Chapter 57: Household Registration

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Household Registration

The investigation into Shen Zhenwu’s personal conduct had come to a close.

He slapped his thigh with a loud THWACK. "Where else? We’re going to get you registered!"

"Huh?"

Song Yao was instantly wide awake. She sat bolt upright. "Dad, has our... our biological relationship been confirmed?"

"Ha, what a thing to say!"

Shen Zhenwu boomed with laughter. "Did you really think your old man was cooped up at the camp all these days just to be investigated?"

"He wasn’t?"

Song Yao tilted her head slightly, her eyes fixed on her father.

"If they were really investigating my conduct, why would I need to be there watching over them? I was investigating Song Shunqiang and Liu Yumin!"

His tone deepened, his brow lowered, and his gaze burned with intensity.

He didn’t hide a single thing from his daughter, spilling it all out at once. "I started by combing through their lives from twenty years ago—where they lived, who they associated with. On one hand, I was checking if their backgrounds were clean. On the other, I was investigating whether they had ever been to Yunan nineteen years ago, around the time you were born!"

Song Yao understood immediately.

She blinked, her mind racing.

"So, as long as it was confirmed that Song Shunqiang and Liu Yumin were squeaky clean, then this ridiculous talk about me being a spy would be completely debunked."

"Exactly! My daughter’s a quick thinker!"

"Dad, you were the one who was so thorough... I was actually thinking..."

Song Yao scratched her ear, swallowing the words on the tip of her tongue, feeling a little embarrassed.

Shen Zhenwu glanced at her. How could he not understand what that little expression meant?

Her expression clearly showed she had a plan in mind, but she was deliberately putting on an innocent act.

He deliberately put on a stern face. "Oh, so you think your old man is just some meathead who can’t think?"

"Whoa, I wouldn’t dare! You were so decisive and efficient back at Nanhui Camp. I saw it with my own eyes!"

Who doesn’t like a little flattery?

Especially when it came from the daughter he had just acknowledged. A grin spread across Shen Zhenwu’s face.

The crucial thing was that Song Yao never saw Shen Zhenwu as some ordinary old cadre.

She remembered from her past life’s files that he had been transferred to the General Staff Department at thirty-eight and had spearheaded the creation of a new tactical doctrine for amphibious landings at forty-four.

Those weren’t accomplishments you could rack up just through seniority.

In order to get close to him, she had used every little trick she’d accumulated in her past life.

If she hadn’t been so prepared, how could she have possibly ended up sitting beside him so smoothly, sipping a cup of hot tea?

"Decisive and efficient? Not really. After rolling on the edge of a knife for half my life, even an idiot learns that you have to think things through before you act."

After saying this, Shen Zhenwu stared at the back of his hand, where an old scar rested.

Shen Zhenwu reached out and ruffled her hair before continuing, "Your mother... she doesn’t like you. If you’re going to put down roots and build a life here in Beijing, we need to stamp out these vicious rumors the moment they pop up."

A pang hit Song Yao’s nose. She quickly turned her head to look out the window, her eyes burning hot. She didn’t dare to look back.

"So what were the results?"

She heard her own voice come out a bit tight.

Shen Zhenwu’s voice grew grave. "I investigated. Song Shunqiang and Liu Yumin were born and raised in Yannan Town. Their relationships with their neighbors are all accounted for, and they have absolutely no connection to any suspicious outsiders. Therefore, the suspicion against you is unfounded."

Song Yao let out a long breath.

’I already knew it, deep down, but only now that it was official, in black and white and stamped with a seal, did I feel like I’d truly shed the burden.’

’I knew this document would be archived tomorrow. No one would ever be able to pull it out of thin air to slander me again.’

"As for what’s next..."

Shen Zhenwu paused, his voice suddenly dropping low.

Song Yao’s heart skipped a beat. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

’That’s not right.’

’His attitude hadn’t changed; he was still just as warm.’

She narrowed her eyes, her gaze sweeping over him inch by inch before finally settling on his eyes.

