True and False Daughter 9
After clarifying what the boss meant, Gao Wen felt he had a handle on things.
Discovering that the daughter they’d raised for twenty years wasn’t their biological child, that the baby had been switched at birth—this would be a massive issue for any family.
Grandmaster Qin, who was stationed in the lab, immediately urged Qin Jingzhou to rush back. “Xiao Xi must be devastated right now.” He also had his youngest son go along to help.
Qin Jingzhou didn’t stand on ceremony. He thanked the old man, grabbed Senior Brother Qin, and dashed out. Before he could publicize his achievements, he was just an unremarkable professor at Capital University, and couldn’t compare to Senior Brother Qin who could get anything done with a single appearance.
After the two of them got in the car, Senior Brother Qin listened to the backstory. Before Qin Jingzhou could say anything, he asked Wen, “I remember the Du family has always valued sons over daughters, right?” Then he looked at Qin Jingzhou. “What about you?”
Qin Jingzhou leaned back and opened his laptop to read some papers. “What’s there to say? They’re both my daughters.”
With that, Senior Brother Qin felt assured.
At the same moment, Du Jizheng was sitting distracted in a meeting room at the Capital University administrative building. Over the course of an hour after being brought in, he’d been forced to repeat his “motivation” no less than three times, tirelessly insisting: he had absolutely no intention of hurting his biological daughter!
Obviously, his biological daughter didn’t really believe him. Especially since, in under thirty minutes, the staff had found out that his elder son, Du Jiahui, had been hospitalized with acute kidney injury, that his kidney function was unlikely to recover soon, and that the attending physician had advised the family to prepare for the possibility that a kidney transplant might become unavoidable.
With investigative efficiency like that, he immediately realized that the muscular men restraining him… probably weren’t from Capital University.
His mind buzzed and all hope evaporated.
He Chunxi, true to her strong-willed nature, never once considered avoiding the situation.
Now, separated from Du Jizheng by a conference table, she wouldn’t even spare her biological father a glance. When staff interrogated Du Jizheng, she listened firsthand to his reasons and instantly believed them: So there it is. After twenty years of peace, the truth comes out and nothing good comes of it!
For eighteen years, her life had been a bed of roses. After turning eighteen, her luck soured: first, her mother inexplicably divorced her father and ran off abroad with an old flame, then her dad suddenly fell into a coma and became a vegetable for two years; thank heavens he eventually woke up, even her childhood friend snapped out of his funk… Never did she imagine the melodrama would come crashing down right on her own head!
Her biological parents’ well-being had nothing to do with her! The only thoughts that mattered were her father’s!
She told herself not to worry, to trust Dad, but she still couldn’t stop overthinking: Would Dad want his biological daughter to come live with him after all…?
Qin Jingzhou, surrounded by an entourage, arrived alongside Senior Brother Qin.
The staff member responsible for interrogating Du Jizheng had already communicated with Wen, and upon Qin Jingzhou’s personal arrival, reported again: Du Jizheng could confirm his blood relation to He Chunxi because he’d bribed He Chunxi’s assistant, acquiring a strand of her hair…
Qin Jingzhou looked at Wen. “I remember Xiao Xi’s agent and assistant had already been replaced?”
Wen nodded seriously. “Yes, they were both dismissed for incompetence. I’ll assign a dedicated team to speak with Xiao Xi’s company again.”
Qin Jingzhou nodded. The group entered the meeting room where Du Jizheng waited. As soon as he entered, he saw his daughter look up abruptly, her little face tense and anxious. This was the moment to give her absolute reassurance, so he stretched out an arm to his precious girl. “Daughter.”
He Chunxi froze, then ran toward him and threw herself into his arms. “Dad, I… I think I’m not your biological daughter.”
Qin Jingzhou hugged his daughter’s shoulders. “You’ll always be my daughter.”
He Chunxi’s eyes began to fill with tears. “I know, Dad.”
