Chapter 1230: Xia Yehua’s Marriage (25)
When Li Mao said this, Li Tianyu immediately stepped forward and said, “Dad, no!”
Li Mao frowned and replied, “What is there to hide still? Now that things have come to this, Tianyu, please don’t blame me. I really- It would be wrong of me to continue keeping mum about this matter.”
Upon hearing this, Li Tianyu choked back his words.
He paused for a while and then sighed. He nodded and stepped back.
Looking at everyone in the room, Li Mao started, “At the time, Yuanyuan had kept her condition a secret because… she had AIDS.”
“What?!”
“That is not possible!”
“What nonsense are you speaking? Don’t you know that saying such things will sully Yuanyuan’s reputation?”
They started to raise their voices.
Pursing his lips, Li Mao looked up at them and said, “Why would I joke about such a thing? At that time, we went overseas and Yuanyuan fooled around. When we returned home, we discovered that she was infected with AIDS. She begged me not to tell anyone and certainly not to let you all know, because she didn’t want you to be sad or to despise her. She’d rather she die of cancer. The medical reports are at home! If you don’t believe me, you can come with me to have a look.”
Zhang Yuan’s elder brother looked at him with an expression of disbelief and said after a moment, “And you…”
Li Mao cast his gaze down and sighed. He finally revealed, “Yuanyuan and I had already separated ten years ago.”
Senior Madam Zhang and Sister-in-law Zhang were shocked to hear this. They too looked at Li Mao in disbelief.
Li Mao calmly continued, “We made sacrifices for our families when we got married. In fact, the day we got married, we had made an agreement that if in the future we didn’t get along, we’d choose to get a divorce. She and I had very different personalities and temperament, we had different hobbies and little in common. After Tianyu was born, the differences we had in our values became obvious. Eventually, we parted on amicable terms. But because our marriage implicated the families’ estates, we had never made this public. But Tianyu knows about it.”
Li Tianyu immediately nodded and said, “Dad and Mom divorced when I was ten.”
Everyone was stunned.
Li Mao cast his gaze down and continued, “From that day on, Yuanyuan fooled around outside. She eventually came back when she fell sick. Tianyu and I took care of her right up till the end.
“Mom, Elder Brother, I never wanted to tell you these things because I didn’t want you to be sad. But now, please don’t make things difficult for Xia Yehua anymore. This matter had nothing to do with her right from the start!”
The Zhang family members were all stunned and at a loss for words after hearing all this.
It was no wonder then that Zhang Yuan had just suddenly died without showing any warning signs before that.
So that was… AIDS!
All of them knew clearly how AIDS spread. Hence, it became obvious that it was Zhang Yuan who had treated Li Mao unfairly.
But in the end?
Not only had Li Mao not gotten angry and thrown a temper, he had even been there for Zhang Yuan in her most painful moments, right up till the end, when he said his final goodbye to her.
So what right did the Zhang family have to be creating trouble here?
Elder Big Brother Zhang realized this immediately. He looked at Xia Yehua and said, “I- We were in the wrong.”