Chapter 44
Early the next morning, Qi Yan and Lu Fenghan went to ISOC. After their identities were scanned by a service robot, they took the elevator to the eleventh underground floor.
When Xia Zhiyang called, Qi Yan subconsciously checked the time—it was six thirty.
“Why are you up so early?”
“It’s not that I’m up early. I didn’t sleep at all last night!” Xia Zhiyang’s voice was hoarse and weak. “I’m doomed, I’m terrified of marriage. All I could see when I closed my eyes last night was Qi Wenshao lying in bed, and that terrifying alkali poison!”
The silver metal door opened in front of them. As Qi Yan listened to Xia Zhiyang’s ramblings, he walked towards the location of the Galaxy mainframe.
The eleventh underground floor was spacious, with all the walls decorated in seamless silver metal. Except for a glass enclosure housing hundreds of thousands of optical modulator components, the space was devoid of any partitions.
Xia Zhiyang seemed to have rolled over in bed again, his voice muffled. “And I just don’t understand why Qi Wenshao stopped us from reporting to the police? He’s been poisoned and is on the verge of death, but he doesn’t want to report it and get Jiang Yunyue arrested! I quietly told my mom about this last night, but even she didn’t think we should call the police. Is this what the adult world is like?”
Qi Yan didn’t understand either. His gaze instinctively turned to Lu Fenghan.
“Leto advocates for late marriage and late childbearing, and Qi Wenshao is nearly sixty years old? He’s been immersed in the circle of Leto’s elite for decades, and his way of doing things is deeply ingrained. They’ve never believed in legal regulations because, in their minds, all rules are flexible, and they don’t trust the police either because, as far as they’re concerned, all Alliance police officers can be bought.”
Lu Fenghan poked Qi Yan’s face. “So Qi Wenshao contacted you immediately after getting his personal terminal, instead of calling the police.”
In their conversation, Xia Zhiyang suddenly realized, “So that’s it! That’s why my mom didn’t want to call the police?”
“Perhaps,” Lu Fenghan replied. “Qi Wenshao himself mentioned that Jiang Yunyue has other backer. Qi Wenshao worried that if the police failed to apprehend her, it would only infuriate Jiang Yunyue and further shorten his already limited lifespan.”
Remembering Qi Wenshao’s defeated state when they left his house, Lu Fenghan remarked, “He’s come to terms with reality. Knowing he doesn’t have much time left, it’s quite possible he wants to lower Jiang Yunyue’s guard and take her down with him.”
Xia Zhiyang gasped for air, taking a moment before managing to utter, “People are truly terrifying.”
Lu Fenghan: “We need qualifiers. It’s those who disregard rules and morality, willing to do anything to achieve their ambitions, who are truly terrifying.”
Reflecting on this, Xia Zhiyang agreed, “So, despite your intimidating aura, you speak to Qi Yan with a gentle tone. You’re a good person!”
Lu Fenghan: “……”
Quite perceptive.
After pondering for a while, Xia Zhiyang mused, “But can Qi Wenshao succeed? Though the idea seems… far-fetched, I still hope he can get his revenge.”
Lu Fenghan: “If he hadn’t found another lover while Jiang Yunyue was in prison, she wouldn’t have felt threatened. Perhaps none of this would have happened.”
“That makes sense.” Xia Zhiyang felt as though everyone’s actions had underlying reasons, but when it came to making judgments, it was unclear who was right or wrong. “Forget it, forget it. I’m going to take a nap. I’ll stop thinking about it!”
After the communication ended, Qi Yan completed the preparations and activated the Galaxy. While transmitting data, he turned off all the lights.
The surroundings darkened.
Lu Fenghan was puzzled.
Qi Yan tugged at his sleeve and pointed in a direction. “Look.”
In the glass enclosure housing the optical modulator components, a summer forest seemed to materialize, with tiny fireflies gradually illuminating the darkness. The faint light penetrated through the glass, reflecting on the surrounding metal walls like ripples filled with starlight.
Qi Yan explained to Lu Fenghan, “This super-optical computer is named ‘Galaxy’ because when tens of thousands of light modulators are gathered together and the surrounding lights are extinguished, you can see countless flickering lights, resembling the stars in a galaxy.”
