Chapter 68

When this incident was brought up again later, everyone in Team A gave Su Wenqiang a thumbs up. Madam Su's brilliant performance had already spread throughout SDU through the B Team members who were present at the time. When joking around privately, Yu Xueli's "incredibly bad" performance was inevitably compared to it, and strangely, Bob, who always wanted to be number one, didn't refute it at all. When everyone saw him praising Madam Su, sly smiles that seemed to know he was about to reveal his true feelings immediately rose and fell.

“Ali, something’s not right with you,” Zhang Jiguang began.

“I feel that you’ve been especially nice to Madam lately,” Luang Phor continued.

Then came Guo Yaozu: "It's training people again—"

Xie Jiaxing: "It's another rescue mission—"

"Sometimes he'd hide mysteriously to the side, saying who knows what." Zhuang Zhuoyuan cracked open a peanut, deciding to deliver a decisive blow.

Jianren immediately blurted out, "Do you two have something going on?"

Su Wenqiang and Yu Xueli quickly moved a little further away, as if determined to defend their innocence. Yu Xueli explained more urgently than anyone else: "We weren't whispering. Madam wants to take the Flying Tigers exam, and I just helped her submit the application form to Inspector Zhan. Inspector Zhan can testify to that."

But what good would Zhan Hantao's proof do? Su Wenqiang's exam for Fei Hu and Zhan Hantao's pursuit of Su Wenqiang weren't mutually exclusive. What one says isn't always accurate, but what one does is clear to everyone. The crowd chuckled and exchanged knowing glances; even Iris, standing to the side, wore a knowing expression.

"Iris!" Pulling Zhuang Zhuoyuan aside and squeezing between the two, Su Wenqiang intended to pull the only woman present into his camp. Iris would naturally choose to stand with him, but after comprehensive evaluation, she also thought Yu Xueli would be a suitable partner for Su Wenqiang. She only had one question to ask: "Qiang, how did you overcome your fear of heights?"

Only Zhuang Zhuoyuan, who was closest to them, heard the question again. He couldn't help but laugh out loud, which made Su Wenqiang, who was already stunned by Iris's question, stand up in embarrassment and anger, forcefully slapping Zhuang Zhuoyuan's shoulder and leaving in a huff. Zhuang Zhuoyuan immediately moved back to his wife's side, while Iris wrinkled her nose and snorted, blaming him for making her leave in anger.

“You just want to know the answer, it’s not like only Madam can answer,” Zhuang Zhuoyuan blinked and clinked glasses with her orange juice. “There’s another person involved here.” Having a pre-set plan makes it easy to piece together the various scattered pieces of information when reviewing the details later. Iris’s gaze then turned to Yu Xueli, and just as she was thinking about how to get him to talk, Sister Pauline came over with a steaming bowl of soup.

It's obvious who this special offer is for. The A Team members were momentarily stunned: "Wow, Pauline, we already have all kinds of non-alcoholic drinks, but now we even have soup? If this keeps up, PC Bar is going to become a restaurant."

"Pauline is so kind to me!" Iris stood up and gave Pauline a kiss. The latter handed her the soup bowl and a few handwritten soup recipes to Zhuang Zhuoyuan, smiling, "I was going to ask A-Yuan to take these back for you, but since you're here today, I quickly heated up a bowl in the kitchen. There's also a whole thermos in the back, A-Shi, remember to take it back later."

"Pauline, you're so good to me!" The soup was clear and fragrant. Iris's appetite had improved a lot lately, and she was happy whenever she found something delicious. Pauline urged her to drink it while it was hot, and then said, "This time it's chicken soup with codonopsis, goji berries, and red dates. I made it a little lighter because I was worried you might have morning sickness again. I'll make it sweeter for you when you feel better."

Iris now really thinks she should buy another apartment and move next door to Mr. Zhan's house, so she'll never have to worry about not gaining enough weight with the doctor again. Zhuang Zhuoyuan immediately saw through her thoughts and smiled, fearing they'd have to start worrying about weight control then. He helped his wife down to drink her soup, then moved to Pauline's place to ask for the recipe, immediately pointing to the crucian carp soup: "I remember this has a lactation-promoting effect, Pauline, can Iris drink it if she's not breastfeeding?"

"Breast milk is good for the baby!" Pauline's first reaction was to say this. She blurted it out, but then thought it wouldn't be good to interfere with the young people's decision. Just as she was about to speak, Zhuang Zhuoyuan took the initiative to explain: "It's not that Iris doesn't want to breastfeed, it's that I don't want her to get up in the middle of the night to feed the baby. You know, last time I took care of my baby girl, I was exhausted after just one week. After Iris gives birth, I plan to let her rest well during her postpartum period, and the nanny and I will take care of Tangyuan in the evenings."

"So thoughtful?" Uncle Chao chimed in. When Zhan Hantao was born, he was busy with work, and his son was almost entirely cared for by his wife. Now look at him, that little kid who was only an arm's length away back then has grown into a tall and strong man. Zhuang Zhuoyuan's actions clearly showed his love for Iris, but in his opinion as someone who's been through it all, it was a bit of an overreaction. Not to mention, given their family's financial situation, they didn't need to go through so much trouble.

