CHAPTER 191: CHAPTER 46: A BEAUTY HARD TO FIND AGAIN

It was a thick album, unlike the simple furnishings in the guard’s bungalow, filled with hundreds of densely packed photos, much like a beehive tightly surrounded by hornets.

Su Ziceng didn’t dare to casually touch those old photos, as most of them had already turned dim and yellow. The men and women on them appeared age-blurred with swollen faces due to the gloomy and damp environment.

Qiao Zhi’an pulled away the outer photos, searching for a few from the very inside, "This one is of Xiao Chu when she was just one month old, this one when she was six, this one at twelve years old..." Each photo featured a face so faded and smeared by water stains that their features were barely recognizable.

Apart from Su Ziceng, who patiently looked on, the other two lost the patience to examine them closely. Through the photos, one could faintly smell the bygone olden days.

"And this one, taken when Xiao Chu started school," that photo was Qiao Zhi’an’s favorite because the Qiao Chu in it was slender and graceful, the closest to the Xiao Chu in Qiao Zhi’an’s memory. It was only this photo that captured everyone’s attention.

The Kelly Women’s College’s enrollment photo, Su Ziceng snatched the photo; in the no longer glamorous bungalow, he stared at the girl in the photo with big black and white eyes and a playful smile. Wearing medium-length hair and the Kelly uniform, Qiao Chu was there, and beside her...

For some reason, Yan Wuxu let out a low cry; her face appeared even more deathly pale in the dim light of the guard’s cabin.

"Is this Aunt Qiao?" Han Fang was the only one among the four who looked at the photo with the detachment of a bystander. "And that person next to her, isn’t it Secretary Chang? And that one? She and Xiao Xu?"

Indeed, the old photo from Kelly Women’s School, centered around Qiao Chu and Chang Mei, also featured a girl. Su Ziceng recognized her as the student whose portrait had been cut out by Chang Mei with just a glance.

After seeing this photo, Su Ziceng understood why Chang Mei had cut out that photo. Chang Mei was a jealous woman. And that female student shone like the sun, merely with a photo, she attracted everyone’s gaze.

Yan Wuxu resembled her but also did not. The student had wavy brown hair unlike the other Kelly girls, her eyes bursting with the luster of sun and moon, and a plump set of lips with slightly upturned corners exuding a look of playful reproach and pride that dismissed everything.

Ye Taina, a meteor-like brilliance crossed the minds of Su Ziceng and Yan Wuxu simultaneously.

She was Ye Taina, Yan Wuxu gazed dazedly, Chang Mei’s words were true. If Su Qingzhang fell in love with such a woman, then she, Yan Wuxu, was destined to never escape the magic spell of this woman in her lifetime. Su Qingzhang’s lips kissed the eyes of Ye Taina every day and night. Yan Wuxu’s fingers were so horrifyingly contorted together.

Is this Ye Taina? Su Ziceng looked at the woman in the photo, her arm linked with Qiao Chu’s, with not a sliver of space between their arms, the corners of their eyes carrying the carefree lines of laughter unique to youth. Their heads were tilted warmly towards each other, like comrades who had been through battles together, or like companions strolling together at sunset.

An inexplicable sense of closeness welled up from the bottom of his heart, as if a spring long secreted in his heart had only just gently started to flow today.

"Who is she?" Su Ziceng couldn’t help but confirm once more, even though the pair of expressive eyes had already conveyed everything, including their playful youth and past friendship.

"There’s a name on the back of the photo," Qiao Zhi’an flipped the photo around. On the back, with several spots of mold, Su Ziceng felt a tad resentful internally; such a fine photo had been ruined. He struggled to resist the urge to take the photo with him, squinting at the dozens of tiny names.

"Chang Mei, Qiao Chu, Ye Taina!" Qiao Chu also knew Ye Taina. Unseen, a door had already opened for Su Ziceng.

"Uncle," Su Ziceng grasped Qiao Zhi’an’s hand excitedly. Qiao Zhi’an was caught off guard, feeling warmth he hadn’t touched in many years. Qiao Chu came to life again, just like back then, holding his hand, pleading with him to let her leave the Qiao Family and set out with Su Qing.

What exactly happened to the Qiao family back then, to decline to such a state today. From the custom tableware used by the Qiao family to the many photos left by Qiao Chu, it was evident that the Qiao family once enjoyed considerable prestige in Mo City. Over the past twenty or so years, Z country hadn’t experienced war chaos nor governmental changes, so what caused the Qiao family’s fortune to fall halfway, to the extent that the ancestral graves were untended and the whole family had to relocate?