It was faint but that glint was there. The glimpse of recognition that Jia wanted to see when caught off-guard. It disappeared the very next moment but that couldn’t erase what she had already seen.
Now yes, there were rumors of him entangled with a sex worker as what she got to know from Meng Rin. But would he accept that?
Instead of answering her question right away, he gave her a long, hard stare.
Yang Bingqing pouted. "Don’t scare my girl, okay?"
His intense stare dialed down at her complaint and he slightly shifted.
"Why are you asking about her?"
Jia blinked. He didn’t ask who she was, rather why was Jia asking about her? It, once again, proved a hint of familiarity with the woman. So she gave a short summary of what she had come across in Huayuan by listening to Yong’s story of the past. She did mention the rumor she learned from Meng Rin too but kept her name in the dark.
"...Huayuan is still investigating her?" He stared at her blankly.
The blank stare told Jia that this was the least expected information to him until now.
Had he assumed she was...dead?
"At the very least, they are trying to find what happened to her."
His expression hardened.
"With this I believe...you did know her?"
"Yes."
Her eyes slightly widened. She truly hadn’t expected Zhuo Zihan’s admittance to it.
"How, if I may ask?"
This might be a stupid question she knew but nevertheless, she wanted to know.
"I was her client."
Once again, Jia inwardly couldn’t hold back her shock.
He even admitted that he was her client?
For a son who was the front face of such an influential political family, he surely wasn’t holding back his answers or even showing any tactical diplomacy.
"Nothing ever happened between us though. But tell me first."
Jia sensed a tremble in his voice.
"Is she...alive?" He could barely get those words out.
She held a solemn gaze. "I’m also unsure about that Mr. Zhuo. They are doing everything they can to know the truth. That is why I came to you. If you know anything about her, then it might help fill the gaps."
Zhuo Zihan exhaled a breath, his gaze looking distant. He was trying very hard to hold his expressions but only kept failing. For somebody whose future path was set to become a politician and follow his father’s footsteps, he was doing a very bad job in hiding his emotions.
"There came a point in my life that I felt too suffocating."
A grim silence ensued.
"I was simply tired of everything. The situation at home wasn’t so favorable."
Clearly, Jia sensed that the relationship between him and his parents wasn’t all smooth-sailing.
"One day, I had simply wandered off to Huayuan. I had no particular destination in my mind. I just landed there. I paid for one of the women’s time there but I didn’t sleep with her. I wasn’t interested in that. I just talked with her. I liked talking to her. So I visited again and again.
Slowly, it became more and more difficult for me to visit the place because of my increasing responsibilities. So I started to call her home. Mom and Dad didn’t know her background. They thought I met the woman in some pub."
Yang Bingqing said, "I feel they would have vehemently disagreed with you bringing a woman of that background."
"Yes. They just thought I was fooling around so they didn’t interfere much as long as...I didn’t become serious about her."
Which Jia now knew he had.
"I finally learned her name one day."
Jia saw a distinct trace of warmth in his eyes. "Nuwa it was. I liked it."
Though it was more than ten years ago, Zhuo Zihan felt as if it was just yesterday.
"Eventually, Mom and Dad learned her true identity. They hated her. They could never accept a woman like her for me."
Jia slowly asked, "What about Miss. Nuwa?"
"I think...she liked me too. I want to believe she did," he shivered. "But she said she couldn’t leave Huayuan. The tyrant that ruled then was a prick. Long Sicong. I was ready to buy her out. But she couldn’t leave her sisters to suffer under him while she would freely live."
Jia thought this part matched with what Ruolan had contested all those years ago - that Nuwa would never leave them. She would never accept anybody’s offer to leave her sisters behind.
"What happened...around the time she stopped coming?"
"She had visited the Zhuo villa one day. I wasn’t in Beijing at the time. Apparently, she came to meet me..." he clenched his fists, "but Mom had given her an even bigger check than mine to get the hell away from my life. Mom told that she took it and disappeared but I know she didn’t. She wouldn’t have taken any check. She wouldn’t have taken any money.
I tried to find her as soon as I returned fromy trip but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. Dad told me one day that a woman’s body was found in a river that looked like Nuwa. Her build was like Nuwa. But her face was disfigured. It was said that she had escaped from Huayuan and met her death. But I never believed it. It was too convenient to make me forget about her." Find the newest release on N0velFire.ɴet
Wait, Yong didn’t tell me about this. A woman died who was taken to be as Miss. Nuwa?
Maybe she didn’t tell me because she didn’t believe it like him either...
"You never went to..."
His gaze darkened. "Identify the dead woman? No. There wasn’t any need. I know it wasn’t her. So I continued my search but never got anywhere."
That was the reason why Zhuo Zihan looked so stunned about hearing her ask about Nuwa. He wasn’t expecting that somebody was still searching for her even after all these years.
"She is alive, right? If Huayuan is still searching for her, that means..." he shook hard.
"Like I said, Mr. Zhuo, they want to find the truth of what happened behind her sudden disappearance. They are also not sure..."
After few moments of silence, Yang Bingqing pitched in. "Zihan."
He took a deep breath and tried to calm his shaky self. He looked at her with respect. "Yes, Mrs. Yang."
"Oof, I tell you to call me Aunty," she pouted. "You never listen. Anyway, I will scold you for that later. What I wanted to ask is whether you know that Nuwa might have paid a visit to the Hou family?"