CHAPTER 268: CHAPTER 268; I DON’T KNOW....

It rang twice before someone picked up on the other end of the phone call.

"Yo, Lin Qiao! You are finally done playing with scalpels and rich people? You rarely have time for poor people like us!" came the teasing voice of Dr. Han Yue, an old med school friend and now a renowned orthopedic surgeon abroad. They were close friends and also cousins, they were closely related.

Lin Qiao chuckled lightly, his voice low and reflective. "You wouldn’t believe who I saw today actually, just a few seconds ago. It was Mrs. Huo in person. Saw her today face to face, and so close."

There was a sharp pause on the line.

"You mean that Mrs. Huo who was crazy? Who, they said, was chasing after another man while married? Who has been fighting with Huo Ting Cheng? Tang Fei? The one they say never shows her face in public? How’s that even possible? Does she even exist to start with?"

"Hehe... I saw her today, honestly; you know I don’t need to lie," Lin Qiao confirmed. "First time I have ever seen her up close, even though I have known Ting Cheng for so many years. He always showed the kids and not the wife, but today... she came with him and the kids." You could hear amusement and excitement in his voice. They had actually thought Mrs Huo was dead, and that’s the reason why Huo Ting Cheng never addressed those rumors that were speculated online.

Now seeing her in person, it felt quite different and an eye opener.

"What was she like? Did you talk?" another voice joined in, their friend Wei Jun, a psychiatrist. He must have been added to the call by his other friend.

Lin Qiao’s voice lowered a bit more. "Not what I actually expected. She was so graceful, tender, and quite beautiful; she truly is a beautiful angel; you would definitely fall in love with her at first sight; damn! No wonder Huo Ting Cheng safeguards her; she is a hidden treasure, she is a walking beauty, and any man could be easily allured. The way she looked at her kids, it was full of protectiveness, the softness in her eyes, the adoration she had for her husband..." he paused, then said almost to himself, "You wouldn’t think a person like her truly exists! Their family looked sweet and harmonious... So elegant." Actually, with the kids having blue eyes, they had speculated that they took after their father in everything from eyes to genes, but seeing her today, those kids resembled her, they had the delicate features of their mother.

Dr. Lin Qiao barely had time to finish his sentence when another voice chimed in, laced with dry amusement and unmistakable sarcasm.

"Oh please," came the crisp voice of Dr. Shen Yiran, a dermatologist with a razor-sharp tongue and zero tolerance for melodrama. "You are making it sound like she floated into the clinic on a cloud of glitter and baby angels. Are you sure you weren’t just dazzled by her expensive skincare? Or plastic surgery?"

Wei Jun snorted in laughter.

Lin Qiao, unfazed, smiled because he knew faces that had done plastic surgery and heavily depended on skincare. "I’m serious, Yiran. You weren’t there to see what I’m saying and I can’t send you a video because you do know who Huo Ting Cheng is. I wish you had seen the way she carried herself, there’s something about her that’s very unique. Not everyone has that kind of presence."

"Presence?" A second female voice broke in, it was Dr. Luo Meixue, a plastic surgeon known for her icy charm and gossip radar. "You mean after all the rumors, the infamous Madam Huo shows up and now suddenly she’s the portrait of maternal bliss and wifely devotion? You men are so predictable. Give you a pretty face and a tragic silence, and boom, she’s an angel. Say something better!"

Shen Yiran scoffed. "Did she even speak a word, or was it all in your head? Maybe the lighting just hit right showcasing her heavily baked face. Or maybe rich people just glow differently and that’s something we would need to check into..." You could hear a smirk coming from the other end. Every woman who had money heavily received plastic surgeries and skin care.

"She did speak," Lin replied, a touch of defensive now rising. "She has this angelic and sweet voice that’s so calming; she greeted and thanked me for attending to them; I also heard her chatting with the kids, so I can’t be making things up, right?"

There was a long pause in between, long enough for the undertone to settle.

"So let me get this straight," Meixue said. "The woman accused of trying to run off with another man, seducing another man, trying to elope and who no one’s seen in years, waltzes in with Huo Ting Cheng, the kids she’s clearly attached to, and now suddenly they are a picture-perfect family? I’m calling it a PR stunt. Nothing more and nothing real! I don’t believe it!"

"I don’t know," Wen Ju said thoughtfully. "You should have seen Lin Qiao’s face when he called me first. He doesn’t get impressed easily. And if what he’s saying is true, then maybe... maybe all those tabloid stories were garbage and just rumors that Huo Ting Cheng wasn’t bothered with clearing them. Wouldn’t be the first time people judged too quickly and spread false rumors."

"Or maybe she’s just very good at acting, and masking everything behind that perfection mask," Shen Yiran said with a snide lilt. "I have seen women cry without blinking for nose jobs. Trust me, it’s all performance."

Huo Ting Cheng was known for being cold, distant, and cruel. Many women wished they could get closer or marry him, but he had stayed clean. He hated women getting closer to him, and killing was just a thought for him. Who dared to risk? So, Tang Fei had so many haters, and many didn’t believe a woman could exist in Huo Ting Cheng’s life with all that cruelty, and they always insinuated that the kids had gotten through surrogacy.