Chapter 298
Chapter 298
At noon, Lin Yin cooked lunch for us in the kitchen.
Boss Lin was so wealthy that he could easily have hired a temporary housekeeper from an agency.
Why trouble Lin Yin with cooking for so many people?
Song Xiaotian and I were in Seventh Master’s room, discussing when to return to the construction site.
Seventh Master planned to leave the next day. The sooner we resolved the matter and escaped this troublesome place, the better.
“Seventh Master, you’ve seen a great deal. Do you think there’s something wrong with Lin Yin?” Song Xiaotian asked.
Seventh Master’s expression was complicated. He sighed. “How do you expect me to answer something like that? The human heart is inherently difficult to see through. Pan Xiaorou’s warning may be reasonable, but that doesn’t make it correct.”
“If you insist on my opinion, I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with Lin Yin.”
According to Seventh Master, the way to determine whether a person was hypocritical was to see whether their words aligned with their heart.
Some people said one thing, but the details of their behavior revealed the opposite.
Assistant He was an example. He clearly despised the countryside, yet kept insisting how much he loved it. He was a typical hypocrite, and small details exposed his falsehood.
Lin Yin, however, was poised and gracious in every action, polite and proper.
She was even happy to speak with us and humbly sought my advice.
Her words and heart appeared aligned, with no sign of hypocrisy.
“Besides, if there is something wrong with Lin Yin, what is her objective?”
Seventh Master continued, “Her father hired us. Is she disloyal to him, like Assistant He supposedly was? If not, then there is only one other explanation. She has no objective of her own and is merely following her father’s instructions, which would mean her father is involved too.”
“Do you believe there is something wrong with Lin Jinhua?”
Song Xiaotian and I had no answer.
We had personally seen Assistant He with Jiang Dahai’s men the previous night. That meant Jiang Dahai had arranged the earlier accidents, and they had nothing to do with Boss Lin.
I also thought we were imagining too much and becoming paranoid.
I even wondered whether Pan Xiaorou was unaware that Lin Yin liked me. Perhaps she mistook Lin Yin’s attentiveness as interest in Song Xiaotian. Women were prone to jealousy, so maybe that was why she had issued the warning.
Song Xiaotian had been staring at his phone. Suddenly, he said, “Seventh Master, I’m afraid you really misjudged him this time. There is something wrong with Lin Jinhua.”
He handed over the phone. “Look for yourselves.”
Seventh Master and I hurried closer. The screen displayed a photograph containing seven names, and every one of the seven people had been born on October 20.
The sight of those familiar names made my expression change dramatically.
They were the same seven names I had photographed in Boss Lin’s study.
“What kind of list is this?”
Seventh Master’s face changed too. He quickly asked, “Where did it come from?”
I replied grimly, “I photographed it in Boss Lin’s study at the Lin residence. I thought it looked suspicious, so I asked Brother Tian to investigate. We didn’t have any conclusions then, so I didn’t mention it.”
“Now we do. This is a list for the Seven Deaths for Life Exchange.”
Seventh Master shot to his feet and stood frozen, unable to recover for a moment.
No one understood better than we did what such a list meant.
Whenever a list like this appeared, seven innocent people were bound to die.
“Lin Jinhua has… a list for the Seven Deaths for Life Exchange in his home…”
Seventh Master stared blankly at us. “He wants to use Life Extension on his son…”
I nodded. “His son fainted at home a few days ago and is recuperating in the hospital. I asked Lin Yin about it. The boy has been diagnosed with leukemia, and even the doctors say it can’t be cured. If the Lin family weren’t wealthy, he probably wouldn’t have lasted this long.”
There was no doubt about it. The list had appeared in the Lin residence because Boss Lin was preparing to use Life Extension on his son.
Seventh Master remained stunned for a long time, apparently unable to accept it.
He had always held Boss Lin’s character in high regard. Besides, Boss Lin had genuinely performed many good deeds and helped a great many people.
Even I wondered… how could Boss Lin do something like this?
“It’s human nature,” I sighed. “Even the best person can make a mistake. My father and grandfather did the same thing back then… When the life of a loved one hangs in the balance, even good people may go to extremes.”
The moment I finished, Song Xiaotian seemed to object. “Boss Lin has done far more than make a mistake. Swipe to the next photo and you’ll understand.”
I hurriedly picked up the phone and opened the next image.
It was an arrest warrant. When Seventh Master and I saw the suspect’s name, we were dumbfounded.
The warrant was for Jiang Dahai!
And it was dated three months ago!
In other words, the police had arrested Jiang Dahai three months earlier.
“He’s being held in a detention center awaiting prosecution. The list of charges is enormous. He’ll most likely receive either the death penalty or life imprisonment.”
Song Xiaotian spoke calmly. “Jiang Dahai was already locked up three months ago, and Boss Lin was the one who reported him. Boss Lin has been putting on an act and deceiving us the entire time.”
“If Jiang Dahai has already been arrested, who called us last night?”
“Jiang Dahai is stuck in a detention center and can’t even protect himself. Who could Assistant He possibly have defected to?”
“He entered the detention center three months ago. Construction at the site had only just begun around then, hadn’t it? How could Jiang Dahai have sent men to bury those objects?”
“Why did Boss Lin lie to us?”
Song Xiaotian fired question after question. I could not answer a single one. Seventh Master became unsteady and sat down.
We did not yet know the answer to any of them, but every question demonstrated that something was seriously wrong with Boss Lin.
Boss Lin… had been acting from beginning to end!
Cold sweat broke out across my body. I quickly opened the bedroom door and looked outside. Only after hearing food sizzling in the kitchen did I close and lock it again.
“Four-Eyes said something last night. He claimed that if they let us go, we would report everything to Boss Lin, and Boss Lin would certainly retaliate against Jiang Dahai.”
I suddenly realized the significance of that detail. “They had already attacked Anning and me that night in Xujia Village. Normally, we would have told Boss Lin immediately afterward. But because we suspected him at the time, we kept quiet.”
“How did Four-Eyes know we had suspected Boss Lin? How did he know we hadn’t reported the earlier attack?”
Seventh Master picked up the thought and frowned. “Unless… the men who attacked you that night in Xujia Village didn’t work for Jiang Dahai. Lin Jinhua sent them.”
“You suspected him, and he knew you did. That was why last night’s kidnapping occurred. The entire kidnapping was staged for our benefit…”