Tao Xinrou rushed forward, shielding her mother: "Don't talk about my mom like that!"
Aunt was taken aback, then sneered: "Oh, the little girl knows how to talk back? You're no good either. Always saying someone's going to have an accident or something. You killed your dad too, you jinx!"
"Elder Sister, the child was just helping me. If you want to blame someone, blame me. Don't take it out on a child."
"Hmph, I'm not going to bother with her. I'm just telling you—you outsiders living here should know your place."
"Outsiders? Rourou is a Tao. She's not an outsider," Tao's mother said angrily.
"Cut it out. Who knows where that little bastard came from? She doesn't look like my brother. I'm not sure you didn't have her with someone else. Mom, let's just be straightforward. This house belonged to Haizhen. Now that he's gone, the house goes to Mom. And you two are still living here shamelessly."
Tao's mother finally couldn't hold back and retorted, "Elder Sister, this house was bought by Haizhen. The property deed lists Haizhen and Mom's names. It's only right that we live here."
Aunt's face changed: "Is that so?"
The next day, Aunt brought a stranger in, a man who claimed to be a lawyer.
They talked for a long time in the room. Tao Xinrou pressed her ear to the door.
"Your mother is still alive. She can allocate the house."
"The first inheritance right goes to parents, then to children."
"If you go to court, you'll definitely lose."
...
She couldn't hear the rest, but she saw her mother come out of the room with red-rimmed eyes and say to her, "Rourou, we're leaving."
"Take your little jinx and get out. If it wasn't for her mouth, Haizhen might still be alive."
Tao Xinrou turned around and stared hard at Aunt. That look—Tao Xinrou would never forget it.
For the first time, she realized that her "seeing" was not a gift in other people's eyes, but a disaster.
Later, they ended up here.
Her mother had worked so hard. She didn't want to make her any more tired.
Tao Xinrou gently patted Tao's mother on the back with concern: "Mom, don't say that. I just hope you stay healthy. Next week, I'll take a day off and go with you to see the doctor, hear what he says."
Tao's mother nodded.
Mother and daughter sat on the bed, talking about their worries.
But the string in Tao Xinrou's heart tightened even more. She needed to push forward the investigation of her father's case and find the truth for herself and her mother.
*
A few days later, at the housekeeping department morning meeting, Supervisor Wei Hao relayed the latest notice from the President's Office.
"To celebrate the group's 50th anniversary, the hotel is preparing a project related to cultural heritage. They need to pull employees from each business department who have experience sorting historical materials to form a temporary team, assisting in preliminary data collection and initial analysis. I recall that in our department, it was Tao Xinrou and Wei Jiaxin who handled this, right?"
Both nodded.
"Okay, you two stay. The rest of you are dismissed."
After everyone else had left, Wei Hao called the two over and conveyed the notice from the President's Office.
"During the project, you may need to assist the project team in visiting the headquarters archives to review declassified, publicly available historical documents related to service evolution as research material. Of course, all access will be under the project leader's guidance and strictly in accordance with archive regulations. This is a great learning opportunity and will also bring honor to our department."
"No problem, Supervisor Wei. Leave it to me," Wei Jiaxin said, thumping his chest.
Tao Xinrou also nodded, but inside she was already ecstatic.
Archives!
Although not directly entering, being able to access relevant archives as a project team member was a complete turnaround!
It seemed Ying Jingsheng hadn't told her because he wanted a legitimate reason—or... was he trying to give her a surprise?
Tao Xinrou's heart stirred.
She had misjudged the president yesterday. Tonight, she would go home and properly thank the president!
*
In the general manager's office on the 39th floor, Ying Jingsheng was listening to Wang Anran's report.
"We've contacted the archives. They said they'll cooperate."
"Mm." Ying Jingsheng nodded, his gaze falling outside the window.
This way, he could both place her in a relatively safe and controllable environment to access historical materials, and observe her true objective through her progress in this project.
"Also," Wang Anran added, "we found a retired Southwest Branch employee named Sun Guofu. We've arranged for someone to try to learn some things under the guise of an old colleague catching up. Through him, we learned in advance about Tao Haizhen's family situation. He said Tao Haizhen was especially valued by Ying Huaishan for a period, and the two were often seen together."
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Author's note: Tao Xinrou: Hehe, the president is still a good person (mood on a rollercoaster)
Random red envelopes for comments on this chapter, until 18:00 tomorrow.