Xia Xiaolan asked Zheng Feng to investigate any unusual behavior from the Fifth Lady recently.

As a former scout, Zheng Feng was even more professional at this than Ge Jian had been.

After just two days, he reported back to Xia Xiaolan:

“President Xia, the Du family’s Fifth Lady brought back two adolescents from the mainland to raise. They came from Xia Hongxia. One boy and one girl. The boy is your cousin Xia Junbao.”

Xia Xiaolan nodded, “I know about this, continue!”

Under the pretense of helping underprivileged children, Xia Ziyu brought Xia Junbao to Hong Kong. Xia Xiaolan hadn’t stopped it, as her grievances with Xia Ziyu shouldn’t affect Xia Junbao, who was only around ten at the time.

So when Xia Hongxia came to ask her opinion in Shangdu, Xia Xiaolan was indifferent.

Xia Xiaolan was even pleased to see it happen. If Xia Ziyu still had enough conscience to help close relatives, then her false identity wasn’t so impenetrable after all. A thousand-mile dike could be breached by ants – leaving a small loose thread wasn’t bad.

Xia Xiaolan hadn’t paid much attention after that. Later when Xia Ziyu took them from Xia Hongxia, Hongxia had sent word through others, saying she’d rejected Xia Ziyu’s further advances, wanting to stay out of their conflict and live her own simple life peacefully.

Whether running a small restaurant or returning home to a farm in poverty, she wasn’t asking for Xia Xiaolan’s help, nor would she work for her!

Xia Xiaolan was somewhat surprised.

She had told Xia Hongxia to maintain her “bottom line,” but hadn’t expected her to truly hold firm.

Refusing such a significant opportunity wasn’t easy for Xia Hongxia.

Xia Xiaolan certainly had no sisterly feelings for Xia Hongxia.

However, through her recent behavior, Xia Hongxia managed to change Xia Xiaolan’s negative impression of her—seeing such a transformation in someone who used to be lazy and greedy made Xia Xiaolan somewhat happy.

Even for a stranger, she would wish them well.

Through hard work, especially in a place like Shenzhen, Xia Hongxia would surely have an increasingly better life.

Since Xia Hongxia didn’t want to get involved and showed proper integrity, Xia Xiaolan wouldn’t force her to be a spy in Xia Ziyu’s household.

It wasn’t necessary anyway, as she had already guessed why Xia Ziyu had investigated Comrade Fen back then.

Of course, since Xia Hongxia had maintained her “bottom line,” if she faced any difficulties in the future that Xia Xiaolan could easily help with, she wouldn’t be stingy.

That was all for the future. Now her “great battle” with Xia Ziyu was about to unfold, and she definitely wouldn’t drag Xia Hongxia into it—

Xia Xiaolan knew Xia Ziyu had taken two adolescents from Xia Hongxia to Hong Kong, but hadn’t paid much attention to it.

However, Zheng Feng specifically bringing this up meant he found something unusual, so Xia Xiaolan listened carefully.

“…The Fifth Lady brought them to Hong Kong, sent them to school, and took good care of them. But yesterday, she sent the girl back to Shenzhen, apparently deciding not to raise her anymore. Strangely, the Fifth Lady personally made the trip to Shenzhen for this matter.”

This was what Zheng Feng found abnormal.

How could the Du family’s Fifth Lady have so much free time?

Possibly to avoid exposing her true identity as “Xia Ziyu,” the Fifth Lady had been very low-key about bringing Xia Junbao to Hong Kong, not daring to publicly claim she was doing charity.

Now that she didn’t want to raise the other child anymore, shouldn’t she have sent her away quietly? Why personally escort her back to Shenzhen?

Many wealthy ladies in Hong Kong did charity work, donating to churches today, and supporting orphans tomorrow, all adding glory to their names.

If you don’t publicize the support but get caught “abandoning” them, that would be unfortunate!

See, it wasn’t just her imagination.

Zheng Feng also found it unusual. Xia Xiaolan asked seriously:

“Did you find out anything else?”

“President Xia, I checked with the school. The girl sent back to Shenzhen was registered as born in 1973, named Xiaoyan, possibly taking the surname Xia after being adopted by the Fifth Lady. The school said her foundation was very poor – she’s already 14 but could only keep up with lower primary school courses, probably having little prior education. That Xia Junbao was somewhat better, sent to middle school upon arriving in Hong Kong… Both had very strong rural accents, likely from the same place!”

They were probably both brought from Yunan Province by Xia Hongxia.

But Zheng Feng had more to say.

By “same place,” he meant their accents were particularly similar, suggesting Xia Junbao and Xia Xiaoyan’s hometowns were close.

Even within the Yunan dialect, different counties and cities had variations – as the saying goes, accents change every ten miles!

Xiaoyan!

Xia Xiaoyan?

There was no such person in the Xia family.

Where had Xia Hongxia found this person?

When Xia Xiaolan had suspicions, she would dig until she found answers. It wouldn’t be hard to investigate Xia Xiaoyan’s background – asking Xia Hongxia would surely yield results.

Instead of returning to Shenzhen, Xia Xiaolan called the building materials store at the small commodities market from Hong Kong. After half an hour, Xia Hongxia called back, asking gruffly what Xia Xiaolan wanted.

Xia Xiaolan was asking about that Xiaoyan.

Xia Hongxia was quite proud:

“That’s the little wife I brought back from Shangdu for Xia Junbao, how do you know about her?”

Though Zheng Feng couldn’t get Xiaoyan’s photo, Xia Hongxia told an embellished version of how she met Xiaoyan. Upon hearing Xiaoyan’s actions, Xia Xiaolan immediately thought of someone.

After calling back to Qijing Village and learning that the girl had disappeared last winter after Xia Xiaolan’s visit home, she was completely certain.

Xia Xiaoyan was Tian Xiaoyan!

“Grandfather Chen, you should have told me earlier…”

“We didn’t want you to worry unnecessarily. It was that girl’s own choice to leave, what does it have to do with you and your mother? The village didn’t want the Tian family bothering you!”

Chen Wangda had his reasons.

When Tian Xiaoyan disappeared, Chen Wangda had the villagers search for a long time and even reported it to the police station.

Later, Qijing Village was selected as a pilot site for the ‘Eagle Taking Flight’ program. Chen Wangda led the village in welcoming college student volunteers while actively exploring paths to prosperity for Qijing Village. How could he still think about Tian Xiaoyan?

Xia Xiaolan sighed:

“I might know where Tian Xiaoyan is. If we find her, I’ll have someone send her back to the village.”

This Tian Xiaoyan was truly persistent!

A rural girl with barely any education had made her way from Qijing Village to Shenzhen, and then to Hong Kong, skillfully seizing every opportunity that came her way.

Tian Xiaoyan had even changed her surname to Xia.

Fortunately, she hadn’t changed it to Liu, or it would have disgusted Xia Xiaolan even more.

Tian Xiaoyan had become obsessed, and normal people couldn’t fully understand what she was thinking or planning to do.

What concerned Xia Xiaolan was that Xia Ziyu must have known about Tian Xiaoyan’s connection to her and her mother—adopting Tian Xiaoyan surely had such reasons, as Xia Ziyu wasn’t the type to show random kindness.

As Xia Hongxia said, bringing back a little wife for Xia Junbao wasn’t something Xia Ziyu would do.

While the reason for adoption was understandable, why “abandon” Tian Xiaoyan now?

Was it because Tian Xiaoyan was too stupid and she didn’t want to raise her anymore, or…

“Zheng Feng, find a way to get Tian Xiaoyan’s photo, then fax it back to Shenzhen. We must find her as quickly as possible!”