Ying Rongrong sat down behind her desk, looking at Gao Yue with a serious expression, and asked, "There are no outsiders here now, so you can tell me what happened?"
Gao Yue pulled Xia Fanxing to sit down opposite her and said, "Xia Chen's mother is here."
Ying Rongrong was taken aback: "Weren't my in-laws deceased a long time ago?"
“Xia Chen’s biological mother,” Gao Yue said.
It was only then that Ying Rongrong remembered that Xia Chen was not born to her in-laws.
Back then, the police rescued more than ten children during a child trafficking operation. Xia Chen was the youngest among them, only three months old. He had changed hands several times and had no family to be found. His mother-in-law had just lost one child and couldn't have any more. Fortunately, one of their relatives was a policeman who was involved in the case and suggested that they adopt a child.
The in-laws went over to look at the children who were originally going to be sent to the orphanage, and immediately took a liking to Xia Chen. Although he was only three months old, he was very well-behaved. He would whimper when he wanted to eat or poop, unlike the other children who cried their hearts out.
The couple who were related by marriage were both quite open-minded and never hid Xia Chen's background from him; they told him about it when he was just old enough to understand.
Xia Chen has a rather easygoing personality. His adoptive parents are, needless to say, his second parents. As for his biological parents, it would be best if he could find them, but if he couldn't, he wouldn't force it and would just consider it as a matter of fate.
So many years have passed, and Xia Chen had given up hope, but unexpectedly, the other party came knocking on his door.
"How did you find it? Did it match the gene bank?" Ying Rongrong asked.
Gao Yue shook her head, her expression somewhat complicated: "She went to Beijing for tourism and ran into Xia Chen face to face. She said she recognized him at a glance as her son, saying that he had the exact same mole at the corner of his eye."
"..." Ying Rongrong paused for a moment, then asked, "Isn't this a bit too frivolous? Has a paternity test been done?"
Gao Yue nodded: "They did it immediately, that's true."
Ying Rongrong looked surprised: "This... when fate comes, there's really no stopping it."
“There’s an even bigger coincidence,” Gao Yue said. “His mother was also from Lanyuan.”
"Really?" Ying Rongrong's eyes widened in surprise.
“Really.” Gao Yue nodded and said, “That’s why we postponed our travel plans and came back together.”
“If that’s true, then it’s definitely the right thing to do,” Ying Rongrong said.
“However, something is strange. When Xia Chen asked her about her father, she was reluctant to talk about it,” Gao Yue said.
Ying Rongrong frowned and asked, "Has he already passed away?"
“You can just say that,” Gao Yue said. “It just feels weird. It seems like she only has Xia Chen as her child, and no other children. And she spends money even more ruthlessly than I do.”
Ying Rongrong glared at Gao Yue and said, "Don't make wild guesses. Maybe she just wants to have one child and she's not short of money."
Gao Yue looked at Ying Rongrong helplessly: "Anyway, you'll know when you meet the person."
"We'll talk about that later," Ying Rongrong said, then asked, "And what happened to Xiaoyue?"
Gao Yue hesitated for a moment before telling Ying Rongrong what had happened.
Ying Rongrong frowned upon hearing this: "Xiaoyue has indeed gone too far. Next time, make her apologize properly to that person."
Gao Yue nodded: "Understood."
Ying Rongrong looked at Xia Fanxing and smiled kindly: "Our Fanxing has also been wronged."
Xia Fanxing shook her head dismissively and said with a smile, "I'm fine."
"Good girl." Ying Rongrong said, looking at Gao Yue, and said, "Find some time to have a good talk with Xiaoyue. Girls this age have their own little worries, and you, as her mother, need to pay more attention to her and not let her get stuck in a rut."
"Hmm." Gao Yue responded, then, as if remembering something, her voice carried a hint of sourness as she said, "However, that girl seems to have gotten along particularly well with the new guy who came to the house recently."
"Who?" Ying Rongrong was stunned for a moment before she realized, "Your own mother-in-law?"
“Hmm,” Gao Yue said, “That old lady has a whole repertoire of ways to coax people.”
"What's her name? If you're worried, I'll have your dad look it up for you," Ying Rongrong said.
“Her surname is Dong, and her name is Dong Cui,” Gao Yue said.
While Ying Rongrong was talking to Gao Yue, Xing Zhaozhao had already arrived in the lobby downstairs, where she unexpectedly ran into Xiao He, Gao Hongfei's former assistant.
"Isn't this Assistant He?" Xing Zhaozhao greeted him with a smile. "No, you should call me President He now."
Assistant Xiao He smiled nonchalantly and said, "It's alright, you can call me whatever you want."
Assistant Xiao He already knew that the person in front of him and their chairman's wife were running a company together in this building. He had always thought that this person had some kind of ambiguous relationship with their chairman, but he didn't expect that the person had also gotten involved with the chairman's wife. Although he couldn't figure out what their relationship was, it was always okay to be polite and respectful.
"How did you end up here?" Xing Zhaozhao asked.
"The tech company that the chairman put me in charge of is also here," Assistant He said.
"What a coincidence," Xing Zhaozhao said, her gaze involuntarily falling on the man standing next to her. The man was wearing a baseball cap, a windbreaker, hiking boots, a backpack, and a trekking pole, looking like he was about to go hiking, which seemed a bit out of place in the office building.
The man noticed Xing Zhaozhao's gaze and looked over as well. He glanced at her once, then couldn't help but look again, his eyes, hidden behind his gold-rimmed glasses, flashing with a sharp light. Even though it was their first meeting, for some reason, he felt a strange sense of familiarity when he looked at her.
"This is Professor Tan Zhe, whom the company invited back from Harbin Institute of Technology in the United States to conduct research," Assistant He introduced to Xing Zhaozhao.
"So this is the one we brought back from abroad. I heard Assistant Xiaobai mention him before." Xing Zhaozhao said with a smile, "Hello."
When Tan Zhe met Xing Zhaozhao's smile, he was momentarily dazed. He suddenly realized why she seemed familiar; her demeanor was very similar to his mother's—clean and pure.
Seeing that Tan Zhe did not react, Xing Zhaozhao couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.
Assistant Xiao He quickly explained to Xing Zhaozhao, "Professor Tan just returned from abroad and is still adjusting."
"Sorry." Tan Zhe also came to his senses.
Xing Zhaozhao smiled nonchalantly, "It's alright, Professor Tan, are you going out?"
Tan Zhe nodded: "Let's go to the mountains to gather inspiration."
"I found Professor Tan a driver to take him around and familiarize him with the surroundings," Assistant He added.
Just then, the driver that Xiao He's assistant had called arrived.
"Be careful on the road," Xing Zhaozhao said to Tan Zhe with a smile.
"Thank you." After saying that, Tan Zhe nodded slightly to Xing Zhaozhao and left with the driver.
Once in the car, Tan Zhe told the driver, "Take me to the village built against the mountain."
The driver was taken aback: "We have plenty here."
“Go through them all,” Tan Zhe said.
"……good."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com