“Sister Yu…”

Grandmother Yu turned the paper over repeatedly, confirming it only contained four characters, before tucking it into her pocket and wiping her tears with her sleeve:

“I’m fine, just got something in my eye.”

She gently shook her head, signaling Liu Fen not to mention the note. If a family letter required such elaborate measures to reach her hands, others absolutely must not know about it.

The old saying goes that walls have ears, and Grandmother Yu found this quite reasonable.

This was foreign territory after all.

Returning to China would bring peace of mind.

But whose peace of mind?

Zhong Yi’s!

Grandmother Yu would never mistake it – this was her son Xu Zhong Yi’s handwriting.

After 20 years, anyone’s handwriting would naturally change, but these changes were acceptable to Grandmother Yu. As long as the foundation remained unchanged, she could recognize it – when Xu Zhong Yi first learned to write, her husband had guided his hand, and the father and son’s handwriting shared the same lineage.

Zhong Yi telling her to return to China couldn’t possibly mean her harm.

Zhong Yi was still alive.

This was fact, not speculation – this note proved everything!

Grandmother Yu carefully composed herself, the large bathroom mirror reflecting her image – her eyes were red, but her usually stern mouth was turned upward.

“Fen, don’t act unusual, pretend nothing happened.”

Liu Fen nodded firmly:

“I can manage that.”

She couldn’t have done so before, but Liu Fen had improved – if one couldn’t conceal their thoughts at all, they couldn’t succeed in business either.

The two lingered in the bathroom for quite a while before emerging.

Xia Xiao Lan found their behavior strange but didn’t think too much of it, assuming Liu Fen and Grandmother Yu were just reluctant to leave her.

“Don’t worry about me, I can take care of myself. Besides, Connie will look after me during my internship in New York.”

Liu Fen held back her words.

It wasn’t until Xia Xiao Lan was seeing them off at boarding that Grandmother Yu suddenly, uncharacteristically, hugged her and whispered in her ear: “Zhong Yi has contacted me. I saw the note he had someone deliver – he wants me to return to China. He’s alive! Zhong Yi is being so cautious, I can’t let him worry. I must follow his instructions and wait for him in China… Xiao Lan, stop investigating. I have a feeling Zhong Yi will appear to us on his own!”

That was a lot of information from Grandmother Yu.

A note?

Earlier when that Black child bumped into her mother, she suddenly needed to use the bathroom.

Was the message passed in that instant?

If Xu Zhong Yi could send messages, why hadn’t he contacted Grandmother Yu earlier? Even just a simple message like this to let her know he was alive would have sufficed – while Xia Xiao Lan was lost in thought, Grandmother Yu had already patted her back and naturally separated from her.

“The flight to Tokyo, Japan will be…”

Time to board!

Xia Xiao Lan waved to Liu Fen and the others. Liu Fen kept looking back:

“Go home now, we’ll call you when we get home.”

By home, she meant Peng Cheng.

Xia Xiao Lan nodded, remaining in place until the three figures disappeared.

“Jim is still investigating the antiques Xu Zhong Yi took. By sending this message to Grandmother Yu, letting her know he’s alive, is he also telling me to stop investigating?”

Why not?

Would it disrupt Xu Zhong Yi’s original plans?

Xia Xiao Lan had initially thought Xu Zhong Yi was foolish, but based on what she now knew, he might have been well-protected by Grandmother Yu and her husband, lacking independent living experience when he went abroad, but he wasn’t stupid.

A fool couldn’t have survived under those circumstances. He wasn’t killed by the gang, even though they searched for him for a long time. He had patiently hidden in Ben Field’s basement for half a year waiting for things to calm down before escaping – such patience.

When severely injured, he didn’t collapse just anywhere, but specifically in the Fields’ back alley, as if certain Field would save him.

Such a person, suddenly facing great changes, not contacting Grandmother Yu for years – perhaps he truly couldn’t make contact.

The more Xia Xiao Lan thought about it, the more chilling it became. Xu Zhong Yi must have been caught in some serious trouble, far beyond a simple gang robbery. This trip to San Francisco to identify remains and search for him had only made the waters murkier… If they hadn’t gone looking and hadn’t caused such a commotion, would Xu Zhong Yi have planned to let Grandmother Yu know he was alive?

Thinking about it this way, he seemed like quite a jerk.

Didn’t he consider how his elderly mother would worry?

There must have been thousands of ways – if he wanted to meet, he could have found some way to contact her secretly. Grandmother Yu wasn’t some ignorant old lady who couldn’t handle pressure. Even now, learning that Xu Zhong Yi was alive, she had remained quite composed!

Xia Xiao Lan mentally cursed Xu Zhong Yi a few times.

After all, she was closer to Grandmother Yu and had no emotional ties to Xu Zhong Yi, so she felt no pressure cursing him.

Leaving the airport, Xia Xiao Lan felt somewhat nervous, constantly wanting to check the homeless people by the roadside.

She had to resist – not every homeless person could be someone’s spy. If they were, all the more reason not to show any unusual behavior.

Xia Xiao Lan needed to go look at the apartment she’d found. She was reporting to GMP’s New York office tomorrow and would be living in New York for the next two months – she couldn’t keep staying at Wen Man Ni’s place.

The couple was seriously working on repairing their marriage – it wouldn’t be appropriate for an adult like her to impose on their home.

However, Wen Man Ni had invited her to stay tonight, and Xia Xiao Lan couldn’t refuse.

Wen Man Ni had even left work early today:

“Klaus is on a business trip… don’t look at me like that, it’s a real business trip. We don’t need to wait for him for dinner. I wanted to see your mother and the others off today, but the law firm was just too busy!”

Xia Xiao Lan completely understood. Wen Man Ni had made several trips to San Francisco for Grandmother Yu’s case, insisting it was pro bono legal aid with no fees. Not only had she earned nothing, but she must have fallen behind on other work. Now back in New York, she was certainly busy.

“Connie, I completely understand. I’ve already asked a friend to help rent an apartment. After I report to GMP tomorrow, I’ll move right in.”

Wen Man Ni nodded, “New York is different from the suburbs. If you don’t want to be late on your first day, leave early – traffic jams aren’t just my daily experience.”

As for workplace experience?

Wen Man Ni didn’t mention it.

Many things were useless when explained by others – interns had to experience them to understand. Wen Man Ni believed someone as clever as Xia Xiao Lan would learn quickly.

“Don’t be too nervous!”

Xia Xiao Lan obediently nodded, though she wasn’t nervous at all. She had already experienced this transition from school to the workplace in her previous life. Rather than nervous, she was quite excited.

GMP was ranked within the top ten firms worldwide – this was why one should attend a good university in this life. She wasn’t hoping for guaranteed job placement after graduation, but rather wanted this kind of platform, from Anqing to Beijing, from Hua Qing to Cornell.

From being forced to switch to sales after graduation in her previous life, to now being able to intern at a top firm just two years into university, President Xia was very satisfied with this improvement – staying at GMP wasn’t important, but she would definitely learn valuable things there, and once learned, no one could take that knowledge away!