Chapter 52
Tang Ruxin searched back and forth several times and found that she had indeed taken the photo of Tong Jiayu when she was fourteen or fifteen years old in her room that day.
"Did you touch the photos in the album when you checked my phone?" Tang Ruxin looked up and asked Yu Lei.
"It's really interesting. The technicians are so bored that they screen software for you and delete your photos at the same time." Yu Lei was annoyed. He thought there was light at the end of the tunnel, but it turned out to be the same old story.
Tang Ruxin suddenly remembered that Tong Jiayu had touched her mobile phone the day before yesterday under the pretext of turning off the recording software.
A chill washed over her, and Tang Ruxin couldn't help but shudder. It was Tong Jiayu, the one who deleted that photo. So openly, she'd deleted it right in front of her, and she hadn't noticed.
Tong Jiayu knew she had taken the photo because the Rabbit camera was facing the bedside table. So, was the camera really there to monitor the box of sex toys? Or was it just for this photo?
If this photo is so important and cannot be seen by anyone, why doesn't Tong Jiayu just destroy it?
"What's wrong with you?" Yu Lei lowered his head and looked at Tang Ruxin, "You look so ugly."
Tang Ruxin licked her lips, smiled unnaturally and said, "I remembered it wrongly."
Yu Lei looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, then turned to Chen Jingzhou and said, "Go and investigate to see if anyone still remembers Tong Jiayu. Don't miss any relevant information. You go to the east, and I'll go to the west."
Chen Jingzhou responded and turned away.
"I'm a little tired, so I'll go back to the hotel first." Tang Ruxin said.
"I send you."
"No, I'll just walk by myself. You go and do your work."
Yu Lei nodded, "Okay, let me know when you get there."
Half an hour later, Tang Ruxin arrived at the most prosperous market in Dongxiang Village and found a mobile phone repair shop that looked fairly formal.
"Boss, can you restore the deleted photos in my phone album?" Tang Ruxin asked while standing in front of the counter with her phone in hand.
The boss wore glasses, had a bald head, and a string of Buddhist beads hung around his sturdy neck. His small eyes looked at Tang Ruxin like Maitreya Buddha.
"It depends. It may not be recoverable." He took the unlocked phone, checked it for a moment, and said, "When was it deleted?"
"It should be the day before yesterday." Tang Ruxin replied.
After a while, the boss sat down and plugged in a data cable to connect his phone and computer.
"This is a fruit machine, doesn't it have automatic cloud backup?"
Tang Ruxin thought about it and seemed to have received a message reminding her that the cloud space was full before, but she had never taken action, so she had to shake her head and say no.
"It's not even in the recently deleted items. That'll take some time. It'll be expensive too. You'll have to use third-party paid software to recover the data, and it may not be successful. Is that okay?" The boss said as he started operating the computer.
"Sure." Tang Ruxin moved a small stool from the counter and sat at the door waiting.
An hour later, the boss returned the phone to her and regretfully said that the data recovery had failed.
Tang Ruxin returned to the hotel alone and became angrier the more she thought about it.
She was angry at herself for being useless, as Tong Jiayu had disappointed her time and again, but she still felt sad about her past and couldn't help but feel sorry for her. However, when she thought of the things Tong Jiayu had done behind her back, she became furious.
She directly dialed Tong Jiayu's cell phone and asked as soon as the call was connected:
"Did you delete that photo?"
There was silence on the other end of the phone, but Tang Ruxin breathed a sigh of relief. The fact that Tong Jiayu didn't directly deny it was considered that he still had some conscience.
"Give me a reason." Tang Ruxin continued.
Tong Jiayu seemed to laugh, "Are you so self-righteous? You broke into my room, looked through my things, took pictures, and you don't allow me to delete them?"
Tang Ruxin was suddenly stuck. This made a lot of sense.
Without giving her more time to think, Tong Jiayu continued, "Tang Ruxin, Yu Lei and I, whose side are you on?"
After saying that, Tong Jiayu hung up the phone.
Tang Ruxin was stunned. In all the years she had known Tong Jiayu, this was the first time she had spoken to her in such a cold and almost cruel tone, and it was also the first time she had hung up on her.
She slowly put down her phone, and it was as if thunder had struck her heart, shocking her so much that she couldn't recover for a long time.
Tong Jiayu's words made the meaning clear - she and Yu Lei were on opposite sides, and Tang Ruxin needed to choose a side. How was this any different from confessing her guilt?
Why? Why on earth did she do that?
Tang Ruxin called Tong Jiayu again, but the call didn't go through because the phone was turned off.
She was immediately furious, her heart aching. Tong Jiayu wouldn't tell her anything, and even if she asked, she would only lie and conceal things. She had never given her the slightest bit of trust, and now she blamed her for not standing by her side.
Why?! Did he think she was a fool? If she had a little more compassion, she would have felt extremely guilty towards Tong Jiayu by now, as if years of love couldn't compare to one man.
"Okay, okay, let's play it this way, huh..."
Tang Ruxin's anger was completely aroused by Tong Jiayu, and she called Yu Lei.
"Send someone to my house. In the first room on the left on the second floor, there's a photo album in the second box on the bedside table. There's a photo tucked into the back cover of the last album. It was taken when Tong Jiayu was fourteen or fifteen years old."
Yu Lei was silent for a moment, then said, "You took that photo, but it's gone now. Is that right?"
Tang Ruxin said nothing.
Yu Lei continued, "The day before yesterday at the Western restaurant, Tong Jiayu touched your phone."
"Why are you talking so much? Just ask someone to get it." Tang Ruxin said impatiently.
