Shoutout to Alinaza for the commission!
When the man asked that, Jiang Se was trembling and panting in his arms. Those words brushed past her ear, and she didn’t take them in at all.
It was only after they were done that he held her relentlessly and asked again: “Are you angry at me?”
This time Jiang Se heard it, and unconsciously froze for a moment.
She indeed had been a bit angry just now.
Not because of that photo with Guan Jiayi, but because of that video, because of the piece he played.
She wasn’t just annoyed with him, she was also a little annoyed at herself.
Earlier today, Guo Qian had said she wasn’t seriously dating Lu Huaiyan.
Maybe so.
From the very beginning, she had never planned to have any sort of “ending” with him, always holding a mindset of taking things as they came.
Then Guo Qian asked her, “Then when will it be considered the end for you two?”
Jiang Se had never thought about that question, but in her heart she always had a very clear answer.
She told Guo Qian, “When that day comes, I’ll know.”
Perhaps because she understood Jiang Se’s attitude, Guo Qian didn’t bring up the matter of Guan Jiayi and Lu Huaiyan again.
She and the Guan siblings were originally WeChat friends and followed each other on social media.
To show her stance, after their call ended, Guo Qian immediately unfollowed all the Guan family members and sent her a screenshot, making Jiang Se both amused and exasperated.
Between her and Lu Huaiyan, there had never been a third person’s issue.
Whatever ending they have has nothing to do with anyone else.
Seeing her not speak, Lu Huaiyan directly switched on a bedside lamp, pinched her jaw, making her look at him. “Tell me clearly why you’re mad, so you don’t bring it up as old debt later.”
Sweaty and stuck together, sticky and tangled, Jiang Se lowered her eyes, licked her lips: “I’m not mad.”
Saying that, she pushed at him and said impatiently, “Hurry up and get out.”
Lu Huaiyan didn’t move, lowering his head to lick the blood on her lips. “You bit me so hard, really not angry?”
His breath was unsteady. When he licked her lips, his breathing was hot and wet. Jiang Se blinked once and said, “You hurt me just now.”
That excuse always worked at times like this.
Hearing that, the man laughed: “How are you getting more and more delicate? Do you know how much I was holding back? I didn’t even dare to use full strength.”
He paused, studied her for a second, then kissed her hard on the cheek and said, “Got it. Next time I’ll be gentler.”
Jiang Se closed her eyes and gave a soft “Mm.”
—
Zheng Huan returned to Beicheng a few days early, and Jiang Se went straight to her studio to meet her.
Calling it a studio, it was actually just a shabby basement.
The air was full of the musty smell of a place that hadn’t seen sunlight in a long time.
“Uncle Yu and the others are still in Bo County; they won’t be back until the end of the month according to the original schedule.”
Zheng Huan took a box of cigarettes out of her jacket pocket; she originally wanted to smoke one, but remembering Jiang Se didn’t like the smell, she put the cigarette away again, found a mint, and popped it into her mouth to chew.
“On the scene of Fu Jun’s case, there really were skid marks from the road being slippery, and that dump truck driver really had been driving fatigued for two days. It really did look like an accident. But I found something interesting,” Zheng Huan opened a document on her phone for Jiang Se to see, “this is the dump truck driver’s daughter’s medical file. Twelve years old, heart disease. A month before the accident, because she hadn’t found a matching heart and the family had no money, this little girl was already close to dying. Guess what?”
Jiang Se took a sip of coffee and said faintly, “After Fu Jun died, she coincidentally met a matching heart, and also ran into a kind donor, and was saved just in time. Right?”
Chewing her mint candy, Zheng Huan snapped her fingers. “More or less, except it wasn’t after Fu Jun died, it was a few days before the accident that the girl had already had her heart transplant. She survived, and that dump truck driver probably went to his death with a relieved heart.”
“Can it be traced who the kind donor was?”
“The little girl was already on the charity organization’s list, but there’d been a paperwork issue at the time, so her family wasn’t notified. Isn’t that something?” Zheng Huan said, “If that gap in information was deliberately created by Fu Yun, then this man really knows how to take advantage of a poor family’s sorrow and despair. Just because of that little gap, the driver believed his daughter had fallen off the list, and willingly went to his death. When he left the house he even told the girl that Daddy had to travel far and she should listen to her mother.”
