Luo Jun sat there for a long time before he realized that the only sound on the phone was the busy tone.
This is not surprising.
After all, everything that needed to be said has been said.
The other party's attitude was gentle, most likely treating him as a relative of the victim, and naturally there would be no polite greetings like in the business world.
That Ming family...there was no need to exchange pleasantries with him.
The Ming family's business is at sea, and they not only do cruise and maritime trade business. Few people know the depth of the foundation of this family that occupies the sea, but anyone who has a ship in the business knows the rules.
If conflicts and disputes arise on the most popular shipping routes on the high seas, the Ming family must be consulted for arbitration; if any trouble is encountered during sea transportation, as long as the Ming family is sought for protection in time, the danger will most likely be resolved.
The accident occurred on a rather inconspicuous medium-tonnage cruise ship owned by the Ming family. The rescue was quite professional and timely. Most people were just frightened, and even injuries were a minority. The compensation amount given to each passenger was still staggeringly high.
Luo Jun was thinking aimlessly, and suddenly he realized that he was stung sharply by a word in his original thought.
The thought became sharper and sharper until it pierced his flesh and strangled him so hard that he could not move.
...the victims.
The rescue was obviously professional and timely, and there were only a few injuries, so why did people die?
Why was Luo Zhi the one who died?
As he thought this, he knew better than anyone how ridiculous these thoughts were. He seemed to be giving a clumsy testimony in court, denying every word and confessing everything.
Because he didn't remember Luo Zhi until the very last moment, so even with the most professional rescue, it would not be enough to save a motionless empty shell.
Because he watched his brother become a shell of himself.
He finally could not deny his crime, which was not limited to the shipwreck of the cruise ship, but extended back thirteen years to the afternoon when the lost child was brought home.
He had never had any qualifications to teach Luo Zhi a lesson. He was cowardly and self-righteous, and watched from the sidelines with ridiculous cold eyes. Now, he can only rely on doing something more cowardly and ridiculous to offset the thorns that grow in his memories and tear at his flesh.
Luo Jun raised his eyes and saw the car waiting outside the door.
That car was the one often used by the head of the Luo family, and it would take him home. Luo Jun didn't know what he would face after returning home, so he thought of Luo Zhi again.
Is this the experience every time Luo Zhi returns to the Luo family?
It’s not accurate. It should be more difficult for me than for him.
He had no idea what was waiting for him at home, and had no idea how everyone would treat him.
It feels like floating on a dark sea of ice, and one might be dragged into an endless abyss of coldness by any wave.
…
Look, he is not much better than Jian Huaiyi, and he is shamelessly comparing himself with Luo Zhi.
How to compare with Luo Zhi?
He deserves it.
Luo Jun stood up, but instead of going out to the car immediately, he picked up his cell phone and made another call.
This time, the other party picked up the phone not long after: "What do you want to talk to me about?"
"Ren Chenbai." Luo Jun said, "You should have a lot of evidence against Jian Huaiyi. Give it to me."
There was no immediate answer from the other end of the phone. There was silence for a few seconds, followed by a soft laugh.
The laughter was as gentle as the person he usually was, but its meaning was not clear. Luo Jun didn't have the patience to play witty jokes with him, so he continued, "I know you are working with him, and you have been helping him recently."
He already knew that Ren Chenbai was secretly collaborating with Jian Huaiyi. In fact, Jian Huaiyi's methods in the business world are not as sophisticated and ruthless as his methods in studying people's hearts. There are many places where he is not careful and thorough due to lack of experience, and those little tricks can almost be regarded as being clever.
Luo Jun didn't know what kind of deal Jian Huaiyi and Ren Chenbai had made, and he didn't even know why these two people got together.
He didn't investigate it in detail because in his opinion, it was not a big deal.
There was no conflict between the businesses of the Ren family and the Luo family. Mrs. Luo and the deceased Ren's mother were old friends, and the children of the two families had often interacted with each other since they were young. Ren Chenbai had always been nice to Luo Zhi.
If he wanted to get some business secrets of the Luo family, he might as well go directly to Luo Cheng instead of going through all the trouble to start from Jian Huaiyi, the adopted son...
Luo Jun's thoughts were working, but suddenly he was tripped by a thought that popped up, and he paused for a moment without warning.
…
It seems that after removing the leaf that deceives oneself, many insignificant details that originally seemed unnecessary to think about carefully and pay no attention to suddenly become noticeable.
Ren Chenbai has always been nice to Luo Zhi, so why would he go to Jian Huaiyi for cooperation?
