Chapter 42 Reverse Investigation
Tangdixuan Tea House.
The cool, ethereal smoke of agarwood rose gently, calming the restlessness in the room.
Su Wantang sat upright at the table, her fingertips holding a white jade teacup. The warmth of the bone china seeped through her fingertips, making it feel cool.
Her hands were so steady that they didn't tremble at all.
Qin Zheng stood to the side, his tall body tense, the air thick with the oppressive atmosphere of an impending storm.
"Young Miss, this matter..."
“One set.” Su Wantang put down her teacup, making a crisp, light sound, interrupting him.
She raised her eyes, and there was not a trace of grievance or anger in her beautiful peach blossom eyes, only a cold clarity.
"It's a trap. The goal isn't to kill me, but to destroy my spirit."
Qin Zheng's brows furrowed into a knot.
Su Wantang tapped the table lightly with her fingertips, one tap after another, with a distinct rhythm.
"The first step was to lure me into a trap with a piece of 'evidence' that was half true and half false, making me suspect the people around Lu Jingyan."
"The second step was to lure Lu Jingyan over with an anonymous phone call while I was verifying the information, so that he could witness me 'dealing' with the information broker."
"In this way, in my eyes, Lu Jingyan is protecting his enemy and has ulterior motives. In his eyes, I, Su Wantang, am selling secrets behind his back and am an ungrateful wretch."
As she said this, a sweet yet cold smile curved her lips, like a poppy blooming on an icy plain.
"The person who designed this scheme understands people very well. He knows that once trust is broken, it can never be restored."
Qin Zheng felt a chill run down his spine. He had only thought that the young lady had been wronged, but he never expected that such a vicious scheme was hidden behind it.
"So now..."
"Cry? Make a scene? Or run to Lu Jingyan to explain, 'I didn't, it wasn't me, I was framed,'" Su Wantang chuckled, her eyes full of mockery. "It's useless. Emotions are the cheapest thing in the world; they can't solve any problems."
She stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the twinkling lights of Beijing.
There is only one way to break this deadlock.
Su Wantang turned around, her gaze sharp as a knife.
"Find that guy named Liu Mazi alive! I want to know who gave him that report, and who notified him to wait for me at that time and place."
“Twenty-four hours.” She held up two slender fingers. “I just want the result.”
"Yes!" Qin Zheng didn't waste any words and turned to leave.
He knew that the young lady was about to overturn the table.
......
On the other side, in the military compound, in Lu Jingyan's office.
The ashtray was already overflowing with cigarette butts.
Lu Jingyan stood by the window, his tall figure casting a somber shadow under the lamplight.
The scene at the cement factory kept replaying in his mind.
The way she looked at him.
There was no panic, no explanation, only a deathly, cold silence.
That look pierced his heart.
Gao Jianjun stood to the side for a long time before finally speaking up: "Commander, I think... your wife isn't that kind of person."
Lu Jingyan didn't turn around, his voice hoarse: "You saw it, she's with Liu Mazi. You know better than I what Liu Mazi does."
"But this is too much of a coincidence!" Gao Jianjun exclaimed anxiously. "We received the call and then we were caught red-handed. This doesn't seem like a coincidence; it seems like someone deliberately arranged it!"
He took a deep breath and recounted in detail his observations outside the Peace Hotel in Shanghai, how she dealt with Ye Manrou's provocations in the courtyard, and how she single-handedly built Tangdixuan.
"My sister-in-law is as shrewd as a fox; she never leaves a trace in her actions. Even if she really wanted to do something, she would never use such a stupid method—in that kind of place, meeting that kind of person. It doesn't make sense!"
Gao Jianjun's words struck Lu Jingyan's tense nerves like a hammer.
Yes, that doesn't make sense.
From the very first second she woke up in the Peace Hotel, that woman displayed extraordinary calmness and shrewdness.
Would she make such a basic mistake?
Lu Jingyan turned around abruptly, the rage in his eyes fading and replaced by a terrifying calm.
"Investigate!" His voice was deep and had a metallic quality.
"First, find out where that anonymous call came from! Use every technical means at your disposal; I need to know where the call originated!"
"Secondly, that Liu Mazi, I need all his information! Who he's been in contact with recently, who he's taken money from, not a single detail can be missed!"
"Yes!" Gao Jianjun perked up and immediately accepted the order.
Under the cover of night in Beijing, two invisible nets were simultaneously cast out, centered on Tangdixuan and the military region.
