Военный советник и принцесса

Глава 20

In conclusion, it has been confirmed that this accident occurred due to the chaotic internal management of the elevator's maintenance unit and its failure to strictly implement the "Special Equipment Inspection Regulations," which allowed violations of operating procedures to persist for a long time, ultimately leading to a serious accident with injuries and fatalities.

"A human error?" Li Hong looked at the report and muttered to herself in confusion, "How could this conclusion be reached? What do you think?"

“I don’t think that’s the case,” Zheng Zhihao said. “The repairman has become Liu Yun’s scapegoat.”

“That’s true, otherwise the case can’t be closed,” Li Hong said. Then she remembered the maintenance worker smoking outside the elevator maintenance corridor that day—poor man!

"What do we do now?" Li Hong asked.

Zheng Zhihao didn't answer. It seemed the problem was now resolved; the repairman had admitted to his improper operation. However, Zheng Zhihao knew the real reason lay elsewhere. The investigation into Liu Yun had also stalled, and no further information could be obtained from Xu Feifei.

"What do we do now?" Li Hong asked again when Zheng Zhihao did not answer.

"Let's start with the deceased!" Zheng Zhihao finally said. "Let's investigate from the opposite direction to see if the deceased had any contact with Xu Feifei. If so, then we'll focus our investigation on Xu Feifei!"

“What about the repairman?” Li Hong said. “He will be sentenced to prison, at least three years.”

"Can you save him?" Zheng Zhihao retorted. "What evidence do you have to prove that Liu Yun caused the accident? This should serve as a lesson for the repairman's violation of operating procedures. We can't save him."

"..." Li Hong remained silent. He was still as cold and ruthless as ever, which reminded her of what had happened in Shandong: Zheng Zhihao knew his good friend Li Li was possessed, but because she wasn't in mortal danger, he ignored her and focused only on his investigation—so similar to his current indifference towards the repairman. An indescribable feeling welled up inside Li Hong...

2.10 Deceased

Li Hong sat on the sofa, carefully examining the room's layout. It was a small apartment, simply and plainly decorated, yet naturally elegant. The cute decorations on the walls and the couple's wedding photo filled the room with a warm and inviting atmosphere.

"Excuse me, we're out of drinks. How about some water?" A man approached with a teacup. He looked exhausted, his eyes were bloodshot, his beard and hair were disheveled, and his shirt was wrinkled beyond recognition. It was clear he hadn't had a proper rest in a long time.

"It's alright, it's alright," Li Hong quickly said. "I should be apologizing for bothering you at this time."

"It's nothing." The man gave a dry laugh. "After Xiao Zou left, there were a lot of things to take care of, and the house is a bit messy. Please don't mind."

"Please don't stand on ceremony." Li Hong put down her teacup. "I came here today to learn about some things about Zou Shunqing's life before his death."

The man raised his eyebrows: "You mean you want to know about Xiao Zou's life before he died? Is that necessary? After all, it was just an elevator accident."

“That’s how it is.” Li Hong swallowed hard—another long lie was about to begin—“We’re planning an exhibition with the theme of raising everyone’s safety awareness and protecting lives. We’re going to use Xiao Zou’s accident as one of the exhibits, emphasizing the need for meticulous maintenance of special equipment like elevators. Learning about Xiao Zou’s life will show everyone how such a beautiful girl was tragically killed in an accident, making visitors feel deeply saddened and more aware of their own safety.”

The man lowered his head. Clearly, Li Hong's words made him feel even worse—this was a tragedy, destroying something beautiful for people to see, and the pain in the victim's heart would be magnified infinitely.

"I'm so sorry..." Li Hong looked at the man's sad face and didn't know what to say. She didn't expect that the reason she made up would have such a bad effect. If the man jumped up and beat her, Li Hong would feel that she deserved it. This was just like rubbing salt into the wound!

"I'm so sorry..." Li Hong repeated, now she was starting to have second thoughts, perhaps her timing was very bad.

“It’s alright.” The man raised his face and stopped sobbing. “I understand what you mean, and this is a good thing. If the exhibition can save more people, our family’s suffering will be worth it.”

