Chapter 53: White Mist in the Woods 18 (End)
Zhou Huanchang’s name was on the hot search list for a long time. He also took the opportunity to launch new car reviews and organized several charity events with his club members. It seemed that his life was not negatively affected by the rule zone; on the contrary, he became even more popular. This afternoon, he was tidying up things in his shop when he looked up and saw two familiar figures. He smiled and greeted them, “Captain Zhuang, Young Master Yi, what wind blew you two here?”
“Demolition wind,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “The street where He Yu rents is being demolished. She has a bunch of cats and dogs with nowhere to go. Li Hao finally found an idle small courtyard in the suburbs. We’re going over to help with the move today.”
Zhou Huanchang nodded and took out a thick red envelope from a drawer. “Captain Zhuang, can you give this to Xiao He for me? The rescue shelter is just starting out and should be in need of money. She’s delicate and sensitive, and still feels that the matter of finding the puzzle piece in the Iron Pot Pit implicated me. After leaving the rule zone, she just blocked me. There’s really no need. I have many friends who want to adopt small animals. If she needs it, I can also introduce clients to her.”
“Alright, we’ll tell her,” Zhuang Ningyu readily accepted the red envelope. “By the way, the DNA comparison results for the remains in the Iron Pot Pit came out two days ago. It’s indeed Li Maosheng. The police screened the burial site again and found the missing puzzle piece. At least on this matter, He Yu didn’t lie.”
“So she’ll be fine, right?” Zhou Huanchang asked tentatively. “But will Li Hong and Li Maosheng’s family continue to cause trouble for her?”
“They have their own problems to deal with right now. They seem to want this matter to be over with more than He Yu does,” Zhuang Ningyu said. “Don’t worry, that small courtyard in the suburbs only houses cats and dogs and is usually managed by volunteers. He Yu herself won’t be living there. The unit has arranged a dormitory for her nearby, only a few minutes’ walk away. It’s very safe, and the police will also pay attention to confidentiality when handling the case.”
Zhou Huanchang smiled. “Alright, if there’s anything she needs help with, just have Xiao He come find me. In the future, if there are any pet bloggers in the club, I’ll also do my best to introduce them to her.”
On the cabinet to the side were many old photos of club activities. Yi Ke bent down and looked at them one by one. He suddenly turned his head and asked, “Boss Zhou, the charity event that He Yu said she once participated in with you, which one was it?”
“The Jinxi Nursing Home. She was a private volunteer who came to help on her own, so she’s not in the group photo.”
Zhou Huanchang spoke very smoothly. He had prepared a perfect answer for almost every question. And so had He Yu. When facing round after round of questioning from the police and the investigation team, she connected every plot point extremely smoothly. The only bug was that He Yuanhua’s greedy and selfish personality was too far from the heroic image of bravely saving her niece on a winter night. He Yu lowered her eyes and said, “My second aunt raised me for so many years. There should be some feelings, right? Besides, in that situation, she probably didn’t have time to think. Wouldn’t a normal person’s first reaction be to pull them apart? Who knew that Li Maosheng had a heart condition and would die from a gentle pull. Actually, I also found it strange at first. Why didn’t her employer investigate further? Such a high-status person, buried just like that, and no one came looking. It wasn’t until my second aunt died abroad that I realized she might have known more inside information than I thought. The car accident wasn’t a car accident, but a murder. I had thought about reporting it to the police, but… I didn’t dare. I always felt that those people, for them, killing us was like stepping on an ant.”
The police educated her for a while, saying that in a society governed by the rule of law, no one is an ant. Then they helped her with the procedures and said, “Don’t worry, the bad guys will definitely be punished.”
The investigation ended up taking several years.
However, although the process was arduous, the result was not bad. The adoption, human trafficking, and sex trade industry chain that Li Hong had secretly operated for many years was finally uprooted. The previously unknown parties that Li Maosheng had attended were also exposed one after another. For a time, the whole society was in an uproar. Report letters about Jinkang Pharmacy and Lihe Gene flew like snowflakes into various mailboxes. Jiang Baimei was arrested as soon as she landed at the airport. Sima Feng also died in a car accident abroad, just like He Yuanhua’s death back then. It was hard to say whether it was a random incident or if someone wanted to silence him completely.
In the interrogation room, Li Hong confessed the content of the phone call she had received from the nanny back then.
