The girl mumbled something quickly and softly on the other end of the phone, in English, and... well, it was unclear whether he didn't hear her or didn't understand. He then asked the girl several more questions about her well-being before hanging up and heading downstairs.

.

The deputy didn't hear that sentence, but Xu Xiusen heard it clearly.

The girl was complaining about what was so interesting about someone who had been dead for so many years, her tone full of disdain and impatience.

The vice-principal must have sensed the disdain in the girl's tone, but she didn't reprimand her. This shows how much she dotes on the girl.

Let's not even talk about who that girl is.

Why call her "Grandma"? Just from what she said earlier about Huiwen being a dead person who had been dead for many years and wasn't good-looking, he had no liking for her at all. On the contrary, although Xu Moran only grew up in an orphanage, the kind of refinement that flowed from her bones was something he liked very much.

The paternity test results won't be available until tomorrow, but he's getting impatient.

He sighed deeply as he walked down the stairs, wishing that Xu Moran was his and Huiwen's daughter.

His once happy home with Huiwen was now locked up, but he could open it with a gentle pull.

After more than 20 years away, I returned to the place I once thought I could be happy for the rest of my life. I was overwhelmed with emotions, and all sorts of feelings quickly spread through my heart.

He didn't turn on the light, relying on his memory and his eyes, which were already familiar with the darkness, to slowly move forward.

The house was very clean, without any musty smell that comes from being uninhabited for a long time. Xu Xiusen was in a daze for a moment, as if time had reversed in an instant, and he had returned to more than 20 years ago, when Huiwen was already asleep because he had returned late from a business trip.

Unconsciously, he walked into the bedroom where the two of them had made love countless times. The big bed was still there. When he learned that Huiwen was pregnant, she was sitting on the bed, staring blankly out the window.

Time has left its mark. Looking at the empty bed, he sighed. They're all gone now, all gone. Huiwen is gone, and so is his daughter.

More than 20 years ago, after he rushed back to City B, he did ask the deputy... where his daughter was buried. He even knelt down and begged her, but the deputy... still refused to say a word.

Later, he learned from other people that there was a saying in City B that children who died young often harbored great resentment, which is commonly referred to as "a child with a big devil spirit." They could not be buried in the ancestral grave, and their families could not marry them. Instead, they had to find people who specialized in that kind of business to send the child off on their final journey.

As for those who do that kind of business, although they make a lot of money, it is ultimately unlucky. Most people are unwilling to do that kind of business. They only pass it down from generation to generation. Usually, they throw the ashes of a child who died young into the river, meaning that the child will never be able to go ashore and will not bring bad luck to the family members who were alive.

Xiusen didn't know if the deputy had also believed this, but he didn't ask any further. He was afraid that if he asked too much, the deputy's final answer to him was to dispose of his daughter's ashes according to the customs of City B.

It must be the nature of mammals that even if he never saw or held his daughter, she was still his precious darling. He burys his head in the sand, avoiding the question of where his daughter's ashes went.

He sat down by the bedside, especially in the spot where Huiwen had loved to sit most, and reached out to touch the side where she had slept. The happiness from his memories flooded back into his mind like a tidal wave.

He was very greedy.

Suddenly, a blinding light enveloped him from above. The light was so intense and sudden that he was caught off guard and forced to close his eyes.

He quickly raised his hand to shield his eyes, then opened them again. Standing in the doorway was the deputy who had returned…

.

The atmosphere was a bit awkward when the son-in-law and mother-in-law, who hadn't seen each other for over twenty years, met face to face again. Xu Xiusen, in particular, felt like he'd been caught red-handed doing something wrong.

Time passed by, and after an unknown amount of time, Xu Xiusen spoke first, "Mom, it's been a long time."

The deputy's face, though aged, still exuded intelligence, but no expression flashed across it.

She stared blankly at Xu Xiusen, ignoring his call of "Mom," and directly asked him, "What are you doing here? In the more than twenty years since Huiwen left, haven't you never come here to see her? I thought you had long forgotten about her!"

Only at the very end did anger begin to surface in his tone.

Xu Xiusen took a deep breath and said, "Mom, I have a question for you."

The deputy... neither said he would answer nor that he wouldn't.

Xu Xiusen organized his thoughts for a moment and said, "Mom, I want to know, where was our child finally buried more than twenty years ago?"

This was the same question Xu Xiusen had asked the deputy again after more than twenty years. More than twenty years ago, he had knelt before the deputy more than once to beg for an answer, but he never got one. Now he asked again, hoping to get an answer.

Xu Xiusen remained seated on the edge of the bed, while the deputy... was standing at the doorway, so the deputy... could look down at Xu Xiusen. "I had someone take it to the countryside and bury it somewhere random."

Xu Xiusen suddenly stood up from the bedside, his emotions, which had been suppressed for a long time, finally bursting out, "This is impossible!"

The deputy sneered, "Xu Xiusen, don't forget, I was sent to the countryside when I was young. What's impossible about this?"

Xu Xiusen calmed down and decided to bring things to the surface. "Just now, I was on the stairs. I heard the phone call you answered clearly. The girl on the other end called you 'Grandma,' and you told her that Huiwen was her mother. I want to know what's going on. If my daughter with Huiwen died more than 20 years ago, then who was the person who called you 'Grandma'?"

The deputy... has always been very good at hiding her emotions. No matter how turbulent her heart is, it is not obvious from her appearance. However, just now, as Xu Xiusen broke the phone, a trace of panic and guilt flashed across her face.

However, having been in officialdom for a long time and holding a high position, she was quick to conceal her emotions. In the blink of an eye, she had regained her composure. "After I was transferred to X City, I missed Huiwen so much that I adopted a child. At my age, of course I couldn't be the child's mother, so I placed the child under Huiwen's name. She calls me Grandma."

This explanation was so reasonable and watertight that it elicited a loud laugh from Xu Xiusen.

From before Xu Xiusen became her son-in-law, to after he became her son-in-law, and now, more than twenty years later, when they meet again, Xu Xiusen has never smiled like this in front of her before.

For some reason, looking at Xu Xiusen laughing heartily, the deputy felt a sudden sense of panic.

"Have you laughed enough?" she coldly interrupted Xu Xiusen.

Xu Xiusen finally stopped laughing, reached out a finger to wipe away the tears that had welled up in his eyes, and said to his wife, "Mom, although we haven't seen each other for over twenty years, and although I haven't been your son-in-law for very long, I still know you very well. If it weren't for feeling guilty, why would you explain so much to me?!"