The report on the paternity test between Susu and Shu Zhongze showed a similarity of 99.999...%, followed by several more nines.
There was no longer any doubt: Shu Zhongze was Susu's biological father.
He stared at the results, unsure how to tell Susu.
Would Susu, who wished for Shu Yan to be sentenced to death, be able to accept the fact that Shu Yan was her half-sister?
Qin Tianyi closed his phone and leaned back in the car, resting his eyes, feeling troubled.
...
After Qin Tianyi left, Shu Zhongze gazed absentmindedly at the silk-wrapped iron box. Its ancient and exquisite craftsmanship reminded him of someone buried deep in his memory.
But that person was long dead. When he was only a teenager, that person's father had dragged them both to their deaths by jumping from the fifth floor.
He had personally watched the ambulance carry away their bodies. His mother had felt grief and self-blame until the day she passed away.
Could it be that this family's ancestral craft had not been lost? Besides them, who else could have made such an exquisite silk-wrapped box?
So many years had passed. Shu Zhongze wondered if he was misremembering. He decided to take the box back and compare it with similar boxes among his mother's遗物 (yíwù -遗物 means relics or belongings left by the deceased). That would tell him.
...
Susu sat in the office of her studio, with her two bodyguards standing like sentinels at either side of the doorway.
She hadn't offered much explanation to Xu Shishi and the others, only stating it was for security reasons.
The people in the studio didn't ask many questions. They had been at Biyi for some time, and even the most naive among them had realized that this approachable female boss was actually the wife of a wealthy family, with a background that was anything but simple.
Susu looked at the design drafts before her, trying to focus on the design with a clear mind. But as soon as she quieted down, the image of the blood-stained clown doll would surface in her mind, sending shivers down her spine.
Just then, her phone rang, startling her. She fumbled to pick it up. "Hello?"
"Miss Gu?" came a woman's anxious voice from the other end. Susu recognized it as the nanny who looked after Sophie.
"Yes, is something wrong with Sophie?" She had been too busy these past few days to visit Sophie. In fact, she had intentionally kept some distance from Sophie, fearing that Sophie might become too dependent on her, leading her emotional state to another extreme.
"Miss Sophie... she's gone." The nanny's voice was choked with sobs. "I've searched the entire complex and the areas around it, but I still can't find her. Miss Gu, what should we do now? Should we call the police?"
Susu immediately panicked upon hearing this. "How did she go missing? Are her documents and passport still here?"
"I haven't checked. I'll go look now." The nanny hurried to open a drawer in the room and found Sophie's documents and passport still in the cabinet drawer in the bedroom. "They're all here. She shouldn't have gone far."
Susu stood up, trying to calm herself. "When did you discover she was missing? Did she exhibit any unusual behavior before she disappeared?"
The nanny replied, "There was no abnormality. Last night, Miss Sophie went to her room to sleep as usual. I woke up at four in the morning and saw her door was open. I thought I'd check if she was covered properly. When I went in, I saw her bedding was in disarray. I tiptoed in to tidy it for her, only to find she had vanished."
"She disappeared at four in the morning, why are you only informing me now?" Susu asked.
The nanny explained, "I tried calling you then, but your phone was off. I felt the bedding on her bed was still warm, so I quickly went out to search everywhere."
Susu remembered. She had been frightened last night and turned off her phone before sleeping. She had only turned it back on after arriving at the studio this morning.
For a moment, she didn't know where Sophie might have gone.
Since coming to Lancheng, Sophie hadn't been many places. Besides her residence, she only went to Mishang for work, and she had also visited the seaside villa where Susu lived...
She calmed herself and said, "Go and find the property management of the complex now and retrieve the surveillance footage. I'll be there shortly."
"Okay."
Susu picked up her bag, intending to leave the studio to find Sophie.
The two bodyguards immediately followed her. "Madam, where are you going?"
Susu didn't answer them. She simply gave a few instructions to Zhang Ting at the front desk and then got into the elevator.
The two bodyguards had no choice but to follow her, unable to report to Qin Tianyi.
Susu tossed the car keys to one of the bodyguards, signaling him to drive. As she walked, she contacted Chang Qingchuan.
Upon learning that Sophie hadn't gone to Mishang, she called Aunt Chen. She instructed Aunt Chen to keep Sophie at the seaside villa if she went there.
Aunt Chen didn't know what had happened, but hearing the urgency in Susu's voice, she quickly agreed.
Susu told the bodyguard the address of the complex she was going to. They arrived at the complex's surveillance room in just ten minutes.
The nanny was negotiating with the property management about retrieving the surveillance footage, but the complex's security insisted that only owners could view the footage.
Susu stated her name. After checking the records, the security guard confirmed she was an owner and then retrieved the surveillance video for them.
She searched for Sophie's figure frame by frame. She discovered that Sophie had entered the elevator at two in the morning last night, wearing her home pajamas, carrying only her mobile phone. After exiting the elevator, she left the complex as if sleepwalking.
After leaving the complex, there was no further surveillance. Where would Sophie go? Lancheng was so vast; finding someone was like searching for a needle in a haystack.
Susu could only repeatedly review the video of Sophie leaving her residence until she left the complex, hoping to find some clues. She looked for anyone around her, or if anyone had seen which direction she went after leaving the complex.
But at two in the morning, there wasn't even a ghost in sight, and no one else could be seen.
The security guard who accompanied her in reviewing the surveillance footage felt a chill. He said, "Isn't this woman possessed? Look at her vacant eyes, and her movements are so stiff."
Susu retorted, "Isn't your complex known as the safest in the area? And there's no one on duty at the entrance at night? Why didn't anyone stop her when she walked out?"
The security guard paused for a few seconds and said, "There's someone on duty at the entrance booth twenty-four hours a day. The person on duty last night should have been dozing off. However, even if they weren't dozing, they wouldn't stop an owner from leaving. They would only check if someone was entering the complex in the middle of the night."
Susu couldn't be bothered with the security guard's excuses and called Su Kangxi.
However, she called Su Kangxi's phone twice, but no one answered. He must have been busy. So she asked the nanny again, "Has Sophie mentioned wanting to go anywhere these past few days? Where is she most likely to go if she goes out?"
The nanny thought for a moment and said, "No. Miss Sophie has generally been staying at home listening to music and reading books these past few days. She's been quite normal. She only goes out for a walk after dinner, usually within the complex or to a nearby supermarket. But after discovering Miss Sophie was missing, I searched all the nearby supermarkets, but I didn't find her."