Watching Xu Yan's retreating figure as she went upstairs, Zhou Luming pondered the meaning behind her words, something just felt off. What gave her the right to accuse him of toying with her feelings? Had he inadvertently given himself away somewhere?
Just as Zhou Luming's mind was in complete turmoil, the doorbell rang. Xu Yan said the Zhou family was coming to pick her up, but they wouldn't be here so soon, would they? That Zhou family was a den of wolves, and someone was plotting against her in the shadows. Unless Zhou Luming was incredibly stubborn, even someone with a dull brain would know with a little thought that she absolutely, positively should not go to the Zhou family's old house.
She turned to the monitor and shamelessly said, "Xu Yan, I'm not going to the Zhou family. I was injured on duty, it's a work-related injury, so I'm staying at your house." Then, she steeled herself, ignored the noisy doorbell outside, went back to her room, closed the door, and ignored everyone.
Xu Yan, who witnessed this scene on the second-floor monitor, remained calm, his hands clasped on the table, and he lowered his head slightly in thought. Sending Zhou Luming back did indeed carry some risk, but if they didn't let her return, they wouldn't be able to lure out the person hiding behind the Zhou family.
The doorbell kept ringing. Xu Yan looked at the visitor, her brows furrowing slightly. It wasn't someone from the Zhou family, but a young, unfamiliar man who looked anxious and kept pressing the doorbell.
Zhou Luming's door remained tightly shut, and he resolutely refused to come out. Meanwhile, the person at the door kept ringing the doorbell, much to Xu Yan's annoyance. Left with no other option, Xu Yan pressed the call button, asking, "Who are you? Who are you looking for?"
The young man said, "My name is Wu Taihe. I work at the funeral home. I have something I'd like to see Ms. Xu Yan."
"Sorry, I don't see guests without an appointment."
Wu Taihe was taken aback. "How do I make an appointment?"
Xu Yan replied good-naturedly, "Send the email to my work email address."
"May I ask one more question? According to Ms. Xu Yan's work schedule, how long after the appointment can I see her?"
"I don't know, she chooses cases." Since the other party misunderstood that he was not Xu Yan, to avoid trouble, he decided not to waste any more words reminding him.
After saying that, Xu Yan hung up the intercom, but the young man at the door still refused to leave. He shouted loudly at the door and window, "Miss Xu, I am from the funeral home. There is a deceased person here whose last wish is to ask you to handle his estate. Please accept my appointment as soon as possible!"
Actually, Xu Yan couldn't hear his shouts at all from inside the room, but she could hear what he said through the surveillance equipment at the door. "Just because the deceased commissioned me, I have to accept it?" Commissions are two-way; she has the right to say "NO."
But Wu Taihe shouted again, "The deceased was named Lu Gang. He had just been released from prison, but he was found dead not long ago..."
This time, Xu Yan's voice quickly came through the monitor intercom, "What did you say? The client is Lu Gang?"
"Yes...yes."
“Okay, I accept your commission.” This time, Xu Yan readily agreed.
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Volume 3: The Sky-High Auction
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Chapter 28
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As Xu Yan went downstairs to greet the guests, she saw that Zhou Luming's room door was already ajar, and Zhou Luming was peeking in suspiciously.
"Come out and help me take notes," Xu Yan said with a light cough, as if she had completely forgotten about the argument and cold war between the two of them just now.
Zhou Luming was actually very curious about the story behind this unexpected visitor, so he tacitly put aside his unpleasantness for the time being and followed Xu Yan to the living room to meet Wu Taihe, the guest from the funeral home.
Wu Taihe was wearing the gray-blue uniform of the funeral home, and his hair was cut very short. After seeing the two beautiful women, he rubbed his hands together slightly awkwardly, and his expression was very restrained.
Zhou Luming originally intended to pour him a glass of water to ease the atmosphere, but Xu Yan gave him a bottle of mineral water first, and then sat down opposite Wu Taihe with Zhou Luming, talking to him across the table.
"How did Lu Gang die?" Xu Yan asked.
Wu Taihe said, "He committed suicide by jumping off a building. His body is being kept by our funeral home. We found a suicide note in his home saying that he wanted to entrust you to manage his estate, so I came here to find you."
Xu Yan raised an eyebrow. "Where did you jump off a building to commit suicide?"
"Lu's Building, he just jumped this morning, causing quite a stir. Police and firefighters came, but couldn't dissuade him. A lot of reporters gathered around to broadcast live, and I expect to see related reports soon," Wu Taihe said. "This guy signed a body donation agreement before he died, so the medical school was also paying attention. But jumping from a building over thirty stories high, his body was smashed to pieces, and it was unusable, so it was sent to the funeral home for cremation..."
