Life and Death Insurance – CH 055

Chapter 55

“Her? She resigned not long after that trip. This girl is very hardworking. She submitted her resignation suddenly, and I couldn’t find a replacement right away, so I even tried to persuade her to stay.”

“Was the salary bad?” Yang Yiqing interjected.

“How could it be bad? So many people want to get in but cannot. Xiang Tian, ​​why are you suddenly asking about her?”

Ling Zhengzhong burst into laughter.

“Xiang Tian suspects someone close to me is trying to harm me, so he’s investigated everyone I’ve interacted with in the past two years.”

Yang Yiqing joined in the teasing. “Is it really suspicion? I think someone’s just jealous.”

Yu Shenglin quickly said, “Xiang Tian, you’re overthinking it. Yu Xiaowan has a very good personality; she’s never argued with anyone at the company, and she left a long time ago.”

Ling Zhengzhong immediately laughed upon hearing this. “Exactly. Xiang Tian, ​​even if you have suspicions, the first person you should suspect should be Yang Yiqing. He’s the one I’ve been dating the longest.”

“Ling Zhengzhong, if I wanted to harm you, I wouldn’t go through all this trouble. I’d just chop you into eighteen pieces and send you to the gardener as fertilizer!”

Xiang Tian ignored their banter. He shifted his gaze to the handbag Yu Xiaowan was carrying in the photo—a delicate, dark red handbag.

Red…

Yang Yiqing and Yu Shenglin didn’t say goodbye until almost 11 PM. Xiang Tian was busy cleaning up the fruit peels scattered on the table and didn’t notice Ling Zhengzhong’s whispered conversation in Yang Yiqing’s ear. After hearing his words, he immediately gave him a knowing look and whispered, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this for you.”

After seeing the two freeloaders off, and after Ling Zhengzhong went to the bathroom, Xiang Tian dialed Chu Feng’s number.

“Cousin, how’s the matter I asked you to investigate?”

“Xiang Tian, you’re practically Ling Zhengzhong’s full-time nanny, and for free at that. There’s nothing suspicious about Cheng Jing, except that she applied for the job as Ling Zhengzhong’s secretary at this sensitive time.”

Chu Feng’s investigation revealed that Cheng Jing’s parents divorced early in her life. She moved to a coastal city with her father, but due to his bigamy, their relationship was strained. Cheng Jing started living alone in middle school and rarely contacted her family. She had two boyfriends in college, but both relationships ended. After graduation, she joined a local foreign company. Cheng Jing was very serious and meticulous at work, but most people said she was unsociable and had a somewhat extreme personality, so she didn’t have any close friends at the company. Four months ago, she suddenly resigned. According to her colleagues, Cheng Jing had been absent from work several times before resigning, and her emotions were very volatile. Everyone speculated that she resigned because of a breakup.

A little over a month ago, Cheng Jing came to this city and got a job at Intel Company. Although various signs indicated that Cheng Jing tended to be aloof and extreme, one thing was certain: Cheng Jing had never lived in this city before, let alone known Ling Zhengzhong. Therefore, the claim that she harmed Ling Zhengzhong was unfounded.

Xiang Tian listened to his cousin’s report with a frown, his doubts only growing stronger.

He himself had previously checked Cheng Jing’s file on the police network. The information Chu Feng provided was only slightly more detailed than what he had found. He had met Cheng Jing once, albeit briefly, but she didn’t seem aloof or unsociable.

Something was amiss.

“Cousin, can you help me investigate someone else? Her name is Yu Xiaowan. She used to work for Yu Shenglin but resigned six months ago.”

Chu Feng immediately shouted upon hearing Xiang Tian’s request.

“Xiang Tian, ​​you need to understand one thing: the police station isn’t your private property. I have many cases to handle; I can’t keep running around dealing with you!”

Xiang Tian smiled. “Understood. I’ll investigate myself then.”

Chu Feng immediately became alert. “What are you trying to do? You aren’t planning to infiltrate the police network to investigate, are you?”

“Cousin, don’t worry about that. I won’t let the detectors find me…”

Chu Feng naturally believed this, but he was worried that once Xiang Tian started investigating, he wouldn’t give up easily. He didn’t want his station’s network to be hacked every day.

If Chu Feng knew that Xiang Tian had been using the police network like it was his own backyard lately, he’d probably be furious. Of course, Xiang Tian wouldn’t be so stupid as to say it out loud.

“Alright, alright, I give up. I’ll help you investigate.”

“Give me an update as soon as possible!”

“Understood, Brother Xiang!”

“Xiang Tian, ​​you’ve had a long day. Leave the work for tomorrow.”

Ling Zhengzhong watched TV in his bedroom for a while, but Xiang Tian didn’t return. He ran down from the second floor. Seeing him approach, Xiang Tian flicked the mouse, hiding what he was watching.

“You should go to sleep first.”

“How about I make you a late-night snack? You’ve been busy serving people all night and haven’t eaten much. You must be hungry.”

“No, I’m not hungry.”

Although he wasn’t very confident in Ling Zhengzhong’s cooking skills, Xiang Tian was still touched by his lover’s thoughtfulness.

After Ling Zhengzhong returned to his room, Xiang Tian opened the website again. For nearly an hour, he had been searching the police network, but from ordinary household registration records to top-secret archives, he couldn’t find any information about Yu Xiaowan. Xiang Tian was quite confident in his investigative methods; there was only one type of person he couldn’t find—the dead!

Only deceased people had their household registrations revoked, and all files related to her would be deleted…

Xiang Tian smiled bitterly and raised his hands above his head in a gesture of surrender. No matter how skilled he was at intelligence gathering, it was impossible to find information that didn’t exist. In this situation, he could only wait for news from Chu Feng.

On Monday, Xiang Tian drove Ling Zhengzhong to his company. As soon as he parked, Ling Zhengzhong suddenly grabbed his arm, pointed to a man hurrying towards the company, and said to Xiang Tian, ​​”What happened?”

“I don’t know either. That day, I went to ask for leave for Yu Shenglin, and I saw Lin Hui looking at Yu Xiaowan’s photo in the room. After he saw me, he deliberately hid the photo. I didn’t pay attention at the time, but now that I think about it, the girl in the photo must be Yu Xiaowan!”

“Oh?” Xiang Tian frowned. This girl, who might have already passed away, should have had no connection to Zhengzhong whatsoever. Why then did his sixth sense tell him there was more to the story? And what role did Lin Hui play in this whole affair?

Xiang Tian finished his work in the morning, quickly ate lunch, and then drove to a residential area on the outskirts of the city. Housing was increasingly shifting to the suburbs; compared to the city center, the air was fresher, housing prices were lower, and the subway and tram systems were well-developed. So, even in the suburbs, tall residential buildings were everywhere.

Xiang Tian entered one of the apartment buildings. He stopped in front of a door on the third floor, took out a steel needle he carried, and randomly flicked the lock a few times. The door opened with a click.

This was where Yu Xiaowan used to live.