The four of them made their way into the original restaurant and Si Tao just waved them through to his office while motioning at one of the waiters on duty to bring them the menus. Even though the main purpose was clearly talking about Yu Ting, that didn’t mean that they shouldn’t still eat when at a restaurant. He absolutely couldn’t let a first-time visitor go without trying the food!

Qiao Ya looked around in awe, especially after they entered the office. This really wasn’t what she had expected of a room in the back! Sure enough, rich people were different.

Her gaze slipped from Si Tao to Mo Fang and back again and she suddenly couldn’t help but wonder: If these two had dated … was that because they were in the same circle of people? In that case, had her brother …

She hurriedly shook her head at herself and glanced at Li Ming to reassure herself. No, no, it couldn’t be. Li Ming didn’t seem like the type of guy who had lots of money stashed away somewhere and he had also dated Mo Fang. She shouldn’t look at this with such a narrow view!

Mo Fang and Si Tao quietly took a seat at one side of the coffee table and Qiao Ya and Li Ming followed suit to pick the other side. With everyone sitting down like this, the atmosphere suddenly seemed a bit solemn again.

Si Tao rubbed his temple and glanced at the door. “They’re going to bring the menus in a bit. The two of you can choose whatever you want. It’s on me.”

Qiao Ya nodded happily while Li Ming wanted to protest but Si Tao just waved.

“Don’t worry about it. Anyway, this is a talk Xiao Fang wants to have. You’re just here to accompany Miss Qiao. How could I let you pay?”

Qiao Ya nodded but inside, she couldn’t help but think that if she hadn’t asked before and gotten an answer, she would have totally believed these two were a couple. Once again, she shook her head to not think about it further and instead turned to Mo Fang. “That … if you don’t mind me asking, what actually happened to my brother?” She wasn’t sure if it was alright to ask. Clearly, this was difficult for Mo Fang. He probably didn’t want to talk about it. But then, she wanted to know. This was a relative she had narrowly missed getting to know, after all.

Mo Fang gave a hum. “He had a car accident.” He hesitated, not sure whether he should go into more detail.

“Oh.” Qiao Ya actually didn’t need to know more. To her, it wasn’t like she had known him anyway. So just knowing the fact was more than enough.

Mo Fang nodded, finally deciding not to say more unless she asked. Anyway, he probably wouldn’t make it through recounting the events of that day without breaking down crying. Instead, he switched to what he had originally wanted to talk about. “At that time, we had been planning the wedding. Since it’s not possible in China anyway, we would have had a small ceremony overseas, then return here for a while. Part of what we wanted to do was to search for his family.”

At this, Qiao Ya perked up. “What did he actually know? I mean … why didn’t I know about him?”

Mo Fang sighed. “Ah Ting was adopted. The only thing he had from his biological parents was the photo of your mother I showed you before with the character ‘Ting’ on the back. Well, that and the information about the orphanage he was at. It wasn’t much to go off and he was always pretty busy so he never got around to really starting to look into it. We wanted to do that together after coming here.”

He sighed again and then shook his head, focusing on what was important. “After I relocated here, I also started to look but didn’t have much luck at first. If you don’t know anything and aren’t familiar with the process, it’s really not easy. Thankfully, Ah Tao suggested a private investigator to me. So I finally handed the matter over to Mister Ruan. It still took some time but he slowly got results.

“From what I know now, it seems that your mother was still very young when she had Ah Ting. As for his father … he was apparently an exchange student at her school. He had likely already left China when your mother discovered she was pregnant and she might not have had a way of contacting him or maybe even if she did, with the distance between China and his country, maybe she didn’t want to take such a risk. Thus, Ah Ting was given to the orphanage.”

Qiao Ya furrowed her brows. “That’s so sad.”

Mo Fang hesitated but finally shook his head. “I guess it is sad but, to be honest, Ah Ting never minded. He might not have had the whole story but just the photo always suggested that she was very young. A girl still going to school … how could she have raised a child? So, he never blamed her for it. Anyway, he had a good life overseas.”

Qiao Ya nodded in a hurry. “You said he was close to his adoptive family?”

“Yes. His parents were a couple that had lost one child. Adopting Ah Ting … I guess it was their way of moving forward after some time had passed. He also has a younger brother, their biological child. He said he never felt like a second choice though.” He smiled, thinking of the family he had met. Yes, even though he naturally wasn’t as familiar with Ah Ting’s family as he had been, he truly believed this. After all, he had seen how much his loss devastated them.