I woke up to find I have a child - Chapter 77
?The Sleeper?has a total of six main leads, including four men and two women. Among them, Qi Hanxue, played by Ye Mingxin, is the team leader of her police squad. She leads two other criminal investigation police members that are also main leads. The other three main leads include Xia Ning, who joins about halfway through the film, Jin Liang, a psychiatrist, and finally Gao Qi, a young and promising entrepreneur.
The story begins with Qi Hanxue taking on a challenging case involving extremely brutal dismemberment and a mutilated corpse. The perpetrator’s actions were incomprehensible and cruel, yet, despite half a month of investigations, the team could not figure out the killer. They couldn’t figure out the motive behind the killer’s actions, much less who the killer is. Thus, Qi Hanxue decided to take a different approach by going to a mental hospital to study the patients with antisocial personality disorder there. She hoped to understand their thinking and, with their help, solve the case.
In the process, Qi Hanxue accidentally encounters Xia Ning. Xia Ning’s father was a renowned expert in criminal psychology, and the daughter is also a genius in criminal psychology. At only the age of 15, she was admitted to university under special conditions. She was well ahead of even her 20-year-old peers. However, at the age of 17, her parent’s suddenly died, and she was sent to a mental hospital by her uncle, who presented false evidence claiming she had antisocial personality disorder and was responsible for her parents’ deaths.
Xia Ning had been in the mental hospital for 7 years by the time Qi Hanxue appeared. She looked thin and quiet on the surface, but her sharp gaze seemed to penetrate the darkest thoughts inside people’s hearts.
Out of boredom, Xia Ning decides to help Qi Hanxue solve the case. Without even needing to read the case files, she was able to quickly profile the murderer just by listening to Qi Hanxue’s verbal description of what the murderer did. When Qi Hanxue returned to her team with her findings, no one took what a mental patient said seriously. Instead, they continued to try and use their own methods to try and find the criminal. Qi Hanxue overruled her team members’ opinions and asked her men to interrogate the suspects that Xia Ning identified. In the end, the criminal was caught in less than 3 hours. At first, the suspect had acted innocent but couldn’t bear the intense pressure of the interrogation and subsequently broke down, finally confessing his crimes.
The capture of the suspect was 90% due to Xia Ning’s abilities. The three other protagonists, the other detectives and police officers on the team, quickly become curious about Xia Ning. After learning about her troubled past, they begin to sympathize with her. Furthermore, Qi Hanxue believed that their team was sorely lacking someone like Xia Ning, a genius in criminal psychology, and decided to rescue her from the mental hospital.
The real plot of the story begins to unfold after Xia Ning is rescued.
The six main roles are portrayed by Ye Mingxin as Qi Hanxue, Han Feixu as Xia Ning, Gao Changxiu as Detective #1: Gao Tian, Mao Yangjun as Detective #2: Cheng Jingrui, Nie Kaiyuan as psychiatrist Jin Liang, and Yuan Jize as entrepreneur Gao Qi.
If she hadn’t seen his name on the casting list, Han Feixu would have almost forgotten that Mao Yangjun is also an actor.
After the scandal* that catapulted him to fame, Mao Yangjun has been participating in various variety shows and even released two songs. In the past six months, he has frequently trended on the hot searches every three days, usually ranking fourth or fifth. Everyone knows that a spot on the trending hot search was basically prime marketing, and these two spots were especially good for promoting oneself. (*T/N: See Chapter 27, also Mao Yangjun was initially an actor under Liang Zhu)
Han Feixu’s eyes flicked over Mao Yangjun again, and then looked at Ye Mingxin. “Who chose him? He had such a big falling out with Yuan Jize before, and now they’re going to be on the same crew. Aren’t the producers afraid something might happen?”
In the scandal that was directed and starred by Mao Yangjun, Zhang Hao and Yuan Jize were both heavily criticized by the public. Yuan Jize took it a step farther and had his lawyer send cease and desist letters to those who were slandering his name. It’s only been half a year since this happened, so what was Dugu Yuehua thinking? How could he want both of them in his film and as two main characters no less.
Ye Mingxin replied, “The original actor for Cheng Jingrui was Shang Chen, but his girlfriend got in a car accident recently. She’s supposed to be in the hospital for at least a year, and who knows how long it will take for her to recover. In response to this tragic accident, Shang Chen has put all his work on hold to focus on staying with his girlfriend in the hospital.”
