Qiming Chapter 27

Chapter 27

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How did Cao Yan determine that Yuan Man was her daughter?

"Ah? I haven't really asked much about that..." The middle-aged man, whose hair had long since thinned, frowned, "A blood connection leading to a tacit understanding?"

"No," Gu Yunfeng shook his head, resting his hand on his head. "If you hadn't seen your son for over ten years, no matter how much he looked like you, you wouldn't just recognise him that easily."

"That's true. When Cao Yan last saw Yuan Man before going to prison, she was just a baby."

Moreover, Yuan Man hadn't inherited Cao Yan's looks or personality. If you placed their photos side by side, you wouldn't immediately think they were mother and daughter.

In the criminal investigation team's interrogation room.

This was Liu Yan's second interrogation of the day.

When he saw Gu Yunfeng walk in, he quickly stepped back a few paces, feeling a burning sensation on his face. He seemed to recall being punched in the face and knocked out earlier that morning.

"Sit down, why do you look like you've seen a ghost?" Gu Yunfeng walked straight over and sat in the chair opposite Liu Yan, holding his computer in one hand and grabbing a grey jacket, which he smoothly rested on the backrest of the chair.

"You're Liu Yan, right?"

"Yes." He nodded fearfully. The next second, he leaned forward and asked expectantly, "Officer, have you caught the killer?"

"The killer?"

"The one who killed Yan Jie and Old Guan..."

"Not yet. You're that scared, ah?" Gu Yunfeng raised his eyebrows, half amused, half exasperated. "As long as you cooperate, we'll catch the killer before you get out. You'll be fine."

"A colleague spoke to you this afternoon. I'm here to ask a few more questions." He opened his computer and, upon seeing Liu Yan's stiff arms trembling under the table, pushed a glass of water towards him. "Why are you so nervous? Have some water."

"It's quite late now, let's finish this quickly so you can rest early."

"Yes, yes." Liu Yan carefully took the cup, holding it without daring to move.

"You, Cao Yan and Guan Jianhua together planned the extortion of Yuan Man, correct?"

"Yes... No, no. Yan Jie was the mastermind, I was an accomplice, an accomplice." He hurriedly defended himself, "It was Yan Jie who suggested extorting the celebrity."

"Do you know the relationship between Yuan Man and Cao Yan?"

"Of course, she's her daughter. Yan Jie told us about it."

"Then... how did Cao Yan determine that Yuan Man was her daughter?" He rested his arm on the table, supporting his head with his hand, coughed lightly, and stared at the suspect across from him.

"How did she determine that?" Liu Yan was asked this question for the first time and scratched his head in confusion. "Blood relation, telepathy, maybe?"

Gu Yunfeng: "......"

"You know, like livestock, they can tell their offspring by smell."

This analogy was oddly appropriate.

"Did I say something wrong?" Liu Yan instinctively touched his scarred face and lowered his eyes in fear.

"When did she first suspect that Yuan Man was her daughter?" Gu Yunfeng had to rephrase the question.

"Let me think... It seemed to be one day when she passed by a mall in the Shangnan District." He slapped his head, hitting his wound and yelping in pain. "It was near the Yun Yao subway station, a high-end mall. There was an advertisement display screen playing, and it just happened to show some girl group..."

"AIR."

"Yes yes yes, that's the name." He nodded. "Yan Jie just stood there, staring at the screen for a long time. She then asked us if the girl on the screen looked like her in any way."

"And then?"

"Since then, Yan Jie started paying a lot of attention to that girl."

"So when did she confirm that Yuan Man was her daughter? She was just suspicious at that point, right?"

"She paid attention for a while, maybe half a month or a bit over a week, I can't remember exactly. Anyway, she gradually confirmed it."

Listening to Liu Yan's vague answers, Gu Yunfeng frowned, "Did anything particular happen during that time?"

"Anything particular?"

"Did she meet anyone, visit any places, watch any movies, or listen to any songs?" He leaned back in his chair, the coat behind him wrinkling slightly, his gaze intense.

"Well, none of us do any of this literary stuff you're talking about," Liu Yan, who loved gambling and accumulated massive debts, explained. "Cao Yan and the others would just play cards and mahjong. After being in prison for so long, our ways of entertainment are quite different from the outside world."