Zhuang Zhuoyuan just smiled and said, "Iris will still have to go to school, and it wouldn't be convenient for her if the breastfeeding period was too long. We've already found a nutritionist and we've divided the work of taking care of the baby, so it won't be a problem if we're missing this one thing."

Under no circumstances should his wife be the most important. The focus of their conversation shifted from casual to detailed, deeply resonating with Su Wenqiang. Listening to Zhuang Zhuoyuan's protectiveness of Iris, she secretly took it to heart, concluding that no woman wouldn't envy Iris's happiness. Her thoughts wandered further, and her gaze unconsciously drifted towards Yu Xueli. Coincidentally, Yu Xueli was also looking at her! Their eyes met, and after a few seconds of stunned silence, they hurriedly looked away. Su Wenqiang's heart pounded, burning as if she'd drunk strong liquor. It must be the alcohol acting up! She turned and drank another half-glass of wine, but even as the bottle emptied, four words lingered in her mind—"trying to cover up the truth."

One case was closed, but another remained unsolved. While Chicken's arrest brought relief to Madam Chong, it also strengthened her resolve to apprehend the bomb culprit. After visiting Ben in the hospital, Madam Chong drove straight back to the police station. The cell phone bomb was too sophisticated, leaving very few clues, and the case had reached a stalemate. She laid out all the documents on the table, determined to review them from the beginning, hoping for a new lead.

Iris was also following the case closely, but after the parking lot attack, along with the increased security measures, Zhuang Zhuoyuan's anxiety about her also intensified. Her husband was now so extreme that he didn't even want her to leave the house. Fortunately, she was good at playing the innocent; she gave him a half-asleep goodbye kiss, pretending to still be asleep, and successfully fooled Zhuang Zhuoyuan. As soon as the door closed, Iris immediately connected to the security camera, and as soon as her husband's car left the gate, she immediately got up to retrieve the latest bag of documents hidden at the bottom of the bookshelf.

Unlike the Organized Crime and Triad Bureau's (OCTB) investigation, Iris focused from the outset on the cell phone bomb itself, which was destroyed in the explosion. Such an ingenious device was beyond the capabilities of most people in Hong Kong. She narrowed her focus to top-tier individuals with expertise in the field and physics, then used software for big data searches, filtering through keywords several times. Ultimately, she discovered that the person most closely associated with the victim, Gu Desheng, was Professor Zhan Qiwei, whom Zhan Hantao had recommended to Zhuang Zhuohua.

According to the investigation by Zhou's subordinates, the direct reason Zhan Qiwei left the university to teach in a secondary school was not, as he claimed, to give back to his alma mater. Back at the university, his research project competed for the same grant as that of another professor, Situ Guozhang. Ultimately, the research committee decided to invest the money in Situ Guozhang. The inability to continue his project left Zhan Qiwei disheartened, and the rift with his colleagues and the committee also prevented him from continuing to teach at the university. Therefore, rather than saying he voluntarily devoted himself to secondary education, it's more accurate to say he was forced to take this path. And Gu Desheng happened to be one of the members of that committee.

A whiteboard was laid out before them, and Iris wrote down the relationships between the characters with a marker. Touching her stomach, she assumed that Gu Desheng was the main reason for Zhan Qiwei's failure in the competition back then, so his death would make perfect sense. It was all for revenge.

Therefore, considering the case files from two years ago, Qian Fubang's death is very likely not a random murder. Gu Desheng, who was also in the jewelry store that year but narrowly escaped, was not just a simple eyewitness, but should also be the killer's real target.

Having sorted things out, Iris, without thinking twice, quickly called Madam Chong. Madam Chong answered quickly, but the background noise was a bit loud. Iris listened for a moment, then tentatively asked, "Sister, has someone else died?"

"He was another research member of the university's funding committee back then," Zhuang Zhuohua briefly stated, without revealing that he died from a pill bomb.

However, that was enough. When Iris heard her say that, she knew that Zhuang Zhuohua had found the same information as her. She spoke more easily: "Sister, I think this serial murder case is not over yet. The killer's next target should be Situ Guozhang."

"You also suspect Zhan Qiwei?" Zhuang Zhuohua wasn't surprised by Iris's investigation. Given Iris's personality, it would be a miracle if she stayed home obediently during the holidays. If it weren't for reassuring Zhuang Zhuoyuan, she would have gone out long ago. The fact that she's only using her brain shows that she's already restrained herself considerably.

Iris neither denied the speculation nor gave a direct confirmation: "The killer could be him, or it could be someone close to him." In past cases, it's not uncommon for admirers to commit violence against others for the sake of their idols. Zhan Qiwei has had a very good reputation in high school these past few years. If we rule out the possibility that he's faking it, then there should be a "femme fatale" by his side. This person should also be good at physics and chemistry, meticulous, and Iris intuitively feels she should be a woman. And if she is a woman, is it possible that this person would use her feminine advantages to instigate others to help commit crimes? For example, the man who made the phone call in the Qian Fubang case. If she were her, Iris would definitely use her beauty to seduce him.

After hanging up the phone, Iris immediately contacted Derek again: "I want you to send someone to help me investigate the murderer in my sister's fiancé's case. He and Zhan Qiwei went to the same university, and I need to know if he had any crushes on anyone during his university years."