Wu Taihe pursed his lips, took a sip of water, and continued, "The police found a suicide note in his house. Besides appointing you as the estate administrator, it also contained some inexplicable words."
"What did you say?" Xu Yan asked. "Where is the suicide note?"
“He wrote ‘Save me’—in red ink, it looked quite horrifying. The suicide note was on his table, placed in a very conspicuous place,” Wu Taihe said. “Because he had signed up for body donation, the medical students still performed an autopsy on his body, and they found this inside his abdomen—”
Wu Taihe took out two transparent sealed plastic bags, one containing a USB flash drive and the other a chess piece engraved with the character "将" (general).
Xu Yan took it and examined it carefully, but did not notice anything unusual.
"The suicide note is here with me." Wu Taihe took out a piece of paper, which was also wrapped in a transparent sealed bag, and handed it to Xu Yan.
Xu Yan squinted as he glanced at Lu Gang's will. It was simple: he entrusted Xu Yan to manage all his assets. However, what assets were there, and where they were, remained unknown. For Xu Yan to accept such a request would mean investigating Lu Gang's estate, a laborious and time-consuming task, and he might not even receive any reward in the end.
"Does he have any family or relatives?" Xu Yan asked.
“No, his wife died, his only daughter died, he had no brothers or sisters, and even his parents were gone…” Wu Taihe recalled, his face somewhat somber. “When he was released from prison, he had nothing with him, and no one came to pick him up. He walked out alone, and in such a cold season, he was still wearing only a single layer of clothing.”
Zhou Luming stopped writing and frowned. "It doesn't mention any inheritance, nor does it specify any heirs..." She turned to Xu Yan and asked, "Can you take on a case like this?"
Wu Taihe also looked at Xu Yan with earnest eyes, fearing that Xu Yan might change his mind and refuse to accept the offer.
Xu Yan tapped his knuckles lightly on the table a few times before stopping. "I understand. Leave your things here, and I can give you a handover form to sign. Then you can go back first."
Wu Taihe was slightly taken aback. "You really agreed?"
Xu Yan nodded and said indifferently, "Mm."
Zhou Luming printed out the handover form, had Wu Taihe sign it, and after seeing Wu Taihe off, Zhou Luming looked at Xu Yan standing in front of the French windows and asked, "Do you know Lu Gang?"
Otherwise, why would they agree to take on such a bizarre estate management case after hearing this name?
Xu Yan glanced sideways, "I don't know him."
"How could that be—"
"Turn on the TV. I want to see the news about Lu Gang," Xu Yan ordered.
Zhou Luming pressed the remote control, the TV screen lit up, and she sat on the sofa holding her laptop, organizing materials.
Lu Gang, male, 54 years old, was imprisoned three years ago for extortion. Due to good behavior during his imprisonment, he was granted a reduced sentence. Three days after his release, he stood on the roof of the Lu's Building and committed suicide by jumping off the building.
Because he was a recently released convict, and given the reputation of the Lu's Building conglomerate, the incident quickly became the focus of the entire city. As he sat on the edge of the Lu's Building rooftop, reporters on the ground snapped photos with their cameras, only to see tiny black dots, smaller than ants. Some resourceful reporters managed to get close-ups from higher floors of the opposite building. Firefighters and police officers approached him, but he calmly deflected their questions, maintaining a mysterious smile throughout.
The release of this video sparked a heated discussion, with some netizens speculating that he had lost his mind, while others thought he was possessed by an evil spirit...
In short, no one knows why he couldn't think straight, or why he chose such a flamboyant way to commit suicide.
However, Zhou Luming's biggest concern wasn't Lu Gang, but rather the relationship between Xu Yan and Lu Gang. Given Xu Yan's arrogance and her abundance of money, it couldn't be about the payment. Furthermore, based on Zhou Luming's understanding of Xu Yan over the past few days, he knew that Xu Yan wouldn't just take on a random case. There must be other reasons behind her agreeing to this.
"How do we investigate Lu Gang's estate?" Zhou Luming asked. A man who had just been released from prison had almost nothing, and based on the compensation and fines awarded in the original judgment, he shouldn't have any assets left. With neither assets nor heirs, this case simply couldn't continue…
“For real estate, you need to check the relevant records at the real estate registration department; for cash deposits and other securities, you need to check with banks and other institutions…” Xu Yan pondered, “but I guess I won’t find any valuable assets.”
