ABOES 19: Follow Your Heart

Tan Yao rushed into the city police station, where Chi Ling and Chi Xiwen were already waiting.

She hurried over, her expression anxious as she looked at Chi Xiwen. “What’s going on? You said on the phone that you found Yunxing?”

Before Chi Xiwen could answer, Chi Ling said, “The police only said there’s an 80% chance. The paternity test hasn’t been done yet, so nothing’s certain.”

Tan Yao’s eyes were red and her usual calm completely gone. “Even so, 80% is already very high. Let’s do the paternity test right away. Once the result is out—”

The lead officer on the case, Officer Wang, happened to walk by. Hearing this, he spoke up, “Ms. Tan, please calm down. As for the test… we’re not able to proceed just yet.”

Tan Yao immediately tensed. “Why not? Why can’t we do the paternity test? Is there some kind of problem?”

“Mom,” Chi Xiwen interjected while gently guiding her to the sofa. “Let’s sit down and hear Officer Wang out.”

Officer Wang knew they were anxious, so he didn’t keep them waiting.

A week ago, a human trafficker had been apprehended in Luzhou.

As Luzhou police worked their way up the trafficking network, they finally caught the nanny who had abducted Yunxing all those years ago.

During the investigation, they discovered this woman was a repeat offender. She had committed multiple crimes before working at the Chi household.

At first, she refused to confess. But when officers found an Excel spreadsheet on her laptop that contained detailed records of every child she had trafficked—including names of buyers—she could no longer deny it.

Faced with the evidence, she finally admitted to her crimes.

This spreadsheet was uploaded to the internal police system, and among the many children listed, Officer Wang immediately recognized Yunxing’s photo.

After a thorough comparison, he found that the listed buyer’s information matched the people who had raised Ye Xinian.

With a small sigh, he turned to Chi Xiwen. “I have to say, your suspicion was spot-on. And if it weren’t for the tip you gave us the other day, I might not have confirmed this so quickly.”

Tan Yao blinked. “The other day?”

Chi Ling furrowed his brow and looked at his son.

Officer Wang gave Chi Xiwen a surprised look. “You didn’t tell your parents?”

Chi Ling narrowed his eyes. “What’s going on?”

So Chi Xiwen explained everything that had happened with Duan Zhiyan two days ago. The discovery and their visit to the police station.

Tan Yao’s face changed the moment she heard it. She stood up, her voice cracking. “This is huge. Why didn’t you tell me?”

Chi Xiwen had barely slept in two days. He leaned back into the sofa, his voice hoarse, “Because I was scared.”

Tan Yao froze.

Chi Ling’s brows drew tighter.

Chi Xiwen had always been the reliable eldest son of the Chi family. Mischievous as a boy but he had matured overnight after Yunxing disappeared.

Through school, he was always top of his class, never needed supervision, and was the kind of child other parents praised.

Before he had even graduated college, he started Yunxing Entertainment from scratch by relying solely on years of saved-up New Year’s money. Step by step, he built it into one of the biggest agencies in the country.

Relatives and elders always said he was steady and dependable, nothing in the world could shake him.

But now, for the first time, in front of his parents, he looked… vulnerable.

Tan Yao felt like something was gripping her heart tightly. It hurts to breathe.

Chi Xiwen took a deep breath. “You both know how many disappointments we’ve been through over the years. It’s not that I didn’t want to tell you… I was just so afraid that we’d get our hopes up again, only for it to fall apart once more.”

“And on top of that, Grandma’s sick. You two are already running between the hospital and the company every day. If she were to overhear this… she’d be thrilled, of course—but if it turns out to be another false alarm?” 

He buried his face in his hands and shook his head. “Until I got Officer Wang’s call, I really didn’t dare say anything…”

The room fell silent.

Tan Yao bit her lower lip, and tears finally rolled down her cheeks.

Chi Ling’s eyes were bloodshot. After a while, he rasped, “Then, Officer Wang… why can’t we go ahead with the test now?”

Even someone as seasoned as Officer Wang found himself affected by the heavy atmosphere. He exhaled slowly before replying, “Last night, I called Ye Xinian and explained the situation. I asked if he could come to the station today. But… he declined.”

Tan Yao’s expression shifted sharply.

Chi Xiwen, on the other hand, looked unsurprised. His face remained calm as he asked, “Then… did Yunxing—sorry, did Xinian say when he might come?”

Officer Wang shook his head. “He just said it was too late and that he’d call back in the morning. But so far, we haven’t heard from him.”

The unspoken truth sank in.

Tan Yao started quietly sobbing.

Chi Ling’s face was grim.

Seventeen years.

Not just a number—but a whole era of life.

In seventeen years, a toddler could become an adult. A grandparent could pass away. A marriage could fall apart.

This wasn’t just a statistic. It was a chasm that couldn’t be bridged easily.

For the Chi family, this was a reunion.

But for Ye Xinian, who had no childhood memories of them, it was an enormous shock—one he needed time to process.

All they could do now… was wait.

They didn’t want to scare him off by approaching too fast and too hard.

Outside the police station, Tan Yao seemed calmer.

Chi Xiwen offered to take her home.

“You haven’t slept in two days, have you?” she asked softly, noticing the dark circles under his eyes.

He hesitated.

“My driver brought me,” Tan Yao said gently. “Come home with me. I’ll make sure you rest. You young people can’t take your health for granted.”

Chi Xiwen let out a quiet laugh and nodded.

Chi Ling lit a cigarette. “I’ll go to the hospital and stay with Mom. You two rest today. Don’t worry about anything else.”

Tan Yao didn’t argue. She got into the car with her son.

As the car pulled away, she pulled out her phone and typed “Ye Xinian” into the Weibo search bar.

At the same time, a message popped up on Chi Xiwen’s phone from Chi Ling: [Send me Yunxing—Xinian’s—full profile.]

Chi Xiwen glanced at the text, then at Tan Yao beside him, who was quietly scrolling through Weibo.

He smiled faintly.

“Mom,” he said, “Xinian will agree to the test. I’m sure of it.”

Tan Yao’s eyes stung as she looked down at a photo of Ye Xinian. After a moment, she murmured, “Of course. But we have to be patient, we can’t just show up and scare him.”

Chi Xiwen nodded.

They’d waited seventeen years.

What were a few more days?

——

After Ye Xinian hung up on Yu Jun, a wave of exhaustion slammed into him like a tide.

At the end of their call, Yu Jun hadn’t really offered any concrete advice.

All she said was. “Xinian, just follow your heart. But there’s one thing that touched me deeply, your birth parents… they never stopped looking for you for seventeen years.”

“As a mother myself… I think they must truly love you.”

Ye Xinian replayed those words again and again.

He wrestled with himself for a long time… and finally made a decision.

Just as he sat up to grab his phone and call the police, his adoptive mother’s number appeared on the screen.

Ye Xinian’s brows instantly furrowed.

His expression darkened.