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Cen Li froze completely in place.
A frame flashed across his mind of Jiang Se wearing a hospital gown, lying on a hospital bed.
Sese had always been independent since she was young, and capable. No matter what she encountered, she could always handle things with ease and perfection.
When that kidnapping case happened seven years ago, she was only sixteen. She had gone several days without a drop of water or grain entering her mouth; her body had already become so weak she needed an IV.
Even so, the first thing she said to Cen Li in the hospital was an extremely calm sentence: “Older Brother, I’m fine.”
She was too strong, so strong that Cen Li couldn’t imagine what kind of fragility and expectation were contained in that “older brother” she cried when she was rescued.
Lu Huaiyan wasn’t interested in the emotions surging in Cen Li’s heart at this moment, he himself wasn’t a good person.
If the person who got into trouble tonight wasn’t Jiang Se, he wouldn’t have wasted time talking nonsense with Cen Li.
Having said what needed to be said, he passed by Cen Li without a sideways glance, heading straight toward the bathroom where Jiang Se was hiding.
The place was still a mess, fragments of glass scattered all over the floor. Lu Huaiyan looked at those irregular shards and recalled Jiang Se’s mangled palm.
Back then, what she held in her hand was the thinnest and sharpest piece.
A strong jab at someone’s neck would be enough to take a life.
That piece of glass was never meant to keep herself awake, but to kill in self-defense when necessary.
Aside from the broken glass, there were a few half-dried drops of blood on the white marble floor.
Lu Huaiyan stared at those dark red dots and said to Mo Jichen: “Take all this glass away.”
Mo Jichen looked at him like he was seeing some rare creature, and said fearlessly: “How long has it been since I last saw you angry? I thought your temper-cultivating skills these years had already reached perfection. Didn’t expect this, tsk tsk.”
Lu Huaiyan shifted his gaze to him, his expression faint.
The two of them had “survived” from the same devil instructor, sweating and bleeding together; Mo Jichen wasn’t the least bit afraid of Lu Huaiyan.
He shrugged and said: “I’ll have someone collect the glass. First tell me about the kidnapping case back then, so I don’t have to go pull the case files.”
“You won’t find them,” Lu Huaiyan said. “The Cen family didn’t report it. As soon as something happened to Jiang Se, the Cen family immediately went to Grandfather. When Uncle Mo and I found Jiang Se, two of the kidnappers were already dead. The one who killed them was the mastermind of the kidnapping, and that mastermind later died as well.”
Mo Jichen: “How did the mastermind die? Why did he kill the other two accomplices?”
“The mastermind was also injured at the time. After Uncle Mo’s men brought him back to the police station, they discovered he had swallowed a razor blade. He couldn’t be saved by the time he reached the hospital. As for why he killed the other accomplices,” Lu Huaiyan’s voice was cold, “he never confessed even at death.”
Mo Jichen mused: “Since the victim was successfully rescued, even if the mastermind had been caught, he wouldn’t necessarily be sentenced to death. Why would he commit suicide, and in such a painful way, swallowing a blade?”
He rubbed his chin and thought for a moment. “Did Miss Jiang ever mention any specific details?”
The kidnappers were dead, so there was no need to file a case or investigate.
To protect Jiang Se’s and the Cen family’s reputation, the kidnapping case had always been a secret in Beicheng. Besides the Cen family, only Old Master Lu, Lu Huaiyan, and Mo Jichen’s father Mo Xian knew of it.
Lu Huaiyan lowered his gaze, looking at the blood spots on the floor, and said: “No. She was kidnapped for less than a day. Aside from minor scrapes, she didn’t suffer other harm. She stayed in the hospital for a few days and was discharged, and the matter fell silent.”
The moment the words fell, what the man recalled was the cool, damp touch when Jiang Se lightly sniffed his collar.
His brows faintly creased. He lifted his gaze toward Mo Jichen. “I’m mentioning this to you only to make it easier for you to take over tonight’s case. But remember, don’t ask her about the events from seven years ago.”
—
When Jiang Se woke, daylight was already bright.
She reached for her phone. It was just past ten. Although she had slept less than five hours, she didn’t feel bad; unexpectedly, she even felt a bit refreshed.
She originally thought she would definitely dream, definitely return to that abandoned factory again.
