Chapter 3

Tang Ruxin frowned and absentmindedly walked toward the well. The feedstock to the ethylbenzene unit did contain sulfur, but it had already been desulfurized by the double desulfurization system before entering the unit. The remaining sulfur was so small it couldn't possibly cause a lethal leak.

"Mr. Tang." Song Mu gently pulled her sleeve.

Only then did Tang Ruxin notice that there was a white police car parked outside the cordon. Three people in police uniforms were huddled together, looking down at something, and occasionally looked up to talk to the accompanying personnel from the Donghe Refinery standing nearby.

"Why haven't the police left yet?" Tang Ruxin narrowed her eyes and looked at the three people through the falling snow.

"I don't know..." Song Mu looked puzzled. What does a safety accident have to do with the police? Don't they usually just go through the motions and sign and leave? "Could it be?"

Song Mu's eyes lit up and he excitedly grabbed Tang Ruxin's arm.

Tang Ruxin turned to look at him and was silent for a long time before she spoke: "...You are quite creative."

"No, what if?!" Song Mu lowered his voice and said, "Even if it turns out to be a safety accident and not a criminal case, at least it can buy us more time to investigate the accident. What do you think, shall we do it?"

"Do it."

"The police will definitely not stay here for no reason. They must have discovered something... Hmm? Oh." Thinking that Tang Ruxin would object, Song Mu cleared his throat and stopped talking.

That's right, Tang Ruxin isn't some kind of gentleman. Forget about just blurring her vision to buy time. She'd already been a law-abiding person by not fabricating evidence and simply making it a homicide... That shouldn't be the case, right? Mr. Tang wouldn't do that, would he?

Looking at Tang Ruxin's back as she walked towards the three policemen, Song Mu suddenly became worried. If she was caught, she must not say that it was his idea.

Birds of a feather flock together. He was not originally that kind of person.

While reflecting on himself, Song Mu took a few quick steps to catch up with Tang Ruxin.

As Song Mu got closer and saw the men clearly, his expression suddenly changed. He immediately passed Tang Ruxin, ran forward in two steps, and slapped the man in the Donghe Refining uniform on the shoulder, very hard.

"What are you doing? You don't even care about smoking?!" Song Mu glared at the employee and said in a low voice with gritted teeth. After that, he immediately raised his head and said to one of the policemen with a smile on his face: "Please put out your cigarette. Smoking is prohibited in our entire factory area, and bringing fire into the factory is not allowed."

After saying that, Song Mu subconsciously turned around and glanced at Tang Ruxin.

Tang Ruxin's facial expression was completely different now. Her willow-shaped eyes held a hint of confusion, like that of a student naive to the world. Her lips parted in surprise, and her fingers, slender and white, gripped the collar of her coat. She looked like an innocent white lotus.

"Which department are you from?" Tang Ruxin asked the Donghe Refining employee in confusion, without even greeting the police. Her tone was gentle, her words were slow and measured, and her question, without any aura, sounded like a casual conversation.

"I, I'm the process technology manager of the second department..." This person obviously knew Tang Ruxin. No matter how gentle she was, she couldn't relieve his nervousness, and he started stuttering as soon as he opened his mouth.

"Refining the Second Part?" Tang Ruxin smiled.

"No, it's not... Public Works Department 2. I'm sorry, Mr. Tang, I wasn't paying attention." The man's voice gradually faded, knowing that he had walked into trouble. "I won't do it again in the future. I will definitely abide by the rules. Mr. Tang..."

"Song Mu." Tang Ruxin said softly.

Song Mu sighed helplessly and took out his cell phone to make a call.

Before he could find the number he was looking for, his phone was suddenly snatched away. Song Mu looked up in surprise.

"He tried to dissuade me, but I ignored him." The smoking policeman smiled and released his fingers from the cigarette butt. The cigarette, emitting a fiery red starlight, fell to the snow-covered ground and instantly disappeared.

The man took out his cigarettes and lighter and put them back into Song Mu's hands along with his phone. Before Song Mu could react, he turned around and searched the pockets of Zhao Guoliang and Chen Jingzhou's clothes, took out another pack of cigarettes and a lighter, and stuffed them into Song Mu's hands.

"Itchy, itchy... Captain Yu, I don't smoke!" Chen Jingzhou twisted his body to avoid it and shouted at the same time.

"Hey, Captain Yu! This is so expensive..." Zhao Guoliang hurried to stop him, but was held down by Yu Lei with one hand.

Seeing that Song Mu and Tang Ruxin didn't express their opinions, Yu Lei scratched his forehead, took a step forward, looked down at Tang Ruxin, and said in a low voice:

"Still not enough? Then, let me kowtow to you, the leader, on his behalf?"

He whispered a plea, his words filled with sarcasm. This step forward had already exceeded the safe distance between strangers, carrying a clear sense of pressure. Tang Ruxin smiled and looked up at him, her eyes scrutinizing and weighing.

After two seconds, Tang Ruxin took a step back.

Yu Lei raised an eyebrow, a hint of surprise crossing his face. Most people, approached by someone of his height and build, would instinctively step back. This woman did step back, but her retreat was too deliberate. It wasn't an instinctive retreat, but more like she realized it was time to step back.

Song Mu raised his leg and stepped between Tang Ruxin and the policeman, then said with a smile on his face:

"What are you talking about? Just put it out. Just pretend and don't bring it in next time." Song Mu hurriedly returned the cigarette and lighter to Zhao Guoliang with both hands, his attitude respectful.

