When Mu Chen heard the question from Zhao Youlin, he paused for a moment, then cast a glance at Zhao Youlin before looking at the box with the necklace. He looked down, and with a hint of grief, he said, “This is a memento of Sister Lin.”
“Memento?” Zhao Youlin’s expression instantly turned strange.
Mu Chen did not notice her expression. He nodded and said, “At that time, when Sister Lin was shot and brought to the ambulance, this necklace fell from her body. I picked it up and put it away. Sister Lin likes this necklace the most, and she wears it every day. I’ve already seen it a few times. Later, Sister Lin was…”
Mu Chen’s eyes turned red, and his voice became a little choked up. Clearly, he remembered what happened at that time. He sucked up a deep breath before he could compose himself. He continued, “I put away this necklace, and when I bring it around, it was as if Sister Lin was still beside me. At that time, I swore that I will definitely work hard and bring those drug dealers who murdered Sister Lin to justice soon so that she can rest in peace. Now, since we captured those people, I can finally return the necklace to the owner.”
As Mu Chen spoke, he soberly put the box in his hands in front of the tomb, then bowed at it before he left with An Kexin.
To prevent these two from suspecting anything, Zhao Youlin walked with them a little before she bade farewell with them and split up with them.
But in truth, Zhao Youlin did not leave the cemetery with them. Instead, she walked back from another path and returned in front of her grave.
Zhao Youlin did not know why she returned to this place. Before the tomb, the beautiful foxtail lilies swayed slightly because of the breeze, and they looked really beautiful.
The picture on the tombstone was of her when she was dressed in a police uniform, and she was smiling.
Zhao Youlin stared at the familiar but unfamiliar face in the picture, and she was filled with complicated feelings.
A few months ago, if someone told her that she would stand in front of her grave as another person, she would definitely think that the person was off her rockers.
But now, she was standing in front of her grave and looked at her deceased portrait. Her mind was blank.
After a long time, Zhao Youlin suddenly bent down, picked up the box with the necklace in front of the tombstone, put it into her pocket, and left without hesitation.
Behind her, the white foxtail lilies still swayed slowly in the wind as sunlight illuminated the face of the deceased person on the tombstone.
Zhao Youlin had stayed too long in the cemetery, so much so that the driver who was tasked to wait for her started becoming anxious.
He was about to run back and check whether something had happened to Zhao Youlin when he saw her walking slowly toward him from a spot not far away.
“Ms. Youlin.” The driver poked his head out of the car window and beckoned Zhao Youlin over.
Zhao Youlin smiled and strode over. She opened the car door and sat inside.
“I suddenly ran into something, so I was held up for a bit. I’ve kept you waiting.”
When the driver heard Zhao Youlin say this, he quickly said, “You didn’t. But did you run into something good inside, Ms. Youlin?”
Zhao Youlin was stunned. She had been focused on the sights outside the car, but now, she looked back and fixed her eyes on the driver in front of her. She asked softly, “Why do you ask?”
The driver had always been talkative, and he knew that most of the time, the eldest lady was not as difficult to serve as the other lady in the Zhao family. Even though she would sometimes give off a fearsome presence, she was often quite easy to talk to. So, he did not act affectatiously and laughed boldly while saying, “I just felt something different about you after you came out, but I can’t quite put my finger to it. It’s just that I suddenly feel like you’re good like this. You no longer look as cold and distant as before, like you don’t fit in.”
Zhao Youlin found herself unable to say anything for a long time after she heard what the driver said. After some time, she placed her elbow on the car window sill and propped her chin on her hand as she looked outside. She mumbled, “Is that so?”
The driver shuddered, and it was only then that he noticed that he had said something horrible. In his panic, he said this to save the situation, “Ms. Youlin, I was just running my mouth off. Please don’t put it to mind.”
Zhao Youlin smiled faintly and replied, “It’s fine. You don’t have to be so nervous. What you said is good.”
It was then that the driver felt at ease. He continued driving and said nothing else.
Zhao Youlin watched the scenery flit past the window while she mulled over what the driver said.
Some time passed, and Zhao Youlin finally looked away from the scenery outside to reach for the box in her pocket.
Mu Chen was right. She valued this necklace a lot. Even when she went out on missions, she brought it along and never left it. It was not that the necklace was beautiful, it was just that this necklace was the only item her biological mother had left for her.
Zhao Youlin took the necklace out of the box and gently opened the heart-shaped pendant. In an instant, a rather old photo was revealed in front of Zhao Youlin’s eyes.
The woman in the photo looked at the child in her arms gently. There was happiness in her eyes, and they were filled with great maternal love. Anyone who looked at it would find themselves touched.
Zhao Youlin had been abandoned in front of an orphanage as a baby. When the director found her, she only had some money and this necklace in the blanket wrapped around her.
The director believed that the woman in the photo was Zhao Youlin’s biological mother, and it was because of this photo that the director always believed that Zhao Youlin’s mother had some indescribable problems that led to her abandoning Zhao Youlin in front of the orphanage, which was why the director had Zhao Youlin wear the necklace since she was young.
Unfortunately, up to the moment she died, Zhao Youlin never saw her biological mother.
Zhao Youlin did not know why she had suddenly thought about wanting to go back to pick up the necklace. Perhaps she still hoped that she could meet her biological mother one day, even if she could only look at her from a distance.
With that thought in mind, Zhao Youlin cast a deep look at the smiling woman in the photo, and as if she was affected, she could not help but smile as well.
Zhao Youlin’s mood had been uplifted because she ran into Mu Chen coincidentally and retrieved the token that she cared about. But the people in the Zhao family were not so lucky.
Li Hongyu already felt that things were bad when she saw how the old master treated Zhao Youlin in the cemetery. But there were plenty of people there at that time, so she could not show what she was feeling on her face.
Once she got back home and sent Zhao Shuncheng away, she asked Zhao Youxi for information, but to her surprise, the moment she asked for information, she heard something major.
“What?! You said that the old master let that wench into Zhao Enterprise, and she even has a role as important as the general manager?!” The moment Li Hongyu finished hearing Zhao Youxi’s words, she jumped up from the bed.
