Or, there was another possibility.
Ji Xun thought to himself as he watched Zhang Chunhua from afar.
For instance, perhaps Zhang Chunhua was not Yingying’s biological mother, but merely her adoptive mother. However, judging from the data collected earlier, there was no clear indication pointing to them “not being biologically related”…
“Enough!”
A sudden, angry scolding rang out from ahead.
Ji Xun looked over immediately and caught a glimpse of Yingying’s half-twisted face.
At this moment, Yingying seemed almost ignited by rage. This raging fire did not just consume Yingying herself; it also wanted to swallow Zhang Chunhua like a monster!
Ji Xun felt surprised.
While thinking, he had not relaxed his observation of the mother and daughter. Before Yingying flew into a rage, he hadn’t noticed Zhang Chunhua saying anything that would provoke such anger either. Judging by her lip movements, Zhang Chunhua was merely asking Yingying to bring her a certain item…
This was a public place after all. After that initial out-of-control burst of anger, Yingying quickly scanned her surroundings and managed to force her expression back under control.
She looked very alert to the gazes of others.
Lowering her voice, she spoke to her mother in a fierce tone: “I already told you, there isn’t one, there isn’t one, there isn’t one! You’re old and muddled, there is no such thing at all. How many times do I have to tell you before it sinks in!”
After saying this, Yingying looked like she didn’t want to stay a moment longer. She snatched up her hat and sunglasses from the table and, leading the group of people who had come with her, walked out in a huff.
As the group passed beside Ji Xun, he caught Yingying’s eye across the space between them.
Those narrow, slanting phoenix eyes, which were incredibly similar to Huo Ranyin’s, showed neither the careless, dashing indifference of Huo Ranyin when he was nonchalant, nor his water-like tenderness when he was deeply affectionate, on Yingying’s face at this moment.
Those eyes were somewhat distorted by anger.
But this distortion was controlled by its owner the moment Yingying realized Ji Xun was looking at her.
Her eyes smoothed out, calmed down, and regained their elegant shape. She gave Ji Xun a sidelong glance with the corner of her eye, then put on her sunglasses and walked forward with a click-clack of her high heels. Each crisp sound felt as though a queen’s scepter was striking the ground.
Yingying left, and Ji Xun shifted his gaze back to Zhang Chunhua.
He walked over to Zhang Chunhua’s table.
As he drew closer, some small details that he hadn’t noticed just now presented themselves before his eyes.
He noticed a small basket sitting on Zhang Chunhua’s lap. Inside the basket were various colors of yarn and a few short knitting needles, along with some beautifully knitted dolls. Not only were their hair and facial features clearly distinguishable, but even their clothes and accessories were matched with one another. The style was just a bit singular.
Every single yarn doll inside was a girl, and they were always dressed up like a young lady from a wealthy family, just like Barbie dolls forever wearing princess dresses.
While Ji Xun was observing Zhang Chunhua, the woman who was looking down and knitting dolls suddenly raised her face.
She looked at Ji Xun expressionlessly: “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
Before Ji Xun could speak, the staff member standing beside him skillfully said: “He is Yingying’s friend, here as a guest.”
The frost on Zhang Chunhua’s face melted away. She hurriedly set the basket on her lap aside, stood up, and said: “So you’re here to see Yingying. Please sit down, both of you. I’ll pour some tea and get some pastries for you.”
As she spoke, she walked straight toward the water dispenser in the hall.
Ji Xun: “…”
He couldn’t help but glance at the person next to him, thinking to himself that this assist was pretty good, wasn’t it?
The staff member pulled Ji Xun into a seat and whispered to him: “Auntie Zhang’s illness is quite severe, and she usually doesn’t like to pay attention to people. But through our interactions with her, we found that as long as Yingying is mentioned, she becomes warm and enthusiastic. Don’t be fooled by how this mother and daughter can’t stay together for long without arguing; their bond is actually very deep.”
Zhang Chunhua returned, holding a tray with a tea set and pastries. They were clearly just ordinary pastries placed on the tables by the nursing home for the elderly to eat freely, but with a bit of arranging by Zhang Chunhua, she made them look just as exquisite as the dolls she was knitting.
Before getting sick, this auntie must have been a person who was quite particular about her quality of life, Ji Xun thought to himself, and then he thought of Yingying again. Therefore, the daughter also had the same fastidiousness.
After placing the things on the table, Zhang Chunhua did not sit down. Instead, she just stood by the table waiting. It was only after the staff member said, “Auntie, you sit down too,” that she sat down as if receiving a command.
“I’m sorry, you two, Yingying isn’t here today…”
“It doesn’t matter.” Ji Xun entered character naturally, “We’ll wait for her here. By the way, where did Yingying go?”
“Today is Wednesday. Yingying rides horses in the morning and goes to a tea party in the afternoon,” Zhang Chunhua said without a second thought.
As the conversation went deeper, Ji Xun quickly discovered that in Zhang Chunhua’s mind, Yingying was an undisputed wealthy young lady. She had a schedule for every single day from Monday to Sunday, and these arrangements ranged from horseback riding to playing the piano, and from socializing to balls, fully highlighting the proper daily routine of a blended Chinese-Western wealthy heiress living in a castle with eight maids following her every time she stepped out.
Ji Xun felt that Yingying did live exquisitely in reality, but Yingying’s current fastidiousness was not the same as the fastidiousness in Zhang Chunhua’s mind.
Illness sometimes truly made people not know whether to laugh or cry.
He didn’t laugh, but the staff member couldn’t hold it in and chuckled.
After laughing, the staff member looked up only to find that Zhang Chunhua had stopped talking at some point. Her face had fallen again, and her eyes were staring straight at her.
