Chapter 134: Phone Call
Tu Lanxun didn't expect Mu Xiaozhen to ask such a question.
Because she had no idea that Mu Xiaozhen had such a deep and long-standing understanding of the affairs of Nanlu.
What else does she know? Or what else do Wenchong and the Tourism Bureau know?
The ghost of Nanlu sat in the interrogation chair, raised his eyes slightly, and said indifferently: "Why do you ask this question?"
Mu Xiaozhen smiled and said, "I'm asking for someone else."
As he said this, Mu Xiaozhen's eyes drifted inconspicuously outside the one-way mirror and landed in the direction of Tu Lanxun.
Tu Lanxun was almost knocked over by this suggestiveness.
Could it be that you are asking... on her behalf?
Her mind raced back, confirming that Mu Xiaozhen and Wenchong were likely members of the same system, and that Mu Xiaozhen's rank was higher than Wenchong's. In other words, Wenchong's previous arrangement for Tu Lanxun to privately investigate N was likely reviewed and even approved by Mu Xiaozhen.
This old professor lady knows everything.
So...will she...protect N when needed?
Tu Lanxun continued to read. Mu Xiaozhen's answer did not satisfy Nanlu, but it also gave Nanlu some information. The latter's expression obviously changed.
Nanlu's voice was a little hoarse as he slowly said, "I once had a child."
"Oh? Girl or boy? How old?"
"It's a boy." Nanlu smiled. "I haven't seen him for many years. He should be in his twenties this year."
"In his twenties? What's his name? Where was he born?"
"I can't remember." Nanlu sighed, "When I was working in Western Province, I became his stepfather."
He was talking about Nan Shaochen.
Tu Lanxun felt the silver pendant in her pocket get cold, and it penetrated into her bones. She gently grasped the chain.
Mu Xiaozhen also stared at Nanlu again: "I'm asking about your biological son, Nan Xishan. Don't you remember him?"
"I don't have much impression." Nanlu shook his head.
Mu Xiaozhen continued, "Thirty-two years ago, you gave birth to a boy, and you abandoned him at the gate of the Lucheng Welfare Home. Don't you remember that?"
The words "Lucheng Welfare Home" seemed to have impressed Nanlu, so Nanlu blinked slowly, and finally a hint of understanding appeared on his face. He said, "Oh, it seems that's the case."
When Nanlu recalled this incident, his expression was a little strange, as if he was enduring some physical pain and discomfort. Usually, only people who were burned by the scorching sun and their faces were covered with sweat and they couldn't open their eyes would show such an unbearable expression.
"When I was young, I worked in Lucheng," Nanlu said. "I had a wife at the time, but our marriage ended after less than two years. After we divorced, she discovered she was pregnant, but her health wasn't good enough for an abortion, so she gave birth."
"Because my job was about to be transferred and my ex-wife also planned to study abroad, we sent the child to an orphanage."
These two light-hearted sentences made many people present look disgusted. They felt repulsed by the embarrassing situation, but at the same time they couldn't help but feel sorry for the abandoned child.
"We named the child Nan Xishan. I wrote a note and put it in the swaddling clothes." Nanlu said, "We don't have much to give him. We only have one name. If he doesn't like it when he grows up, we can change it to something else."
It has been changed, it has indeed been changed, Tu Lanxun said to himself.
After his death, Nan Xishan was renamed Dr. Nightbird and has been spinning endlessly in the game for several years. Even now, many people call him N.
A sad life without a name.
Nanlu showed no remorse. When he recounted all this, his attitude was indifferent and distant, as if he was talking about someone else's affairs that had nothing to do with him.
"Where is your wife now?" Mu Xiaozhen asked.
Nanlu shook her head. "I don't know. Two months after we sent the child away, she got a visa to go abroad. I heard she studied abroad for a few years and then stayed there, marrying a foreigner. We haven't had any contact since then."
Mu Xiaozhen shook his head slightly. Nan Xishan was indeed a burden that his parents were eager to get rid of.
"Okay." Mu Xiaozhen seemed to have decided to change the subject and bring the interrogation back to matters related to the Heavenly Kingdom Group. "Why do you work for the Heavenly Kingdom Group?"
Nanlu was silent: "..."
Seeing the other party's stubborn resistance, Mu Xiaozhen added, "What year did you die?"
The two questions seemed completely unrelated, but Nanlu's already gloomy expression brightened even further. Mu Xiaozhen tapped the edge of the table and said, "The nature of your work should give you some understanding of ghost technology. Honestly, there are ways to get ghosts to confess. Analyzing the souls of the dead is easier than analyzing the souls of the living. You should consider it."
Nanlu paused, slowly lowered his head, and said, "I died more than six years ago."
That was more than six years ago.
Tu Lanxun was a little confused about the parents that N had supposedly found and contacted before the car accident. The long silence on the other end of the phone was it Nanlu or his mother who was far away abroad?
What does silence really mean? If it was N's biological mother, was she silent because she didn't want to have any contact with N anymore? If it was Nanlu, was she a human or a ghost at that time?
A fatal feeling of sympathy enveloped Tu Lanxun's heart. It turned out that they were all the same. They were all people who had been abandoned and given up.