But she didn’t dream of anything.
After finishing speaking with Lu Huaiyan, she fell into deep sleep almost the instant she closed her eyes.
A dreamless night.
The room was burning incense, the warm and rich agarwood filled her nose, even stronger than the scent on Lu Huaiyan.
Jiang Se sat up wrapped in the blanket, buried her face into the soft quilt, and took a deep breath.
This was the Lu family’s exclusive agarwood, and also the only warm note in that thunderstorm night.
She once had a morbid obsession with this scent.
In the past she would often go to the Lu family’s old residence, not entirely to please Old Master Lu or to see Lu Huaiyan, at least partly it was to get a bit of this warm fragrance on herself.
Later she naturally quit that obsession with the agarwood.
But it couldn’t be denied that her body still remembered this scent.
Jiang Se lifted her eyes and swept a look around. The clothes delivered yesterday had already been washed and were neatly folded at the head of the bed.
The clothes were autumn and winter new releases from the luxury brand she usually used, and the colors were also her preference.
She picked a green round-neck dress, took off the men’s T-shirt on her body, and hugged the clothes as she entered the bathroom.
The showerhead sprayed out water, white mist rose in the bathroom, and unexpectedly, she thought of the scene last night of Lu Huaiyan half-kneeling in front of her.
Looking down, from her collarbones downward, dense marks of dark purple covered her.
On the inside of her left thigh there was also a red mark, looking like a thumbprint.
Last night he held her right wrist with one hand and her left thigh with the other, the strength so astonishing that this thumbprint was left just like that.
Jiang Se licked the single wisdom tooth on her gum. No surprise, the gum behind the wisdom tooth was swollen.
Tsk, barbarian.
After showering, Jiang Se checked her phone while walking out of the master bedroom.
After scanning all her WeChat messages and deleting dozens of missed calls from Cen Mingshu and Cen Li, she had already walked to the first floor.
Lu Huaiyan was sitting at the small dining table near the garden side, still in the shirt and trousers from last night when he went out, one hand slanting on the laptop touchpad, the other holding a palm-sized miniature metal liquor flask.
His two hands seemed especially skilled at doing different things at the same time.
Last night was like this, and now as well.
The man was sitting facing the staircase entrance. As soon as Jiang Se came downstairs he lifted his eyelids and looked over, quietly watching her step down one step at a time, walking toward him.
Even though they had just done intimate things last night, neither of them had even the slightest unnaturalness or awkwardness on their faces.
Jiang Se had returned to her former calm and elegant appearance; the gaze she cast toward him, just like before, was cold, still, rational.
Everything that happened last night seemed like a dream.
She had not sniffed his collar like a little animal asking him to take her away, nor had he done for her in that dimly lit cloakroom something he had never done before.
“The black tea you like to drink after waking up is already brewed.” Lu Huaiyan lightly raised his chin and pointed toward the counter. “Only one crushed rose sugar cube added, no rose salt, and no lemon.”
When the assistant delivered the items, the eyes of Lu Huaiyan, who had stayed up all night, carried a hint of amusement.
This girl really did have a picky mouth.
She loved black tea, but needed different flavors at different times of the day, truly a difficult person to serve.
He wondered how she managed to satisfy such a picky mouth in Tongcheng.
A thin layer of white steam rose from the bone-china cup. Jiang Se wasn’t surprised he could inquire about her habits in clothing, food, and daily life; she was only curious about who brewed this cup of tea.
Picking up the teacup, she took a light sip. “You brewed the tea?”
Lu Huaiyan made a sound of acknowledgment. “How’s the taste?”
“Very good, thank you.” Jiang Se politely expressed her thanks, her gaze swept over his laptop. “Having a morning meeting?”
“Watching surveillance.” Lu Huaiyan pushed open the stopper on the metal flask and took a slow sip. “Mo Jichen sent me a few interesting surveillance clips.”
The man spoke the word “interesting,” but his eyes were cold, like ice cubes swaying in strong liquor.
Jiang Se slowly stirred the crushed sugar in the cup; her almond eyes reflected in the black tea were stirred into a whirlpool. “What kind of interesting?”
“Do you know those second-generation heirs from the Hu family, Zhang family, and Gu family?”
