Tong Meng accomplished what Lü Qingqing could not. Her soft, sweet demeanor immediately made the men gentler.
"I'm just here today to see the place where my brother lived before he died, and to pack away some of his belongings as mementos. But with so many things in this room, I don't know which ones were his," Yu Yue said, looking around. "If I accidentally touch any of your belongings, please don't be offended, brothers."
"Oh, my dear. How could we be offended? Come, come, I'll show you. See that cabinet over there? That's what Tong Hua used," a stout man stepped forward. "Looking at your delicate skin, I wonder if you can even open that cabinet door. Why don't I help you?"
"Yes. Thank you very much," Yu Yue said sweetly.
Just as Lü Qingqing thought Yu Yue was going to open the cabinet, Yu Yue stepped aside, her watery eyes fixed on the stout man. The man's heart fluttered with joy, and he immediately stepped forward to help her open the cabinet.
Before opening the cabinet, Yu Yue even moved slightly behind the stout man.
"Done," the stout man said.
Yu Yue then stepped forward. After a brief search, she packed all the items into a bag.
It wasn't convenient to search here.
"By the way, was there anything special about my brother's situation before he committed suicide?" Yu Yue asked Tong Hua's friends.
"Not really. Besides reading every day, he didn't do anything else," someone replied.
"And during this period, did anyone else visit him or bring him anything?" Yu Yue asked again.
"No, no one. We were also wondering why no one came to see your brother. Yet your brother had confidently told us he would definitely get out," the stout man was very kind-hearted, eager to tell Yu Yue everything. "But then he went out to see you once, and never came back."
Saw me once?
Yu Yue was startled. Oh, he meant Tong Hua went out to see Tong Meng.
"Yes, I find it strange too. We were chatting happily, and he even told me those people would never lay a hand on him. Little did we know, others didn't act, but he acted himself," Yu Yue began to feign tears again.
"Those people? Are you talking about 'Huofu'?" The stout man chatted with Yu Yue.
"Huofu?" Yu Yue instinctively glanced back at Lü Qingqing, only to see Lü Qingqing also looking bewildered. What did Huofu mean?
"Yes, your brother often mentioned that Huofu would save him."
"Did he say anything else?"
"No. Your brother was very secretive about this matter. He only said that one sentence that day out of extreme anger." Not only the stout man, but the others gave the same answer.
Huofu will save him?
Does Huofu refer to Dao Ren?
Why was he so sure that person would save him?
Lü Qingqing felt like she had grasped some information, but it wasn't complete.
After asking a few more times without getting any useful information, Yu Yue got up to leave.
"Amazing, you truly are my sister," Lü Qingqing was quite impressed, not only with Yu Yue's acting but also with her own foresight.
If she hadn't pulled Yu Yue out at the last minute, this act might not have been so convincing.
"As for me being amazing, I've always known. As for where we're eating hot pot, I want to know today."
Seeing Yu Yue's smug expression, Lü Qingqing pinched her cheek. "Okay, whatever you say. Dongzi Hot Pot is all-you-can-eat."
"What? Dongzi?" Yu Yue pouted, clearly dissatisfied. "Dongzi has a bad environment, it's full of sweat. I want to go to Huixian Tower, with a view of the river."
Huh?
Lü Qingqing was speechless. "It's all hot pot, why do you need to see the river? Huixian Tower, a plate of vegetables there is enough for me to order a meat dish at Dongzi."
"You don't understand, this is called living. Watching the river flow slowly, watching the small boats bobbing on the river. The hot pot bubbling away, dipped in sauce, and put into your mouth, that's called comfort," Yu Yue said with longing.
"Comfort my ass, the river flows endlessly, you can go see it after you're done eating!" Lü Qingqing was not going to be a fool. Before Yu Yue could retort, she said, "Stop fooling around, or I'll go back and tell Li Yang how you were entangled with those men today!"
Yu Yue's expression froze. "Alright, you're threatening me..."
Lü Qingqing laughed heartily. "Dongzi, are you going or not?"
"Yes, I'm ordering all meat today," Yu Yue said indignantly.
The two were having a lively argument, but this hot pot meal was delayed.
It was simple, Lü Qingqing needed to investigate the case first.
She and Yu Yue went through all of Tong Hua's belongings, only to find that in one book, many pages had their corners folded.
Their intuition told them something was up!
As expected, Yu Yue had experience in this regard. She quickly checked the last page of the book and found a few numbers written on it.
They were 7.8; 16.17; 68.4; 26.13; 35.12.
Looking at this string of numbers, Lü Qingqing was a bit confused, but Yu Yue was skillful.
She opened the book, found the first folded page, and her fingertip traced through the lines to the seventh row, eighth character. Lü Qingqing saw it was "证" (zhèng - proof).
Lü Qingqing suddenly realized, this was a cipher.
Yu Yue then turned to the second folded page and continued to search according to the pattern of 16.17, and sure enough, it was the character "据" (jù - evidence).
Lü Qingqing vaguely guessed something? It seemed Tong Hua was not simple and had left a backup.
Soon, Yu Yue found all five characters.
"Evidence is with Huofu."
Huh?
They recognized each word, but when they were combined, both Lü Qingqing and Yu Yue were stunned.
This was the second time they had heard of Huofu.
What did Huofu mean?
From what the stout man relayed, Huofu should be a person. But Tong Hua said Huofu would save him, and in that situation, only Qiao Huali could have saved him. httpδ:/m.kuAisugg.nět
Could Qiao Huali be Huofu?
No, it was unlikely.
Let alone Yu Yue, Lü Qingqing also didn't believe it.
"Let's first investigate Tong Hua's social circles and see if there's anyone special we've overlooked," Lü Qingqing decided not to go to Qiao Huali for confirmation for now. After all, the situation was unclear. If the truth wasn't as they suspected, wouldn't it alert the snake?
Of course, Lü Qingqing had no idea if this decision was correct at the time. When she did realize it, she knew how wise that decision was.
...
Tong Meng was still missing. Surveillance of Dao Ren and Qiao Huali continued, but yielded no results. Everyone was performing their tasks systematically. Only Hu Jia was tirelessly busy every day, as he was working on Tong Hua's suicide case.
"You mean you don't think Tong Hua committed suicide?" Hu Jia found Bai Nian, and Bai Nian's answer made him even more certain that Tong Hua's suicide was problematic.
Bai Nian said he was in charge of investigating Tong Hua. Tong Hua had always appeared arrogant in front of him. From Tong Hua's behavior, it was evident that Tong Hua never suspected he would stay in the Supervision Bureau for too long.
But four or five days ago, Tong Hua seemed to have changed completely. He asked Bai Nian if anyone had ever come to bail him out.
After receiving an affirmative answer, Tong Hua became very angry. "I remember him saying very clearly that if he couldn't get out, he would make someone pay with their life."
Bai Nian said, how could someone who threatened to make others pay with their life be willing to commit suicide?