Unlike the captain's upscale residence, flight attendant Zheng Xiaowei's home is in a demolished urban village community. The houses here are cheap and in good locations, so landlords are dividing up their houses into single rooms for rent. Most of the tenants are young people who have just come to the city and are ready to make a living.
"Zheng Xiaowei lives here?" Zhou Luming was a little surprised. She thought that flight attendants were dressed smartly, had exquisite makeup, and had a good income, so they should live in a decent place. But she didn't expect it to be like this.
Xu Yan's Land Rover was blocking the entrance, brushing past people coming and going, especially those on electric scooters, with the risk of a minor collision. Passersby glanced at the luxury car, trying to peek inside.
Zhou Luming rolled down the car window and asked the security guard at the security booth where he could park. Wang Chenchen in the back seat said, "There's no parking inside, and there aren't any designated parking spaces. You can drive your car to the building across the street and park in the underground garage. It's safer, but the fee will be higher. However, I don't think you'll mind the cost."
Xu Yan told Zhou Luming to stop at the building across the street.
When they came out of the garage, Wang Chenchen walked ahead silently into the community. Xu Yan quietly pulled Zhou Luming's wrist, raised his chin, and gestured for Zhou Luming to slow down and follow behind Wang Chenchen.
The neighborhood has very well-developed amenities, including fruit shops and general stores, snack shops and noodle shops along the street, and even an internet cafe. It feels like a university town, where young students just entering the workforce temporarily reside.
After several twists and turns, Wang Chenchen led the way and successfully found Zheng Xiaowei's floor. There was no elevator, so they walked up the stairs. The stairwell was covered with small advertisements, making it look messy and disorganized.
“This is the place,” Wang Chenchen said. “But so much time has passed, the tenants have probably changed several times. You probably won’t find what you’re looking for here.”
"Where are Zheng Xiaowei's parents? Didn't they come to the insurance company to claim compensation today?" Zhou Luming asked.
Wang Chenchen shook her head and said with a wry smile, "Her parents are both in their hometown, which is remote and inconvenient to get to. Her father is a farmer, and her mother had a stroke a few years ago. Neither of them came after the accident, and they won't go to the insurance company to claim compensation now. They don't even know that they can get compensation."
Xu Yan asked, "What is your relationship with Zheng Xiaowei?"
Wang Chenchen was very familiar with where Zheng Xiaowei lived and knew about her family situation, which was beyond what an insurance agent would typically know about a policyholder. He and Zheng Xiaowei were about the same age, and considering all these factors, the two must have known each other before.
Sure enough, Wang Chenchen said with tears in her eyes, "She's from my hometown, and we both graduated and work in Haishi. She went to a vocational school, so she graduated a year earlier than me. I—we..."
"Are you a couple?" Xu Yan asked casually.
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Author's Note:
Fix bugs
Chapter 18, Section 18 - Repair
======================
Wang Chenchen stared at Xu Yan in shock, pursed his lips, and ultimately did not refute. No rebuttal meant tacit agreement. Xu Yan shifted his gaze away from him and added, "It seems Zheng Xiaowei helped sell insurance to the other three people, helping your boyfriend achieve his sales targets and solidify his position."
“It’s been two years since this happened, and the tenants inside have probably changed several times. Is it still necessary for us to go in and investigate?” Zhou Luming asked.
"Since we're here, let's go in and take a look," Xu Yan said.
Wang Chenchen was a little embarrassed, "After Xiaowei's accident, the landlord rented the house to someone else..."
The moment the words left his mouth, the door opened, and a man in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts emerged, carrying a trash bag and wearing plastic slippers. Upon seeing three people standing at his door, including two pretty girls, his initially questioning expression softened instantly. "Who are you looking for?"
"We're here to look at apartments, but it seems we've gone the wrong way." Zhou Luming smiled sheepishly. "This real estate agent doesn't seem to know the area either. Excuse me, is this building 3, unit 10?"
The man carrying the garbage bag glanced at Wang Chenchen. His cheap suit and uniform did indeed make him look like a real estate agent, but he looked somewhat familiar. "Miss, you've come to the wrong place. This is Building 3, Unit 7. The unit you need is in the two buildings behind."
Zhou Luming continued with a smile, "Thank you, but the real estate agent didn't bring any keys. If all the apartments have the same layout, can we go in and take a look?"
The man looked at Wang Chenchen with disdain, "What kind of real estate agent are you? You bring people to see a house without even bringing your keys?"
Wang Chenchen quickly apologized with a smile, "I'm sorry, I just graduated and started working here and I'm not familiar with the business yet. Could you please do me a favor, sir? Otherwise, if a customer complains, I might lose my job." He offered the man a cigarette.
Upon seeing that another resident had moved in, Xu Yan was about to turn and leave when Zhou Luming grabbed her. Zhou Luming winked at Xu Yan, sensing that something was amiss.
"Then, then come in." The man actually let the three strangers in.
