Chapter 156
Chapter 156
“Maybe you look more like your biological father, or your grandparents or something?”
Wen Xin found it all perfectly normal. Everyone had different facial characteristics. Some people resembled their parents more, while others took after their grandparents. That was just how genetics worked.
Not every child necessarily looked exactly like their parents.
Compared to everyone looking as if they had been stamped out of the same mold as their parents, he actually felt Wen Miao’s situation was relatively normal.
But Wen Miao’s doubts weren’t limited to appearances. Frowning, she said, “The five of you all look so alike. Only Meng Ran and I don’t… I’m just wondering, is it possible that the person corresponding to me isn’t Meng Ran?”
Wen Xin paused, and suspicion suddenly rose in his heart as well.
Xu Lei had once tried to kill Wen Miao, which was why they had always believed Meng Ran was the person who corresponded to Wen Miao. But that was only their assumption. There was no solid evidence to prove it.
Now that he thought about it, whether Meng Ran really was the person corresponding to Wen Miao was hard to say.
Wen Miao turned to look at Nan Mu, only to see him absentmindedly scrolling through his phone.
“Nan Mu?” Wen Miao stretched out her leg and nudged Nan Mu’s chair. “What are you looking at?”
Nan Mu was browsing the campus forum of A University of Science and Technology. There were many old posts on it, and among them, he had found some information about Meng Ran and Xu Lei.
“Stuff about Meng Ran?”
“Mm.” Nan Mu sent the forum links he had found to the two of them. “Meng Ran and Xu Lei were pretty famous figures at A University of Science and Technology back then.”
The link Nan Mu sent Wen Miao was a post about a laboratory accident. The general content said that an upperclassman from the chemistry department had caused a serious explosion due to improper procedure. As a result, both he and Meng Ran, who had happened to be nearby at the time, suffered severe burns to their faces.
Wen Miao was a little surprised to hear this. Meng Ran had visited A University of Science and Technology several times before to give lectures, and Wen Miao had attended her classes, but she had never noticed any signs that Meng Ran’s face had been injured.
“Severe burns? Seriously? Why couldn’t I tell at all?”
No sooner had she asked than she received a second forum link from Nan Mu on her phone.
This was also an old post. It discussed Meng Ran’s plastic surgery, with many people analyzing which parts of her face she had had done. Even more people were begging in the comments for the name of the hospital and surgeon who had performed Meng Ran’s procedure, praising the surgeon’s work as practically divine.
“Can gossip from a forum like this really be trusted?”
After all, online forums were a mixed bag. There was no shortage of exaggerated claims and ridiculous rumors posted just to attract attention.
Wen Xin rubbed his chin as he looked at Meng Ran in the photo. “Maybe she really did have work done. Actually, your eyes are pretty similar to Meng Ran’s.”
As Wen Xin spoke, he covered the lower half of Meng Ran’s face in the photo, then held it out for the two of them to see. “Look, right? If you cover her chin, doesn’t she look especially like you?”
“Does she? I don’t see it.” Wen Miao didn’t think so. She turned to look at Nan Mu. “Do you think we look alike?”
Nan Mu looked at Meng Ran in the photo, smiling brightly.
If the lower half of her face was covered, she really did look extremely similar to Wen Miao. Wen Miao didn’t see it only because she rarely saw what she looked like when she smiled at other people.
“Actually, verifying whether Meng Ran has had plastic surgery is simple.” Nan Mu looked up at Wen Xin. “If I remember right, you went to Experimental High School?”
Meng Ran had also gone to Experimental High School. If they could access Experimental High School’s student archive system and look at Meng Ran’s student ID photo from back then, wouldn’t they know whether she had had cosmetic surgery?
Wen Xin turned the computer toward himself. As he typed on the keyboard, he said in confusion, “How did you know I have a backdoor into Experimental High School’s database?”
Nan Mu chuckled. “Just guessed.”
When Wen Xin looked up, his eyes happened to meet Nan Mu’s. It was as if Nan Mu had seen straight through everything about him, and Wen Xin couldn’t help shivering.