Lu Fenghan’s eyes also sparkled like stars. “It’s beautiful, and the name is beautiful too.”
“Hmm, I wanted you to see it,” Qi Yan added, “The Galaxy is the work of my grandparents, and it’s also named by them.”
“Your grandparents?” Lu Fenghan’s gaze towards Qi Yan was filled with undisguised astonishment.
“In the year 144 of the Star calendar, after losing the spatial source, the Alliance proposed the ‘Technology Renaissance Project.’ In the year 145, my grandparents joined this project together. However, twenty years later, my grandparents were assassinated by the rebels. My mother was six years old at that time. The last work they left behind was this Galaxy.”
Qi Yan’s words was tinged with envy. “They were very talented and good at naming things, but it seems like that gene didn’t get passed down to me.”
Lu Fenghan was impressed by Qi Yan’s “PVC93” and “R9-03 accelerator”. He couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Fearing that Little Delicate might get offended, he quickly said, “I’ll help you think about it in the future, so you won’t have to struggle.”
A sentence that Qi Yan had once said to the principal of Turan Academy flashed in his mind: But there are some things that we have to do, even if it means we might die at any moment.
As he recollected those words, a new wave of emotions washed over him.
Qi Yan was very familiar with the super-optical computer. Despite the intricate array of buttons and symbols on the control panel, he moved with composure and a certain rhythmic grace.
Lu Fenghan, initially deep in strategic simulations, was drawn out by the rhythmic tapping sounds. He couldn’t resist watching for a moment.
Unexpectedly, Qi Yan’s movements slowed for a few beats, then he turned his head slightly, softly objecting, “Don’t watch me.”
Lu Fenghan’s lips curved into a smile, his long legs stretching out comfortably. “Alright, alright, I won’t watch.”
As the Galaxy hummed with a low white noise, Lu Fenghan found himself becoming more focused—the ambiance evoked a sense of being in the frontline command ship, strategizing and preparing for subsequent meetings with his subordinates.
As the midday hour approached, Lu Fenghan placed the Set A meal he had brought beside Qi Yan, patiently waiting for a pause in the latter’s work before gently saying, “How about we take a break for lunch and resume our work later?”
Qi Yan: “No supplements?”
“None, intentionally left them behind,” Lu Fenghan glanced around Qi Yan’s waist, “You’re almost skin and bones. Nutritional supplements alone aren’t enough. You need to eat proper meals.”
Qi Yan reluctantly accepted the Set A meal. While eating, his eyes remained glued to the screen.
There was a prompt on his personal terminal, and Qi Yan allowed the connection. The next second, Xia Zhiyang’s voice echoed in the equipment room, “It’s bad, it’s bad. Qi Wenshao is dead!”
Qi Yan paused, spoon in hand, and asked, “And then?”
“Jiang Yunyue is giving an interview, claiming that Qi Wenshao’s death is related to to you, and that Jiang Qi driving into you was also a self-directed act on your part. She said that your ultimate goal is to send Jiang Qi to prison!”
Xia Zhiyang’s words came out in a rapid-fire, “This malicious woman, she’s shameless to the extreme. Crying and lamenting about what she’ll do without Qi Wenshao, but she must have planned it all before poisoning him. Hypocrite!”
While Xia Zhiyang was speaking, Lu Fenghan opened the Starnet.
Due to the immense flow of information and the number of people on the Starnet every second, Jiang Yunyue’s interview was already among the top three discussions of the day even though it had barely started.
In the projected image, Jiang Yunyue’s hair was slightly disheveled, her eyes swollen from crying, her face streaked with tears, completely devoid of her usual composure.
“If I had known something like this would happen, right from the beginning, I should have opposed my husband bringing Qi Yan back! It was clearly his mother who took him away from Leto when he was young, and Wenshao has always taken care of him…
“Qi Yan pretended to be indifferent on the surface, but secretly, he wanted to remove all obstacles and inherit the family fortune. I don’t know what methods he used to provoke Jiang Qi to cause this car accident. Everyone thinks Jiang Qi wanted to kill him, but in fact, he wants to use this incident to put Jiang Qi in jail, leaving him no chance to compete for the family fortune!”
The host timely inquired, “Why do you have such suspicions about the car accident?”
