Chapter Two

Qingcheng Second Hospital, Room 1414.

A man's sudden wail poured through the half-open door, echoing through nearly the entire corridor.

A patient's family member who was asking something at the nurses' station jumped in fright and turned around, searching for the source of the crying.

The nurse at the station glanced up at the room diagonally across the hall. Her lips twitched, but she remained motionless in her chair.

Soon, another young nurse came out and quietly asked her colleague, "What's going on?"

The seated nurse jerked her chin toward the room across the hall. "Room 1414."

"Oh." The young nurse nodded in understanding, then walked over to the door of Room 1414, intending to close it for them.

But before she could shut it, the middle-aged man who was wailing inside suddenly turned and shouted at her, "Don't close the door! My mom won't be able to breathe!"

The young nurse stopped and let go of the door.

His mother, who supposedly wouldn't be able to breathe, was wearing an oxygen mask. But he was the patient's son, after all. Sometimes, not being able to breathe meant that your son thought a closed door would keep you from breathing.

The young nurse had grown used to scenes like this. More accurately, every nurse who had worked the past month's shifts had gotten used to them.

Ever since the patient in Room 1414 had been admitted, her son had come to visit every other day. Each time, he cried for at least an hour. He was loud, and he especially hated closing the door while he cried, so the families of the other patients had complained repeatedly.

It wasn't that they hadn't tried to point out that he was disturbing the other patients. But the old woman in the bed had overheard them, pulled out her oxygen tube, and chased the nurses down half the corridor while cursing at them.

A resident who had witnessed the scene that day said that, given the old woman's condition, walking that far was already a "medical miracle." It had to be the power of the supernatural.

In short, they couldn't afford to offend her.

Besides, the old woman was seriously ill and didn't have many days left, so they stopped pressing the issue.

No matter how outrageous the family in Room 1414 seemed to others, it did nothing to lessen Dong Zhenghao's grief.

The mother and son held hands tightly. Tears welled in the old woman's eyes as she listened to her son wail and call her "Mom."

In a corner of the room, Dong Zhenghao's wife, Jiang Li, discreetly rolled her eyes. Beside her, a boy in his early teens lowered his head and fiddled with his phone. Next to him sat a girl a little older, around seventeen or eighteen. She gazed out the window as if lost in thought.

The old woman was named Wang Guixiang. It wasn't a pleasant name, and the first half of her life had been hard, too. She'd lost her father as a child and her husband when she was young, then raised her son alone. She'd thought that was all life had in store for her, but who could have guessed that her son would make it big?

Her son had been wealthy for nearly twenty years and was no small name in Qingcheng. She'd spent those same twenty years as the mother of a rich man, yet not a bit of her character or refinement had been shaped by her life of wealth.

In her daughter-in-law Jiang Li's eyes, Wang Guixiang was petty, mean, and ill-mannered, and she was especially biased in favor of boys.

Jiang Li had always favored her son, too, but who could have guessed that the old woman's preference for boys would extend to her?

In that family, everyone except Dong Zhenghao and their son, Dong Qi, was a freeloader in Wang Guixiang's eyes. She ordered Jiang Li and their daughter, Dong Yue, around at every turn and never showed Jiang Li any respect in front of others. She'd embarrassed her in front of Dong Zhenghao's friends several times.

But what could Jiang Li do? Dong Zhenghao was blind to his mother's faults and thought everything she did was right.

Jiang Li had put up with her for so long. At last, the day she'd been waiting for had come.

Looking at the mother and son, not laughing aloud was the best proof of her good breeding.

She had no interest in watching their touching display of affection. She was busy wondering whether they should move once the old woman was gone.

They'd bought their current home more than ten years ago. It was a villa, but it had gotten a little old and was somewhat small. If the old woman hadn't refused to move no matter what, they wouldn't still be living there.

Every time Jiang Li went home over the years, her younger sister had shown off which new villa she'd moved into. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

Just as Jiang Li was thinking about this, she suddenly saw her mother-in-law reach for her oxygen mask.

She didn't know what the two of them had just been talking about, but the old woman seemed a little worked up.

Though Jiang Li couldn't be bothered to get involved, she still stood and hurried to the bedside. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Wang Guixiang didn't even look at Jiang Li. As she tugged at her oxygen mask, she mumbled to Dong Zhenghao, "Son, I'm sorry I let you down!"

Dong Zhenghao didn't take her words seriously. "Mom, what are you talking about?"

Wang Guixiang clutched her son's wrist and spoke somewhat indistinctly. "I'm the one who lost Little Mumu."

It took Dong Zhenghao a while to remember that Little Mumu was what his mother called his first child.

He and Jiang Li had both been married before. He'd had a daughter with his first wife, but they divorced not long after the girl was born, leaving the child with him.

At the time, he'd been running a small business in Qingcheng, while his mother cared for the child back in their hometown. When the girl was two or three, she was abducted. He'd gone to the police station in his hometown several times to ask about her, but there'd never been any news. Jiang Li had been pregnant at the time, and he'd lost the motivation to keep pursuing it.

If his mother hadn't brought it up out of nowhere, he might have forgotten he'd ever had another child.

