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She looked at him, and finally shouted angrily:

"Fine, I opened the door and looked outside, but I didn't go out. So what?!"

"What did you see after you opened the door?" Lin Zhongjie asked, his tone softening slightly.

"I didn't see anything. I was looking for Xiang Bing, but I couldn't find him. I went to look for Xiang Bing. I couldn't find him," she stubbornly repeated. Did she have a grudge against Xiang Bing? Why did she keep focusing on him? If she had a grudge, why did she marry him? Lin Zhongjie was a traditional man, and no matter the reason, he disliked women betraying their husbands.

“Please repeat yourself, what you did after you left the living room,” he said coldly.

She glared at him angrily, indignant that he had deliberately ignored the key words in her answer.

She took three seconds to calm herself down, then subconsciously raised her head and said in a polished tone, "Okay, I'll say it again. After I left the living room, I went straight to the garden. I looked around but couldn't find Xiang Bing, so I opened the front door and looked outside, but I didn't see him either. So I went back to the living room through the kitchen door. At that time, only Zhang Yufen was cleaning up the dishes in the living room."

"How did you get into the kitchen?" Lin Zhongjie remembered Zhang Yufen saying that the kitchen door was closed.

“I have the key.”

"And then what?"

“I went upstairs and knocked on my mother’s door, but she wouldn’t open it.”

What time was it?

"I didn't look at my watch."

“Your sister Fang Qi finished her call at 9 o’clock. If you didn’t see her, she might still be on the phone, so it was probably between 8:30 and 9 o’clock.”

"I don't know. I didn't check my watch," she said coldly.

"Go on."

“I went back to my room and stayed there for a while. I don’t know how long I stayed, about half an hour. I went to knock on my mother’s door again, but she still wouldn’t open it.” Zeng Yushan gave a wry smile. “So I went downstairs. My older sister had just turned off the TV in the living room. Later I went to the garden and saw Xiang Bing, so we went upstairs together.”

"You mean, you knocked on Shen Biyun's door twice, and she didn't answer?"

"Yes." She nodded emphatically.

What time was the second time you knocked on Chen Biyun's door?

"If you say it was before 9 o'clock, then it was already past 9 o'clock."

Lin Zhongjie looked at the documents in his hand and said, "But someone confirmed that you did not knock on your mother's door before 9 o'clock that night."

She was clearly startled, then her face changed, and she shouted, "It must be Fang Xiaoxi! It must be that brat! She's always been at odds with me, she's a liar! Does she think that just because her room is next to mine, she can give false testimony?"

"Besides her, there is another person who confirmed this."

"who?"

“Shen Biyun. She said she didn’t hear you knocking before 9 o’clock. She said with certainty that you knocked at exactly 9:45. She didn’t open the door because she received a phone call from Attorney Jian. They had arranged to talk on the phone after he got home. We have checked the phone records and it is true.”

"Ah!" she exclaimed, but didn't argue. After a moment, she sighed and said, "Well, that's when I knocked, so what?"

She threw out those words again, but the fighting spirit in her tone had been halved.

"Please tell me again what you did after you went to the garden that night."

"Oh my god!" Zeng Yushan seemed to go crazy when she heard him say that. But when she looked at Lin Zhongjie, she realized that it was useless to whine to the police. She sighed and said, "I went to the garden, opened the gate, but didn't find Xiang Bing. Later, I went back to my room and stayed for a while. I thought about going to find my mother, but then I gave up the idea. I stood in the corridor for a while and then went back to my room."

What time was it when you returned to your room for the second time?

"I don't know, maybe it's past 9 o'clock."

"According to Fang Qi's testimony, when she met you again in the living room, it should have been around 10 o'clock, and you were crying at that time."

“Yes,” she said softly.

"Have you been downstairs before this?"

"No."

Lin Zhongjie looked at her for a while, as if waiting for her to change her answer. But she just looked away uneasily.