“After Qi Yan’s car was hit, there was only minor damage, isn’t that suspicious enough? If it wasn’t known in advance that the accident would happen, how could such thorough preparations be made?” Jiang Yunyue looked at the host with tear-filled eyes, choking back her emotions as she questioned, “Would an ordinary person drive such a car every day?”
Many people were discussing.
“—This is also my doubt in the car accident ! Everyone knows the speed on the express lane. In other car accident videos, both cars were wrecked. But this time, it’s very strange. Clearly it was a full-speed collision, but Qi Yan’s car only dented slightly. Was it equipped with external protective devices? But would an ordinary person install such a thing on their car? Unless you knew someone was going to crash into your car!”
“—So the real sequence of events is that Qi Yan first prepared in advance, then deliberately provoked Jiang Qi to hit him, went to the police station, contacted the reporters, let everyone know that Jiang Qi was intentionally attempting murder, and that he was the victim?”
“—So cunning… no wonder it took until now to be discovered…”
“It was originally just my speculation, but now I’m certain… It’s all my fault, I didn’t protect my son well, nor did I protect my husband…”
Jiang Yunyue’s voice was heavily nasal due to crying, and even her narration was somewhat disordered, in a state of excessive grief.
“Wenshao was very sad because of the discord between the two brothers. He fell ill, and I took care of him carefully, hoping he would recover soon. I was so scared. Because even when he was lying on his sickbed, Wenshao still suspected Qi Yan’s role in the car accident and wanted to ask Qi Yan face to face. He was afraid I would be upset, so he asked me to go out for a while to relax.”
Jiang Yunyue’s expression gradually turned into sorrow and anger, her hands trembling as she tightly grasped the hem of her skirt, as if she had seen some painful scene. “But when I returned home, I found that Wenshao had stopped breathing! The medical robot’s diagnosis was death by suffocation. Throughout the morning, only Qi Yan had been to the house!”
She turned towards the camera, pleading, “Qi Yan, I’ll give you anything you want, money, property, houses, I don’t want anything, I just want Wenshao back alive…”
“—Heavens, could it be that Qi Yan’s motive was exposed by his father, so he killed him in rage?”
“—So pitiful, losing her son, and now her husband has been murdered too…”
Lu Fenghan’s hand rested on the back of Qi Yan’s chair, half-shadowing him with his own figure.
He sneered, “She doesn’t have enough evidence to prove that you killed Qi Wenshao, so she’s playing the victim, leading public opinion first. In this way, involving public sentiment, the police will naturally take you away on suspicion of intentional homicide.”
Qi Yan was curious. “What happens after they take me away?”
Lu Fenghan casually pinched the delicate nape of Qi Yan’s neck. “There will be people in the police station helping her. Once you’re taken in, there will be no chance of getting out. When you quietly die inside, they’ll release news of your suicide due to guilt, and the entire Starnet might believe Jiang Yunyue’s story.”
Qi Yan pointed at the projection screen. “So she’s been crying for so long, accusing me of murder, just to get me arrested?”
“The car accident definitely heightened your vigilance. Attempting to eliminate you through an accident was both risky and ineffective. Jiang Yunyue’s alliance with the rebels presents an opportunity for her accomplices to solidify their partnership by eliminating you.”
Lu Fenghan deliberately lowered his tone, “You just need to give us a reason to arrest him, and we won’t let him walk out alive.”
“You don’t sound like a bad person at all,” Qi Yan said, understanding immediately. “So, Qi Wenshao contacting me must have been a deliberate loophole she left.”
Lu Fenghan nodded. “She’s been by Qi Wenshao’s side for so long that she’s had ample time to study his likes and dislikes, his temperament, and his habits. By leaving a loophole for you to meet with Qi Wenshao, she ensured that you would be the last person he saw before his death, making you the prime suspect.”
Qi Yan tried to place himself in this scenario and objectively evaluate it. “This design seems… flawless.”
While he was reading, another message came from Ye Pei.
“I’ve been busy with the model this whole time, and I only found out about this from the intranet’s forum. Qi Yan, we all believe in you! As for the forum, you better block it first. The school is big, there are always a few fools with suspicious minds among gentlemen!”
Qi Yan asked curiously, “What did they say to make you so angry?”
After hesitating, Ye Pei replied, “They said you look like you’re short of money, that’s why you came back from a remote planet, dreaming of getting rich overnight. Who knows, maybe you’d do anything for money and property.”