The sorrow of poor families often comes from money; for a family lacking money, a serious illness is enough to destroy the home.
“Did the driver and Fu Yun ever meet?”
“Not sure. The man is dead. Even if they met, there’s no proof left. Looking at his communication records and what people around him said, he had no relation at all with Fu Yun.”
Old Master Fu had investigated this accident for half a year and found nothing. Three years later, it would naturally be even harder to find new clues.
“This person is impressive, jumping from a small county’s unwanted stepchild to the heir of a massive corporate group. So many cases, and he managed to keep himself perfectly clean. Uncle Yu said this man walks through the jungle of crime without a single leaf sticking to him.”
Crossing her legs, the corner of Zheng Huan’s lips hooked into a cold smile. “I heard his old man is dying? Tsk, he’s about to inherit hundreds of billions. He definitely won’t risk killing anyone again.”
As soon as she said that, both fell silent.
A moment later, Jiang Se put her coffee on the table, showed Zheng Huan the list Mo Jichen had sent, and told her about Butler Yu.
“Butler Yu only passes messages. He probably doesn’t know much,” Jiang Se said. “But Zhu Mingli definitely knows a lot of things about Fu Yun.”
Staring at that list, Zheng Huan suddenly said, “This was given to you by Captain Mo from the Criminal Police Division?”
Jiang Se looked at her. “You know Officer Mo?”
Zheng Huan smiled. Her craving for a cigarette rose again, so she simply unwrapped another mint candy and put it in her mouth.
“Not just know. Captain Mo is my senior from university. When I was an intern, I even helped him crack a case. He’s currently investigating a family annihilation case; being able to spare the time to get these two lists for you is already fairly efficient. But I’m still better, his list is for purchases from two months before New Year’s Eve, while I managed to get the lists from June to December of last year.”
As she spoke, she took out a list and circled one name with a pen. “This person is the Zhu family’s housekeeper. On September 7th last year, he personally came to the shop and bought a batch of rose rock sugar.”
September 7th.
On September 7th last year, she had already restored her original surname, severing ties completely with the Cen family.
She also had already dissolved her engagement with Fu Yun, and was preparing to leave Beicheng for Tongcheng.
So Zhu Mingli began preparing this bottle of rock sugar back then?
Cen Yu had said that Zhu Mingli had always been sowing discord between her and Cen Yu, wanting to use Cen Yu’s hand to prevent her from returning to Beicheng, returning to the Cen family.
Looking at the name circled in red ink, Jiang Se said, “She’s afraid of me coming back to the Cen family.”
Everyone thought she couldn’t let go of the Cen family.
At the Cen family’s New Year’s Eve banquet, Zhu Mingli thought she wanted to return to the Cen family, so she drugged her.
If she hadn’t noticed in time that night, if someone with ill intentions had found her first, she probably would have been ruined.
But that night, when Lu Huaiyan knocked on the door, her phone had rung.
Fu Yun had called her.
If Lu Huaiyan hadn’t shown up that night, and she had picked up the call, and the person arriving afterward was Fu Yun…
Did Zhu Mingli know that Fu Yun had been looking for her too?
Thoughtfully pulling her gaze back, Jiang Se placed the book Dr. Gina had given her on Zheng Huan’s desk. “Dr. Gina asked me to bring this book to you. She said when you have time, go receive treatment at her place.”
Lowering her eyes, Zheng Huan glanced at the author’s name and smiled. “He’s Dr. Gina’s mentor, the top expert in criminal psychology. I wrote letters to him for a year.”
She looked up at Jiang Se. “I’m not treating my illness. Same as you, unless we catch that person, I won’t get better. Five years ago I took your commission because you had the same look in your eyes as me, not stopping until death.”
Jiang Se wasn’t surprised and smiled. “Then don’t treat it.”
She picked up the coffee on the table, stood, and said, “When Uncle Yu returns, tell him to bring me two cans of Jiatu Brewery’s beer.”
