Meng Lianyun arranged to meet that evening, and Zou Jiakai treated everyone to dinner.
After handling some matters at the company, Gu Xicheng went home to pick up Lu Qing and took her to the agreed location.
When the two arrived, Zou Jiakai and Meng Lianyun were already there.
Upon seeing Gu Xicheng, Zou Jiakai immediately stood up to greet him:
"Mr. Gu, it's been a long time!"
Gu Xicheng chuckled: "Don't call me President Gu. Just call me by my name, or like Meng Lianyun does, call me Old Gu."
Zou Jiakai: "You're only in your twenties, not even thirty yet. It makes Lao Gu look so old!"
“Then just call me by my name. Mr. Gu doesn’t like hearing it,” Gu Xicheng said.
"Alright, then I'll still call you Gu Xicheng."
After exchanging pleasantries, Zou Jiakai looked at Lu Qing:
"This stunning beauty must be Miss Lu Qing, who has captured the heart of our young master Gu!"
"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Zou Jiakai bowed slightly, his face full of polite smiles.
"Hello, I'm Lu Qing," Lu Qing greeted politely.
"Don't stand there, sit down and let's talk!" Meng Lianyun quickly gestured to everyone, handing the menu to Lu Qing and whispering to her:
"Zou Jiakai is treating us to dinner today, so eat your fill and don't try to save him any money."
Lu Qing raised an eyebrow, then casually glanced at the menu before tossing it aside.
"I'm not going to pick and choose, just give me one of everything."
"Okay!"
Meng Lianyun quickly took the menu and went to find the waiter to serve the food.
Zou Jiakai was unaware of Lu Qing's appetite, but he thought it was normal for the young girl to try a little of everything she liked, so he didn't say anything.
Furthermore, compared to what he was asking for, the cost of a meal was really nothing.
Instead of getting straight to the point, Zou Jiakai chatted with Gu Xicheng about old times.
Soon, the waiter brought the dishes over.
Zou Jiakai quickly poured wine for Gu Xicheng:
"Let me first raise a toast to you both, to thank you for coming today!"
Zou Jiakai stood up and respectfully toasted Gu Xicheng and Lu Qing, adopting a very humble posture.
Gu Xicheng knew that Meng Lianyun must have told him something, and that he saw him and Qingqing as his lifeline, otherwise he wouldn't be so humble.
Gu Xicheng pressed his shoulder, making him sit back down, and said directly:
"Old Meng has already told us about your situation. Just tell us the details directly. There's no need to be so polite!"
Zou Jiakai nodded repeatedly, put down his wine glass, sighed, and said:
"It all started with that wedding three years ago."
"My wife and I met in college, dated for three years, got along very well, and my parents were very satisfied with her, so we agreed to get married as soon as we graduated from college."
After discussing it with my wife, she agreed, so I proposed to her right after graduation, and then we started preparing for the wedding.
But on our wedding day, something unexpected happened. My wife's family is from the countryside, where they have a custom of making a ruckus at the wedding, and it was quite a big one.
In particular, some hooligans and thugs from the same village bullied the bridesmaids under the guise of custom. My wife had warned her parents to be wary of those who deliberately acted like hooligans, but they still couldn't prevent it.
Before the wedding was even over, someone discovered that one of my wife's bridesmaids was dead in the bathroom, and her clothes had been stripped off.
With such an incident, the wedding naturally had to be canceled. Later, the police took the body away and investigated for a long time but failed to find the murderer.
My wife felt guilty and decided not to register our marriage for the time being. I also compensated the bridesmaid's family with some money. I thought the matter was over, but who would have thought that something would go wrong at our second wedding.
We were terrified that the tragedy from last time would repeat itself, so I asked my cousin to be my bridesmaid, and I also told my parents-in-law that we were forbidden from blocking the door or engaging in any wedding pranks. We even hired bodyguards.
As it turned out, my cousin was in a car accident the day before her wedding. She was rushed to the hospital, and when she woke up, she kept shouting that she couldn't get married and that there were ghosts.
At this point, Zou Jiakai's face turned pale, and fear flashed in his eyes.
"Did she say what kind of ghost it was?" Lu Qing asked.
Zou Jiakai nodded:
"According to her description, she looks exactly like the bridesmaid who died at her first wedding."
"That night, I also dreamed about her. She said she died a terrible death and wouldn't let us get married, or she would kill us."
I was terrified, fell seriously ill, and spent over a month in the hospital. I barely survived, and naturally, the second wedding was canceled.
Gu Xicheng: "And then? Did you dream about that female ghost again?"
Zou Jiakai: "It's strange, as long as my wife and I don't think about getting married and registering our marriage, nothing happens. But once we think things have calmed down and we want to get married again, she will show up."
Lu Qing: "So, she just doesn't want you two to get married!"
Zou Jiakai nodded and sighed:
"She died at my wedding with my wife, and the murderer has still not been caught. I guess he is still resentful."
"But it's the police's job if they can't catch the murderer. We can't keep putting off getting married!"
“My parents are starting to have opinions about this. If we can’t get married soon, they’ll probably force me to find a new wife.”
“My wife and I have decided that we must get married this year, and we must also resolve the issue of the female ghost. So I went around to find many experts, and finally learned about your wife from Meng Lianyun.”
Zou Jiakai looked at Lu Qing and pleaded:
"Miss Lu, Meng Lianyun has told me about all your methods. Please help me and my wife!"
Lu Qing nodded in response while eating:
"Helping you is no problem, but I need to find that female ghost first. If we know who the murderer is and get justice for her, maybe she will stop bothering you."
Zou Jiakai quickly took a document out of his bag:
"This is the bridesmaid's information; I've prepared it all."
Lu Qing glanced at the information, calculated the birth date and time, did a quick calculation with his fingers, and then said:
"She's not here. What happened to her body after she died?"
Zou Jiakai: "Her body was taken away by the police back then, and the investigation yielded no results. Her family probably took the body back for burial!"
"Try to find out where her parents' bodies are buried. Ghosts usually live in cemeteries, so you should be able to find out more if you find her," Lu Qing said.
Zou Jiakai immediately tried to contact the family of the deceased, Mu Qianwei.
Not long after, his wife called:
“Honey, I just had Ningning call Qianwei’s mother, and they said Qianwei doesn’t have a burial plot.”
"How can there be no cemetery?" Zou Jiakai asked hurriedly.
"Ningning said that Qianwei's parents favored boys over girls and had never treated her well. They didn't even plan to claim her body at the time, and the police paid for the cremation."
After taking the ashes away, they just dumped them somewhere without even a funeral. No wonder they wouldn't allow me to visit Qianwei's grave all these years. I thought they were blaming me for ruining Qianwei's life.
Zou Jiakai's wife started crying on the phone as she spoke.
Zou Jiakai quickly coaxed:
"Wife, don't be sad. Do you know where they disposed of Qianwei's ashes?"
Ningning said it seems to be inside Chengyang Lake.
“Chengyang Lake!” Zou Jiakai exclaimed in surprise.
“That’s one of the sources of our city’s drinking water. What were they thinking, dumping it into that lake?”
Zou Jiakai's wife, sitting across from him, suddenly froze, staring at the open faucet in front of her, and said stiffly:
"You mean... there's... ashes in the water we're drinking???"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com