Chapter 57 - 55: Met in Childhood

Chapter 57: Chapter 55: Met in Childhood

The case was solved.

Zhuang Yanzheng and the others had been busy the whole time.

Su Miaoyi only had a chance to exchange information with Zhuang Yanzheng and his team during their lunch break.

"Was it that man?" Su Miaoyi asked, looking at Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng nodded.

Su Miaoyi’s mouth twitched. "So what’s the situation now? Lu Jing has worked at the hospital for many years. That can’t be faked; she really has been there for a long time. So... does that mean... that man... planted people in various industries? Just waiting for him to activate them?"

"Possibly," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "But we can’t rule out the possibility that they’re just trying to scare us."

Su Miaoyi frowned and shoveled a mouthful of rice into her mouth. "I remember... Lu Jing’s file says she’s an orphan. Where was she before? Was she from Jinghai?"

"The Sunshine Welfare Institute," Zhuang Yanzheng said.

Su Miaoyi froze for a moment.

"What’s wrong?" Yan Cheng asked, noticing her expression.

Zhuang Yanzheng didn’t say anything.

Su Miaoyi thought for a moment before saying, "I was at the Sunshine Welfare Institute before I was five. After it was shut down, I went to the Jinghai City Children’s Welfare Institute."

Lu Zhishen looked up at her. "You have memories from when you were five? I feel like I’ve forgotten everything before I was seven."

"I have some vague memories," Su Miaoyi said. "Because we moved to a new place, got a new director, and new caretakers, it left an impression. I learned a bit more about it after I grew up, too."

Lu Zhishen nodded.

"Besides that, I remember one other thing." As she spoke of her old orphanage, a memory suddenly surfaced.

"What is it?" Lu Zhishen asked.

"I remember a very pretty young lady and her uncle came to visit us at the orphanage," Su Miaoyi said. "I can’t recall what she looked like anymore, but I remember she and her uncle brought us lots of food, clothes, and other things. The bag of snacks I got was handed to me by that young lady herself. Oh, right, I also remember the director called her uncle ’President Shen’."

She paused abruptly after speaking.

Then she raised her eyes to look at Zhuang Yanzheng.

Zhuang Yanzheng was also looking at her.

In the few seconds their eyes met, something suddenly clicked in Su Miaoyi’s mind. "That young lady was..."

’The ’President Shen’ from back then seemed to be Shen Yanzhou’s father.’

’Then wouldn’t his niece be Qin Leyan?’

’I met Qin Leyan when I was a child?’

Su Miaoyi was a little surprised.

’What a strange twist of fate.’

Zhuang Yanzheng said, "They did visit several times. It was Shen Yanzhou’s father who discovered something was wrong with the orphanage."

’So it wasn’t just once.’

But Su Miaoyi only remembered that one time; not long after, she was sent to a different orphanage.

She probably didn’t remember the earlier visits because she was too young.

"Why was the Sunshine Welfare Institute shut down back then?" Su Miaoyi asked.

She remembered looking it up before.

But all she found was that it had been shut down; the specific reason was never made public.

"Because the director was involved in sex trafficking," Zhuang Yanzheng said. "A lot of children disappeared from the orphanage. Some were said to have died from illness, some to have gotten lost, and others to have been adopted. In reality, they were all sent out by the director to be... used by certain people..."

Su Miaoyi slowly tightened her grip on her chopsticks. She paused for a moment before asking, "Is there a list of the children from the orphanage?"

Zhuang Yanzheng shook his head. "We only have the list of you children who were transferred to the Jinghai City Children’s Welfare Institute. The other lists... don’t exist."

Su Miaoyi felt that he had wanted to say more during that pause.

But in the end, he only said the two words "don’t exist."

Her intuition told her something had gone wrong. The list was most likely destroyed.

’It was probably an internal problem on their end.’

Su Miaoyi didn’t say anything more.

But this also proved that there was a huge problem with the original list.

...

After lunch, Zhuang Yanzheng and the others got back to work.

Since Su Miaoyi couldn’t be of much help, she headed back first.

She was finally back at her place.

Su Miaoyi washed up first, then collapsed onto her bed to catch up on sleep.

She slept straight through until three in the morning.

When she woke up, she couldn’t fall back asleep, so she tidied up her room again.

The next morning, after the temperature had risen, she decided to go to the hair salon to get her hair trimmed.

The shorter layers of her hair were at the back, just brushing the top of her neck.

Her hair was actually quite long.

She would feel a little sad to suddenly cut it all off.

So, after discussing it with the hairstylist for half an hour, she decided on a mullet.

The top would be choppy and shorter, but the hair in the back would remain long.

The short hair had to transition naturally into the long hair.

With the plan set, she took the gamble!

And then...

However much Su Miaoyi had been looking forward to her new hairstyle when she walked into the salon, that’s how much she regretted ever setting foot in it when she walked out.

It was completely different from what they had discussed.

She felt like her looks had dropped by two points after she came out.

She walked toward her residential complex, completely dejected.

And as if that wasn’t bad enough, she saw Ji Sheng and Cai Qinglian at the entrance.

"Su Miaoyi!" Cai Qinglian shouted as soon as she saw her.

Su Miaoyi started walking into the complex, not wanting to deal with them.

But the two of them chased after her.

Su Miaoyi looked at them. "What is it?"

"What is wrong with you, girl? We’re your parents, after all. Is this how you treat us when you see us?" Cai Qinglian said. "And what’s with your hair? Did a stray dog chew on it? It’s hideous."

Su Miaoyi felt as if two arrows had just pierced her chest.

’Of all days, why did I have to run into them today?’

"Didn’t you say I was a jinx?" Su Miaoyi said, then turned her gaze to Ji Sheng. "And didn’t you say back then that I would cause the Ji Family to hit rock bottom? I’m someone who’s bad for your family, so why do you keep looking for me? Aren’t you afraid of getting bad luck?"

Cai Qinglian was momentarily speechless.

Ji Sheng said, "I have something I want to discuss with you."

"With me? What is it?" Su Miaoyi asked.

"Let’s go inside and talk," Ji Sheng said.

"We can talk right here." After saying that, she remembered to ask, "How did you find this place?"

"Jia Bao came here to visit a classmate and saw you in the complex," Cai Qinglian said. "We tried calling you but couldn’t get through, so we could only come here and try our luck. I don’t know what kind of luck you’ve stumbled into to be able to live in a place like this."

"That’s enough out of you," Ji Sheng said with a frown.

Su Miaoyi looked at him.

Ji Sheng looked back at her. After a moment, he finally said, "You’re not young anymore. It’s time for you to get married."

Su Miaoyi frowned. "??????"

’What am I hearing?’

"My friends’ children, even those younger than you, are all married. Some of them got their marriage licenses while they were still in college," Ji Sheng said. "You’re already twenty-five, and I heard from Cheng Yong that you don’t even have a boyfriend."

"You went to see my aunt and uncle again?" Su Miaoyi’s expression turned frigid, and her voice suddenly grew cold.

"We were just having a normal visit," Ji Sheng said. "I even patronized his business. We’re all relatives, isn’t it normal to stay in touch? Why are you making that face?"

"We’re all relatives... so that means you don’t have to pay child support, is that it?" Su Miaoyi stared at him.

Ji Sheng glanced around. There was no one around at this time, but he was still worried about causing a scene.

He took a light breath and said, "We were wrong back then. I’ll pay them back double for all the years of your child support."

Su Miaoyi let out a soft laugh. "Let me guess. Suddenly you want me to get married, and suddenly you’ve changed your tune about paying child support. You need connections from the man’s side, don’t you? President Ji, are you trying to sell your daughter?"