Death Notice 2 Destiny

Chapter 54

"Alright." The chubby policeman waved his hand, signaling his men to pull the two young men up, and said with a forced smile, "If you can't explain yourselves clearly, you'll be in big trouble tonight!"

Because it's a villa area frequented by wealthy residents, the surveillance cameras in Jing'an Garden cover almost every corner of the complex. The movements of the two imposter police officers were also clearly shown in the footage.

At 9:35 AM, the two men emerged from a white Volkswagen Bora sedan. Dressed in police uniforms, they headed towards Meng Fangliang's residence, a few dozen meters away. After tricking the victim into opening the door, they only stayed inside for a little over two minutes before hurriedly leaving. Clearly, they had already obtained the recording tape. They then proceeded towards the artificial hill area within the residential complex. According to their explanation, they intended to hide in the hill to change and discard their uniforms, thus facilitating their escape from the complex. However, in the video footage at this point, another man was seen quietly following them.

"It's him?" Yin Jian exclaimed in surprise. It seemed that the appearance of this man was even more surprising than the loss of the cassette tape.

Luo Fei and Mu Jianyun exchanged a glance, both with grim expressions. Although the man's face was obscured by his clothes and hat, his attire and physique clearly identified him as Eumenides.

The scene that followed in the video confirmed the buzz-cut man's account: the man who resembled Eumenides followed the two to the artificial hill, quickly knocked them unconscious, then stole something from them and swaggered away.

"We saw this guy when we entered the residential area. He walked out right next to our police car!" the chubby officer said regretfully, pointing at the screen. "If only we had been more vigilant, we would have detained him then and there!"

Luo Fei simply shook his head, his thoughts unspoken: "Not to mention that this person's actions make it impossible for you to find any loopholes, even if you do discover something amiss, how could you possibly stop him with just the few of you?"

The chubby policeman, still looking eager, asked, "Should we go after this guy?"

"What he took is gone forever," Luo Fei said calmly but helplessly. "Let's try to find the person who took it and see if she made a backup."

Yin Jian shook his head, letting out a silent sigh. He knew that the person involved, in their emotional state, was highly unlikely to have thought of keeping a backup copy after immediately calling the police. What frustrated him most was: how did that guy manage to interfere again, dragging the police and Ahua into the conflict?

8:37 PM.

Tianzi Mountain Villa District is the most luxurious private residential area in the city, boasting excellent feng shui, opulent architecture, and tight security. Deng Hua's residence is located in the heart of this villa district; only such a location could reflect "Mayor Deng's" distinguished status in the provincial capital.

The atmosphere in the hall of this three-story villa was somewhat desolate. The portrait of the villa's owner was enshrined on the altar, which had not yet been removed, and the hall was decorated with a lot of black satin and white gauze.

A woman dressed in plain clothes sat on the sofa in the center of the hall. She had delicate features and a graceful figure. Although she was past her prime, her smiles and frowns still revealed a unique charm. A boy of about sixteen nestled beside her. They both looked with slightly bewildered eyes at a man in his thirties sitting to the side of the sofa.

The man was Ahua. He sat very upright, his waist and hips barely touching the edge of the sofa. This restrained demeanor was a stark contrast to his imposing presence in the outside world these past few days.

No matter what power and status he gained, when he came to this villa, he was just a servant—more than ten years ago, when Ahua first met Deng Hua, he remembered this sentence firmly.

Sitting opposite him now were Deng Hua's widow and orphaned son. To outsiders, they might just be a helpless mother and son, but in Ahua's eyes, they were his masters. He always maintained a humble attitude in front of his masters.

"You seem a little tired. Haven't you been resting well these past few days?" Deng's wife said to Ahua, her tone casual, as if she were greeting a very close family member.

"I was a bit busy—but I'm finally done." Ahua answered respectfully as he took out several printed documents and placed them on the coffee table in front of Deng's wife with both hands.

The woman picked up the document and flipped through it. Not yet accustomed to the formalities, she asked in a dependent tone, "What's this?"

"Share transfer documents—" Ahua explained, "I have acquired the company shares held by President Ling and President Meng before their deaths. Now all assets of Longyu Group belong to you and your son."

Deng's wife smiled at first, a smile of relief and satisfaction, but then she frowned slightly: "I know nothing about the company's business, and Deng Jian is still young. We shouldn't waste these assets while they're in our hands."