"Thank you so much! Otherwise, we would have come for nothing." Zhou Luming smiled broadly, revealing his white, even teeth as he smiled at the man.
The man was completely infatuated.
The three of them entered the house without incident. The house was actually quite small. There was a simple folding table, two stools, and a shoe rack next to the door. The bathroom was on the right and the bedroom was on the left.
Xu Yan glanced at the bathroom. There was a wrinkled gray towel, but hanging below it was a bright pink, high-quality foot towel. There were two toothbrush cups, one for holding a toothbrush and the other for holding toothpaste and a razor.
Turning to the bedroom, there was a large bed, about 1.8 meters wide, and a simple wardrobe. On the bed were piles of men's clothes, which looked messy and smelled bad.
Xu Yan's brows furrowed more and more. He resisted the urge to turn around and leave, went back outside, took a deep breath, and looked at the paintings on the wall and the wall with obvious adhesive marks.
"I've finished reading, let's go." Xu Yan took a step and walked out as if fleeing.
Zhou Luming smiled and said, "Thank you, brother. See you later."
The man waved to her and said, "Beautiful lady, can I have your WeChat? You can ask me any questions after you move in, or you can contact me if you need help moving."
Zhou Luming casually rattled off a string of numbers to dismiss the man.
Xu Yan walked at a very fast pace, his hands in his pockets.
Zhou Luming finally caught up with them. "Did you find anything just now?"
Xu Yan rolled her eyes at her and said indifferently, "I've noticed you can change your expression."
"So which side of me do you like? Do you like me as a petite, dependent woman, or as domineering?" Zhou Luming followed Xu Yan with a smile. "Whichever type you like, I can become that type."
Xu Yan stopped, turned his head and carefully examined Zhou Luming for a moment, "Miss Zhou, do you intend to rape me?"
Zhou Luming's heart skipped a beat when she looked at him, but he forced himself to remain calm and said, "You are my boss, and I am expressing my admiration for you."
"Sorry, our interests don't align," Xu Yan said coldly. "Get in the car, we still have time to get to the co-pilot's house."
"But Wang Chenchen hasn't caught up yet. Shouldn't we wait for him?" Zhou Luming asked Xu Yan, who was sitting next to him, after getting into the car and closing the door. The two were walking too fast; Wang Chenchen seemed to have lingered in the house for a while and hadn't caught up yet.
“We don’t need him anymore, he doesn’t need to follow us anymore,” Xu Yan said, sitting down.
Zhou Luming smiled and said, "You really are a cold-blooded person. You used people and then abandoned them. You have no humanity at all."
Xu Yan ignored her.
"Since Wang Chenchen and Zheng Xiaowei are in a romantic relationship, and it was Wang Chenchen who sold the insurance, could it be that Zheng Xiaowei and Wang Chenchen are colluding to commit insurance fraud?" Zhou Luming suddenly thought of a possibility on the way.
Xu Yan shook his head. "It's unlikely, because neither Wang Chenchen nor Zheng Xiaowei has the ability to devise such a massive plan to defraud insurance. They are both junior employees in their respective companies. To do something like this, one would need to be at least a mid-to-high-level manager. Besides, Wang Chenchen really likes Zheng Xiaowei. The two young people are working hard for their future in this city. Their future has just begun. Wang Chenchen wouldn't harm Zheng Xiaowei."
Zhou Luming recalled carefully that the current tenants still kept some of Zheng Xiaowei's things: a folding table with two stools, a towel used as a foot towel in the bathroom that might have been Zheng Xiaowei's towel back then, and a matching toothbrush cup...
These things are sweet traces of the two of them living together.
“What a pity. A young couple deeply in love, one disappeared and was declared dead, while the other continues to struggle in this city…” Zhou Luming asked, “They were just a couple, so after Zheng Xiaowei was declared dead, Wang Chenchen wouldn’t be Zheng Xiaowei’s legal heir, so he has nothing to do with this insurance compensation?”
"Well, I judge that Wang Chenchen has no emotional or legal motive for insurance fraud, so we can temporarily rule out his suspicion."
"But it's such a pity... Zheng Xiaowei and Wang Chenchen are so young, yet they have to go through a life-and-death separation." Zhou Luming sighed.
Xu Yan looked out the window at the towering buildings, "This city still can't accommodate their dreams and tenderness."
“That’s not necessarily true,” Zhou Luming said. “You have to give it your all to have any chance of realizing your dreams.”
"Miss Zhou's future is certainly bright," Xu Yan said casually.
"My future depends entirely on Miss Xu," Zhou Luming said with a mournful face. "Please take a closer look at me and discover my strengths."
Please hand over the Zhou family's billions in assets to me as soon as possible so I can complete my mission and escape.
The co-pilot's neighborhood is also a neat and clean place. It is a little far from the city center, but the transportation is convenient, there is a subway, the air is fresh, and all the living facilities are available.
