Ji Xun was currently browsing Yingying’s social media homepage.
Yingying wasn’t very old. According to her profile, she was only 24. She had been running her self-media account for three years now, and the results were quite impressive; she already had 560,000 followers. They were highly active followers of both genders, and judging from their comments, they absolutely adored Yingying’s looks.
It was indeed a beautiful face.
Compared to the fans behind the screen, Ji Xun was perhaps more qualified to make that statement.
He possessed another almost identical face. He had looked at it from afar, examined it up close, and held it in his hands to play with. He was familiar with every single detail of that face, fully aware that a single glance or a raised eyebrow from it carried enough charm and flirtatiousness to invade one’s soul.
It was a face that left people wanting more.
If “Yingying” looked like Huo Xiying, then was Huo Xiying’s face exactly like the one right in front of him?
Ji Xun scrolled through Yingying’s homepage, watching her show off unboxings of various luxury goods, and check into influencer hotels, restaurants, and travel destinations. The girl in the photos was meticulously polished from head to toe, down to the very last strand of hair.
She seemed to completely understand her own charm. She understood that the extravagance of gold and jewelry would not corrupt her; their blinding radiance was merely the nourishment that allowed her, a gorgeous flower, to bloom even more boundlessly and brilliantly.
Suddenly, Ji Xun scrolled past a video post.
Huo Ranyin appeared in the post. It was the trending video of Huo Ranyin as the “most handsome police officer” from when they were in Qin City.
When the video finished playing, Yingying appeared, waving at the camera and saying to everyone:
“Hi everyone, I’m your Yingying. You all saw today’s trending topic, right? If I say we aren’t relatives, would anyone believe it?”
Was this video Yingying’s way of admitting she was related to Huo Ranyin? Ji Xun thought.
This video post had a significant number of shares and likes, making it a piece of trending content. However, neither he nor Huo Ranyin had the habit of scrolling through short videos, so they had never discovered its existence.
He thought for a moment and took a screenshot. Originally, he wanted to send it to Huo Heqia to ask if this was a relative of the Huo family, but as his finger hovered over the send button, he decided against sending it directly.
Judging from Huo Heqia’s attitude just now, he had seen Yingying before, but he probably didn’t know her. Otherwise, what he blurted out wouldn’t have been “He looks so familiar,” but rather “He looks just like a relative of mine.”
Yet, looking at this face alone, it was absolutely impossible for her to have no connection whatsoever to the Huo family and Huo Ranyin.
“…”
Do some basic investigation first, Ji Xun thought. Make further judgments after the investigation.
In this world, the easiest people to investigate are always those who leave the most footprints on the internet.
It didn’t even take an afternoon for Ji Xun to grasp Yingying’s basic background.
Yingying, real name Sun Feifei. Her parents were divorced, and she grew up with her mother. Her academic performance was poor, and she didn’t continue her education after graduating from high school. She worked odd jobs for a few years in milk tea shops, restaurants, nail salons, and clothing stores. She started running her self-media account at the age of 21 and subsequently became popular.
When he read up to this point, Ji Xun frowned.
According to this profile, Yingying’s family background was poor, meaning she shouldn’t have had enough money to support her luxury purchases and extravagant consumption. However, the reason her account was able to gain popularity in the first place was precisely because of her massive amount of luxury-spending posts.
…Was it because while working odd jobs, Yingying had met someone or a company capable of funding her expenses?
It was highly possible.
Beauty is a resource, and a scarce one at that.
In society, there are many investors, but conversely, few investment opportunities.
If Huo Ranyin hadn’t become a police officer and had gone into acting instead, just relying on that face of his, he could have become incredibly famous even as mere eye candy. If you added his current combat skills, well—it would be enough to write a dramatic showbiz novel.
Ji Xun smiled faintly, then pulled his slightly wandering thoughts back to focus on the collected data.
The most crucial piece of information in this data—
On the surface, Yingying and the Huo family did not have any relationship as relatives.
As he was looking through the data, Ji Xun suddenly noticed that Yingying’s homepage had updated with a new status.
Yingying: “The weather is nice today, going to take care of Mommy.”
