"How is that possible? How authentic is this news you are giving me?"Lixin didn't hold himself back from anxiously questioning the validity of the information he just heard. "It still doesn't make sense. My mother would never make me help someone who tried to murder her, and from what I read in her letter, they were the best of friends. How is it possible?"
Everything he said was hurried as those words of confusion came out of his mouth. There were so many unexplained questions to which he needed answers, and from the look of things, Haoyu wasn't planning on giving a reply to his worries.
"Haoyu, come check this out." Another voice from the top floor of the house, particularly Nuying's room, was heard. Lixin's face became cold as he rushed quickly to the room. He stood in front of it, watching as his mother's room was ransacked by Muchen.
"Don't you two have any atom of respect for the dead?" His eyes scrutinized the full room, and in that room, a small passage to another room was opened. He stepped into the room, his brows furrowed together. "When did Mother have a secret passage?"
Lixin quizzed himself internally; unfortunately, his internal thoughts were too loud to be heard by the two. Muchen stepped forward, ignoring Lixin's presence like he was nothing. He picked up candle sticks, while Haoyu did the same.
"If you want to know the truth, follow me," Muchen said lastly as he handed the last candlestick to Lixin and all headed inside the secret passage.
Mu Lixin's POV
I blinked my eyes in wonder, following the trails of staircases that continued to lead us inside the room. Though the candle flames didn't give so much light to see, I couldn't help but ponder why they hadn't fixed a light bulb or, at least, turned on the flashlights on their phones.
I stopped as I saw the large photo hung on the wall. A photo of three of us—my mother, father, and me. I was in the middle, wearing a jaunty smile and a birthday hat. I was flashed back to the past, to be specific, during my sixth birthday. After that day, things began to go haywire.
And on the eighth one, I figured out my dad had completely left us, and before I knew what was going on, she died as well.
Tears slipped through Lixin's eyes while he recalled the happy moments. From behind, a palm was laid on his back, patting him in rhythm, just as he liked it when he was small. Slowly, he retracted himself from Haoyu's touch, and his mood worsened.
He blew off the dust from the table and finally took the liberty of switching on the light on his phone. Lixin scrolled through every one of the photo albums, papers, documents, and so many more on the table.
"December 8th is the document we are looking for," Muchen said to remind Lixin of the exact thing they were searching for, and in response, he nodded his head and rummaged through the entire file until he found it.
Embedded in the record labeled 0812 are a recording device and a CD. Lixin cleaned off the dust particles from both and went ahead with playing the recording device.
"That's my mother's voice, but who owns the voice that is responding?" Lixin threw the questions to the other two, who kept silent for a long time. A sigh was heard from Muchen next, which gave Lixin a hint as to who the woman was.
Song Yunnan, also known as Yvonne, is Mingxia's mother.
Soon he figured out as well that the sigh breathed out by Muchen carried lots of meanings as he fast-forwarded the voice note to important places. He paused it and connected it to his phone speaker, playing it louder for them to hear.
"What do you suppose I do? I know my father; he would do everything in his power to use our friendship to harm you, Buying. I will be out of town for the weekend; Mingxia will stay with you."
"Be careful. We still don't know who else is lurking in the dark, monitoring our every step. Car accidents amongst the rich have become rampant. You should drive safely, or maybe I can call Butler Ke to take you there."
"And risk allowing my father to know that we both are working together to shut down his illegal medical laboratories and risk your life? I would rather die in the accident than have you risk your life for me." Yunnan's voice was all croaked up, yet a little sense of justice was still found in it.
Like her daughter, Mingxia, Song Yunnan was a profound and renowned lawyer known both internally and overseas. Being a lawyer in the criminology department, Yunnan got into many troubles with high authorities—those who were involved in tax evasion, illegal smuggling of contraband items, and so many more.
During her rising peak in her career, Yunnan gathered more enemies than friends, she could count, all of whom were after her life. In her recent investigation, it turned out that apart from those crimes listed above, Yunnan received a peculiar one.
It was high sales and exportation to other countries, high mercury intoxicants, other toxic drugs, and acupuncture needles through the borders. She had traced it down within a year of investigation to her father, Song Fuchuan. Knowing he refused to turn himself in, Yunnan went on low-key to garner more information.
"I must go with you. I will leave Lixin and Mingxia with the housekeeper. She would do well taking care of them. I still owe you a favor, Yunnan, for helping me pull Haoyu away from me. I know getting involved in your case would bring more trouble. I would rather not involve him in it or Lixin. I will move them to Wuhan, after which I will sign the divorce papers with Haoyu and then come back to help you."
"It is a deal then, but remember that in the future, no matter what, Lixin has to come to Mingxia's rescue. I don't know how long I can hide her existence from my father. He won't have mercy on her either. It is only the Mu's I can trust. I can only entrust my daughter's hand in marriage to your son when they grow up. If I am dead by then, I can be at peace."
The recording ended, and checking the CD, there was not much information other than pictures of chemicals and test tubes. The ambiance of the room went cold, each of them in their thoughts.
"This is unbelievable." Lixin shook his head as he tossed the recorder onto the couch. He fell tiredly on the couch next to him and crossed his legs, his fingers rubbing his temples calmly. The whole new revelation was too much to take in. First of all, he had known Mingxia since he was small, and then again, everything became clear.
Haoyu wasn't the one who requested a divorce; it was his mother who did! The entire time he had thrown curses, insults, and blame on Haoyu for ruining the once-perfect family, he had not known it was the other way around.
"I am sorry. I wish I could have told you earlier on." Haoyu voiced it, his tone saddened by Lixin's reaction. He noticed guilt slowly eating Lixin up and didn't want that to happen. He would rather allow Lixin to think he was the culprit than have this reaction from him. "After the divorce, she informed me to secretly watch over you and prepare for the worst. I didn't understand what she said until she came back from the trip with Yunnan, weak."
"So she wasn't able to save herself from the fire because she was poisoned?"
"She took the bullet for Yunnan; that was what I was told." Muchen chipped away at packing away the scattered files. He screenshotted the pictures on the computer, which played the CD, and saved them to his gallery. "We are not necessarily the bad guys. You misunderstood us, Mr. Mu. I would like my apology now."
"You all knew this and kept me in the dark? And how is it that Mingxia has no memory of meeting me in the past?"
"She had a great fall during her high school graduation, which led to the tampering of her temporal lobe. She was diagnosed with post-retrospective amnesia, which wipes some of your memory."
"What was she wearing on that graduation day?"
"A blue flowery shirt and black trousers, why..." As they talked among themselves, they climbed back into the room, and having locked the door, Muchen sat down to analyze everything. "Is there something you would like to inform us?"
"Not at all," Lixin mumbled, keeping it to himself. He had to make sure he wasn't making a mistake. According to the description given by Muchen, the woman he had been searching for was Mingxia. She was the girl who had saved him.
Destiny had brought both of them together times without numbers.
...…..
"Mr. Mu, your third aunt has spilled the beans. It was Miss Tang who had anticipated Luyang's ambush."