Li Hongyu was stunned, looking at Zhao Youming’s indifferent look. She felt her heart clench. She wanted to explain herself anxiously, “I didn’t, in fact, I treat you two…”
“Enough. You have my word.” Li Hongyu was abruptly interrupted by Zhao Youming.
Zhao Youming stretched out his hand and grabbed Li Hongyu’s hand tightly. He heaved a sigh and said, “I’ll find an opportunity, and send my elder sister out of this country as soon as possible. Mother, you don’t have to worry about all this.”
After Zhao Youming finished speaking, he ignored Li Hongyu’s attempt to retain him using her hands. He simply pulled his hand out of her hand. He smoothed out his shirt and said, “It’s about time. That’s all for now. Mother, I’ll come over and visit you next time.”
Right after he spoke, Zhao Youming bowed to Li Hongyu before he turned around and walked out through the door without turning his head back.
A dull thud was heard. The tightly closed door had covered the last trace of light that shone into the room.
Inside the pitch-black room, the woman was sitting in front of the table. Her pupils had shrunk. A drop of crystalline tear slid down from her face, dropped on the back of her hand, and it rippled.
Li Hongyu was dead! Her death happened all of a sudden. The day before she was given a sentence, she had died inside the cold cell.
The next morning, when the guard was about to take the detainee out for arraignment, he found that Li Hongyu had already stopped breathing. Her corpse had stiffened.
Zhao Youlin only received the news when she went to work. She cocked one of her eyebrows and was caught by surprise, “Li Hongyu is dead? How did she die?”
“I heard it was a suicide, but no wounds were found on her body nor any signs of struggles,” Xiao Jingyao pushed the gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his nose as he replied to Zhao Youlin in a low voice.
Zhao Youlin furrowed her eyebrows. “No sight of any wound nor any sign of struggle. It means she was not injured. Then, how did she die? Did she die of internal injuries? Is this a sudden death?”
“Urm…” Xiao Jingyao froze. He had never thought about this.
“When the police officer found Li Hongyu, what did she look like in her death?”
“I heard that… she died peacefully. She didn’t look like she had struggled violently. She looked as if she had fallen asleep. When the police officer was about to detain her, he called her several times but she didn’t respond to him, only then did he realize something was wrong. He went in to pull her, but her corpse has already stiffened, and he could not feel her body temperature. She had already stopped breathing.
“She looked like she had fallen asleep as usual?” Zhao Youlin stroked her chin and was deep in thought for some time before she mumbled to herself and blurted out, “In that case, could it be asphyxiation?”
“General Manager, what did you say just now?”
“Nothing.” Zhao Youlin was snapped out of her daze. She met Xiao Jingyao’s puzzled gaze and she asked in a low voice, “Did the police conduct an autopsy on Li Hongyu’s corpse?”
“Urm… I don’t think so. It seems like Li Hongyu’s family has taken the initiative to request them not to conduct an autopsy on her body. They wanted to preserve the integrity of her body so that she could rest in peace.”
“Li Hongyu’s family was the one who had taken the initiative to request it?” Zhao Youlin frowned. A hint of suspicion grew increasingly stronger in her eyes.
“Yes.” Xiao Jingyao seemed to have realized something. He took the initiative to ask her, “General Manager, are you suspecting that something was fishy with Li Hongyu’s death? Are you suspecting that she… had eaten something which she shouldn’t have taken?”
Zhao Youlin lowered her head and did not answer him. She pursed her lips and was deep in thought for a while before she mused, “Who else has Li Hongyu met before she died?”
“Apart from you…” Xiao Jingyao flipped through the documents in his hand. He furrowed his eyebrows as he said, “She has also met with Zhao Youxi and Zhao Youming.”
“Zhao Youxi and Zhao Youming?” Zhao Youlin frowned. Her crossed fingers unwittingly tightened.
“Yes. According to the information given, the day before Li Hongyu died, she had met with Zhao Youming and Zhao Youxi. The three have spent about twenty minutes alone together.”
“Alone? No one else with them?”
“No, but there is a camera.”
“A camera?” Zhao Youxi snorted, “Some things can’t be discovered with naked eyes, let alone a lifeless camera.”
After Zhao Youlin finished speaking, she looked up at Xiao Jingyao and said in a low voice, “Could you take out the video clip of them while they spent time alone?”
“Take it out? General Manager, do you want to watch the video clip?”
Zhao Youlin’s eyes flickered. She sneered, “Although Li Hongyu is already dead, it looks like a new infiltrator has appeared. Before he takes the initiative to attack us, we must first understand his background, so that we could take pre-emptive precautions and not get caught off guard. Don’t you think so?”
“A new infiltrator?” Xiao Jingyao was stunned. “General Manager, are you suspecting that… Li Hongyu’s death related to Zhao Youxi and Zhao Youming?”
Zhao Youlin did not speak further. Xiao Jingyao’s face unwittingly darkened. He pondered over the issue, “But, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh? Which part of it doesn’t make sense?”
“General Manager, when you visited Li Hongyu last time, you knew well that if the outsiders wanted to go in, they have to go through a search by the people outside. Those people search so carefully that it was certainly impossible for Youxi and Youming to bring anything extra in.”
“Certainly impossible? Uncle Xiao, you are too naive. There are many people in this world who would do anything by all means and at all costs just to achieve their ultimate goals. At that moment, the wisdom they show could never be deduced with common sense.”
Zhao Youlin cast a mocking glance at Xiao Jingyao. The businessmen did not have much idea about life and death games on such things.
The reason Zhao Youlin had asked about this was not because she was not clear about it. In fact, she asked because she was very clear about it.
When she was in a squad under the police force, a similar incident had happened before.
There was once a bunch of desperadoes hidden among the citizens’ houses. They roamed across the border, killing and looting. The police had suspected them and detained them. His accomplices disguised as one of his family members and hid a smart chip under his skin tissue which was useful to help him to escape and enter the prison. He managed to avoid all the cameras and passed the chip to his accomplice. A prison break had since happened which had been sensational news back then.
What was Zhao Youxi like? Zhao Youlin had contacted her many times, so Zhao Youlin had known her all too well. As for Zhao Youxi’s younger brother…
She had not contacted him before. Yet, she somehow felt uneasy. Li Hongyu had died all of a sudden. More so, she died at this crucial moment, it was certainly a lie if one said there was nothing fishy about her death!
If what Zhao Youlin had thought was true, her younger stepbrother might not be as simple as he looked!
Xiao Jingyao was stunned when he was shot by Zhao Youlin’s words without hesitation. His eyes sparkled, and he said solemnly, “I was careless. I’ll ask someone to find ways and get the video clip right now.”
Zhao Youlin nodded her head. She looked serious as she watched Xiao Jingyao leave.