Why does Ren Chenbai want to cooperate with Jian Huaiyi?
What did they do?
Before he could sort out his thoughts, the person on the other end of the phone had already smiled again and said half-jokingly, "What's going on? Did your brother steal your seal?"
Luo Jun fell silent and did not answer immediately.
He knew very well who the "your brother" the other person was talking about.
It was he who personally gave Jian Huaiyi this identity, so even if people in the circle secretly despised this adopted son who had usurped the magpie's nest, they had to be more respectful and polite to Jian Huaiyi on the surface.
——Of course, this identity brought Jian Huaiyi a lot of respect and courtesy, and the original "magpie" whose nest was occupied naturally received a lot of cold treatment and disdain in return.
When they are sent out to work as adults and gain more experience, they naturally know how to advance and retreat, but it is difficult for teenagers to fully grasp this.
Luo Zhi had many fights because of these things.
Because of what happened in those three years, Luo Zhi suffered from severe nutritional deficiencies when she should have been replenishing nutrition. Her health has actually never been very good, and she has been sick many times since she was a child.
But when it comes to fighting, Luo Zhi has never suffered a loss.
The pampered young masters had never fought like that - they were certainly no match for Luo Zhi if they fought alone, but even if they gathered a group of people to surround Luo Zhi, they wouldn't be able to gain any advantage.
They were almost being played around by Luo Zhi. They were furious and covered in dust. They turned around and couldn't find anyone. When they looked up, they saw Luo Zhi sitting on a tree basking in the sun.
Luo Zhi has never suffered a loss even once. He knows how to use the opponent's force to his advantage and how to set traps. No one can beat him.
…
So Luo Jun could never figure out what Luo Zhi was afraid of.
What is Luo Zhi afraid of? Why is it that every time he wakes up in a strange place, he will reflexively roll under the bed and use whatever he finds as a weapon? Like a young animal that was forced into a desperate situation, its eyes were so dark that no light could enter, and only desperate growls and whimpers came out of its throat.
He didn't say anything. Ren Chen, who was sitting opposite him, didn't understand what was going on. He just thought he agreed with the joke and said to comfort him casually, "Check it out. Maybe it's just a misunderstanding."
"I know you have something on Jian Huaiyi." Luo Jun repeated in a deep voice, "Give it to me, or I'll deal with you too."
Ren Chenbai seemed to finally notice that something was wrong with him.
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and there was a faint sound of fingers tapping on the table.
"Luo Zhi."
Ren Chenbai finally asked: "What happened to Luo Zhi?"
Luo Jun's breath was blocked in his chest.
He thought that this question would first be asked by the head of the Luo family or Luo Cheng after he returned home, and he would probably be prepared by then, but the first person to ask this question was Ren Chenbai.
He couldn't give an answer, and was silent for a long time before he slowly opened his mouth: "What?"
"It can only be this way." The voice on the other end of the phone was still calm, as if stating an obvious fact, "He is only targeting Luo Zhi. Unless he is crazy, he would not have planned to take your things so early."
Ren Chenbai said: "As for you, even if Jian Huaiyi dismembered Luo Zhi alive and sold her pieces on the street, you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it with your own eyes."
"So Luo Jun." Ren Chenbai said, "Why don't you just tell me what you saw Jian Huaiyi do to Luo Zhi?"
Ren Chenbai rarely speaks like this. Most of the time, he wears his gentle mask in front of others. At this moment, for some unknown reason, he spoke without leaving any room for doubt, and between each word there seeped out a kind of coldness and sharpness that he himself was not even aware of.
Luo Jun's throat felt like freshly poured red-hot molten iron was flowing through it.
He still couldn't answer the question.
The shell that he had barely built up with his hypocritical self-blame, reflection and confession lasted less than ten minutes before it was melted by the molten iron poured down by Ren Chenbai's words, exposing the unbearableness and ugliness inside to the dazzling light.
Of course he wouldn't believe it.
Not only would he not believe it, but when he saw Luo Zhi's wounds, he would feel disgusted and think that Luo Zhi was lying.
Luo Zhi was wearing that windbreaker. At that time, Luo Zhi was not yet so thin and pale that she looked like she could melt into the waves. Luo Zhi was holding her mobile phone and playing the game he played, and she walked to his side casually.
Luo Zhi only knows this one trick. Luo Zhi did the same when he was a child. He pretended to read while walking. After half a day, he hadn't turned a page, but he came to his desk unnoticed.