Li Hong felt a surge of gratitude. She hadn't expected this man to be so magnanimous, which even gave her the desire to hold this exhibition. And indeed, if this exhibition had been successfully held, it would have been incredibly meaningful.

"What would you like to know?" the man asked.

"Oh, we'd like to know a little about Xiao Zou's past, basically her life after she started working," Li Hong said vaguely.

The man hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "Xiao Zou graduated from university in 2004 with a major in Japanese. After that, she worked for a Japanese company, mainly doing copywriting, translation, and the like. I met her in 2006, and we're planning to get married this year. The house is all furnished."

As Li Hong took notes, she asked, "What are Xiao Zou's hobbies?"

"Let's sing karaoke, watch movies, and read novels."

"Do you usually like to go to bars or something?" Li Hong asked casually.

The man paused for a moment, then said, "Before I met her, she used to go to bars all the time, but she rarely went after that."

"Oh." Li Hong nodded. "What kind of bars does she like to go to?"

The man was a little surprised, but still said, "She only goes to a few places, it seems like she has old friends there, and sometimes she meets up with college classmates or something."

"Do you remember which bar she liked to go to?" Seeing that the man was getting more and more strange, Li Hong added, "I'd like to take this opportunity to visit her friends as well."

“Oh…” The man nodded. “That’s true. I’m not very familiar with her friends. After I met her, Xiao Zou has had very little contact with them. But I really can’t remember the name of the bar. I’ve never been there. It should be in the Houhai area. I think it’s called ‘Temptation’ Bar.”

Li Hong felt a surge of excitement; she had indeed found a crucial clue. She quickly jotted it down in her notebook, then looked up and smiled, asking, "Could you provide me with a few photos of Xiao Zou? We can use them for the exhibition."

******************************

"Hey! Mission accomplished!" Zheng Zhihao said happily in Li Hong's ear, "You're really something, you managed to get it done in one go."

Li Hong had a photo of Zou Shunqing tucked in her notebook, and the image of that man's agonizing loss of his lover still lingered in her mind. This didn't bring her the same joy as Zheng Zhihao; instead, it weighed heavily on her heart. She walked on silently, without saying a word.

"What's wrong?" Zheng Zhihao asked.

"It's nothing." Li Hong stepped onto the pedestrian overpass and walked slower and slower.

"Are you feeling uncomfortable?" Zheng Zhihao asked again.

"Can you please stop talking?" Li Hong said. "I'm really annoyed right now."

"You feel guilty, don't you?" Zheng Zhihao continued, "You feel like we deceived you, saying we were going to put on some kind of exhibition, but in reality, it wasn't anything like that, it was just to find clues, right?"

"That's right!" Li Hong exclaimed, "They've already gone through that, and we're still..."

“We haven’t done anything to wrong him,” Zheng Zhihao interrupted her, speaking calmly. “We’re helping him, aren’t we? What are we looking for these clues for? Isn’t it to find that damned Liu Yun? If we don’t get rid of her, who knows what else will happen? We already know of two people who have died tragically. If you include those Liu Yun killed before she died, there are now six victims.”

Li Hong stood on the overpass, watching the cars come and go below. It was getting late, the streetlights were already on, and people were hurrying home. Li Hong tilted her head back, letting the wind tousle her hair, and let out a long breath.

“I understand how you feel,” Zheng Zhihao continued. “Although our methods may not be honorable, you must know that we have not done anything immoral. We are doing good. Without us, many more people would have been harmed.”

"Alright, stop talking," Li Hong said. "I understand."

"That's right. Only when we have firm beliefs can we work better."

"Alright, alright, stop lecturing me." Li Hong suddenly felt better. Just as Zheng Zhihao said, she was doing good deeds, doing unbelievable but even more meaningful good deeds, and more people would have their lives saved because of her work. She felt her steps become lighter.

"Do you know that Temptation Bar?" Li Hong asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Zheng Zhihao said. "But my intuition tells me that Xiao Zou definitely knows Xu Feifei, and that Liu Yun's finger bone was given to her by Xu Feifei."

"Yes, I think so too. But is it really that simple?" Li Hong shook her head as she spoke. "We have more work to do!"