Qin Zheng's approach is even more unconventional.
He didn't go through official channels; he went directly to the local tyrant of the chaotic area in the south of the city—the scoundrel, the scoundrel.
In a smoky underground billiards room, the bald-headed man stared wide-eyed at the ten gleaming gold bars on the table.
"Mr. Qin... what's wrong...?"
"I need to find someone." Qin Zheng pushed Liu Mazi's photo over. "Liu Mazi. I need to know where he is now."
The bald-headed man glanced at the photo, and the fat on his face jiggled.
"Sir, this Liu Mazi has recently struck it rich and is hiding from his creditors everywhere. He's hard to find..."
Qin Zheng didn't say anything, but took out ten more gold bars from his pocket and stacked them on top of the original pile.
Twenty gold bars, under the dim light, emitted a dazzling light that drove people mad.
The man with the scabies head was breathing heavily.
"Find him! I'll turn Beijing upside down and find this bastard for you!" He patted his chest, grabbed the photo, and rushed out, more eager than if he were looking for his own father.
The efficiency of the underground world is sometimes far greater than imagined.
The news came back in less than five hours.
Liu Mazi hid in an abandoned air-raid shelter in the western suburbs.
Without a moment's delay, Qin Zheng immediately took his men and drove straight to the western suburbs.
The car bumped along the overgrown dirt road and soon arrived at the air-raid shelter.
The entrance was partially covered by a huge cement slab, from which a damp, musty stench wafted.
Qin Zheng waved his hand, and his two subordinates immediately worked together to push the cement slab aside.
An even stronger stench of blood wafted over.
Qin Zheng's heart sank. He drew his military dagger and was the first to rush in.
The beam of the flashlight swayed in the darkness, finally settling on a corner.
Liu Mazi lay on the ground, his eyes wide open, his face still showing extreme terror. There was a thin line of blood on his throat; he had bled to death.
A single, fatal blow; the technique was clean and swift.
We arrived too late.
The person was silenced.
Qin Zheng's men examined the body, while Qin Zheng, with a flashlight, carefully investigated the scene.
This is a dead end.
The other party was clearly a professional, as they left no valuable clues at the scene.
Just as Qin Zheng was about to give up, the beam of his flashlight accidentally swept across a pile of messy straw next to the corpse.
Under the light, something reflected a faint metallic glint.
Qin Zheng crouched down and used his military dagger to push aside the straw.
A delicate cufflink lay quietly in the dust.
The cufflinks are made of silver and are shaped like a gracefully unfolding leaf, with the veins carved in a lifelike manner.
Qin Zheng's pupils suddenly contracted.
This emblem... he felt like he'd seen it somewhere before.
...
Tangdixuan.
When the cufflink, still smelling of dirt and blood, was placed on the table, Su Wantang showed no surprise.
"The Ye family." She picked up her cufflinks, wiped the stains off with a silk handkerchief, her voice calm and undisturbed.
“Young Miss, now that we have witnesses and physical evidence, we can…” Qin Zheng’s tone was somewhat excited.
“No,” Su Wantang interrupted him. “Ye Manrou doesn’t have the brains, and she certainly doesn’t have the guts. Murder to cover it up is such a big deal; it will inevitably leave traces. The fact that she dared to do it means that someone is cleaning up after her.”
She stroked the delicate cufflink, her gaze deep and thoughtful.
"She was just a pawn pushed out to be used as a tool. A tool to muddy the waters and divert our attention."
The real hunters are still lurking in the shadows, watching with cold laughter as these pawns fight to the death.
Lu Wenbo.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps and a commotion came from downstairs.
The door was suddenly pushed open, and Gao Jianjun rushed in, his face ashen, his lips trembling, and the collar of his military uniform ripped open.
Su Wantang's heart skipped a beat, and an ominous premonition instantly enveloped her.
"Sister-in-law!" His voice was choked with sobs, filled with unprecedented panic.
"Something terrible has happened! The commander... he's in trouble!"
"He fell off the mountain road while investigating the clues!"
"Right now...right now the person is being treated at the military general hospital, the doctor said...said..."
Gao Jianjun, a man seven feet tall, choked up and couldn't speak at the end.
Su Wantang could no longer hear what Gao Jianjun said after that.
Car accident?
No, this is not a car accident.
This is the second time Lu Wenbo has silenced witnesses!
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