How much did Luo Zhi expect of him at that time? Perhaps not often. Luo Zhi no longer insisted on explaining what happened even if no one was listening, as she did every time. Such actions seemed to be just a residual habit of the body.
Luo Zhi just jokingly told Luo Jun to give his share of the family property to Jian Huaiyi and kick Jian Huaiyi out.
At that time, why didn’t I think of asking Luo Zhi why she suddenly said such a thing?
"Aren't you working with Jian Huaiyi?" Luo Jun couldn't think of anything else and could only ask weakly, "How come you don't know?"
He thought that this statement would be denied by Ren Chenbai with a sneer in the next moment - perhaps Ren Chenbai cooperated with Jian Huaiyi just for this reason. He thought, maybe Ren Chenbai was protecting Luo Zhi secretly, just to help Luo Zhi collect the evidence against Jian Huaiyi and show it to them.
Thinking of this, Luo Jun even unconsciously developed some ridiculous expectations.
He actually expected the denial and ridicule to be even harsher.
Ren Chenbai could scold him for three hours, or even three days.
You can take him to Ren's house, throw him a box of information, let him see carefully how Jian Huaiyi framed and made things difficult for Luo Zhi, and let him see clearly what he had condoned like a blind man.
The longer Ren Chenbai scolded him, the more it proved that Luo Zhi was at least protected during that period of time.
Even if this protection does not come from blood-related family members, or from those who are supposed to protect Luo Zhi, it is still a rare comfort.
He would repay Ren Chenbai, and he would give him a reward far exceeding the price Ren Chenbai paid...
Luo Jun stopped thinking.
He heard nothing on the phone.
He thought that something was wrong with the phone, so he looked at the page showing the call in progress and checked his earphones: "Ren Chenbai?"
There was no answer from the other side, but there was the sound of breathing.
For some reason, that breathing frequency made him feel familiar and uneasy. Luo Jun suddenly remembered that he seemed to have breathed like this on that lifeboat.
It's not stuffy or tense, neither fast nor hurried, it just has to be deep and slow enough because every breath seems unable to fill the lungs.
Because it felt like a hand was grabbing his chest.
Luo Jun's voice was a little hoarse: "Ren Chenbai."
"I'll tell you in detail later." Ren Chenbai finally spoke, "Which hospital is Luo Zhi in?"
Luo Jun stood still, the molten iron solidified in his throat and chest, slowly becoming heavy and hard.
"He doesn't want to see me? Then don't let him see me. Don't force him."
Ren Chenbai said: "When he was hospitalized in the hospital near my home, the doctor said that he seemed to have other problems with his body. Remember to check him out."
Ren Chenbai thought for a moment and said, "Oh, he seems to be deaf."
Perhaps it was because the tone on the phone was too bland and indifferent, Luo Jun even spent several times longer than usual before he finally understood the meaning of these words.
His chest heaved, and the thorns he had avoided by his own punishment quietly extended along his blood flow, the cold and poisonous thorns piercing his blood vessels and strangling his heart, lungs and internal organs.
Luo Jun thought of the family dinner that night.
Luo Cheng once asked her father the question, and Luo Cheng said that it was Brother Chen Bai who said that Luo Zhi killed Aunt Ren.
The astonishment, shock and surprise he felt when he heard this secret suddenly flowed out along the cracks created by the thorns, turning into a thick, cold and ominous premonition.
How did the father answer?
My father said that it was probably the Ren family who told Ren Chenbai this.
My father said, let’s just leave it at that.
His father said that Ren Chenbai might not be able to bear the truth.
"Ren Chenbai." Luo Jun heard himself ask, "Do you really think that Luo Zhi was the cause of Aunt Ren's death?"
The silence on the other end of the phone lasted too long, so long that his heart sank inch by inch into an unfathomable abyss.
"Let's not talk about this, shall we? I just decided last night to stop thinking about it and be nice to him."
Ren Chenbai smiled helplessly: "Now that I think about it, it was a bit too much to trick him into going to Ren's house when your family was having a party."
Luo Jun repeated in a low voice: "Just decided last night?"
He wasted too much time trying to understand this sentence, and it took him even more time than before to realize that Ren Chenbai had tricked Luo Zhi into going there during their family gathering.
Is this the reason why Luo Zhi appeared in Wanghai Villa?
What did Luo Zhi do that night in the villa?
On the cruise ship, Luo Zhi became the person that Jian Huaiyi described. Does it have anything to do with this incident?
"Why last night?" Luo Jun said, "What happened last night?"