2.11 Bar

Finding a bar in Houhai, Beijing, is no easy task, especially since the clues were from several years ago, and it's unknown whether the bar still exists. Li Hong decided against searching Houhai bar by bar initially, and instead went directly to the local industrial and commercial bureau to check their registration information. Luckily, she quickly found information for the "Temptation" bar: opened in 2001, located at No. XX, Houhai North Bank. However, there was no further information, let alone details about the bar's staff. Li Hong's only worry now was that the bar no longer existed, but she still braced herself and took a taxi there.

This was her first time in a bar, and her mind was filled with negative impressions of bars, so she had prepared for any eventuality. The taxi stopped by the roadside, and the driver told her that this was the only place she could stop; cars couldn't go any further. Li Hong got out of the car and saw the wide expanse of Shichahai Lake right beside her. It was already dusk, and the lights of all the bars were on, their colorful lights reflecting off the dark water in a surreal way. A gentle breeze blew across the water, making her feel refreshed—sitting by the water, enjoying the breeze, sipping drinks, and chatting with friends was indeed a very pleasant experience. Li Hong couldn't help but sigh that people nowadays really knew how to enjoy themselves; she hadn't known how others enjoyed themselves until she came here.

Walking along the waterfront, you arrive at a street lined with bars. The road is quite wide, paved with neat blue bricks, but each bar has set up tables and awnings outside, leaving only a passageway for people to walk through. It's still early, and there aren't many customers, but it's bustling with activity. People are talking and laughing loudly, with a sense of heroic ambition. Li Hong feels like her eyes can't take it all in; she looks left and right, and everything seems so new and exciting.

"Stop acting like a country bumpkin, okay?" Zheng Zhihao said. "Just treat this place like a high-class street food stall."

“I’ve never been to a high-end food stall,” Li Hong said. She walked slowly, struggling to find the house number on the wall.

"You've never even eaten at a street food stall before?" Zheng Zhihao asked incredulously.

"So what if I've never eaten at a street food stall?" Li Hong asked in surprise. "Does that mean everyone should have eaten at a street food stall?!"

“Boss, you’re in Beijing, not some remote mountain village.”

"I don't like going to places like that. Why would I wander around alone?"

"Sigh, I wish I had met you sooner," Zheng Zhihao said regretfully.

"So what if you knew me earlier?" Li Hong asked, a little curious.

"If I had known you sooner, I could have gotten you!"

Hey! What did you say?!

"What's wrong? Be honest, a beauty like you would have been snatched up by someone long ago if you frequented places like this."

"I would never come here. Stop joking, we're here." Li Hong was now standing in front of a bar at No. XX on the north bank of Houhai, but the bar's name wasn't "Temptation".

"Are you sure we're here?" Zheng Zhihao asked doubtfully.

Li Hong was also feeling uneasy. This bar called "Teahouse" looked exactly like a teahouse, with a late Qing Dynasty-style archway exterior, large lanterns hanging in front of the porch, and a waiter wearing a crooked melon-shaped hat standing at the entrance calling out, "Welcome! Please come in~~~"

Li Hong laughed. It seemed the bar had changed hands and was now a teahouse with old Beijing characteristics; the original bar was completely unrecognizable. Li Hong didn't believe Xiao Zou would be a regular tea drinker instead of a sophisticated bar frequented by other white-collar workers. The name "Temptation" itself sounded quite bourgeois. The bar must have changed.

"How many of you are there, esteemed guests? We have private rooms inside," the waiter enthusiastically invited.

Li Hong shook her head and continued walking forward. It seemed she could only circle around again to see if there was another Temptation Bar; if not, she would have to come back here. As expected, the area had changed drastically in a few years. Even Xiao Zou probably wouldn't be able to find the bar he used to frequent.

Fortunately, the street wasn't long. Li Hong walked around, but apart from seeing bars with names like "Moonlight," "Paradise Slow Rock," "Vanilla," and "Houhai No. 5," she couldn't find a bar called "Temptation." This made her feel increasingly worse—perhaps Xiao Zou's fiancé had simply remembered the name wrong, or perhaps the bar had already closed down. Even if she went back to the teahouse now, she probably wouldn't be able to get any useful information.

"What should I do?" Li Hong was a little tired and stood there, not knowing where to go.

