The night before bidding. 68th floor of Wand Tower. The door to that pink room was usually locked. Cleaning staff Zhou Guifen cleaned it once a week, without exception. Tonight she came a bit later. When the elevator doors opened, the pink room door at the end of the corridor was ajar.
She remembered locking the door when she left last time. She pushed open the door. The lights weren't on. Moonlight leaked in through the gap in the gauze curtains, shining on the princess bed. A dark shadow was crouching next to the bedside cabinet, rummaging through something.
"Who's there?!"
The shadow stood up abruptly, knocking over the small bedside lamp. The bulb shattered. Glass shards scattered all over the floor. Zhou Guifen reached out to feel for the light switch on the wall. At the moment the lights came on, she saw that face clearly. A woman in her fifties. Wearing Wand cleaning staff uniform. Her face was full of panic. Gripping a missing person notice for Nian'nian in her hand.
"You... what are you doing here?!"
That woman didn't answer. She shoved Zhou Guifen aside and rushed out the door. The sound of the fire exit iron door being thrown open echoed through the corridor. Then urgent footsteps in the stairwell. Clang clang clang, fading layer by layer into the distance.
Zhou Guifen leaned against the doorframe, one hand pressing her chest, breathing heavily. After a long while, she fished out her phone and called Shen Zhengye.
"Zhengye, someone entered Nian'nian's room. A cleaning staff member. She took Nian'nian's missing person notice."
Silence on the other end for a short while.
"Mom, did you get a clear look at her face?"
"Yes. Her name badge said Hu Xiufang."
"Understood. You go home and rest first. I'll handle this."
Shen Zhengye hung up the phone and looked down at the report on his desk. Hu Xiufang. Born Hu Yulan. He called Security:
"At the bidding meeting tomorrow, add four more people at the main entrance. Hu Xiufang's badge access doesn't reach the 68th floor. Don't stop her, but keep all entrances and exits under close watch."
"Understood."
Hu Yulan ran out of Wand Tower. Her legs were so weak she could barely stand. She squatted by the roadside for a long time, her hands still trembling. She had seen it. She recognized the photo on that missing person notice. Four-year-old Shen Nian'an. Twenty-four years had passed. She thought she had forgotten those eyes long ago. But the instant she saw those eyes in the photo in the pink room tonight, her heart felt like it was being ruthlessly squeezed.
That child was now called Su Wanting. Working as a project manager at Hongtu Real Estate. Coming to Wand Tower to participate in bidding. She was about to acknowledge her family.
No. Hu Yulan stood up and patted the dust off her pants. Twenty-four years ago, she didn't do it just out of hatred for Shen Zhengye. She did it out of hatred for that black sedan of his. Hatred for that driver who scraped someone and didn't even look. Hatred for those three hundred yuan. Li Guodong lay in the hospital, hurting so much he couldn't sleep through the night. She went door to door borrowing money. Not a single person was willing to lend. Later, Li Guodong died. She tallied all that hatred onto Shen Zhengye's head.
If Shen Nian'an acknowledged her family, Shen Zhengye would have everything complete. His daughter found. The company has someone to inherit. Twenty-four years of pain, wiped clean in one stroke. How could that be? He destroyed her family. How could he get everything complete?
On the LED screen in the first-floor lobby, the bidding meeting countdown: twelve hours.
In the distance on the road, a taxi with its high beams on was driving over from the direction of the provincial expressway. The car window was half open. The night wind rushed in, blowing the woman's hair into a mess. She didn't smooth it down. Her hand gripped an old leather bag on her knees. Her knuckles were white as bone.
The taxi stopped at the entrance of Wand Tower. The woman paid and pushed open the car door. When her foot stepped onto the ground, her legs were so weak she nearly couldn't stand steady. She supported herself against the car door, took a deep breath, and straightened up. Her hair was streaked with white. Her eye sockets were deeply sunken. The wrinkles on her face were like they had been carved one by one with a knife by time. But her eyes were very bright. Not the sharp brightness of a young person. It was the kind of brightness that only someone who had endured twenty-four years and waited twenty-four years would have.
Gu Zhilan looked up at the lights of Wand Tower. The sixty-eight-story building was lit up entirely, like a giant standing under the night sky. She had only one thought: Nian'nian is here.