Han Feixu was deeply moved. “He’s a really good man.”
Less than a second later, she lowered her eyes and looked at Mao Yangjun’s name again, her touched expression turning into a disdainful one, “Such a great opportunity was picked up by someone like him. It’s like putting a flower in a pile of cow dung.”
This opportunity was not picked up by Mao Yangjun himself; it was given to him by his company’s president, Gan Zongming. Suddenly backing out of a film is quite unprofessional, but Shang Chen did have a reason, and it wasn’t a last-minute decision. With ten days left before shooting, he informed Dugu Yuehua of his circumstances and that left Dugu Yuehua ten days to find a new actor.
But when Gan Zongming heard about this, he wanted Ye Mingxin to bring Mao Yangjun in for an audition. If there were no issues, the film would take him.
Mao Yangjun has been relatively low-key in the past six months, aside from buying some accounts to get his name on the trending searches. He is now considered one of the most promising and energetic newcomers of the Gan Company, and Gan Zongming naturally wants to nurture him into something more.
Gan Zongming rarely asks Ye Mingxin to do anything for him. So when on the rare occasion he does, it becomes hard for Ye Mingxin to refuse him. After telling Dugu Yuehua about the situation, he arranged an audition and ,unexpectedly, Mao Yangjun performed rather decently.
It would be too troublesome to look for another actor in just ten days, and there’s no guarantee they would find someone more famous than Mao Yangjun. Currently, Mao Yangjun’s popularity is comparable to Gao Changxiu’s, as the two fanbases are fighting each other every day about who the most handsome young male idol is between the two.
In reality, anyone with eyes can see that Gao Changxiu is definitely more handsome, but fans tend to see everything through eight hundred layers of filters. They don’t care about the truth; they just want others to agree with them that their idol is the best.
Liang Zhu sat to their side, leisurely swiping through her phone. She only has two artists under her now, and the task of recovering Han Feixu’s past popularity has been completed. And with Han Feixu no longer participating in any promotion activities, Liang Zhu directly benefits since she no longer has to argue and negotiate with various event organizers anymore.
Furthermore, since Ye Mingxin invested in this movie, Liang Zhu was able to successively persuade her to insert Su Jue into the film as a small supporting role. Although all her scenes put together are less than five minutes, it’s still a relatively important supporting role.
Since Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin are both in the same company, at least in name, they were both currently attending the Gan Company’s monthly meeting. They both are registered under the Gan Company’s name, but had not attended before because they weren’t in the area when they held the meetings. Now that they are no longer traveling due to work, they should attend at least once or else a certain second uncle once removed will be angry = = (*T/N: Reminder that Gan Zongming is related to Ye Mingxin on her mother’s side, he is her mother’s cousin. This familial relation is mentioned somewhere in the Chapter 30s)
Liang Zhu’s fingers slowly swiped across her screen, and raised an eyebrow when she spotted a certain Weibo post, “Chole is trending on the hot searches.”
Han Feixu’s attention was attracted to her and she ran over to look. “Why is she trending?”
“Marie Claire posted a Weibo post of Chole in various street clothes styles from when she was young. Nine photos in total, and with this she has become number 49 in trending.”
Forty-ninth place, is rather low on the ranking. After clicking on the search, Many Weibo posts and comments showed up. The first one was from a celebrity-chasing fangirl who posted a crying emoji and while writing, “Chief editor, please debut again quickly, I beg of you.”
Han Feixu laughed, “Chloe’s looks are indeed outstanding. If she didn’t work in the fashion industry, she could probably make a name for herself in the entertainment industry.”
Meanwhile, Ye Mingxin, who was sitting on the other side, was also looking at her phone but was not looking at Chloe’s photos. Instead, she was on the calendar app, trying to figure out her schedule for the next few days, “She worked in the entertainment industry a few decades ago, but couldn’t make a name for herself in acting due to her height. Later, she became a model and worked as one for three years before finally quitting and started working in fashion magazines at the age of 21. She’s been working there ever since.”
Liang Zhu didn’t know anything about this and blinked in confusion, “If she started working at such a young age then how old is she now? I can’t tell the age of foreigners. Some of them could be in their 40s and I would think they were in their early 20s. Then there are some who are in their early 20s and I would think they are in their 40s. So, in my opinion, Chole looks to be in her mid-20s. Although, think about it again, how could anyone become a Chief Editor at that age? So, how old is she?”
