"To be more specific?" Liang Shi asked again.
“At the end of 2010,” Gu Zhaoyuan said. “She was 13 years old that year.”
Liang Shi returned the photo to Gu Zhaoyuan, saying, "I'm sorry, I was rude."
"It's nothing," Gu Zhaoyuan said. "Now that I think about it, my father must have been affected by my sister's death. I guess it was just a case of overwork making him sick."
Liang Shi didn't know how to comfort him, but Gu Zhaoyuan didn't need comforting either. He just said to them, "It's quite a long drive back to the city from here. You should hurry up and be careful on the road."
Liang Shi nodded, "Okay."
//
After saying goodbye to Gu Zhaoyuan, the car drove away from Ciai Nursing Home, and no one spoke for a moment.
Once they got home, Liang Shi took a sip of water before saying, "Let's go over the timeline."
“I’ve sorted it out,” Xu Qingzhu said.
Liang Shi: "?"
While she was driving, Xu Qingzhu had already sorted out the timeline, and now she could just draw it down on her phone.
“Qi Jiao jumped off the building in the summer of 2010, while Gu Zhaoyuan’s sister, Gu Xingyue, died in a car accident at the end of 2010. Moreover, there are no photos of Gu Xingyue in the album that Gu Zhaoyuan gave us. Only in a group photo left by Gu Zhaoyuan can you see Gu Xingyue’s face.” Xu Qingzhu analyzed methodically. “In 2012, former Dean Gu became seriously ill and then became slightly mentally unstable. He converted the orphanage into a nursing home and said that he had harmed the children.”
“So…” Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu said in unison, “Gu Xingyue is the current Qi Jiao.”
Things went much more smoothly than I expected, and the truth is right before my eyes.
"Then why did Gu Xingyue stay by Mrs. Qi's side all this time? Logically speaking, given Dean Gu's personality, if he found that Gu Xingyue was uncomfortable by Mrs. Qi's side, he would have taken her away, right?" Liang Shi asked doubtfully. "And why did it take a year to discover the problem?"
"You'd have to ask Dean Gu about that," Xu Qingzhu said. "But what I don't understand is, Gu Xingyue was doing very well under Dean Gu's wing, so why would Dean Gu be willing to hand her over to Mrs. Qi?"
Liang Shi: "...For money?"
“It’s possible. But I asked Rosie, and she said that Angel Orphanage wasn’t too short of money back then because many wealthy people would donate to it,” Xu Qingzhu said. “But we can’t rule out that possibility.”
This is truly a mystery.
Only the parties involved probably know the truth.
But it's already quite good that we were able to discover this at all.
At least we no longer have to search for clues like headless flies.
But Liang Shi and Xu Qingzhu felt a pang of sadness upon learning the truth. The original Qi Jiao had passed away, and what remained was someone else's adopted daughter.
This adopted daughter drove a person who had been doing charity work for many years to the brink of madness.
And yet, there are still people in this world who remember her.
Gu Zhaoyuan's eyes were still filled with tears when he mentioned Gu Xingyue.
Liang Shi felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on his heart. The Qi Jiao he saw in his dream was sensible, kind, and lovely, but her life was forever frozen in her teenage years.
To ease her sadness, Xu Qingzhu teased, "Teacher Liang is quite resourceful; she actually thought of using money to soften Gu Zhaoyuan's heart."
“No,” Liang Shi said in a deep voice, “I really want to do something for those children.”
Xu Qingzhu: "..."
That makes it seem like she's being narrow-minded.
However, when Xu Qingzhu saw those scenes, she was not as sentimental as Liang Shi.
She noticed that Liang Shi's eyes were red when he observed the children.
The answer is likely the actor's empathy.
"You seem to place a lot of emphasis on education?" Xu Qingzhu said, "I have many books at home that I've finished reading, which I can bring to those children."
“Okay.” Liang Shi perked up again. “I’ll go to the bookstore after work tomorrow and buy some reference books. I’ll deliver them to them when I have time.”
“Okay,” Xu Qingzhu said. “You can call me to come along.”
"good."
After discussing it for a while, the two collapsed onto the sofa.
Each of them was lost in their own thoughts.
//
[Ding! Congratulations, host, on completing side quest 2! This time it wasn't a life-or-death race to complete the mission, that's commendable! (To be honest, I really thought you were a chronic procrastinator.) The reward for this mission is 50,000 RMB, which will be deposited into your account within ten minutes. Please check your account!]
Please note that there are currently two incomplete tasks in the host's task list. Please complete them as soon as possible!
[Please note again that the host's luck value has also accumulated to 87, and the bad luck value is 0. If the host has not completed the hidden quest and side quest 1 after the luck value reaches 90, the assignment of quests to the host will be delayed, and the accumulation of luck value will be paused until the host completes the hidden quest and side quest 1.]
