Chapter 182 Protecting You

He leaned against the car, his eccentricity evident in his eyes and brows.

Xu Yungan hated talking to this kid the most; he was full of bad ideas and always had a way of scheming against people. He smiled faintly.

"Why do I feel like your father and grandmother would thank me if they saw this?"

"Isn't that why I've come to thank you now?"

Tan Yuchen opened the car door, bent down to look at him, and said, "Why don't you tell me where you've hidden your adopted daughter?"

“You’re looking for her too? The police just said she’s at Kyushu Airport. You could go check on her.”

Tan Yuchen chuckled softly, "Don't you know whether you want her to escape through Kyushu Airport or not?"

His eyes were deep and dark, the corners of his eyes like thin, sharp blades, and Xu Yungan's eyes instantly darkened.

"I'll show you something else good."

Tan Yuchen held a photocopy between his fingertips, turned it over, and placed it in front of Xu Yungan. It was Zhang's confession that he had sent someone to steal trade secrets.

And right below it is Xu Yungan's signature, stamped with an official seal, providing irrefutable evidence.

Xu Yungan's face immediately changed color; he would never sign a document he hadn't reviewed.

The only possibility is that he forgot to sign it when he was comforting Xu Yan this morning.

That day, after investigating Meng Jiuyi's various affairs.

Xu Yanzhi called Tan Yuchen and exchanged a favor for an opportunity.

He couldn't stop the opportunity for him to spend time with Meng Jiuyi.

That's why we have New Year's Eve.

Tan Yuchen knew what he wanted to do and asked him over the phone.

"You're willing to betray the Xu family?"

Xu Yanzhi stood on the floor-to-ceiling window, watching as ships passed by on the riverbank at night, illuminating the man's tall figure.

"This is what I owe her."

...

Tan Yuchen asked, "Uncle, are you surprised? Are you taken aback?"

Xu Yungan's forehead veins bulged. "You actually colluded with Yan Zhi to make him betray the group."

"That's because you, as a father, are heartless. You know perfectly well what your son cares about, yet you still stab the person he cares about in the back."

Xu Yungan didn't think he had done anything wrong. "If you do something wrong, you should be punished accordingly."

"You even know that saying? Haven't you been protecting your adopted daughter quite well?"

Tan Yuchen suppressed all his laughter and scoffed, "Using the banner of justice to target only one girl, being lenient with yourself but strict with others, how hypocritical are you? I'd throw up on the spot if I listened to you for more than a few words."

Xu Yungan's face turned ashen.

"This is the last time I'm warning you. If you dare to interfere in the slightest, this thing will be in some bureau chief's office tonight. You know, they love catching big fish like you; you're one in a million."

They had completely broken off relations, but Tan Yuchen didn't care at all, glancing at the newspaper beside him.

Do you like the newspaper I had someone customize for you?

Xu Yungan: "This is you—"

Tan Yuchen pointed to his head, extremely arrogant, "Uncle Xu, go to the internet cafe more often. These days, besides elderly people like you who stay behind, who still reads newspapers?"

--

Upon arriving at the airport, Gao Xianyue put on a mask and quickly headed to the international flight security checkpoint.

There were quite a few people waiting in line at this time. She covered her mask tightly and looked around warily when she suddenly heard a soft call in her ear.

"High Crescent Moon."

Gao Xianyue's back stiffened.

The voice was so familiar. She had never paid attention to it even when it called her name a thousand or ten thousand times before, but it appeared in her dreams many times after he fell from the building, and she would feel a sharp pain in her heart when she woke up.

Gao Xianyue turned around in disbelief.

No one saw anyone familiar, and even that soft call from just now seemed like a dream.

"Yan Chen... Yan Chen, where are you?"

"Gao Xianyue!"

Gao Xian Yue looked around and saw a video on the screen playing advertisements. The image was shaky and blurry, as if someone was filming it with a mobile phone, showing a girl's back.

Others waiting for security checks were puzzled as to why such a strange video was appearing on the screen.

Tears welled up in Gao Xian Yue's eyes instantly.

"Gao Xian Yue, turn around!" The boy called out softly from off-screen. Eighteen-year-old Gao Xian Yue slowly turned around, her expression indifferent, showing no sign of being happy despite being photographed.

"You're graduating high school soon, what are your plans?"

Gao Xian Yue looked up at the sky, her eyes like a pool of stagnant water.

"I don't know, what about you?"

"I only have one thing to do, and that is to stay by your side."

At the end of the scene, the boy and Gao Xian Yue are in the same frame.

That was Yan Chen and Gao Xianyue from many years ago. During their graduation season at eighteen, it was the only time he walked with her in the sunlight and the only time they stood side by side.

Yan Chen knew that such an opportunity would be extremely rare in the future, so he took a picture with his phone and hid it in the cushion of the back seat of the car.

Only when the longing and repression reach their extreme will they take it out to look at it, and then seamlessly stitch it back together—found by Tan Yuchen and Meng Jiuyi, becoming evidence to convict Gao Xianyue.

Gao Xian Yue's face was already wet with tears. Things she had never cared about in the past and had squandered easily now felt like a thousand cuts cutting into her heart.

She squatted on the ground and burst into tears.

However, in her blurry vision, she seemed to see someone walking towards her. A police officer in the distance also noticed something strange and came to check her identity. Gao Xianyue wiped away her tears and ran out of the airport.

The Mercedes was still waiting for her outside, Xu Yungan asked her driver, puzzled.

"Miss Gao, you—"

"Let's go first!"

The car drove off the elevated road, but instead of heading towards the city center, it drove towards a cemetery near Kyushu.

Sui Sui and Li Zhen are buried there.

--

Gao Xian Yue was so immersed in her grief that she didn't realize something was wrong until the car drove onto the mountain road and onto the cemetery.

"Did you take the wrong car?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"

The man in the driver's seat ripped off his mask, revealing himself to be Jiang Zhou.

Jiang Zhou raised his hand to indicate, "Miss Meng is waiting for you upstairs. You probably don't want me to hold you up there, do you?"

Gao Xian Yue already knew that a dead end awaited her. She wiped away her tears, opened the car door, and calmly got out of the car.

Jiang Zhou followed a few steps behind her.

Climbing the long staircase, I passed rows of poplar trees.

Meng Jiuyi wore a white coat, her long hair was completely unadorned, which made her face look even smaller than a palm.

She placed the baby's breath in front of Zhang Sui's grave without even glancing at Gao Xian Yue.

"You're here?"

---

good evening