“31.”
Liang Zhu exclaimed: “Wow…I really couldn’t tell. I thought she would be about the same age as me.”
Ye Mingxin gave her a look, “She’s 31, isn’t that the same age as you?”
Liang Zhu: “….”
Oh, it seems like it.
Han Feixu moved her gaze away from the screen and looked over at Ye Mingxin, “How do you know so much about Chloe?”
Ye Mingxin froze for a second, then raised her head as if nothing had happened, “There’s a profile on the Chief Editor on Marie Claire’s official website. I searched her up and read her profile there.”
Han Feixu didn’t suspect a thing and merely hummed in reply before looking down at her phone again. Ye Mingxin’s manager, Qi Yu, was busy outside and would only come in when the meeting was about to start.
Liang Zhu looked at her phone a few more times and suddenly said, “I think Chloe looks a bit familiar.”
Lan Zhu was sitting next to Ye Mingxin, and smiled at Liang Zhu, “Do you also think she looks like Lena Milan too?”
Liang Zhu innocently looked over, “Who is Lena Milan?”
Lan Zhu: “….”
The meeting finally began, and they sat in the middle of the conference table, and boredly watchied as Gan Zongming entered and began passionately speaking in the front. Han Feixu’s eyelids were drooping, and if he didn’t let them go soon, she would fall asleep here.
Ye Mingxin sat next to her, her eyes on Gan Zongming, but her thoughts were pondering something else. She had attended many such meetings, and now she had developed a skill to appear focused while distracted without anyone noticing = =
Originally, she was thinking about her schedule, but now her thoughts shifted to Chloe. After hearing the secretary’s words the other day, she had pondered for a long time at home but still couldn’t figure out why Chloe did what she did. Why would someone willingly go bankrupt just to buy a completely useless book?
Who knows when the rest of her information will be investigated? Financial information could be obtained quickly because the Ye family’s subordinate fund management company was in charge of Chloe’s funds, but personal information had to be uncovered bit by bit. The secretary said it would take at least a month, and judging by his silence in the last three days, it seems like he indeed needs a month to obtain every bit of information on Chloe.
Chloe, a French woman who suddenly appeared in their lives. A mysterious and yet oddly familiar French woman…
Ye Mingxin changed the position of her legs, and suddenly, her movements stopped.
If one person felt Chloe looked familiar, it might be a coincidence. If two people felt Chloe looked familiar, it probably wasn’t a coincidence. It meant that they had probably met Chloe somewhere. Liang Zhu had been in the United States for many years and had only met Americans. Lan Zhu had only been abroad a few times when she followed Liang Zhu, but she had never been to France. So where did they really meet Chloe?
A bizarre speculation appeared in Ye Mingxin’s mind. Although her first reaction was to say that it was absolutely impossible, the more she thought about it, the more she felt…that it might be true.
Ye Mingxin took out her phone. Sitting straight, she put the phone on her lap, hiding it under the table like a teenager secretly reading a comic book under the desk during school. She found the trending hot search mentioned by Liang Zhu earlier and clicked on a photo of Chloe, zoomed in, and stared at her face closely.
After less than two seconds, Ye Mingxin’s eyes widened suddenly, and then quickly turned off her phone. She quickly calmed herself, and then looked over at Han Feixu. Seeing her still half-asleep, Ye Mingxin relaxed a little.
She couldn’t stay in this meeting any longer. Taking advantage of when Gan Zongming’s back turned, Ye Mingxin quietly left the meeting room. Han Feixu sensed the movement beside her and glanced over, however she paid it no mind as she thought that Ye Mingxin was just taking a bathroom break and quickly turned her head back towards Gan Zongming.
Ye Mingxin left the meeting room and headed straight to the parking lot. When she arrived, she realized she had forgotten to bring her car keys. Her car could be started with a fingerprint, but the doors itself could only be opened with her keys. She stood by her car for two seconds before walking in the other direction.
Wei Xun was sitting in the driver’s seat, reading through his phone messages. His mother had introduced another girl to him again, and he was chatting with her when suddenly, a series of knocks sounded on his window.
Wei Xun looked up and saw Ye Mingxin standing outside. Through the glass, her voice was soft and muffled, “Get out.”