The co-pilot wasn't married yet. The house was in a new neighborhood, very close to the airport, and he had brought his parents to live with him. Two years ago, when he disappeared, he had just joined Singapore Airlines and had just been promoted to a permanent position. He was on his first official flight when the plane disappeared. In the first few days after the disappearance, news reports suspected that the co-pilot's operational error caused the plane to crash into the sea. Many media outlets quickly followed up, digging into the co-pilot's background and even repeatedly harassing his family. His elderly parents suffered greatly, but they still insisted on living in the neighborhood and did not move away.
The car was parked in the residential area. Zhou Luming saw that Xu Yan still had her eyes closed, so he reached out and waved his hand curiously in front of her.
"Stop shaking me, I'm not asleep." Xu Yan opened her eyes, opened the door and got out of the car.
“I suddenly have a question.” Zhou Luming shivered as a gust of cold wind blew. “We’ve already interviewed three of the four suspects in one day, including this one, and we’ve basically ruled out the first two as insurance fraud suspects. At the current pace, you definitely won’t need a month to investigate, so why did you tell Manager Ma that you’d be given a month?”
Xu Yan put his hands in his trench coat pockets and hunched his neck; the wind in the suburbs was indeed a bit cold.
"Because my fees are settled by the hour." She lowered her head and quickly walked towards the co-pilot's building.
Zhou Luming was stunned for a moment before quickly regaining his senses. He laughed inwardly. It turned out that Miss Xu Yan was not indifferent to money after all. She was a money-making genius who deliberately delayed the investigation to earn more rewards.
Chapter 19, Section 19 - Repair
======================
The clean and bright elevator contained only Xu Yan and Zhou Luming. There was a large mirror inside, reflecting one's entire body. As Xu Yan and Zhou Luming entered, Xu Yan hid in a corner, hands in his pockets, extremely wary.
Xu Yan always seems to be impeccably dressed in a suit, you could call him a suit fanatic. Zhou Luming, on the other hand, is ever-changing. Because of her well-proportioned figure and beautiful looks, she looks like a model in anything she wears, radiating charm.
“Ms. Xu, I strongly suspect your wardrobe is full of suits and shirts.” Zhou Luming wanted to know more about Xu Yan. “Do you have some kind of professional fetish?”
Xu Yan raised an eyelid and said, "Because I don't want to waste too much time on something as boring as choosing clothes."
"So you buy your shirts and suit jackets by the dozen?"
"More or less."
On a whim, Zhou Luming asked, "Tomorrow's the weekend, are you free?"
"I'm busy."
"I'll take you shopping for clothes." Ignoring Xu Yan's objections, Zhou Luming arranged the itinerary for her without asking. "Also, a new boiled fish restaurant opened in that mall. They have really delicious fish." While eating with Xu Yan, Zhou Luming observed her favorite flavors, and since Xu Yan had a fishing rod at home, she deduced that Xu Yan liked to eat fish.
Xu Yan ignored her; she wasn't going out with Zhou Luming tomorrow anyway.
The elevator dinged as it arrived.
Zhou Luming rang the doorbell of the co-pilot's house. The co-pilot's father opened the door, and his mother was busy in the kitchen. A delicious aroma wafted from the house.
The co-pilot's father looked like a thin, serious man. Judging from his straight back and posture, Xu Yan guessed that he might have served in the military. The co-pilot's mother was kind and gentle, slightly plump, with neatly combed hair, though it was already gray.
When she came out to greet me, my mother was still wearing an apron and holding a spatula. She asked who the two people at the door were because she was worried about the meat stewing in the pot.
Two years have passed since the plane crash. The elderly couple lives here, hoping every day that news of the plane being found will come to light, and that one day their son will come home, open the door, and shout that he is hungry, and then serve them a bowl of red braised pork, and the whole family will gather around the table and happily finish two bowls of rice.
Zhou Luming was puzzled. While other family members were in agony or desperately wanted insurance compensation, these two were calm and quiet, living peacefully in their son's house, buying groceries, cooking, doing laundry, and living their lives as if none of the accidents had ever happened.
After the insurance investigator was introduced, a strange look crossed the elderly couple's faces. The co-pilot's mother looked at the father, asking him to make a decision. The co-pilot's father coldly said, "You can leave. You are not welcome here."
Xu Yan and Zhou Luming were both taken aback, somewhat surprised.
Zhou Luming softened his tone and said, "Uncle, we'll try our best not to bother you and will complete the investigation quickly. You can only receive the insurance money after the investigation is finished, so please understand our work..."
The old father continued with a stern face, "Our son is not dead, he will come back, please don't bother us anymore."
The elderly mother hid behind him, silently watching the two little girls. Seemingly feeling a pang of pity, she tried to comfort them, saying, "A group of people came before wanting to interview us, but the news reports said the accident happened because of our children. Many people have come looking for us. We were even blocked at home and afraid to go out, but we didn't move. This is because my husband and I both believe he will come home. The plane's disappearance is definitely not his fault. We'll just wait for him at home..."