“How is it?”
Ya Xinyao couldn’t help but lean in closer.
“This child doesn’t look like a bad kid.”
“Dad, Mom, I want to see too.”
Gao Hongyi stood beside her parents, and the three of them looked at the ID photo together.
“It’s quite rare,” Gao Hongzhi said, looking slightly surprised.
Back in Donghai, when friends gathered, they often brought their families along.
There was no shortage of young talents with wealthy backgrounds and outstanding looks, but Gao Hongyi had always lacked interest, never giving them a second glance.
He had thought it would be the same this time.
But the reality was different.
Gao Hongyi’s gaze lingered on the ID photo as she whispered, “Gu Yebai.”
His features were well-defined, and his lines were clean.
He wasn’t the sunny, handsome type who could charm anyone with a single smile; instead, he possessed an indescribable sense of quietness.
His eyes and brows were soft yet cold, and his skin was a pale, porcelain white.
A faint layer of purplish-black shadows floated under his eyes, as if he suffered from chronic lack of sleep.
What was most unforgettable were his eyes.
They weren’t sharp, but they carried a natural sense of detachment, making one feel as if he always maintained a perfect distance from the world.
He likely wasn’t easy to approach, as if he kept everyone outside and only immersed himself in his own inner world.
If he stood in a crowd, he would probably be the type who never fought for attention and never proactively approached anyone.
Such a person, once someone truly managed to get close to him, would be very difficult for others to take away.
“What do you think?” Gao Hongzhi looked at his daughter.
Judging a person from a single photograph was perhaps arbitrary.
However, one’s appearance often reflects their heart, and sometimes that intuition is startlingly accurate.
When it came to “reading people,” Gao Hongyi had always possessed an intuition that surprised even her parents.
“A bit withdrawn, but his inner world must be very rich.”
She paused and then added, “He’s not a bad person.”
If anything, his name suited him.
Like a lamp on a winter night—not dazzling, but just right.
“Look, honey,” Ya Xinyao suddenly lowered her voice, pointing at the photo.
“His eyes… don’t they look a little like yours?”
Gao Hongzhi scrutinized it seriously for a moment.
“The bridge of the nose looks more like yours.”
“And here!”
Ya Xinyao acted as if she had discovered some treasure, her tone filled with childlike surprise.
“The jawline is also —”
Midway through her sentence, she suddenly stopped.
They had experienced similar things before.
They would point at someone else’s child, and the more they looked, the more they felt a resemblance.
The more they looked, the more certain they became that it was the one taken by mistake at the hospital all those years ago, only for it to turn into a major misunderstanding.
The greater the hope, the harder the fall when disappointment struck.
And so, they tacitly chose restraint.
Until solid evidence appeared, they would no longer let their expectations grow wild.
“Thank you, Director Li.”
“Think nothing of it,” Director Li smiled.
“I’m a father too, so I can understand your feelings. Anyway, I wish you a speedy reunion with your biological son, Mr. Gao.”
When they left the police station, Gao Hongzhi cast a subtle glance at Gao Hongyi.
Earlier, while flipping through the household register, the status of the people on the first two pages besides Gu Yebai had already been changed to “Deceased.”
Gu Chengfeng and Lu Xiaoai.
They were Gu Yebai’s legal parents.
Based on the timeline and identity deductions, they were very likely Gao Hongyi’s biological parents.
The moment he realized this, Gao Hongzhi instinctively turned his body to block the information, simultaneously exchanging a look with Ya Xinyao.
They didn’t want their daughter to see it.
The word “Deceased” was heavy enough on its own.
Especially when placed before the words “biological parents,” it was enough to make a girl feel suffocated.
By comparison, the one who had truly suffered the most pain was likely Gu Yebai.
‘That child… must have suffered a lot.’
Afterward, Gao Hongzhi went to the Civil Affairs Bureau.
The same hospitality, the same efficiency.
Files were quickly organized and handed over to him.
Gu Yebai’s parents were a legally married couple.
They were born in Linchuan County, but their marriage registration was completed in Donghai City.
They were likely childhood sweethearts who went to the big city to work for a living.
Later, when the child was born and they were unable to establish a foothold in Donghai, they could only return to their hometown together.
Since then, the family of three had never left Linchuan County again.
“Thank you very much.”
The clues provided by the Civil Affairs Bureau weren’t particularly numerous.
The last stop was the Education Bureau.
To show how seriously the matter was being taken, the Director of the County Education Bureau personally received Gao Hongzhi.
To be honest, Gao Hongzhi didn’t have high expectations for Gu Yebai’s grades.
In his view, it was almost impossible for a small county to foster truly top-tier educational resources.
The best students had long since been scouted and taken away by the key middle schools in the provincial capital.
Those who remained were usually ordinary students.
But that didn’t matter.
What he cared about was Gu Yebai as a person, not his scores.
“Wait a minute.”
The Director suddenly frowned and flipped through the documents.
“The school he’s currently attending is Linchuan Fifth High School.”
At the mention of “Fifth High,” the Director’s expression visibly stiffened, as if he had heard a name that wasn’t quite clean.
“What’s wrong with Fifth High?”
“There are no normal students at that school!” the Director said with absolute certainty.
“Calling it a school is an overstatement; it’s more like a juvenile reformatory. Only the group with the worst High School Entrance Exam scores goes there. It’s full of yellow-haired delinquents; there are almost no good kids in there!”
“What?”
Gao Hongzhi’s face instantly turned pale.
Visions of the delinquent youths he had seen at the factory area—brandishing steel pipes and knives while shouting at each other—uncontrollably surfaced in his mind.
If Gu Yebai was among them…
The thought made him feel weak, and his feet even felt a bit unsteady.
Gao Hongyi’s fingertips also tightened quickly.
The County Education Director’s words made her very uncomfortable, even making her want to snap back at him.
‘Who are you to judge him like that?’
“Wait.”
The Director suddenly gasped.
“What is it now?”
“This child… that’s not right.”
He paused, his tone filled with disbelief.
“He scored 715 points on his High School Entrance Exam. He was second in the entire county and ranked in the top 100 in the province. This is a talent destined for top-tier universities like Tsinghua and Yanda!”
His heart, which had plummeted to the bottom, was suddenly yanked back into the sky at that moment.
Gao Hongzhi’s eyes instantly lit up.
“What did you say?”
Finding a gemstone in a jewelry store was only natural; however, finding a gemstone among coal cinders provided a shock and surprise that was on an entirely different level.
“Truly remarkable…”
His scores in Chinese, Math, and English were nearly perfect.
Among the other subjects, the point deductions were mainly concentrated in the liberal arts.
“This child…”
His heart beat violently from the sudden surprise.
Ya Xinyao also couldn’t help but cover her mouth.
Before they came, they truly hadn’t cared about grades.
But any parent would hope their biological flesh and blood was outstanding enough.
And children who excelled in their studies were usually more mature and understood right from wrong better; that was an undeniable fact.
“Sir,” Gao Hongyi suddenly spoke, her voice very soft.
“Can I see his entrance exam essay? I want to know what he’s usually thinking about.”
Fact after fact was constantly breaking their initial perceptions.
Gu Yebai was a remarkable person.
And [White Night Solo], in Gao Hongyi’s heart, was also a remarkable person.
The two figures were slowly merging in her mind.
Because they were, fundamentally, the same kind of remarkable people.
They might truly be the same person.