Chapter 83

Chapter 83

With the telecom company boss’s orders, things moved quickly. Two hours later, Xu Yang brought back the communication records Nan Mu had requested.

Nan Mu opened the envelope; inside was just a single thin sheet of paper.

Ten years later, he once again saw the last few messages Wen Miao sent him ten years ago.

[Nan Mu, answer the phone!]

[Nurse Xiao Ai and Xu Lei are in cahoots; she might be planning to harm you! Stay safe!]

[When you see this, contact me immediately!]

[Are you okay? Are you still safe?]

[We are on our way.]

The texts were all sent in the afternoon of October 23, 2022. After that, there were no more messages.

===

Nurse Xiao Ai and Xu Lei are in cahoots.

Wen Miao would never jump to such a conclusion unless she had solid proof that Xiao Ai and Xu Lei knew each other.

But this plunged Nan Mu back into an impenetrable fog.

Because if Xiao Ai was one of Xu Lei’s people, and Nan Mu had witnessed Xu Lei kill Wen Miao, then Xiao Ai must also be someone who wanted Wen Miao dead.

“What’s so strange about that? It just means you were right to push her off that building.”

Qiu Ziyu grabbed a piece of mango from the fruit platter Xu Yang had cut for Nan Mu and popped it into his mouth. “I think it’s pretty clear. This Xu Lei and Xiao Ai must be on the same side.”

“If I pushed the right person, then why did Wen Miao still fall off the building?”

Qiu Ziyu’s hand, reaching for another piece of fruit, froze mid-air. “Could it be that Xu Lei went there and pushed her off?”

“But Nurse Lin was on the rooftop at the time.” Nan Mu raised an objection. “If Xu Lei pushed Wen Miao off, he couldn’t have avoided being seen by Nurse Lin. As the murderer, Xu Lei had no reason to kill only Wen Miao and let a witness go.”

Qiu Ziyu sucked in a breath of cold air. “Could Nurse Lin and Xu Lei be in on it together?”

“Then wouldn’t Nurse Lin and Xiao Ai also be working together?” Nan Mu followed Qiu Ziyu’s logic. “If they were all in cahoots, why didn’t they push both me and Wen Miao off while we were unconscious? And don’t forget, when I woke up in the middle of it, I saw the two of them fighting. It was a real fight-they even broke the railing!”

“That doesn’t quite add up.” Qiu Ziyu scratched his head. “Could it be they were originally on the same side but turned on each other halfway through?”

“Maybe.” Nan Mu racked his brains but still couldn’t imagine what might have happened. “For now, we just have to investigate Xiao Ai’s identity and see what connection she has with Xu Lei.”

That was the only option. Qiu Ziyu said he would look into the link between them once he got back.

“By the way, did you get the surveillance footage from An Zi like I asked?”

“Got it ages ago. I also looked into the relationship between Lin Zhengfeng and Nurse Lin.”

As he spoke, Qiu Ziyu stuffed a pear into his mouth and pulled out his ever-present notebook, flipping it open.

“Nurse Lin and Lin Zhengfeng are both from Lin Family Village. Specifically, they’re uncle and niece. Lin Zhengfeng was the youngest son of the Lin family, a child born when his parents were already old.”

Nan Mu already knew this; he had previously learned about Lin Zhengfeng’s family through An Zi.

Lin Zhengfeng had six older sisters and one older brother. He was the youngest son. When he was eight, his older brother died in a car accident, leaving Lin Zhengfeng as the sole male heir of the Lin family.

“Lin Zhengfeng’s older brother had a six-year-old daughter at the time of his death-that daughter is Nurse Lin. After her father died, her mother remarried not long after. Nurse Lin was left with the Lin family, so you could say she and Lin Zhengfeng grew up together.”
Nan Mu looked thoughtful. “Then she and Lin Zhengfeng must have been close, right?”

If Lin Zhengfeng had been hired to kill Wen Miao, then after Lin Zhengfeng was murdered, it wouldn’t be impossible for Nurse Lin to develop murderous intent toward Xu Lei’s group, or even Xiao Ai. But… if she already held a grudge against Xu Lei and the others, why would she help Xu Lei kill Wen Miao?

“No, no, no.” Qiu Ziyu could tell at a glance that Nan Mu was overthinking it. “Nurse Lin and Lin Zhengfeng were not close at all. Not. One. Bit.”

Seeing the puzzled look on Nan Mu’s face, he went on to explain, “It was common knowledge that the two of them had a bad relationship. Even Lin Zhengfeng’s older sisters said so. But as for why exactly they didn’t get along, there are all kinds of stories.”

“This is what Lin Zhengfeng’s sisters said: Lin Zhengfeng was the son his parents had late in life, so he was spoiled rotten from childhood. He and Nurse Lin were also close in age, and when kids grow up together, it’s normal for there to be bumps and conflicts. But every time, the Lin parents sided with their own son. Nurse Lin was always bullied by Lin Zhengfeng, and after it happened again and again, the two of them naturally ended up on bad terms.”

“But then I asked other people in the village, as well as Nurse Lin’s biological mother, and their version was different. They said it was definitely true that the Lin parents favored their own son. But the main reason was that when Nurse Lin’s father died in a car accident, Nurse Lin told the adults that her dad had only been hit because her uncle pushed him in front of the car. Of course, no one believed her at the time. For one thing, Nurse Lin was only six then, and Lin Zhengfeng was only eight. No one believed a child that young could push an adult. More importantly, no one believed he would actually push someone. But later, when I asked Nurse Lin’s biological mother, she told me that back then, Nurse Lin really had kept repeating to her that it was her uncle who killed her father.”

“Then why didn’t she believe her?” Nan Mu asked, unable to understand. No matter what, if your own daughter kept saying her uncle had killed your husband, shouldn’t you at least look into it?

“Exactly. I asked her the same thing.” Qiu Ziyu sighed with some emotion. “But apparently, the driver who hit and killed her husband was a rich man. That day, he’d been passing through Lin Family Village on his way to a wedding banquet in a nearby village. The man had a bit to drink at the wedding. He had a driver with him originally, but halfway through the banquet, the driver had some urgent matter to deal with and left first. It wasn’t easy to call a designated driver out in the suburbs, so he thought that on these little village roads out here, there was no way traffic police would be checking for drunk driving. So he drove himself. And then the accident happened. By then, it was already getting a little dark, and on top of that he’d been drinking, so he couldn’t remember clearly how he ended up hitting her husband. But no matter what, he’d been drinking, which meant he was driving under the influence. So he begged the Lin family not to call the police and offered one million yuan to settle the matter privately. Six daughters, two sons-the Lin family had never seen a sum as huge as one million yuan in their lives. After the Lin parents had cried their fill, they thought it over and over and finally decided that the person was already dead, and having money was better than having none. So they agreed. And then, around that time, Nurse Lin said her dad had been pushed out by her uncle…”

Nan Mu understood at once. “If they proved that their eldest son was only hit by the car because their youngest son pushed him out, then not only would they have lost a son, they might not get that one million yuan either. So whether it was his parents, his sisters, or his wife, they all decided to cover up the truth of how he really died…”