Plunder-Chapter 132 Who Are You
Auntie Jiang’s expression was tense, her hand grasping the brochure trembling continuously.
That brochure was one Qiao En had stuffed into her luggage when she was working at Nanchen; it had been such a long time that she had forgotten about it.
And this brochure almost revealed her identity.
"I picked up this brochure on the train."
Qiao En lied.
Auntie Jiang’s eyes suddenly dimmed, "I thought you had worked there."
She murmured to herself.
Qiao En restrained her emotions and asked, "Auntie Jiang, is there something you want to know? I can ask a friend to help you inquire about it."
Upon hearing this, Auntie Jiang’s cloudy eyes suddenly shone with brilliance, she looked up at Qiao En with trembling lips and said, "My daughter used to work at that company, but she... she’s dead... "
Before she could finish, Auntie Jiang covered her face and started crying.
She cried so sorrowfully that Qiao En’s mood was momentarily infected, plunging into a nadir.
Nanchen was a large-scale company, with nearly two thousand official employees at the headquarters and several dozen subsidiaries, with a total employee count exceeding ten thousand.
Nanchen also recruited a large number of interns every year.
So, when Auntie Jiang mentioned her daughter, Qiao En didn’t think much of it.
She handed a tissue to Auntie Jiang, consoling, "Your daughter must have been very outstanding to work for such a big company. If she knew how sad you are, she would be heartbroken. You should try to let things go and live well; she can see you from heaven."
Auntie Jiang found Qiao En’s words very comforting.
She wiped away her tears, "Right, my daughter was so outstanding; she had good grades since she was young and never gave me any trouble."
As she spoke, she took out her mobile phone and showed Qiao En a photo of her daughter.
This careless glance was consequential, as Qiao En recognized the girl.
It was Little Xu.
The world is truly small; in this unfamiliar town, Qiao En had actually encountered Little Xu’s family.
Perhaps it was because of this connection that she suddenly felt much closer to Auntie Jiang.
"It’s all my fault for being useless, I dragged her down. After her father passed away and I fell ill, she worked very hard to support our family. I never thought she would develop depression; only twenty-two years old, she jumped from the building..."
Auntie Jiang said, breaking into uncontrollable sobs once again.
Little Xu’s suicide had happened over half a year ago, but Qiao En remembered it as if it were yesterday.
Everyone wanted to change their circumstances and live a better life, but Little Xu had chosen the wrong path.
Auntie Jiang knew nothing about her issues with He Peng, and naturally, Qiao En wouldn’t speak of it.
"It’s all in the past, Auntie Jiang, everything will get better."
Reaching out, she suddenly hugged the mother who had lost her daughter, as if hugging for Little Xu.
On the second day after settling in the small courtyard, Qiao En went to get a haircut.
Without a second thought, she cut off her lustrous, jet-black long hair, feeling no regret.
To cover the scar on her forehead, the hairstylist deliberately left her with bangs.
Staring at herself in the mirror for a long while, Qiao En found it unfamiliar.
So she instructed the hairstylist to cut it all off, leaving her with a bare forehead.
On the third day of living in the small courtyard, Qiao En had Auntie Jiang push her to the market to buy several sets of coarse cloth clothing from the local area.
All the clothes she brought from Rong City, she burned them all.
Auntie Jiang helped her into those coarse cloth clothes, and just like that, Qiao En transformed into a woman of Gu Yuan.
On the fourth day of living in the small courtyard, Qiao En started learning the local dialect from Auntie Jiang. With her quick wit and strong learning ability, she picked up a lot in just one day.
On the fourth day of living in the small courtyard, Qiao En had Auntie Jiang buy a lot of sunflowers. The space in front of the small courtyard that was empty and quiet was now planted with them by Auntie Jiang.
A massive golden expanse, it looked particularly beautiful.
On the fifth day of living in the small courtyard, Qiao En went to the market again and bought a calico cat and a mixed-breed dog.
Both the cat and the dog were very obedient. Qiao En named them Thirteen and Fifteen.
On the sixth day of living in the small courtyard, Qiao En lay in the yard, enjoying the breeze, stroking the cat, playing with the dog, smelling the fragrance of the flowers, and watching the moon all night.
Life, as she had once hoped for, had appeared.
It was just a pity that the child in her womb was lost forever.
On the seventh day of living in the small courtyard, the men Zhou Jin’an had sent to look for Qiao En suddenly appeared in Gu Yuan.
That morning, Qiao En got up later than usual.
Auntie Jiang went to the early market, as Qiao En liked the mushrooms after the rain, which had to be bought early.
Outside the courtyard door, there was a "bang bang bang" knock.
Qiao En sat up in bed and stretched her body to look outside through the window.
She had thought it was Auntie Jiang who had forgotten her key when leaving the house, but to her surprise, she caught sight of a familiar figure.
Among the people Zhou Jin’an had sent out, there happened to be someone Qiao En knew.
In that instant, she was thrown into utter panic, her heart rising to her throat.
She had finally escaped from Rong City, away from all the troubles, and she didn’t want to return to that heartbreaking place.
"Is anyone there? Excuse me, is anyone there?"
The knocking persisted, they kept knocking without anyone opening the door.
In her greatest panic, Auntie Jiang returned.
She was carrying a basket and walking this way, and Qiao En quickly called her, but Auntie Jiang didn’t hear.
"Sorry to disturb you, I just want to ask if you have seen the woman in this photo."
The man said, showing a photo of Qiao En.
Qiao En held her breath; she had an ordinary face that wasn’t easily recognizable. An injury from a car accident left a scar on her forehead, and her face was always swollen, so unless someone looked closely, they would never realize she was the person in the photo.
Auntie Jiang clenched the photo and examined it carefully.
She stared at the photo, Qiao En stared at her, and her heart kept pounding.
Auntie Jiang lived with her day in and day out, and she would definitely notice something was off.
If she said one wrong word, all of Qiao En’s previous efforts would have been in vain.
"Don’t know her, haven’t seen her, where are you guys from?"
Speaking with a local accent, Auntie Jiang returned the photo to the man.
"Really haven’t seen her."
She stated decisively.
"Is this your home?"
One of them pointed at the small courtyard where Qiao En lived.
Auntie Jiang shook her head, "I live over there, this is my niece’s home; I’m here to bring her some mushrooms from the morning market."
With that said, she opened the courtyard door and came in.
For some reason, as she came in, those two men followed.
Qiao En was terrified.
But soon, she calmed herself down.
She hobbled into the bathroom, applied a thick layer of facial mask, and then limped into the living room.
"The bathroom is over there."
As Auntie Jiang led the two men in, Qiao En was leaning on the couch, lying down.
One immediately went into the bathroom, while the other looked suspiciously at Qiao En.
Time seemed to freeze at that moment, eyes locked on each other, as Qiao En’s heart pounded.
"Auntie, who is this person?"
Qiao En asked in a strong local accent.
"These two are just passing by, using the toilet."
Auntie Jiang was kind-hearted and didn’t have much guard against strangers.
"You’re not locals? Where are you from? Isn’t there a public toilet up ahead? If you go two hundred meters forward, you’ll find it. Coming into someone’s house to use the bathroom is so inconvenient!"
Qiao En spoke in her local accent, quite authentically, and after speaking, she didn’t forget to roll her eyes at the man.
The one from the bathroom came back, the one in the living room shook his head at him, they exchanged a glance, and hurriedly left Qiao En’s room.
Once they left, Auntie Jiang rushed to lock the courtyard door.
Coming back, she looked confused, "Little Xu, who exactly are you?"
