The Son I Rejected, the Past I Forgot

My wife had cheated, and my son wasn’t mine either. She had told me that herself on our wedding day. But by chance, I discovered that my son had the same extremely rare Rh-negative blood type as I did. I secretly took a paternity test behind my wife’s back, and the results showed a 99.99% DNA match between my son and me. That meant we were indeed related by blood, but if he wasn’t my son, who exactly was his biological father? Could it be…? My expression darkened! "Hello, are you Liu Yuejin, Liu Xiaobao’s father?" "This is the children’s hospital, and your son fell at school and split his head open, losing a lot of blood, so he needs a transfusion." "Please come over right away…" I received the call at ten that morning, and my face immediately fell. But it wasn’t from worry or anger. It was disgust. "If it’s about the kid, call his mother." "Besides, I’m Rh-negative, so what good will calling me do?" "If he needs blood, doesn’t your hospital have a blood bank?" I answered impatiently and was about to hang up. Xiao He, my driver, turned to glance at me, and I could sense his surprise. What kind of father would react so impatiently after hearing that his son was hurt and bleeding? The reason was actually simple. Liu Xiaobao wasn’t my biological son. My wife, Li Wenli, had already been three months pregnant when she met me, and she had stood beside me at our wedding with someone else’s child growing in her belly. I was nothing but a spineless sucker left to clean up another man’s mess. "What kind of father are you?" "This is outrageous." The doctor on the other end was clearly angry, his voice growing stern: "Would we be calling you if our blood bank had that blood type?" "We’ve already tested Liu Xiaobao, and he’s Rh-negative too, so get over here…" With that, he hung up abruptly. I froze on the spot. Liu Xiaobao was Rh-negative too? Wasn’t that too much of a coincidence? "Yuejin, he’s still little, and it’s normal for kids to get into trouble sometimes." Xiao He glanced at my expression. He tried to reason with me gently: "There’s nothing wrong with being a strict father, but he’s hurt now, so we should put his injuries first." "I’m not his father!" My head was a mess, and I blurted it out in anger before realizing what I’d said. I glanced at Xiao He: "Sorry, Xiao He, I wasn’t taking it out on you… anyway, let’s go to the hospital first." After I arrived at the hospital and donated blood, Liu Xiaobao fell asleep. For the first time, I studied his face closely, and to my surprise, the longer I looked, the more he resembled me. Xiao He suddenly chimed in: "Yuejin, the little guy really looks like you, like you came out of the same mold." Suddenly uneasy, I turned to the doctor: "Doctor, can you do a paternity test here?" The doctor looked at me with a searching gaze: "Isn’t your shared blood type enough proof?" "Never mind that, just tell me whether you can do it." The doctor replied: "We can’t do it ourselves, but we can send the samples to a major hospital in the provincial capital, and the results will take three days." I immediately rolled up my sleeve: "Do you need hair or blood?" "Let’s take the samples now." I watched the entire collection process, including the sealing of the samples. Once everything was finished, Li Wenli arrived too. Her eyes were red, and tear tracks marked her face, as though she had cried on the way. The kindergarten teacher and administrator immediately went over to her, apologizing and offering reassurance. I merely gave her a cold glance, then left with Xiao He. It was lunchtime when we left the hospital. I was upset and wanted a drink, so instead of going to the company cafeteria, I took Xiao He to a restaurant. When the food and drinks arrived, I poured a shot of baijiu, tipped my head back, and downed it. Anyone could see I was drowning my sorrows. "Yuejin, that stuff burns, so take it slow." Xiao He tried to caution me. Then he asked carefully: "The little guy… really isn’t your biological son?" "Then that blood type… isn’t that one hell of a coincidence?"It wasn’t just the blood type. Only today, when I studied Liu Xiaobao’s face properly for the first time, did I realize something strange was going on. That was why I felt so uneasy. Li Wenli and I had met on a blind date arranged by our elders. At first, I was very pleased with her. Once both families agreed to the match, my mother handed over the betrothal money without hesitation. The wedding was set for two weeks later, making it a whirlwind marriage by any standard. It wasn’t until a few days before the wedding that Li Wenli confessed she was already three months pregnant. Being saddled with another man’s child completely blindsided me. In the days before