Zheng Huan raised a brow. “Oh? You want to drink?”
Jiang Se hummed lightly. “To drink with someone.”
Zheng Huan didn’t ask with whom, simply nodded. “Alright, I’ll have Uncle Yu bring you a dozen.”
—
Leaving Zheng Huan’s dark and damp studio, Jiang Se glanced up at the sky, blue as a mirror, and slowly exhaled.
She took out her phone.
In the half month since returning to Beicheng, she had received plenty of messages every day.
From Jiang Chuan and Yu Shiying, from Jiang Ye and Jiang Tang, from Zhang Yue and He Miao, from her aunt and Guo Qian, and also from Cen Li.
Not long after the Spring Festival, Cen Li had returned to Australia. Somehow, he heard she had come back to Beicheng, and had called her many times, sending plenty of messages as well.
Jiang Se didn’t pick up his calls, only occasionally replied to him on WeChat with one or two messages.
She told him she came back to Beicheng for treatment.
The night she sent that message, Cen Li called her ten or so times.
Seeing she refused to answer, he sent her another WeChat: 【Sese, don’t be mad at your older brother anymore, okay?】
Jiang Se never replied to that WeChat.
After returning to Xinhe Residence, she rummaged in the tin box and found a wooden block.
It was the only thing related to Cen Li she had taken with her when she left the mansion last year.
The half-man-tall castle in that mansion was a gift from Cen Li, and the two siblings pieced that castle together block by block.
After it was built, Cen Li touched the top of her head and told her: “Our Sese will always be the princess living in the castle.”
The block in her hand was a long piece. Jiang Se played with it for a moment, then tossed it back into the tin box.
It still wasn’t time to use that block.
As April approached, once the last cold snap passed, the weather grew warmer by the day.
Lu Huaiyan hadn’t been to Xinhe Residence these past few days. The Guan brothers had come to Beicheng several days earlier. A cooperation between two major families from north and south naturally wasn’t a leisurely matter; once busy, they often worked until deep into the night.
Several times the messages Jiang Se received from him were all in the middle of the night.
Often it was a short voice clip, using that low, alcohol-tinged voice to speak to her.
All sorts of trivial daily things.
Asking if she ate what he had someone deliver to her, whether she went out today, whether she wanted him to bring Jialuo over for her to play with.
When he received her reply at midnight he would directly call, sitting in the car and laughing as he asked her if she couldn’t sleep well because he wasn’t there.
These few days he wasn’t around, Jiang Se indeed didn’t sleep very steadily in the latter half of the night, always waking up.
So he stayed on the phone keeping her company until she fell asleep before hanging up.
That evening Lu Huaiyan still didn’t come to Xinhe Residence. After asking the butler to bring her a bowl of bird’s-nest soup, he left her a message on WeChat, saying he would come look for her tomorrow night.
The butler said: “Young Master Lu originally wanted to bring you the bird’s-nest soup himself, but Old Master Lu called him away at the last minute, so he could only send me over and tell you to eat it while it’s hot.”
Jiang Se didn’t have much appetite, and that bowl of bird’s-nest was only about the size of a fist, just the amount she could finish in one sitting.
She didn’t ask what Old Master Lu wanted with Lu Huaiyan; after finishing the bird’s-nest she replied to him with a single “okay”.
That night, the lights in the Lu family’s old residence stayed on the whole night.
Jiang Se had no idea.
By noon the next day, when she still hadn’t received a WeChat from Lu Huaiyan, she finally sensed something off.
Every day after getting up he would say one sentence to her: “Miss, good morning.”
Even if he wasn’t by her side, he would still say it on WeChat with that lazy, drawling voice.
Suddenly not hearing it one day was inevitably a little unsettling.
These habits formed unconsciously are the most dangerous.
Jiang Se had developed quite a few habits because of him.
Some he did on purpose, some seeped into her over time.
She didn’t intend to overthink a belated “good morning”. She was about to put down her phone when the screen suddenly lit up.
It was a WeChat from He Miao: 【Miss Jiang, Master… had an accident.】
