Chapter 15 — Final Record

Time passed quietly, day by day, my life gradually returned to orbit, and An An grew up in my arms, stronger than anything I had ever imagined. She crawled earlier than other children, called "mommy" earlier, each small step forward was like sparks of fire, rekindling my once broken heart. The doctor said my child was a miracle, but I knew that he was not a miracle, he was a warrior, someone who was fighting an unfair fate on his own right from the moment he was born. One day, while cleaning out old things, I accidentally found a forgotten box at the bottom of the closet, inside was the notebook that had sparked all the tragedies. The "diary" of Chu Van Ban. Since the day I gave it to Liu Zhenbang as the key to overthrowing the Zhou family, I have never opened it again, never even read it all. But today, as if something pulled me back, I brushed off the thin layer of dust on the cover, then turned the first page. Familiar handwriting appeared, but the content... left me dumbfounded. There are no numbers, no projects, no money, just clumsy words, carrying the breath of a guy in love.

“Today, I saw her again.”

“She was wearing a white dress, standing in the middle of the bookshelf, like a ray of light.”

“I don't dare to come close, I only dare to peek.”

“What is her name?”

I continued flipping page by page, my heart becoming heavier and heavier, because the details in there... were all me. The white dress, the book "The Little Prince", the familiar library corner... all match in a terrifying way. This notebook... is about me. The writer... is Chu Van Ban. I stood there, my mind blank, unable to understand what was happening. This notebook should have been evidence of the destruction of an entire corporation, so why was it just a unilateral diary spanning many years? I quickly flipped to the end, and realized that a few pages had been torn away, leaving only jagged edges of paper like a severed answer. Memories suddenly rushed back, that day I just took a few pictures of the pages I happened to see, the pages with data and project names recorded, then hastily sent them off without even reading them all. As for Liu Zhenbang... perhaps just that much is enough to complete the chain of evidence that he has been silently gathering for many years. The truth of the notebook... is therefore buried until today. A cold speculation rose in my heart, causing me to immediately call him, my voice trembling so much that even I recognized it. I asked him if he had other evidence besides the notebook, and the silence on the other end of the line said it all. Finally, he admitted that he had mastered almost all of Chu Duc Hai's secrets a long time ago, only lacking a connection point to act. The pages I gave… are just the final key. I put down the phone, sat down on the floor, still clutching the notebook, feeling like I had just touched something in the past that I had never understood. It turns out that what I thought was the sharpest weapon... was just a clumsy love letter from a man. Chu Van Ban... the person I hate to the core, the weak, selfish person who always takes his mother's side... has loved me for so long? If he loved me, why was he cold when I almost died on the delivery table, why was he silent when I was trampled on, why did he become the cruelest person in my eyes? A series of questions swirled in At first, there was no solution, only an ever-widening void. Then I suddenly remembered the last torn pages. There… there is definitely an answer. I stood up and rushed out of the house like a crazy person, with only one thought. I have to find Chu Van Ban. I have to ask everything.