Chapter 13 The truth came to her in a completely unexpected and chaotic manner.
Ning Yanzhao secretly hid behind the bus advertising board for the time being, not wanting Xu Yongqing to find her.
A few minutes later, Ning Yanzhao didn't insist on sitting next to Xu Yongqing on the bus to go home together. Instead, she waited until Xu Yongqing boarded the bus that usually went home before getting off.
Ning Yanzhao planned to take a roundabout approach today, so she boarded another bus that followed the same route as the one Xu Yongqing had just taken, and secured the best window seat with the best view, following behind Xu Yongqing's bus.
Ning Yanzhao had carefully observed the bus stop signs at the bus stop last time, which was part of her plan. She didn't expect it to come in handy today.
Since Ning Yanzhao intentionally avoided meeting Xu Yongqing after class this week, and even deliberately tried to have an awkward chat with An Nianyu to lower Xu Yongqing's guard, and hid in the crowd when leaving the school gate to avoid being noticed, then Xu Yongqing had no idea that the bus Ning Yanzhao was on was following behind her.
The reason is very simple. First, Xu Yongqing is happy that no one has tried to have an awkward conversation with her this week. Second, she did not expect that anyone would want to "follow" her.
Now let's talk about these two buses. Although the routes and arrival times are basically the same, there are two stops in the middle where they will go in different directions. Then, at the next stop after those two stops, they will return to the same road. Finally, the two buses will return to the same stop, depart, and start the cycle.
Ignoring the unexpected event of Ning Yanzhao attending a banquet this week and encountering Xu Yongqing and Ling Lianxu, the "prequel script" for this week has already unfolded according to Ning Yanzhao's memory: Xu Yongqing's father comes to the school and unleashes his fury, causing Xu Yongqing to move out of the dormitory and begin commuting to school.
So, logically speaking, during the week that Xu Yongqing ran away from home, Ning Yanzhao was betting on which stop Xu Yongqing would get off at. If she didn't get off at the next few stops, then she would have gotten off at one of the two middle stops; otherwise, she would have gotten off at one of the stops near the final stop.
It was still early, and Ning Yanzhao believed she had time to investigate thoroughly. She was confident she could do it.
The bus passed several familiar stops on its way home, but Ning Yanzhao's mood was not as light as usual when she was thinking about going home. The unknown things in front of her made her a little nervous.
Time flew by, and soon they arrived at several stops where the two buses did not intersect. Ning Yanzhao focused her attention even more intently on looking out the window. When they reached the stop after passing through the tunnel, she realized that she did not see Xu Yongqing.
So success or failure hinges on the next two stops. If Ning Yanzhao doesn't see Xu Yongqing get off at those two stops, she'll have to go back and look for Xu Yongqing again.
"Good morning, passengers. Our stop is now 'Prosperity Shopping Mall'. Passengers who need to get off, please prepare in advance..."
As the bus announcement sounded, Ning Yanzhao held her breath even more, carefully watching the scenery outside the window, afraid of missing a single detail.
Fortunately, Ning Yanzhao saw on the bus that Xu Yongqing's stop was "Fanrong Shopping Mall," so she didn't have to go back to find Xu Yongqing.
Then, in order not to arouse Xu Yongqing's suspicion, Ning Yanzhao deliberately got off at the final stop, "Xinshu Primary School".
Fortunately, the two stations were not far apart. When Ning Yanzhao quickly ran back to the vicinity of "Prosperity Shopping Mall", she happened to see Xu Yongqing, who had not gone far because it was inconvenient for her to carry her luggage.
Ning Yanzhao thought that today had gone surprisingly smoothly, but she wondered where Xu Yongqing was going. She still had to follow her.
Ning Yanzhao came prepared today. When she was packing her things in the classroom before the composition class, she only brought back the most important assignments that she had to submit. So there was plenty of space in her schoolbag.
Furthermore, Ning Yanzhao had already changed into another jacket while on the bus, then put the school uniform jacket into her schoolbag, and put on a hat and mask.
So now, apart from a plain pair of black school uniform pants with only a few small characters for the school's name, it's almost impossible to identify Ning Yanzhao's identity.
Xu Yongqing was carrying a lot of luggage and probably didn't have time to look behind her. Even if she saw a figure behind her, given how familiar Xu Yongqing was with Ning Yanzhao, it would be difficult for her to identify her. She began her first experience of "following" someone.
