C89 – Dissolution of Father-Son Relationship

Moreover, in an environment like the high-level military conference room, Barton simply had no other choice but to directly admit defeat, as he didn’t have any weapons on him and couldn’t successfully get in touch with the others.

 

Arman’s choice to reveal everything in this place had obviously been planned long ago as well.

During the process of being arrested, Arman very kindly said to Barton, “Don’t worry, several of your capable subordinates will go in to accompany you so you won’t feel alone.”

 

Barton gritted his teeth and looked at Arman, but he didn’t have any chance to fight back. If he hadn’t taken the Brandt family as his last card before and did his best in information counter reconnaissance or make other plans to deal with it, at least he wouldn’t have lost as much as he did now; the situation right now felt like he had sent himself into a trap.

 

And in addition to Barton and these subordinates of his, as well as the Brandt family patriarch who was the mastermind of this matter, Qiao An’s father was also implicated in this matter.

 

When he was arrested by the military department, he was still in a state of confusion, and it wasn’t until he was interrogated about his current situation that he figured out what was going on.

 

As Qiao An’s father, his first reaction was: “This thing really has nothing to do with me; that set of monitoring equipment isn’t something I installed; if you want someone to be arrested, go to Qiao An; I don’t know anything, ah!”

 

Qiao An, who was in the next room and heard these words clearly, sat quietly with his head slightly lowered, hiding the expression on his face.

 

He Yishu, who was sitting beside him, patted Qiao An’s shoulder comfortingly and sighed, “Be sad for someone who deserves your sadness; the one who just said those words has no qualifications to make you sad at all.”

 

Qiao An lifted his head to look at He Yishu and responded with a forced smile, “I’m fine.”

 

The begging in the next room continued, but it didn’t last long, as a specialized interrogator soon silenced Qiao An’s father.

 

This was something that Arman had arranged before. The real purpose of this interrogation wasn’t to make Qiao An’s father confess to the crime, as they already had enough evidence in hand to be able to convict him. The most important thing right now was to make Qiao An’s father take the initiative to propose to break off his relationship with him.

 

And that was exactly why Qiao An was here.

 

In the next room, Qiao An’s father’s attitude was a bit tough at first; after all, he thought that with the Brandt family as his backing, even if he didn’t have the means to push Qiao An out to take the fall for the crime, he wouldn’t really be punished for anything.

 

But later on, his confidence slowly weakened, and at the same time, under the deliberate guidance of the interrogators, he finally put forward some kind of argument: “This matter was done by Qiao An, and it has nothing to do with me, so if I just cut off my relationship with him, I won’t be implicated by him, right?”

Hearing these words, Qiao An’s two hands tightly clasped together; he looked very defeated.

After receiving the interrogator’s ambiguous answer, Qiao An’s father’s attitude became even stronger: “Then go and bring Qiao An here; I want to cut ties with him now!”

The interrogator repeatedly asked, “Are you sure that you want to take the initiative to cut off your relationship with Qiao An in order to get rid of your guilt? You have to know that once you completely sever your relationship with him, you will no longer have a legally protected father-son relationship, and he will have nothing to do with you no matter what happens in the future; you will no longer be qualified to make demands on him for any reason.”

 

Qiao An’s father was very resolute: “I know, I’ve thought it over very clearly; go get him; I’m going to cut ties with him now!”

“Well, since this is your request, I have no right to stop you.” Having received a definitive answer, the interrogator glanced over to the next room, signaling that Qiao An could come over.

Standing up from his chair with cold hands and feet, Qiao An took a step towards the next room. Although this was an outcome he himself had predicted, when the matter was truly laid out in front of him, he once again deeply felt his cowardice.

His feet felt like they were stepping into a mud puddle; each step was extraordinarily laborious, and in the distance of just a few steps, Qiao An felt that he had walked for a long, long time, until the metal door of the interrogation room was slowly pulled open, and only then did he instantly return to reality.

Probably because he was really afraid that this matter would involve him, Qiao An’s father didn’t give any explanation, and the moment he opened his mouth, he was exceptionally cold and unfeeling: “Qiao An, I’m going to sever the father-son relationship with you now, and the mistakes that you make in the future will not have anything to do with me anymore!”

Qiao An didn’t even dare to look at his father; he stood in the doorway of the interrogation room with his head lowered, and only after a few moments did he ask in a low voice with trembling lips, “Why?”

Qiao An’s father seemed to be somewhat dumbfounded by this simple word, but he quickly found a good reason: “Of course, it’s because you’re not even the biological child of your mother and me. I’ve raised you for so many years, and I’ve already done my best to fulfill my duty, so you wouldn’t want to continue to drag me down, would you?”

Qiao An jerked his head up, and in a split second, his eyes widened. Just now, his father actually said that he wasn’t their biological child. He must have misheard him, right?

