Night Wanderer

Chapter 39 The more one tries to hide it, the more it is exposed

The rain that had briefly stopped last night returned with full force early in the morning. The temperature in Shanghai suddenly dropped to 20°C, the air was pleasantly moist, and one needed a light coat when going out.

Around 9 a.m., Zong Ying left the house to go to the hospital—

She had run out of her medication.

Just as she reached the entrance, the security guard called out to her: "Wait a minute, I have something for you."

Zong Ying stood at the gate under her umbrella and waited. The guard went back inside and brought out a cardboard box, handing it to her: "A delivery came yesterday afternoon. No one was home, and your phone couldn't be reached, so it was left here."

It looked like an ordinary cardboard box on the outside, but Zong Ying felt its weight as soon as she took it.

She walked away with the box, tore it open, and found a wooden box inside—plain in design but clearly well-crafted.

Opening the wooden box, nestled in soft velvet, lay an envelope. Zong Ying pinched it open and shook out a stack of photographs—

Old photos, seven in total, each showing Yan Man with different people.

Zong Ying pursed her lips and frowned as she examined them. At the end, she found a card.

The card read:
"While organizing old belongings, I came across several photos of your mother. It wouldn't be appropriate for me to keep them, so I thought it best to pass them to you. If you have time, perhaps we can catch up."
The handwriting carried an old-fashioned style, and the sender was signed as "Lu Qianming," a major shareholder who had recently increased his stake in Xinxi.

Zong Ying barely remembered him—just that he was a kind uncle, one of Xinxi's early executives. Though he had later resigned to run his own business, the two companies he controlled still held shares in Xinxi and maintained close ties with the firm.

She hadn't seen him in years, so his sudden contact was a bit surprising. Moreover, the package had arrived yesterday—precisely timed with Yan Man's death anniversary. Why send old photos now? What was he thinking?

Unable to make sense of it, Zong Ying stuffed the photos back into the envelope and glanced at the return address on the box—it was from Songjiang.

She placed the box into her bag and headed straight to the hospital.

It was peak outpatient hours, and the lines for registration and payment were long. Instead of waiting, Zong Ying called Sheng Qiushi to request a prescription. He told her to wait a bit.

She sat in the hospital lobby for a while, then suddenly decided to buy emergency medicine from the pharmacy.

She suspected the clinic Sheng Qingrang was at might be short on supplies. Just in case, she bought a large bag of medications. As she left the pharmacy, Sheng Qiushi called back: "I've picked up your meds. Come get them."

Zong Ying quickly returned to the ward and went upstairs.

Sheng Qiushi handed her the medicine and glanced at her bag full of supplies with curiosity. "Why did you buy so much?"

Zong Ying replied, "It's for a student I'm sponsoring. They need these."

Since he couldn't see what exactly was in the bag and she had offered an explanation, he didn't probe further.

But he asked with concern, "How have you been feeling these past couple of days?"

Zong Ying nodded. "Still okay."