Meanwhile, in order to avoid any interference with her actions, Ning Yanzhao had already told her mother today that she would be studying at the M City Library and would not be home for dinner tonight.
Because her mother knew that Ning Yanzhao wasn't the type to stay out all night, she simply told her to eat properly and agreed. So now everything was within her control.
Ning Yanzhao first saw Xu Yongqing walk into McDonald's from afar, and she followed her in and sat down. However, not a few minutes later, before she could even warm her seat, Xu Yongqing came out of McDonald's carrying that pile of luggage. Did he discover her and was preparing to leave? This was not good.
Ning Yanzhao was just about to go out and chase after Xu Yongqing when she saw Xu Yongqing come in with a plastic bracelet. She quickly returned to her seat. Judging from the look of it, it seemed that Xu Yongqing had gone out to store her luggage? Perhaps she also thought that the pile of things was in the way.
Back and forth like this, Ning Yanzhao felt as if she were fighting a guerrilla war with Xu Yongqing.
Now, Xu Yongqing went to the McDonald's counter and ordered a meal, presumably for dinner, and finally sat down. Ning Yanzhao, seeing this, casually ordered an ice cream cone and sat down where Xu Yongqing couldn't see her.
For the next hour, Xu Yongqing stayed in McDonald's without leaving, until a middle-aged woman pushed open the door and said a few words to Xu Yongqing that Ning Yanzhao couldn't hear. Then Xu Yongqing left with the middle-aged woman.
Ning Yanzhao thought that judging from the appearance of this middle-aged woman, she should be Xu Yongqing's mother, so she was going to stay at her mother's house tonight.
Why is it said that Xu Yongqing was going to stay at her mother's house?
Speaking of this, Ning Yanzhao learned the "intelligence" from Ling Lianxu by bribing her with XXX's concert tickets last time. Although it violated Xu Yongqing's privacy, she couldn't care less now because her life was in great danger.
It turns out that Xu Yongqing is not her current parents' biological child. This is the first time Ning Yanzhao has heard this news in a long time.
Based on the information obtained from Ling Lianxu, and combined with Ning Yanzhao's speculation, the story is roughly as follows: Xu Yongqing's current adoptive parents only adopted her because her adoptive parents were unable to have children.
At the same time, Xu Yongqing's adoptive parents were also particularly good at pretending. In front of other relatives and colleagues, they praised the child to the skies. From childhood to adulthood, they also made Xu Yongqing learn to call out the names of all the relatives in front of them in a dignified, accurate and polite manner, to show that they were "good at raising their daughter".
On the surface, they are a harmonious and happy family, but in reality, the couple severely suppresses Xu Yongqing at home, forbidding her from having any entertainment activities and requiring her to study every day.
Because Xu Yongqing's usual persona is that of a "comparison tool" for her parents, they would use Xu Yongqing's academic achievements to brag and show off when various relatives were to meet.
In short, Xu Yongqing's adoptive parents made minimal efforts to demand that she excel in academics, sing and dance, and be "presentable," while simultaneously suppressing her relentlessly.
There are no secrets in the world. Just as Xu Yongqing's adoptive parents thought that no one knew their attitude towards the child, everyone also thought that a child who was adopted at a young age would not know about their background.
Perhaps this is true for others, but not for Hsu Yung-ching. Others don't know that she is quite precocious compared to her peers, so Hsu Yung-ching probably always knew that she was adopted. However, in order to avoid her adoptive parents finding out and getting beaten more, she pretended not to know. This can also be inferred from the fact that Hsu Yung-ching knew to secretly look for her biological mother.
In Ling Lianxu's words, "No wonder Xu Yongqing seemed not to be very familiar with her parents. It turns out it's because they're not her biological children."
Moreover, the adults' supposedly flawless explanation was actually full of loopholes. From childhood to adulthood, more than one neighbor or relative had let slip, asking questions like, "How come there's such a big child in your family all of a sudden? When was he born?" or "Why doesn't your child look like you? Does he look like his grandparents, but not quite?" Even Ling Lianxu had heard these kinds of questions many times.