A panic rose in her heart: “Auntie Zhang…”
“Auntie Zhang,” Ji Xun took over the conversation, “I heard you and Yingying arguing outside earlier. What were you arguing about?”
“We didn’t argue.” Zhang Chunhua’s attention was instantly drawn back to Ji Xun, who had mentioned Yingying, “We don’t argue.”
“But Yingying was very angry,” Ji Xun said.
“Yingying was angry,” Zhang Chunhua murmured, “because that thing is gone.”
“What thing?”
“That thing… that thing is very important.” Zhang Chunhua shook her head, “It’s gone, Yingying will blame me. She is furious. That thing needs to be found. That thing was stolen by someone, stolen by a thief…”
A thing.
What on earth was this thing?
In the argument just now, Yingying had lost her temper because Zhang Chunhua mentioned this thing, saying there was no such thing at all. Yet Zhang Chunhua said it was precisely because the thing was lost that Yingying lost her temper.
Who was telling the truth?
Ji Xun tried a few more roundabout ways of questioning, but Zhang Chunhua never said what the “thing” actually was, only constantly muttering to herself that it was “lost” and needed to be “found back.”
Seeing that he really couldn’t get anything more out of her, Ji Xun could only stand up.
As he was leaving, he looked back at Zhang Chunhua one last time.
Because of their departure, Zhang Chunhua lowered her head again and resumed knitting her dolls. The sky outside the window had darkened, and the lights were turned on. The tiles and vessels began to glint collectively, reflecting an exquisite yet cold brightness.
After coming out of the nursing home, Ji Xun casually found a hotel nearby to check in.
He didn’t have much of an appetite and didn’t really want to eat dinner, so he simply went to the bathroom to take a shower. Emerging afterward, he sat at the desk draped in a bath towel, reopened Yingying’s personal homepage, and browsed through her personal photos, videos, and the fan comments underneath them.
Before seeing the real person, looking at these things didn’t cause too many associations.
After seeing the real person, looking at them again actually gave rise to a bizarre feeling.
This was not Yingying’s fault.
It was just that his initial expectations had been too high. He had already subconsciously equated Yingying to a continuation of “Huo Xiying,” expecting to see “Huo Xiying” in Yingying, or to obtain enough inspiration to directly sketch out “Huo Xiying”… Unfortunately, after interacting, it felt a bit strange. For now, there were still quite a few suspicious points.
Yingying… Yingying should indeed possess a silhouette that belonged to Huo Xiying.
But Huo Xiying might not look exactly like Yingying. Huo Xiying’s appearance should be…
Ji Xun’s mind drifted slightly.
By the time he pulled his focus back again, he stopped the pen in his hand and looked at the drawing that had appeared on the paper.
He had drawn the person from his imagination onto the paper.
He seemed to have drawn a portrait of Huo Ranyin, but the person in the drawing was softer and more elegant than Huo Ranyin, exclusively possessing the charm of that old era which had already passed away.
Too presumptuous, and too lacking in imagination.
If it was just this, why did he run all the way from Ning City to Fu Province to investigate these things? Wouldn’t it be better to just stay at home and draw sketches of Huo Ranyin?
Just as Ji Xun was about to tear up the drawing, his phone suddenly rang. He glanced at it; it was a video call from Huo Ranyin.
Ji Xun slid his finger across the screen to answer it, and saw the door of his own home. Huo Ranyin was entering the house.
“You’re home?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s early today. Have you guys made any progress over there?”
“Barely any. What about you?” Huo Ranyin asked.
“As for me…” Ji Xun was just thinking about where to begin. Since he happened to be holding the drawing he had just finished, he held it up to let Huo Ranyin see.
Huo Ranyin glanced at the screen while changing his shoes, his expression turning slightly peculiar.
“Are you drawing me?”
“Not exactly.”
“A gender-bent version of me?”
“In a way,” Ji Xun admitted.
“I couldn’t tell that you actually liked this sort of thing.”
Huo Ranyin was no longer looking at the camera. He was holding the phone, and Ji Xun could only see Huo Ranyin’s coat being casually taken off and tossed onto the sofa through the shaking of the camera lens. Following that was flesh and blood throwing itself onto the sofa—Huo Ranyin was probably tired, burying himself into the couch.
“What do you mean I like this sort of thing? You make it sound like I’m not a proper person,” Ji Xun protested, “This is a clue!”
“Oh—”
The phone was propped up on the coffee table, the lens pointing right at Huo Ranyin on the sofa. It was just a bit slanted, making Huo Ranyin’s already long legs look even more slender.
Leaning against the sofa, Huo Ranyin propped up his forehead with a bent elbow. After letting out a meaningful sound, he wore a half-smile.
“Just a clue? It seems I misunderstood. You don’t like black stockings?”
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, while speaking, Huo Ranyin crossed his legs. The flesh of his legs tightened against the fabric of his trousers, folding into a flirtatious arc.
Ji Xun inevitably drifted into some imaginations that belonged to the night.
Huo Ranyin uncrossed his legs again, casually undoing two buttons. Leaning his body forward slightly, he said to Ji Xun:
“I prefer fishnets.”
…
The sky grew darker and darker.
In the nursing home, lights were turned on one by one, and turned off one by one. The clock on the wall moved all the way from the number 6 to 12.
All the elderly residents had returned to their own rooms and were lying in their beds, falling asleep.
Only the window of one room quietly opened.
The room was on the first floor, and outside the window was a lawn. This person climbed through the window, stepped onto the lawn, and walked all the way to the back door of the nursing home.
The door here was unlocked.
This person pushed open the door and stepped onto the road, finally illuminated by the streetlamp on the roadside.
Pursersing her lips, she tightly held the basket in her hand. Inside the basket were exquisite dolls stacked one on top of another.
She was Zhang Chunhua!
