Chapter 3 A Photo

The CEO's office of the HY Group was spacious.

Outside the French windows of this office, the entire HY Imperial City sprawled out. Wisps of wind wriggled in through the blue curtains that were slightly drawn apart, animating the silence that hung over the room.

Wilson sat on a wide black leather sofa which was by the side of a large dark brown desk.

The thick eyebrows arching over his lovely eyes and his straight nose made him look coldly charming. And with his lips tightly pursed, he looked harsh. He was wearing a tight black shirt that accentuated his huge muscles.

Wilson Xiao was the CEO of the HY Group. The economy of the whole HY Imperial City lay in his power, his business intelligence gripping the international space, too. However, unknown to most people, he ran all the gangs in the city, too.

Leaning back on the chair, he flipped through a material which contained photos of the exploration site. He paused at one of these photos and gazed at it for a long time.

The photo had been taken in the suburb of a small town in the heart of the exploration site. The picture showed a river running over cobbles and sand. A woman wearing a blue floral dress and a boy of seven or eight were wading through the river.

On one hand, the woman was holding a plastic bag in which, it seemed, her shoes and the boy's were. The boy was either going to school or returning because his school bag was slung over his shoulder.

Wilson sat up straight on the leather chair and held the photo closer to his face, his hand quavering with excitement. He caressed the face of the woman in the photo. His mouth slightly parted as he gazed at her.

He was enchanted by the faint but warm smile that dangled on the woman's lips in the bright sunshine of the photo. It made his heart throb with a new kind of life. And Wilson was sure he knew the woman, although the side view blurred her face.

It was her! Of course, it was her in the photo!

He had put all he had into searching for her the past two years, but he never found her. Now here she was–in this isolated place!

His mouth puckered into a smile, his sexy eyes glinting with glee. Stretching out, he pressed a message device in front of him. "Come in, Nova!"

The man called Nova pushed the door gently open and walked in. He wore a dark gray suit over a white shirt and a tie with bright gray stripes. He was a very shrewd man with an eternal smile and bright black eyes.

He was the general manager of the HY Group.

"Yes, sir," he said, leaning over the desk.

"Take a look at this photo!" Wilson slid the photo across the desk to the other man, the smile not leaving his lips for once.

Nova was obviously amazed to see his boss smiling. He had barely seen him smile this genuinely and harmlessly in the past two years.

"I guess there's something we should be happy about!" he said, grinning at Wilson.

Wilson said nothing but glanced at the photo again. Then he said finally, "The girl on the photo–do you remember her?" His voice was calm.

Nova glanced at him and then at the photo. He could see cobbles and sand and a river and, in the distance, two human figures walking in the river. Looking closely, he saw they were an adult and a child.