Li Xiaoya's eyes widened instantly.
She thought for a moment, then asked Sheng Yuxiao, "So does that mean grandpa and the others are... bandits?"
Sheng Yuxiao pursed his lips. "I suppose so. Even though they're abroad..."
"So that's why Wei Lin told mom that grandpa would never agree. Because cats and mice can't be together, right?" Li Xiaoya's eyes brightened as she felt the clues becoming clearer.
Sheng Yuxiao nodded. "That does make sense when you put it that way."
Qin Sui chimed in: "Why not just ask your grandmother directly? The elderly lady recuperating in Jiang City. According to Li Jiang, she and your grandfather have been divorced for many years, and your mother often visits her, which shows they have a good relationship. Perhaps she's met your mother's boyfriend."
"Besides that, we could also try to obtain the hotel's guest records from that time. However, the rich kids in Jiang City aren't in our social circle... We'd need someone to introduce us to the young owner of that hotel."
"I'll make a call to inquire about it," Qin Sui said in one breath, immediately reaching for his phone.
"But it's the middle of the night," Li Xiaoya reminded him.
"That's okay..."
"Wait a second," Sheng Yuxiao stopped him. "I feel like something's not quite right."
"What is it?" Qin Sui paused, holding his phone.
Sheng Yuxiao tapped his temple with his finger. "...The vacation. Li Jiang said that after half a month, his vacation ended, and he left the hotel first. Do ordinary officials get such long vacations?"
"You mean... not an official, but... military?"
"It's possible. If that's the case, it'll be even harder for us to find him. These types of people rarely appear on television, and their records belong to an entirely different system. If by chance his position is quite high, even classified, then the hotel definitely won't have any record of his stay, and even Xiaoya's grandmother might not have met him."
Li Xiaoya looked a bit bewildered.
These were areas she had never encountered before.
Qin Sui asked her, "Has your mother never mentioned anything about your biological father to you?"
Sheng Yuxiao frowned. "What a stupid question. Xiaoya only found out that Li Jiang wasn't her biological father that day. Of course she hadn't heard anything."
"Not necessarily... Maybe it was mentioned in a different way, not saying it was her father. For instance, mentioning that they had to leave this place to meet someone."
Li Xiaoya shook her head. "No, Mom never mentioned anything like that."
Sheng Yuxiao lowered his eyes. "It was probably to protect you. After all, if Li Jiang heard, he might go crazy. To Li Jiang, your mother was his idolized goddess, he might not have had the heart to harm her. But you're a child carrying another man's bloodline, so he might have directed his anger towards you."
Li Xiaoya sniffled. "Mm-hmm."
Sheng Yuxiao leaned his head back against the headrest, remembering that what Li Xiaoya had talked about most with him was how her mother had taught her...
Suddenly, Sheng Yuxiao had a realization. "Did your mother ever tell you about a certain famous person, or at least someone who sounded famous?"
Li Xiaoya looked at him in confusion.
"I mean... like telling you stories about Lei Feng and asking you to learn from him, or quoting Lu Xun and telling you to emulate that spirit... Did she ever mention someone to you, without mentioning any relationship between herself and this person, but just asking you to see him as a role model?"
Li Xiaoya paused for a moment. "...Yes."
"Do you remember the name?"
"Li Yan. The 'Yan' from 'rock'."
Qin Sui commented, "That sounds like a fake name."
"It seems we're not very lucky. We're indeed dealing with someone with a classified status, possibly even a very high level of secrecy. Even your mother might not have known his real name," Sheng Yuxiao's frown deepened.
"But he's a good person, right?" Li Xiaoya asked.
Qin Sui and Sheng Yuxiao exchanged a glance, then looked away in disdain.
Qin Sui said, "He's a good person."
Sheng Yuxiao added, "Probably a very upright good person."
Li Xiaoya said, "That's good then. I can look for him slowly."
Sheng Yuxiao said, "Let's do this: regardless of whether we have any leads or not, we'll still go to Jiang City... Even if there are no obvious clues, we might at least find something your mother left behind."
