Chapter 253: Finally Seeing Hope
Halfway through feeding, a young medical assistant rushed over. Seeing the scene, her eyes reddened.
When Su Tao patiently finished feeding, the assistant quickly expressed her gratitude.
Su Tao looked up and noticed that the two of them shared some facial similarities. She smiled and asked, “Is she your younger sister?”
The young medical assistant turned pale and shook her head. “She’s my daughter.”
Su Tao was momentarily shocked. The assistant looked even younger than her—at most sixteen or seventeen. Meanwhile, the little girl, who was savoring the taste of the snack with tears in her eyes, seemed to be around two or three years old.
Despite her shock, Su Tao refrained from asking further.
The young medical assistant visibly relaxed when Su Tao didn’t press the matter and felt grateful for her understanding. She turned to her daughter and gently instructed, “From now on, be polite when you see Boss Su, okay?”
The little girl looked confused, not knowing who her mother was referring to.
The assistant rephrased, “When you see Fairy Sister, be polite, okay?”
The little girl immediately brightened up and nodded eagerly.
Fairy Sister was so kind—not only had she given them a beautiful little bed to sleep in and vegetable noodles to eat, but she had also given them toys to play with. Most importantly, she had personally fed her delicious snacks!
She had to be polite to Fairy Sister!
After the gathering ended, Director Guo explained to Su Tao, “Yes, the child is hers. She got pregnant and gave birth at fourteen. A tragic case—she was imprisoned and abused for years. It was Dr. Li, who was out searching for relatives, that saved her. Since then, she’s been training as a medical assistant at the maternity hospital.”
Hearing this, Su Tao felt a deep sorrow but dared not ask further.
In these chaotic times, such tragedies were far too common.
Hidden in the shadows, Jiang Yu’s body tensed. On the way back to Taoyang, he seemed absent-minded.
When they arrived at the apartment building, Jiang Yu intended to return to his room and be alone for a while, but Su Tao stopped him.
“Jiang Yu.”
He halted, trying to act normal as he waited for her instructions.
Su Tao hesitated for a moment, feeling that any words of comfort would be too feeble. In the end, she simply said, “I will do everything I can to find her for you.”
Half of Jiang Yu’s body was shrouded in shadow, his expression unreadable. His voice was hoarse as he responded, “Okay.”
Returning to his room, he leaned against the door for a long time. With trembling hands, he took a pair of delicate little glasses out of his pocket.
His younger sister had a congenital vision impairment. She couldn’t see clearly beyond half a meter, and one of her eyes could barely perceive light—almost blind.
She had lost her glasses when she was abducted. If she was being mistreated… she wouldn’t even be able to see the faces of those who hurt her.
Jiang Yu’s breathing trembled. Then, with a sharp motion, he slapped himself hard.
He should never have left her side.
He was a sinner.
He was the one responsible for her suffering.
Su Tao didn’t know exactly what Jiang Yu was going through in his room, but she could guess that he was in pain.
His sister was only twelve when she was taken.
A twelve-year-old girl…
Not just Jiang Yu—even Su Tao didn’t dare to dwell on it. Shaking off her thoughts, she took a deep breath and opened the system store.
She felt that relying solely on Song Yuebin’s caravan and Taoyang’s online network for missing persons wasn’t enough.
Perhaps she could print missing person notices on all the supplies they distributed.
That way, anyone who received the supplies—whether they knew Taoyang or not—would see the notices.
As soon as she had the thought, the system chimed in:
[The host can customize product packaging for an additional processing fee of 1%.]
In other words, for every 100 Federation Coins’ worth of goods, it would only cost 1 extra Federation Coin to print missing person notices on the packaging.
That wasn’t expensive at all. Su Tao immediately decided that all future supplies would carry missing person notices.
She also added a reward: anyone providing useful information would receive either an application slot to live in Taoyang or 10 pounds of bread and 10 liters of water.
Su Tao worked quickly. By the next day, all supplies sold at Lin Fangzhi’s shop had the new packaging.
Even the vending machines within Taoyang prominently displayed the missing persons’ notices.
Jiang Yu had been sleepless all night. Early in the morning, he went to the cafeteria and bought two breakfasts.
Just as he received his meal, his eyes landed on the printed notice.
It not only described his sister’s physical appearance and clothing details but even mentioned her poor eyesight—something he had only casually mentioned in passing.
Then, his gaze fell on the reward at the bottom…
He froze. His fingers tightened around the packaging.
There might be people who had never heard of Taoyang, who would never check its website for missing persons.
But they would see this.
Even if the packaging was discarded after the food was eaten, the information remained—spreading to every corner of the world.
For the first time, a great, unprecedented hope ignited in his heart.
Maybe… maybe he really would see her again.
Jiang Yu lowered his head, gripping the packaging tighter and tighter. He wanted to smile, but all that came out were reddened eyes.
He ran back and knocked on Su Tao’s door.
When she opened it, still drowsy with messy strands of hair sticking up, Jiang Yu’s tense expression eased. He stared for half a second, then suddenly chuckled softly.
As he laughed, a single tear silently fell from the corner of his eye, slipping into his collar and disappearing.
Composing himself, he returned to his usual cold and reserved demeanor. Lifting the breakfast in his hands, he smiled lightly and asked:
“Want to eat together?”
