Chapter Seventy: The Mysterious Factory

Fang Yuan’s action left Pei Xi quite astonished. The two of them had done similar things before in front of Elder Pei, but those had always been mere performances. Now, with the old man far away at sea, there was no further need for Fang Yuan to put on an act with her. Pei Xi couldn’t understand why Fang Yuan would make such a move now, or what his intentions were.

“Is… is this your car?” As soon as Pei Xi came ashore, she caught sight of a stunning sports car parked nearby. In the darkness of night, it was the only vehicle there, so it must have belonged to Fang Yuan.

What surprised Pei Xi was how quickly Fang Yuan had managed to drive such a fine car. She knew of this model—there was even a pure white version. Had she not still been in school, worried about drawing envy by driving such an extravagant car to class, she might have driven one herself by now.

“It’s not mine. I’m just borrowing it for a bit and have to return it tomorrow,” Fang Yuan explained simply, naturally guiding Pei Xi into the passenger seat.

Ke Bei took the back seat, his expression unreadable.

“Now, can you tell me what happened?” Once inside, Fang Yuan didn’t rush to start the car. He wanted to understand what Pei Xi had gone through that had left her so shaken, sending her running to the ocean for solace.

Only then did Pei Xi recount everything in detail to Fang Yuan.

It turned out Pei Xi had only been away for two days before returning. She’d hired Ke Bei as her private detective to search for her mother, who had disappeared years before.

At first, all Pei Xi could provide Ke Bei was a photograph of her mother in her youth; the rest of the information was scant and hardly useful. Yet Ke Bei had proven quite resourceful, soon uncovering a few leads.

The reason Pei Xi had returned so quickly was that some matters required her personal attention—such as verifying her own genetic information.

From the clues Ke Bei had found, it seemed highly likely that Pei Xi’s mother had not left after all, and that she might still be in this very city.

However, as Ke Bei tried to dig deeper, he encountered people covertly obstructing his investigation. At first, he didn’t connect them to Pei Xi’s mother, thinking instead that it was just a hazard of his profession, which naturally attracted enemies. Those he investigated would gladly see him skinned and tossed into the sea.

Typically, Ke Bei would avoid such people at all costs, never confronting them directly. If he didn’t want to be found, few could track him down. But this time, no matter how he tried to hide, these people would always locate him quickly. Strangely, they never harmed him; they simply foiled his plans and prevented him from proceeding.

This led Ke Bei to suspect that they weren’t after revenge at all. Their true aim seemed to be obstructing his search for Pei Xi’s mother.

Pei Xi had told no one about her investigation, so when they met resistance, she hadn’t asked any friends for help. Initially, the interference was limited to sabotaging their plans, and since there was no real threat of harm, Pei Xi and Ke Bei grew bolder. The previous night, they followed a planned route to a spot Ke Bei found suspicious.

But as soon as they arrived, before they could even look around, they were surrounded by a group of people. Had Ke Bei not reacted instantly, dragging Pei Xi into the car and fleeing, they would likely have been captured then and there.

Fang Yuan had heard Pei Xi mention her mother before, but she’d only ever said her mother left when she was very young. Fang Yuan hadn’t thought much about it, simply assuming it was true.

He hadn’t expected that Pei Xi’s mother might still be alive, just not living with her.

“Your mother… she’s still alive?” Fang Yuan’s perspective on the matter differed from Pei Xi’s.

Even without knowing the full story, he thought that if a mother could abandon her own child, it would be an act of great cruelty. Such people did exist, but given how devoted Elder Pei was to Pei Xi, if her mother were still alive, he would have done anything—even by force—to bring her back to Pei Xi’s side.

Fang Yuan suspected that Elder Pei had chosen a gentle lie, telling young Pei Xi her mother had left, to spare her the pain of learning she’d died.

“I believe she’s still alive. And my father knows something—he just won’t tell me the truth,” Pei Xi said. Since her last conversation with Elder Pei, this conviction had only grown stronger.

“What clues have you found? Why are people secretly working against you—do you know their reason?” As he spoke, Fang Yuan glanced in the rearview mirror at Ke Bei, who had been silent in the back seat.

Hearing Fang Yuan address him, Ke Bei seemed to snap out of his thoughts, his words tumbling out rapidly: “From what I’ve gathered, the place we were headed last night is a private secret base. Officially it’s presented as a marine food processing plant, supposedly just handling some export products.”

As Ke Bei spoke, his eyes shone with excitement, as if he’d discovered a new continent. To outsiders, the so-called secret base was just a food processing plant—because it dealt in foreign trade, most of its staff were foreigners. Few locals were hired, so hardly anyone knew what products they actually made.

Ke Bei had found the place by accident, stumbling upon a reference to a biological research institute online. Using various methods, he’d finally pinpointed its location.

On the map, it appeared to be a food processing plant—a marine biology research institute disguised as a seafood processing facility, which immediately drew Ke Bei’s attention.

Initially, Ke Bei hadn’t connected the plant with Pei Xi’s mother. It was only later, recalling that Pei Xi’s limited information had mentioned her mother’s passion for biology, that he began to suspect a link.