Chapter 106
We are truly in love.
"Speak, tell me everything you've been hiding from me."
Ji Nanxing opened the office door and got straight to the point the moment he saw Cheng Sangluo, skipping all the small talk.
She had deliberately handed over her case to someone in the team today and waited alone in the office all day, finally seeing the person in front of her.
Cheng Sangluo, clutching her backpack with one hand, scratched the back of her head somewhat embarrassedly and chuckled, "I didn't hide anything from you, don't be so serious."
Ji Nanxing, with her usual stern face, turned and walked to the water dispenser. While preparing tea for the guests, she asked in an annoyed tone, "Then what happened with stabbing Xu Songheng?"
Cheng Sangluo sat down in the guest chair as if they were old friends, without answering the question immediately. While waiting, she pondered for a while, wondering where Ji Nanxing knew these trivial details.
Ji Nanxing handed the cup to her and leaned against the table.
"Stop thinking about it." She saw through Cheng Sangluo's thoughts at a glance and explained, "I got the information from Lin Sheng. Xu Songheng went to see him that night, and Lin Sheng was very cooperative. He even provided me with his home's surveillance video. Xu Songheng left his home in the middle of the night, so it's difficult to trace him. I couldn't find any trace of his movements afterward. By the way, you'd better explain what happened in the bar's parking garage before."
Seeing that she could no longer hide it, Cheng Sangluo had no choice but to recount the two events in detail.
This time she was honest, and even offered a buy-two-get-one-free deal, revealing that she had secretly sneaked into Xu Songheng's house.
Ji Nanxing looked unwell, his arms crossed in front of him, unsure how to criticize the person beside him.
After a moment of silence, she reprimanded in a stern voice: "Do you know what you're doing? You've acted on your own time and time again. Even if Xu Songheng has disappeared, you have no right to go to his house. You're breaking the law!"
"I..." Cheng Sangluo knew she was in the wrong, so she hung her head and stammered. Finally, she confessed, "You also said that to overturn the case, we need to find a new chain of evidence. I will use some unconventional methods, and besides, it's not like I won't get anything out of it."
Ji Nanxing stared at her suspiciously. Hearing that she had made some progress, he pressed her for details: "What did you investigate? You're tired of hearing the 'confess and be lenient, resist and be severely punished' advice. I can consider you an informant who is helping to solve the case, but you can't keep acting recklessly like this."
“I found a notebook hidden very well in Xu Songheng’s study. There was nothing in the notebook, but there was a USB drive inside, but there was nothing on the USB drive either,” Cheng Sangluo answered truthfully, then hissed in confusion, “That’s very strange. Why would you go to such lengths to hide something if there’s nothing in it?”
Ji Nanxing was very interested in the notebook, so he continued to ask, "Where did you find it at his house?"
"I found a hidden compartment under his desk in his study, with a small key inside. I figured it wasn't the kind of key that locks a combination lock or a cabinet, so I fumbled around until I found the bookshelf and then a notebook. There was a small padlock on the notebook, and after trying it, I opened it."
"Bring the documents over when you're free tomorrow. I'll take them to the forensic department to crack them and see if there's anything on the USB drive." Ji Nanxing breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that today's meeting was quite meaningful.
After finishing that conversation, she began her criticism: "Look at you, why didn't you hand over something so important to the police immediately? What's the point of hiding it? What if it contains information that could help solve the case? Aren't you just delaying the investigation?"
"Um...you're not going to put me in solitary confinement or something, are you..." Cheng Sangluo whispered, terrified of being arrested.
"Aren't you supposed to be fearless? Now you're worried about being detained?" Ji Nanxing certainly wouldn't do anything to her, but it was still necessary to scare her a little. "Given that you provided important clues and cooperated with my work, I won't hold you responsible this time, but there will absolutely be no next time."
"Okay! I'll be more careful in the future!" Cheng Sangluo's attitude was very proper, and then she asked, "Now that I'm assisting you in solving the case, is it convenient to disclose the details of the case?"
"It was originally inconvenient, but I've made an exception and revealed it, so it won't hurt you to know more." Ji Nanxing was a law-abiding person, and it was rare for him to make an exception.
She sat back in her office chair and began to discuss the case: "Lin Sheng is definitely suspicious. Although he seemed to be cooperating with my work, his reaction suggested that he had anticipated my arrival."
He said he had known Xu Songheng for many years and that Xu Songheng had made a lot of money for him. Given their friendship, such an important business partner should have made a strong reaction to his sudden disappearance, but he was too calm. His indifferent attitude was not right.
Another highly suspicious point is that you stabbed Xu Songheng that night in such a difficult spot. Even if you had something important to discuss, you wouldn't have met him injured in the middle of the night.
However, the surveillance video provided by Lin Sheng was genuine, and Xu Songheng's arrival and departure times couldn't have been manipulated. But there were no road surveillance cameras on the mountain road after leaving the Lin residence, making it impossible to verify his subsequent movements.
After listening to Ji Nanxing's words, Cheng Sangluo rested her chin on her hand and fell into deep thought.
Having served as a reconnaissance soldier for so many years, she had extensive experience in searching and eliminating suspicious cases. Even without being on the scene herself, she could reconstruct the events of that night through Ji Nanxing's conversations.
She replayed Lin Sheng and Xu Songheng's conversation in her mind, and the office fell silent until she snapped her fingers, "Hey... do you think there's a possibility..."
Ji Nanxing could tell she was reviewing her thoughts, so she didn't interrupt, but she was annoyed: "Don't be so dramatic, can't you just finish what you have to say at once?"
