Chapter 71
Chapter 71
Meng Yifan and I were stunned.
There were actually three funeral portraits?
Did that mean three people were already dead?
But when we opened the black package and saw the third portrait, I nearly dropped it in shock.
This third portrait was of a baby!
“This… this…”
I looked at the shop owner, genuinely rattled. “Boss, why is this a baby?”
The infant in the portrait looked to be only a few months old, fair-skinned and chubby.
However, there was something strange about this portrait. It was a drawing-a sketch-rather than a funeral portrait made from an actual photograph.
“I was wondering the same thing myself.”
The owner’s expression turned awkward. “Logically speaking, when a baby that young passes away, there’s no need to make a funeral portrait. It doesn’t serve much of a purpose; it’s just a source of grief for the parents.”
“But that young lady insisted on having it made. She didn’t have a photo of the baby, so she gave me a sketch to work from. I’m running a business here, and I have no reason to turn away a customer, so I made it.”
I held the portrait, and the more I looked at it, the more eerie it felt.
Meng Yifan leaned in and whispered, “What on earth is Du Yuwei up to? It’s like she knew we’d come to this shop. She even left this portrait for us… Who is this baby? Hers?”
I shook my head, saying I had no idea.
Assuming Du Yuwei really did have a child, then the child must be dead. If the child were alive, there wouldn’t be a funeral portrait.
But who did she have this child with?
It couldn’t be Du Ruhai’s, could it…
“Since she said to leave the portraits for you, I’m handing them over now. She already paid for them,” the owner told us.
I asked him another question: “After you finished the portraits, did she see them?”
The owner nodded. “She saw them. When she came to pick up the other two, she looked at this one, then wrapped it in a black bag herself. She told me to keep it here, saying you two would come to collect it in a few days.”
“Alright, thank you for your help.”
After leaving the shop, I spent a long time lost in thought.
Setting aside whose child the baby in the portrait was for a moment, the real question was why she had left this portrait for Meng Yifan and me.
A funeral portrait on its own probably didn’t mean much, unless Du Yuwei had left some kind of information on it.
I quickly removed the frame from the portrait. Sure as I expected, a note was hidden inside.
“What does it say?” Meng Yifan asked, leaning over in surprise.
There were three lines of text written on the note.
The first line was the name of a company: Le’an Funeral Company.
The second line: My child is here.
The third line: Bring out my child’s ashes, and I will tell you who killed Fang Man.
Those three short lines left Meng Yifan and me in a state of shock for a long while.
Du Yuwei was offering us a deal.
“She really did have a child!”
Meng Yifan’s eyes went wide. “When did she give birth?”
I looked at him. “Buddy, I’m not the father. Why do you keep asking me?”
Moreover, my focus wasn’t on Du Yuwei’s child, but on the content of the third line.
When I read Du Yuwei’s diary last night, she had already told me who killed Fang Man-it was the primary culprit.
Therefore, with the content of that third line, Du Yuwei wasn’t planning to tell us that the primary culprit killed Fang Man; she was going to tell us the primary culprit’s identity!
As long as we helped her steal her child’s ashes, we would find out who that person was.
“So, are we going to check out this funeral company now?” Meng Yifan asked me.
I thought for a moment, frowning. “That infant was Du Yuwei’s child, but who was the father? Given Du Ruhai’s pathological possessiveness over her and her fear of him, I don’t think it’s likely the child belonged to another man.”
“If it was Du Ruhai’s, do you think he would have liked the child?”
Meng Yifan considered this. “Du Ruhai loved Du Yuwei so much that he insisted on marrying her even after she died. To him, that child would have been… the crystallization of their love. He probably would have liked the child.”
I countered, “If he liked the child, then how did the infant die? Du Ruhai has massive assets and a huge business empire. From the moment that baby was born, they would have had the best formula and the best hospitals if they got sick. How could the child just die?”
I felt like something was wrong.
I quickly called Song Xiaotian, and he picked up almost immediately.
“Brother Tian, can you check something for me? See if Du Yuwei had any prenatal checkup records or birth records at any hospitals while she was alive.”
“What!”
Song Xiaotian shouted, “That’s some explosive news! Where did you hear that?”
I said, “Just help me look into it first. Meng Yifan and I are heading out to handle something right now. Let’s meet up tonight and talk.”
“Alright,” Song Xiaotian said. “Stay safe.”
After hanging up, Meng Yifan and I didn’t waste any time and headed straight to the funeral company.
I looked it up online. Le’an Funeral Company was one of the top leading enterprises in the funeral industry in Lanjiang City. Their clientele consisted of high-end groups.
To put it bluntly, they only did business with the middle class and the wealthy.
Their services were expensive, their products were expensive, and their cemetery plots were expensive-usually costing around a million yuan.
I was now even more certain that the infant was Du Ruhai’s child. Why else would he bury the child in such a prestigious place?
When we arrived at Le’an Funeral Company, a receptionist greeted us.
She told us she would arrange for a specialist to give us a one-on-one explanation of the company’s products and services and asked us to wait a moment.
The so-called specialist was actually just a salesperson.
While waiting, Meng Yifan asked me, “Since Du Yuwei knows where the child’s ashes are buried, why doesn’t she go steal them herself? Or have the person backing her do it? Why send us?”
“That’s exactly why we’re here,” I replied. “Du Yuwei definitely doesn’t dare to go, and neither does the person behind her. Why not? I suspect Du Ruhai places a lot of importance on those ashes and might have people guarding them. We need to scout the place first and see what’s really going on.”
Before long, the specialist arrived.
We were posing as wealthy clients. If a deal was made, he would earn a very handsome commission, so his service was naturally very enthusiastic.
I told a lie, saying an elder in the family didn’t have much time left and we were here to look into things in advance.
The specialist talked for a long time, going into great detail, though I didn’t pay much attention to the products and services he described.
However, one piece of information caught my interest.
I asked him, “You mentioned earlier that your company recently developed a new cemetery, and the prices there are significantly higher than your other locations. I’d like to know more about this new cemetery.”