Chapter 172

Chapter 172

The moment Wen Tangtang opened her eyes, she saw the security guard who had accompanied them upstairs lying on the floor with blood covering his head. Not far from him lay Wen Xin, whom she had spent the entire evening trying and failing to reach.

If Wen Tangtang had immediately turned and chased after the attacker, she might have caught them.

But the guard had suffered a head injury, Wen Xin’s condition was unknown, and Liang Mingqi was terrified…

Wen Tangtang could only abandon the pursuit and help Wen Xin and the guard first.

Liang Mingqi called emergency services with trembling hands. Fearing that Liang Mingqi might still be in danger, Wen Tangtang told her to go home immediately, while she followed the ambulance to the hospital.

After emergency treatment, Wen Xin was no longer in mortal danger, but he remained unconscious, and the doctors could not determine the cause.

Wen Tangtang and Wen Miao took turns caring for him after that. Yet one emergency or “accident” after another occurred. If the two women had not discovered them in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable.

“You know what happened after that.” Wen Tangtang lowered her eyes, where the flickering lamplight was reflected. Her hands clenched unconsciously like a cage locking away every emotion.

“Actually, the night before Wen Miao disappeared, someone slipped a note into Wen Xin’s hospital room.”

But the note had not drawn much of Wen Tangtang’s attention. She had asked Wen Miao about it, and Wen Miao said it was nothing before casually tossing it into the nearby trash can. Wen Tangtang had not given it another thought and readily believed it was merely a useless scrap of paper.

All of it had happened right before her eyes.

Wen Tangtang’s shoulders hunched slightly beneath the crushing burden of guilt and self-reproach.

“What about Wen Xin? When did he wake up? Why was he attacked that day?”

Nan Mu tried to uncover more clues from the attack on Wen Xin.

Wen Tangtang shook her head. “After Wen Miao was murdered, the police placed Wen Xin and me under protection. Not long afterward, he suddenly woke up on his own one day. Even by the time he regained consciousness, the hospital had never determined what caused his coma.”

“After Wen Xin woke up, I asked what had happened that day. But maybe because of the blow to his head, he… he had completely lost all memory of it. He didn’t know what he’d been doing, what he’d seen, or why someone had attacked him.”

Nan Mu pressed his lips together and rubbed the towel in his hands, as though recalling something. “I remember Wisdom Biotech Company had a great deal of internal surveillance. Didn’t you check it?”

“Of course we did.” The subject filled Wen Tangtang with unanswered questions. “None of the internal cameras on the eighth floor were broken except the one in Wen Xin’s office. For some inexplicable reason, it malfunctioned that afternoon.”

“Didn’t the corridor cameras capture whoever went inside?”

“No. The attacker was clever and switched off the lights in advance. Wisdom Biotech Company’s cameras had high resolution but no night vision. The footage showed a dark figure, but it was impossible to tell who it was. That’s precisely why the police concluded the attacker had to be an insider. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have known the limitations of the company’s cameras so well.” A helpless, bitter smile touched Wen Tangtang’s lips. “But what good did that do? Wisdom Biotech Company employed so many people that the police couldn’t identify the actual attacker.”

“Wen Xin told me that Wen Miao had been investigating Xu Lei before her death. So despite Wen Xin’s objections, I joined Wisdom Biotech Company after graduation. I tried to prove Xu Lei was the person who attacked Wen Xin and killed Wen Miao. But throughout all the years I stayed close to him, he was cautious and kind. I could find no reason why he would want Wen Miao dead.”

“Then how did you eventually discover the truth?”

“Discover?” A bitter smile spread across Wen Tangtang’s face. “How could we discover anything? In everyone else’s eyes, Xu Lei was a good mentor and leader. He wasn’t arrogant, and he never stole his subordinates’ research achievements. He took care of his family and loved his wife. He was practically the perfect man. What clues could we possibly find against someone like that? If Wen Xin hadn’t been so certain and insisted Xu Lei must be connected… there was even a time when I thought Wen Xin and Wen Miao had made a mistake.”

“Then, one year ago, the Quantum Computer Wen Xin had painstakingly developed finally turned the theory of time travel into reality.” Wen Tangtang gripped the blanket so tightly that her fingertips turned white, as though she meant to pour all her suffering into the fabric. “The machine was complete, but no one knew whether it would actually work. And deciding who should test it became another major problem.”

All these years, Wen Xin had devoted himself to researching time travel while Wen Tangtang remained obsessed with finding the true killer. They had no one around them they could trust or rely on. After Wen Miao’s murder, neither dared place their faith in anyone else.

So they had no choice but to conduct the trials themselves.

Nan Mu stared at her in surprise. “Both of you used it?”