Only after her death did I realize that she was the white moonlight of a billionaire CEO.

Chapter 145 Using a borrowed knife to kill

Gu Huaizhou had very few opportunities to cook, and could even be said to be completely clueless about it.

But smart people learn everything efficiently. With Aunt Zhou's guidance, Gu Huaizhou rolled each glutinous rice ball into a perfectly round shape.

Aunt Zhou even praised him, saying, "Mr. Gu has a talent for cooking."

Gu Huaizhou then said, "Then I will try more in the future."

Li Xi didn't wake up until nine o'clock.

Xue Ni and Chu Xu played mahjong all night until 3 a.m. and are still fast asleep right now.

Li Xi didn't call them. She quickly washed up and went downstairs. She saw Gu Huaizhou sitting on a stool in front of Aunt Zhou's house, playing with a big yellow dog named Qiu Bao from the town.

Seeing that Li Xi had gotten up, Gu Huaizhou tossed a piece of beef jerky to Qiu Bao, then walked over to Li Xi and said, "We're having brown sugar glutinous rice balls for breakfast, have some?"

Li Xi sighed, "I haven't eaten this for many years. When my father was still alive, my family would eat this on the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year."

Gu Huaizhou then said, "Then from now on, I'll eat this with you on the first day of the Lunar New Year."

Upon hearing this, Li Xi stopped in her tracks and threw a direct question at Gu Huaizhou: "...Gu Huaizhou, are you promising me the rest of your life?"

"of course."

Li Xi smiled, turned around and went to the kitchen.

Aunt Zhou was preparing lunch in the kitchen when she saw Li Xi come in. She said cheerfully, "Xi Xi, your boyfriend is a good guy. He came over early this morning to learn how to make tangyuan (sweet rice balls)."

Aunt Zhou pointed to the small milk pot on the stove, "The glutinous rice balls in the milk pot were cooked for you by him."

Li Xi was flattered. "Did he make it himself?"

"Of course, he said you probably haven't eaten this in Dongzhou City, so he got up early to make it for you."

Li Xi felt a sweet warmth in her heart.

She tasted a sweet glutinous rice ball with brown sugar filling and exclaimed, "It's so sweet!"

Aunt Zhou looked at her with a half-smile, and only after Li Xi swallowed the warm glutinous rice ball in her mouth did she tease her, "Are you two getting married soon?"

"Auntie, please stop teasing me."

"Alright, alright, I won't tease you anymore. The little girl is still shy."

When the townspeople died, they would be buried on the western hill, which was originally a barren mountain, but as more and more people were buried there, it became a cemetery.

Later, the government built a funeral home at the foot of the mountain, and the cemetery gradually grew in size.

There are shops selling memorial supplies next to the funeral home.

The two bought flowers, fruit, and paper money at the shop before finally finding Li Chang'an's grave.

Li Chang'an's tombstone is very close to his grandmother's; Li Chang'an's is halfway up the mountain, while his grandmother's is higher up.

They first paid their respects to Grandma Li.

Kneeling before the tombstone and burning paper money, Li Xi told Gu Huaizhou, "I don't have much of an impression of my grandmother. She passed away when I was very young."

“My father and I actually took our grandmother’s surname, Li, while our grandfather’s surname was Qin. Not long after my grandmother got married, her husband became an alcoholic and abusive.”

“But my grandmother was quite fierce. It is said that the first time she was domestically abused, she sharpened a knife overnight and slashed my grandfather’s arm twice while he was asleep, causing him to bleed profusely and kneel down to beg for forgiveness and take the initiative to divorce him.”

"After the divorce, my grandmother left her husband's family and returned to Changshou Town, but not long after, she found out that she was pregnant."

"But she chose to give birth to my father and supported her mother and my father by selling tofu."

After hearing his grandmother's story, Gu Huaizhou couldn't help but admire the old woman. "Grandma's courage is commendable. Not to mention those days, even now, how many women would dare to draw a knife and attack someone when faced with domestic violence?"