"Someone saw you sneaking upstairs around 9:35, without shoes, and seemingly carrying something in your hands," Lin Zhongjie said coldly. This was information another group had obtained from Fang Rouzhi an hour earlier. That's how people are; when they feel threatened, they'll implicate others. Fang Rouzhi was afraid of the shadowy figure.

He realized that the stone he had thrown had hit Zeng Yushan squarely on the forehead. She certainly hadn't expected that Fang Rouzhi would be coming out of the kitchen just as she sneaked upstairs. Her mind went blank, and she panicked instantly; her lips trembled, and she couldn't utter a complete sentence.

"What did you say? This, this is impossible. I, I didn't, no, definitely, it's impossible..." She lost her composure.

Lin Zhongjie looked at her indifferently.

“I’m reminding you, Zeng Yushan, think carefully before you speak. The police aren’t having a casual chat with you,” he said.

She took a few more seconds to calm herself down.

“I’m free to go upstairs without shoes. This is my home, and I can do whatever I want,” she argued nervously.

“We investigated all the auction houses and art trading venues in the city, and yesterday we received information that someone put up two paintings by Huang Yaliu and one painting by Shen Qianyi on the morning of May 8th. They are all genuine works. I won’t comment on their value for now, but based on the photos, the person who put them up for sale is definitely you.” Lin Zhongjie was already tired of her unconvincing explanations, and he didn’t want to beat around the bush with her anymore.

She looked at him quietly, a confident and arrogant light suddenly flashing across her face, as if to say, "Those were given to me by my mother, is that not allowed?"

Lin Zhongjie didn't let her speak.

"Don't tell me it was your mother who asked you to sell those paintings. Our people just spoke with Shen Biyun. When she heard that Shen Qianyi's paintings were also among those stolen, she was furious and immediately changed her previous testimony. She said she never gave those three paintings to you and has always opposed your participation in charity work."

Zeng Yushan's face suddenly dimmed; she looked deeply affected. Lin Zhongjie decided to corner her.

“That afternoon, you and Fang Qi talked about Shen Qianyi's painting in the living room. When you heard that the painting was in the storage room, you decided to steal it. So, around 9:35 p.m. that night, you had just stolen the painting from the storage room. To avoid being discovered, you didn't even put on shoes. Unfortunately, someone saw you from behind, but you didn't know it. Later, Shen Biyun instructed Fang Qi to check the items in the storage room. Fang Qi guessed that you had stolen the painting, so she deliberately concealed the fact that Shen Qianyi's original works were missing. She said that only two paintings were missing. Fang Qi herself has already admitted to this. Just an hour ago, our people questioned your mother and then questioned her.”

She looked at him in despair, sitting there motionless like a puppet. Lin Zhongjie worried that she would collapse at any moment.

About a minute later, she seemed to come back to life.

“Yes, I stole the painting, but I’m not a thief. My mom promised to donate five paintings to charity. I had already told everyone that the sick children needed the money. You don’t know how important that money is to them. But my mom went back on her word. She’s always like that. She always goes back on her promises. She’s the most untrustworthy person! I’m just taking what I’m entitled to.” She stared blankly ahead.

"How did you get into the storage room?" Lin Zhongjie asked coldly.

"I noticed the storage room door was a few centimeters off from its usual position, and when I pulled it, I realized it wasn't locked," she said. Lin Zhongjie thought she must have been studying that door the whole time.

"What did you see in the storeroom?"

“I only saw broken bottles on the ground,” Zeng Yushan said, her eyes suddenly welling up with tears. “But I didn’t look at the box. I panicked and rummaged through several boxes. I found the painting and left. I wanted to get away as quickly as possible. If I had known he was in the box, I would have saved him. I didn’t kill anyone. I could never have killed him. I love him.”

After saying this, she covered her face with her hands and burst into tears.

