The moment Vice Factory Director Lin saw Xie Changning, he started touching his chest. His action was so strange that Xie Changning couldn’t help but glance at him a couple of extra times.

However, she observed him with discreet glances.

She made sure Vice Factory Director Lin didn’t notice.

Vice Factory Director Lin was staring at her with a pensive expression, making it difficult for Xie Changning to ignore him.

Especially on the way to the machine tool factory, Vice Factory Director Lin’s demeanor was much warmer than it had been at their last meeting.

"I hear you’re from Shanghai, Xiao Xie? Is your family doing well?"

"I wouldn’t know."

Xie Changning answered Vice Factory Director Lin’s probing questions with a distant expression.

Speaking of the Xie Family, Xie Changning’s thoughts began to wander.

Seeing Xie Changning’s attention drift, Vice Factory Director Lin’s eyes darkened. He glanced at Wang Lisheng’s face, then changed the subject. "You have a point. Chuncheng is so far from Shanghai, it must be hard to keep in touch..."

Xie Changning snapped out of her daze.

’He’s trying to probe my background,’ she realized. ’To see if I’m the child of some Shanghai capitalist family.’

"Vice Factory Director Lin seems awfully curious about Xiao Xie’s family," Wang Lisheng cut in, his expression sour. He didn’t like Vice Factory Director Lin. As Wang Lisheng would say, ’The way his eyes dart around, you just know he’s up to no good.’

Vice Factory Director Lin chuckled. "That I am. I’m just curious what kind of family could produce someone as outstanding as our Comrade Xiao Xie."

To Wang Lisheng, his words were complete bullshit.

’Prying into her background is prying into her background. Why does he have to make up some excuse for it?’

’What’s wrong with this guy!’

Wang Lisheng pursed his lips and said to him irritably, "She’s a top student cultivated by our great China, of course. Now, enough with the chit-chat. Tell us what’s wrong with the machine tool."

Every time Vice Factory Director Lin tried to speak to Xie Changning, Wang Lisheng would cut him off.

Left with no other choice, Vice Factory Director Lin could only swallow his irritation and describe the problem to them.

Unfortunately, from the way he described the issue, he clearly wasn’t a technical person.

Upon arriving at the machine tool factory and meeting Director Li, the first thing Xie Changning said was, "On the way over, I asked Vice Factory Director Lin about the issue with the machine tool. He didn’t seem to have a clear grasp of it. He’s not from a technical background, is he?"

Director Li shot Xie Changning a surprised glance.

He didn’t understand why she was being so confrontational, but he nodded anyway. "Yes, Vice Factory Director Lin didn’t come from a worker’s background. He’s in an administrative position."

Only then did Xie Changning nod.

"On the road here, Vice Factory Director Lin was more concerned with Changning’s background than with the factory’s situation," Wang Lisheng chimed in. "Director Li, maybe the administrative staff needs some technical training too."

Director Li looked from Xie Changning to Wang Lisheng, then nodded. "Understood. I’ll look into it."

After a day of work at the machine tool factory, she returned to the residential compound to find Yue Yihan already doing the laundry.

"When did you get back?"

"Today."

Yue Yihan didn’t have the heart to tell her he’d rushed through his mission just to get back to her sooner.

He had done it to get two days of leave to spend more time with her.

Xie Changning nodded. "Perfect timing. I have something to tell you..." She recounted Vice Factory Director Lin’s behavior to Yue Yihan. "What do you make of it?" 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Having spent years moving from one mission to the next, Yue Yihan was particularly sharp when it came to certain matters.

"You’re right to be cautious. I’ll find an opportunity to investigate."

This was what Xie Changning had hoped for. Seeing that he took it seriously, she didn’t press the matter and went inside to sleep.

After Xie Changning fell asleep, Yue Yihan threw on his coat and went out.

’She trusts me enough to tell me, and only me, about her suspicions. That means she really trusts me!’

’I have to protect her!’

...

「The next day」

Yue Yihan returned to his military unit looking travel-worn. He found his brigade commander, his expression grim. "Brigade Commander, take a look at this."

Yue Yihan placed a letter sealed in a manila envelope on the brigade commander’s desk.

The brigade commander frowned and looked at the letter on his desk.

"What are you doing with someone else’s mail?"

"This Vice Factory Director Lin... I recall he’s a Northwesterner who studied in the Northeast. He’s never been to Shanghai and has no relatives there. So why would he suddenly be sending a letter to Shanghai?"

Yue Yihan felt there was more to it than met the eye.

"So you intercepted someone else’s mail?"

"Of course not. I investigated, felt something was off, and made a copy of the letter to bring to you."

He couldn’t open someone else’s mail without evidence.

The brigade commander opened the envelope and read the contents. It appeared to be an ordinary letter to a friend.

However, the phrasing was a bit strange.

"Go get the political commissar. He knows a bit about codebreaking. Let’s see if he can make anything of this."

"Yes, sir!"

A short while later, the political commissar arrived. He picked up the letter, examined it closely, then nodded. "There’s definitely something wrong here. Your caution was justified. They’re trying to contact someone in Shanghai. We need to find out who this person is, and it would be best to place him under surveillance."

"He’s investigating your wife’s background."

The political commissar frowned and put the letter down.

’Xie Changning’s background is simple. We found that out with a single check. Why is the other party so insistent on digging deeper? Did we miss something?’

"What’s there to investigate about my wife’s background?"

Meanwhile, as Xie Changning was organizing things she had moved from the Xie Family home inside her dimensional space, she suddenly found a piece of paper in a box that held a Hundred Years Old Ginseng.

It was an adoption certificate.

Xie Changning picked it up instinctively. As she looked closer, she saw it contained information about her...

’She’d thought the attitude of her Xie Family parents was strange when she first transmigrated, and had even suspected some kind of "mistaken-at-birth" drama. But it turned out she was actually adopted?’

Xie Changning thought about the personalities of her adoptive parents. ’This doesn’t seem like their style at all,’ she mused.

She sat down on a nearby crate, mulling over the possibilities.

’Could it be that her birth parents ran into some trouble and had to entrust her to the Xies? And in exchange for taking care of her, the Xies got something in return...’

’Knowing the personalities of her adoptive parents, that was the most plausible explanation.’

’In that case, who were her birth parents?’

Xie Changning sat in her dimensional space, lost in thought for a long time. When she finally emerged, she brought the adoption certificate with her.

’I need Yue Yihan’s help,’ she decided.