Under Qiao An’s gaze, Qiao An’s father finally had a feeling of weakness. He avoided Qiao An’s gaze and forcefully said, “I didn’t lie to you; you really aren’t our biological child, so it’s only natural for me to break off the relationship with you now.”

After saying these words, Qiao An’s father directly opened his light device and made an application to sever his relationship with Qiao An on the virtual network, and then kept urging, “You should quickly accept the application, so that we’ll have no relationship at all. My kindness for raising you to this point will also be forgotten, so don’t look for trouble from us in the future.”

Qiao An opened his mouth, but in the end, he didn’t ask anything more, and instead, with a trembling hand, he opened his light device and tapped on the application for severing ties from his father.

The difficulty of some choices lay only in the moment they had to be carried out, and when Qiao An’s hand tapped on the option to accept the application, he suddenly felt a sense of relief.

He suddenly didn’t even want to ask if what his father had just said was true; rather, since his father had already said so, he’d just take it as the truth.

There were times when what you cared about was actually merely your own obsession rather than the truth of a matter.

The moment Qiao An accepted the application, Qiao An’s father also received the appropriate notification, and he was relieved to see that he and Qiao An had successfully dissolved all ties.

But the interrogator quickly gave him new pressure: “Then Qiao An’s mother and brother…”

Qiao An’s father was so anxious that he directly interrupted the interrogator’s words: “Please wait; I’ll let them sever their relationship with Qiao An; just give me five minutes, and it’ll be enough!”

Five minutes was enough time for him to decide to sever ties with his son; such speed was a bit too fast.

But Qiao An’s father didn’t say anything; he merely communicated briefly with his mother, and the other party directly sent Qiao An an application to sever their relationship on the virtual network, including Qiao An’s younger brother, who did the same.

Qiao An hesitated for a while, and then, at his father’s urging, he accepted both applications as well.

And that was how everything was, right? In fact, there was nothing bad about it, and he didn’t even feel fear anymore, only that his heart inexplicably felt a bit empty.

Holding such somewhat confused thoughts, Qiao An took a step out of the interrogation room under the interrogator’s signal.

Qiao An’s mood at this moment was very subtle; it was like the shackles that were tied to his body were unlocked all of a sudden. He should have felt relaxed, but as if he had gotten used to the previous shackles, he actually felt a little sad and lost at this time.

However, Qiao An knew that it would get better; with a new start, he would live a better life.

And just now, while Qiao An was in the interrogation room, Adrian, who was in the next room, received a communication request from his father.

Arman directly asked, “Adrian, do Qiao An and the Zheng family’s kid know each other?”

After Adrian and He Yishu exchanged a glance, he didn’t know how to answer this question so he asked him in response, “Father, did something happen?”

“Just now, that kid from the Zheng family contacted me directly, asking me to let him meet Qiao An as a favor. I saw that he seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, so I came to ask you first.” Arman’s tone was lighthearted; obviously, he could see that the other party wasn’t here to intentionally find trouble.

 

However, the Elvis family and the Zheng family had never had many dealings, and although Arman and Zheng Juncheng’s father were also in important positions in the military ministry, they didn’t usually have many opportunities to deal with each other.

Adrian exchanged another glance with He Yishu before he spoke: “Zheng Juncheng should be a friend of Qiao An’s, so you can let him in.”

Therefore, when Qiao An walked back from the next room with a despondent expression, he saw that there was an extra person in the room, and when he saw clearly who this person was, Qiao An’s eyes widened slightly, and a flash of panic flashed across his face: “How did you…  get here?”

Although these words were a question to Zheng Juncheng, Qiao An’s gaze was fixed on He Yishu.

But before He Yishu could give him a wink, Zheng Juncheng had already spoken: “I just passed and happened to hear that you were here, so I came over to take a look. Are you okay?”

Qiao An didn’t know if Zheng Juncheng had seen him in the next room; he could only force a smile as he replied, “I’m fine; I’m getting ready to leave; if you have something to do, just…”

“I’m also getting ready to go back to the academy,” Zheng Juncheng directly interrupted Qiao An’s words, taking a step in front of him and looking straight into Qiao An’s eyes. “Let’s go together.”

Qiao An boldly glanced into Zheng Juncheng’s eyes and saw that there was only seriousness in his gaze, no sympathy, or any other emotions, which made him feel relieved, but he was still ready to reject him. “I’m leaving with He Yishu and the others.”

“Qiao An, you can go back to the academy first with Zheng Juncheng; Adrian and I will have to wait for a while.” This time it was He Yishu’s turn to interrupt Qiao An. He could already vaguely tell that Zheng Juncheng’s attitude towards Qiao An wasn’t too ordinary, and he could also tell that Qiao An wasn’t repulsed by Zheng Juncheng.

In this situation, the two being alone might be more helpful to Qiao An.

 

---

TN:

Good riddance 😑