According to Xu Yi’s original plan, those people only needed to shake off Zhong Yi and take Li Weiyi away. If they were caught by the police, there was one person among them willing to take the death penalty and cut off all leads.

However, Zhong Yi’s prowess exceeded everyone’s expectations. Xu Yi also hadn’t anticipated that among that gang of vicious fugitives, someone would be carrying a gun. Although Xu Yi’s ultimate goal was achieved, the case had become too big, causing him a headache as well. Fortunately, he had bribed that person who decisively killed the other three and then committed suicide, which essentially wrapped things up nicely again.

Xu Yi was very familiar with police investigation procedures and also had people inside the police bureau, so he had firsthand information: the police’s attention was currently still focused on the grudge between Zhong Yi and the fugitives, and the direction of the investigation hadn’t changed.

At this critical juncture, he temporarily planned to meet change with constancy. He had also prepared that if the situation changed, he would send Li Weiyi abroad. As for whether the police would suspect him then? Sorry, but all the witnesses were dead, all physical evidence had been wiped clean, and Li Weiyi would have been sent away. In any case, the police would have no way to deal with him. Moreover, given his connections and influence in every aspect of this province, those police officers would very likely be called back before they could even reach him.

As for Zhang Jingchan, a vegetative patient with nothing to his name—Xu Yi didn’t take him seriously at all. No matter how capable Zhang Jingchan might be, in this lifetime before him, he was truly insignificant. If Zhang Jingchan ever caused him trouble, Xu Yi wouldn’t mind lifting a finger to deal with him.

Therefore, having police show up at his door today was beyond Xu Yi’s expectations. But after brief consideration, Xu Yi came downstairs with a smile on his face.

“I wonder what brings you two police comrades here?”

Two bodyguards stood behind him. The butler and assistant sat in secondary positions. Xu Yi accepted the tea the butler handed him, took a light sip, and casually said to his assistant: “Call Bureau Chief Jiang and ask what’s going on.”

His entire bearing exuded the powerful aura of the city’s largest entrepreneur.

Ding Chenmo’s face darkened. You Mingxu also cursed inwardly. However, she showed nothing on her face, breaking into a smile: “Mr. Xu, today our subordinates are conducting an investigation into Li Weiyi’s disappearance case as routine official business. There’s no need to disturb the bureau chief.”

Xu Yi smiled without answering.

You Mingxu indeed began asking questions in a routine manner, such as whether he knew Li Weiyi, when their last contact was, where he had been when yesterday’s incident occurred. Xu Yi was fairly cooperative and answered each question. For questions he didn’t want to answer, he simply wouldn’t speak, and his assistant would intervene on his behalf.

Naturally, nothing could be extracted from him. You Mingxu hadn’t planned on extracting anything either. She closed her notebook and stood up: “Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to meet with us, Mr. Xu.”

Xu Yi: “Not at all.”

You Mingxu and Ding Chenmo walked toward the exit. Xu Yi remained seated without moving.

You Mingxu suddenly turned back and asked with a smile: “By the way, I heard Mr. Xu pursued Li Weiyi for eight years—truly devoted. But after Li Weiyi’s incident yesterday, Mr. Xu didn’t make a single phone call to inquire about her, nor did you contact the Li family. This is really interesting. Could it be that Mr. Xu knows Li Weiyi is fine? Knows where she is?”

Over these years, the Li family had initially known about Xu Yi and Li Weiyi’s interactions. Later, he only went to find Li Weiyi privately, repeatedly being rejected, and almost no one knew about it. So yesterday he also hadn’t taken any superfluous actions.

Hearing this, Xu Yi wasn’t annoyed. He leaned back in his single-person sofa, rested both hands on the armrests, tilted his head back, lightly closed his eyes, and answered: “I don’t know where the police comrade heard this gossip from. I did pursue Li Weiyi in earlier years, but after being rejected by her, I gave up. These past two years I’ve only regarded her as an ordinary friend, and we haven’t had much contact. Moreover, I already have a female companion I’m seeing. Police comrade, you can go inquire and find out.”

You Mingxu: “I see.”

Under the “escort” of two bodyguards, You Mingxu and Ding Chenmo walked out of the villa that was as large as an estate. The large iron gate slowly closed behind them. You Mingxu said: “Old Ding, you go wait in the car.”

Ding Chenmo: “What about you?” He turned his head—she had vanished.

Turning his head again, he saw You Mingxu scaling the villa’s two-meter-high wall. With a few踩踏 movements, she flipped over and disappeared from sight.

Ding Chenmo: …

Did young female officers nowadays all have such impressive skills and were so fearless?

However, on second thought, Ding Chenmo understood. You Mingxu was going to double back unexpectedly. No matter how clever and alert Xu Yi might be, he would never imagine that a police officer would infiltrate the villa on the spot after hitting a soft wall. This was what they called the darkness under the lamp.

——

Before coming, the floor plan of this villa had already been loaded into You Mingxu’s mind. However, her objective was very clear—that extremely large master bedroom suite on the third floor. Although the villa’s security was tight and there were many bodyguards, in front of her, they were mere decoration.

More than ten minutes later, You Mingxu clung like a spider to the outside of the metal security bars outside the master bedroom. She pulled out a universal key she had scavenged from Yin Feng, opened the air conditioning lock on the security bars, and silently climbed inside.

After patrolling a circuit and confirming no one was in the master bedroom, You Mingxu landed on the floor.

There was a very faint smell of ointment in the air. You Mingxu wrinkled her nose. Someone was injured? She first checked the bathroom and walk-in closet—no one there. She also tried the master bedroom door. It wouldn’t open, but according to the floor plan, outside should be a study.

For the moment, she discovered no other hidden entrance.

You Mingxu searched the floor inch by inch. After confirming there were no hidden layers, she began searching along the walls.

Passing by the desk, You Mingxu’s steps paused. She smelled an extremely faint scent of blood—criminal police officers were always particularly sensitive in this regard. This made her excited. She lowered her head searching all around, and finally her gaze stopped on the side panel of the desk—

There was a darker colored smudge there. If you didn’t look carefully, you couldn’t discover it at all. You Mingxu, wearing gloves, wiped her finger across it, picking up a very faint red mark. She smelled it—it was blood, not completely dry yet.

You Mingxu lowered her head and thought for a while. The surrounding walls, floor, and desk surface were all very clean. If a struggle had just occurred, there was no way it would only leave such a lone trace of blood.

Unless someone had deliberately smeared it there with their finger.

That injured person who had applied ointment?

You Mingxu suddenly had a flash of insight. Her gaze followed the direction of the blood trace all the way up to the desktop, where a pen holder was placed. Several other pens all faced the same direction. Only one pen faced a different direction.

You Mingxu pulled out that pen and knew what it was at a glance.

This was a voice recorder pen.

You Mingxu stuffed the voice recorder into her pants pocket. Just as she was about to continue searching for the secret room entrance, she suddenly heard the master bedroom door lock click. Her movements were lightning fast as she turned, climbed out the window, and jumped out.

Xu Yi walked into the master bedroom and went to the bookshelf, removing two books to reveal a miniature password panel. He entered the password, pushed with his hand, and what had been a flat wall surface receded inward to reveal a door. Because the area around the door happened to have a ring of decorative texturing that blended seamlessly with the wall decoration of the entire room, even if you looked closely, it was very difficult to detect anything unusual.

He looked up to see Li Weiyi lying on the bed with both eyes tightly closed, as if asleep. His heart became settled, and without going inside, he relocked each door one by one and left.