Chapter 187: One Family, 18 Group Chats

The tightness in Su Yuqing’s chest finally eased a bit after she got up and washed.

As she left her room, a delicious aroma immediately wafted over her.

She went to the kitchen and saw a delicious breakfast already laid out on the dining table.

"You’ve been taking care of me for the past few days, so for the next couple of days, you should sleep in if you want." Chen Mo smiled, finishing up the last two glasses of milk and carrying them over.

After they sat down, Chen Mo noticed that Su Yuqing didn’t look well.

"Did you not sleep well last night?"

"I slept okay, it’s just..." Su Yuqing subconsciously stopped herself from mentioning her dream.

"Just what?" Chen Mo asked, curious about her sudden pause.

"I just went to bed a little late. I didn’t fall asleep until midnight," Su Yuqing said, covering her mouth as she yawned.

"You can’t stay up so late anymore. If you do it again, you’ll have to sleep next to me so I can supervise you," Chen Mo joked.

Hearing his words, Su Yuqing instantly recalled the time she had climbed into his bed in a half-asleep state and hugged him to sleep.

A blush instantly crept across her face again.

After breakfast, the two of them headed to school together.

With the exams over this week, there wasn’t much else going on.

The college entrance exams were also fast approaching, so during the school term, Chen Mo did his best to tutor Su Yuqing.

He hoped to help her get into the school she wanted.

On Friday, immersed in their studies, the day flew by.

The members of Chen Mo’s study group felt like they hadn’t learned enough by the time the evening self-study session ended.

Su Yuqing, Zhao Yuanyuan, Huang Mao, and Lin Yu’an all felt they had learned a great deal.

A teacher lecturing to dozens of students couldn’t possibly tailor the content to each person’s specific weaknesses.

But Chen Mo’s group format targeted only a few people, so his tutoring was naturally simpler and more precise.

After the evening study session, since it was Friday, Chen Mo took Su Yuqing to Elder Xu’s late-night snack shop again.

After a satisfying meal, the two finally returned home.

Just as he got home, Chen Mo received a message from Blade.

With a clear target, the investigation became much easier.

On the Friday of Su Yuqing’s incident, Lin Ranhai had indeed gone home with a female classmate. However, he left his house midway through for some unknown reason.

Although only a shop near his home captured him on camera, his route suggested he had gone to his sister’s place.

He invited a girl home, only to abandon her and leave for a considerable amount of time, possibly even going to his sister’s.

Even Blade couldn’t figure out what this kid was doing.

At first, Blade hadn’t thought much of Chen Mo’s request to investigate a high school student.

But as he dug deeper, the case had piqued his curiosity as well.

Blade’s questions were Chen Mo’s questions as well.

’This Lin Ranhai invites a girl over, ditches her, and then suddenly runs off to his sister’s house?’

’What could possibly be the reason for that?’

And was he the one who later followed Su Yuqing to the area near my house?

That would require further investigation of the security footage along the route.

After all, the rain that night had been torrential.

Much of the surveillance footage was too blurry to make out anything clearly.

There was still a lot of work to do.

But fundamentally, things were starting to move in the direction Chen Mo had suspected.

’This Lin Ranhai is very strange.’

And, most critically, in the case file he saw in his past life, the alibi Lin Ranhai’s female classmate provided for him was false.

The guy had left his house partway through.

Of course, that didn’t automatically make him a prime suspect.

After all, it was a considerable distance from his house to where Su Yuqing’s incident occurred, and the two of them barely interacted on a daily basis.

It would be difficult to pin the crime on him.

Even with the false alibi.

But it was also possible the classmate simply didn’t want to complicate things, or had forgotten that Lin Ranhai had left.

It didn’t necessarily mean she knew Lin Ranhai had done something wrong and was deliberately covering for him.

So the matter still required further investigation.

Suddenly, Chen Mo wished he could go back to his time as a criminal detective and finish listening to that phone call.

He had woken up just before hearing the final, most crucial name.

’What a shame.’

’Even if it was just a dream, having a name would give me a clear target to investigate.’

If he couldn’t resolve this, Chen Mo would never be able to live peacefully with Su Yuqing.

Every time he looked at her, he would remember her past, broken self.

The memory that he had failed to get justice for her, to right the wrong done to her, meant he could never be at peace.

Now, feeling that the truth was within reach, Chen Mo’s heart began to race with anticipation.

Chen Mo had already arranged with Su Yuqing to visit his grandparents this weekend.

After all, he had promised last time that he’d come see them again when he was free.

It had already been almost half a month since then.

That evening, Chen Mo messaged his grandparents in advance to let them know he would be visiting tomorrow.

At the same time, at his grandmother’s request, Chen Mo added Su Yuqing to the family group chat.

’Some people have seventeen or eighteen group chats just for their dorm.’

’Chen Mo’s family was also split into several different chats.’

’There was one for him and his parents, one with his paternal grandparents, one with his maternal grandparents, a five-person group with his parents and paternal grandparents...’

’...another five-person group with his parents and maternal grandparents, and finally, a seven-person group with everyone.’

’They were always gossiping about the others in their own little subgroups.’

’Chen Mo was already used to it.’

’This bunch acted like a bunch of overgrown children.’

’And he, the actual kid, had to be the one to mediate and keep them happy.’

The group Chen Mo added Su Yuqing to was the one with his paternal grandparents.

Lying in bed, Su Yuqing’s heart immediately started to race the moment she received the notification that Chen Mo had added her to a family group chat.

[Sunny Day Doll]: Hello, Grandpa and Grandma.

Su Yuqing didn’t know what to say, so she just started with a simple greeting.

[Surplus Every Year]: This must be Yuqing! Wonderful, wonderful. Momo said you two are coming over tomorrow. Grandma will make you something delicious.

[Highest Good Is Like Water]: There’s an opera being performed at the nearby stage recently. Grandpa will take you two to have a look tomorrow.

Ever since he was a child, Chen Mo had never been a fan of the warbling style of Chinese opera; he had absolutely no interest in it.

He couldn’t understand it at all, but every time a troupe came to perform on the local stage, he would happily go with his grandpa to watch.

Because watching the opera wasn’t the main point. The main point was that the area around the stage would be filled with vendors selling all sorts of delicious food.

Many of them were traditional local snacks. Normally, you’d have to run all over the place to try them all, so this was a rare opportunity to find them all in one spot.

Whenever an opera troupe came to perform, it was a signal to Chen Mo that a feast of tasty treats was waiting for him. That’s why, as a child, he always hoped the troupes would come to perform more often.

But these performances only happened once or twice a year, so it was a very rare opportunity!