Shen Zhenwu looked back at her. When their eyes met, he broke into a beaming grin. "Hehehe! I knew it! You’ve got the blood of the Shen family flowing right through your bones!"

Before he had even finished speaking, a large hand clapped down on her shoulder.

Song Yao’s body lurched to the side, and she nearly flew out of her seat.

Xiao Li, who was driving, caught it in the rearview mirror and quickly spoke up. "Sir, the Young Miss is all skin and bone! She can’t handle a whack from those iron palms of yours!"

As if someone had stepped on his tail, Shen Zhenwu instantly retracted his hand. He leaned in nervously, "My girl! Are you okay? Look at me, I get carried away when I’m happy! I don’t know my own strength!"

Song Yao silently scooted closer to the car door, putting a safe distance between them, before slowly saying, "I’m fine... Really, I’m fine."

Shen Zhenwu chuckled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "You’ll have to remind me next time! I can’t seem to break the habit, but I have to remember not to use that heavy hand on you!"

Once that was settled, Shen Zhenwu slowly began to recount the story of how the babies were switched all those years ago.

In 1964, Liu Yumin had finally had enough of her husband’s philandering and the domestic violence that followed him home.

Gritting her teeth, she packed her things in the middle of the night and fled to Yunan to seek refuge with her older sister.

She had just arrived in Beijing when her body gave out. The baby came early and in a breech position; she nearly died.

Her sister and brother-in-law were terrified, breaking out in a cold sweat. Fearing the worst, they rushed her to the hospital.

After a long and difficult ordeal, both mother and daughter were safe. She had given birth to a little girl.

Liu Yumin was in the same hospital room as Yao Yuzhen.

She overheard the other woman’s mother-in-law boasting about how wealthy and respectable their family was, how their granddaughter would get a good education and be able to choose a good husband.

Then she looked at her own baby—so small and frail.

’What if... I switched them?’

’My own daughter would have it all—fine food, new clothes, a future with no worries about education or marriage.’

’And I, her mother, wouldn’t have to suffer through each day, struggling to care for a sickly child who looked like she could stop breathing at any moment.’

"This all came out when Zhang Jianwei’s team interrogated Liu Yumin and her husband, then followed the trail to question their relatives. Her sister lost contact with the family years ago and couldn’t be found, but everyone else’s testimony matched the couple’s story perfectly. It’s airtight, one hundred percent certain."

Shen Zhenwu sat ramrod straight, his face beaming with pride. "So there you have it! The entire unit recognizes it now. Song Yao, you are my, Shen Zhenwu’s, biological daughter!"

"Tomorrow morning, I’ll have the newspapers run a story. We’ll get it printed in black and white. Then let’s see who still dares to wag their tongues behind our backs!"

The news was incredibly satisfying.

’Sure, I could wait a few years for DNA technology to become commonplace and prove it then,’ Song Yao thought, ’but the chance to kick labels like "the fake missy" and "the wild child" to the curb right now? I couldn’t be happier!’

She’d been putting up with those people in Beijing for so long, she was gritting her teeth in frustration.

Seeing her father sitting right there before her, Song Yao’s eyes grew hot. She blinked, and two streams of tears squeezed out, rolling down her cheeks.

When Shen Zhenwu turned and saw his daughter shedding tears, his heart felt like it was being squeezed in a fist. He reached out a hand, but then hesitated to touch her, instead just gripping his military cap tighter.

"My girl, Dad knows you’ve been wronged! Don’t you worry. Every single person who bullied you, I’m going to drag them out and deal with them. Those who deserve disciplinary action will get it, those who deserve to be suspended will be. None of them will be able to so much as breathe easy in Beijing!"

Sniffling, Song Yao said, "You don’t know how cruel they were... The day Shen Shuangshuang had her make-up birthday tea party, the whole room called me a bastard to my face. And when I was in the hospital on an IV, Yao Yuzhen and Shen Shuangshuang burst in, pulled my hair, pinched my arm, and cursed me out..."