At the train station, Ling Ge's mind kept replaying the image of Su Zhiwen walking along in the rain, tears streaming down his face. It was just a beating; why was he so heartbroken? At 38, he was crying like a little boy on his wife's lap, even asking for a divorce. It was unbelievable. Ling Ge felt sorry for him, but also a little awkward. Su Zhiwen was so unmanly. But then she thought, if a man were crying on her lap, especially such a handsome one, she'd probably succumb too, because women are soft-hearted.

Once, Jian Dongping also lay on her lap, not crying, but laughing, because she showed him a picture of herself as a child. "You used to look like this, so chubby! Haha, round, round!" he said, laughing. She really wanted to hit him then, but for some reason, seeing him lying on her lap laughing like a child, her heart softened. In the end, she just tugged at his hair and told him to get up. So, although Old Mrs. Shen was old, she was still a woman, and seeing her young husband so heartbroken must have been very painful for her. Ling Ge always felt that Old Mrs. Shen's attitude towards Su Zhiwen was like a mother's towards her son.

She wanted to tell Jian Dongping about it immediately, but the thought of his teasing her the day before and his constant sarcasm towards her over the past two years made her feel very uncomfortable. So after hesitating for a long time, she finally gave up.

Save on phone bills! Talking to you, you big refrigerator, is all about saving on phone bills, because I don't want to spend money and get yelled at. I'm a practical woman! Ling Ge told herself.

256—are there any small hotels near the train station connected to that number? She had already written down the names of all the small hotels near the train station in her notebook—67 in total. That's a lot, because some hotels had moved, and some had changed their names, so she had only visited half of them so far; there were still 34 left. These 34 were all located on the outskirts of the train station. She wondered if she could find Zhou Jin's luggage. Actually, even if she did find Zhou Jin's luggage, Ling Ge wouldn't necessarily be happy, because it would mean that Zhou Jin had probably already met with an accident. Thinking of this, her heart sank.

Two hours later, she walked around the streets outside the train station for a long time but couldn't find a hotel related to those two numbers. Frustrated, she crossed out the 10 hotels she had just visited with a pencil. Looking at her watch, it was almost 12 o'clock. She had corn porridge and pancakes made by Zhang Yufen for breakfast. She didn't dare to eat much at the table, so she was already hungry. She decided to go to the convenience store to buy a meat floss bread to fill her stomach. Lunch for one person is easy to deal with.

Just then, the phone rang. It was Lin Zhongjie calling.

"Xiao Ge, where are you?" Lin Zhongjie's voice always made Ling Ge shudder, even though she had known him since childhood. Lin Zhongjie was an old friend of Ling Ge's father for many years.

"I... I'm at the train station. Jian Dongping asked me to help him carry some things." She felt a little guilty because she had to lie to the respected Uncle Lin. Jian Dongping had told her not to tell Lin Zhongjie about the search for Zhou Jin's luggage.

"You're such an honest girl, how come you always let him boss you around?" Lin Zhongjie sighed and asked, "What did you gain from staying there yesterday?"

Ling Ge recounted the situation she had discussed with Jian Dongping the day before, omitting the mention of mahjong and shark fin, and then told Lin Zhongjie the same thing. She didn't mention Su Zhiwen and Fang Qi's affair; she planned to tell Jian Dongping first before making a decision. Although she was very angry with him, she didn't know why, but she still habitually listened to him, which made her feel utterly pathetic.

"Ling Ge, thank you for your hard work," Lin Zhongjie said after listening to her report.

Realizing that Lin Zhongjie was about to hang up, Ling Ge suddenly remembered what Jian Dongping had mentioned.

“Uncle Lin! No, Uncle Lin!” she called out.

"Um?"

"I looked at the statements and I found a problem," she said, swallowing hard and mustering her courage.

"Oh, what's the problem?"

“Fang Xiaoxi said she once saw a small bamboo box in the storage room, but the box wasn’t mentioned in the later on-site investigation. I think,” Ling Ge tried to make her voice sound mature and calm, and she slowed down her speech, “we should ask Shen Biyun for the storage room inventory from a few months ago to check.”

"Xiao Ge, not bad, you've finally figured it out! Haha!" Hearing her words, the usually serious Lin Zhongjie burst out laughing.

