Chapter 80

Chapter 80

Even though I didn’t want to admit we’d taken the wrong ashes, Du Yuwei was a mother. It was impossible for her to misidentify her own child.

Furthermore, an extra shadow had appeared in the room-the shadow of an adult man. It was already confirmed that this was not Du Yuwei’s child.

My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. After risking my life and working myself to the bone, it turned out to be a wild goose chase.

While I was still dazed, the shadow began to move. It stretched out like a piece of pulled dough, its head extending directly toward the door.

In the blink of an eye, the shadow vanished, darting right out of the room.

Without a second thought or a moment’s hesitation, I threw open the door and gave chase.

I chased it downstairs, out of the residential complex, and down an entire street. Finally, at a crossroad, the shadow transformed into a man standing with his back to me.

“Who are you!” I shouted, skidding to a halt to confront him.

At that moment, he turned around and looked at me with a calm expression.

It was a stranger’s face-middle-aged and refined. For some reason, the moment I laid eyes on him, I felt an inexplicable sense of kinship.

I didn’t know why I felt that way; I just had the nagging feeling that I knew him. Yet, no matter how much I searched my memory for everyone I had ever met, I couldn’t place him.

Moreover, this man was dead. He was a Ghost.

While I was lost in thought, the man vanished again, as if he had never existed.

I stood there for a long time. No matter how much I racked my brain, I couldn’t understand why someone else was buried in that grave.

If we had simply made a mistake from the start, then why did we alert Du Ruhai’s bodyguards last night?

I sighed, not daring to go back to that house to face Du Yuwei. It was one thing to fail to bring her child back, but to bring her someone else’s ashes instead was another matter entirely.

I jogged all the way home. As I approached my building, I saw Song Xiaotian and Meng Yifan pacing back and forth downstairs, looking extremely anxious.

“Holy shit, where the hell did you go?”

“You didn’t take your phone! We thought something happened to you again!”

They started berating me the moment they saw me.

I looked at them, honestly not knowing how to start. “I went to Du Yuwei’s place. I was supposed to give her child’s ashes back to her, but there’s been a twist. I have some bad news…”

Hearing my words, the two of them froze, their expressions turning tense.

“What bad news?”

“Did Du Yuwei back out? Did she refuse to tell you who killed Xiaoman?”

I sighed and said, “We got the wrong ashes. Those aren’t her child’s remains at all. They belong to an adult.”

Song Xiaotian: “…”

Meng Yifan: “…”

They were completely stunned, unable to process the information for a long time.

“So you’re saying after everything we did and all the crap we went through, it was all for nothing?” Song Xiaotian asked, his voice rising with emotion.

I nodded. “Pretty much. And Du Yuwei is furious.”

Meng Yifan cursed, “What is wrong with Du Ruhai? Why would he bury someone else’s ashes there? If that grave belongs to someone else, why was he monitoring the cemetery? That grave definitely has something to do with him. What the hell is he playing at?”

I shook my head, equally baffled.

Song Xiaotian scratched his head and frowned. “If that wasn’t the grave of Du Yuwei’s child, how do you explain the name on the headstone? And the epitaph?”

I thought back to the inscription on the tombstone. I remembered it saying: ‘Life and death are but ordinary matters; I only wish for my son to sleep in peace.’
The name engraved on the tombstone was ‘Du Mingyang.’

The deceased shared the surname Du, and considering the inscription, this Du Mingyang had to be the child of Du Ruhai and Du Yuwei.

However, the remains we had exhumed definitely belonged to an adult-a middle-aged man, in fact. There was no way that could be Du Ruhai’s son.

“Is it possible that even Du Ruhai doesn’t know whose ashes are buried in there?” Song Xiaotian suddenly asked, looking at us.

I caught on immediately. “You mean… Du Ruhai intended to bury his child’s ashes, but they were swapped out midway without him ever noticing?”

Song Xiaotian nodded. “It’s the only possibility. Otherwise, why would he monitor that cemetery so closely? If this Du Mingyang wasn’t his son but just some other member of the Du Family, do you really think he’d place this much importance on them?”

I shook my head.

Du Ruhai wasn’t originally a Du; his real surname was Lyu.

Therefore, Du Mingyang was the child he shared with Du Yuwei.

He had spent a fortune to buy a Phoenix Grave just to lay his child to rest, only for someone else’s ashes to be buried there instead. I felt Song Xiaotian’s analysis was spot on; the ashes must have been swapped.

But who could have done it?

Who had the capability to swap the ashes of Du Ruhai’s son right under his nose?

“The person who did this must be someone close to Du Ruhai.”

Song Xiaotian continued his analysis, “Moreover, Du Ruhai must trust this person implicitly. It’s likely they were present during the burial-perhaps they were even the one who applied the talismans and hung the copper mirror.”

Meng Yifan and I didn’t even have to think. We blurted out the name simultaneously: “Old Zhao Seven!”

Song Xiaotian had practically been leading us to that name.

“Damn it, Old Zhao Seven again! What exactly is this guy’s deal?” Meng Yifan cursed. “How is he involved in everything!”

I also found it absurd.

If you looked at the things Old Zhao Seven did, every single one of them was baffling.

If you called him a good person, he worked for Du Ruhai and was treated as an honored guest. When we went to the Weihai Group that day, he had defended Du Ruhai at every turn.

But if you said he was on Du Ruhai’s side, the man was constantly doing things behind Du Ruhai’s back.

What a backstabber!

I almost felt like reporting him to Du Ruhai myself.

“But what’s his motive for swapping the ashes?” Meng Yifan asked, confused.

I replied, “Nothing this man does is surprising, yet everything he does is strange. Let’s ignore his motive for now. The important thing is, where did he hide Du Mingyang’s ashes?”

Song Xiaotian suggested, “Could they be hidden at his house? After all, if the ashes were useless to him, he wouldn’t have bothered swapping them.”

We talked it over and decided to commit another theft-this time, we were going to break into Old Zhao Seven’s house.

Although we weren’t certain the ashes were there, we had no other leads. We could only go there and try our luck.

Going tonight was out of the question; he would definitely be home resting. We planned to go tomorrow during the day, after he headed out.

The next morning.

The three of us got up early, intending to stake out the area near Old Zhao Seven’s home.

Just as we were about to head out, Meng Yifan received a call. It seemed to be from Xie Peng.

I didn’t know what Xie Peng said on the other end, but Meng Yifan’s expression suddenly turned grim, his brow furrowing into a tight knot.

“Don’t call the police. It’s useless.”

“Wait until we get there.”

After he hung up, I asked him what was wrong.

He stared at me blankly, gritting his teeth as he spoke. “The shop was trashed last night!”