Jiang Se slowly lifted her eyes. “I have some impressions. If I’m not mistaken, we were in the same grade in high school. Why, did they mention me in the video?”
“Mm.”
“Oh? What did they say?”
Lu Huaiyan’s tone was slow and gentle. “Said you were their first sexual fantasy target, and were discussing how to get you into bed, how to woo you into letting them hear your moaning.”
These people were already wild back in high school, their private lives a mess, so naturally they could only say such things, exactly as Jiang Se expected.
She drank two sips of black tea calmly to moisten her throat, held the cup, walked over, pulled out the high chair on Lu Huaiyan’s left, and fixed her eyes on the laptop on the table.
“Mind if I listen myself?”
Lu Huaiyan laughed lightly, not at all surprised she would make such a request.
Giving the laptop a gentle turn, the man removed the wireless earbud from his right ear, leaned slightly toward her, and put it on her. “Go ahead.”
The surveillance footage on the screen was paused. Jiang Se thanked him, pulled the progress bar to the very beginning, and pressed play.
It had to be said, Lu Huaiyan’s earlier description was already extremely refined.
The men in the video said nothing but filthy, vulgar words, even judging her from head to toe.
Those ruinous yellow rumors, more often than not, were spoken by such disgusting people in a joking tone.
Jiang Se listened to every sentence carefully, her eyelashes lowered calmly, not even her brows lifted.
Lu Huaiyan propped his chin and watched her. When the progress bar reached the end, he leisurely asked, “Want to vent your anger on them?”
Jiang Se tilted her head to the right, took off the earphone, handed it back to him, and said with a slight smile: “No hurry, later.”
She had something more important to do now, these few scumbags could be dealt with later.
Lu Huaiyan put the earphone she handed over on the dining table, looked at her lightly and said: “Why later? No need to wait for later.”
If they hadn’t run into Ji Yunyi halfway yesterday, these people had been planning to go to the viewing pavilion to hit on Jiang Se.
Jiang Se met Lu Huaiyan’s gaze, and with a smile changed the topic: “Besides these surveillance videos, did Officer Mo have any other findings?”
Lu Huaiyan looked at her eyes, adjusted the angle of the computer, turned off the video, and pulled up a document from a folder.
“Mo Jichen said the triazolam you drank wasn’t put directly in the tea, but dissolved in that rose rock sugar.” Lu Huaiyan opened a photo, “Not all the rose rock sugar in the jar had a problem, among the remaining ones only two had additives, plus the one put in your black tea, a total of three.”
In the photo were around ten rose rock sugar pieces of uneven shapes. Jiang Se stared at the photo for a while, then lifted her hand and pointed at the photo, “Let me guess, these two?”
“Right. There were quite a few people going in and out of the break room that night, but the only one who touched this jar of rose rock sugar was your former housekeeper, Uncle Tong.” Lu Huaiyan glanced at her, saw her expression calm, and continued, “Mo Jichen asked Uncle Tong why he happened to pick a piece with additives, guess what Uncle Tong said?”
“Because I don’t like rose petals floating in my black tea. In this photo, only these two pieces of rose rock sugar don’t have any impurities.”
Jiang Se moved her gaze away from the computer screen and looked at Lu Huaiyan: “The person who drugged me understands me very well, guessed I’d go to the viewing pavilion, also guessed Aunt Zhang and Uncle Tong would definitely come see me, even guessed what kind of tea Uncle Tong would brew for me. As long as I went to the Cen family’s banquet last night, it would’ve been hard to avoid this trap.”
Lu Huaiyan stared at her dark, deep pupils.
Uncle Tong had indeed told Mo Jichen that, because Miss wouldn’t like rose petals in her black tea.
Mo Jichen’s original words were almost the same as what Jiang Se said, it ought to be someone who understood her daily habits extremely well.
But Jiang Se’s tone was more certain than Mo Jichen’s.
Not only certain, but excited.
Excited?
Lu Huaiyan fixed his gaze on her, and asked in a casual tone: “Sese, what are you excited about?”
Jiang Se paused slightly, looked at him, and calmly asked back: “Am I?”
Lu Huaiyan nodded slightly, the corner of his lips lifting faintly, meaningfully: “Your pupils contract sharply when you clim*x, and just now, when you said the person who drugged you understood you well, your pupils contracted.”
“Sese, you got excited.”
