When Su Yang"s phone rang, she glanced at a sleeping Xuan Tianmei before answering the call. "Hey," She said."Hey," Lu Qihao"s voice resounded at the other end of the line. "We found your guy."
Su Yang sat up. "Really? Did he said who sent him?"
"No." Lu Qihao said. "He"s denying having anything to do with the arson."
"They always deny." Su Yang chuckled as she spoke. "Where are you guys?"
"At the bas.e.m.e.nt."
"Cook something before I get there." Su Yang said in a brash tone.
"Why?" Lu Qihao asked.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.
"Because I"m hungry."
"I"m not cooking for you, Su Yang."
"But... I want to eat something you made."
"I"m not cooking."
"See... This att.i.tude of yours is the reason you"ll be alone for the rest of your life."
Lu Qihao sighed. "Just come quick."
Su Yang glanced at Xuan Tianmei again. The latter was still fast asleep. "Okay. I"ll be there in a minute." She spoke into the phone before disconnecting the call.
She grabbed a piece of paper from her jacket pocket and scribbled the words, "Be right back on it." Supporting one of its edges with a vase, she placed the note on the bedside table beside Xuan Tianmei"s bed and dashed out of the room.
Half an hour later, she was standing at the reception of the Yangguang hotel, collecting the key card for room 111. Inside the room, she placed her black coin with the inscription of a knife in the handle of the closet.
When she stepped through the fireplace into the luxurious living room of The Black Knife"s secret apartment, she made a beeline for a trapdoor that led to the bas.e.m.e.nt.
The bas.e.m.e.nt was just how she"d predicted it would be. Dark and cold. Zhu Daniya was perched on a chair in an isolated corner of the room, laptop on her arm. Yun Peng and Lu Qihao were resting on a table to the west and the supposed arsonist was sitting in the middle of the room; in front of a large table.
Su Yang asked Lu Qihao, "Why did it take so long to find him?"
"He left Beijing on the night of the arson. I had him brought in from Shanghai."
Su Yang chuckled. Even if this fool had run out of the country, he"d still have been found. She sat down opposite him and said. "I"ll ask you once before I start cutting you." She pulled out a knife from the inside of her jacket. "If you don"t answer me after my third asking, I"ll take your finger. Anyone of my choosing. Actually, I just need your fingernail but I"ll take your whole finger."
"I"m... I"m innocent." The accused man stammered.
With a swift movement, she was standing beside the man and had slashed his face with the knife.
While Lu Qihao gasped, the man groaned in pain. Both Yun Peng and Zhu Daniya were unmoved.
"You didn"t even ask him yet." Lu Qihao lamented.
"But he already answered, didn"t he?"
"d.a.m.n." Lu Qihao shook his head.
"Who sent you to kill Xuan Tianmei?" Su Yang hovered over the man intimidatingly.
"No... I... It wasn"t me."
She cut him on the other side of his face. "Third time... Your last chance. If you don"t answer this time, I"m taking your finger."
"Sir, she isn"t playing. If you know what"s good for you, then you"d better start talking." Lu Qihao pleaded with the man.
"Are you gonna talk?" Su Yang"s voice was chirpy. Her mood light.
"I... I didn"t..." The man said. Visibly quivering.
Su Yang retrieved a sharper, smaller but firmer knife from her jacket, then placed the man"s right hand on the table. With great care, she ma.s.saged his little finger with the small knife.
"I"ll talk... I"ll talk..." He panicked.
Su Yang sighed like she was no longer interested in his talk. She released his hand, then said. "Fine. You talk."
"I... Madam Shen Rui sent me." The arsonist confessed.
Su Yang glanced at him curiously. "What? Why would she try to kill Xuan Tianmei?"
"She... She didn"t intend to kill her. She wanted me to do it when no-one was home. Since the girl left at night, I thought she wouldn"t be returning so I set her room on fire. But when I came out, she was lying down on the couch. I... I just panicked and fled."
"Interesting. Well, thank you." She smiled and returned the man"s hand to the table.
Lu Qihao looked like he was going to be sick.
"What? He wasn"t supposed to let me ask up to three times." Su Yang spat at Lu Qihao.
"Big brother, please ask her not to cut him anymore," Lu Qihao probed Yun Peng.
Yun Peng glanced at Lu Qihao who was grabbing onto his arm and smiled. "Nah. Let the girl have her fun. Or would you rather she were throwing knives at you?"
Lu Qihao shook his head. Realizing it was better the stranger than him, he kept quiet.
"Just this once, you"re on my side. And it feels really good. Thank you." These were the last words Su Yang said before driving the knife through the man"s little finger.
