Chapter 1315: Qu Fangzhou's Daughter

Though Luo Ge's tone was questioning, his expression was certain. So Xia Qing didn't deny it and asked softly, "Luo Ge, you saw Zhang Shi?"

Zhang San, Luo Pei, Yang Jin, and Xie Yu, who had been inside and outside the underground laboratory in Hui One back then, joined forces to expose the underground laboratory's dark secrets.

Shi Jiaran, who had been locked in the laboratory, was brought to the surface by Xie Yu and handed over to Zhang San for treatment, so Luo Pei should have seen Shi Jiaran. Even if he hadn't run into her at the time, after Shi Jiaran went missing, forces both overt and covert were looking for her, so Luo Pei must have seen her photo.

Now, Shi Jiaran lives in a hidden valley under the identity of Researcher Zhang Shi of Territory Seven. Luo Pei is also a member of the Territory Alliance and can go there to fetch water; he may have seen or heard about Zhang Shi's existence in the valley.

"I didn't see her. I just heard the brothers recuperating inside mention that a researcher with a child was living there, so I guessed it was Shi Jiaran."

Luo Pei sighed. "After she went missing back then, some guessed the Hui One officials had secretly transferred her, some guessed the Blue Blood Alliance had rescued her, and some guessed Third Brother had helped her escape. Over the years, none of the various factions gave up looking for her, and many eyes were planted around Third Brother. Who would have thought she really deceived everyone and came to Hui Three with Third Brother."

Xia Qing didn't mention the role she had played in it, only briefly explained, "She didn't come with Third Brother. The hidden valley was originally home to her family; she only got in touch with Third Brother later."

Luo Pei took a sip of tea before asking, "So the Shi family lived in that valley. No wonder after the catastrophe, there was no sign of them alive or dead, and no wonder Shi Jiaran moved into the valley with her child. She contacted Third Brother for the sake of that child, didn't she? And now she's taking the child away again?"

The valley was going to be upgraded and renovated, which would certainly be discovered and attract attention from outsiders. For her own safety and the child's, Shi Jiaran would definitely leave.

Luo Pei was really too sharp. Xia Qing only picked out things she could talk about. "She said staying in one place too long makes it easy to be exposed, and she plans to leave with the child before the Heavy Snow."

Heavy Snow could cover their tracks very well. As for where Zhang Shi wanted to go and what arrangements she had made for little Shi Yi, Xia Qing didn't know, and wasn't curious.

Luo Pei leaned back in his chair, gazing up at two little insects fluttering around the light bulb, his voice low and slow. "Back then in the underground laboratory, she refused to gestate experimental subjects and resisted fiercely, so she was injected with sedative-type drugs. I never expected that after gaining her freedom, she would give birth to the child and even raise her."

Xia Qing had a different view. "When she escaped while more than four months pregnant, she may not have intended to keep the child. But she couldn't go to a hospital for an abortion, so she could only give birth."

Luo Pei's gaze shifted from the little insects to Xia Qing. He was silent.

Xia Qing felt her master's gaze on her and instinctively bared her teeth in a smile.

Luo Pei also smiled helplessly. "You're not at all curious about her affairs? Never chatted with her, or asked Zhang San about her past?"

Xia Qing explained, "When we're together, we only talk about farming or trading supplies."

Of course, they also used their phones to communicate about little Shi Yi. Although Xia Qing trusted Luo Pei, she had no right to reveal the secrets of Zhang Shi and her daughter to anyone.

This disciple of his really had farming on her mind alone, with no curiosity whatsoever about other things or other people, living a very grounded, very real life.

Luo Pei sighed again. "Shi Jiaran is a doctor. She was seized from the hospital and taken into the underground laboratory."

Therefore, having an abortion at more than four months pregnant held no great difficulty or danger for Shi Jiaran.

"No wonder she wears glasses and a white coat without any sense of incongruity." Xia Qing remarked with feeling, then brought up something that had been popping into her mind from time to time lately. "Then she really must have chosen to give birth to the child on her own. Luo Ge, I keep feeling that when the Doomsday invaded Liehuo Mountain, the photo Qu Fangzhou left in her room was meant to bait Shi Jiaran."

Luo Pei's expression grew serious. "That's possible. Once the photo reached the Azure Dragon Squad, it could get to Third Brother through you. Qu Fangzhou probably wanted to use that photo to test Third Brother, to see if there was any contact between Third Brother and Shi Jiaran. Have you mentioned this to Shi Jiaran or Third Brother?"

Xia Qing shook her head. "I didn't think it was necessary, so I didn't mention it. Is the little girl in the photo really Qu Fangzhou's daughter?"

Luo Pei answered cautiously. "The stated reason Qu Fangzhou joined Liehuo was that her daughter was also a victim of the underground experiments, and she wanted revenge. But there's no conclusive evidence confirming that little girl is her daughter."

"Qu Fangzhou suddenly emerged during the catastrophe years; we can't trace her life trajectory. Over the years she's been in Liehuo, she's been like a precise intelligence-gathering and analysis machine—besides work, she has no interests, and no one close to her."

"We found out that little girl was trafficked into the laboratory and confirmed as a Brain Domain Evolver. Her time in the underground laboratory overlapped with Shi Jiaran's; they may have met or even had close contact inside."

After hearing this, Xia Qing asked, "What was that little girl's name? How old was she when she was seized and taken into the laboratory?"

Luo Pei's voice was low. "Experimental subjects in the underground laboratory had no names. Her designation was B-3. According to the experimental records, her time of death was October of the fifth year of the catastrophe, age at death five, cause of death: experiment failure."

Luo Pei didn't go into detail about what experiment, and Xia Qing didn't ask. "She was born in the first year of the catastrophe. She probably didn't even have an ID number; it's very hard to find any information on her."

A child born during the catastrophe and surviving, confirmed at such a young age as a rare Brain Domain Evolver—her evolutionary potential was imaginable. Yet she died underground before the underground laboratory was exposed.

Xia Qing expressionlessly swung an electric mosquito swatter and killed the two little insects flying around the lamp.

After seeing Luo Pei off from Territory Three, she patted Wolf Lao Er, who had come out of the wild grass and was standing beside her, and quietly gazed at the cold stars filling the sky, listening to the whoosh of the cold wind.

After Wolf Lao Er nudged her shoulder with its head, Xia Qing put her arm around its neck and pulled herself together. "Wolf Lao Er, the temperature's going to drop sharply in a few days. Tomorrow we absolutely must fill the cold-protection trenches with fermented green fertilizer to protect our overwintering wheat."

This year Xia Qing had planted five mu of overwintering wheat. The cold-protection trenches were already dug but not yet filled.

Wolf Lao Er grinned with two hahs, its muzzle full of exhaled white mist. Xia Qing led it down the slope, fetched two large buckets of uncontaminated spring water from Greenhouse Two, and hurried home.

Tomorrow evening she was going to take her sixteenth medicinal bath, so she needed to haul more water back.