The blind boss's nanny

At this time, it would be late at night or early morning in China, but she was too happy to notice.

"Codonopsis pilosula! I found it! I've found my little friend!"

As soon as the call connected, Lin Xiaoman's excited voice came through, filled with laughter and relief.

"She's doing exceptionally well! She's nothing like I was worried about!"

Codonopsis seemed to be infected by her joy, her voice also carrying a smile, and she even made a rare little joke:

"See? I told you, not everyone is as unlucky as I was back then. Haha..."

Lin Xiaoman quickly apologized:

"Ah! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean that..."

"It's okay."

It seems like Codonopsis pilosula doesn't mind.

The two chatted for a few more minutes. But after the initial joy of sharing subsided, Lin Xiaoman hesitated for a moment, then casually changed the subject.

"By the way... how's everything going back home? How are the preparations for the chairman's treatment going?"

She tried to make her tone sound like ordinary concern.

Dang Shen on the other end of the phone paused noticeably, seemingly somewhat surprised.

"Didn't he tell you? He... gave up his original plan to go abroad for treatment."

Lin Xiaoman held her phone, standing by the Swan River. She felt all the sounds of people and traffic around her disappear, leaving only the hollow echo of Dang Shen's words in her ears.

Did Lu Tingzhao give up on seeking medical treatment abroad?

Her breath truly stopped for several seconds at that moment.

"……I have no idea."

She heard her own voice ring out, dry, distant, and unlike her own.

"Why...?"

Dang Shen remained silent on the other end of the phone. This question was beyond his scope of duty as a doctor, and he had no right to inquire about the employer's private decision.

"I'm sorry, Xiaoman, I'm not entirely sure about the specific reason."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Xiaoman stood blankly by the riverbank, holding her phone. The warmth and joy that had filled her heart just moments before because she had found Lily vanished in an instant.

Lu Tingzhao... has he given up on himself yet again?

The thought brought her sadness. She remembered his loneliness as he groped in the dark, the solemn expression on his face when he first diagnosed her, and how "seeing the light again" had been their shared hope.

Or is this... just another form of his tactic? Is he using this almost self-destructive method to force her to compromise, to force her to turn back out of guilt and worry?

No, it can't be. Lin Xiaoman shook her head vigorously, trying to shake off the thought.

She understood Lu Tingzhao's pride. That man was used to being in control, used to giving or taking forcefully, but deep down he possessed an almost cold rationality.

He would never, and would never, gamble with his health and future.

This is not his usual style.

What could be the reason? Has something happened at the company that requires someone to stay? Or... has something new and more troublesome happened to his eyes?

A jumble of thoughts washed over her, making her heart, which had just begun to settle, anxious and uneasy again. She took a deep breath of the cold air, which smelled of water, and forced herself to calm down.

"I can't do this," she told herself. This journey was to confirm the past, to find answers, not to let him ensnare her again.

She tried to forcefully suppress Lu Tingzhao's image and this news into the corner of her heart, and tried to bring her attention back to the plan at hand... She still had to find her friends and complete this visit that crossed half the globe.

However, determination is one thing, and the body's instinctive reaction is another.

She turned around almost immediately, walked quickly back to her temporary accommodation, and hurriedly began packing her luggage.

I had originally planned to stay here for a few more days to slowly experience this city, but now every moment of waiting feels unbearable.

She booked a flight to her next destination, London, England, as soon as possible.

But she didn't realize that she was packing her luggage more efficiently and quickly than ever before, and that she was checking flight and hotel information with an unconscious urgency.

An invisible anxiety propelled her forward.

She thought she was firmly continuing her original itinerary, but she didn't realize that on this journey to find her old companions, her pace had involuntarily quickened for some reason she didn't want to admit.

It felt as if something was subtly chasing from behind, and something was silently urging us on from ahead.

Lin Xiaoman boarded a flight from Perth to London.

Next stop, the UK.

The road ahead remains unclear.

But she felt a greater sense of certainty and strength than when she arrived. Whether her friends remembered it or not, the most important answer to the meaning of her trip was found the moment she saw Lily's smile.

The plane soared into the sky, and Perth gradually shrank into a tiny dot on the map. Lin Xiaoman gazed at the cotton candy-like sea of ​​clouds outside the window and gently closed her eyes.

Domestically, the study at the Lu Family Manor.

As night deepened, Lu Tingzhao gently placed an old photograph, which he had found deep in the storage room that afternoon, in front of his younger brother, Lu Tingzhou, who was sitting opposite him.

Lu Tingzhou was still seething with anger from dinner. He didn't rush to look at the photos, leaning back in his chair, his tone still tinged with rage:

"Big brother, are you just going to let this go like that? That brat Lu Tingxi dared to flip the table today, she'll dare to do it again tomorrow... If you hadn't stopped me back then, I would have taught her a lesson and seen if she would dare to do it again..."

Lu Tingzhao interrupted him.

"Tingzhou, when was this photo of Father taken?"

Lu Tingzhou's remaining words caught in his throat. Only then did he notice his elder brother's unusually calm, even solemn, expression. He frowned and reached for the yellowed photograph.

The photo isn't high resolution, but the scene is very formal. The background is a simple open-air venue with a red banner that reads something like "Warmly celebrate the successful commissioning of the XX mining area in Suixian County."

A group of people dressed in Zhongshan suits or old-fashioned Western suits stood on the stage, and the middle-aged man sitting in the center, surrounded by the crowd, was their deceased father, Lu Xing.

This image was taken when Lu Xing, as an investor, participated in mining activities in a small resource-rich town in northern China in his early years. He invested in many similar projects at that time, with mining being an important part of them.

Lu Tingzhou was able to recognize the location at a glance because the banner clearly stated "Sui County".

"This... must have happened when we were three or four years old, right?"

Lu Tingzhou tried hard to recall,

"I don't remember the specifics. I only remember that Dad stayed in the north for quite a while, maybe half a year? When he came back, he replaced the decorative crystals on the big chandelier in the living room with real gemstones he brought back from there, and showed them off for a long time."

His tone conveyed a sense of disapproval of his father's flamboyant manner.