The man burst into tears but Su Yang ignored him. She picked up the decapitated finger and wrapped it in a sheet of paper. Then she threw it in her pocket. "Please, get him out of here." Su Yang said to Lu Qihao.
Lu Qihao threw a bag on the arsonist"s head and dragged him out of the bas.e.m.e.nt.
Su Yang turned to Zhu Daniya who had been quiet the whole time. "Zhu Daniya, can you run a background check on Shen Rui? Let"s see if we can discover her motive."
"Isn"t her motive a bit obvious?" Yun Peng asked.
"What do you think?"
"She has three children. All of whom are distant from her. I think the idea was to render those two homeless. So they have no choice but to move in with her."
Su Yang shook her head. "She does have three children but she really only cares about the one. Why would she suddenly want to get close to the other two?"
"Maybe she actually cared for all three of them the whole time?"
Su Yang shook her head again. "She"s found Xuan Tianmei for almost a year now. They"ve never met outside the company before, never even had a meal together. She found the other boy for almost two weeks and has made no move to get closer to him. So, why would she suddenly do something so extreme to get close to them?"
Yun Peng nodded. "Yeah, it"s fishy."
"She was married once." Zhu Daniya piped up in a squeaky voice, her concentration on her laptop.
"To who?" Su Yang asked.
"Hua Yijie."
"She must"ve loved him."
"No chance." Zhu Daniya argued. "He was 50 years older than she was at the time of their marriage. And 50 million times richer than she was. She married him and a year later, he died from mysterious causes."
"You think she killed him?"
"Everyone thought she killed him when it happened. It was all over the media. She didn"t seem to care though. In fact, she used her new popularity and new money to build her company from the ground up.
"Then she adopted a son. It was a big deal because the boy had been dying and had been abandoned at the hospital by his birth parents. The only thing she let the media know about the boy was his name. Everyone calmed down because she had given her new sick son her late husband"s surname. To many, she was no longer a murderer but was now a martyr who was still very much in love with her late husband."
"Manipulative, liar, arsonist and probable murderer. Very inspirational woman." Su Yang remarked with a big smirk on her face.
"It doesn"t surprise anyone when you say things like that." Yun Peng said, wiping the smirk off Su Yang"s face.
She rolled her eyes and said to Zhu Daniya. "Help me find out more about Shen Rui before the morning, okay?"
Zhu Daniya nodded. "Piece of cake."
"By the way," Su Yang said to Yun Peng. "You should totally introduce your gla.s.ses to the board of directors at your workplace. Everyone I"ve shown them to thinks they"re awesome."
"You show them to people?" Yun Peng raised a brow in disapproval.
"Just Xuan Tianmei actually. Because she wouldn"t stop bothering me."
"I want to perfect them before I present them to the board. Plus, Xiao Maiguo is intent on frustrating my efforts recently. He wouldn"t let this project fly. He thinks I"m cheating on him."
"Are you?"
"No." Yun Peng shook his head. "But since that event, I"ve been really disillusioned with the idea of staying with him. I think he knows something is different; he just doesn"t seem to know what is."
"Then why don"t you leave him?"
He threw Su Yang a glance, then smiled. "I only know two things, Su Yang. Crime and technology. I don"t like the first and I wouldn"t be involved in it if I didn"t care about you guys too much to leave you alone.
"Technology is my life. It excites me. But even with my portfolio, I wouldn"t get someone to hire me because of my background. Everything I have is because of Xiao Maiguo. Leaving him would mean leaving all of that behind. I would have absolutely nothing... But you. No-one should ever have that kind of misfortune."
Grinning, Su Yang tapped him on the shoulder. "Well, it sucks to be you."
With a smile, Yun Peng shook his head. Before he could say a word, his phone rang. With a sigh, he picked up and pressed the phone against his ear.
"Where are you?" Xiao Maiguo"s voice on the other end questioned.
"Out. With friends."
"You were supposed to drive me to the airport."
"What"s happening there?"
"I"m going to Tianjin. Remember?"
After hesitating, Yun Peng replied. "No."
Xiao Maiguo paused on the other end. In a calm tone that surprised Yun Peng, he said, "I"m going to my parents". For the holidays. My childhood friend and his family are coming in from the US tomorrow. I have to go pick them up."
"Okay." Yun Peng nodded. "You take care of yourself then. I can"t take you."
Without another word, Xiao Maiguo disconnected the call. Yun Peng knew what that meant. Another fight was another difficult day at work. With a sigh, he walked out of the bas.e.m.e.nt.