It was rare for Ling Ge to receive praise at work, and she blushed with happiness. She felt a surge of gratitude towards Jian Dongping. Yes, although he had a sharp tongue and loved to be sarcastic, his ideas were always good and always helped her.

"Uncle Lin, you thought of that too?"

“Yes, I’ve already asked Shen Biyun for it. Hmm, Xiao Ge, not bad, keep up the good work. By the way, don’t forget to write a more insightful self-criticism. The last one was far too short. I don’t mind, but it won’t do.” Lin Zhongjie said with a smile.

"Uncle Lin, don't worry, Jian Dongping helped me revise this self-criticism. It's over 1,500 words long and very well written. Anyone who reads it will be moved." Ling Ge suddenly forgave him for the hurt he had caused her, remembering how Jian Dongping had stayed up late to finish that self-criticism for her.

"Looks like he's treating you pretty well," Lin Zhongjie said with a smile. "Xiao Ge, someone asked me yesterday if you have a girlfriend. You should talk to Jian Dongping about it, don't let that kid get too cocky."

"I understand." Ling Ge hung up the phone with a sweet smile, wondering who was inquiring about her. Could it be Xiao Zheng, the one who gave her the preserved plum?

She went into the convenience store and bought a pork floss bun, a steaming hot Taiwanese sausage, and two skewers of mushroom meatballs. She used to be reluctant to buy hot food from convenience stores, thinking it was too expensive, but today she was in a good mood and hungry, so she decided to eat to her heart's content. She wolfed down her lunch at the convenience store and was about to leave when she suddenly remembered that the store clerk might know about nearby hotels, so she decided to ask.

"Miss, do you have a Hotel 256 here?" She simply put the number in front of the hotel name.

The sales clerk was busy and didn't even look up before saying, "There's no Hotel 256, but Restaurant 256 is just ahead."

Ling Ge's forehead lit up.

"Ahead? Where is that?" she asked anxiously, looking around.

"It's outside, it's written on the wall, go see for yourself." The salesperson impatiently pointed with his chin towards the outside of the store.

Ling Ge stepped out of the convenience store and quickly spotted a line of crooked, red-painted words on a gray wall next to it: "No. 256, Victory Hotel, accommodation and dining, keep walking." A large red arrow preceded the words. Perhaps to make the address clearer, the number "256" was written particularly large. After walking a while, Ling Ge noticed the advertisement was repeated at least three times; later advertisements omitted the hotel's name, simply stating "No. 256, accommodation and dining." 256 had appeared! It was truly a case of finding something without even looking for it. Ling Ge wasn't sure if the hotel was what she was looking for, but she decided to give it a try.

"When was the last time you contacted her?" Jian Dongping brought up the question again at the opportune moment.

"It was May 6th," Zhou Lan said clearly.

Did she call you?

"No, I called her. My dad's health is getting worse and I wanted her to come back and visit when she has time. Actually, I mentioned it to her during the Spring Festival, but my sister is very vengeful. She has never forgiven our parents. Although she says, 'Okay, I'll come back when I have time,' she hasn't come back even once in six years. However, this time she seems a little different from the previous times."

"Is she coming back?" Jian Dongping asked hurriedly.

“She said she had already bought a train ticket home for the 7th.” Zhou Lan said with a helpless smile, “But she broke her promise again. She didn’t go home at all. Luckily, I didn’t tell my parents, otherwise they would have been very disappointed.”

Perhaps Zhou Qin wasn't lying this time, Jian Dongping wondered. Could the so-called trip to Guangzhou just be a pretext? Which one was real and which one was fake?

Did you contact her again afterward?

“I called her on the 9th, but her phone was off. I haven’t been able to contact her since,” Zhou Lan said. Jian Dongping didn’t detect any worry or distress in her tone. Perhaps for Zhou Jin, disappearing without a word was already her style, so even her family had gotten used to it.

"What did she say when you called her that day?"