Chapter 230: Chapter 230

Shi Nian widened her eyes in surprise and was about to call out "Chairman," but Huangfu Huazhang walked over with a smile and clinked glasses with her: "Hi, Mr. Shi. Just call me William or Huangfu Huazhang."

Shi Nian’s heart skipped a beat, appreciating his understanding nature.

He knew her true identity, yet he also knew she didn’t want others to know Shi Nian=Nana, so when he noticed she was about to blurt out "Chairman," he stepped in to cover for her.

If this group of people heard the term "Chairman," someone might guess that she was pretending to be a student.

Shi Nian nodded gratefully, then proactively clinked glasses with him: "Mr. Huangfu, I didn’t expect it to be you. Good evening."

Tang Yansheng looked over in surprise: "Oh? Huangfu and Shi Nian, you two knew each other before?" She raised her eyebrows and smiled at the two: "I thought Huangfu was always such a low-key and mysterious person, and Shi Nian is a girl who likes quiet. How did the two of you cross paths? I can’t help being curious."

"Uh..." Huangfu Huazhang pondered slightly, but his gaze fell on Tang Yan Yi.

Tang Yan Yi was still wearing a police uniform, so Shi Nian understood that Huangfu Huazhang must have thought about the incident where Tang Yan Yi knew about their rescue connection.

Shi Nian quickly stepped forward to explain: "Big sister, it’s , I am ultimately in the business of journalism, so I had been curious about the story of the low-key and mysterious helm of the Ford Group, so I once tried to contact Mr. Fude... unexpectedly, it turned out to be this Mr. Huangfu."

"Oh, I see." That was indeed the best excuse, so Tang Yansheng accepted it with a smile.

Huangfu Huazhang’s gaze still lingered on Tang Yan Yi’s police uniform, but he leaned slightly to whisper in Shi Nian’s ear: "So you’ve already investigated my background? The helm of Ford Group... this identity, I don’t think I’ve ever told you."

Shi Nian blushed to her ears and felt a bit regretful for unintentionally letting the cat out of the bag. If Huangfu Huazhang was indeed the person she suspected, wasn’t she inadvertently telling him that she and the police were already investigating his information?

She hurriedly covered up: "...Mr. Huangfu, please don’t mind. You know, I’m a journalist, it’s always inevitable to have such occupational diseases." She looked up, wanting to see the expression in his eyes: "Who told you to always act so low-key, I couldn’t even find your phone number before, so I tried to find out your identity."

Yet his eyes remained completely calm, only containing a faint smile, revealing nothing.

"Don’t worry, I’m not at all unhappy. On the contrary, I’m very glad you are curious about me."

As he spoke, his gaze subtly glanced over her handbag. She unconsciously tightened her grip on the bag, realizing that the note with the phone number he had given her was still in it.

He smiled even more pleasantly: "But in the future, you don’t have to work so hard, because I’ve already opened the door to me for you. My phone number, did you forget? That’s my private number; if you have any questions to ask me, you can call that number anytime."

Shi Nian blushed again: "How embarrassing."

Although his words were clearly well-intentioned, they made her heart race involuntarily.

She couldn’t quite understand why, but instinctively, she received such a signal that left her unable to trace its origin.

Perhaps it was because Huangfu Huazhang’s gaze lingered a little longer on Tang Yan Yi’s uniform, or maybe because Tang Yan Yi was quite curious about the interaction between Shi Nian and Huangfu Huazhang, though she was talking to her elder sister, her gaze was also unreservedly fixed on Huangfu Huazhang.

"Big sister, you said he is our distant relative, what does that mean? And this man, where did you meet him?"

Tang Yansheng smiled: "These matters might be fate as well. On this trip back to Asia, I also visited a few conflict zones and felt a great pity for the cultural heritage trapped in the war. What surprised me was that there were indeed organizations working quietly to save those cultural heritages from the war."

Tang Yansheng nodded towards Huangfu Huazhang: "After many twists and turns, I found out that those ’battlefield rescue companies’ were all funded by him. The recovered cultural relics, he asks experts to restore and then hands them over to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for custody, or once the country’s situation stabilizes, returns them to the country unconditionally."

"Is that so?" Tang Yan Yi squinted her eyes.

Tang Yansheng had just returned and didn’t understand why Tang Yan Yi was so suspicious of Huangfu Huazhang, so she tried hard to explain: "Once I was also trapped in a city under crossfire, and couldn’t evacuate in time; it was his employees who saved me, and I met him in the helicopter during the retreat."