"I don't know either," Zheng Zhihao said, sounding dejected.

Suddenly, Li Hong felt a sharp pain in her hand, followed by Zheng Zhihao's tense voice: "I can smell Liu Yun!"

"What?!" Li Hong was shocked. She immediately stood up straight and began to look around.

"Over there! Near the water."

Li Hong walked quickly forward in the direction Zheng Zhihao had indicated. She didn't know what she would see, but she was certain that something unusual would happen.

She hadn't walked more than a few steps when she heard someone shouting loudly on the shore, followed by a commotion among the crowd.

"Oh no! Something's happened! Go check it out quickly!" Zheng Zhihao urged.

Li Hong ran a few steps, struggling to squeeze through the crowd, and reached the shore. Only then did she realize that someone had fallen into the water. Strangely, the person didn't struggle, but let their body slowly sink, quickly disappearing from sight on the dark water.

Without much thought, Li Hong immediately climbed over the railing, took a deep breath, and jumped into the water—her intuition told her that even if the person who fell into the water could swim, there might be great danger due to the low water temperature and the special reasons that only she knew. Things were definitely not as simple as an accident, and she could not hesitate.

The river water was icy cold. Even in the height of summer, the sudden contact of such cold water with an unwarmed body would still make one shiver. Li Hong felt as if she had jumped into an ice cellar, a chill running through her entire body, especially her legs, which seemed unable to muster any strength. Her ears suddenly went deaf. She struggled to open her eyes in the water, trying to find the shadow of the person who had fallen in. But there was no light in the water, and her eyes hadn't fully adjusted to the darkness; she couldn't see anything more than half a meter away.

"At the 2 o'clock position on your right, about 1 meter away, it's still sinking." Zheng Zhihao's words echoed clearly in my mind.

Without hesitation, Li Hong immediately began swimming towards the drowning person. She could now see a whitish mass there. She used all her strength, kicking her legs with all her might, trying to grab the drowning person in one swift motion.

Her hand quickly touched the drowning man's bare arm. Li Hong adjusted her position and pulled him towards her until she was hugging him from behind. She began to paddle with one arm and swim forcefully towards the surface with both legs. At that moment, she felt like her lungs were about to burst; an instinct to surface for air made her disregard everything else and focus solely on kicking her legs with all her might. The drowning man's belt seemed to have cut her toes, and the excruciating pain made her shudder again.

"Come on! Come on! We're almost out!" Zheng Zhihao kept encouraging him.

The water was too cold; it had been very warm on the shore just moments before. Now, jumping into the water was too much for Li Hong's body. The sudden exertion of all her strength caused her left leg to cramp. This left her completely powerless, and her body was becoming increasingly heavy. Her muscles ached, her arm movements became erratic, and her instinctive breathing caused her to swallow a large mouthful of water, which stung her nose.

Less than five centimeters from the water's surface, Li Hong's left leg finally became paralyzed. Her toes and calf spasmed violently, making her feel as if her leg was about to be torn apart from her body. Even more terrifying, Li Hong felt a strong hand silently grab her right leg, which was still forcefully treading water, and abruptly pull her underwater. This sudden resistance startled her, and she looked down to see what was causing it. Then, she saw a pale hand resting on her right ankle.

Oh no, that must be Liu Yun's hand... Li Hong's brain began to go numb, and then she choked on another mouthful of water. She felt like a tattered sack full of lead weights, beginning to sink to the bottom of the water.

"Don't give up! Keep going! You can shake it off!!" Zheng Zhihao shouted hoarsely.

I can't swim anymore, I'm out of strength...

Suddenly, Li Hong felt lighter. The person she had been holding was pulled away, and an arm wrapped around her chest, forcefully pulling her towards the surface. Soon, Li Hong's face surfaced. She greedily gasped for fresh air, coughing loudly from time to time. The dead hand on her right ankle was gone, making her feel light as if she were being carried towards the riverbank. Her eyes and nose still burned, but she saw another person leading the person she had just rescued not far away.

"We're saved..." Li Hong heard Zheng Zhihao's last words and the cheers and applause from the people on the shore before losing consciousness.

2.12 Admission

"Hey, wake up, wake up..."