Chapter 153 Fu Lilian is not as innocent as she seems.
She paused for a moment, then her innocent smile returned. Carrying the tray, she walked over and said in a clear voice, "Officer Lu, are you done? I made some extra squid. Would you like to try some?"
Lu Zheng looked at Su Xiaonuan, who walked up to him with a bright smile and her face upturned. His Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.
The enticing aroma was so close, constantly challenging his willpower.
He forcibly looked away, his gaze falling on her slightly reddened fingers as she held the tray, and his brows furrowed almost imperceptibly.
He cleared his throat, trying to make his voice sound calm and businesslike: "Su Xiaonuan, come to my office with me, I need to talk to you about something."
He paused, then added, "It's about Fu Lilian."
Upon hearing that it was serious business, Su Xiaonuan's smile immediately faded, and she became serious: "Okay."
She instinctively wanted to put the heavy tray in her hand on the empty table next to her.
"Take it with you." Lu Zheng blurted out almost without thinking, his voice a beat faster than usual.
After saying that, as if afraid of going back on his word, or afraid of seeing Su Xiaonuan sharing food with others, he turned around first and strode towards his office.
Su Xiaonuan paused, looking at the tray in her hand with some confusion, then at Lu Zheng's almost hurried back. She shrugged and, carrying the tray of "evidence," followed the group of police officers into Lu Zheng's office amidst a mix of envy, sympathy, and the strange look that seemed to indicate something was amiss.
The office door closed gently.
The still air outside instantly began to flow again.
"Did you see that?! Captain Lu had Boss Su bring the squid inside!"
"I knew it! Something was definitely going on!"
"Captain Lu's expression just now was like he'd caught his wife... cough cough..."
"Shh! Keep your voice down! But... that squid smells so good..."
"Is the squid the focus? The focus is on Captain Lu and Boss Su!"
"Oh no, my squid is gone..."
"Be content, at least we...smelled it..."
Meanwhile, in Lu Zheng's office, the scene was quite different.
Su Xiaonuan placed the tray on the coffee table, obediently sat down in the guest chair, leaned forward slightly, and asked with concern, "Officer Lu, how is Fu Lilian now?"
Lu Zheng sat in the office chair opposite her, trying to ignore the fragrance that kept wafting into his nose and disturbing his mind.
He nodded, his expression regaining its usual calm: "Her condition is basically stable, and her mental state is also recovering."
Her family and agency have been contacted, and she has been temporarily placed in a safe location.
She also provided more information regarding the details of her kidnapping.
He opened the drawer, took out a thin folder, and pushed it in front of Su Xiaonuan: "All the clues, including those she provided and those we investigated later, point to the document about the 'Sacred Heart Society' that I sent you before. That's why we need your help in this case."
Su Xiaonuan picked up the folder and quickly flipped through it. Inside were some personnel relationship diagrams and preliminary analysis of fund flows.
She suddenly realized: "No wonder... Fu Lilian was targeted by the 'Sacred Heart Society,' but the one who took action was a small branch of them, something like... an outsourcing company?"
“That’s one way to understand it.” Lu Zheng nodded. “The ‘Sacred Heart Society’ has a tight structure, making it difficult for the core members to find any fault with it.”
These peripheral organizations are their tentacles reaching into society, and also their entry point.
Su Xiaonuan seemed to be deep in thought.
There are still a few days until "next Tuesday" as indicated by the system, and next Monday, she still needs to meet with Han Ming to find out about "Crescent Moon".
Time seems tight, but clues are emerging one by one, and everything seems to be progressing in an orderly manner.
She suddenly remembered the faint, smooth silver bird-shaped mark she had seen below Fu Lilian's shoulder blade, and the clear, eerily beautiful black crescent mark on Ji Xianjun's arm.
Although these two are different in form, they both give people a similar sense of belonging to a certain specific organization.
She raised her eyes to look at Lu Zheng, her gaze clear and focused: "Officer Lu, among the people who were arrested in the 'Crescent Moon' branch, did you notice any special marks on their bodies? Like... like the crescent moon on Ji Xianjun's arm?"
As she asked the question, she subconsciously pushed the tray on the coffee table towards Lu Zheng. The spicy squid, glistening with an enticing sheen, seemed to become a small, down-to-earth footnote in this serious conversation.
Outside the office, the "case analysis meeting" about their relationship was clearly just getting started.
The entire police station was filled with a lingering, spicy aroma, as well as ambiguous speculations that the officers found even more fascinating than the case itself.
Looking at Su Xiaonuan's focused expression, Lu Zheng glanced at the squid so close to him, his mind in turmoil. In the end, reason prevailed, and he turned his attention back to the case itself.
Lu Zheng's answer came almost spontaneously, without the slightest hesitation: "Indeed. It's exactly the same as the basic shape of the crescent moon mark on Ji Xianjun's arm. However, Ji Xianjun's had an extra tiny star pattern in the middle of the crescent."
Upon hearing this, Su Xiaonuan's heart sank, as if she had been struck by a boulder soaked in ice water.
The vague guesses and lingering unease from before were now coldly confirmed.
The image of that fleeting silver mark below Fu Lilian's shoulder blade when she took off her coat in her own bathroom that day vividly appeared in her mind—smooth lines, elegant shape, a clear crescent moon shape!
The lighting was dim at the time, and Fu Lilian quickly covered it up. She thought it was just an ordinary tattoo or sticker and didn't investigate further.
Looking back now, it was no coincidence at all!
A chill crept up my spine.
Her almost unguarded trust in Fu Lilian, which stemmed from her delicate appearance and tragic past, deflated instantly like a punctured balloon.
If the marks are the same, what does that mean?
This means that Fu Lilian is very likely to have intricate connections with "Crescent Moon" and is by no means the simple and innocent victim she portrays herself to be.
So, from the moment she "coincidentally" fainted in front of his stall on that rainy night to the moment he took her in, could it all have been a carefully orchestrated scheme from the very beginning? A scheme targeting Su Xiaonuan with an unclear purpose?
This thought made Su Xiaonuan's heart skip a beat, and her fingertips felt slightly cold.
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