This man stared at the pack of cigarettes so hard that his eyes almost popped out. He didn't smoke and didn't quite understand how expensive these cigarettes were.

"Excuse me, who are you?" Song Mu looked at the policeman who did not play by the rules, and then he realized that what he said about "persuading" might be true.

He was tall, with broad shoulders and long legs. His police uniform sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, his collar unbuttoned, and his trouser legs tied with cable ties. He made the otherwise perfectly straight uniform look like a non-mainstream figure. He was clearly not a young, frivolous man, but the words "disobedience" were written all over him.

Tang Ruxin was nearly 1.7 meters tall and had never been described as petite, but when this man stood next to her, Song Mu felt for the first time that she was a little short.

"Deputy Captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment, Yu Lei."

Tang Ruxin glanced at the hand that passed Song Mu and reached out to her. It was yellow and black, and looked a little dirty.

Song Mu grabbed the hand back and held it tightly, saying "Hello, hello" and shaking it vigorously up and down. The highest level of being an assistant is to understand the master's thoughts with just a glance. Tang Ruxin obviously didn't want to shake this hand.

Then he began to frown, and shook his hand subconsciously after letting go.

"I'm sorry, I just went down the well and forgot to bring my gloves." Yu Lei looked like he just remembered something and raised his hand to wipe it on his clothes.

Tang Ruxin couldn't help but frown at these words. Investigating a murder scene without gloves? Breaking the rules to this extent is a red line, and no police officer would do that.

Tang Ruxin raised her eyes and looked at Yu Lei - this man was lying.

He hadn't even gone down the well, and the mud on his hands wasn't from the melted snow. The odors in the sewage well were mixed, and even with the snow, the strong smell of oil and gas was palpable. When the hand reached out to her, she didn't smell anything unusual. The only thing around that could have stained his hands like this was most likely just snow on the ground.

He squatted by the well and supported himself on the ground with his palms. Tang Ruxin glanced at the edge of the well and saw traces of people stepping on and scratching the fallen snow.

This guy was a tough one—she judged him in her mind. His words were a mixture of truth and falsehood, his words either probing or threatening, his true intentions well hidden. Leading such a person toward a murder case wouldn't be easy; if she wasn't careful, she might end up in trouble.

However, his identity was well worth the risk. If she could convince the detective captain that this was a homicide and not a simple accident, it would be more than just a gain of time for Donghe Refining. Perhaps they could delay the review of their safety production license until six months later.

That way, I wouldn't have to worry about the company shutting down due to this accident for at least three years. All I would have to bear was the responsibility of obstructing or misleading the investigation.

——It’s a good deal.

Song Mu naturally had no idea that Tang Ruxin had already weighed his ill-conceived idea to such an extent. He glared at the employee who had just resolved the crisis, and his voice rose an octave.

"You let him go down the well?!"

It was just smoking, and since it was far from the equipment area, the risk was relatively low. But going down the well was a whole other level of risk, and it was obvious that no confined space gas detection had been done, and no air respirators were worn.

"No!" The employee hurriedly shook his head and waved his hands. "I don't know about that. I just got here. I don't know! I saw them wandering around here on the surveillance camera, and there was no one accompanying them, so I came to check. How could I let someone go down this well without any protective equipment? I wouldn't..."

"Go and get busy." Tang Ruxin finally spoke.

The man felt relieved, nodded, turned around and ran away.

"Captain Yu, are you feeling unwell, dizzy, or nauseous? Do you smell a peculiar smell in the well? Do you want to..."

"Tang Ruxin," she interrupted Song Mu's chatter, turned sideways and extended her hand to Yu Lei, her smile light but sincere, "Security Director of Donghe Refining, nice to meet you."

Song Mu glanced back at her in surprise. Why was she willing to shake hands again? She had clearly shown her disdain just now.

"Hello." Yu Lei touched her palm symbolically, not as firmly as when he shook hands with Song Mu. After all, the dirt had been wiped off, and there was no point in holding it so tightly.

"Is there someone named Shen Tu among Captain Yu's colleagues?" Tang Ruxin smiled with a hint of cunning in her eyes.

"That character is pronounced 'lǜ', and my name is pronounced 'lěi'."

Yu Lei answered quickly. It seemed she wasn't the first to ask this question, nor was she the first to pronounce the "lei" character in the word "door god" as "lěi." She'd tried to lighten the mood, but it hadn't worked. Tang Ruxin pursed her lips and coughed lightly to ease the awkwardness.

Under normal circumstances, Yu Lei wouldn't mind letting people who joked about his name continue to be embarrassed, but today he had sneaked out in the middle of the meeting and had to get back before the meeting ended, so he immediately got back to the point:

"Did you know the deceased?"

Tang Ruxin shook her head, a look of worry on her face. "I heard about this for the first time today."

"Record it," Yu Lei said to Chen Jingzhou, then took the notebook from Zhao Guoliang and continued, "Has anyone reported to you before that there are any major conflicts among the employees?"

“Even if there is, it will not be reported to the security director.”

"Who will usually be reported to?" Zhao Guoliang asked immediately.

She frowned and thought for a moment, then said uncertainly, "The union... or perhaps the Human Resources Department?"

This question was beyond Tang Ruxin's job scope, so she turned to look at Song Mu.

"The Corporate Management and Legal Department. But generally, I talk to my department head first. If the problem can't be resolved, I'll go to the union or corporate management." Song Mu replied hastily, "I can't skip levels, otherwise I'll just cause trouble for my boss..."

Hearing this, Tang Ruxin glanced at him with a half-smile, and Song Mu quickly stopped talking.