"She dared to give birth to a child on her own without a husband or father, and support her family with a skill."

"Grandma is admirable."

Gu Huaizhou placed an electronic prayer lamp on the grave behind the tombstone and asked Li Xi, "What was Grandma's name?"

"Li Baozhu".

In an era when women were commonly called "Zhao Di" and "Pan Di," my grandmother had a name that was filled with love from her parents.

"What a great name."

Gu Huaizhou said, "I think it was because her parents gave her enough love that she had the courage to stand up and fight back when her new husband bullied her."

"Children's confidence comes from their parents' love."

Gu Huaizhou suddenly looked at Li Xi and said with utmost seriousness, "Our children, whether boys or girls, will surely be as brave and fearless as their grandmother in the future."

Li Xi: "...It's too early to talk about something that's not even close to being done yet."

Upon hearing Li Xi's words, Gu Huaizhou couldn't help but smile slightly.

Xixi simply said that having children now is too early, but she doesn't object to having children with him.

so good.

After paying respects to their grandmother, they went to pay respects to Li Chang'an.

Li Chang'an's tombstone is relatively new; it was erected by the neighbors in town when Li Xi was 17 years old.

There is also a photo of Li Chang'an on the tombstone.

Upon seeing Li Chang'an's appearance, Gu Huaizhou said, "Mr. Li exudes righteousness. One look at him reveals that he is an upright, courageous, and decisive man."

In fact, Li Chang'an was indeed that kind of person.

Gu Huaizhou suddenly asked Li Xi, "Have you ever thought about finding your biological parents?"

Li Xi said, "I have thought about it."

"Then will you hate them?"

“When I was little, yes, but my dad said I probably wasn’t an abandoned child because after he found me, he investigated the surrounding villages and didn’t find any families who had given birth to children and then abandoned them.”

He also said that when I was a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, there was a character '宝' (treasure) written in blood.

"My father speculated that the character '宝' (bao) was probably written by my birth mother when she bit her finger in a critical situation."

Therefore, Li Xi never felt that she was an unloved child; it was just that the people who loved her couldn't be by her side.

Both her biological mother and her adoptive father, Li Chang'an, were like this.

Gu Huaizhou was shocked. "You mean, your mother wrote the character 'treasure' on your swaddling clothes in blood?"

"...Um."

"Is that little blanket still there? If it is, we might be able to extract DNA from the residue on the baby blanket. Although the chances are slim, we should still give it a try."

Generally speaking, it is difficult to extract DNA data from fresh blood that has not been specially treated and stored after two or three years, but we still have to try.

Li Xi shook her head and said, "Back when I was 7 years old, my father went to the military hospital to ask someone to extract the residue from it for analysis, but it's been too long and it's no longer effective."

Finding Li Xi's biological parents had always been a concern for Li Chang'an, so after learning that a certain military hospital had the most advanced DNA testing equipment, he asked his former superior to help him get the DNA tested.

Upon learning that this method wouldn't work, Gu Huaizhou felt quite disappointed. "Is the blanket still there? If it is, why don't we pack it up and take it back to Dongzhou?"

Even if you can't find your birth mother through it, it's still the only connection between you and your mother. Keeping it with you will give you something to remember her by.

"Yeah, I think so too."

After paying respects to their ancestors, the two returned to the town. Chu Xu and Xue Ni had both woken up and were waiting with Aunt Zhou and the others for Li Xi and Gu Huaizhou to have lunch.

After lunch, Zhou Qi took Chu Xu to the countryside to collect local specialties. Li Xi went back to the house to pack her things and specially took out the small blanket from the storage cabinet.

Xue Ni was helping out when she noticed Li Xi staring blankly at an old-fashioned blanket. She went over to take a look and asked, puzzled, "What's this?"

Li Xi told Xue Ni, "It's the swaddle blanket that's been wrapped around me since I was born."