When faced with such questions, Xu Yongqing's parents usually "dodge the question" and brush it off with something like, "The child is still young, it's normal that he doesn't look like us, you'll see later," or "What nonsense are you talking about? Are you blind? How does this child not look like us?" Ning Yanzhao thought that Xu Yongqing would probably have to try to "play dumb" every time this happened.
So, Xu Yongqing's relatives were actually aware of the situation, but they were all respectable people and wouldn't say it in front of Xu Yongqing's family.
In short, for various reasons, although Xu Yongqing was often beaten by her adoptive parents at home from childhood and lived a very difficult life, she still tried her best to endure it and studied hard because she knew that as long as she could endure until she graduated from high school and was admitted to university, she could work to earn her tuition fees and no longer be under anyone's financial control.
Ling Lianxu also had something to say about this: "Her parents are even more annoying than you; they exaggerate her academic performance to an extreme degree."
Of course, Ning Yanzhao wouldn't respond to such a statement. She only knew that it was no wonder that Xu Yongqing studied so much harder than ordinary people. Whether in the cafeteria or the classroom, all she could see was Xu Yongqing studying non-stop. It turned out that besides striving for her own future, there were many other reasons she had no choice but to do so.
As for Xu Yongqing's cell phone, judging from the attitude her adoptive parents took towards her after being notified by the school that her phone had been confiscated, they probably didn't know about it in the first place, otherwise they wouldn't have been so angry.
Ning Yanzhao guessed again that the phone might have been given to her by Xu Yongqing's biological mother, who had recently returned unexpectedly. The reason Xu Yongqing knew that her biological mother was not lying might be because she looked almost exactly like that woman, even Ning Yanzhao, who had only met her once, said they looked alike.
The events that followed in the next few days were roughly the same as what Ning Yanzhao had heard.
It is currently unknown exactly when Xu Yongqing received her biological mother's phone, but it is known that Xu Yongqing's phone was confiscated by the dormitory supervisor twice, and her father came to the school gate afterward. Both of these events occurred shortly after Xu Yongqing received her biological mother's phone.
Xu Yongqing was returning to her dormitory after evening self-study when she forgot to turn off her phone. She may not have been very familiar with using smartphones. She also happened to run into the dormitory supervisor who was conducting a large-scale search of the dormitory for students to check for their phones. These multiple factors combined to cause the incident.
Xu Yongqing was caught red-handed because the dormitory supervisor, who had sharp ears, heard the sound coming from her phone. This led to a series of events that followed.
That week, Xu Yongqing had already been "exposed" and had been severely beaten by her adoptive parents in the middle of the week. Later, her adoptive parents asked her to move out of the dormitory and go home to commute. So that afternoon, she took her luggage out of the dormitory.
Logically, Xu Yongqing should have gone back to her adoptive parents' home after school this Friday, but she was so afraid of being beaten again that she had an "unthinkable" thought. Since she had nowhere else to go, she wondered if her biological mother was willing to take her in temporarily.
And so, the scene Ning Yanzhao witnessed today came to be.
Regarding the differences between this time and the previous time, based on all the information Ning Yanzhao currently has, firstly, Xu Yongqing's phone was discovered earlier; previously it was after the essay competition, but this time it was before. Secondly, this time Xu Yongqing did not go home but went directly to her biological mother, whereas previously Xu Yongqing would have gone home on Friday to be beaten and then secretly slipped out of the house on Saturday to find her biological mother.
As for what factors in these two incidents might have caused the events to deviate from their intended course, Ning Yanzhao has not yet figured it out.
And it's unknown whether Xu Yongqing will still be in a car accident today because of the changed date.
Assuming a car accident occurs, it would be about an hour or two before Xu Yongqing's accident nine years ago. I wonder if it would happen earlier.
Then there's another question: Did Xu Yongqing have a car accident nine years ago before she went to her mother's house, or after she left home to find her mother? We don't know.
Ning Yanzhao followed Xu Yongqing all the way to the middle-aged woman's house. She then wandered around the area until about 10 p.m., but Xu Yongqing still didn't come out.
And now it's time for the homeroom teacher to receive the call that Xu Yongqing had an accident during evening self-study. Since she hasn't shown up, does that mean the matter is over? If that's the case, then that would be perfect, as her "mission" is almost complete.
Just as Ning Yanzhao thought Xu Yongqing was alright and was about to go home after checking the sky, a car drove haphazardly from the street corner towards her...
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