the wedding, I got drunk every day, agonizing over what to do. In the end, I decided to keep it a secret and go through with the marriage. My mother had just been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and I was afraid the shock would worsen her condition. After the wedding, I treated Li Wenli coldly. Once the child was born, I barely ever looked after him. That child made me feel humiliated as a man. I hated him and didn’t want to hear him call me Dad. He was three now and already in his first year of kindergarten. But in those three years, I had never taken him to an amusement park. I had never played a single game with him either. Sometimes, after I’d been drinking at home, he would come over to me, and I would usually yell at him to get lost. So he had never been close to me, knowing only distance and fear. I had never felt the slightest guilt or pity over it. He wasn’t mine, so I had no obligation. In fact, I often thought I was being quite generous. He was a permanent brand of shame on my life, and it was already good of me not to abuse him… But everything that happened today shattered my sense of self-justification. Suddenly, I felt uneasy. If Liu Xiaobao wasn’t my son, why did he have the same blood type as me? And why did he look so much like me? ………… Three days passed in a flash. Liu Xiaobao had already been discharged, since it was only a small cut that needed three stitches. I hadn’t asked about him again during those three days. Li Wenli hadn’t volunteered any updates either. After three years, everyone was used to this arrangement. In our home, his mother and I stayed out of each other’s business and left each other alone. It was as though we were merely tenants sharing a place. As soon as I got off work, I hurried to the hospital to collect the paternity test results. I made a point of taking Xiao He with me. Of all my colleagues, I was closest to Xiao He because he often drove me around on business. He already knew about the paternity test. The truth was, I specifically asked him to come because I felt nervous and frightened. After collecting the results, I didn’t open them immediately. Instead, Xiao He and I went to a restaurant, and I broke the seal only after we had sat down and ordered. Clearly curious too, Xiao He leaned over to look. The next moment, when the results appeared before us. Xiao He broke into a grin. But my eyes widened in terror, and cold dread shot up my spine… The results were crystal clear! The probability that I was Liu Xiaobao’s father exceeded 99.99%! There was no question that we were biological father and son. Yet to me, this was precisely the most impossible and unacceptable outcome. My head seemed to explode with a thunderous boom, and I went completely blank. As though talking in my sleep, I muttered: "No, this isn’t right, so where exactly… did things go wrong?""This is how it should be, and it’s right there in black and white, so what could possibly be wrong?" Xiao He smiled happily, as though he were the one who had been tested: "Yuejin, stop overthinking it, because the kid looks just like you, your blood type backs it up, and now you’ve had a test, so what else is there to question?" "I told you, he’s not my son, and he couldn’t possibly be my son." My expression was serious as I repeated the facts I knew: "Li Wenli and I met on a blind date and got married just two weeks later." "A few days before the wedding, she told me herself that she was three months pregnant." "And what happened afterward proved it, because Liu Xiaobao was born only seven months after we got married." "I told people he was premature, but he was actually full-term." Xiao He’s mouth dropped open, and his eyes glazed over. His head was probably an even bigger mess than mine. Several minutes passed before he asked hesitantly: "Yuejin, are you sure you… didn’t know her before?" "You’re trying to say she might have dated me before the blind date and gotten pregnant then, right?" I glanced at him: "If it were you, would you fail to recognize a woman you’d dated just three months earlier?" With that, I stood up: "The test must be wrong, and I’m getting another one." "Wait…" Xiao He quickly grabbed me: "Yuejin, I’m going to be direct, so please don’t get angry." "Uh, is it possible the problem isn’t with the test?" "Think about it, because the kid looks so much like you, he even has the same Rh-negative blood type, and you watched them collect and seal the samples yourself." "All of that means the chance of a testing error is practically nonexistent." "And since you’re certain your wife was pregnant before she met you, could it be… ahem, could this child belong to your older or younger brother?" I understood what he meant. But that possibility didn’t