Chapter 173 - 173: Old Prodigal Man

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“Elder Yuan, I wonder if you and the other party have any unique tokens that you can provide me with so that I can find them.” Lu Zhi asked again.

Old Master Yuan was already prepared. He took out a frost flower ring from his pocket and handed it to him.

“This is the love token I gave her. She has the same one. We agreed that we would keep it well for the rest of our lives. When we meet again, we will take out this ring to acknowledge each other.”

Lu Zhi took it and studied it carefully.

Apart from the design, there was nothing special about this ring. The material used was inferior silver.

There was also a year engraved on it, which was already thirty-five years ago.

He handed it to Jiang Yining and let her look at it for a while.

Then, she returned it to Old Master Yuan solemnly.

Old Master Yuan then handed him a file containing all the information about his first love. He said, “This is some other information. You may go back and take a look at it.”

“Alright, within a month, regardless of whether we find them or not, 1 will give you an explanation, Elder Yuan.”

“Deal.”

Lu Zhi didn’t stay any longer after they had settled the terms.

He bid farewell to Old Master Yuan.

Old Master Yuan didn’t ask them to stay. He stood up and walked them to the living room.

Lu Zhi and Jiang Yining walked out of the Yuan family’s main gate and bumped into the eldest young master of the Yuan family, Yuan Xudong.

Lu Zhi nodded slightly and greeted him.

Yuan Xudong’s expression was indifferent as he greeted, “Hello.”

Then, he left in a hurry.

When they got into the car, Jiang Yining couldn’t help but ask curiously, “This Old Master Yuan is too strange. He searched for so long but couldn’t find them. Why is he so sure that we can help him find them? Besides, he already had seven sons. Why does he have to find his daughter?”

What was even stranger was that Old Master Yuan clearly had sons, but he did not expect his sons to help him.

Instead, he placed his hopes on outsiders like them.

This matter was really strange.

Jiang Yining couldn’t figure it out.

Lu Zhi raised his hand and knocked on her head. He said, “The more you know, the more dangerous it is. We only need to take responsibility and help Old Master Yuan find his first love. We don’t have to care about anything else.”

Jiang Yining pursed her lips and nodded.

Indeed, there was no need to delve too deeply into it.

The two of them returned home.

The butler had already arranged all the betrothal gifts that Lu Zhi had bought.

Apart from the living room downstairs, there were four rooms upstairs.

Jiang Yining was deeply suspicious that Lu Zhi had bought all the top jewelry stores in A-City.

She asked Lu Zhi to send them back.

Lu Zhi said, “Others already know that 1 bought it for my wife and that it’s a betrothal gift. If 1 return all of it, I’m afraid I’ll become the laughingstock of the entire A-City.”

“Just say that 1 don’t like them.”

“It’s normal that you don’t like one or two pieces. If you don’t like a large number of them, who wouldn’t be able to see the problem?”

Lu Zhi said firmly, “Since I’ve already bought it, I think it’s better not to return it. If you don’t like them, you can put them away. When your daughter gets married in the future, they can be used as dowry.”

Jiang Yining was speechless.

She hadn’t even found the person she liked. How could she give birth to a daughter?

Forget it.

It was his money anyway.

He didn’t even feel sorry for himself, so why was she worried?

After coaxing and deceiving her, he finally managed to settle the matter of the betrothal gifts.

Lu Zhi opened the folder and shared the information with Jiang Yining.

After Jiang Yining read it, she went back to her room and fiddled with it for a while before taking out a more detailed document.

Lu Zhi smiled mysteriously and said, “Your tracking skills are not inferior to a criminal investigation expert. Who did you learn from?”

“I learned it myself.”

Jiang Yining’s heart was beating wildly.

She was really careless.

He had suspected that she was the hacker, ‘Queen’, but it took her a long time to dispel his doubts.

Why did she accidentally expose her true side?

“Is that so?” Lu Zhi asked calmly.

Jiang Yining quickly changed the topic. “Don’t latch on to me like you’re interrogating a criminal. Let’s hurry up and look at the information.”