She glanced at Zhou Luming and asked rather strangely, "Miss Zhou Luming, besides Lu Gang, wasn't there anything else that attracted you more when you saw this news?"
A fleeting hesitation crossed Zhou Luming's eyes before he quickly replied, "Isn't it just the Lu family, the ones I'm engaged to? I don't want to hear any words related to them."
Xu Yan pondered for a moment and said, "Lu Ke, the eldest grandson of the Lu family, is your fiancé."
Zhou Luming frowned in disgust. "It was my grandfather who arranged this marriage behind my back, but this is a society governed by law, and such things don't apply here. I will not marry him."
Xu Yan stared silently at the sealed bags: a handwritten suicide note, a chess piece, and a USB drive...
Lu Gang entrusted her with managing his estate, so what exactly is in his estate? The chess pieces and USB drive were swallowed—was he trying to hide them? He signed an organ donation agreement so that these things in his stomach would be discovered, so the USB drive and chess pieces he swallowed must be very important; they must be his true "will."
"I'm going to the Yuan Universe Building to ask Wang Anjing to help us read the USB drive." Xu Yan put on his coat and took his things.
Zhou Luming hopped and chased after him, saying, "Take me with you."
She didn't want to be abandoned by Xu Yan; if the Zhou family came later, she would be taken away.
Xu Yan hesitated slightly, but Zhou Luming shamelessly followed her into the car. Xu Yan had no choice but to accept the situation. She couldn't just imprison him in her house. Although he had a limp, he could still hop away on one leg.
Once in the taxi, Xu Yan maintained a serious expression, as if deep in thought.
Zhou Luming suddenly said, "Lu Gang was imprisoned for extortion?"
"Um."
Who were they extorting?
Xu Yan looked at her with a strange smile and said casually, "He blackmailed Luke."
Zhou Luming seemed to have discovered some shocking conspiracy. "What a coincidence that it's Luke? Back then, Lu Gang was sued by Luke for extortion, and now he committed suicide by jumping off the Lu's Building, causing a huge uproar. What grudge did Lu Gang have against Luke? Why are these two always at odds with each other?"
“If you’re curious, you can check the news reports from back then.” The car stopped, and Xu Yan got out, waiting for Zhou Luming outside with the door closed. “After all, it’s about your fiancé, so your curiosity is understandable.”
Zhou Luming corrected him seriously, "He is not my fiancé, and I did not agree to that."
The two arrived at the Yuan Universe Building and met Wang Anjing, who was busy at work. Wang Anjing's office was clean, tidy, and bright. It was said that after she took over the technical department, one of her first requirements was to balance the male-to-female recruitment ratio and select the best candidates regardless of gender. The second requirement was that offices be clean and tidy, which was also a key point in the evaluation.
As a result, the technical department, which originally had a somewhat peculiar atmosphere, was completely transformed, resulting in the current situation.
Wang Anjing examined the USB drive in the sealed bag for a while, then asked, "Can I plug it into the computer?"
Xu Yan nodded in agreement.
Seeing Wang Anjing's clean fingers take the USB drive out of the bag, Zhou Luming couldn't help but remind her, "This was taken from Lu Gang's smashed stomach..."
Wang Anjing froze for a moment, feeling somewhat caught in a dilemma.
Xu Yan said, "It's alright. Any traces on the outside will have been dissolved by the stomach acid when it was taken out of the stomach, so you can use it as you like."
Wang Anjing's lips twitched slightly, not because she was worried about the damage, but because she found the USB drive a bit disgusting...
Zhou Luming took out a tissue and handed it to Wang Anjing, "Sister, wipe your hands."
Wang Anjing was very grateful for Zhou Luming's thoughtfulness. Moreover, it made her feel young and friendly when a young girl like Zhou Luming called her "sister," which Wang Anjing appreciated. She thought Zhou Luming was a good girl.
Wang Anjing's brows gradually furrowed as she inserted the USB drive into the computer port, using a tissue as a cushion.
"A major discovery has been made," Wang Anjing said.
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Author's Note:
I am truly grateful to all the friends who left comments. No matter how well I write, you always encourage me, which gives me great strength to write.
Thank you.
Chapter 29
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Wang Anjing's tone carried a hint of surprise, clearly indicating that the contents of the USB drive were beyond her expectations. There shouldn't be many things that could surprise a tech company's technical head; ordinary hacking techniques or code would be no problem for them. What exactly was hidden in the USB drive left behind by the deceased Lu Gang that could surprise Wang Anjing?