Li Xi unfolded the blanket, pointed to the brown writing on it, and said, "This should have been written to me by my mother."

The bloodstains had long since blended into the fabric, and because of their age, the blood had turned a dark brown, and the writing was no longer very clear.

Xue Ni looked at it carefully and said uncertainly, "Bao?"

"Yes, it's the character '宝' (bao).

"Then your mother must have loved you very much, and there was nothing she could do but abandon you."

Li Xi nodded, "I know."

"Huh?" Xue Ni noticed something. She pointed to the label in the lower right corner of the blanket and exclaimed, "This label looks familiar."

Those labels are very common; large manufacturers sew their brand labels onto towels and bath towels.

However, the manufacturer's label had no words, only a red petal print with four petals, and it was impossible to say what kind of flower it was.

"Does it look familiar?"

Li Xi examined the seal carefully but couldn't find anything familiar about it.

"I remembered!"

Xue Ni said, "I saw this at my maternal grandmother's house! My maternal grandmother is from Kaizhou, but she lives in the city, which is far from Changshou Town."

“When I was little, I would stay at my maternal grandmother’s house during winter and summer vacations. My grandmother worked in a factory at that time. Their factory used to make towel products, but later, for some reason, it changed to make medical sterile products.”

"She had a few factory uniforms with this logo on them. But a few years later, their factory went bankrupt and closed down."

Tilting her head and thinking for a moment, Xue Ni said, "I know what kind of flower this petal is."

"What flower?"

“It’s called Kalanchoe.” Xue Ni unlocked her phone, opened Baidu, searched for Kalanchoe, and showed it to Li Xi. “Is it true?”

Li Xi looked closer and found that the kalanchoe flower was indeed the same as the pattern on her quilt.

"It really is."

Li Xi and Xue Ni exchanged a glance.

Knowing what Li Xi was thinking, Xue Ni quickly explained, "My grandmother's factory produces products that are sold all over the country, so it's not easy to check."

"...That's true."

With a soft sigh, Li Xi folded the blanket and put it into her suitcase. She instructed Xue Ni, "Xue Ni, if you have time, please ask your grandmother for me."

"what?"

"Just ask her where all those sterile medical supplies produced in the factory were sold."

"...good."

Xue Ni knew that the chances of finding Li Xi's birth mother through the production information of a quilt were very slim, but what if it was possible?

What if this clue really leads them to Li Xi's birth mother?

Xue Ni herself became an orphan, and she knew the bitterness of orphans. More than anyone else, she hoped that Li Xi could find her biological parents and have a family.

Xue Ni immediately ran back to her room to call her grandmother.

But her grandmother was old and hard of hearing, so she couldn't hear what Xue Ni was saying. Xue Ni could only wait for her uncle to come home from get off work in the evening so that he could translate for her.

*

The following day, Li Xi and his group bid farewell to Aunt Zhou and Uncle Huang, and returned to Dongzhou City with Zhou Qi.

On the way back, Zhou Qi drove himself. He had very little luggage, which was almost entirely filled with local specialties for Gu Huaizhou.

Xue Ni didn't want to be a third wheel in Li Xi and Gu Huaizhou's relationship, so she consciously rode in the same car with Zhou Qi.

After leaving Changshou Town and getting onto the highway service area, Li Xi and Xue Ni went to queue up to buy milk tea, and only then did Li Xi have time to talk to her about serious matters.

“Xixi, my uncle came home very late yesterday. I only asked him to ask my grandma about the factory this morning.”

Li Xi immediately became interested when this was mentioned.

What did Grandma say?

Xue Ni's expression was a little strange. She said, "Grandma told Uncle that those medical products were all ordered from the same private hospital."

"Oh?"

It is rare for a hospital to order medical products from a single manufacturer; they usually cooperate with large manufacturers.

Do you know which private hospital it is?

“My grandmother was only in charge of producing towels on line A and was not clear about the situation on line B.”

Do you still remember the name of your grandmother's factory?

