Three days later, the factory exploded with chaos.
Not because of an accident.
Because an inspection team suddenly arrived.
Zhao Gang was standing in the manager’s office, wearing the expensive watch he had bought after his promotion, when several officials entered.
—Manager Zhao, we need to investigate the steel batch that was reported as defective.
His smile froze.
The same steel he had thrown away as useless.
The same steel I had collected from the abandoned warehouse.
The same steel that became my first capital.
Zhao Gang’s face turned pale.
Because he knew.
If that batch wasn’t defective, someone had deliberately falsified the report.
And the person responsible was the one who signed the documents.
Him.
Meanwhile, my small stall was already famous throughout the market.
People no longer came only for food.
They came because everyone knew the woman who was abandoned by her husband had built something from nothing.
Every morning, Chen Xing sat beside me.
He was still small.
But his eyes were unusually intelligent.
He always watched how I calculated money, how I negotiated with suppliers, how I treated customers.
One day, he suddenly asked:
—Mom, why did that uncle hurt you?
I froze.
Children remember more than adults think.
I touched his head.
“Because some people only know how to value things after losing them.”
Chen Xing looked serious.
“Then when I grow up, I won’t let anyone hurt Mom.”
I smiled.
I didn’t know that one day those words would become a promise.
At the same time, the Zhao family was falling apart.
The investigation revealed that Zhao Gang had hidden the truth about the steel.
He had marked valuable materials as waste to secretly sell them through private channels.
His promotion disappeared overnight.
The factory manager position was taken away.
The same people who had surrounded him with congratulations now avoided him.
But the biggest shock came from Li Mei.
The hospital called.
The blood test results of her son had arrived.
Zhao Gang was not the biological father.
The entire Zhao family became silent.
His mother refused to believe it.
—Impossible!
—My grandson is from the Zhao family!
But the evidence was clear.
The child she had proudly shown to everyone…
Was not theirs.
That night, Zhao Gang came to my stall.
He no longer looked like the arrogant man who threw me out.
His clothes were messy.
His eyes were full of exhaustion.
—Chen Yue.
I didn’t look up.
—What do you want?
He clenched his fists.
“I was wrong.”
The market became quiet.
Everyone watched.
The man who once humiliated me was finally lowering his head.
But I only continued cutting vegetables.
—Is that all?
He was stunned.
—What else do you want?
I laughed softly.
“Do you think one sentence can return nine years?”
“Can it return the children I lost?”
“Can it erase the nights I cried alone while your mother called me useless?”
Zhao Gang lowered his head.
—I can change.
I finally looked at him.
“No.”
“You can’t.”
“Because the person who abandoned me is already dead.”
A black car stopped outside the market.
Several people stepped out.
They were wearing expensive suits.
The entire street became silent.
An elderly man walked toward me.
He looked at Chen Xing.
His eyes immediately filled with tears.
—Found him…
Everyone was confused.
I stood up.
—Who are you?
The old man looked at the child beside me.
Then he bowed deeply.
—Madam, thank you.
“Thank you for saving my grandson.”
My heart stopped.
Grandson?
The comments appeared before my eyes again.
【The Chen family from Beijing has finally found their heir.】
【The boy you saved will inherit the largest business empire in the country.】
【But remember… he will never forget the woman who raised him when everyone abandoned him.】
I looked at Chen Xing.
The little boy looked back at me.
Not understanding why strangers were crying.
The old man continued:
—Five years ago, our family searched everywhere.
—The traffickers took him away.
—We thought we had lost him forever.
He looked at my worn hands.
—But you gave him a life when even his own family couldn’t find him.
I hugged Chen Xing tightly.
For years, he was not my burden.
He was my family.
That evening, Zhao Gang watched from a distance.
He saw the luxury cars.
He saw the powerful people surrounding me.
He saw Chen Xing holding my hand.
And for the first time, he understood.
The woman he threw away…
Was never worthless.
The child he called a bastard…
Was the heir everyone was searching for.
Zhao Gang took a step forward.
But before he could speak, Chen Xing looked at him.
The boy’s expression was calm.
Cold.
Completely different from his age.
—You are the man who hurt my mother.
Zhao Gang froze.
Chen Xing held my hand tighter.
—You don’t deserve to call her back.
The future richest man in the country had spoken.
And at that moment, Zhao Gang finally understood the biggest mistake of his life.
He didn’t lose a wife.
He lost the only person who had ever truly cared about him.
And he lost the family that could have changed his entire destiny.
