Chapter 758: She Hoped Gao Yuan Was Innocent

To be honest, Qin Xiaolan felt a little awkward. After all, Gu Xu was only helping her as a favor to Xiao Shi and Big Sis.

All she wanted right now was to uncover the truth, so she had set aside her usual carefree and proud demeanor, acting with extreme caution.

Xu Zhi first took her to her hotel. “Rest here for a bit,” he said. “I’ll come have dinner with you after I get off work. That sanatorium is a little far, so I’ll drive you over first thing in the morning.”

“Oh, you don’t need to have dinner with me tonight. If you’re busy, please, just tend to your work.”

Qin Xiaolan already felt guilty enough about taking up his entire day tomorrow.

But Xu Zhi said, “It’s no trouble. I was going to bring you some files to look over anyway. As they say, know your enemy, and you’ll win every battle.”

Hearing that, Qin Xiaolan didn’t refuse again.

She made up her mind to thank Xu Zhi properly for his help, and to thank Gu Xu properly as well once she returned to North City.

She lay alone on the hotel bed, staring at the stark white ceiling.

A radiator kept the hotel room toasty warm, but Qin Xiaolan felt a deep sense of unease.

She hoped Gao Yuan was innocent.

She hoped that his ex-wife and parents had nothing to do with this either.

But Qin Xiaolan wasn’t a fool, and she refused to lie to herself.

That evening, Xu Zhi came straight to the hotel after work.

He was carrying a file folder filled with documents.

Qin Xiaolan thought for a moment. “It might not be safe to look at these out in the open,” she said. “Why don’t we get some food to go and review them in my room?”

It was right for her to be so cautious. After all, when you’re eating at a restaurant, you never know who might be sitting at the next table.

To her surprise, the tips of Xu Zhi’s ears turned red, and he was silent for a long moment.

Qin Xiaolan looked at him curiously. He immediately blurted out, “You’re right! What do you want to eat? I’m familiar with the neighborhood, I’ll go out and buy it. You can get a head start on reading.”

Qin Xiaolan didn’t think much of his reaction. “I’ll eat anything,” she said.

“Okay, I’ll go get it then.”

After Xu Zhi left, Qin Xiaolan opened the file folder and took out all the documents inside.

Xu Zhi was incredibly resourceful; he had even managed to find the official records from when Gao Yuan poisoned his parents.

The papers had yellowed with age, a testament to how long ago it had happened, but the writing on them was still perfectly clear.

A teenage boy had put fly poison in his parents’ noodles. A neighbor discovered what had happened in the nick of time and rushed them to the hospital to have their stomachs pumped, saving their lives.

The reason? His parents had wanted to adopt a little girl from an orphanage. The couple had always wanted a daughter, but they were too old to have more children. Then, by chance, they saw a poor, adorable little girl at an orphanage and were moved to adopt her.

They had discussed it with their son, and he hadn’t objected. In fact, he’d even offered to cook, preparing a large pot of tomato and egg noodles.

How could they ever have imagined that their own son would put fly poison in the noodles?

But the incident caused a huge commotion at the time. When they saw their son being arrested, the couple tearfully begged for leniency, promising they would no longer try to adopt a child. They even went so far as to claim they had put the poison in by mistake themselves.

But the evidence was clear, and the neighbor had been a witness. The facts were undeniable.

However, because of Gao Yuan’s young age and his parents’ testimony, he was released in less than a year.

He had missed the college entrance exams, so he had to retake them. After that, however, Gao Yuan’s life seemed to go smoothly, and he never got into trouble again.

Gao Yuan graduated from college, returned to his hometown, found a job, and married a gentle woman.

Before long, they even had a child.