“At that time, Li Maosheng had been clamoring to move, saying that Nanping Road was not safe and he was afraid he had been found out by a group of riders. So I arranged for the three of them to move to Suihe Road after New Year’s Day,” Li Hong said. “But one night in December, He Yuanhua suddenly called me, saying that Li Maosheng had died in the mountains. I was scared to death at the time. I asked how he died. She said that after the child fell ill and was hospitalized, old Li still couldn’t control himself and used Jiajia’s clothes to mast-urbate. As a result, he got too excited and died.”
“His son, Li Yin, knew that Li Maosheng was with me. Now that the man was gone, it would definitely be impossible to hide it in the future. So I just gave him a call and asked what to do.” Of course, she didn’t tell the whole truth. After all, she didn’t want to leave a handle in the other’s hand. So the story Li Hong relayed to Li Yin was that Li Maosheng had died in bed from overexcitement while assaulting Jiajia, and the child was currently being rescued in the hospital due to her injuries. Li Yin became anxious as soon as he heard this. Besides being anxious about his father’s death, he was also anxious about the child being rescued. He lowered his voice and angrily cursed, “Why did you send her to the hospital? What if someone finds out?”
Hearing this wording, Li Hong knew there was a chance. She first repeatedly assured him that there would be no problem on the child’s side, that she would handle it well, and that the doctors were all acquaintances. Then she asked, “Then what about your father? He still has scratch marks on him from the child. If he’s sent to the hospital, it might be discovered.”
She didn’t want the police to get involved, nor did she want the small building on Nanping Road to become a hot topic because of Li Maosheng’s death. The most stable solution was to bury the secret at its root. And Li Yin’s interests aligned with hers on this point. After thinking for less than a minute, he chose to trust Li Hong, believing that she could “clean it up.” Whether for himself or for the company, having a “kind and amiable, calligraphy-loving, mysteriously disappeared” positive image of a father was obviously much better than being associated with a pedophile father who had died from a stroke of passion. In fact, ever since the incident on the high seas cruise ship, he had been uneasy, always feeling that there would be more trouble in the future. Now that the hidden danger was completely eliminated, to be unfilial for a moment, he even felt a little relieved.
Li Hong arranged for two friends overnight to take the body to the Iron Pot Pit for burial and single-handedly directed He Yuanhua’s departure abroad and car accident.
Zhuang Ningyu and Yi Ke’s previous speculation was correct. She really didn’t know about He Yu’s existence, otherwise she definitely wouldn’t have let her go.
The day the police issued the notice, He Yu and Zhou Huanchang, without prior agreement, each donated a sum of money to the Children’s Welfare Home. Since leaving the Qingquan Mountain rule zone, the two had never contacted each other again. He Yu would even quickly scroll past when she saw news about Zhou Huanchang online. In comparison, Zhou Huanchang was more relaxed, even introducing friends to He Yu’s charity shop from time to time.
The nanny had indeed returned to Nanping Road that night. A hospital volunteer later found by the police also confirmed this. However, she didn’t go back because she needed to get something for Jiajia, but because she received a call from her niece.
When He Yuanhua rushed home, she only saw a disheveled He Yu. She looked like a female ghost who had just crawled out of a deep pit. She said, word by word, “That old man tried to r*pe me. I’ve already killed him.”
He Yuanhua was struck by lightning. Her first reaction was to call the police, but He Yu grabbed her hand and reminded her through gritted teeth, “Don’t forget, you were the one who arranged for me to live here.”
“…” He Yuanhua’s hand, about to call the police, indeed stopped. Her own niece had killed her employer’s guest. Even if her niece was arrested, would she still have a good life in the future? Her lips trembled, wanting to curse her niece harshly, but when she opened her mouth, only a helpless sob came out. “Then what should we do? Dabao… Dabao is getting married at the end of the year. They won’t cause trouble for your brother, will they? They, they won’t kill someone for revenge, will they?”
“I’ll teach you,” He Yu released her hand. “Tell your employer that the old man died of a heart attack while r-ping Jiajia.”
“No, I can’t. They must have private contact. My boss knows whether he touched her or not.”
“Then say he died while doing that dirty business with Jiajia’s clothes,” He Yu said. “In short, as long as he died on his own, and because of that kind of thing, no one will cause trouble for you. On the contrary, your boss will actively win you over. Dabao’s wedding, doesn’t it still need a 500,000 bride price?”
He Yuanhua was thus persuaded. Although she was overbearing, she could only be overbearing in the village. She was strong on the outside but weak on the inside. In her bones, she was actually no match for her niece, who had already gone to university.
