Chapter 39
"Do you think he might be involved in that fraud case from back then?"
Even after hanging up the phone, Josh and Chen Zhiyu didn't stop being all lovey-dovey.
It was still early, so Chen Zhiyu took his review materials to the study room, occasionally chatting with Qiao Xi on WeChat.
At first, Josh was worried that it would affect his review, but Chen Zhiyu didn't care at all and assured her that there would be no problem with tomorrow's exam.
Seeing his certainty, Josh felt relieved. After washing up, she turned the air conditioner to a comfortable temperature, crawled into bed, and chatted casually with Chen Zhiyu on her phone.
The testing work at the factory was no easier than at the company; she was running around every day and was exhausted. With only one day off for New Year's Day, she couldn't get any rest. Clutching her phone, she drifted off to sleep again without realizing it.
She slept straight through until the next morning.
The short holiday flew by.
When she woke up, her phone showed the last message Chen Zhiyu had sent her the night before. Qiao Xi ate breakfast, replied to his message, and then started her busy work with Feng Zhao again.
The relentless, relentless work schedule made life both exhausting and rushed.
The work is proceeding in an orderly manner.
These past few days, Feng Zhao and Qiao Xi have been working together. After so long, they have become familiar with the work process. They can not only skillfully and nimbly bypass Director Zhou's attempts to gather information, but also take advantage of their free time to catch their breath.
However, most of the time when they get together, they still discuss the factory work.
After New Year's Day, the next major festival is the Lunar New Year.
There's only a month or so left, it'll go by quickly. As the days go by, the festive atmosphere grows stronger.
With the twelfth lunar month approaching, Josh and his friends, who were away on a business trip, were starting to feel restless and homesick.
They got tired of the local hole-in-the-wall restaurants and would occasionally venture a little further out to find something different. Josh and Feng Zhao were able to work together smoothly with very few conflicts, and most importantly, they were very compatible when it came to food.
That noon, their group finished their work relatively early, and the two of them found the most famous hot pot restaurant in the city.
Festive decorations were hanging everywhere along the streets.
They found a seat by the window, where the frost on the glass slowly melted under the warmth of the room, forming meandering watermarks.
While waiting for their food, Feng Zhao glanced at Qiao Xi, who was sitting across from her playing on her phone, and casually asked, "Did your younger brother come to see you on New Year's Day?"
Josh glanced up at Feng Zhao.
The reason he asked that question must be based on what Josh said to Xiao Yao on the phone that day.
Josh didn't want to hide her relationship with Chen Zhiyu, so she just hummed in agreement.
With a snap.
Josh looked up in response.
Feng Zhao twirled the silver lighter between his fingers twice, then a fierce flame shot out.
"Public places," Josh reminded him again.
"Really." Feng Zhao obediently stuffed the lighter into his pocket. After a while, he switched back to their usual work topic, "It's almost Chinese New Year, when will this collaboration ever end?"
Just as Josh was about to agree, the staff brought over the fragrant, spicy broth. Once everything was ready, she slowly said, "Let it simmer slowly. We'll be able to go back before the New Year."
Feng Zhao chuckled, "You're quite open-minded."
"What else can we do? Go on strike?" Josh countered.
Before her business trip, Josh promised Chen Zhiyu that she would definitely be able to return before the new year, but now, she felt uncertain.
But there was nothing they could do; they had to accept reality. They were just low-level thugs; the final decision-making power wasn't in their hands.
"But it'll be soon. Now we're just waiting for headquarters to send over the results of the final round of testing." If they're lucky and the test goes smoothly, they can go home on time. If not, they'll have to go through another round.
Josh nodded. Based on past experience, the results should be available in the next few days.
Everyone who came here initially thought this business trip would end quickly, but unexpectedly, it has dragged on for so long. Although Director Zhou's character is questionable, the quality of the factory's products has certainly impressed them.
The on-site audit is about to be completed. Once the final testing is successful, a quality agreement can be drafted.
Since the initial progress was going smoothly, she only hoped to get a good result soon and end it as soon as possible, otherwise the months she had spent here would have been wasted.
Mentioning Factory Director Zhou reminded Josh of another person, Gu Lian. From the moment she met him, she had a very strange feeling.
Josh vividly remembers his first meeting with him.
Feng Zhao suddenly stirred the red soup with a long ladle, and peppercorns floated to the surface, filling his nostrils with a numbing aroma. "Eat up, the meat is almost overcooked. What are you thinking about?"
"Oh." Josh snapped out of his reverie, picked up his chopsticks, put a few pieces of greens in his bowl, and ate them thoughtfully.
Because of her childhood experiences, Josh is always very cautious when facing strangers. Perhaps it's a lingering effect, but whenever it's not someone she knows well, Josh is always extremely wary.
Whether it was paranoia or not, her intuition told her that Gu Lian was no ordinary person.
At first, this idea that suddenly popped up seemed absurd to her, let alone something she would share with others. Such a viewpoint, based solely on intuition and without any evidence, was hard to believe.
Furthermore, he always worked quietly behind the scenes, unable to find any flaws to support her point of view. If anyone really wanted to find a loophole, it would be much more obvious than Director Zhou, who was out in the open.
But that chance encounter that day, when Josh heard him say those words in person, that inexplicable feeling intensified again.
Gu Lian didn't notice her that day and hurried past them. Josh could clearly sense that he wasn't in a good state that day; his face was somber and his brows were furrowed.
Most importantly, she clearly recognized his accent.
A terrifying possibility suddenly popped into her mind.
She was just struggling to find evidence. Josh wanted to find someone to analyze it with her, and she raised her eyelids slightly.
Steam built a hazy wall between her and Feng Zhao, and silence fermented in the rising heat of the hot pot. Emotions spread, and Josh lowered her head, silently scooped a piece of mutton from the pot, glanced at Feng Zhao across from her as he ate heartily, paused, and still said nothing.