"I heard that Jian Huaiyi invited your family to go on a cruise, so I went to Huaisheng Entertainment and got some things."
Ren Chenbai said: "By the way, you want evidence against Jian Huaiyi, right? I'll send it to you later."
Luo Jun is not thinking about any handle at all now.
He slowly clenched his fists. The coldness in his palms was spreading and his fingers were beginning to become stiff.
Because Ren Chenbai on the other end of the phone didn't know that Luo Zhi was also on the cruise ship, he was still chatting casually along the same topic and saying more to him.
Ren Chenbai probably didn't even know that the cruise ship had sunk. The Ren family's business did not involve sailing, and Ren Chenbai had no habit of watching the news.
If it is not personally related, not everyone can know all the major events happening in the world at any time and anywhere.
...Even if it is closely related, we may not be able to understand it clearly.
Luo Jun listened to the voice on the phone and he was not even sure whether he was dreaming or not.
Because he was so mean to Luo Zhi, he was scolded by Aunt Ren, who was the most protective of Luo Zhi, and had an absurd and outrageous dream.
"You are no longer annoyed with Luo Zhi? Then let me teach you more things and be nicer to the brother you disown."
Ren Chenbai teased him half-jokingly, and continued, "Actually, Luo Zhi found a way to get your tie clip. My mother helped him to get it. It took a lot of effort. Luo Zhi gave you this as a birthday present..."
Luo Jun asked: "Why didn't you tell me earlier?"
Perhaps his voice was too cold and rude, Ren Chenbai paused for a moment before replying, "Master Luo, I told you long ago that you would not take off this tie clip and throw it into the sea and never see it again in your life, right?"
Ren Chenbai just retorted casually without mentioning anything in particular. They often joked like this, but Luo Jun seemed to be skinned alive by this remark.
Luo Jun suddenly began to breathe heavily.
His eyes went a little white, his body bent and leaned forward, one hand tightly grasping the microphone on the headphone wire.
When Jian Huaiyi was determined to break off all ties with Luo Jun, he once told him that one day he might go crazy and hire someone to fish in that sea for a month.
Luo Jun was indeed being punished for his own sins.
He thought this was the limit, and he didn't think there would be any punishment more severe than admitting his guilt. Then he realized that everything had not even started, and only now was the first cut of the torture begun.
How many more are waiting for him?
He suddenly no longer dared to search his memory.
He finally realized that this was the real punishment. All his past events turned into bloody black thorns. He didn't even have enough courage to look for traces of Luo Zhi in there.
Can he throw? Of course he would throw it.
He has always been like this.
The gifts that Luo Zhi gave him were all thrown away by him with disdain, and he could no longer find where they were thrown.
Even though that tie clip meant a lot to him, even though it helped him win his first eight-figure order...if he thought that it was Luo Zhi who helped him, it would probably only make him feel ashamed and annoyed at that time.
He would probably never wear that tie clip again, and would probably be annoyed that Luo Zhi had done such a thing, but he would not think about how much anger and shame there was in it.
He thought of the wet, cold tie.
He didn't even know when the tie clip fell off.
The tie clip was so inconspicuous that he didn't notice it.
Where is Luo Zhi?
Is Luo Zhi eye-catching?
Where did Luo Zhi fall? Did Luo Zhi call for help? Did Luo Zhi see him?
Luo Jun was trapped in every possibility, and he found that none of these possibilities was not cruel, and none of them did not make him feel as if the sea water was rushing up and drowning all the air in his lungs just by standing there. He heard Ren Chenbai still talking in the headphones.
"I can't contact him again. Did he change his phone number again?"
"I didn't find him... I didn't know why I softened my heart and wanted him to run away and relax for a few days, but I didn't expect that he would really run away."
Ren Chenbai seemed to be flipping through some documents, his voice still a little casual: "Is he in good health? Is he still feeling uncomfortable now?"
"...Okay." Luo Jun slowly loosened his stiff fingers, "It shouldn't be painful anymore."
Ren Chenbai should have nodded, as he had a meeting to attend and it was almost time.
Ren Chenbai confirmed with his assistant again, promised to send all the evidence on Jian Huaiyi to Luo Jun later, and was about to hang up the phone.
Luo Jun called him: "Ren Chenbai."
Ren Chenbai walked towards the meeting room. He reached out to adjust his Bluetooth headset, and the background sound became empty: "Anything else?"
"You... go find him."
Luo Jun said: "Please find Luo Zhi and help me. I lost my brother."
Luo Jun whispered, "I can't find him anywhere."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