"You don't need to worry about that. I will hire the best professional managers to run the company. You just need to focus on your son's studies; once he's graduated, he can take over the company." Ahua said, but seeing that his master's brow was still furrowed, he added, "Don't worry, I'll manage those people. As long as I live, the Longyu Group will always belong to the Deng family!"

Deng's wife looked at Ahua, seemingly sensing the firm yet fierce meaning in his words. After a moment, she turned to Deng Jian beside her and patted him softly, saying, "Son, go upstairs and read your book first. Mom and Hua-ge will talk for a bit more and then come back."

Deng Jian nodded, stood up, and walked towards the stairwell. Ahua also stood up, bowing slightly as he watched him leave.

"Please sit down," Deng's wife said to Ahua. "We treat you like family. Deng Hua and I have different temperaments, so you don't need to be so formal in front of me."

Ahua agreed verbally, but only after Deng Jian's figure disappeared did he sit back down on the sofa.

Deng's wife began to examine the documents in her hands again, this time very carefully, and only put them down after five or six minutes. Then she turned to Ahua, stared at him for a moment, and suddenly asked, "Tell me the truth, how exactly did Ling Henggan and Meng Fangliang die?"

Ahua lowered his gaze slightly, silently staring at his toes. He knew he had no right to lie to his master; he had to find the right words. After a long silence, he raised his head and solemnly said, "They all wanted what they shouldn't have, and that's why they died."

Deng's wife sighed softly and said, "Perhaps I shouldn't have asked so many questions... Deng Hua always told me that women shouldn't interfere in things that men should handle. But many things have a cause and an effect, and I've always believed that... But he never listened to me..." At this point, the woman's voice choked up, and she looked at Deng Hua's portrait not far away, her eyes blurry with tears.

"My life was given to me by President Deng—" Ahua took a deep breath and said calmly, "As long as it's for the Deng family, I'll accept whatever the consequences."

Seeing the resolute expression on the other man's face, Deng's wife knew she could no longer change these men's ways. She wiped away her tears and suddenly said, "Give me your hand."

Ahua was taken aback, unsure of what the other person wanted to do. However, he still obeyed and raised his right hand, extending it towards the woman.

Deng's wife took a string of Buddhist prayer beads from her right wrist and gently slipped it onto Ahua's wrist. "Remember my words," she said as a final instruction.

1:37 AM on November 7th.

Ahua lay on the hotel bed, his eyes slightly closed, his breathing rapid and weary.

A seductive woman, naked, approached him, gently stroking his chest, and teasingly asked, "Handsome, what are you thinking about?"

Ahua ignored her. He pushed the woman away, grabbed his coat from the bedside, took out his wallet, threw it at her, and said coldly, "Count your money, get dressed, and leave."

The woman pursed her lips, looking rather bored. She couldn't understand why this man had changed so quickly; just a moment ago he was as passionate as fire, but in the blink of an eye he had become as cold as an iceberg.

Fortunately, he didn't dawdle when it came time to pay. Thinking this, a smile crept onto the woman's lips. She opened her purse, counted out a stack of hundred-yuan bills, and then grabbed the money to start dressing. She moved very quickly, and since she didn't have many clothes to wear, she was dressed in less than a minute.

"Handsome, don't forget me! Give me a call next time you want to hang out." The woman left a business card on the bedside table and swayed away.

Ahua reached under the pillow and fumbled for a moment before finding the Buddhist prayer beads he had deliberately removed earlier—he felt it would be a desecration to the mistress of the house if he were still wearing them while doing that thing.

A few hours earlier, when the woman placed the Buddhist prayer beads on his wrist, he fully understood her good intentions. But he could only respond with a faint bitterness in his heart: "When you're in the world, you're not in control of your own destiny."

Long ago, he had wondered: why would so many people want to kill Deng? Later, he gradually understood: that's how the world they live in is, either you kill someone, or you are killed by someone—that's their rule.

When Ling Henggan and Meng Fangliang first revealed their ambition to swallow up the Longyu Group, Ahua knew that there was no possibility of reconciliation with these two. If he didn't take them down first, he would inevitably be driven to hell by his opponents.

As Deng Hua's most trusted subordinate, Ahua's choice was no surprise. He remained outwardly calm to appease his opponents, while secretly plotting a fatal attack. He knew he couldn't afford to be careless, because his position couldn't compare to the two vice presidents; if his attack failed, he would have little chance of recovery!

