Chapter 69

Chapter 69

After parting ways with Song Xiaotian, Meng Yifan and I went back to the real estate agency first.

Song Xiaotian was going to investigate the primary perpetrator.

Right now, that bastard mattered to us even more than Du Ruhai.

He hired someone to kill, and Fang Man died because of it. None of the three of us were going to let him off.

But to track him down, we needed at least some kind of lead to follow. The truth was, we only knew such a person existed. We didn’t know a single piece of information about him.

At the moment, our only clue was that motorcycle.

That night, when he met me outside the villa to help me get away, he left me a motorcycle.

I’d kept the bike parked inside our residential compound, and I’d already sent the plate number to Song Xiaotian.

Song Xiaotian really was skilled. He wasn’t a cop anymore, but his investigative methods were even better than many officers still on the force.

Like he put it: he couldn’t track what a ghost did, but anything a person did in modern society would leave traces. There were countless modern tools and investigative techniques that could map out someone’s movements.

If we could confirm the primary perpetrator’s identity, we would definitely gain a lot.

First, we could avenge Fang Man. Second, the primary perpetrator knew a great deal about Lv Zhengxian. He was even the one who created the monster Lv Zhengxian became, and he was the culprit behind the series of Seven Deaths for Life Exchange cases.

…

When we got back to the agency, there were still plenty of employees inside.

But some people had already written their resignation letters.

When they saw me come back, many of them came over to console me.

Someone even offered me their breakfast.

Five people turned in resignation letters. They were all longtime employees, and seeing them leave made me feel deeply reluctant.

Just half a month ago, everyone had been fine, and the agency had been fine too. Then all of a sudden…

Life’s comings and goings really do happen without warning.

I heard Meng Yifan talking things over with the others, planning to shut this branch down. After it closed, the employees who stayed would all transfer to the other branch.

Before this, Meng Yifan had planned to close the other branch.

I knew why he’d suddenly changed his mind. Because Fang Man… something happened to her right outside this branch.

Meng Yifan was afraid it would hurt me.

This branch had a small office. It wasn’t really an office, more like a storage room with employee lockers where everyone kept their files and documents.

I took out the key to my locker, planning to grab some documents and hand them to Xie Peng and Li Xingyang.

I didn’t have the energy to juggle work lately, so I was going to give them the files on those prospective clients and let them try to close the deals.

But the second I pulled the locker door open, my entire body locked up, and I almost passed out on the spot.

Inside my locker, two heads were staring straight at me.

I nearly lost my mind. I screamed and staggered backward, knocking over a desk.

Outside, Meng Yifan and the others heard the noise and rushed in.

When they saw what was inside my locker, everyone sucked in a sharp breath.

In my locker were two funeral portraits and two Ashes Urns.

The Ashes Urns were placed all the way at the back, with the two portraits propped against them. So the moment I opened the locker door, I saw two heads facing me, like they were staring right at me.
“Call… call the police! Who the hell did this!”

Xie Peng and the others pulled out their phones, ready to report the incident.

Meng Yifan hurriedly stopped them. “Don’t call the police. Everyone, go back to your work. I’ll handle this. Don’t let a word of this get out.”

After a long while of coaxing, Meng Yifan finally managed to get the others to leave.

He helped me up from the floor, his expression grim. “Aren’t these two Ashes Urns the same ones we stole before?”

The style of the urns was identical to the previous two.

But I had returned those two long ago, nearly getting buried alive in the process.

How had they been stolen again?

And why were they placed directly in my locker!

I was still shaken, and it took a long time for me to calm down. “Those two funeral portraits are likely the owners of the ashes, but who put them here?”

As long as the agency was open, there was almost always someone in the shop.

Most of the time, however, only one person stayed behind to mind the store while the others were out meeting clients. Since there was no restroom in the shop, if the person on duty had to go nearby to use one, the shop would be temporarily unattended.

Could someone have snuck in during such a gap to plant the portraits and ashes?

“Let’s check the surveillance.”

The shop had two cameras installed-one inside and one outside. The footage would surely capture whoever left the portraits and ashes.

When we stepped out of the office, the others had already left to find clients, leaving only Xie Peng behind.

“Xiao Xie, go grab some lunch first.”

Meng Yifan sent Xie Peng away.

Once Xie Peng was gone, the two of us huddled in front of the computer and pulled up the surveillance footage.

We didn’t know exactly what time frame to search, so after some thought, we started with the day Fang Man’s accident occurred.

We scanned through frame by frame until our eyes grew weary.

Meng Yifan was about to get up to grab a cigarette when I suddenly grabbed him and pointed at the screen. “I found something!”

I quickly rewound the video by one minute.

This was footage from last night, around 2:30 AM.

At this hour, the shop was definitely closed.

However, a figure appeared on the outdoor camera.

To be precise, it wasn’t a person… She wore a long black dress and red high heels, her face obscured by a mane of beautiful long hair.

Meng Yifan and I stood up abruptly, terrified. We recognized her instantly.

It was Du Yuwei!

After Du Yuwei appeared in the frame, she stood facing the shop’s front door for a moment. During that brief interval, the footage lagged, and the image froze on her standing at the entrance.

Meng Yifan and I stared at each other, a chill running down our spines despite it being broad daylight.

Du Yuwei had come to our shop. She was the one who put those things inside, and it happened just last night in the early hours of the morning.

But last night… hadn’t I been lured by her into that non-existent house?

The time she appeared at the shop was the exact same time I was in that house.

How could she be in two places at once?

What I understood even less was that Meng Yifan and I had verified early on that cameras couldn’t capture Du Yuwei; a Ghost shouldn’t show up on surveillance footage.

Yet, back at Song Xiaotian’s bar, the camera had captured her.

And now, our own shop’s surveillance had actually caught Du Yuwei on camera as well!