Chapter 432: Finding the Driver from Back Then (Catch-up Update 5)

Gu Zhiyan followed the address to a high-end residential complex. As he entered, he took out his phone and scrolled through a photo his father had sent him — one of the people in it was Wang Peng from thirty years ago.

No matter how much time passes, from youth to old age, one's bone structure doesn't change much.

Passing by the complex's playground, Gu Zhiyan spotted a slightly hunched silhouette accompanying a grandchild on the slide.

Better to be wrong than to miss him.

He stopped, turned, and walked toward the man, calling out, "Wang Peng?"

Wang Peng looked up. Seeing a young man addressing him by his full name, he frowned — but on closer look, the young man's features seemed faintly familiar, though only slightly.

"You are?"

"My surname is Gu." Gu Zhiyan confirmed that the person before him was indeed Wang Peng, the driver who had worked for his father thirty years ago, and introduced himself: "My father is Gu—"

His voice suddenly paused.

He was here to investigate the mistaken swap from twenty-eight years ago. If he stated his father's name outright, would the man truly be forthcoming?

"Gu Kai." Gu Zhiyan shifted mid-sentence, borrowing his uncle's name. Since this man had once been his father's driver, he couldn't possibly know nothing about the Gu family.

The words had barely landed when a flash of alarm and suspicion crossed Wang Peng's eyes. He hadn't dared follow the Gu family's situation in years, but he would always remember the Gu family — and even more so, he could never forget Gu Sen, his former direct superior.

Why would Gu Kai's son appear here?

And why come looking for him?

Wang Peng's eyes shifted. "So it's the young Young Master. May I ask what business you have with me?"

Gu Zhiyan noticed that ever since hearing he was from the Gu family, the man's expression had grown uneasy, and under his scrutinizing gaze, the man deliberately looked away.

"About what happened twenty-eight years ago."

The words landed like a bomb thrown into Wang Peng's life, which had been peaceful for over twenty years. He didn't know what matter from twenty-eight years ago the man before him was asking about, but he always remembered the instructions those two had given him twenty-eight years ago.

"What matter?" he feigned forgetfulness. "It's been so long, I've almost forgotten. You start losing your memory when you get old."

Wang Peng was about the same age as Gu Sen, but he did indeed look older than Gu Sen.

Gu Zhiyan stared into Wang Peng's eyes. "Can you forget something that big?"

"I remember your uncle resigning from office. The rest, I don't really remember." Wang Peng bent down, picked up his grandson, and used that as an excuse to leave.

Gu Zhiyan pressed: "Why did he resign?"

Wang Peng found it puzzling. "How would we outsiders know the reason for his resignation? You're a Gu family member — shouldn't you know better?"

Gu Zhiyan: "Only the older generation knows. Those of us in the younger generation don't."

Wang Peng felt something was increasingly off. "Then why did you come here asking about the older generation's affairs?"

Gu Zhiyan answered ambiguously: "His biological daughter has come back."

Wang Peng's breath caught. His grip on his grandson tightened considerably, and the child cried out in pain in his arms.

Gu Zhiyan glanced at the child. Wang Peng set his grandson down and gave an equally ambiguous reply: "That's quite nice."

Gu Zhiyan: "So you're not surprised by what 'biological daughter coming back' means."

He'd been trapped. Wang Peng snapped his head up to look at Gu Zhiyan, thinking to himself that the Gu family members were truly cunning, one after another — on the surface the family seemed harmonious, but behind the scenes everyone had their own hidden maneuvers.

This Young Master Gu before him had clearly come secretly to investigate something.

Gu Zhiyan stared hard at Wang Peng, thinking: sure enough, it wasn't as simple as a nurse swapping babies by mistake. Was Wang Peng involved too?

"The biological daughter is back. If certain matters were truly pursued, I'm afraid it wouldn't be as simple as that — it would be child trafficking!"

"Nonsense!" Wang Peng's face flushed red, and he glared furiously at Gu Zhiyan. "Absolute nonsense! What does that have to do with child trafficking? What does it have to do with me?"

Gu Zhiyan just looked at him.

Wang Peng grew guilty under that gaze, his bluster instantly deflating. "Even if something happened, I was only acting according to the Gu family's wishes. You high-and-mighty people shouldn't always try to make us ordinary folks take the blame."

Gu Zhiyan frowned. "What do you mean by that?"

Wang Peng didn't answer again. He picked up his grandson and hurried away as if ghosts were chasing him.

Gu Zhiyan was filled with suspicion.

Acting according to the Gu family's wishes?

Not a mistaken swap?

Could it have been a deliberate switch?

Swapping a sick child for a healthy one — that would make sense.

But why was Wang Peng's reaction so strange? And why did he mention the Gu family?

The Gu family would never trade a healthy child for a sick one.

Gu Zhiyan began to sense that something was wrong with this whole "mistaken swap" matter.

The more he thought about it, the more wrong it felt.

He probably wouldn't be able to see Wang Peng again today. To get Wang Peng to tell him what he knew, he'd have to figure out how to get leverage over him.

Gu Zhiyan checked into a hotel near Wang Peng's home. He was determined to get to the bottom of this.

Meanwhile, after Wang Peng got home, he began rummaging through things. His daughter-in-law asked what he was looking for; he snapped at her not to ask. Eventually, in a hidden compartment of his old wardrobe, he found a yellowed notebook containing a string of phone numbers. He hurriedly dialed one.

Disconnected number.

Of course — so many years had passed. That man's official career had been soaring all along; he had surely changed his number long ago, cutting himself off from everything in the past.

So many years had passed — how had that child been found? And returned.

Wang Peng put on his reading glasses, fiddled with his phone set to extra-large font, and searched for news about the Gu family, but found nothing.

The Gu family had indeed invited many political and business luminaries, but they would never let the story of a swapped child get out. Those within their circle knew, and that was enough — even if someone told the media, the media wouldn't dare report on such a matter.

Wang Peng's face showed worry, yet he had no way to proactively contact the Gu family.

……

A City.

Ke Family.

Ms. Nian looked at Gu Sen sitting on the sofa and gestured for the servant to pour him tea.

「I'm not drinking; if I drink, I won't be able to sleep at night. 」 By age, Nian Zhaoning should call him older brother, but the two, accustomed to addressing each other by name, didn't follow the elders' expectation to call each other big brother and little sister.

Also because of this, their friendship grew deeper; the longtime friends no longer acted hesitantly, and he spoke frankly about his purpose for coming.

「I didn't see Jiang Lai at Ke Clan's press conference yesterday; as the chief engineer, she wasn't there—did something happen? 」

Nian Zhaoning and Ke Yue exchanged a glance; both could see the anxiety and worry in Gu Sen's eyes, and they had no intention of hiding it, after all, he is Jiang Lai's biological father.

Ke Yue: 「He's sick. 」

「Sick? 」 Gu Sen really panicked, 「Have you seen a doctor? How did you get sick? 」

Ke Yue: 「A high fever from overwork, she's seen a doctor, Chongyu called to say the fever has broken, it's just that her body is weak and needs rest. 」

Upon hearing the two words 'rest', Gu Sen's body slumped, then he let out a long breath: 「The fever breaking is good; she needs rest, she needs to rest properly. 」

Ke Yue gave Gu Sen a deep look: 「You've come, aren't you going to see her? 」

Gu Sen wanted to, but he still shook his head: 「Before I can give her a full accounting of what happened back then, I have no face to see her. 」

Ms. Nian, who had not interjected until now, finally spoke: 「It's to give her a full accounting. 」

Gu Sen could actually see that Nian Zhaoning's resentment toward him and Shiwei had deepened.