My Youth Began With Him

“What are you staring at?”

Qin Chu walked through the door and noticed Huo Mian standing in front of his desk…

“I’m looking at this! Why do you still have this? It’s so ugly!” Huo Mian pointed to the picture and giggled.

“Says who? I actually think that’s when you looked the most beautiful.”

“Are you saying I’m no longer beautiful now?”

“Of course not. I just want to hold onto the beautiful memories. Whenever I have time, I would look at it and reminiscence the past that had flown by. This is a very important photo to me.” The photo was the only thing that kept Qin Chu going in the seven years that he was in the United States. It was this photo that got him through the empty days, nights, and seasons. But, that was left unsaid.

However, Huo Mian read it in his eyes…

“It’s not a good photo, and it’s been so many years. Let’s go take our wedding photos when you have time.” Huo Mian wrapped her arms around Qin Chu’s neck.

“We’re going to the Maldives for our wedding photos, it will be well executed.” Qin Chu planted a kiss on her cheek affectionately.

“How was your morning meeting? Was it okay?”

“Same old, same old,” Qin Chu said as he sat back down on his chair, turned on his laptop, and opened up the stock index for the day.

“Honey, I want to tell you something.”

“Yes?”

“I want to take a drive to Dong Tao town this afternoon.”

“Dong Tao? To investigate?” Qin Chu looked Huo Mian in the eye.

Huo Mian nodded silently…

“You don’t have to go, I’ve already sent people to investigate for you.”

“What? You did? When?” Huo Mian was rather surprised.

“I just got the report yesterday.”

“But you never mentioned anything to me…” Huo Mian complained slightly. After all, it was a big deal to her.

Qin Chu was silent for a couple of seconds before he passed Huo Mian a brown envelope in his drawer.

“It’s all in here, you can read it yourself. There wasn’t any good news, so I wasn’t in a hurry to tell you.”

Huo Mian could hardly wait as she took the brown envelope. However, her face became more grave as she read on…

“Doctor Lan was the doctor that helped Yang Meirong deliver you. She and her entire family moved away when you were 3 years old, and no one knows where they went, not even their close friends and relatives. The workers at the Health Center were all gone too, and the previous Health Center director, Zhu Haiqing died of cerebral infarction the year before. Despite all that, the last piece of information was the most bizarre – the room where they stored the documents strangely caught on fire the year Doctor Lan moved away, and it destroyed a lot of the birth documents. The children born in those years have all lost the hospital copy of their birth certificates.”

“That is… terribly strange.” Huo Mian felt a gush of coldness rush over her.

“Yes, I thought it was rather odd too. But all of this could only mean one thing – someone is trying to hide something, and maybe it’s got something to do with your identity.”

“But the threads we found that could lead to my identity are all broken…” Huo Mian said as she slumped.

She originally thought she would be able to find her biological parents in no time, but now she had nothing to work with. ..

“Don’t worry, regardless of how perfect a cover-up is, it’s still a cover-up. We’ll be able to find a loophole eventually. But, I also have a rather daring guess.” Qin Chu didn’t know whether he should continue.

“What is it?” Huo Mian looked up and stared at him in confusion.

“I think maybe your identity is rather unordinary. Maybe your parents’ identities are special, why else would the men behind the scenes go through so much effort in trying to cover up where you came from?”

Huo Mian replied with silence…

But she had a feeling that Qin Chu was probably onto something. If she was merely mistaken as another baby, why would everything become so complicated? The bizarre incidents would never have followed.

Doctor Lan’s whole family went missing, the Health Center caught on fire, and everyone associated with the incident was nowhere to be found.

The only person that would know anything was Uncle Jing, and he was dead. Not only that, he had said nothing regarding this matter prior to his death.

Everything was just too odd…

“Don’t worry, I will keep investigating this issue for you. I won’t give up in finding your biological parents,” Qin Chu wrapped an arm around Huo Mian and comforted her.

“I have a feeling that they’re still alive, and they’re still somewhere in this world,” Huo Mian slowly said.

“Are you planning to tell this to your mother and Zhixin?” Qin Chu asked.