As luck would have it, when Josh returned to the factory after lunch, she saw the two people she had just mentioned at the table. Factory Director Zhou was as enthusiastic as ever, greeting her and Feng Zhao very warmly upon seeing them.
Seeing Gu Lian, who remained silent as always, behind Director Zhou, Qiao Xi had a change of heart and walked over to the two of them.
It wasn't time for work yet, and the four people who had already eaten were chatting in the office.
Factory Director Zhou took out his treasured Maojian tea.
Everyone held a cup of warm tea and sipped it slowly.
Having just eaten a greasy hot pot, a cup of tea to cleanse the palate is especially comforting on such a cold winter day.
With the Lunar New Year approaching, the conversation among the group inevitably revolved around the festive occasion.
"If all else fails, you can spend the New Year at my house," Director Zhou said with great enthusiasm. "We have room at my house, you can all come and spend the New Year there."
"Our New Year celebrations are so lively!"
Josh's gaze swept over Gu Lian, who had been silent and absent-minded since sitting down. "How many days of annual leave do we get here?"
Gu Lian was probably taken aback by Josh's question, and after a moment of hesitation, he replied briefly, "Follow the policy."
“That’s right,” Factory Director Zhou quickly agreed, “We don’t exploit our employees.”
Feng Zhao smiled and said, "Director Zhou, we only need to test the products."
Factory Director Zhou looked embarrassed.
“Yes, we’re just chatting,” Josh laughed. “Speaking of the New Year, it’s very lively where we are.” She turned to Director Zhou and asked, “Have you ever been to our place?” Then she asked Gu Lian, staring into his silent eyes, “And you?”
Factory Director Zhou had naturally visited the factory; he was the one who initiated this collaboration.
When asked, Gu Lian stroked the side of the teacup in his hand and said, "People like us who travel all over the country have inevitably been to many places, but there are too many places to remember them all."
Hearing this ambiguous answer, Josh didn't press the matter further, changed the subject, and started talking about work. They continued working once everyone else in the department had arrived.
Fortunately, near the end of the workday, they received confirmation from headquarters that the test results were excellent. Their business trip was finally coming to a close.
If all goes well, they are expected to be able to return home in three days.
That day after work, Josh and Chen Zhiyu video chatted as usual. This time, she brought up the strange feeling that she couldn't suppress, "We came here mainly to evaluate this factory. But I noticed one of the drivers inside, and he always gives me a very strange feeling."
Chen Zhiyu's heart tightened upon hearing this. "What did you feel?"
"I can't really explain it, it's just my gut feeling."
Chen Zhiyu skipped over Josh's self-doubt and focused on the key point: "Are you safe right now? Is it related to work?"
“I’m fine,” Josh said casually. “If something were wrong, I wouldn’t be telling you now.”
Josh still remembers the impression Gu Lian left on her first day here. "That day I noticed that he kept staring at me." Josh said with a lingering fear, "It was eerie and terrifying."
She pondered for a moment and voiced the suspicion that had been weighing on her mind for days, "Do you think he might be involved in that fraud case from back then?"
Chen Zhiyu's mind went blank for a moment, a pain forever etched into their bones. It took him a long time to find his voice, "Why, why would you say that?"
Seeing that Chen Zhiyu didn't immediately deny her, Qiao Xi regained the courage to continue her guess, "Because besides that, I really can't think of anything else about myself that would attract attention." Then, she suddenly realized, "Or perhaps, he knows Qiao Dacheng?"
That's not impossible.
Qiao Dacheng left home to do business in the south, and there has been no news of him since. Perhaps he has made some enemies. Anyone who wants to investigate can easily find out the relationship between Qiao Xi and Qiao Dacheng.
Then there was the fraud case from back then, which involved a wide range of issues. However, Josh and Chen Zhiyu were young at the time and had experienced immense trauma. They were struggling with their own lives, let alone learning more about the details of the case.
They later asked Officer Zhang, who was handling the case, and the answer they received was always the same.
It's being investigated, please wait patiently.
However, even if we find out any important information, we cannot tell them.
In fact, Chen Zhibin was not the only victim in this case. According to publicly available information, the same person connected the victim with the scammer.
Almost all of the actions were carried out by intermediaries.
After the incident, the contact person committed suicide, making it difficult for the entire case to make any progress.
After saying that, Josh chuckled self-deprecatingly, "How could that be?"
What a coincidence! I was on a business trip and I ran into her.
And how did the person who absconded with all the funds end up here, working as a driver?
That swindler from back then is long gone, living a carefree life somewhere.
"It might really be trouble caused by Qiao Dacheng." This Qiao Dacheng, they've already cut off contact with him, yet he still manages to cause her trouble.
Regardless of the speculation, Gu Lian's strange behavior indicates that there is something wrong with him, and Chen Zhiyu is worried about Qiao Xi.
His tone suddenly turned serious. "No matter what, I'll hurry up and find Officer Zhang, who investigated this case back then, and ask him about the situation." Finally, still worried, he added, "Be careful and stay away from him."
Before hanging up, Josh said, "Oh right, I forgot to mention, we're almost done with our work, and we should be able to go back in two or three days."
"So sudden?"
"Yes, the headquarters only released the message this afternoon."
"I'll come pick you up." Chen Zhiyu was still worried. Now that it was winter break, as long as he found Liu Weifeng and explained the situation, asking for a day off wouldn't be a problem.
“Okay,” Josh replied.
[Author's Note]
Update! A few chapters will be released, showing the two of them being affectionate again. A few chapters in the earlier ones had some bug fixes, but they don't significantly affect the plot, so no need to reread them.
Thank you for reading (Hug Version)
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