For so reason, both sisters felt a bit awkward.
As the eldest sister, Yan Sheng naturally took the initiative to ease the tension. She smiled while watching her two sisters through the window, "I thought you two would sleep in, didn’t expect you’d be up this early."
Yan Yu greeted Yan Sheng comfortably, "Eldest sister, heading to the shop this early? With Zan Hua and Xiao Kai there, you can sleep in a bit more in the morning."
Yan Sheng smiled, "I told them to co two hours later on weekend mornings. Told them to go have a relationship."
"A relationship?" Yan Jian, overhearing, couldn’t help her girlish curiosity, "Who with who?"
Yan Yu stepped forward, pinching Yan Jian’s apple-like face helplessly, "Didn’t understand what the eldest sister said? Of course, Zan Hua and Xiao Kai have feelings for each other!"
"Ah?" Yan Jian was equally surprised.
Yan Sheng nodded with a smile, "It hasn’t happened yet. But I can tell Xiao Kai’s feelings. It’s just that Zan Hua is still hesitating. So I’m giving them a little push. After all, they t at my shop, and if they beco a couple, it would naturally make happy."
Yan Yu laughed, opening the door and giving Yan Sheng a hug, "When did the elder sister start enjoying matchmaking? Now that you have this new hobby, why not bring us back a brother-in-law too?"
While speaking, Yan Yu pulled her elder sister inside and whispered, "If big sister doesn’t start dating, second sister, , and Yan Jian would feel embarrassed to date too. Does big sister want all of us in the Tang family to end up as single won?"
Yan Sheng also felt awkward, "...I’m really not a good example. You two shouldn’t follow my lead. I’m into ditation; perhaps that’s why I’m indifferent to matters of love. But you two are different, you’re living in this world and should find your worldly happiness."
Yan Yu felt heartache, pouting, "See what you’re saying, big sister! You’re just running a ditation-thed shop, it’s not like you’ve taken vows and beco a monk. You’re also still in the world. Only when big sister finds happiness can her sisters dare to seek their happiness too."
Though young at the ti, Yan Yu understood her elder sister’s knot in her heart.
However, the elder sister was family, and the little sister was just as dear. Growing up together due to age, Yan Jian and Yan Yu had more chances to talk heart-to-heart; they felt more reverence towards the eldest sister. So Yan Yu could only bury that understanding deep in her heart, pretending she knew nothing.
Seeing the eldest remain single all these years and hearing her words now, guilt welled up inside her.
Yan Sheng gently embraced Yan Yu, "You’re a very talented pastry chef. You have a unique ability to find and match natural spices, creating one-of-a-kind pastries with distinctive natural herb recipes. Pastries belong to love, so you will certainly find your sweet love."
Yan Jian blushed, using the newspaper in her hand to hide her face, leaving only her big watery eyes exposed, "Eldest sister, what about ? Do you think Xiao Sheng and I can be together?"
Yan Sheng tried to maintain a calm smile.
Without questioning what the pain above her left rib ant.
"Yan Jian, Xiao Sheng has pampered you since childhood. There may be many others around him, but he always treats you differently."
Luo Xiansheng always wore a smile and was good-tempered in front of the Tang family, but Yan Sheng had also seen Mr. Luo outside the Tang family, in business settings.
During those tis, Mr. Luo was a calm, sharp-eyed businessman and investor; a strict boss towards employees and contracted stars.
She had witnessed countless tis how Mr. Luo unceremoniously scolded won rumored to be involved with him, even pushing them out of the car on the street. Yet, he always treated Yan Jian with care, eyes perpetually smiling.
Yan Jian shyly and delightedly lowered her head, smiling, "With elder sister saying so, I feel relieved."
As Yan Jian’s little hand lowered, the newspaper in her hand also dropped, drawing Yan Sheng’s gaze to the entertainnt report with a large color photo, seeing the girl embraced by Luo Xiansheng.
She had seen her before.
The young, fresh, pretty girl waiting outside her shop for him last ti.
Although surrounded by rumors over the years, Luo Xiansheng, no matter what, exercised restraint, never bringing female companions to her shop.
Last ti was an exception.
Even though he insisted it was nothing, rely bringing a newcor for an audition and stopping by... Yet, she could not believe his words at that ti.
Sure enough, the newspaper now proved her intuition right.
The heartache of that mont quietly deepened.