By the time Qin Jingzhou and He Chunxi sat down facing Du Jizheng, five minutes had passed. There was no further need for politeness. “You’re on the national rich list, your eldest son isn’t at the point of needing a transplant yet, but you came straight for my daughter instead of contacting me. How am I supposed to believe you’re not after something else? Oh, and perhaps you don’t know—I’m already awake.”
Du Jizheng had no retort.
Anyone who could track down He Chunxi so precisely must have done their homework.
When his plan to “block her face-to-face” came together, he’d already guessed that his biological daughter’s adoptive father wasn’t any ordinary university professor. Upon seeing Dean Qin at his side, he didn’t need a mirror to know just how terrible his own face looked. Honestly, he was tempted to pop a blood pressure pill.
Qin Jingzhou accepted a teacup from Wen. “I trust you wouldn’t joke about blood relations. My assistant says your family prizes sons over daughters. You see my girl working in entertainment, looking as though she desperately needs money, and figured a few small perks could lure her home? If the match was right, not only would your eldest be saved, maybe you’d even be able to front her as a bargaining chip in a marriage alliance—just like she was yours by blood?” He laughed. “So you really figured I was as good as dead.”
Du Jizheng really wanted to fire back, “How was I supposed to know you’re a national treasure-level professor?”
But with the whole room’s staff glaring daggers at him, he really didn’t dare.
Qin Jingzhou patted his daughter’s shoulder, waiting for her to silently wrap her arms around him again, then said, “You can go. Both girls are twenty now. Whomever they choose to live with is their own freedom.”
There was nothing left for Du Jizheng to say. He could only leave defeated.
Back in his car, he felt as if it were a different lifetime. The driver, assistant, and bodyguard had all clearly been grilled for quite some time, and every one of their faces was still ashen with shock.
Du Jizheng wiped his face: True, he’d crashed into a wall of reinforced concrete, but now that he understood the power behind Professor He, perhaps he could put it to use… The little daughter his wife had raised was obedient and sweet, so maybe with “saving her brother” as an excuse, she could get close to Professor He and curry favor. It sounded like a good idea.
It was only on the way home that he suddenly remembered: When the whole family’s tissue types didn’t match, it was little Jin Li who’d subtly suggested he get a paternity test!
Jin Li was his sister-in-law’s child, and luck had favored her in recent years—she’d even earned the nickname “Little Lucky Carp.” That girl was probably onto something. Maybe she’d seen not only that there’d been a baby swap between his family and the He family… Maybe he should have her check out just who exactly Professor He was.
As for Qin Jingzhou, after thanking Senior Brother Qin, he took his precious daughter and left the admin building to find somewhere to eat.
He Chunxi converted all her stress into appetite, eating much more than usual. Of course, that also had something to do with how delicious this small private restaurant was.
Back home, Qin Jingzhou went to his study to assign tasks to his research staff, while He Chunxi sat in the living room and called her childhood friend Shang Xi.
“I never imagined that such a melodramatic ‘true and false daughter’ scenario would happen to me! Yet in all those novels and TV shows, no matter what the real heiress feels, she always has to return to the wealthy family, only to get targeted by the fake heiress and her fans, and then the blood family ices her out. But in reality, the second the real heiress’s birth father appears, the bodyguards protecting her dad have already got him face down on the floor!”
Qin Jingzhou could hear her loud and clear from the study, and after that he heard her say, “My dad says I’ll always be his daughter! Who would’ve thought I’d turn out to be a lucky novel female lead!”
Her clear, bell-like laughter drifted through the door. He lit a cigarette and smiled. “That’s right.”
The System also laughed. “She’s not about to endure more humiliation just for revenge. No matter what tricks Jin Li tries next.”
Just as the System finished, Qin Jingzhou received a screenshot from his Assistant Wen. “My biological daughter tracked us down really fast.” The next message made Qin Jingzhou frown slightly: “According to our investigation, the biological daughter is both a mama’s girl and… has a brother complex?”
The System said, “Uh-oh, here comes the real test.”