exist either. Never mind the scientific fact that an uncle-nephew relationship couldn’t produce a probability as high as 99.99%. The more important point was that I had no brothers at all. I glanced at him again and said flatly: "I only have an older sister." "Oh, no older or younger brothers?" Xiao He paused, then continued: "Then… what about your father?" He didn’t dare finish that thought because it was too offensive. But I’d already guessed what he meant and glared at him: "My father died of an illness eight years ago." "Sorry, Yuejin, I… I didn’t mean that." Caught out, Xiao He flushed with embarrassment and hurriedly waved his hands in explanation. Halfway through, he added: "If that’s the case, then there’s only one possibility left." "Um, Yuejin, have you heard of the multiverse and parallel dimensions?" "If you’re certain Liu Xiaobao isn’t yours, could another version of you from a parallel dimension have used some kind of science-fiction technology to cross dimensions and get your wife pregnant…" Was there something wrong with this guy’s brain? Or had he just read too many web novels? I stared at him in disbelief. Instinctively, I turned to look to my right. The four diners at another table a few yards away apparently couldn’t stand listening anymore and had already picked up their bowls and chopsticks to move. Every look they cast our way was the kind you’d give a pair of idiots…I stopped talking, furrowed my brow, and drank in silence. Xiao He kept spinning his bizarre theories, as though he’d just been given a shot of adrenaline: "Yuejin, before you got married… did you ever spend time with any ladies of the night?" "Ahem, you should really make sure to use protection for that kind of thing." "Otherwise, if one of those women got pregnant with your baby…" "Okay, okay, let’s try another theory." "Uh, Yuejin, do you watch Korean dramas?" "You must have had more than one girlfriend before you got married, right?" "Could one of them have gotten pregnant by you, refused to accept the breakup, gone to South Korea for plastic surgery, and come back with a new face as your wife?" "Or maybe… um, Yuejin, have you ever donated DNA?" I had to admit I was awestruck by Xiao He’s imagination. His theories were endless. Only when my glare turned murderous did he wisely shut his mouth. The truth was, every one of his theories was impossible. I wasn’t some self-righteous prude, but I had never fooled around like that. As for girlfriends. I had indeed dated three women in the years before my marriage. But all three were living perfectly normal lives, and none had suddenly disappeared, so how could any of them have had surgery and become Li Wenli? As for donating DNA, that was even more ridiculous, since I wasn’t that progressive. In short, no matter how hard I racked my brain, I couldn’t figure out where the problem lay. If even I, the person involved, couldn’t work it out, Xiao He certainly wasn’t going to uncover anything with his outlandish theories. To put it simply. This whole thing had left me completely baffled. Unable to find the answer myself, I decided to ask Li Wenli. When I got home, she was putting the child to bed. I didn’t come out of the study until Liu Xiaobao had fallen asleep. Li Wenli seemed to sense something and came over to sit on the living room couch. I glanced at her and asked coldly: "Who is Xiaobao’s biological father?" "Why have I never heard you mention him?" "Don’t you usually ignore everything to do with him?" "We’ve been married almost four years, so why are you suddenly asking today?" Li Wenli looked at me. I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was enjoying my discomfort: "His father is scum, an animal, and sooner or later he’ll get what he deserves!" If I had heard those words before, I wouldn’t have felt anything. At most, I might have found them satisfying. But for some reason, with the paternity test results in mind, those words now sounded especially harsh. Almost as though she were cursing me? "You still haven’t answered my question, and I want a clear, direct answer." I was already growing impatient: "You might not know this, but I gave him blood at the hospital that day, and I’m Rh-negative, while Xiaobao… is too!" "And friends and neighbors keep saying he looks more and more like me, as though we came out of the same mold." By then, Li Wenli must have guessed what I meant. She first gave me a strange look, then let out a bitter, self-mocking laugh: "Ha, you don’t actually think he’s your biological son, do you?" "I remember telling you before the wedding that I was already three months pregnant." "Then how do you explain this test report?" My patience exhausted, I pulled the report from my pocket and slapped it onto the table…