People who run social networks always have the habit of sharing every aspect of their lives with their fans, thereby unconsciously leaking information.
While investigating Yingying’s background, Ji Xun had also looked into her mother’s situation. Yingying’s mother, Zhang Chunhua, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease five years ago. Three years ago, her symptoms worsened, and she moved into the Anran Nursing Home.
Anran Nursing Home was located very close to where Huo Heqia lived. Huo Heqia’s impression of Yingying might not have come from the internet; it was more likely that he had accidentally seen Yingying nearby when she came to take care of her mother, leaving him with some impression.
Ji Xun packed up his things and headed to the Anran Nursing Home.
He intended to meet Yingying face-to-face, unilaterally.
Perhaps this time, he could find a very important clue. Perhaps the nameless tombstone in the Huo family cemetery didn’t actually bury any bones. Perhaps “Huo Xiying” was still alive to this day.
Anran Nursing Home was situated inside the park. The greenery and environment were obviously excellent, and the other hardware and software facilities weren’t bad either. Just as Ji Xun entered the nursing home, a dedicated staff member came up to ask him, “Are you here to visit an elderly relative?”
“I’m just here to look around the nursing home,” Ji Xun said.
“It must be for your parents,” the staff member’s smile grew warm. “Our nursing home has complete facilities, with resident healthcare doctors, and we have an agreement with a designated hospital to prioritize bed arrangements for the elderly in our nursing home…”
Ji Xun didn’t listen very attentively. He walked and paused throughout the nursing home, letting the staff member pitch beside him, only chiming in with a sentence when the other person found it a bit hard to carry on.
About half an hour later, a group of people walked in from the entrance.
Leading them was a young woman dressed exquisitely, wearing a hat, sunglasses, and a face mask. They passed right by Ji Xun and headed all the way inside.
This woman had practically covered every single inch of skin on her face.
Ji Xun glanced in the direction these people were walking, helplessly forcing himself to secretly judge whether it was the person he was looking for based on her figure. After a private assessment, he deliberately said to the staff member, “Who are they?”
Staff member: “Children coming to visit the elderly.”
Ji Xun: “I’ll follow them to take a look too. To see how the elderly actually live here.”
This reason made sense, and the staff member gladly led Ji Xun to follow.
They walked all the way to the elderly activity hall. Ji Xun saw the young woman walk up to one of the elderly residents sitting by the window and stop. She took off her sunglasses and hat, but still wore her face mask, as she skillfully called out, “Mom.”
Unsurprisingly, this young woman wearing sunglasses was indeed Yingying, whom Ji Xun had been waiting for. The mother she spoke of was, of course, Zhang Chunhua!
Ji Xun first looked at Yingying.
Suddenly, some doubts arose within him.
The real person… the real person was a bit different from what Ji Xun had imagined.
Yingying wore a mask on her face, so he couldn’t see the appearance of her entire face. However, just looking at the exposed upper half of her face, he had already discovered a discrepancy between the real person and the videos.
When he saw her in the videos, he felt that Yingying and Huo Ranyin were unusually similar, even fantasizing about Huo Xiying’s appearance through “Yingying.” When they met in reality, they were indeed similar; whether in contour or facial features, they were still very alike in form.
Except… perhaps it was just because the makeup on Yingying’s face was drawn too thickly, causing her face to look like a refined mask. Compared to the Huo Ranyin he usually saw all the time, it made her look a bit distorted and lifeless. It also caused the face of “Huo Xiying,” which had already been sketched out in his heart, to blur once again.
Ji Xun looked at Yingying for a while, then shifted his gaze to Zhang Chunhua.
If seeing Yingying felt unexpected, then seeing Yingying’s mother, Zhang Chunhua, made Ji Xun realize he was feeling disappointed.
He knew this emotion shouldn’t have arisen, but when he saw and realized that Zhang Chunhua was indeed an ordinary woman with yellowish skin, ordinary facial features, spots appearing on her cheeks, and wrinkles crawling up her forehead, he did feel disappointed.
Was it time that had stolen her dazzling looks?
He had thought that Yingying’s mother would be “Huo Xiying”—a woman as beautiful as a fairy.