Wei Xun did as she said, put down his phone, opened the car door, and moved outside, “Miss, why did you come down so soon?”
Ye Mingxin got into the car, and skillfully started it, “I need to use the car. I forgot my car keys upstairs. Go get them yourself, and use my car to take Feixu home later.”
After saying that, Ye Mingxin slammed the car door shut. Wei Xun reached out, wanting to say something else, “But…”
Ye Mingxin didn’t even look at him, and drove the car away. Wei Xun stood in place for a moment, then finally said the rest of his words, “But my phone is still in the car…”
Ye Mingxin followed the GPS’ instructions and drove to the Chinese headquarters of Marie Claire. Lowering her hat, she walked to the front desk. The receptionist, upon hearing that she wanted to see the Chief Editor, asked if she had an appointment, as was routine.
After a moment of silence, Ye Mingxin half-lifted her sunglasses, and said with a smile, “No, but I have urgent matters to discuss. Can you let me in?”
Ye Mingxin usually has a cold and icy appearance, but once she smiles, it gives one the illusion that the winter of ice and snow melted into a beautiful spring scenery. So when the receptionist saw her face, her breath hitched and then blushed, “Wait a moment, I’ll call the Chief Editor’s office right now.”
Ye Mingxin put her sunglasses back on and smiled at her again.
Upon hearing that Ye Mingxin had come to visit, the secretary, who received the call, informed Chloe, and when Chloe agreed to see her, she immediately came down to guide Ye Mingxin.
Arriving at Chloe’s office, the secretary considerately closed the door behind her as she left the two of them alone. Chloe put down what was in her hand and looked at her calmly, “The book is no longer with me. You couldn’t be here to return the money to me, are you?”
Ye Mingxin squinted at her face. She hadn’t thought there was anything wrong with Chloe’s appearance before, but now that the thought entered her mind, the more she looked, the more familiar she became. And the more familiar she became, the more annoyed she became.
The two locked eyes as Ye Mingxin walked towards her desk and spoke with a cool tone, “What is your relationship with Serge?”
Chloe’s expression immediately stiffened. She didn’t expect Ye Mingxin to come to ask her about this, and she didn’t expect thatYe Mingxin had discovered her identity. After being silent for a while, she opened her mouth, “I am his daughter.”
Ye Mingxin furrowed her brows. Serge was Han Feixu’s maternal grandfather, a Frenchman who had later naturalized into Chinese citizenship. If Chloe was his daughter, then she would be… Han Feixu’s aunt?
But Serge had been dead for more than ten years. Where did he go to have another daughter? Suddenly, Ye Mingxin was stunned, “You are Serge and that woman’s…”
She didn’t say the last two words out loud, and Chloe helped her finish, “Illegitimate daughter. Yes, I am their illegitimate daughter.”
Ye Mingxin remained silent because she didn’t know what to say. Clearly, Chloe wasn’t here to cause trouble; otherwise, she wouldn’t have spent a fortune on that book. At the moment, it seemed that Chloe’s attitude toward Han Feixu was impartial, and there was even a hint of familial care.
After a pause, Ye Mingxin finally found her voice, “What do you want?”
Chloe stood up with a sincere expression. “I don’t want to do anything. I have no ill intentions. I just came back to take a look. I never intended to interfere in your lives.”
Ye Mingxin looked at her skeptically. “Just came back to take a look? Then why did you apply to immigrate here?”
Chloe was taken aback. “How do you know I applied for immigration?”
Putting the pieces together, she furrowed her brows, “You investigated me?”
Ye Mingxin openly admitted, “Yes. Think about it, if you were in my shoes, wouldn’t you try to investigate a person who spent an exorbitant amount of money for your wife without expecting anything in return?”
Putting it like this, of course anyone would make the same. Chloe chuckled self-deprecatingly, “My mistake was not knowing that you and she were already married. I thought you were very good friends or non-married lovers at most.”
After a moment of silence, Chloe walked out from behind her desk. “I grew up in China as a child. I moved to France with my mother when I was 15. After so many years in France, I gained nothing. My friends are not true friends and neither do I have any lovers. My only family there only sought to deepen my wounds when I was in pain. After my mother passed away, I wanted to come back to China. Rest assured, I won’t cause any trouble with you.”