He instinctively looked away and focused on getting to work.
He used a backdoor on the school’s server to enter Experimental High School’s internal system, then pulled up the student ID photo Meng Ran had left in her high school records from past years.
Wen Miao was stunned after a single glance.
Because the person in the photo looked exactly like Wen Miao. Anyone who saw them would have no doubt that the two were related by blood.
Nan Mu silently stared at the yellowed photograph. A chill rose from the depths of his heart, like a cold, sinister gust of wind.
Unlike Wen Miao and Wen Xin, who had been shocked upon learning the truth of their origins, what Nan Mu was worried about was the strangeness hidden behind this matter.
The six children who had been abandoned at the gates of Happiness Orphanage back then were actually all the children of the founding team members of Wisdom Biotech Company.
Then in that group photo of more than twenty people, were there really only those six children? Or were there other children out there in similar circumstances?
Why had the scientists at Wisdom Biotech Company chosen to abandon their own children en masse? What exactly had their motive been? Nan Mu could not understand how a scientific team that had once created countless miracles could be so cold and heartless toward their own children.
And what puzzled Nan Mu most was that Wen Miao and the other five were all about the same age. How had they managed to control things so that all these children were conceived and born around the same time?
These questions hung over Nan Mu’s heart like layer after layer of gloom. The more he thought about them, the more horrifying they became.
===
Wen Miao handed Zheng Wenzhu’s photo over to the police.
As for where the photo had come from, Wen Miao lied and said she had once seen it at Zhaodi’s place. At the time, she had assumed it was Zhaodi’s mother, since the two looked so alike. It was only after hearing the story of Zhaodi’s father from Xing Shuyuan that she suddenly realized something was wrong.
After the police obtained the photo, they quickly launched an investigation and soon traced it back to Zheng Wenzhu.
Personnel at the public security surveillance center repeatedly reviewed Zheng Wenzhu’s movements around the time Zhaodi disappeared, and sure enough, they discovered a few suspicious details.
In the surveillance footage, Zheng Wenzhu frequently came into contact with other people. One of them had the exact same clothing and build as the person who had gone to Old Cai to ask about Zhaodi’s whereabouts back then.
But since Wen Miao was not directly involved in the case, Xing Shuyuan did not reveal any more detailed information to her.
Wen Miao grew anxious over this. She showed Nan Mu the message Xing Shuyuan had sent her: “The case is still under investigation, and internal details cannot be disclosed at this time.”
“I’m afraid Zhaodi’s case won’t be solved that quickly,” Wen Miao said, looking at Nan Mu with deep concern. “You probably don’t have much time left here, do you?”
Nan Mu said in a low voice, “Before six o’clock tomorrow evening.”
Wen Miao tapped her phone and looked at the time on the lock screen.
21:45. Less than twenty hours remained before Nan Mu had to leave.
Noticing how unsettled Wen Miao looked, Nan Mu asked in some surprise, “When you found out Xu Lei wanted to kill you, you didn’t seem all that worried. Why have you been so anxious these past few days instead?”
Wen Miao was silent for a moment. Then she suddenly lifted her eyes, looked straight into Nan Mu’s, and asked seriously, “Nan Mu, look at me and answer one question.”
Seeing Wen Miao’s solemn expression, the relaxed smile on Nan Mu’s face gradually faded. He realized he could not avoid her question, so he nodded lightly. “Ask.”
Wen Miao said, “In that future time and space, are Wen Xin and Wen Tangtang… still alive?”
Nan Mu froze. His gaze instinctively slid away from hers. By the time he realized something was wrong, it was already too late. He could only reach for the teacup on the table and use a sip of tea to cover up what he had just done. “Why are you suddenly asking that?”
Even though Nan Mu tried to hide it, Wen Miao had already gotten her answer from those few seconds of stunned silence.
With a bitter smile, her voice trembling slightly, Wen Miao said, “There were six of us in total. Gu Zhishu, Su Yu, and Zhaodi have all already met with disaster. If something happens to me too, how could Wen Tangtang and Wen Xin possibly be safe and sound?”