[PS: You can choose to abandon the hidden quest and side quest 1 at any time before the deadline (24 hours prior). Abandoning the quest will automatically calculate your luck points, and the system will no longer issue quests with high rewards. Please make your own decision.]
[Whispering: Little Tong thinks the host is unlikely to give up these high-reward missions, after all, the host is a money-grubber! But you also need to complete the missions quickly. Little Tong's detection shows that the host's luck value has been accumulating rapidly recently! Getting your own body back is just around the corner.]
[The thought of the host leaving the Bureau of Resentment and never being able to communicate with them again makes me so sad. *sobs* But I'll find another host.]
The system retained its original talkative nature, rambling on and on, and even exhibiting a performative personality, directing and acting out its own drama.
Liang Shi received these words while lying in bed, and then glanced at his account; the money had indeed arrived.
Now I have money to buy books for those children.
She originally intended to donate 200,000 yuan today, but considering that she would need to rent a place and move later, as well as keep some money for living expenses, she was a little stingy.
The money the system is giving us now is a timely help.
Meanwhile, Liang Shi was still considering whether to give up on the hidden mission, since finding Xu Qingzhu's biological parents was quite a difficult task.
But after checking the task panel, I found that there was no penalty for not completing the task, and there was no need to abandon it in advance.
Let's just leave this task as is.
However, the mission is to find Xu Qingzhu's biological parents.
She's finally found it, right?
Why wasn't she reminded that she had completed the task?
Recognition is an extra bonus, it's not mandatory.
As Liang Shi was pondering, the eerie electronic voice unique to the system rang in her mind: [There's also the Photoshop! It must be based on Xu Qingzhu's approval, and there must be a complete chain of evidence.]
Liang Shi: "..."
She asked, "Doesn't it count now? What constitutes a complete chain of evidence?"
System: [Scientifically verified, such as DNA.]
“I thought it was just a deduction,” Liang Shi said. “You guys are still as cunning as ever.”
system:【……】
A few seconds later, the system angrily replied: [You don't have a complete chain of evidence yet! You're just guessing!! Besides, guesses aren't necessarily correct. This matter is extremely complex! You need to investigate the whole thing before it counts.]
Liang Shi: "?"
"Complex?" Liang Shi pressed on, "How complex? Are the two families sworn enemies?"
The system calmed down again: "[Do your own tasks. Don't expect me to help you, thank you!]"
Liang Shi: "..."
Useless fellow.
However, Liang Shi gained some more information from it, which indirectly confirmed her idea.
There must have been another reason why Xu Qingzhu wasn't taken away by Su Yao back then.
Countless scenes from romantic dramas set in wealthy families flashed through her mind, but in the end, they all faded away.
Even if Xu Qingzhu and Su Yao recognize each other now, it would still be quite awkward.
There is also a younger sister, whose parents I don't know if she is my own.
Sheng Qinglin has been dead for so many years, so that child probably isn't his, right?
Doesn't that mean Su Yao got married?
But Qi Jiao, no, perhaps now should be called Gu Xingyue, once said that Sheng Yu was a child from a single-parent family, with only her mother.
It's really hard to figure out.
However, Zhou Yi'an should know something, but Liang Shi couldn't possibly ask Zhou Yi'an.
Xu Qingzhu didn't hear the truth from her, and she wouldn't listen.
This is out of respect for Xu Qingzhu.
Her investigation into the truth was simply to give Xu Qingzhu another option.
Xu Qingzhu can choose to continue her current life, but if she changes her mind one day, Liang Shi will reveal the truth to her.
//
Meanwhile, at the same time, in the Loving Orphanage.
Gu Zhaoyuan tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. Things he had been trying to forget were brought up again. He turned on the light in the room and took out a photo album from the drawer.
Actually, calling it a photo album is just a way of saying it contains only three photos.
One photo shows Gu Xingyue standing alone under a tree, smiling serenely. Another photo shows him and Gu Xingyue together, sitting side by side on the steps eating bread as the sun sets. That year, Gu Xingyue had just lost her baby teeth. The third photo shows her father standing in the middle, holding her hand with one hand and her younger sister Gu Xingyue with the other.
My sister was found by my father and him when they came down from the mountain. She was wrapped in a cloth bag, and she didn't cry. She looked sickly.
It was nighttime, the stars were bright, and the North Star shone brilliantly in the distant sky.
So we named her Xingyue (Star and Moon).
Xingyue was in poor health and had a persistent cough. Her father consulted many doctors, all of whom said she wouldn't live past the end of the year. But Xingyue lived on year after year.
When Gu Zhaoyuan was a child, he often took his younger sister to play in the mountains. His sister was beautiful, but she never spoke.
Sometimes, he would call the naughty children in the orphanage "dumb."
In the entire orphanage, only he and Xingyue had the surname Gu. Most of the other children had their own names, and their fathers gave them other names if they didn't.
Gu Zhaoyuan once asked why, out of so many children, only he and his sister called him "father."
Everyone else calls him Dean.