Chapter 116

Chapter 116

It wasn’t mealtime yet, and the little zhajiang noodle shop across from the school was completely empty. The proprietress sat at the entrance, stirring the sauce in the pot while chatting with the neighbor next door.

When she saw two students walking side by side, looking around as they headed her way, she called out with practiced ease, “Here to eat?”

There were hardly any people on the street, but Nan Mu still guiltily tugged the brim of his cap lower and answered in a low voice. Then he turned to Wen Miao. “What do you want?”

“Pea zhajiang noodles, I guess.”

Nan Mu looked back at the proprietress. “Two bowls of pea zhajiang noodles, please.”

After ordering, the two of them found a seat in the far corner.

While waiting for the food, Wen Miao laid out Nan Mu’s photos side by side and looked them over again and again.

There was still disbelief in her voice. “They really do look so alike…”

But it also felt too absurd.

How could Zhaodi possibly be that little girl from Happiness Orphanage back then?

Nan Mu, however, was not surprised. “Gu Zhishu’s younger brother, Gu Zhiyu, once said that Zhaodi and Gu Zhishu were very close.”

He had wondered before: Zhaodi wasn’t Gu Zhishu’s classmate, and with the huge gap between their family backgrounds and lifestyles, how on earth had the two of them met?

But now, he seemed to have figured it out.

If Wen Miao’s instinct was right, and this Zhaodi had also come from Happiness Orphanage, then that would explain exactly why two people with such a vast difference between them had known each other and been so close.

“From what I remember, before Gu Zhishu and I were adopted by the Gu Family, he really was pretty close to that little girl… But I can’t quite remember when that little girl left.”

The proprietress happened to bring over two bowls of pea zhajiang noodles. Nan Mu stood up to take them, then placed one bowl in front of Wen Miao before turning to get chopsticks from the sterilizer cabinet.

By the time he came back with the chopsticks, the proprietress had already gone into the kitchen. Only then did he add, “Eat first. Stop thinking about it. We’ll go to the Orphanage and check later, and then the truth will naturally come out.”

As Wen Miao mixed the noodles and sauce with her chopsticks, she leaned forward and said, “I just think it’s strange. Think about it. We only know of three in total… four, including me. How could three of them all be from Happiness Orphanage?”

As she spoke, she couldn’t help shivering at nonexistent goose bumps. “Our Orphanage…”

She hesitated for a long moment. “It didn’t do anything wrong, did it?”

“It is pretty coincidental.” Nan Mu, who hadn’t eaten anything from last night through the entire day today, stuffed a big mouthful of zhajiang noodles into his mouth and thought as he ate. “But I don’t think Happiness Orphanage is very likely. After Gu Zhishu’s accident, the police checked the Orphanage first. They didn’t find anything wrong.”

Wen Miao let out a breath of relief. Her back, which had been held stiff the whole time, finally relaxed. She picked up a chopstickful of noodles, blew on them, and put them in her mouth.

She had only chewed twice when she suddenly sat bolt upright again. “No, no, that’s not right!”

Nan Mu was so startled by her sudden outburst that he almost choked. “What’s not right?”

“I must have recognized her wrong. I probably don’t know her.”

Nan Mu was puzzled. “Why do you say that?”

Wen Miao laid out her reasoning clearly. “Didn’t you tell me about Wang Pandi before? You can tell at a glance that the Wang Family favors boys over girls. They even gave their daughters names like Zhaodi and Pandi… If they were going to adopt, they would adopt a boy. How could they possibly adopt a girl? And didn’t you say Wang Pandi had both a younger brother and a younger sister? Then why would the Wang Family adopt a little girl they didn’t even like?”
Nan Mu nodded. “That makes sense.”

Having earned Nan Mu’s approval, Wen Miao had only just started to feel pleased when the proprietress, who had been sitting at the table beside them shelling peas, suddenly said, “Not necessarily. Maybe it was because they adopted that little girl that they had a son afterward.”

Both Wen Miao and Nan Mu paused with their chopsticks halfway through eating their noodles and exchanged a glance.

Wen Miao turned her head with a smile. “Why do you say that, ma’am?”

As the proprietress shelled peas, a gossipy look came over her face. “Oh, young girls like you don’t understand these things. Back in my hometown, there are plenty of cases like that. A couple gets married and can’t have children for years, so they go to the hospital for checkups, right? Both of them are perfectly fine, but they just can’t get pregnant. Then they go find a blind fortune-teller, and he calculates that neither of them has the fate to have children. If fate says you don’t have children, then you just won’t have any. So what can you do? You adopt a little girl with good sibling luck, a good Sibling Palace. If that girl’s Sibling Palace shows brothers, then naturally she’ll bring a son into the family.”

Wen Miao was stunned. “There’s actually a saying like that?”

The proprietress looked as if she had seen it all before. “Oh, there are tons of things like this. You young people haven’t come across them yet, so of course you wouldn’t know. Let me tell you, the neighbor of my second sister-in-law’s maiden family’s eldest brother’s wife’s younger sister-in-law had a situation exactly like that…”

The proprietress was so enthusiastic that by the end, Wen Miao and Nan Mu had practically spent the entire time listening to gossip.

By the time the meal was over, the two of them had been introduced, through her stories, from the neighbor of her second sister-in-law’s maiden family’s eldest brother’s wife’s younger sister-in-law all the way to the son of her husband’s older brother’s third maternal uncle’s younger paternal uncle…

After finally finishing their noodles and paying the bill, the two of them fled as if making an escape.

===

Earlier, Wen Miao had felt that given the Wang Family’s circumstances, it was unlikely they would have adopted a child, which was why she had assumed she had mistaken the person.

But after what the proprietress said, she felt that perhaps she hadn’t been wrong after all. So after eating, the two of them went to the Orphanage according to their original plan.

Wen Miao had lived here for many years. She knew the way almost by heart, and wherever she went, someone would run out to greet her.

This was yet another side of her Nan Mu had never seen before. He had always thought Wen Miao was the rather aloof type. After all, that was the impression she gave everyone at school.

Wen Miao couldn’t help laughing a little. “I guess it’s because people have two sides… Around people you’re familiar with, around friends, you’re naturally a bit livelier.”

“So this is what you’re like when you’re lively…” Nan Mu thought about it with a smile, then offered his assessment. “Very approachable.”

That was truly a strange way to describe someone.

Wen Miao explained, “Maybe it’s because, compared to adults, if you show a child even a little friendly kindness, they’ll open their heart to you and repay you with ten times the enthusiasm… It makes you feel relaxed, like dealing with them doesn’t require much effort at all.”

As they spoke, the two of them had already reached the Director’s office.

The moment the door opened, Nan Mu recognized the Director. Though compared to the her from ten years later, the Director now was much younger.

She seemed to be rummaging through drawers and cabinets for something. Hearing the door open, she glanced back, and a kind smile abruptly appeared on her face. “Miao Miao, you’re back. Come in and sit for a bit. I’m still looking for it.”