To his surprise, Meng Fangliang had his own agenda. He approached Ahua to express his disgust at Ling Henggan's overstepping of authority, and at the same time, he subtly hinted that he intended to join forces with Ahua to "get rid of Ling Henggan".

Ahua understood, of course, that Meng Fangliang's attitude was not out of loyalty to the Deng family. He was simply unwilling to be a stepping stone for Ling Henggan's power grab.

Ling and Meng were both sworn brothers of Deng Hua when he was building his empire in his early years, and Meng Fangliang's status was once even higher than Ling Henggan's. However, Meng Fangliang was later convicted and imprisoned, and when he re-emerged, everything had changed. While Deng Hua was alive, he dared not have any improper thoughts, so he temporarily lay low and took a sinecure in the group, seemingly intending to retire.

Now that Deng Hua has suddenly died, a huge power vacuum has emerged in the Longyu Group. Meng Fangliang's ambition has been stirred up again. Over the years, Ling Henggan has increasingly disregarded him, and he has harbored deep resentment, but his limited power has prevented him from acting on it. However, after the meeting of the group's senior executives at the Longyu Building that day, Meng Fangliang astutely noticed Ahua's dissatisfaction with Ling Henggan. He felt that his opportunity had arrived.

Under the guise of eliminating a threat to the Deng family, Meng Fangliang planned to join forces with Ahua to remove Ling Henggan, thus paving the way for himself to rightfully ascend to the top position in the Longyu Group. Ahua accepted Meng Fangliang's suggestion, and the two began plotting to eliminate Ling Henggan. Meng Fangliang smugly believed himself to be the mastermind, but in reality, he was merely a pawn manipulated by Ahua.

At this moment, the appearance of another piece made Ahua's actions even more convenient. That night, Ahua happened to run into Han Hao, who was desperate, in his own territory. Thus, the idea of using someone else to do his dirty work began to take shape in his mind.

Ahua provided Han Hao with a place to take refuge. Han Hao, in turn, helped Ahua devise a plan to kill Ling Meng and his companion under the guise of Eumenides. At the same time, they also hoped to provoke Eumenides in this way and lure out their common enemy.

After everything was planned, Ahua found Meng Fangliang and told him that he had forged Eumenides' "death sentence notice" and would use it as a pretext to lock Ling and Meng in the same office. At that time, Meng Fangliang could use the mechanism in the video recording to pretend to be Eumenides and kill Ling Henggan.

Meng Fangliang was very interested in the plan, but he was still a little uneasy about some of the specific details.

"I'm old now; it's not easy for me to kill someone cleanly and efficiently."

"I'll arrange for you to take some sleeping pills before you rest. That way, when you do it, Ling Henggan will be sound asleep. And you won't have to answer any questions from the police afterwards, because you'll be 'asleep' at the time."

"Eumenides' 'death sentence notice' was issued to both of us, but in the end only Ling Henggan died. How do you explain that?"

"You've already served time in prison, and now you're a reformed good person. So Eumenides shouldn't have put your name on the notice. You left those materials proving your innocence by your bedside while you were asleep. Eumenides saw them, so he temporarily abandoned his plan to execute you—isn't that a plausible explanation?"

Hearing Ahua's answer, Meng Fangliang's last concerns were dispelled. He carried out Ahua's plan to murder Ling Henggan completely. After succeeding, he threw the blood-stained clothes and other items out the window, then returned to his bed and continued to "sleep soundly."

But at this point, Ahua's plan was only half complete. He already knew that Meng Fangliang was an even more ruthless and vicious thug than Ling Henggan, so how could he tolerate the other party sleeping soundly on the Deng family's side bed?

Then Ahua brought Han Hao into the scene. As soon as the office door opened, Brother Long and his men unsurprisingly rushed towards Ling Henggan, while Han Hao quickly made his way to Meng Fangliang's bedside. As a former criminal investigation captain, Han Hao's methods were extremely swift. The conscious Meng Fangliang didn't even have time to make a sound before his throat was slit. The wound faced the inner wall, and not a single drop of blood touched him.

Overnight, the two top executives of Longyu Group died together. No one in Longyu Group was now capable of threatening the safety of Deng Jian and his mother.

Later at Cam River Stadium, although Eumenides did not fall for the trap and show up, Ah Hua successfully used the police to eliminate Han Hao. He thought the plan had come to a perfect end, but unexpectedly, another twist occurred yesterday.

Ahua had previously worried that the cunning Meng Fangliang might have a backup plan. Therefore, he had installed eavesdropping devices in the Meng family villa beforehand to monitor their activities. He even assigned two henchmen to be on standby within the Meng family compound. This way, if anything went wrong, they could defuse the crisis before the police could.

