Stars In His Eyes
Chapter 1069: Seeking the Truth 14

Chapter 1069: Chapter 1069: Seeking the Truth 14

After He Da returned home, his mood immediately became much heavier.

As he said, he was originally resentful towards the Gu Family on behalf of He Zhilan, but the genuflection of Grandma Gu had softened his heart.

However, now, after hearing so much from He Dongxue about the underlying complexities, he felt even more antipathetic towards the Gu family members.

Inside the He Family home, He Father was still leading the Gu and Lan family members around the house.

"This room is the one where Zhilan and Ateng currently live, and that one over there is Zhilan’s own room from before. Zhilan was especially afraid of the dark when she was small. She had to sleep with a candle lit, all the way until dawn. But she was stubborn, and no matter what, she wouldn’t let Dongxue stay with her in the room. That room still contains many of the books and stationery she used when studying. When Zhilan first arrived, she could write in large characters, that is, with a brush, and she wrote quite artistically. The elders in the village all praised her writing as handsome. However, later on, we never saw her write again."

"Her characters were taught to her by the old master, hand in hand. When the old master had his birthday when she was very young, she even wrote a birthday couplet for him. After all these years, the old master treasured it like a precious jewel. But it was torn up by that beast Gu En, and that anger made the old master seriously ill, and he passed away." Grandma Gu, at the mention of Gu En, no longer knew what emotions to use to describe him, let alone find the words to express those feelings.

"Comrade He, you don’t know, back when Zhilan went missing, I and the old master both flew to C Province to search together. Zhilan’s mother, due to the continued failure to find the child, blamed herself. Later, she couldn’t even recognize people properly. When she saw children about Zhilan’s age, she would hold onto them, insisting that they were our Zhilan. Several times, she brought other people’s children home from the streets, hiding them and insisting on watching them closely, for fear the child would disappear again. That scared so many children and neighbors. Later, Zhilan’s mother brought Gu En back, treating her as Zhilan. She was actually the adopted daughter of our Gu Family. For a long while, Zhilan’s mother treated Gu En as Zhilan until we found her a psychologist. It was only after that did Zhilan’s mother slowly start to recover."

"Because of this, my mother also suffered from insomnia for over ten years, relying on sleeping pills to get some rest all these years," continued Gu Hengyuan. "In the end, it’s all because we, as parents, didn’t care for our child properly, leading to her being kidnapped and suffering so much."

"Old brother, it’s a good thing Zhilan later met you," said Gu Mother with teary eyes. "I’m really grateful to the heavens for letting Zhilan have a father like you, who has taken our place as her biological parents in cherishing her."

Although the He Family was poor, He Father, aside from not being able to provide He Zhilan with a better life, had given her everything he could. Even enduring the ridicule and scorn of the villagers, he managed to send her to university.

The Gu Family, with every step they took in the He’s house, imagined in their minds what Gu Zhilan was like when she first arrived.

With a body covered in injuries, she must have been terrified of this strange world, this unfamiliar home.

When she was little, such a cute and chatty little girl who couldn’t stop talking to people became, in the villagers’ words, someone who didn’t talk much and didn’t interact with others, almost like a child with autism, as if she lived only in her own world.

After the rain stopped in the afternoon, the Gu and Lan families left the He Family home.

He Da conveyed He Dongxue’s words verbatim to the Gu Family, and the people from both the Gu and Lan families nodded in agreement.

They all understood the stakes involved better than anyone, and they all feared He Zhilan getting hurt more than anything.