“Is it possible that the person who left that night wasn’t Xu Songheng himself?” Cheng Sangluo proposed a new line of thought, even with reason and evidence: “It was raining heavily that night, visibility was very low, and it was pitch black in the middle of the night. Maybe the surveillance cameras only captured his back, or just a silhouette, right?”
“Your reasoning is based on the premise that Lin Sheng is guilty, which is not objective. The surveillance footage I obtained clearly shows how he left.” Ji Nanxing easily refuted Cheng Sangluo’s suspicions, but she did not completely reject this line of thought. “But it’s not impossible. There are no surveillance cameras on the mountain road leading to the Lin family’s ancestral home. We have no way of knowing whether anything happened on that road. If this argument holds true, then we need to start by investigating Lin Sheng’s motives.”
Cheng Sangluo was slurping her water when she heard the word "motive." Her eyes blinked rapidly, and she exclaimed, "Heavens! His motive is written all over his face, can't you see it?"
"Where is the solid evidence?" Ji Nanxing shut her up with just one sentence. "Even if he did something wrong, he still needs to provide evidence. Right now, there is nothing. Even searching his house won't provide any evidence."
"Let me put it this way: I need to see him alive or dead. Xu Songheng is most likely dead. His disappearance will only benefit one person, and that's Lin Sheng." Cheng Sangluo raised her voice, speaking sharply, "I've already confessed everything to you. Xu Songheng is Lin Sheng's executioner, and he's only ever targeted Lin Jin. Now that Lin Sheng has successfully inherited the Lin Group, he naturally wants to whitewash all those shady dealings. Xu Songheng knows he's done so many dirty things, so silencing him is a given. Isn't that the motive?"
Ji Nanxing calmly observed Cheng Sangluo's flustered appearance, a faint smile appearing on his stern face as he teased, "Are you in a hurry to overturn the case, or are you in a hurry to stand up for Lin Jin?"
"I..." Cheng Sangluo was speechless for a moment, clutching his trouser seam helplessly. "I have everything, isn't it normal for me to stand up for my wife?"
"Didn't you hate her back then? Now you call her 'wife' so smoothly. When I hear it from your mother, I think your marriage is more of a formality than a reality." Ji Nanxing looked like she was about to kill someone, and then said seriously, "Don't let love blind you. Everyone is equal under the law. You'd better calm down."
Meanwhile, in the conference room of Zhongyao Technology.
Lin Jin and Wei Yun sat side by side in the main seats, with the project contract for their upcoming collaboration spread out in front of them.
Lin Jin signed his name on the contract, and with the help of Secretary Zhou, he received the signature and seal. When handing over the contract, he did not forget the official courtesy: "Thank you for Wei Lian's support. In the end, he still chose to cooperate with Zhongyao Technology."
Wei Yun remained expressionless, taking the signed contract and glancing at it before saying indifferently, "President Lin should thank his exceptionally capable R&D team. Without them, we wouldn't have had this second opportunity to cooperate with the military. I look forward to the results of this project and even more to the innovative designs you will bring."
After the signing ceremony, Lin Jin, as usual, invited Wei Yun, saying, "We should celebrate properly today. After all, this is a big project. We each get what we need and share the benefits. Wei Lian should at least do us the honor of joining us."
Wei Yun picked up his military cap with one hand, handed the contract, which was in the file, to the guard behind him, and declined, saying, "I'm sorry, I have other arrangements, so I won't trouble you, Mr. Lin, to entertain me."
"Would it be convenient to move to the meeting room and talk privately?" Lin Jin smiled, a hint of kindness appearing on his usually gloomy face, and whispered, "Let's talk about Sangluo."
Wei Yun felt that they had talked about this topic enough, so he wanted to refuse, but after thinking about it again, he accepted the other party's invitation: "Okay."
The two entered the reception room one after the other, and the atmosphere was more harmonious than in previous days.
Wei Yun was too lazy to sit down, so he leaned against the wall instead. "What do you want to talk about Sangluo this time?"
"We truly love each other." Lin Jin never reveals her feelings to others, because that's her weakness.
Standing atop the clouds, she is bound to make countless enemies, and revealing her weaknesses will undoubtedly bring her more trouble.
But at this moment, she needed to express herself and gain the approval of the person in front of her, because she knew that Wei Yun was a very important person to Cheng Sangluo.
"Is this all you wanted to say?" Wei Yun's brow furrowed slightly, still suspicious of this sudden love. "You're rich and powerful, enjoying the best resources and services in your class. Marrying someone of equal social standing and through family alliances is the most logical path. As far as I know, you've bullied Sang Luo quite a bit, and now you're suddenly telling me you love her. Don't you think that's a paradox?"
“I understand you’re very protective of your child, but we’re in love, that’s the fact, it has nothing to do with those so-called backgrounds and classes.” Lin Jin’s fingertips traced the pendant on her collar, and she suddenly recalled something from the past, “Wei Lian, do you remember where we first met?”
"I remember that the first collaboration in the military camp was initiated by you approaching the leaders." Wei Yun vividly recalled the scene of their first meeting.
At that time, Lin Jin still had short hair that reached her neck. She appeared in the military camp sitting in an imported Maybach.
She carried a thick stack of documents and was accompanied by few people. She walked into the leader's office and chatted and laughed.
Not long after that, the project to collect data for combat operations was completed.
"Let me tell you a story." Lin Jin stayed by Wei Yun's side. The story had been buried for a long time and had never been listened to before. This was the first time she had brought it up on her own initiative. Unexpectedly, the first listener was not Cheng Sangluo.
Her memories were so vivid, every little detail touched her heart, so much so that a deep tenderness rose on her cold and gloomy face.
[Author's Note]
1. My pre-order novel, "The Sinful Lover," is available for collection.
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