Ye Mingxin had read Chloe’s biography online, which was available on various platforms. The biography starts at when Chloe was sixteen, when she dropped out of high school and became an actress. Before she turned eighteen, she began modeling. After three years of modeling, she started working at a fashion magazine at the age of 21. Considering this timeline, Chloe had been working continuously since returning to France. A girl of fifteen or sixteen should have been attending school during that time, not working.
Ye Mingxin had no idea what happened back then in the Zhong family*. Han Feixu had a fever during that time, and she was lying in her arms, shivering and crying, while repeating the words, “Please don’t hit me, help, save...” Later, Zhong Ya mentioned some things to her, but it was just a brief mention. (T/N: Remember that Zhong Ya is Han Feixu’s mother’s name so Zhong family is her maternal family.)
Roughly speaking, Han Feixu was originally raised by her grandmother because her father, an engineer, worked in Jiuquan, a city in Gansu Province. He was a rocket engineer with a busy schedule and a harsh working environment. Zhong Ya could accompany him, but the child was too young, and she was afraid that the child couldn’t endure the hardships there.
Zhong Ya, having grown up in luxury, wanted her daughter to experience a similar upbringing. So, from the age of two, Han Feixu lived in Kunshan* with her maternal grandparents until she was ten. (*T/N: Kunshan is a city in Jiangsu province, near Shanghai)
On the day they first met, it was the most terrifying day of Han Feixu’s life. Han Feixu had a high fever for two days, and by the time she was taken to the hospital, it had turned into severe pneumonia. She stayed in the hospital for a week before she recovered. Zhong Ya and her husband rushed back from Gansu to Jiangsu and by the time they returned, the daughter was discharged, and the whole family ended up returning to Beijing.
They lived with her paternal grandparents for a while, and Father Han resigned from his job in Jiuquan, finding a position at a research institute in Beijing. From then on, their whole family settled in Beijing.
This was all Ye Mingxin knew. She had asked Zhong Ya who wanted to harm Han Feixu at the time, and Zhong Ya only said it was a scumbag she would never speak of again. It was only during their time in the United States that Han Feixu mentioned her maternal grandmother’s family and revealed that she had a grandfather who was worse than a beast. This man had apparently squandered her grandmother’s money on another woman, and half of her grandmother’s family fortune was taken away by that adulterous couple.
But Ye Mingxin never knew that the adulterous couple had a daughter, Chloe. If one calculated carefully, she left China at the age of fifteen and she was five years older than Han Feixu, then Chole’s departure from China coincided with Han Feixu’s return to Beijing.
Thinking of a possibility, Ye Mingxin took a step forward, looking at her incredulously. “Did Little Xu ever meet you before?”
Chloe pursed her lips. “Yes, she did, but that was many years ago. She only met me once, for just a few seconds. Judging from her current state, I know she doesn’t remember me.”
Han Feixu lived with her maternal grandmother since childhood. What did it mean for her to have met Chloe? That meant that Chloe was brought into her maternal grandmother’s house by her adulterous mother or Serge, and had entered the household quite openly at that.
Ye Mingxin’s face gradually darkened. She might not hate cheating and adultery as much as Han Feixu, but she equally disapproved of third parties ruining relationships.
Rubbing her forehead, she asked again, “Where did the money come from to buy the book?”
Even this detail was investigated. Chloe lowered her eyes and replied in a quiet voice, “Part of it comes from the inheritance my mother left me, and the other part is from my own savings. Not long after the divorce, Serge died. My mother had him make a will, for all the inheritance to go to us. Her share is several times more than mine, but she squandered it all. I never touched my share. I know it’s not mine, so I wanted to use this opportunity to give it back.”
If she gave back the money outright, Han Feixu would definitely refuse and be suspicious of her. Chloe knew she didn’t lack this money, so she thought of taking advantage of this charity auction to auction off all the inheritance and give what she obtained in Han Feixu’s name.
When she saw how angry Han Feixu was when Ye Mingxin spent 100 million on that book, Chole suddenly thought of spending her own money to buy that book for her.
She never expected to be found out. When she saw the bracelet on Ye Mingxin’s wrist, she vaguely guessed that the two of them were lovers, maybe partners. When she left China, same-sex marriage laws had not yet been passed in China, but it was very common for same-sex couples to live together despite not being married. She thought Han Feixu and Ye Mingxin had such a relationship.