Gu's father, usually unflappable, couldn't help but tremble at his eldest daughter's detailed address description.
He had always dismissed ghosts and spirits, but was now willing to believe that their ancestors were watching over them, that his grandmother, whom he had never met, had appeared in a dream to his eldest daughter to reveal the address of his younger daughter.
Gu's father was somewhat agitated, approving three times, "Good, good, good. I'll have someone notify you."
He gently patted his daughter's head, "You're still a student, let me handle all of these matters."
"By the way, have you spoken to your mother about this?"
Gu Yuqing shook her head, "Absolutely not. Do you take me for an unreliable person?”
Gu's father chuckled, a few lines wrinkling at the corner of his eyes, "Of course, I trust you.”
To locate the Gu family’s youngest daughter, Gu Yulan, Shi Li couldn't seek help from her family, leaving her with the option of hiring a private detective.
They weren't easy to find.
But, thanks to the creative liberties authors have in a fictional world, you could find private detectives at the drop of a hat.
On Monday, Shi Li found a private detective and hired him for a 100,000 yuan fee to find the missing girl.
However, when the detective heard the girl had been abducted, he immediately backed out.
He joked, how could it be easy to locate someone who had disappeared seven or eight years ago?
A child who was abducted and sold at the age of six or seven is now a grown woman. Finding her using just a few childhood photos was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
As if kidnapped children could be so easily found.
In such cases, the families of these lost children should come to the private detectives, and make their business boom with fees upwards of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan per order.
Private detectives joked about booming business from kidnappings,
Joking, of course. These high-profile cases were never as simple as they seemed to the idle rich.
The private investigator even mentioned the Gu family as an example, "You know about the Gu family in the jewelry business, don't you? They're so wealthy. If finding abducted children was truly that simple, they could easily hire a couple of detectives and bring the child home. Several years have gone by now, and they still haven't found their child."
"It's quite a coincidence, you know, that you're looking for a girl who also disappeared seven or eight years ago."
Shi Li asked him to help find a missing child, and in response, she got a deluge of reasons why it wasn't a simple job. Shi Li was almost discouraged.
This guy sure can talk. If detective work ever falls through, he could always switch to stand-up comedy.
He was rather talkative, but Shi Li didn't want to waste any more time looking for another detective.
Shi Li explained that it wasn’t a wild goose chase. She had concrete leads.
Then she told him her well-considered plan.
When the private detective saw Shi Li’s organized approach, he realized it was a lead worth following, and they sealed the deal.
Having been immersed in the business world for countless years, Gu's father's connections ensured that he didn’t have to scramble around as Shi Li had.
With a single call, skilled professionals were dispatched as per his orders.
The private detective Shi Li hired set off later and compared to Gu's father’s team was rather amateurish.
While the private detective was consulting with an expert on the rituals associated with ancestral worshipping, the Gu family had already located Gu Yulan in the small fishing village.
Even though the private detective saw himself as a professional, he reported each progression of the case to Shi Li, his employer, via text messages.
On Friday, Shi Li received a message from a private detective, who confirmed that three villages had certain customs, and he was confident that the person would be found soon.
Shi Li's mood brightened instantly.
Not long after receiving this message during self-study, Gu Yuqing walked up to the podium with a large stack of items in her hand.
She cleared her throat, the students who were playing around immediately fell silent, "I have some good news to share with everyone. We found my younger sister a few days ago. To celebrate this, we will be holding a banquet this Sunday, and everyone is welcome to join if you can."
She raised a golden card in her hand, "This is the invitation. I'll hand it out later."
The students below the stage cheered instantly.
Gu Yuqing went down and delivered the invitations one by one, and every time she handed one out, she received a congratulation.
Having found her long-lost sister, Gu Yuqing was in an exceptionally bright mood.
"Congratulations on finding your sister."
Each classmate in the class, whether they were from her circle or from ordinary families, knew about the little daughter of the Gu family who was kidnapped.
The Gu family had called upon the public to help find the child more than once.
Gu Yuqing wore a gentle smile on her face, "Thank you."
Teacher Zheng, hearing the noise from his classroom in the office, looked into the classroom from his back window.
Seeing Gu Yuqing handing out stuff to her classmates, Teacher Zheng listened for a while, understanding it was due to Gu Yuqing's sister being found. He watched for a while from outside the classroom, without entering to stop her.
The weekend was coming, those kids could use a break.
Shi Li was puzzled, [What? How did they find her so early?]
In the classroom where only Gu Yuqing and her classmates sometimes chatted, Shi Li's thoughts reached everyone.
All the students were confused too, Shi Li should know about the incident of Gu family's little daughter.
But Shi Li's reaction seems very wrong.
[Gu Yulan should, two years later, seriously injure her adoptive father, escape to the city, and then be recognized and brought back by the Gu family.]
Everyone: It seems the Gu family's little daughter is quite ruthless.
Gu Yuqing: My sister is ruthless.
[The Gu family found her so quickly, and the private detective I hired just confirmed the area today, yet the Gu family already found her.]
Gu Yuqing held back her laughter, the efficiency of this private detective was really low.
She wondered who the private detective that Shi Li hired was, was she cheated?
[My money is wasted.]
Among everyone in the class, only Gu Yuqing understood the disconnected sentences uttered by Shi Li.
By this time, someone in the class group had tagged Gu Yuqing asking for an explanation.
[What does Shi Li mean?]
After Gu Yuqing finished distributing the invitations, she returned to her seat to see the message and replied.
[Over the weekend, I met Shi Li at the rest home. After she saw my mother, she remembered my kidnapped sister. She knew an approximate location of my sister and hired a private investigator to find her.]
[The private investigator she hired is inefficient. Our family found her based on the information Shi Li provided, but her private investigator only just confirmed the area. That's what happened.]
[Laughs~]
[She is a bit cute.]
Shi Li grimaced as she pulled out her phone from the desk drawer, trying hard to text her private detective.
[You can return now, no need to search any further]
[Oh, my two hundred thousand]
Shi Li whimpered in pain, which brought only unapologetic snorts of laughter from her unscrupulous classmates.
Being pivotal in finding her sister, Gu Yuqing was worried that Shi Li would not attend the upcoming weekend banquet due to past confrontations.
For the first time, Gu Yuqing sought out Shi Li, her tone was nicely tuned, "Shi Li, please ensure to come for the banquet this weekend."
Having grown accustomed to Gu Yuqing's targeted behavior, Shi Li found her gentle tone unsettling.
She shot glances at Shi Qiuyu, her eyes expressing clearly the disbelief - What's wrong with Gu Yuqing? Is she scheming against me?
Meanwhile, Shi Li's undisguised words in crisp high definition echoed into the ears of every classmate within the classroom.
[What on earth is wrong with Gu Yuqing? Is she out to get me?]