"But... I remember she visited many orphanages during that time." His eyes suddenly lit up. "One day, after visiting an orphanage, she said she was certain that was her daughter."

"Do you remember the name of that orphanage?"

He shook his head.

"Xingyu Orphanage?" Gu Yunfeng tapped his fingers on the table three times, testing the waters.

"Aiya, I really don't know, she never told us those details," Liu Yan quickly explained. "We were just partners in making money, not in life. When we met, it was all about discussing how to scam people, not about personal lives."

He was quite self-aware.

Gu Yunfeng glanced at him. For once, Liu Yan's usually shifty eyes were sincere, his face expressing a genuine 'I don't know, we were just partners in crime.'

"Xiao Xiongdi, that's all I know, can we finish now?" Seeing Gu Yunfeng's sudden silence, Liu Yan hurriedly reminded him, "I got hurt during the day and need rest, rest ah." (Angel: Xiao Xiongdi, 小兄弟, is a term for little brother. For this novel, I am going to be leaving terms of address in their pinyin form, and giving a definition the first time they appear.)

"You know how I got these injuries, it hurts, really hurts."

Gu Yunfeng had lost count of how many times Liu Yan had complained about his pain tonight. He raised his wrist to check his watch, stood up, took the grey coat from the back of the chair, and calmly put it on.

Last night's torrential rain had cooled down the entire summer. He zipped up the coat, ignoring Liu Yan's whining, and leaned forward on the table, looking directly at him. "You just said that Cao Yan first suspected Yuan Man was her daughter after seeing an AIR advertisement?"

Liu Yan's eyes flickered as he recalled his earlier statement.

"What did she ask you?"

"She asked if Yuan Man looked like her..." Liu Yan was puzzled by Gu Yunfeng's focus on this matter until he saw him pull out two printed photos from a file. One was of Yuan Man, the other of a young Cao Yan.

"So tell me, do they look alike?"

In the photo, Yuan Man was energetic, holding a guitar, with clear, bright eyes and a round, innocent face. The young Cao Yan had captivating almond-shaped eyes, high cheekbones, and thin lips, her expressions exuding charm.

"No." Their facial features were different, not to mention their demeanours.

"So how did she quickly realise this could be her daughter?" Gu Yunfeng asked him.

"This... why...?"

"Because Yuan Man looks a lot like her father." As he said this, he suddenly realised that some deeper secrets were being uncovered.

Shen Shisheng, Cao Yan's husband at the time, was a main culprit in the abduction of young girls.

Gu Yunfeng brought up news footage of Shen Shisheng's execution on his computer. As the only person sentenced to death in the abduction case, the system had many images of him before his execution.

"Strange, she doesn't look like Shen Shisheng either." Holding the computer in one hand, he couldn't reconcile the facial features of the three in his mind.

"Look, both Cao Yan and Shen Shisheng have single eyelids, but Yuan Man has big eyes with double eyelids. Genetic mutation? Or did she get some Western-style double eyelid surgery?"

"What do you mean...?" Liu Yan sat there, bewildered.

"Is Shen Shisheng really Yuan Man's father?" Gu Yunfeng slowed down, enunciating each word.

This question didn't seem to surprise Liu Yan. He shook his head lightly, without a frown. "How would I know... Yan Jie played quite openly in our circle back then. She always said she was single."

Gu Yunfeng sat back down, feeling a sudden bone-deep chill despite the peak of summer. The cold seeped into his bones, invading his blood, and reaching the nerve endings in his fingers and scalp.

Every cell in his body seemed to scream with doubt:

Could Yuan Man, who had been an orphan for so many years, still have a biological father?

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The author has something to say:

After midnight, I will officially become a verified author, and there will be a ten-thousand-word update, very nervous QAQ

It's my first time writing a criminal investigation theme, the main plot will include a bit of technological elements. I previously checked a lot of information, but there may also be some unprofessional places, everyone please point it out at any time~

There are still many shortcomings in the article >////< such as fights and so on... I will try to revise and improve.

Thank you all for your support, red packets will be distributed tomorrow~

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 5, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 18, 2024 by Angel