The employer indeed did not suggest calling the police, only telling her to cover the body with something first. He Yu found a large woven bag and, together with her second aunt, lifted Li Maosheng’s body from the scattered puzzle pieces on the floor, put it in, then changed her clothes and went down the mountain back to school that very night.
At a bend in the mountain, a car whizzed past her. He Yu accidentally fell down a slope while dodging it, then gritted her teeth and stood up. Ignoring the sharp pain in her leg, she continued to walk, limping.
As she walked, she looked back and saw the car eventually stop at the entrance of the small building.
Those were the people her second aunt’s employer had found to handle the matter.
Two burly men silently lifted the body, threw it into the trunk. The car started again, drove through the small road, and arrived at the Iron Pot Pit under the dense forest. While they were burying the body, another person was standing in the shadows of the forest above. The twenty-something Zhou Huanchang watched them until they had tamped down the last shovel of dirt before turning and leaving.
He was the one who killed him.
Perhaps the old man already had some illness, but he did indeed die after being pushed.
Zhou Huanchang and He Yu’s acquaintance was accidental. When he was recklessly speeding on his motorcycle in the mountains, he startled He Yu, who was on the side of the road. Zhou Huanchang watched her roll down the mountain and quickly scrambled down to save her. Fortunately, He Yu wasn’t seriously injured. She was holding a bloody little white rabbit. Zhou Huanchang tentatively asked, “This wasn’t hit by me, was it?”
He Yu shook her head. “It’s my sister’s.”
A few days ago, a peddler selling small animals had passed by the small building. Jiajia liked them very much, so Li Maosheng bought a few for her. He was mentally perverted and had a strong desire to inflict violence on small and cute things. Although Jiajia didn’t understand, she instinctively liked the good grandpa and naturally imitated this grandpa, who looked similar to the good grandpa, not thinking that bleeding was a form of harm.
He Yu didn’t notice at first. When she did, the rabbit had already run away, covered in blood. She quickly went out to chase it, and that’s how she met Zhou Huanchang and became his friend.
That night, the two of them went for a ride. When they parted, He Yu left her phone in Zhou Huanchang’s bag, so he wanted to return it to her. But by a fluke, he happened to find Li Maosheng pressing He Yu down on the bed. A hot-blooded young man, how could he watch such a dirty thing happen? He was furious on the spot, grabbed the old thing by the collar and punched him, then fiercely threw him aside—
And just like that, he threw the man to his death. He fell, hit something, and died.
He Yu stopped Zhou Huanchang, who was scared out of his wits and was frantically trying to call the police. Manslaughter was still murder. She decided to take all the blame on herself and not implicate her friend. Zhou Huanchang was hesitant at first, but He Yu said, “They are all doing shady business. They definitely don’t want the police to know.”
And in the end, the police sirens really didn’t sound. What came was a private car and two “body-buryers” who looked quite professional. Zhou Huanchang didn’t believe that normal people would handle a body so skillfully, so he accepted what He Yu said, “There’s a big gang behind them that we can’t afford to offend.” Once the truth was exposed, the legal aspect was one thing, but whether someone would silence them or seek revenge privately was another. Besides, he didn’t know if he would be convicted of manslaughter or acting in self-defense, so it was better to avoid it if he could.
The matter was thus quietly passed over until ten years later, when the two met again at a nursing home event.
He never thought she would come back. Even He Yu herself never thought she would return to Jincheng. But she did. When applying for jobs, she hesitated again and again, but still chose a position in Jincheng. Perhaps it was because every time she went to the welfare home for activities and saw the innocent children, she would always think of Jiajia back then. The mastermind behind the scenes was still at large. She didn’t know what she could do, but… at least she could come back to Jincheng first.
When the Qingquan Mountain rule zone appeared, she was actually not worried about herself, but just didn’t want to implicate Zhou Huanchang. So she repeated that not-so-reasonable story to the police over and over again. But fortunately, in the end, only the bad guys were punished.
Chu Feifei became her friend and would often bring things to the small courtyard to help, while also gossiping about Boss Zhou, and then gossiping about Xiao Yi and Captain Zhuang.
He Yu said, “I don’t want to hear it.”
Chu Feifei questioned carefully, “You don’t want to hear about Boss Zhou, or you don’t want to hear about Xiao Yi and Captain Zhuang?”
He Yu: “Neither.”
Chu Feifei couldn’t understand. It’s one thing if you don’t want to hear about Boss Zhou, but how could you not be interested in handsome guys kissing? I’m telling you, there’s definitely something going on between Xiao Yi and Captain Zhuang.
He Yu shook her head vigorously.
Chu Feifei: “Tasteless.”