"I remember this one, it's called the Kalanchoe Factory."

"it is good."

As soon as they got in the car after leaving the highway service area, Li Xi told Gu Huaizhou about it.

After hearing this, Gu Huaizhou instructed Chu Xu: "Chu Xu, have Chu Ying come to Kaizhou personally to investigate that longevity flower factory."

Even if the factory has closed down, there are still many clues that can be found.

"it is good."

"Oh, right." Chu Xu suddenly remembered something. He said, "Chu Ying has been in charge of investigating the Liu family these past two days. There's something in the information she gave me that I find strange."

"Boss, can you listen to this?"

Chu Xu is not only Gu Huaizhou's personal bodyguard, but also his powerful assistant. Many documents need to be screened through multiple layers before Chu Xu reports them to Gu Huaizhou.

I can't possibly report every little thing to Gu Huaizhou.

Anything that Chu Xu cares about must be something important. "Go ahead," he said.

Chu Xu pondered for a moment and said, "When Chu Ying was investigating the Liu family, he discovered that the deceased eldest daughter of the Liu family had done many disgusting things during her lifetime."

"That Liu Yi was never a kind woman to begin with, so it's not surprising that she would do evil."

Gu Huaizhou frowned and said, "My brother was also bewitched by her."

Gu Huaizhou had disliked Liu Yi since childhood.

He was born with a keen eye for spotting scheming women. The first time he saw Liu Yi at his brother's private villa, he felt that her eyes were full of calculation and utilitarianism.

He doesn't dislike women who are ambitious and driven by self-interest.

But the way Liu Yi looked at him wasn't like she was sizing up a boy; it was more like she was sizing up a product.

She was assessing whether Gu Huaizhou was worth currying favor with.

Gu Huaizhou saw through Liu Yi's true nature and disliked her intensely.

But Liu Yi was, after all, the girl his brother loved. Whether he liked her or not was not important, and Gu Huaizhou never spoke ill of Liu Yi in front of his brother.

Later, when he heard that his brother had broken up with Liu Yi, Gu Huaizhou was happier than anyone else.

"What other heinous and unknown things has she done?" Gu Huaizhou felt nothing but resistance and disgust when he mentioned Liu Yi.

Chu Xu said, "Before Mr. Gu Huai'an was born, she used him to kill someone."

"what?"

Kill someone with a borrowed knife?

Unsure whether "using someone else's knife to kill" was an adjective or a statement, Li Xi cautiously asked, "Did Mr. Gu Huai'an really kill someone for her, or was he manipulated by her to harm innocent people?"

"He really did kill someone."

"Fourteen years ago, Liu Yi was kidnapped, nude photos were taken of her, and she was almost killed. At the critical moment, Mr. Gu Huai'an found her hiding place and rescued her."

"At that time, all signs indicated that the person who caused Liu Yi's kidnapping was her competitor in the industry, Chen Cheng."

Not long after, Chen Cheng announced his retirement from the entertainment industry and moved abroad to settle down.

"But in her second month abroad, Chen Cheng was found dead at home, the cause of death being suffocation. That same night, her adoptive father, who was setting up a night market stall, was run over and killed by a truck while crossing the road to escape city management officers..."

"And all of this was actually instigated by Mr. Gu Huai'an."

"The reason why Mr. Gu Huai'an was able to make up his mind to break up with Liu Yi was because he discovered the truth about the kidnapping, saw through Liu Yi's true colors, and realized that he had become the scapegoat for Liu Yi's murder."

Gu Huaizhou felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, and couldn't hear what Chu Xu said next.

He couldn't believe that his excellent and wise brother was the kind of scoundrel who would harm innocent people for the sake of a woman.

Even if Chen Cheng was the one who kidnapped her, what crime did her adoptive father commit?

At this moment, Gu Huaizhou's respect for his elder brother Gu Huai'an diminished considerably.

He had a vague intuition—

The Gu family may not be innocent in the bizarre kidnapping case 12 years ago.