"How could it still be there?"
Tang Ruxin was stunned. Yeah, how could it still be there? Tong Jiayu wouldn't even allow the photos she took on her phone to be seen in public. The original photos would definitely be stored somewhere else or simply destroyed.
She threw down her phone, turned over and fell on the bed, covered her head with the quilt, and yelled in frustration.
After nightfall, Chen Jingzhou returned to the hotel and knocked on Tang Ruxin's door. He saw that she had a dazed look and disheveled hair, and was obviously still asleep.
"Sister Tang, let's eat." Chen Jingzhou put the food on the table.
Tang Ruxin was still confused. It took her a while to react before she came to the table and sat down. She asked:
"Where's Yu Lei?"
"He went to see Tong Jiayu's elementary school teacher and asked me to bring the meal back to you first." Chen Jingzhou broke the chopsticks apart and handed them to Tang Ruxin.
"Primary school teacher...it's been twenty years, right? How can you remember Tong Jiayu?"
"It should be possible. It is said that the head teacher takes good care of Tong Jiayu and often buys her stationery. Every time Tong Jiayu is beaten by her father and stepmother, she runs to the head teacher's house."
Hearing this, Tang Ruxin lost her appetite again, but she wasn't hungry after just waking up. Picking up a piece of salad cucumber, Tang Ruxin asked Chen Jingzhou, "Has Han Yixiao been interrogated? What did he say?"
"I've admitted it. I can't deny it. There are footprints at the scene, and there are scratches on the rooftop fence from the bottom of a flowerpot."
"Why did he hit Song Mu?"
"He said Song Mu caught him smoking on the device and confiscated his money."
Tang Ruxin sighed helplessly, this is a lie.
"Song Mu will definitely say he doesn't remember this happening, right?"
Chen Jingzhou stuffed his mouth with braised pork and said vaguely, "Yeah, he said he had no impression of it. Sister Tang, why don't you eat it? Is it not to your liking?"
Tang Ruxin said she wasn't hungry, "Who would throw a flower pot at someone just because they got a small deduction in money?"
"Yes, that's why we didn't release him. We are still investigating. By the way, he joined Donghe Refining and Chemical Company in the same year as you. Do you have any impression of him?" Chen Jingzhou asked.
Tang Ruxin was startled, then slowly shook her head. She wasn't part of the company's centralized recruitment process, so naturally, she wouldn't know anyone hired for the operations position. So, Han Yixiao and Tong Jiayu had joined the company together.
A bitter smile appeared on her lips. The more you fear something, the more it will come.
No wonder Tong Jiayu hadn't asked her which side she was on until today, because she had reached a fork in the road. She could either continue digging for the truth, get to the bottom of it all, and bring Tong Jiayu to justice; or she could conceal the truth for Tong Jiayu and ask for the truth later, after everything was over. She believed that by then, Tong Jiayu would probably be willing to reveal everything.
"Sister Tang?" Chen Jingzhou was startled. He put down his chopsticks and stood up bewilderedly. "Why, why are you crying?"
Tang Ruxin came to her senses and hurriedly tried to wipe the tears from her face, but she couldn't wipe them away.
"Are you feeling unwell?" Chen Jingzhou grabbed the tissue box on the table and carefully placed it next to her.
Tang Ruxin lowered her head and waved her hands to indicate that she was fine.
"You go out for a while, I'll be by myself for a while."
Chen Jingzhou hesitated, unsure what to do. Leaving her alone was definitely not an option. She was clearly overwhelmed, her emotions surging and unable to process them on her own, which was why she had collapsed without warning.
Since getting off the plane yesterday, Tang Ruxin has hardly eaten anything.
Chen Jingzhou walked out of the room, leaving the door ajar, and called Yu Lei. As soon as the call was connected, he covered his mouth and whispered:
"Sister Tang is crying, come back soon!"
Yu Lei was confused on the other end of the line. "Did you offend her?"
"I didn't! She was eating perfectly fine when she suddenly started crying without any warning. Captain Yu, please come back quickly... I can't handle this."
"You stay with her first, don't leave her alone. This young lady is really..." Yu Lei hung up the phone and swallowed the words "difficult to serve".
When Yu Lei finished talking with the class teacher and returned to the hotel, Tang Ruxin was already watching TV series as if nothing had happened.
He looked at Chen Jingzhou, who was watching the movie with him, with a puzzled look on his face.
Chen Jingzhou gave Yu Lei an extremely painful expression in return. He had been watching "The Domineering CEO Falls in Love with Me" for almost an hour and was already dying of desire.
Seeing Yu Lei coming back, Chen Jingzhou jumped up and ran away quickly, and considerately closed the door for them.
Yu Lei looked at Tang Ruxin quietly for a while, then threw a fast food box in front of her.
Tang Ruxin took a look and saw that it was a vegetable salad.
She took out her chopsticks, opened the lunch box without saying a word and started eating.
Aside from the redness in her eyes, she didn't seem to be emotionally disturbed, so Yu Lei assumed she was fine. He took off his coat and threw it on the other bed. He sat on the bed behind her and took out a notebook to organize the information from today's investigation.
After a while, he vaguely sensed something was wrong. He looked up and saw Tang Ruxin, who had her back to him, eating her salad with her head down, her shoulders trembling slightly.
Yu Lei watched for a moment. This was the second time he saw Tang Ruxin cry. The first time was on the way to the scene of Yu Zhe’s car accident.
At that time, he hadn't noticed that Tang Ruxin's shoulders were so thin...
He put down his notebook and pen and held out his hand to her.
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