When two strangers are in the same room, if no one speaks for more than a minute, the atmosphere becomes awkward. In the past, Zhang Moyan would have suggested turning on the TV, but today she didn't.
After thinking for a while, Zhang Moyan took out his phone from his pocket and said, "Mr. Xiao, I came here today because I have something to tell you."
Xiao Guotao stopped his unsteady movements and looked at her: "What's the matter?"
Zhang Moyan pulled out the photo of Chen Yun from her phone album that director Wang Shuai had released at the premiere. After the premiere, Wang Shuai's assistant had distributed the photo to the media.
When Zhang Moyan handed the phone to Xiao Guotao, she felt a little timid.
"I attended an event today, and a director brought out this photo. He said a friend had asked him to find his daughter, who had been missing for years. Does the woman in the photo look familiar?"
Xiao Guotao took the phone and put on his glasses again.
"Many news media have reposted this missing person notice on online platforms and television. You should also see corresponding reports in tomorrow's newspaper." Zhang Moyan tried hard to prove that she was not fabricating the story.
"Oh." Xiao Guotao leaned on the leg of his glasses and studied the screen of his phone. After seeing the person clearly, he sat up straight from his half-leaning position and blurted out in a low voice: "Chen Yun?"
When Zhang Moyan heard this name, she was shocked.
"It seems I wasn't mistaken," Zhang Moyan said, trying to keep her voice steady. "When I saw this photo this morning, I thought I'd seen this woman somewhere before. After thinking for a long time, I remembered it was in the photo you showed me last time, so I came to confirm it with you."
Xiao Guotao stared at the photo on his phone with a frown on his face. After a while, he looked up and asked, "Is the person who asked to find her a Chinese person in Japan?"
Xiao Guotao guessed it right away. This sense of coincidence made Zhang Moyan nervous again: "Yes, the director said it was for a Chinese professor living in Japan."
Xiao Guotao snorted softly, not without disdain, and returned the phone to Zhang Moyan: "Let him find it!"
Sensing that Xiao Guotao's words were quite profound, Zhang Moyan boldly asked, "Mr. Xiao, this Ms. Chen once worked with your brother. She disappeared with another man while accompanying your brother on a business trip. Last time, you mentioned that you later received a suicide note from that man. I wonder... did he mention Chen Yun's whereabouts in that letter?"
Zhang Moyan's throat tightened gradually. Xiao Guotao didn't know if he had noticed. He looked at her thoughtfully, "Why do you ask that?"
Zhang Moyan calmed herself down, trying to suppress the urge to grab her knees. She replied, "Perhaps it's just my journalistic instinct to follow the clues. With all due respect, I have a hunch that you might have some clues about this Ms. Chen. I wonder if my hunch is correct?"
Zhang Moyan stared at Xiao Guotao without blinking, afraid of missing any subtle expression on his face.
Xiao Guotao leaned back on the bed, neither confirming nor denying.
Zhang Moyan said with insight, "You seem to have some opinions about Ms. Chen, or about Professor Chen who lives in Japan."
"There's no way he can find his daughter!" Xiao Guotao suddenly declared decisively, "It's all in vain."
The tone was cold, even a bit like a vicious curse.
Zhang Moyan looked at Xiao Guotao, who had changed his usual behavior, with a questioning look in his eyes.
"If Chen Yun wanted to recognize him, she would have gone back long ago," Xiao Guotao said, growing increasingly agitated. "This isn't the first time Chen Guanfu has looked for Chen Yun. He hasn't found her in all these years. It's clear that Chen Yun is avoiding him! Otherwise, for a woman to be with a child, unless she's dead, I can't think of any other reason!"
Zhang Moyan's heart was broken.
Two years ago, she took advantage of the "Cultural Warmth" project to visit the orphanage where Zhang Feng and Huang Qin adopted her. The principal told her that except for the disabled children, all the healthy children in the orphanage were orphans whose parents had both died.
In other words, she was sent to the orphanage because both her parents died.
So Chen Yun is no longer alive.
The feeling she had when she learned this conclusion seemed to make her more sad and heartbroken than the feeling that someone was still thinking that her mother was still alive.
"Why is Chen Yun hiding from... Chen Guanfu?" This was the first time Zhang knew his grandfather's name. At the premiere just now, Wang Shuai may not have revealed the full name of the professor living in Japan in order to verify the information later.
The three words "Chen Guanfu" were a completely unfamiliar name to her.
"Why?" Xiao Guotao became a little excited. "Chen Guanfu did things that even his own daughter felt was unbearable..." He looked at Zhang Moyan and stopped talking halfway.
After a brief silence, Zhang Moyan took over the conversation. She asked cautiously, as if approaching prey, "Did Chen Yun tell you in person that she felt bad, or did she say that in the letter the young man sent you?"
Xiao Guotao asked her in return: "You want to know the contents of that letter? Why?"
Zhang Moyan paused, then crafted his story: "Professor Chen is old. Regardless of any foolish deeds he may have done in his youth, as an old father, he wishes to reunite with his long-lost daughter. From a humanitarian perspective, if there's any clue, I hope Mr. Xiao can help him."
If it weren't for her ulterior motive, Zhang Moyan would have felt that her words were too naive. Xiao Guotao clearly had a prejudice against Chen Yun and her daughter, and asking him to "help them achieve their goals" now was simply asking too much.
Xiao Guotao looked at Zhang Moyan with deep eyes. The two looked at each other silently. For a moment, Zhang Moyan felt that Xiao Guotao saw through her.
"If you really want to know," just when Zhang Moyan thought Xiao Guotao would firmly reject her, he unexpectedly relented, "I can show you Shunqing's suicide note. After you read it, you can tell me..."
Xiao Guotao reached out and slowly opened the bedside drawer, took out a mobile phone, and unlocked the phone screen with his reading glasses.
When the phone was handed to Zhang Moyan, she had not yet recovered from her shock.
From the first sentence Zhou Xia said after she left, she always thought that she was the one who was trying to get information out of Xiao Guotao. But now, looking at the photo of the letter that the other party had prepared long ago, she suddenly realized that she was the one who was really hooked.
How terrifying! When Zhang Moyan realized this, she felt a sense of panic and instinctively wanted to avoid the crisis, but it was too late. Now, she had no way out but to read the letter.
I lowered my head and read as calmly as possible. The letter paper in the photo was slightly yellowed, and the handwriting was clear and vigorous, showing a very deep foundation. However, the font sizes were a bit messy, and there were several traces of corrections. It was obvious that the person who wrote the letter was very emotional at the time.
But the letter begins with:
"Dear Mr. Xiao:
It's like seeing you in person.
I'm very sorry for addressing you in such a strange way, because today, I really don't have the face to call you my teacher or leader anymore."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
