The Secret Was Discovered

Doris had changed a great deal over the past year. Although she was still breathtakingly beautiful, her figure looked slightly fuller than before.

It was not just her appearance. Her demeanor had changed as well. She no longer wore that perpetually cold, haughty air, instead radiating gentleness.

Doris took a sip of milk and stared absently at the snow falling outside the window.

That bastard Jiang Nan said he would come back for me. Surely he didn't take those harsh words I said back then seriously and decide not to come? Remembering the heartless things she had said, Doris could not help looking worried.

But then Doris thought of Jiang Nan's personality. He had always been able to tell when she was saying something she did not mean, so he should come back.

He would come back, wouldn't he?

Doris realized she had been growing increasingly sentimental lately. That was hardly a good sign.

(Note: Over two hundred chapters have already been posted, so spoilers are fair game now. Postpartum depression leaves her unable to control her emotions, making her sensitive and unpredictable.)

After finishing her milk, Doris headed upstairs. As she passed the second floor, some inexplicable impulse made her glance toward the room Jiang Nan had once occupied. She paused for a few seconds, then opened the door and went inside.

Everything in the room remained just as it had been before Jiang Nan left: reference books lay closed on the desk, not yet returned to the shelves; the quilt was folded simply on the bed; and pajamas he had not gotten around to washing hung on the rack.

Doris picked up the pajamas from the rack and, on impulse, brought them close and inhaled deeply.

A musty smell mingled with a faint, familiar scent filled her nose. An intoxicated expression unconsciously crossed her face, and a small smile curved her lips.

Doris hung the clothes back where they had been and walked over to the desk. She gently trailed her fingers across its surface, as though she could still feel the warmth Jiang Nan had left behind.

Curiosity drove Doris to open the drawers one by one and look through Jiang Nan's personal belongings.

Suddenly, something in one drawer caught her attention. She picked it up, and with her thorough knowledge of mechanics, immediately recognized it as a charger. Its charging connector, however, was completely unfamiliar to her.

Doris casually put the charger back in the drawer. Just as she was about to close it, an intense surge of curiosity made her pick it up again for a closer look.

Clearly, this charger was not a mass-produced factory product. Doris recognized some of its materials as supplies they commonly used in their laboratory, so it was probably something Jiang Nan had made by hand.

What could it be for?

Doris felt a little ashamed, as though she were a mouse furtively rummaging through someone else's belongings. But she soon reassured herself. Not only was this her house, even Jiang Nan belonged to her. How could looking for her own man's belongings in her own house count as stealing?

Doris began searching the entire room. Her persistence paid off: after lifting the mattress and turning over the bed board, she finally found a book taped to its underside.

It was a hardcover reference book on the fundamentals of biological experiments, one Doris herself had given Jiang Nan a few years ago.

Puzzled, Doris took the book down, sat back at the desk, and opened it.

There was nothing unusual when she first opened the book. But when she turned farther in, a large hollowed-out cavity came into view, with a pitch-black object lying quietly inside.

What's this?

Doris picked it up and saw a design on the back, along with some codes in the lower right corner.

Doris could make sense of those codes. They closely resembled characters she knew, and if she was right, they were the object's model designation.

The front was pitch-black, and those little round things on the back were cameras!

It was a mobile phone!

Doris was surprised. This phone looked quite different from the phones she knew. Could it be a high-end model from some niche brand?

Doris tried pressing the buttons along the side to turn it on, but none of her attempts worked. Apparently, the battery was dead.

Once Doris connected the charger to the phone, the screen responded, just as she had expected. She pressed the side button again, and before long, the phone turned on.

Oh, fancy. It even needs a pattern password to unlock!

He even set a password. Is he trying to keep me out? Doris rolled her eyes.

Forget it, forget it. I'm not looking. Snooping through someone's phone is an invasion of privacy. When I see Jiang Nan, I'll just have him unlock it and show me himself!

But just as no cat could resist a taste of fish, no woman could resist the temptation to peek through the phone of the man she loved. After wrestling with herself for a while, Doris decided to crack the password after all.

How could a mere pattern password stump a scientist like Doris? She went to the first floor and found a bottle of fluorescent reagent, then used a cotton swab to apply a thin coating to the screen. Soon, the traces left by Jiang Nan each time he unlocked it appeared.

Doris unlocked the phone on only her third attempt, prompting a smug little laugh.

The first thing that surprised Doris was the phone's wealth of features. The densely packed apps made her eyes spin. She tapped their icons one by one, but because the phone had been without service for so long, most only opened to login screens. Those passwords were not simple patterns, and clever as Doris was, she could not crack them.

Before long, however, Doris found the phone's photo album. Its password was the same as the phone's unlock pattern, so she opened it with little effort.

The very first photo in the album made Doris freeze.

It was a photo of a woman's face in profile. The woman sat on a sofa with her eyes closed, resting. The setting sun streamed through the glass onto her exquisite face, bathing it in a golden sheen that matched her hair.

Doris frowned. That bastard Jiang Nan! When did he sneak a photo of me?

The woman in the photograph was Doris herself.

The phone's camera resolution was so high that even the fine details of Doris's face were clearly visible. Along with her embarrassed annoyance came a sweet feeling. So Jiang Nan had been quietly paying attention to her, too.

Doris kept scrolling. The next photos included more pictures of her, the Red Ribbon Army's daily training, and shots Jiang Nan had secretly taken of Dr. Gero's research institute.

After scrolling past a few pictures, Doris found another that left her both embarrassed and angry. Jiang Nan had actually zoomed in to sneak a photo of her backside!

What a pervert!

After muttering a couple of curses, Doris could not help laughing again. Jiang Nan usually acted so respectful toward her, putting on a perfectly serious face, yet he had been playing these little tricks whenever she was not looking.

But as she kept laughing, her smile faded.

It was a photograph of an unfamiliar woman. The woman was nowhere near as beautiful as Doris and could only be called reasonably attractive, yet the sight of her made Doris tremble from head to toe!

Suddenly, Doris felt as if someone had seized her by the throat, leaving her unable to breathe. Her heart began pounding faster, and the finger swiping across the phone's screen started shaking.

After scrolling through a few more pictures, Doris's finger suddenly froze. She stared blankly at one photograph.

Was this... a marriage certificate?