“President Chunling, I’m not lying. Chuanliu is right here at my place, still unconscious!”
Susan quickly added, her gaze sharply fixed on Jiulong.
The situation suddenly shifted from an internal power struggle within the management of the City of Hearts to a conflict involving the murder of official residents of the City of Cubes.
Jiulong was caught off guard.
Moreover, he never had any intention of harming "10 of Diamonds".
Who would go out of their way to cause themselves this trouble?
Jiulong hurriedly tried to explain, "That makes no sense at all. I have no grudge against Miss Chuanliu, why would I hurt her?"
Susan: "You wanted to force her to harm me, but you didn't expect her to disagree, so you took action?"
Jiulong laughed speechlessly, "I forced her? Which eye of yours saw that? Bosses, I think she's just jealous of my good performance and afraid I'll replace her, so she wants to use Miss Chuanliu's injury to suppress me!"
Susan recalled the scene Chuanliu described to her when she was injured and immediately asked, "Did you go to the jungle maze behind the manor early yesterday morning?"
Jiulong was slightly taken aback; he hadn't expected Susan to know about this. "So what if I went?"
Susan: "Leaders, it was there that Jiulong threatened 'Square 10' and attacked her. If Chuanliu hadn't been lucky enough to avoid Jiulong in the maze, she would probably be a corpse by now."
Jiulong's eyes widened in disbelief. He never expected that this woman would go so far as to fabricate a story to smear him.
Jiulong wanted to explain that Chuanliu had taken the initiative to ask him out, but he had indeed taken advantage of the girl's suspicions and wanted to take advantage of Susan.
In fact, Chuanliu did help him divert the people around Susan, but the cunning woman still managed to escape.
In this situation, Jiulong had no way to explain.
Denying that he killed Chuanliu is tantamount to exposing that he hired someone to kill Susan.
For a moment, he was speechless and could only weakly retort, "I did not kill Chuanliu."
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he thought of Chuanliu, his ally, and he quickly said, "I know, I need to go find Chuanliu, she can vouch for me!"
As he spoke, he tried to rush out of the conference room.
"Jiulong, sit down."
Huang Chunling's voice, "Ace of Hearts," came from behind him, leaving no room for doubt.
Susan added fuel to the fire, "Chuanliu is still unconscious. Are you planning to kill him to silence him?"
Zhuang Qiang couldn't hold back any longer and shouted back, "My brother has never had any designs on Fang Kuai. You're talking nonsense!"
"Oh?" Susan sneered, "So you're not as interested in the City of Squares as you are in the same boat as us?"
Just as Zhuang Qiang was about to retort, Cao He, the "King of Hearts," spoke up, "All of you, shut up. If you don't want to resolve this properly, then keep arguing."
Zhuang Qiang was pushed back by He Dadong; seeing this, Susan also lowered her arrogance a bit.
“President Cao He, although Manager Jiulong is our direct superior, it’s true that our words on his behalf are not very convincing. But I still want to say that Brother Jiulong has been working hard for the business these past few days and has devoted himself to the cause of Red Peach City. I really can’t bear to see our leader being framed like this.”
"Um."
Cao He made a sound, leaving people unable to guess his attitude.
He Dadong's words, which appealed to both emotion and reason, brought the atmosphere to a state of silence.
Money String then broke the silence, saying, "Fellow leaders of Hearts, I'm here today to demand an explanation for our City of Diamonds. As you all know, Chuanliu is an important member of our City of Diamonds. Now that she's been involved in this incident on Hearts territory and is still unconscious, we must find the culprit. Otherwise, I will report this to 'Ace of Diamonds' for a decision."
At this moment, Wei Pingchang, the "Jack of Hearts" who had been silent until now, respectfully said to Huang Chunling, "President Chunling, I remember that there seems to be a surveillance camera installed at the entrance of the jungle maze recently."
Huang Chunling was still having a headache over Qian Chuan's words, but upon hearing Wei Pingchang's prompting, she immediately said, "It seems there is such a thing..."
“I remember! You said before that there shouldn’t be only one surveillance camera at the entrance of the manor, so we added another one at the entrance of the jungle maze in the blind spot.”
With Wei Pingchang's prompting, Wang Shuo suddenly remembered as well.
Surveillance equipment is extremely rare on Paradise Island. However, thanks to the wealth of the City of Hearts, several units were installed in key locations.
There is a security camera on the second floor of the Red Peach Casino, another at the entrance of the manor, and yet another at the entrance of the Jungle Maze.
Jiulong's mind was in turmoil. He looked calmly at He Dadong and Zhuang Qiang, but the response he received was still one of confusion.
They spend all their time in the red-light district, some on business trips, some away from home. How could they possibly pay attention to something like a new surveillance camera being installed in the manor?
And as fate would have it, at the very spot where Jiulong and Chuanliu would inevitably meet, there is irrefutable evidence to prove this.
Why did Chuanliu have to choose such a place to meet?
That's just too unlucky...
Jiulong felt a headache coming on, wondering how he would explain the fact that the two of them were there at the same time.
Soon, the high-ranking officials' servants brought back the surveillance footage.
Set the time to midnight.
Chuanliu's figure appeared on the screen first, followed closely by Jiulong.
About an hour later, Chuanliu ran out covered in blood, glancing frantically behind him as he ran.
Two hours later, Jiulong slowly walked out, his face showing impatience.
The conference room fell silent for a moment.
After a long pause, Huang Chunling's voice slowly came through, "Jiulong, do you still want to explain?"
When Jiulong saw Chuanliu running out of the maze entrance in terror, his brain went blank.
Someone must have wanted to harm Chuanliu and then made themselves a scapegoat.
This was Jiulong's first reaction.
He swallowed a non-existent mouthful of saliva and said dryly, "I... I didn't do it."
Suddenly, he had a bold guess.
Is it possible that Susan knew in advance that Chuanliu suspected her, monitored Chuanliu and herself entering the maze, and then took advantage of the situation to try to harm Chuanliu, while also pinning the crime of murdering "Square 10" on herself?
Jiulong's face turned grim. He calmed down and said to the higher-ups, "I did see Miss Chuanliu in the jungle maze, but that was just an accident. I was unaware of her injury afterwards. As you can see, I didn't bring any weapons in. Susan, you say I'm the murderer, so what was my murder weapon?"
He paused, then added, "I also have another question: how did you know Ms. Chuanliu's whereabouts?"
"She told me."
Susan frowned; she could feel everyone's attention focused on her.
Jiulong suddenly realized he had found a blind spot. "Is that so? You want me to prove it, but who can prove it to you? You know her movements so well, is it possible that you are the real culprit and are framing me?"
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