But Ms. Tu Penglai was still willing to feed her with good food and drink.
"Tell me about you and the Tianguo Group." Mu Xiaozhen quickly changed the subject again. "Did you work for the Tianguo Group before or after your death?"
This question hit home, and Nanlu was so overwhelmed by Mu Xiaozhen's gentle yet sharp words that he couldn't even lift his head. In the end, he gave in and said, "Before he died."
"As expected." Mu Xiaozhen smiled faintly, but did not immediately ask further questions. He turned around and glanced at Zhao Kuanqiao's interrogation record before saying to Nanlu, "When did it happen before his death?"
This question seemed so old that a genuine confusion appeared on Nanlu's face. He thought for a moment and said, "Tianguo Group was my second job after graduating from university. I think it was when I was 25 years old."
"Oh, so when you say you were transferred from Lucheng to Western Province, you were actually transferred from the Eastern Province business center to the Western Province business center by the Tianguo Group. It's like you've crossed over from medical smuggling to smuggling cultural relics and contraband."
"Um."
In other words, from the age of 25 to over 50, Nanlu worked in the Tianguo Group for more than 20 years.
This also perfectly explains why Nan Lu disappeared from the lives of Nan Shaochen and his mother halfway.
These people in the Kingdom of Heaven Group all have one characteristic in common: whether they are in charge of people or doing business, almost none of them have their own families.
If an employee of a dangerous and large dark group is not heartless, he probably wouldn't dare to form a real family. Even a marginal tutor like Wu Qingchu wants to get out of it first and then go on a blind date.
Tu Lanxun sighed inwardly. Nan Shaochen and his mother were actually quite pitiful, having been directly used as a family meal replacement by Nan Lu.
On the other side, Mu Xiaozhen was still asking about the work details of Nanlu Tianguo Group, but whether it was an excuse or the truth, Nanlu only admitted that he was a clerk for normal business - that is, purchasing large quantities of expensive maintenance herbs such as Cordyceps and Ganoderma lucidum in Western Province and surrounding provinces, and did not admit that he had an evil history like Qianniu Adan.
"You can check the system data. Ticket records, accommodation records, and the old people from the Cordyceps base back then." Nanlu said calmly, "My position in Tianguo Group is not high. I'm a low-level manager. My only responsibility is to help them make money. Killing and robbing are the business of another group of people."
Mu Xiaozhen actually asked someone to investigate, but the results were exactly the same as what Nanlu said. His timeline did not involve any major local cases or unsolved cases.
"But why have you become an accomplice of the Heavenly Kingdom Group now - that is, after your death?" Mu Xiaozhen asked.
Nanlu shook his head: "I don't know. I'm missing some of my memory."
He pointed to the blinking light in the corner of the interrogation room and said, "I guess that's a shielding device. If you turn it off, I might be strangled instantly by a signal from somewhere."
Tu Lanxun was very familiar with the word "strangulation" and immediately thought of Suonya and Xianyu Qingyun.
"I believe this for now." Mu Zhenzhen said, "Then, what part of your memory do you think you are missing?"
Nanlu thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know. My past seems to be well preserved in my mind, but some fragments that I can't put my finger on are very vague."
"For example?"
"I don't know, they are all blank." Nanlu insisted.
Mu Xiaozhen personally conducted an on-site test on Nanlu, and found that the other party's soul did show signs of being partially extracted, and this was not a lie.
"There are also functions related to willpower and execution." Mu Xiaozhen paused the interrogation and walked into the observation room to speak to Wen Chong. "You could say he applied for the Tianguo Group himself and abandoned the child himself, but the fact that he aided Qianniu in his evil deeds was most likely due to Tianguo Group's remote control."
Nanlu's resume was also retrieved. He and his ex-wife both graduated from very good universities. His ex-wife's family was even more affluent, and her parents were senior intellectuals. It can be said that if she had not fallen in love with Nanlu and married him, her family would have planned to send her abroad for further studies.
As for why Nan Xishan was thrown into an orphanage instead of his grandparents' home, it was because his biological mother and her entire family immigrated in the fourth year after he was sent to the orphanage.
I had no intention of staying in China, so I naturally wouldn't start a new life with a furry little creature I had no feelings for.
"It will take some time to find the location where Nanlu was controlled and the mechanism of the strangulation." Wen Chong said to Mu Xiaozhen, "But we have solved a similar case before with Xiao Tu's help. The murderer was also the Tianguo Group. Maybe we can solve this problem faster than expected."
Mu Xiaozhen looked at Tu Lanxun with appreciation, then turned and entered the interrogation room.
The interrogation at Nanlu is still going on.
Mu Xiaozhen said, "Tell me how you died."
Nanlu gave a surprising but predictable answer: "The Kingdom of Heaven Group killed me."
Mu Xiaozhen nodded: "Why?"
"I forgot."
"What was the exact time? What month and day six or seven years ago?"
Nanlu's eyes suddenly grew deep. He raised his weathered but still handsome face and said, "I don't remember the date. But I remember the last scene."
"What picture?"
"I was tied to a chair," Nanlu said dryly, "and then a man claiming to be my son called me..."
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