Chapter 19: The Hidden Connection
1505 Words
The photograph felt heavier than it looked.
Ruoyin stared at it beneath the fading evening light.
Su Qinglan stood beside Bai Zhenghua, much younger than the man Ruoyin had met only through recent photographs and records.
They weren't smiling for the camera.
They were standing outside what appeared to be a hospital.
On the back, written in faded blue ink, was a date.
Three days before Ruoyin was born.
Ruoyin's fingers tightened around the edges.
“You said my mother wasn't afraid of the Bai family.”
The older woman nodded.
“She wasn't afraid of your father.”
“Then what happened?”
The woman glanced toward the road.
“Your mother found something.”
“What?”
“I don't know exactly what she found. She never told me everything.”
Ruoyin frowned.
“Then how do you know she was afraid?”
“Because I saw what happened afterward.”
The woman lowered her voice.
“Your mother stopped trusting people around her.”
“Who?”
“People connected to the Bai family.”
Ruoyin looked back at the photograph.
“Was my father involved?”
The woman hesitated.
“I don't know.”
“That isn't an answer.”
“No,” the woman said quietly. “It isn't.”
Ruoyin looked directly at her.
“Then why show me this?”
“Because you need to understand something before you confront your father.”
The woman pointed at the photograph.
“Your mother was still speaking to Bai Zhenghua three days before you were born.”
Ruoyin's expression changed.
That was different from what she had assumed.
She had spent days thinking of Zhenghua as the father who had lost his daughter nineteen years ago.
But if Qinglan had been meeting him shortly before her birth, then their relationship had not simply ended when she disappeared.
“Did my father know I was alive?”
The woman didn't answer.
Instead, she reached into her bag again.
This time, she pulled out a small folded sheet of paper.
“I found this years ago.”
Ruoyin opened it.
There were only a few handwritten words.
The child cannot remain under the Bai name.
Her heart tightened.
“Who wrote this?”
“I don't know.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“No.”
The woman looked at her steadily.
“I expect you to investigate it.”
Ruoyin folded the paper.
“Why are you helping me?”
For the first time, uncertainty crossed the woman's face.
“Because I made a promise to your mother.”
“To protect me?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you wait nineteen years?”
The woman's expression fell.
“Because for most of those nineteen years, I believed your mother was dead.”
Ruoyin went still.
The woman continued.
“When I learned she had left you with Qinghe, I stayed away. I thought that was what Qinglan wanted.”
“And now?”
“Now the Bai family has found you.”
She looked toward the envelope in Ruoyin's hand.
“And someone else has started looking too.”
Ruoyin's eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
The woman stepped backward.
“But they know about the hospital.”
Before Ruoyin could stop her, she turned.
“Wait.”
The woman paused.
Ruoyin held up the photograph.
“Where did you get this?”
The woman looked over her shoulder.
“Your mother gave it to me.”
Then she walked away.
Ruoyin remained where she was.
She looked down at the photograph again.
For the first time, she noticed something she had missed.
A small reflection in the hospital window.
Someone else had been standing nearby when the photograph was taken.
Only part of the person's face was visible.
But there was something familiar about the outline.
Ruoyin took out her phone and photographed the image.
Then she placed the photograph carefully inside the blue envelope.
She wasn't going to hand it over to anyone.
Not yet.
---
At Bai International, Zhenghua was still in his office.
The private case file had been pulled from the company's old archive.
His assistant placed it in front of him.
“We found the original file.”
Zhenghua opened it.
The first page contained only a case number and a date.
Then came several pages of internal correspondence.
Zhenghua read silently.
His expression grew darker with every page.
“Who authorized this?”
“We haven't confirmed that yet.”
Zhenghua turned another page.
Then stopped.
There was a handwritten note at the bottom.
Do not notify Chairman Bai until further instructions.
His assistant stared at it.
“That means…”
“Yes.”
Zhenghua closed his eyes briefly.
Someone had deliberately kept information from him.
Not after the investigation began.
Not recently.
Nineteen years ago.
“Find the person who wrote this.”
“We're trying.”
“No.”
Zhenghua's voice was firm.
“Find everyone who had access to this file.”
His assistant nodded.
“There is one more thing.”
Zhenghua looked up.
“We recovered a second document from the archive.”
“What document?”
“A payment authorization.”
He placed it on the desk.
Zhenghua read the amount.
Then the recipient.
His face changed.
The payment had been made shortly after Ruoyin's birth.
The recipient was not a hospital.
Not Qinghe.
Not Su Qinglan.
It was a private investigation firm.
Zhenghua looked at the date.
Three months after his daughter's birth.
The same period when the hospital record had been altered.
His voice became cold.
“Find out what they were hired to investigate.”
---
Ruoyin arrived home later than usual.
Qinghe was waiting in the living room.
The moment she saw Ruoyin's face, she knew something had happened.
“You went.”
Ruoyin stopped.
“Yes.”
Qinghe stood.
“Who did you meet?”
“Someone who knew my mother.”
Qinghe's expression tightened.
“What did she tell you?”
Ruoyin took out the photograph.
Qinghe stared at it.
The color drained from her face.
“You know this?”
Qinghe didn't answer.
“Mother.”
Qinghe sat down slowly.
“I've seen it before.”
Ruoyin's stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Your mother had it.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I didn't know she had given it away.”
Ruoyin placed the photograph on the table.
“Who took it?”
Qinghe looked at the date.
Then at Ruoyin.
“Your mother.”
Ruoyin frowned.
“She took the photograph?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Qinghe was silent for several seconds.
“Because she wanted to remember something.”
“What?”
Qinghe's eyes lowered.
“I don't know.”
Ruoyin didn't believe that.
But before she could press further, Qinghe whispered,
“Ruoyin…”
“Yes?”
“Don't go looking for your father yet.”
Ruoyin stared at her.
“Why?”
“Because if someone inside the Bai family helped hide you, we don't know who.”
Ruoyin's expression hardened.
“Then shouldn't I know who my father really is?”
Qinghe looked at her.
“He may not be the person you're afraid of.”
“I'm not afraid of him.”
“Then what are you afraid of?”
Ruoyin glanced at the photograph.
“Finding out that everyone has been telling me only half the truth.”
Qinghe had no answer.
---
That night, Zhenghua stood alone in his study.
The payment authorization lay open before him.
His phone rang.
He answered immediately.
“Chairman.”
“What did you find?”
“We traced the investigation firm.”
“And?”
“They were hired to locate someone.”
Zhenghua's grip tightened.
“Who?”
There was a pause.
Then the assistant answered.
“Su Qinglan.”
Zhenghua froze.
“That's impossible.”
“The contract was signed three months after your daughter's birth.”
“Who hired them?”
“We haven't confirmed the name yet.”
Zhenghua stared at the old file.
Three months after Ruoyin disappeared from the Bai family's knowledge, someone had hired investigators to find Qinglan.
Why?
And if they were looking for Qinglan, what had they known about her?
His phone buzzed again.
A message appeared from an unknown number.
You are looking in the wrong place.
Zhenghua stared at it.
Another message arrived.
Ask yourself why the person who hid your daughter was searching for her mother.
He immediately called his assistant.
“Trace this number.”
“We're trying.”
Zhenghua looked toward the photograph on his desk.
For nineteen years, he had believed he had lost his daughter.
Now he was beginning to understand something much more disturbing.
Perhaps someone had not simply hidden Ruoyin from him.
Perhaps they had been trying to find Qinglan all along.
And Ruoyin had been the reason they needed her found.
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