"Not only have I met her, but my cousins have met Aunt Yue too." Ji Hanxing hesitated for a moment before continuing, "But according to them, none of your old friends had the surname Yao?"
Luo Fei said, "That's right. She didn't go by that name before."
"She changed her name later."
Ji Hanxing understood. They had guessed as much before. "So she really is a good friend of yours?"
Luo Fei lowered her eyes and gave a soft hum of assent.
"I came back this time to see her."
"She's been back for a few years, and she's been doing quite well in City A."
Those details matched Yao Yue's experiences too. Ji Hanxing listened quietly without speaking, only for Luo Fei to ask suddenly, "Why do you think she came back?"
"Maybe she still preferred living here. The surroundings were familiar."
Ji Hanxing guessed casually. He wasn't a mind reader. How was he supposed to know why Yao Yue had returned to the country?
"She came back to find her daughter."
"Huh?" Ji Hanxing repeated instinctively, "To find her daughter?"
Yao Yue actually had a daughter?
He never would have guessed!
But on reflection, Yao Yue and Luo Fei were good friends of a similar age, so it wasn't strange for her to have a daughter. Luo Fei had a son his age, after all.
"Then did Aunt Yue find her daughter?"
A chill crept into Luo Fei's voice. "She did, but she'd already been dead for years."
Ji Hanxing's heart lurched. He hadn't expected an answer like that.
"What exactly happened? Why did the child go missing?" Ji Hanxing asked instinctively, then realized how presumptuous he was being and added, "If you'd rather not say, you can..."
"Since I brought it up, there's nothing I can't tell