A crisis has indeed occurred. Yesterday morning, Meng Fangliang's wife received a scheduled express delivery containing a cassette tape. The tape contained a recording of a conversation between Ahua and Meng Fangliang during a secret plot.

Ahua knew this must have been Han Hao's doing. It was conceivable that Han Hao had secretly recorded this evidence, and if he were killed by Ahua's scheme during the operation at the stadium, the evidence would be sent to Meng Fangliang's home the next day. Then, Meng Fangliang's family would report it to the police, preventing Ahua's men from holding Han Hao's wife and children accountable.

The two henchmen Ahua had planted in Jing'an Garden proved their worth. They impersonated police officers and managed to steal the cassette tape before the police arrived. However, as the saying goes, "the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind," another mysterious man suddenly appeared and brazenly snatched the tape away.

Ahua vaguely guessed who the person was, but he couldn't fathom their intentions. Regardless, as long as that cassette tape remained untold, every day felt like sleeping on a bomb. He truly disliked this feeling; even frantic release on women couldn't alleviate his depression.

Who knows when that bomb will detonate? Ahua pondered with his eyes closed. Finally, he sighed and gave up, because that guy was truly unpredictable.

Ahua put the prayer beads on his wrist, then got up and walked towards the bathroom. He wanted to take a good shower to wash away the blood and fatigue.

Ahua took a full fifteen-minute shower. His muscles and bones felt completely relaxed and supple. Then he left the bathroom, intending to make himself a cup of hot tea in the suite's living room.

He had just stepped out of the bedroom when his relaxed muscles suddenly tensed. He saw a dark figure sitting upright on the living room sofa. Upon seeing him, the figure casually said, "The tea is ready. Come and have a cup."

"It's you?!" Ahua stared at the tall man, his eyes blazing with fury. He slowly clenched his fists, preparing for a desperate attack.

"Don't be nervous." The man picked up his teacup and took a sip. "If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn't be sitting here."

Yes, now that he's in, he has plenty of opportunities to harm me. His current calm and composed demeanor clearly indicates he has other intentions. Realizing this, Ahua relaxed a bit. He walked towards the man and sat down opposite the shadowy figure. Then he coldly asked, "What do you want?"

The man put down his teacup and said, "Let's make a deal."

"A deal?" Ahua said through gritted teeth, "Between us, there's only life and death, not deals."

The man smiled faintly: "Life and death are life and death, and a deal is a deal. Brother Hua has been in the underworld for so many years, he should know what's going on."

Ahua remained silent for a moment, offering no rebuttal. The man then pulled something from his pocket and pushed it in front of Ahua: "This is my bargaining chip."

Ahua's pupils contracted slightly. The thing on the table was a cassette tape, and he knew perfectly well what it contained.

"And what's your offer?" he asked in a calm voice after a moment.

The man's attitude turned serious: "Take care of someone for me." He flipped his hand over, revealing a photograph lying face down in his palm.

The photo showed a delicate yet beautiful girl. Ahua remembered seeing this girl when he was investigating Asheng's death.

"Why should I take care of her?" Ahua asked, squinting slightly.

"Because you are a bodyguard," the man said with an approving smile, "and I believe that in this world, no other bodyguard is more dedicated than you."

Although he harbored a deep-seated hatred for the man, receiving his praise brought a slight smile to Ahua's face. However, he still had a question: "Can't you take care of her yourself?"

"I've lost control of my destiny." The man paused for a moment, then said in a bewildered tone, "I have to disturb a terrible person, and I don't know what the consequences will be—but I have to do it. So I must entrust some things to someone first."

Ahua nodded slowly, seemingly agreeing with the man's statement. Then he reached out and put the photo away.

The man smiled and said, "Thank you."

Ahua's face remained ashen: "Now we're even."

"I understand," the man said solemnly. "The next time we meet, it will be a matter of life and death between us."

"Very good." Ahua also picked up a cup of tea, took a small sip, and suddenly asked, "Who is that terrifying person you mentioned?"

"What's wrong?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You owe me a life—" Ahua replied coldly, "—so I don't want you to die too soon."

The man slowly licked his lips, as if even uttering that name required immense courage. After a long while, he finally uttered those two words.

The Fate of the Death Sentence (31)

7:17 AM on November 7th.

Criminal Investigation Division Office.