Chapter 155

Chapter 155

Wen Miao felt as if an icy hand had clamped around her heart. A chill that pierced straight through her spread through her body in an instant, and that ominous premonition settled over her like a heavy black cloud.

Her throat felt dry. With a trace of bitterness in her voice, she asked, “Old Cai… sold information about Zhaodi?”

Xing Shuyuan closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded gravely in answer to Wen Miao’s question.

…

Old Cai had only just called back the people he’d sent out when a stranger came to his door.

According to Old Cai, the man had been wearing a hat and a mask, so his face couldn’t be seen clearly. But the aura he gave off and the coldness in his eyes were enough to make anyone’s skin crawl.

In Old Cai’s own words, “People like us have dealt with all sorts. I’m not exaggerating when I say I felt like that man definitely had blood on his hands. I’ve done some illegal things myself, sure, but we don’t want to get involved in any murder case. So when he asked me for a person, I refused. But then he said he didn’t need us to take him there. He only wanted me to tell him where I’d last seen Zhaodi. One sentence for a hundred thousand yuan. Who could turn that down?”

Old Cai had sold out Zhaodi’s whereabouts, yet he still tried to justify himself. “After Zhaodi left Shanshui Villa, the people I sent came back and told me she changed locations every day. I was thinking at the time, even if I told him, Zhaodi might not still be at the address I gave him. Maybe she’d already run off. I told that man all that too. He was the one who said as long as I gave him the address, whether he found her or not, he wouldn’t come after me. So I told him.”

Afterward, the police went to the address Old Cai had disclosed at the time, but the place was already empty. They found no clues at all. That was why the police were now trying to locate Zhaodi through other means.

“So when you asked just now whether we could use surveillance footage to find her, that was indeed what we were thinking too. But the troublesome part is that more than three months have already passed since this happened. Most of the surveillance footage in that area isn’t stored for that long. We also contacted the city’s road surveillance system, but because we don’t know what the suspect looks like, we can only focus on Zhaodi. The cameras captured footage of Zhaodi going in, but nothing of her coming out.”

Xing Shuyuan’s words made Wen Miao’s heart sink even further.

If the surveillance footage had captured Zhaodi going in but not coming out, then it could only prove that she had not left that place in any normal way. Very likely, she had been hidden somehow, which was why the cameras had not recorded her.

But how could a living, breathing person be hidden and transported away without attracting anyone’s attention?

Wen Miao did not dare think about it too deeply.

…

Seeing Wen Miao rubbing her forehead repeatedly, Xing Shuyuan suggested they take a short break first.

She went to pour Wen Miao a cup of hot water. Just as Wen Miao stood up, her phone suddenly vibrated.

She took out her phone and saw that it was a text from Nan Mu.

She opened the message thread.

Nan Mu: “How’s the situation?”

Wen Miao: “Not good. Something may have already happened to Zhaodi.”

Nan Mu: “Any leads? Can you find out who did it?”

Wen Miao: “No. The police investigation is at a dead end too.”

Nan Mu first sent over a picture, then followed it with another message: “Then have the police investigate this person.”

A little curious, Wen Miao opened the picture Nan Mu had sent and found that it was an employee ID from Wisdom Biotech Company.

Name: Zheng Wenzhu

Department: Biological Research Team

The slightly old employee ID also had a photo of Zheng Wenzhu on it. In the picture, she had a gentle face and a bright smile, giving off an approachable impression. She looked very kind.

Wen Miao was puzzled. She did not understand why Nan Mu would suspect Zheng Wenzhu.

Worried that she would not be able to explain it to Xing Shuyuan later, she asked Nan Mu why he had thought to investigate Zheng Wenzhu.
Nan Mu did not answer right away. Instead, a minute later, he sent another image.

Maybe the police station’s signal was poor, because the image kept loading and refused to appear.

Wen Miao sent Nan Mu a question mark.

Not long after the question mark went through, the image finally loaded. It was a middle school graduation group photo of Zhaodi.

Nan Mu had shown Wen Miao this photo before. Because it was a group shot, the resolution was a little lacking, and he had even complained about it at the time.

Wen Miao had originally thought Zheng Wenzhu simply looked familiar. But when she placed Zheng Wenzhu’s photo beside Zhaodi’s and compared them, she suddenly realized why Zheng Wenzhu’s face had seemed so familiar.

Because…

Zheng Wenzhu and Zhaodi looked far too alike.

Even though Zhaodi’s photo was not very clear, and even though there was an age gap between Zheng Wenzhu and Zhaodi, their features were still similar enough that anyone could tell at a glance that they were blood-related.

===

If Wen Miao had not already sent her and Meng Ran’s biological samples for testing, she would have been tempted to say there was no need to bother with the test at all.

Because deep down, she already had her answer.

The astonishing resemblance between Gu Zhishu and Jia Lingyuan’s son, followed by the appearances of Zheng Wenzhu and Zhaodi, was more than enough to prove that there was an unusual connection between them.

Wen Miao even suspected that there might be someone inside Wisdom Biotech Company who looked extremely similar to Su Yu.

“You guessed right.”

Wen Xin walked in from outside carrying a laptop. He turned the screen toward Wen Miao and Nan Mu. “Look at this picture.”

Wen Miao bent down. She had thought she would see an employee ID photo of someone who looked almost identical to Su Yu, but what appeared on the screen was a group photo.

“What’s this?” Wen Miao asked, puzzled.

“After Nan Mu told me about Zheng Wenzhu, I pulled every old photo stored in Wisdom Biotech Company’s AO system.”

The photo had been taken ten years ago, and there were more than twenty people in it. Among them were several faces Wen Miao and Nan Mu both knew well, including Huangfu Junsheng, Xu Lei, and Meng Ran.

Wen Miao asked, “Is this the founding team of Wisdom Biotechnology?”

“I think so.” Wen Xin dropped six photos into the display window at the lower right corner of the laptop. An automatic comparison bar popped up, and before long, five faces were outlined in red.

Curious, Wen Miao asked, “What is this?”

Wen Xin did not answer. He clicked on the photo on the screen and cropped out each of the red-framed faces one by one.

When Wen Miao saw the faces in the photos, she froze, because every single face shown there was one she knew very well.

There was Wen Xin, Wen Tangtang, as well as Gu Zhishu, Su Yu, and Zhaodi.

Wen Miao could hardly believe it. “These are…?”

“Exactly what you’re seeing.” Wen Xin’s eyes instantly turned cold, and his voice dropped, low and chilling. “All the people you’re looking at are members of Wisdom Biotech Company. Don’t they… look alike?”

They were more than alike. They were practically identical. It was only because of their different ages that there were slight distinctions between them. But Wen Miao dared say that if these photos were shown to strangers, they would never be able to tell that they were looking at two different people.

“So…”

The six people who had been abandoned at Happiness Orphanage back then-their biological parents were all members of Wisdom Biotech Company’s founding team?

This was… beyond absurd.

“But I still have one question…” Wen Miao’s gaze fell on Meng Ran in the photo. “Why don’t Meng Ran and I look that much alike?”

At the very least, they were not so similar that anyone could recognize their blood relationship at a glance.

Had Xu Lei really tried to kill her for Meng Ran’s sake? Or was there someone else behind it?