats in first class and they were currently alone. Else, he would have been so embarrassed!

He ignored her words and said, "So let's just do things the right way. When they return, I'll try to schedule a meeting with her and tell her everything."

Qiao Mingran nodded.

"And as you know, the pending issue at that time hasn't been resolved, so we need to be extra careful. Those people are not to be trifled with. It was Elder sister's disappearance that kept the balance all these years. Once she's found, they would be desperate. It would be best if we eliminate all threats once and for all."

Qiao Mingran nodded. He was right. They needed to silence the other party, else the loss will be absolute.

Still, she felt she could give anything up, if only her daughter would be happy and safe.

If only her daughter would come back.

That reminded her. One of the reasons she was so supportive of Gao Tinghua's marriage with Han Jingse, apart from the help her mother's family had rendered, was the fact that the Han family's patriarch had deep roots.

According to the rumors and the discreet investigation she did, the Old Man Han Jianfeng was an ex-military man, and he still had ties to the military. She felt if the two families became related by marriage, he would be more willing to help them with his influence and military connections.

Thinking up to here, she turned to Gao Tinghua and asked, "That reminds me, have you spoken to Jingse recently? I was thinking we should start arranging the betrothal gifts as soon as I get home. Then you can go and visit them in—"

Gao Tinghua directly cut her off with a single sentence, "Mother, I will not marry Han Jingse."

Astonished, Qiao Mingran paused. When she realized he didn't seem to be joking, she asked, a bit flustered, "But why not?"

Gao Tinghua had a lot of answers to that one question, but he eventually chose the path of least resistance, "Let's just say I don't love her."

Qiao Mingran didn't know what to say to this. Talking about love, if she told him that marrying for love was a good decision, not to mention the fact that her own marriage couldn't prove it, what would happen to the cooperation she wanted to achieve with the Han family?

But if she said love was useless, it would be against her conscience. More than anything else, she wanted all her children to be happy.

If Pei Yueran was the child she owed the most, Gao Tinghua was the one she agonized over the most. He came at a time she was still battling with her depression over the loss of her first child, and she didn't feel close to him.

At that time, she even felt that if he was a girl, she would have thought of him as her daughter's replacement and raised him with the heart of raising her missing daughter. But since he was a boy, she couldn't deceive herself.

Coupled with the guilt she felt about taking care of another child while she imagined her first child suffering somewhere, mother and son had been estranged for a long time.