“Okay.”

Old Master Yuan’s first love was called Zhang Qiaoqiao. She was sold to the Xie family at the age of ten to be the personal maid of the young lady of the Xie family. Later, she fell in love with Old Master Yuan and was pregnant with a daughter. After the matter was exposed, she was chased out of the house by the Xie family for ruining the family’s reputation.

After Zhang Qiaoqiao left the Xie family, she opened her own bun shop and hired two workers.

However, it went bankrupt due to poor management.

Later, Zhang Qiaoqiao’s identity card was revoked and there was no more news of her.

Jiang Yining also found the names and addresses of the two workers, as well as the midwife who delivered Zhang Qiaoqiao’s baby and the basic information about Zhang Qiaoqiao’s good friends.

This was enough for them to investigate further.

Lu Zhi called Qi Feng and asked him to look for the relevant people to ask about the specific situation.

Qi Feng received the order and quickly took action.

After two busy days, Jiang Yining had sorted out some things about Zhang Qiaoqiao. Back then, after Zhang Qiaoqiao left the Xie family, and it seemed that the Xie family made things difficult for her. Therefore, after the bun shop closed, she changed her name and disappeared.

At that time, the management of household registration was not very strict.

It was normal for people to change places and identities.

Zhang Qiaoqiao was also treated as a missing person because no one had used this identity for a long time.

However, it would be even more difficult to track her down in the future.

Lu Zhi told her not to worry about this for the time being. He would continue to investigate.

She just had to focus on her studies.

After all, the mid-term exams were coming up.

When Jiang Yining was sent to Qing University, other than her homeroom teacher, no one else thought highly of her.

Jiang Yining didn’t want to embarrass her teacher.

She listened to Lu Zhi and focused on her revision for a week.

The days passed very quickly and it was already time for her mid-term exams.

Jiang Yining finished the last exam and walked out of the exam room, letting out a sigh of relief.

Ye Xiaoxi followed beside her and said enviously, “Yining, you must have done very well, right? You’re so smart and serious in your studies. Your grades should be good.”

“I think I did so-so.”

Jiang Yining didn’t want to attract too much attention.

Moreover, her ultimate goal in coming to Qing University was not to study and get good grades.

Therefore, she deliberately made a few mistakes.

“How is that possible? Are you lying to me?” Ye Xiaoxi did not believe her.

“What did Yining lie to you about?” Xiao Yeyu asked with a smile when she heard Ye Xiaoxi’s words.

“Yining said that she did just so-so, but 1 think she can get first place in our entire department.”

“Wow, is Yining that powerful?” Xiao Yeyu asked in surprise.

“Yes! You haven’t seen her before…”

Jiang Yining covered Ye Xiaoxi’s mouth before she could finish her sentence.

“Don’t listen to her spouting nonsense,” she said calmly, “She blindly worships me.”

Xiao Yeyu thought so too.

“Alright then. Yining, Xiaoxi, we haven’t had a gathering in a long time. Why don’t we go out for a meal and sing?” Jiang Yining had been very busy recently, and Xiao Yeyu couldn’t even get a chance to spend time with her, so she was very anxious.

It was not easy to bump into her, so she naturally wanted to pull Jiang Yining along to hang out together.

And to improve their relationship.

“Alright! I’ve been revising for a month, and look at my dark circles.”

Ye Xiaoxi pointed at her eyes.

Jiang Yining looked at it and said seriously, “You should rest well first. We’ll talk about hanging out another day.”

“No. Let’s go crazy today. I’ll go home and sleep later.”

Ye Xiaoxi clung to her and refused to let go.

Jiang Yining had no choice but to agree.

Xiao Yeyu was so happy that her mouth almost reached the back of her ears.

The three of them went to eat hot pot together. Then, they found a karaoke place and booked a big private room for six hours.

When the staff of the karaoke place led them in…

Coincidentally, Xie Lian came out of the elevator and inadvertently caught a glimpse of a familiar figure.

She stopped in her tracks and whispered a few words to the person beside her..