Yet, she could not let Yan Jian see through her, so she seed to only glance at the newspaper headline.
"Oh? It’s the entertainnt section of ’Deep Throat’? It’s Shi Nian’s company."
.
After all, work was still the best excuse, so she managed to slip away from her two younger sisters. Walking out the door and getting into the car, she couldn’t help but be montarily lost in thought. She couldn’t resist dialing the phone to reach Shi Nian.
"Shi Nian, I want to ask you to verify sothing for : Your company’s entertainnt weekly published a report about Mr. Luo’s rumored affair with a newcor under his banner. Do you know if that reporter was being serious, or just trying to create a buzz?"
Though she hit it off with Shi Nian, boldly asking about such things still made Tang Yansheng feel a bit embarrassed. She was sowhat worried that, with a reporter’s intuition, Shi Nian might guess her true thoughts.
To her surprise, Shi Nian straightforwardly agreed without asking further, even helping her out of the awkward situation: "I’ve t Luo Xiansheng before, that night at the welco dinner for you, Sister Sheng. I understand that scions of influential families don’t like having such news exposed, even if he works in this industry. No problem, I’ll find a chance to verify with that colleague."
"Besides, he’s childhood friends with both you and Mr. Tang, and you treat him like a family brother. So, even if it’s just for you and Mr. Tang’s sake, I’ll definitely help."
Tang Yansheng couldn’t help but feel a little startled: "Why do you still call Yanqing ’Mr. Tang’? I thought you two... after all, even my third aunt has personally t you."
Shi Nian held the phone, slightly dazed on the other end.
Indeed, she thought the resistance would co from the Tang Family, but in fact, Shen Wan, this mother, didn’t make things difficult for her at all. And now, the problem seed to arise more from within herself.
Shi Nian then lowered her head and smiled, avoiding the main topic.
"I’m used to it. If I change to another title, I might not be able to call out imdiately."
"I see," Tang Yansheng also laughed, "Exactly. Back then, people at ho would call my second uncle ’Mr. Tang’ and my second aunt ’Madam Liu’."
Both had a little secret in their hearts as won, so neither dared to chat more, and they tacitly said their goodbyes, each hanging up the phone.
.
Shi Nian stared at her phone in a daze for a while, then sat back in her seat, used a key to open the bottom drawer of her desk, and took out the things she once sealed away in a cardboard box, thinking she wouldn’t purposely retrieve them again.
The doll with its dress torn to shreds.
The wrinkled wrapping paper.
Long strands of packaging ribbon and a roughly ford flower knot.
These items recorded her terrifying mories, once taken by the police as evidence. A few days ago, the evidence hold was lifted, and she was asked for instructions on how to handle them, if she didn’t want to reclaim them, the police would dispose of them on her behalf.
Yet she chose to retrieve them herself and locked them in the drawer.
Today, taking them out again, she endured her disgust and fear, and her gaze ultimately fell upon that slightly blurred lipstick mark.
Blurred, likely due to the forensic departnt during the evidence collection, yet because of the texture wear, it made her lose Nisha’s last mark left for her once again.
—— Tang Yanqing said, this lipstick mark wasn’t from anyone else, but Nisha’s. It was precisely from this unique lip pattern, akin to a fingerprint, that Tang Yanqing deduced Nisha had already passed away.
Shi Nian gently closed her eyes.
Nisha, rest assured. The Yanwu Square case will be solved, the killer who took your life will surely face justice; those self-righteous so-called big figures who bullied you little girls, not one will escape!
For you, for your daughters, for those poor little girls like you, I will do my utmost.
.
Taking a deep breath, Shi Nian went through these objects again.
Looking over each item, she gradually dispelled her initial worries.
At the ti of that brief encounter at Yanwu Square, she only managed to rember two people: one was Father, and the other was Mr. Q.
That tall gentleman, with such refined clothing, with such cold and sharp eyes, with such long and cold fingertips—when she first t Huangfu Huazhang at Kangchuan University, she couldn’t help but link the two together.
And in the subsequent investigation process, Huangfu Huazhang’s connection with Yanwu Square gradually surfaced, giving her more reason to associate Mr. Q with Huangfu Huazhang.
But now facing these chaotic objects, she couldn’t help but start wavering.
The doll’s torn dress, the crumpled wrapping paper, ribbons... these didn’t match Huangfu Huazhang’s personality at all!
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