"What can I say... perhaps it was predestined, I felt a similarity in temperament between him and the men in our family, particularly in his manner of thinking and speaking, very much like Yan Xi and Yanqing. So while chatting idly, we talked about each other’s family stories. It turns out his family had several generations of female heads who were Chinese, not just his mother."

Tang Yansheng recalled the situation at that time and couldn’t help but smile knowingly: "Xiao Yi, you all are younger, so you don’t know the family stories in detail, but since I’m in this line of work and your eldest sister, I know a lot more about the family history. About a hundred years ago, our family had an avant-garde great-aunt who was very independent."

"At that time, our family’s Military Governor ancestor had just been appointed as the Grand Admiral of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, which was effectively the country’s head of state... That aunt was his most beloved youngest daughter. He originally intended to marry her off to the son of the Prime Minister, but unexpectedly, that aunt fell in love with a reporter from M Country who had come to interview, and she eloped with him during the chaos of war, fleeing to M Country."

Tang Yan Yi couldn’t help but be surprised: "Elder sister, you’re not saying that the reporter from M Country was an ancestor of the Ford family, and our aunt actually married into the Ford family?" Thᴇ link to the origɪn of this information rᴇsts ɪn novel⟡fire.net

Tang Yan Sheng nodded happily: "He and I both thought of this, so we checked our respective family trees, and it turned out to be true."

A hundred years ago during the chaotic times of war, a hundred years ago, someone bravely left for love, leading to the mysterious disappearance of the Tang family’s daughter. It was once thought that they had long been separated by heaven and earth, yet unexpectedly, though separated by vast seas, one day relatives met in a foreign land.

"It’s a pity that over a hundred years have passed, and the bloodline between our two families has been diluted by ten generations, making us very distant relatives now. However, it’s also amazing, for such distant relatives and even though he is mixed-race, he still resembles our family in manner and demeanor. This might be the miraculous power of genetic inheritance," Tang Yan Sheng reflected with a sigh.

"Is that so? That’s quite a coincidence." Tang Yan Yi couldn’t help but smile.

If the Tang family and the Huangfu family are distant relatives through marriage, and the Huangfu family and the Mark family are the same... Then the Tang family, Huangfu family, and the Mark family are really intertwined together. Who would have thought that because of an ordinary campus injury incident, the histories of several families could be linked together.

Perhaps this world is indeed small, truly connecting any person on this planet within six degrees of separation.

Tang Yanqing came downstairs with a small lunch box, naturally casting her gaze first toward that small circle of people. However, in the dim light, Huangfu Huazhang seemed to stand by coincidence in a shadowy part of the lighting, so Tang Yanqing did not see him at first glance.

Tang Yanqing’s attention was first drawn by Luo Xiansheng.

Such a small group of people stood together chatting lively, yet Luo Xiansheng was standing outside the circle, in a blind spot of vision that none of that group would notice, quietly gazing in that direction. He drank one glass after another, cloaked in solitude.

Obviously, he was watching them but didn’t want them to notice him.

Tang Yanqing sighed and walked over: "Do you need a little handkerchief to bite?"

"Don’t tease," Luo Xiansheng said, uninterested, not in the mood for a joke.

Tang Yanqing stood by his side, trying to observe from his perspective in that direction.

Luo Xiansheng lowered his head sadly: "Just now, Yan Sheng brought in a new guest, whom I have never seen. But it seems that Yan Sheng is very close to him. I think maybe during her six months away, she finally met someone who satisfies her."

Tang Yanqing understood, and turned her head sympathetically towards Luo Xiansheng.

Luo Xiansheng is 28 years old this year, while Tang Yan Sheng is 32. That’s why the elder sister is called "Da Sheng," and Luo Xiansheng is called "Little Sound."

Perhaps a four-year difference really does not count for much to modern people, Luo Xiansheng himself doesn’t mind, but the elder sister just can’t seem to overcome this hurdle. She insists that Little Sound has been like her little brother since he was young, and can only ever be a brother.

So over the years, Luo Xiansheng carried the identity of a brother, watching Tang Yan Sheng engage in one "age-appropriate" romantic relationship after another; while he himself became increasingly reckless year after year, even rumored by outsiders to be the greatest "internet casanova."

It felt like a double-edged sword, ultimately driving him farther and farther from his elder sister.

Tang Yanqing swirled her wine glass: "You mean, the new man’s age is about the same as my elder sister’s?"

Luo Xiansheng smiled with endless loneliness: "Yes. He’s very much the same. Mature and steady, graceful in his manner—qualities I, Luo Xiansheng, could never learn."

Tang Yanqing tried hard to look towards that figure, and upon discovering that person standing right beside Shi Nian, she frowned: "I’ll go and take a look."

[There are still five thousand characters in the morning~]