Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Gu Yanzhou’s autopsy report was still tucked inside the manila envelope when Qi Jiashu handed the will to me.

“Miss Jiang, Mr. Gu made a special designation before his death. The will must be read by you.”

Standing at the entrance of the penthouse suite at the Lanting Hotel, I looked at that line of cold black text and nearly laughed out loud.

Five years ago, Gu Yanzhou had proposed to me in this very hotel. Five years later, he was dead-killed in a fire in his own study, burned so badly that only a single cufflink remained un-melted. Now, his lawyer was telling me that the man who had discarded me so thoroughly, making me the laughingstock of the entire city, had trusted me more than anyone else right before he died.

I pushed the will back. “You have the wrong person. Gu Yanzhou and I haven’t had anything to do with each other for ages.”

Qi Jiashu was two years older than me. He was a university senior to both Gu Yanzhou and me, and he served as the Chief Legal Officer of the Gu Group. He was always gentle, never speaking with absolute finality. But today, his tone left no room for retreat.

“You don’t have to believe me, but this was indeed his intention.” He paused. “Furthermore, this will might be related to the death of your brother, Jiang Linchuan, all those years ago.”

My fingers stiffened.

Five years ago, my brother died instantly in a car accident on an elevated highway. The police ruled it as fatigued driving. I didn’t believe it, and Gu Yanzhou said he would investigate. But just when I needed him most-one month after his proposal-he told me in front of both our families that he was bored, that he’d had his fun, and that I should stop bothering him over a life that wasn’t worth anything.

That day, I threw the engagement ring in his face and cut ties with him completely.

I stared at Qi Jiashu, my voice tight. “You’d better not be using my brother to trick me.”

“If I am lying to you, you can throw the entire will at my head after tonight.”

The door to the penthouse suite was opened by a waiter, and the air conditioning blasted against my face. I walked in and immediately saw Xie Lingshu sitting by the window.

She was wearing a white dress, her eyes reddened just the right amount, looking like a lily freshly plucked from a funeral. The financial news had been buzzing lately with rumors that she was Gu Yanzhou’s fiancée, and their wedding had been scheduled for next month. When she saw me, she was startled for a moment before suppressing her scrutiny into a faint smile. “So, the trump card President Gu left behind was Miss Jiang.”

Also in the room were Madam Gu, Gu Yanzhou’s cousin Wen Xingzhou, and the Chief Financial Officer, Meng Mingche. Each face wore a mask of restrained grief, but the way they looked at me wasn’t quite how one looks at a person; it was more like looking at a nail that had suddenly rolled onto a chessboard.

Qi Jiashu closed the door and distributed copies of the will to everyone.

“According to Mr. Gu’s arrangements, all primary heirs must remain here before midnight to complete three rounds of confirmation for the will.” He gestured for the waiter to leave. “No one may leave the premises before the third round of confirmation is complete, or they will be deemed to have forfeited their inheritance rights.”

Madam Gu slammed her teacup onto the table. “Nonsense. The man is dead, and he still wants to torment his family like this?”

“These are President Gu’s own words from the recording.” Qi Jiashu turned on the projector.

When the screen lit up, my breath hitched for a split second.

Gu Yanzhou was sitting in his study, his shirt collar open, with obvious dark circles under his eyes, yet he still maintained that lazy demeanor. As soon as the camera started, he looked at the screen and smiled.

“If you’re watching this video, it means my luck wasn’t great, and I’m actually dead.”

Wen Xingzhou frowned. “What kind of tone is that?”

As if he could hear him, Gu Yanzhou’s next sentence was directed off-camera. “Cousin, don’t be so quick to pull a face. After all, only with me dead can you start acting more like a human being.”

The room fell silent instantly.

I almost couldn’t hold it together. Gu Yanzhou was venomous when he was alive, and he didn’t plan on being a saint now that he was dead.

On the screen, he looked down and flipped a page. When he looked up again, his gaze suddenly felt as if it were landing on my face across a five-year gap.

“Nanzhi, if you are among those who came, then it means I bet correctly. Don’t be in a hurry to hate me, and don’t be in a hurry to leave. You are sitting here tonight not to divide my estate, but to seek justice for your brother.”

My back suddenly went rigid.

“The first clause of the will: twelve percent of the voting rights in Gu Medical Technology, along with the ten-billion-yuan trust income rights corresponding to the ‘Lanting’ project under Gu’s name, will be held in proxy by Jiang Nanzhi. There is only one condition: before dawn, she must find the person who killed me and hand the evidence over to the police.”

The room exploded instantly.

“On what grounds?” Madam Gu’s voice was shrill.