Qin Sui interjected, "There's another route we could try, but it might not work."
Sheng Yuxiao looked at him.
"Your Sheng family must have heard some rumors..." Qin Sui started.
Sheng Yuxiao crossed his arms and nodded lazily. "I know. There's an old man who has some connection with your family. But having a connection is useless... As far as I know, he won't use his official position for personal favors."
Qin Sui looked down at Li Xiaoya's appearance.
Her eyes had already been iced by Sheng Yuxiao, but she still looked pitiful.
"When people get old, they tend to be more fond of new life. Moreover, Xiaoya has helped him before..."
"When did that happen?"
"At my birthday party."
"..."
Sheng Yuxiao suppressed his displeasure and, for Li Xiaoya's sake, squeezed out three insincere words of praise: "Well done, then!"
Li Xiaoya also remembered that elderly grandfather.
"Can he help me find my dad?"
"At least he has the authority to access files in that system. Even if it's classified, he has the clearance. Your father wasn't that old at the time, so his rank shouldn't be comparable to a senior statesman."
Sheng Yuxiao rubbed his fingertips. "Alright, first we'll go to Jiang City, and then..."
Qin Sui continued, "Then I'll find a way to send Xiaoya to spend some time with Old Man Zhang, let him experience the joy of family. If we can move him, the rest will be easy."
The plan was thus decided.
"I'll go see Li Jiang again tomorrow, see if I can squeeze out any more information," Sheng Yuxiao muttered, "After all, he doesn't have much time left."
"What doesn't have much time?" Qin Sui didn't hear clearly.
"Nothing," Sheng Yuxiao concealed a hint of ruthlessness in his eyes.
Their back-and-forth was highly efficient and gave Li Xiaoya great reassurance.
She felt like she couldn't do without them anymore.
But Mom had said not to develop such habits, as it would make it easier to be bullied... Li Xiaoya pinched her fingers, wondering if it would be okay to develop this habit after leaving Lijiang Village?
While things were going well on this side, Ke Muning was not doing well at all.
Yes, Li Xiaoya couldn't come to him with her pillow anymore. But she could go to others, couldn't she?
Hanging up the phone might mean she was going to find someone else!
He was already a person of unpredictable moods, and now he looked even more like he was having a manic episode.
"This must be a plot by the Gui family, right?" Ke Muning muttered to himself, "Making me really want to snatch their child away."
Unable to sleep, Ke Muning got up and repeatedly watched the variety show segment featuring Li Xiaoya from before.
After watching it twice, he could roughly produce the sound "Xiaoya" from his mouth.
The next day, sporting dark circles under his eyes, he still had to go to a business negotiation as usual. He walked in and immediately propped his legs up on the other person's desk.
The person opposite him looked uncomfortable. "Why has Mr. Ke Muning come to negotiate in person?"
"Does talking with me make you uncomfortable?" Ke Muning asked.
The other party had never heard Ke Muning talk like this before.
He thought to himself, has he become more approachable recently?
The man said, "A... a little bit."
Ke Muning casually picked up a sculpture from the desk and said, "Then would you feel more comfortable if I shoved this thing up your ass before we talk?"
The man opposite quickly reached out to grab it. "No, no! Please put it down, it's a gift from my uncle! Let's talk now, let's talk..."
He thought to himself, well, he hasn't changed at all.
Ke Muning put down the sculpture and glimpsed two small characters at the bottom.
He knew it was the name of the work.
"Hua Country characters?" They looked somewhat familiar.
"Yes, I think they're Hua Country characters. I don't really recognize them."
Ke Muning turned it over and looked at it a couple of times before finally recognizing the two characters.
"Xiaoya"
Having just learned these two characters, Ke Muning immediately got to reinforce his memory, and he was very pleased.
It was as if he could see the little madcap right in front of him...
"This... I like it very much. It's mine now!"
He decided to take it as a gift for the little madcap.
