Joanna made her debut through the draft at the age of nineteen, and her career had steadily increased since then.
But when she was twenty-nine years old, she suddenly disappeared from the music scene after a music award ceremony.
In this regard, her agency only announced: Joanna temporarily bid farewell to the music scene due to personal reasons, and the time she would return is uncertain.
Later, there was a gossip which said that Joanna had disappeared and no one could even find her corpse.
Although this news had never been officially confirmed, there were various signs that this was likely to be the truth.
“Pray” was the last song Joanna released publicly before she disappeared.
Now Qiao w.a.n.gchuan said that this song was written to him by his mother. He never mentioned his mother before and he cried hearing this… So, did Joanna really go missing?
As if he heard the question in her mind, Qiao w.a.n.gchuan said, “That news is true. My mother has been missing for almost 29 years.”
He wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes, shaking the wine gla.s.s in his hand, and the deep sadness seemed to stay on his face. “Now, I don"t even know if she is still alive…”
Su Yutan immediately remembered what Qiao w.a.n.gchuan said when she was threatened by a trafficker and he came to protect her.
He said at the time that he didn"t want the little dove to see her tombstone in the future, or worse, a situation where she wouldn"t even have a tombstone. He said that it will make the little dove forever look for her, but never find the answer.
He also said that the situation would be torturous and he didn"t want the little dove to be tortured like that.
When she heard these words at that time, she didn"t think much about it.
Now hearing this story, and thinking back to what he had said, she realized that what he said at that time was not his speculation, but a kind of deep-seated pain.
This pain had been deposited on him for too long, and that sadness had almost solidified.
Qiao w.a.n.gchuan sipped the red wine in the gla.s.s, and slowly talked about his life.
His father"s name was Alan Miller and he was a geneticist.
When Joanna was 25 years old, she secretly married Alan Miller. Four years later, they decided to have a child in secret.
Qiao w.a.n.gchuan was still in the fertility tank of the reproductive service center, and he was just a 10-week-old fetus when Joanna disappeared after the music award ceremony.
After the ceremony that night, the agent and a.s.sistant watched Joanna"s private flying saucer take off. After that, the flying saucer and Joanna never appeared again.
After confirming that Joanna went missing, the Qiao family and the agency called the police.
Even when the police searched hard, they could not find any clues.
At the beginning, the agency kept a secret about Joanna"s disappearance.
Later, they couldn"t hide it. The agency released an announcement that Joanna had said farewell to the industry temporarily, hoping to find Joanna and get her back to the industry.
When Qiao w.a.n.gchuan came out of the nursery trough, the police had abandoned the search and listed Joanna"s disappearance as a pending case.
They speculated that Joanna was abducted by traffickers in a planned and premeditated manner. They didn"t know where she may have been sold. The possibility of getting her back was very small.
Unwilling to give up, Alan Miller quit his job and entrusted Qiao w.a.n.gchuan to his mother, Luo Lisa and his eldest brother, Qiao Evan, and embarked on a long journey to find Joanna with his father, Qiao Hali.
In consideration of the child"s emotions and growth, Miller and the Qiao family concealed Qiao w.a.n.gchuan"s true ident.i.ty, named him Qiao Nanfeng, and let him grow as Qiao Dongfeng"s brother.
After Qiao w.a.n.gchuan turned eighteen, he realized that his "parents" were actually his aunt, and uncles and the missing "uncle and aunt" were his biological parents.
When he came to know the truth, Qiao w.a.n.gchuan was greatly stimulated. Regardless of any dissuasion, he insisted on giving up everything and looked for his mother with his father and grandfather.
He had the knowledge and technology, and hated those criminals. In the process of looking for his mother, he became a volunteer informant of the police, which was a slight effort to combat crime.
But even after all that effort, he was still no match for the insidious and cunningness of the professional criminals, and soon he got into a trap and fell into the hands of a gangster in the Mist Stars.
The Mist Stars was a lawless zone, where the poorest and most serious criminals in the universe lived. Heinous crimes of all kinds occurred there numerous times a day.
After the gang captured Qiao w.a.n.gchuan, they planned to kill him in public.
But in order to find Joanna"s whereabouts, Miller and Qiao Hali have been mingling in the misty star field for many years. They had made a network of contacts and contacted them about Qiao w.a.n.gchuan"s release.
Later, the Qiao family sold their home and borrowed a large amount of foreign debt, raised a high ransom, and redeemed Qiao w.a.n.gchuan, who was tortured and bruised.
After bringing Qiao w.a.n.gchuan back to earth, Miller renamed his son Qiao w.a.n.gchuan.
w.a.n.gchuan River was the dividing line between the earth and the land of ghosts Huangquan/ Yellow springs.
Miller gave his son the name to remind him that once he crossed the Huangquan and entered h.e.l.l, he could never return back to earth.
A few years after that, the Qiao family settled on the earth and did not seek Joanna again.
Qiao w.a.n.gchuan also felt pained at that choice, but he gave up his original intentions, and began to focus on what he was good at–doing research.
Later, Qiao w.a.n.gchuan and his friend started Molecular Cloud.
When the Molecular Cloud made money, he repaid his family"s foreign debt and bought a bigger house for his grandparents and aunts.
Two years ago, Qiao w.a.n.gchuan"s a.s.sets were completely affluent.
Miller took the mercenary hired with Qiao w.a.n.gchuan"s money, changed his status, and set off on the journey to find Joanna again.
Qiao w.a.n.gchuan took a sip of wine and said, “You may not know how regretful I was when I was being tortured. How shameful I felt when I knew what cost my family had to pay to save me.”
He reached out a finger and made a circle towards his neck and chest. “Under my collar and clothes are all kinds of scars left when I was tortured by the gangsters.”
“I keep these scars, just to remind myself at all times to be calm when things go wrong and to have a strategy to solve the problem, so I don"t act arrogantly. Because it is not good for solving the problem. It can make one do mindless things and affect your loved ones.”
At the end of his narrative, the New Year"s bells also sounded on the holographic television.
Qiao w.a.n.gchuan took a deep breath and spat it out heavily. Then he raised his gla.s.s to Su Yutan with a smile, “Happy New Year!”
Su Yutan raised her gla.s.s and lightly touched it with his and said, “Happy New Year!”
Hope that unhappy things were left in the past.
Hope that the new year will be a good and a happy year.
[The translation belongs to Wordrain. Support us by comments, clicking on ads, or buy Miao a coffee (*´ｪ｀*)っ旦~]
1 ko-Fi = extra chapter