Qi Yan looked up and asked Lu Fenghan, “Do I really look like I’m short of money?”
Lu Fenghan told the truth, “Those people are blind.”
Qi Yan’s thinking was straightforward. “Jiang Yunyue’s argument is that I framed Jiang Qi and killed Qi Wenshao for the sake of the Qi family’s assets. I just need to prove that this argument is false, right?”
“Yes,” Ye Pei replied, “But once this kind of thing is transformed into an academic issue, it seems to become… simpler?”
She felt that Qi Yan’s question was very familiar. The last time Qi Yan asked this was when…
It was after the development of PVC93, when he was accused of hiring a “tutor.” Qi Yan had asked at the time, “Is it enough to prove that I made PVC93 by myself?”
Ye Pei instinctively became excited. “Qi Yan, what are you planning to do?”
Qi Yan: “Refute.”
Ye Pei: “The affirmative side refutes the arguments of the negative side by presenting evidence to show that their arguments are incorrect or invalid, thereby defeating the negative side!”
“Yes.”
Twenty minutes later, as the heat of Jiang Yunyue’s interview continued to rise and countless messages about “Qi Yan has been arrested,” “Qi Yan admits guilt,” and so on flew around, the Central Bank of the Alliance issued a notice.
“In response to a request from our esteemed seven-star client, Mr. Qi Yan, we hereby issue the following notice: Mr. Qi Wenshao is a six-star client of our bank, while Ms. Jiang Yunyue is a four-star client. Additionally, all assets in Mr. Qi Yan’s account are inherited from his mother’s lineage. This announcement serves as official notice.”
“—I checked the Central Bank’s star rating chart. A four-star client has assets in the tens of millions, a five-star client has assets in the hundreds of millions, and the six-star and seven-star clients are not disclosed publicly, but they should have one more zero for each star rating. So, by this calculation, my savings are just seven zeros less than Qi Yan’s…”
“—Today’s joke: A seven-star asset holder resorts to murder to grab money from six-star and four-star holders. To exaggerate a bit more, it’s like the richest person in the Alliance robbing a beggar for a coin. Ms. Jiang Yunyue, what do you think of this joke?”
“—This is the first time I’ve heard of a seven-star client! Ahh, I’m so jealous! My savings are just six zeros less than Qi Yan’s…”
“—My savings are eight zeros less than Qi Yan’s… But when it comes to being poor, I never lose!”
“—Hahaha, Qi Yan might as well have said directly, ‘I don’t care about your measly assets, I have plenty of star coins!'”
At this moment, Qi Yan received several messages one after another.
“Xia Zhiyang: My savings are just seven zeros less than Qi Yan’s…”
“Ye Pei: After buying a set of equipment, my savings are just eight zeros less than Qi Yan’s…”
“Xavier: The combined savings of all four of us in the dormitory are just nine zeros less than Qi Yan’s…”
Lu Fenghan also saw these messages. “It seems like you’ve inadvertently become a unit of measurement.”
He raised an eyebrow again—being poor is indeed the trademark of the First Military Academy.
As if on cue, a message from Vincent popped up.
“Commander, is anyone living happily? Is anyone who has seven more zeros in their bank account than me living happily?”
Lu Fenghan replied with three words: “You can’t imagine.”
Lu Fenghan: “When will you be arresting people since this matter falls under your jurisdiction?”
Vincent: “Since you reminded me yesterday, I’ve sorted out all the messy clues. We can move in now. I’m already en route for the mission. Any instructions?”
Lu Fenghan tapped his fingers on the table twice. “Perform well.”
On the Starnet, many people realized, “Without a motive for Qi Yan to commit murder, Jiang Yunyue’s accusation no longer holds. So, what really is going on? Why hasn’t the Leto police taken any action?”
However, despite the clamor on the Starnet, the Leto police remained silent.
Just as the Starnet was demanding a response from the Leto police, two people entered the frame during the live interview.
The host and Jiang Yunyue looked over.
Under the watchful eyes of countless viewers, a young man with a clearly virtualized face flashed his credentials and addressed the wary Jiang Yunyue, “Military Intelligence Bureau, we suspect you of colluding with the rebels. Please cooperate.”
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