After a long while.
Shao Yu came back to her senses and opened a notebook.
After flipping through a few pages, between two sheets of paper there was a yellowed page filled densely with handwriting.
If Ning You were here, she would definitely find this paper familiar.
The color, texture, and even the handwriting were exactly the same as the will that was stuck between two pages in little Ning You’s possession.
“Wen Ya…” Shao Yu murmured silently.
You really were so fortunate—so fortunate it makes people jealous.
..
Aunt Zhou kept her promise and went out early to ask about Ning You’s younger brother.
After chatting and gossiping with many older sisters and neighbors, she came back with a basket full of information.
Ning You brought her into her room and made her a cup of malted milk drink.
The original body was malnourished, less than 1.6 meters tall, thin like a chick.
If she didn’t nourish herself soon, it would be too late.
Ning You was willing to spend money on herself and bought many things to improve her health.
Otherwise—
…if she ever dated a guy over 1.8 meters tall in the future, she wouldn’t even be able to reach up and kiss him. (?_?)
Aunt Zhou chuckled. “Why are you making malted milk? Such good stuff—keep it for yourself. I’m not short of a drink, your uncles already buy it for me.”
“What uncles give you is their filial piety. What I give you is my sincerity,” Ning You said sweetly.
Aunt Zhou beamed with joy and looked around the room, then lowered her voice curiously.
“How did you get this room back? Did Ning Hong agree?”
Ning You lowered her head shyly. “I beat her up in a fit of madness. She didn’t dare cause trouble again.”
Sometimes she got emo, but going crazy was her main personality!
Whoever provoked her got fists in return.
Aunt Zhou widened her eyes. “Oh my, Xiao You, you even dare to hit people?”
Ning You: …Even clay has three points of temper.
Before she could explain, Aunt Zhou praised her loudly.
“You did right! Kindness gets bullied. If you had been this strong earlier, you wouldn’t have suffered so much!”
“You must remember to fight back in the future, understand?”
Ning You nodded earnestly. “I understand.”
Aunt Zhou was satisfied and began talking about what she had found out.
“I found news about your younger brother.”
Ning You froze slightly, then her face lit up with excitement. “Really? I didn’t expect it to be so fast. It really takes Auntie to get things done, otherwise I wouldn’t know when I’d find any trace of Dandan.”
She didn’t hold back on praise at all, giving Aunt Zhou full emotional value.
Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Auntie, where is my brother? Is he okay?”
Aunt Zhou patted her shoulder to calm her. “Whether your brother is doing well… you’ll have to see for yourself.”
She felt that Dandan’s situation was probably not much better than his sister’s.
“I understand. Where is he?” Ning You looked anxious.
Being anxious was right.
Not anxious would be the problem.
Aunt Zhou said, “I found out that a few days before your brother went missing, a man claiming to be a distant relative of your father showed up. After your brother disappeared, that man never appeared again. I thought about it and feel something is wrong with him.”
“My father’s distant relative?” Ning You looked confused.
Aunt Zhou slapped her forehead. “Ah, my memory—I didn’t explain clearly.”
“The distant relative I mentioned… is from your paternal grandparents’ side.”
Grandparents?
There’s more?
Ning You quickly searched through the original body’s memory.
Then she became complicated.
So the Ning family was like… fake rich-heiress drama—but on the father’s side?
Quite trendy.
So the powerful Ning family in Haicheng now—the one Ning Zhongyi fawns over—is actually the adoptive family of his parents-in-law, and his blood relatives… are far away somewhere?
Ning Zhongyi was not only ruthless to his own children, but also to his biological parents.
Biological father, biological mother—discarded without hesitation.
When it comes to cold-heartedness, Ning Gong really takes the crown.
Ning You’s emotions became clearer, but her words were limited.
She only wanted to ask—
Is there anything in this world Ning Zhongyi actually cares about?
Aunt Zhou seemed to have become Sherlock Holmes, analyzing seriously.
“You know, everyone around here works at the light fixture factory. Even a fly couldn’t escape notice, let alone a living person. So if something happened, it must be related to that man.”
Ning You: …Ma’am, you weren’t even in the gossip field back then!
Seeing Aunt Zhou getting more and more excited, Ning You didn’t interrupt and cooperated seriously.
“That makes sense. I think so too.”
“Right? Right?” Aunt Zhou said proudly, lifting her chin.
Back when I was young, I was a fashionable lady who read tons of detective novels—this stuff is easy.
Now all those books are burned, such a pity.
A trace of regret flashed in her eyes.
Ning You praised her immediately. “Auntie is still very fashionable now.”
Aunt Zhou laughed heartily. “You really know how to talk…”
“Back then we worried you were too quiet and it would affect your future job, but now this is good—you need to be strong so people won’t bully you.”
Ning You: …If she got bullied, that would be disrespecting her years of ghostly existence.
“Xiao You, what are you planning to do?” Aunt Zhou worried for her.
Ning You wasn’t too worried. She already planned to go down to the countryside. Since she knew about Dandan’s whereabouts, she only needed to arrange going to the Ning family’s area.
But she couldn’t say that.
Saying it might cause complications.
She gave a fragile smile, eyes filled with faint worry. “There will be a way.”
“Don’t rush, I’ll think too…” Aunt Zhou frowned.
But she knew she couldn’t really help.
Finding someone missing for years wasn’t easy.
Ning You shook her head. “I’ll handle this myself. Don’t trouble yourself, Auntie.”
“You’ve already helped me a lot. Searching for someone isn’t a small matter—don’t overwork yourself, or Uncle Shun’an and the others will blame me.”
“They wouldn’t dare!” Aunt Zhou said.
But meeting the girl’s determined gaze, she sighed.
“Alright, you handle it yourself. If you have difficulties, remember to come to me.”
Ning You nodded politely, indicating she understood.
After sending Aunt Zhou off, Ning You just wanted to squat in a corner and smoke a cigarette in peace.
Life is exhausting.
Now that she had news of Dandan, the next step was to investigate the “red lantern” matter.
Thinking is useless—she decided to act immediately and left the house.
The waste collection station wasn’t close to the residential building, but the roads were connected, so it saved some time.
Here, there were fewer people and the buildings were not as grand as in the city center.
“Red lantern, red lantern… where is the red lantern?” Ning You muttered while looking around.
Even with her eyes wide open, she couldn’t see a single trace of a lantern.
Could Ning Yu really be bold enough to trick her?