Song Sheng spent two weeks sleeping restlessly. Qian Meigui sent him one email with an IP address that came from a computer lab at a public centre, that anyone can use and log in. She told him that she was fine and not to worry.
But how could he not?
Nonetheless, he waited for some other sign from her, patiently. She had to be all right. She would tell him if she were not. Right?
Qian Meigui grew accustomed to the routine of the Lin household; they were her mother"s side of the family.
She spent time with them over dinners, over going out together. She told them she was practicing law, and they were happy for her. Most of her time in the house was spending time with her little cousins, the family she never got to know.
She wondered, why would her parents not want her to live this life? But she did not dwell on it for too long.
Over lunch, the table was full of people. Lin Anni was sitting at the head of the table when she was trying to quit down her nieces and nephews. Her youngest nephew ran up to Qian Meigui, reaching up to his stubby arms, cueing her to carry him. She felt compelled to raise him because of how adorable he was.
She held him on her lap. The child"s parents were the younger brother of Qian Aiguo and his wife who sat across her.
After lunch, Lin Anni took her to a grocery store where they purchased enough food for the week. It took her a while to adjust to speaking with her aunt. It"s still tricky not looking at her without thinking of her mother. But she also remembered the twins Song Jinyi and Song Jun. They must be worried about her if Song Sheng had not told them by now.
But she had to resolve her issues and to figure out the past and present. There were many things she did not know.
She found out that her grandparent"s had long since pa.s.sed away. She had many extended family members that she was distantly related to, but Lin Anni, her brother and his children were the only ones closely related to besides the Qian family she was not entirely sure of, either.
Lin Anni owned many clinics; many companies and pract.i.tioners recognized her work. Her ex-husband was a former colleague she worked with before their divorce. But he also was a doctor from a prestigious university that worked alongside her and her mother before she left and married Qian Shanyuan.
"I never forgave your mother for leaving without much of a word," Lin Anni said over the dinner table, casually.
"Why did she leave?" Qian Meigui asked curiously since her aunt brought it up.
"She married your father, and they moved. Your grandparent"s also thought that their marriage brought dishonour to the family. Your father was not known for his skill in law besides being friends with Song Rui."
Qian Meigui understood. But that still doesn"t explain many things.
"Were you close with my mother?" she asked.
Lin Anni paused her meal, glancing up at her. "Of course," she said with a smile.
Qian Meigui felt some relief.
Most days she was bored, so Qian Meigui had learned to study each room and hall, and what each door led in every room. She walked into an old, neat room that appeared to be unused for years.
She entered quietly, trying to prevent the door from squeaking as the hinges have not oiled in years. She then slipped into the darkroom. She found a candle nearby; she pulled matches out from her pocket. After days of studying each room, this was one of last she had not scoped out yet. She figured that she wouldn"t find anything in this room, but she wanted to give it a shot.
The room lit dimly, but it was enough to seek things she needed to see in the room. There were boxes old, worn out, water-stained boxes that appeared to be sitting for years.
It was easy to open them since they were falling apart, but she tried to keep it as preserved as possible; not making it evident that someone searched through them.
There were textbooks of biomedical practices and ma.n.u.scripts written by Lin Aiguo that has never got the chance of being published. Furthermore, there were old pictures of her in her younger years.
She kept searching, but most of the boxes were full of a.s.signments, school transcripts, first aid tools, and a stethoscope.
It was hopeless.
But at the corner of the near-empty room, there was a bookshelf with a slightly parted cupboard on the bottom. Qian Meigui approached the book-less shelves and bent down to reach down to open. She opened the box, but it full of books; she chuckled as she should have known. But she sat down on the dusty-cold floor.
She began to see what particular books her mother like to read. She smiled to herself as she read the t.i.tles. Her mother was also into fiction and fantasy like her, but she was particularly more interest in the genre of true crime, Qian Meigui learned.
As she kept taking out the books, she found a bookmark that stood out at one of them. It was a true crime novel about cold-cases, murder mysteries.
Qian Meigui was not surprised; it is most common. But she opened the book to find a photograph of her parents smiling, standing next to Lin Anni and a few other people she did not know. But it puzzled her; Lin Anni told her that her mother ran away with Qian Shanyuan. But why are all of them in this photo together?
She rose with the photograph towards the candle to view the photo with better lighting. As she looked through, she noticed one of the faces one of the acquaintances in the picture. Qian Meigui stumbled, trembling. Her hands shook uncontrollably; she began to pant nervously. She couldn"t believe it. Who the f.u.c.k was this man in the photo?
But she recognized the face. It was a face she had seen in her nightmares for years.
It was the man who killed them. At least one of them.