CHAPTER 288: CHAPTER 288: FINALLY SORTING THINGS OUT

"Yes, this is Wan Yufeng, what’s the matter?" Ye Hengrou asked in confusion.

Ningwan asked seriously, "Auntie, are you sure it’s him? You’re not lying to me?"

"Of course I’m not lying to you, this is the only photo I kept, and I took it myself. How could it be fake? Ningwan, don’t you believe me?" Ye Hengrou looked a bit upset.

Ningwan said, "Auntie, it’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just that the Wan Yufeng I see now looks very different from the person in the photo you gave me."

"This photo is over twenty years old, differences are normal."

"Not this kind of difference, even the height is at least ten centimeters off, this difference is too great. I’ll have someone send you a photo of the current Wan Yufeng and you’ll see." After saying this, Ningwan called Zhan Hanjue.

Soon, Zhan Hanjue sent her a photo of Wan Yufeng.

Ningwan showed it to Ye Hengrou.

Ye Hengrou was astonished, "Who is this? This can’t be Wan Yufeng, I don’t know this person at all."

"This is indeed Wan Yufeng, this is the person I met," Ningwan said.

Ye Hengrou insisted, "Impossible, it can’t be him. Ningwan, you must have made a mistake."

"Take a look at this photo." Ningwan showed a photo of Mrs. Wan.

Ye Hengrou was shocked, "Isn’t this your mother?"

"I thought so at first, but later on, I found out she’s also named Tang Xiaowan, but she grew up in Philadelphia. She has family there and cousins she grew up with, and she’s Wan Yufeng’s second wife. But they have a deep relationship, it’s a famous love story in Philadelphia. Moreover, she said she has an identical twin sister who was taken away by her mother since childhood and went missing, and she said it might be my mother."

"This... I can’t believe such a thing exists."

Ye Hengrou was completely taken aback by what she heard.

"Auntie, I have to go now. Please keep this money. In the future, I might need to ask for your help again."

Ningwan had a suspicion in her heart and didn’t elaborate further with Ye Hengrou.

She left a card, telling her the password, and stood up to leave.

Ye Hengrou hurried to return the card to her, "I can’t take your money. If you need anything, just tell me, I’ll do my best to help. But I can’t take money for such a small favor."

"Auntie, please keep it! I know it’s been tough for you since the Ye Family fell. You don’t have a job, so consider this money as your own little savings." Ningwan forcefully put the money in her hands and left.

Ye Hengrou stood at the door holding the card, feeling both ashamed and touched, and at a loss.

Ningwan didn’t understand the myriad of emotions swirling in her mind.

Leaving Ye Hengrou’s neighborhood, she asked the driver to take her home.

Coincidentally, Zhan Hanjue was also at home.

"Why did you ask me to send you the photo?" Zhan Hanjue asked.

Ningwan bit her lip and slammed her palm heavily on the table.

"Wan Yufeng is too much, orchestrating such a big scheme, a scam from the start, keeping all of us in the dark."

"What did he do?" Zhan Hanjue asked in shock.

This was the second time he’d seen Ningwan this angry.

The last time was because of Mrs. Lin.

Ningwan bit her lip, not knowing where to start.

After a long while, she organized her thoughts and told Zhan Hanjue, "The Tang Xiaowan in Philadelphia is my mother, Tang Xiaowan. There is no twin sister, it’s all a lie fabricated by Wan Yufeng. To deceive us, and to deceive my mother as well. You mentioned that the prison you lived in was from a long time ago, and it seems there was another woman there before, I think that woman was my mother. Before, I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t recognize me, but after Li Qingqing’s incident, I think I understand."

"Was she drugged too, damaging her sanity?" Zhan Hanjue asked.

Ningwan nodded, "From Feng Jiuzun we learned that those drugs can damage one’s sanity. However, damaged sanity alone isn’t enough to cause total memory loss. Li Qingqing must have had other methods to make someone lose their memory later on."

"There must be other methods indeed, Li Qingqing mentioned she couldn’t keep me locked up forever. At most, a week, so I think it must be a week of taking the drugs. But a week later, when my people found me, she still couldn’t keep me confined. There must be other ways to control me without locking me up and make me follow her orders."

"So my mother fully trusted Wan Yufeng, believed she was his wife, and forgot she had ever had a husband and child. To further convince her, Wan Yufeng even fabricated a family for her. The appearance of Tang Lu was to dismiss my doubts, everyone in the Tang Family were actors hired by Wan Yufeng, playing the same role for over a decade."

"So is his support for Li Qingqing only to deal with us?" Zhan Hanjue found this hypothesis hard to believe.

Ningwan said, "Of course, there’s more to it. His support for Li Qingqing is not about the issues between her and us. It’s because he needs Li Qingqing to help him regain his original appearance, or rather, to become himself again."

"Become himself again?"

"Look at this photo, can you recognize who it is?"

Ningwan took the young Wan Yufeng’s photo and showed it to Zhan Hanjue on her phone.

Zhan Hanjue shook his head but then furrowed his brows and said, "It’s familiar, but I can’t recall where I’ve seen it."

"You find it familiar because you know his son."

"Are you saying... he’s Wan Yufeng?"

Zhan Hanjue finally realized who the person in the photo resembled, wasn’t it Wan Tianyi?

Ningwan nodded, "This is a photo my aunt took of Wan Yufeng herself. She knew him, he was her first love, so she wouldn’t lie about it."

"How is this possible, the gap is too big," Zhan Hanjue said.

Ningwan said, "That’s why I’ve finally understood everything. Why Wan Yufeng repeatedly saved Li Qingqing and valued her so much. Why he spent a high price to buy the Thousand-year-old Tai Sui. It’s because he needs Li Qingqing, a doctor, to make medicine and the Tai Sui to be part of the ingredients, so he might develop a medicine to restore his appearance. His current appearance, which looks completely different from before, must be due to something that happened."

"But have you ever thought of one more thing?" Zhan Hanjue said.

"What?" Ningwan frowned.

Zhan Hanjue said, "Over a decade ago, if your mother was truly drugged like you and me, affecting her sanity and eventually losing her memory, but at that time, Li Qingqing was just a little girl. Even if she could meet Wan Yufeng, could she have the ability to develop such a drug? Even with the means, she probably didn’t have the capability."