Chapter 54: Surfacing

That afternoon, An Mingshan and I stayed behind, while the other three bought their return tickets and left shortly after.

I changed my mind about staying because I needed to make sure whether there was any missing information on that piece of paper. Who were An Mingshan's biological parents, and what was the story behind those photographs? All these questions awaited my investigation.

She and I arrived at my brother's place and found that it had already been tidied up. My brother and Song Linlin had gone to Sanya for their honeymoon and wouldn't be back for a month, leaving only my parents here.

The moment my parents saw us return, their first thought was of An Mingshan! They pulled her onto the sofa and showered her with questions, mostly asking whether I treated her well and if I bullied her. Hearing this, I thought to myself: how could I possibly bully her? It was clearly the other way around!

I said, "Stop! Who among us is actually your biological child? Why are you treating her better than your own son?"

My mother replied, "Look at how sensible An'an is, nothing like you!" I was left speechless. At first, they had tried every which way to chase her away, but now they treated her as affectionately as their own daughter. Suddenly remembering the unfinished investigation, I took those items out of my suitcase and prepared to head out.

Seeing me about to leave, An Mingshan asked, "Where are you going?"

I said, "To look into your affairs."

An Mingshan pulled five hundred yuan from her pocket and said, "Take this. You can't get anywhere without money nowadays." I accepted the money and tucked it away.

My mother said, "How can you give him money? Aren't you afraid he'll fool around outside?"

My father chimed in, "Exactly. You should take a page out of your aunt's book. I never have more than ten yuan in my pocket a day."

My mother glanced at my father and said, "Hmph..."

My father hastily added, "I don't do anything all day anyway, a few yuan on me is quite enough."

An Mingshan said, "Uh... it's fine, go on and come back soon."

My father remarked, "Look at how good Miss An is to Shucheng, even giving him money of her own accord."

An Mingshan said, "Alright, alright, hurry up and go! Uncle and Auntie, don't mind him, let's keep talking!"

Finally, I set out to investigate. I practically scoured the entire Yaodu District all afternoon, asking around everywhere, but still turned up no leads.

Evening fell.

As I watched the sky gradually darken, realizing there was little hope left, I prepared to head back. However, when I reached the entrance of a small grocery store, someone pulled me inside. Looking around, the shop was stocked with quite a variety of goods and was run by a couple. Given the late hour, there were only a man and a woman present, both around fifty years old. Since they didn't look like customers, that was the conclusion I naturally drew.

I looked at them and asked, "What do you want?"

The woman asked, "Can you bring her here for us to see?"

I replied, "Why should I bring her here for you to see?"

The woman said, "What about the photographs, at least?"

I said, "Didn't I already show them to you?"

The man asked, "Can't you let us look at them again?"

I thought for a moment. Showing them photographs couldn't hurt, so I said, "Fine." With that, I took the photographs out of my bag and handed them to them.

They examined the photos, and the woman asked, "Are there any other items?"

I produced the pictures of the floral quilt, An Mingshan's recent photo, and the one from when she was eight years old, saying, "That's all, nothing more." I handed the photographs over. They returned the original photos to me and continued studying the new ones.

The woman whispered to the man, "Look, does she look like our child?"

The man said, "How is that possible? No way."

The woman retorted, "Why wouldn't it be possible?"

The man argued, "Do you expect these photographs to prove she's our child?"

Unexpectedly, the woman plucked a strand of her hair, wrapped it in a piece of paper, wrote down their address and phone number, and handed it to me. "I know that anything I say now is useless, so I want to ask you a favor. Please help me and her test for that thing people call D... whatever it is."

I said, "It's DNA. Very well, I'll help you. Here is my business card." With that, I handed her a card my master had printed for me, took the paper and the photographs, hailed a cab, and left.

Reader's Corner.

Q: Dear author, for things you have never attempted before, are you willing to try?
A: Yes. Because by trying, you might not necessarily gain an unexpected harvest, but by not trying, you certainly never will.