“She’s an outsider! What right does she have to hold the Gu Family’s shares?” Wen Xingzhou also surged to his feet.
Xie Lingshu didn’t say a word. She merely looked up at me, her gaze finally shifting from mere scrutiny to something more serious.

On the screen, Gu Yanzhou acted as if he had known they would cause a scene. He tapped his fingers on the desk. “Stop arguing. You all look like people bidding for hairtails at a wet market. It’s affecting the dignity of my afterlife.”

He paused, his gaze turning cold.

“Second, among those present tonight, one person was directly involved in my death. And at least one other person was involved in the cleanup of Jiang Linchuan’s car accident five years ago. If anyone is feeling guilty right now, you can go ahead and turn yourself in. It’ll save my subsequent arrangements from appearing too cruel.”

My palms were already slick with sweat.

The screen went black for a second before a line of text flashed up.

[First round of confirmation: Jiang Nanzhi, please open Envelope No. 1.]

I looked at the deep blue envelope on the table with my name on it, my fingertips tingling with numbness. The envelope was thick. When I tore it open, a brass key and a photograph fell out first.

The photo was of my brother.

He was sitting in a car, looking as if he were about to start the engine; the shot had been taken in a hurry. On the back of the photo was a single line of text:

“The last person your brother saw before his accident is also in this room.”

My head throbbed with a sudden buzz.

Madam Gu stood up to leave. “Absurd. I don’t have time to play games with a dead man.”

As soon as she pulled the door open, two security guards outside stepped forward simultaneously. “Apologies. Mr. Gu prepaid for the security of this entire floor. This area is temporarily on lockdown tonight.”

“This is illegal detention-”

“It is also Mr. Gu’s arrangement,” Qi Jiashu interrupted her, his tone still respectful. “If you insist on leaving, according to the supplementary clauses, all Gu Corporation shares under your name will be donated to the Linchuan Truth Fund.”

Madam Gu’s face turned pale.

I stared at the photograph, forcing myself to steady my breathing. “What does the key open?”

This time, it wasn’t Qi Jiashu who answered, but Xie Lingshu.

“Storage Room 1708.” She toyed with the rim of her glass, mentioning it as if in passing. “Gu Yanzhou used to lock his most annoying things in there-like last quarter’s audit reports, or old photos he couldn’t bring himself to throw away.”

I looked up at her.

Her expression was overly calm, as if she were intimately familiar with Gu Yanzhou’s habits.

“Miss Xie seems to know quite a lot.”

She gave a faint smile. “As his fiancée, I’m bound to know a little more than an ex.”

As soon as those words left her mouth, Madam Gu let out a cold sneer. “Then why don’t you mention that the burn on the webbing of your right hand was also a new addition from two days before Yanzhou died?”

I followed her gaze. Sure enough, a flesh-colored bandage was stuck to Xie Lingshu’s right hand.

The air in the room tightened instantly.

Xie Lingshu didn’t panic. Instead, she raised her hand and peeled off the bandage, revealing a light red burn mark. “I got it while making coffee. Does Madam Gu want to ask about the brand of my coffee machine as well?”

Wen Xingzhou chimed in, “What a coincidence. The fire in Brother Yan’s study was also caused by a short circuit in a coffee machine.”

“Is that so?” I tucked the photo back into the envelope and picked up the key. “Then tonight, we might as well investigate whether it was a short circuit, or if someone’s hands were too long and reached into places they shouldn’t have.”

I turned and walked toward the door.

Qi Jiashu followed me. “I’ll go with you.”

Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows at the end of the corridor, the sea was as black as a solid block of unthawed ink. I gripped the key, my heart churning violently. It had been five years. I thought the most disgusting thing Gu Yanzhou had left me was that public humiliation. I never expected that even after his death, he could drag me back into this swamp of filth.

Storage Room 1708 was very small, containing only an old metal cabinet. The key slid in, and with a click, it opened. Inside the cabinet, there was no ledger like I had imagined, only a black velvet box.

I opened it. Lying quietly inside was the engagement ring I had thrown back in Gu Yanzhou’s face all those years ago.

A sticky note was pressed beside the ring.

“Nanzhi, don’t throw it in my face again. It’s very expensive. Also, your brother’s death was no accident.”

My hand trembled, and the ring nearly fell to the floor.

Qi Jiashu reached out to steady the box for me, whispering, “Don’t lose your head yet. Since Gu Yanzhou left this, it means the real evidence is still to come.”

I stared at the ring, suddenly feeling that something was wrong.

I had clearly thrown this ring into the river back then.

Unless someone had fished it back out later.

In that moment of daze, the lights in the storage room suddenly went out.

In the darkness, someone lunged at me from behind. Their target wasn’t me-it was the ring box in my hand.