When Jiang Li had gotten together with Dong Zhenghao, he hadn't divorced his first wife yet. Of course she knew he had a daughter. Hearing her mother-in-law bring it up made her feel irritated, and she cursed the old woman inwardly for finding one last way to make trouble for her before dying.

Dong Zhenghao had no idea what his wife was thinking. He lowered his voice. "Mom, that was so many years ago. It's in the past. That child just wasn't meant to be part of our family."

Wang Guixiang was worked up. Her grip on her son's hand tightened. "I've been dreaming about Little Mumu as a child these past few days. I don't know if she'll resent me now that she's grown up, or whether she's doing all right."

Dong Zhenghao hesitated before asking, "Mom, do you want me to look for Little Mumu?"

Wang Guixiang fell silent. After a long while, she let out a deep sigh, her voice trembling. "It's the only thing I've ever done wrong in my life, and it's always weighed on me. If I can't find her, I won't be able to rest in peace even when I'm dead!"

"Okay." She was his biological daughter, after all. Even though he'd lost her when she was little, looking for her was the least he could do. It would also put his mother's mind at ease. Dong Zhenghao agreed readily.

Seeing that her son had agreed, Wang Guixiang continued, "I know it's not easy to find someone. Even if you do find her, I probably won't be here by then. You can't treat her unfairly."

As she spoke, she shot Jiang Li a sideways glance. "Little Mumu is your biological daughter, after all. As for the family's money... she definitely can't have a share of it. But you should give her a decent dowry and buy her a house. That'd be enough to show we did right by her."

Dong Zhenghao nodded. He didn't expect to find the girl, so he agreed to his mother's requests. Even if he did find her, he could afford to give her a house.

Just then, Dong Zhenghao's phone rang. He took it out, glanced at the screen, and said to Wang Guixiang, "Mom, I'm going outside to take a call."

Wang Guixiang let go. Dong Zhenghao took his phone and walked out of the room.

"Hello?" Dong Zhenghao answered.

"Hello, is this Mr. Dong Zhenghao? This is the Qingcheng Public Security Bureau."

"The Public Security Bureau?" Dong Zhenghao pulled the phone away from his ear and looked at the number again, suspecting it was a scam call.

"Yes. A young woman named Liu Mumu has come to report that she's your long-lost biological daughter. Could you come in?"

His mother had just brought up Little Mumu, and now the Public Security Bureau was saying she'd been found. If this weren't real life, Dong Zhenghao might have thought he'd been held hostage by big data.

He was stunned for a long time before finding his voice. "M-my daughter?"

"Yes. According to our investigation, nineteen years ago, you reported to the Dongshan City police that your daughter, Dong Xinrui, had been abducted. She was never found, correct?"

"That's right, but..." Dong Zhenghao slapped his forehead. "I'll come over right away."

On the way to the City Bureau, countless thoughts flashed through Dong Zhenghao's mind. Not many people in Qingcheng knew he'd lost a child, though it wasn't exactly a secret. Perhaps the old woman had once mentioned it to someone, who had remembered.

He'd have to meet the girl himself to find out what was going on.

Dong Zhenghao was far more wary than delighted about this child, who had appeared out of nowhere without him even having to look for her.

When he arrived at the City Bureau, two officers led him to a lounge, where he quickly met the girl who was supposedly his biological daughter.

She was a young woman around twenty, wearing a loose white T-shirt and denim shorts. Her hair was tied in a bun, with a wild-looking little dinosaur hanging from her hair tie.

She was sitting in a swivel chair, spinning back and forth restlessly. She showed none of the awkwardness or unease of someone about to meet her biological father.

Dong Zhenghao paused outside the lounge for a few seconds, then raised a hand and knocked.

The person in the swivel chair turned around and met his eyes.

Liu Mumu took the lollipop out of her mouth and looked up at the middle-aged man in the doorway. He wore a suit, and beneath it she could make out traces of the handsome young man he'd once been. She called out, "Dad."

Her tone was warm and natural, without the slightest awkwardness of a separation that had lasted twenty years.

Seeing a face so similar to his ex-wife's—at least seven or eight parts out of ten—Dong Zhenghao felt dazed for a moment.

His ex-wife had been a rare beauty in their part of the countryside. He'd gone to a lot of trouble to marry her. They'd been happy together after the wedding, but they'd disagreed more often than not.

Later, his affair with Jiang Li had been discovered, and the divorce had been ugly. He hadn't heard from his ex-wife in all these years.

But he'd never forgotten what she looked like.

Even without a DNA test, he was certain this girl was his daughter.

"Hey." Dong Zhenghao answered without thinking.

With the police officers' help, the two of them completed a paternity test at the testing center that morning. They would get the results the next day.

After the two officers left, only Dong Zhenghao and Liu Mumu remained.

Dong Zhenghao glanced at the young woman, who was curiously looking around, cleared his throat, and asked, "Do you have a place to stay?"

"No," Liu Mumu answered without hesitation.

"Then stay in a hotel for now. Once we get the results... we'll talk." He'd been about to say he'd take her home once they had the results, but he swallowed the words.

"Okay."

After settling Liu Mumu in, Dong Zhenghao didn't hurry back to the hospital. Once he was in his car, he called his secretary. Secretary Wang picked up right away.

"Boss?"

"Look into someone for me. Find out everything about her background, including who she's been in contact with recently."