But neither my dad nor my husband wanted to argue with a young girl; they felt it wasn't worth causing trouble.
"Zhiheng is even more decisive. As soon as he heard that she was back, he simply hid far away and didn't want to go home at all."
She paused slightly, her voice low, and sighed.
“In the past two years, the old lady’s mental state has not been very good. Sometimes she is confused and sometimes she is lucid. The family tries to be as tolerant as possible. After all, she is old and can’t withstand too much hardship.”
Zhu Xiuqin fully understood Wu Suya's predicament.
She was silent for a moment, then asked.
"So who exactly are Shen Chunhua and her daughter? They're just distant relatives, separated by several layers of kinship. Is it really necessary for the old lady to protect them so much? And to let them live in her house for so long?"
"I heard that when the old lady was a child, her family was very poor and she was so hungry that she almost couldn't survive. It was Shen Chunhua's mother who secretly gave her a few meals during the famine years, which saved her life. The old lady still remembers this kindness to this day."
Zhu Xiuqin had actually heard Shen Lao Er mention it before, and vaguely knew that the old lady had a past affection for Shen Chunhua and her daughter.
But to everyone's surprise, she actually brought the mother and daughter into her home and even arranged accommodation for them.
"So how are these two doing in our house now? And how did her daughter get into the city's cultural troupe? This isn't a place that ordinary people can get into."
Zhu Xiuqin asked the question that Su Qingzhi had been holding in her heart for a long time.
Wu Suya shook her head, her expression somewhat complicated.
"Six months ago, the girl came to our door with an old item that the old lady had brought back before. She said it was an old item with special significance."
"When the old lady saw the item, her eyes immediately welled up with tears. She said it was her most treasured keepsake from her youth, which she had always thought she had lost long ago. When she saw the girl, it was like seeing a relative. Without saying a word, she asked someone to keep her here."
"Shen Haitang has a sweet tongue and is particularly good at coaxing people. She always says things that resonate with the old lady. When the old lady sees her, she is overjoyed, as if she has found a treasure."
"At first, the old man was a little worried, thinking that her background was unclear. He specially sent someone back to investigate her background and confirmed that the girl did not have any problems with her origins. After that, he stopped interfering."
"As for how she got into the performing arts troupe, I don't know much either. About a month ago, she came home and excitedly told us that she had successfully passed the exam for the city's performing arts troupe."
“I was still a little worried, so I asked Zhiheng to use his connections to inquire. The person who answered said that she performed exceptionally well in the exam, and coincidentally, the city's cultural troupe was recruiting new members at that time, so she was officially accepted.”
Su Qingzhi listened and nodded in response.
But I felt something was off, though I couldn't quite put my finger on it.
Seeing that her expression was strange, Zhu Xiuqin leaned closer and lowered her voice.
"Do you think... it's possible that the old lady secretly helped her behind the scenes? She used to know a lot of people at work, and she might have really used some connections."
Wu Suya responded with a solemn expression.
"That's what I think too. Logically speaking, the recruitment of cultural troupes has always been strict, so it's really unusual to be admitted based on just one exam."
"Although the old lady has kept a low profile in recent years, I don't believe that she has no connections at all."
The two looked at each other, and both could see the worry and helplessness in each other's eyes.
Finally, they both sighed.
All I could do was pray silently, hoping that the old lady was really just being kind this time.
Don't cause trouble for your family because of momentary selfishness.
Su Qingzhi did not respond.
She slowly turned her head and looked out the window at the lush grapevines in the yard.
As I watched, my thoughts drifted far away.
Why hasn't Shen Zhiyu come back yet?
They should have been home by now.
At this moment, Shen Zhiyu was sitting in the office of the Public Security Special Affairs Department.
The man sitting opposite him raised an eyebrow and asked in a low voice.
"Are you sure Fang Youming personally handed this to you?"
If Su Qingzhi were here, she would recognize this person at a glance.
He was the Comrade Zhong who had secretly handed her a business card back in Anshi.
"I'm sure."
Shen Zhiyu answered crisply and decisively.
Comrade Zhong nodded slightly and did not pursue the matter further, but instead changed the subject.
"So what do you think now? What do you think this thing is used for? And where did it come from?"
Shen Zhiyu remained sitting upright, his brows furrowed in solemnity.
He remained silent for a while.
After a moment, he slowly opened his mouth.
“I suspect that this thing was made by the Japanese during their invasion of China, when they used our compatriots as a secret experiment. It is not an ordinary object; it is probably related to a history that has been deliberately buried.”
After listening, Comrade Zhong did not show much surprise on his face.
This is not because he doesn't value it.
Rather, it's because he's in this field and was already prepared for this kind of thing.
He pondered for a moment, then lightly tapped his fingers on the table.
Then he raised his head and said in a solemn tone.
"I will arrange for someone to send this to the technical department for a full test immediately. However, there is something I need to tell you in advance."
Director Zhong was usually serious, but his tone was unusually cold today.
He sat behind his desk, his brows furrowed, as if shrouded in an invisible chill.
Shen Zhiyu had never seen this kind of atmosphere in him before.
"We discovered that the Japanese underground laboratory was not completely destroyed back then."
Director Zhong's voice was low and deep.
"On the surface, they disbanded the organization and destroyed the data after the war, but in reality, they secretly moved the location and changed to several hidden strongholds to continue their shady research."
He paused, then looked directly at Shen Zhiyu.
"These people didn't die, nor did they escape. Instead, they lurked in the darkness like venomous snakes for so many years."
Shen Zhiyu suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with suppressed anger.
Those long-forgotten memories surged up instantly.
The children who suddenly disappeared from the village when I was a child, the strange crying that came at night, and that inexplicable fire...
It turns out that behind all of this, there has always been a pair of cold, sinister eyes watching this land.
"They still dare to do these things on our turf?"
Shen Zhiyu's voice was almost squeezed out from between his teeth.
"Haven't they learned their lesson from what happened decades ago? They still dare to secretly conduct human experiments? Do they think the country is just a figurehead? Do they think the law is just a piece of paper?"
"You must have heard about what happened in Anshi last time, right?"
Director Zhong raised his eyes, his gaze sharp and piercing.
“The kidnapping case in the abandoned factory in the east of the city, in which three children were abducted, and the traces left at the scene indicate that it was not an ordinary kidnapping, but an organized and premeditated arrest.”
Shen Zhiyu nodded.
Of course he knew.
He was on another mission that day when he received an encrypted communication from the Special Affairs Department.
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