You Mingxu returned to the car and tossed the voice recorder to Ding Chenmo. Over the past two days, Ding Chenmo had been in frequent contact with Zhang Jingchan and had learned the inside story of the warehouse case from years ago. Seeing this, his eyebrows twitched violently as he blurted out: “Could this be that voice recorder?”

You Mingxu: “Which voice recorder?”

“Can’t be explained in just a few words.” Ding Chenmo pressed the voice recorder’s power button and discovered it was dead. He immediately connected it to the car’s charging cable.

Ten minutes later, You Mingxu transferred the contents of the voice recorder to her phone and pressed play:

“Old Cheng, why did you arrange to meet here when things are so tense? What if someone sees us…”

“But Fu Ming will ultimately face bankruptcy liquidation! Those accounts can’t be hidden!”

“I’ve discussed this matter with Yingying. As long as she’s willing to sacrifice a bit of her reputation and let Zhang Moyun die in her bed. As long as the evidence is made thorough, the police will most likely close the case quickly.”

“Can I make a suggestion? A few times in the past when Boss Zhang got drunk, I sent him to rest at the Sophora Villa. How about there?”

…

Ding Chenmo’s eyes turned red as he listened. He immediately wanted to call Zhang Jingchan, but was stopped by You Mingxu: “What’s the rush? If you tell him now, it’ll only make him anxious for nothing. Wait until we have the person in hand. I estimate the secret room is in that master bedroom. We need to figure out a way to find the entrance—the door lock probably won’t be easy either.”

Ding Chenmo: “Then what do we do? Break in again?”

You Mingxu smiled and nodded: “Break in again. I’ll take Yin Feng with me.”

“Him? What good is bringing him?”

When they came to the villa today, Yin Feng had insisted on coming along but was disdainfully sent away by You Mingxu. Now she wanted that kid to come?

You Mingxu held the voice recorder in one hand, tossing it up and down a couple times, her expression somewhere between a smile and not: “Then you wouldn’t know—Teacher Yin can open any lock in this world.”

——

Two hours earlier.

Dawn hadn’t yet broken, and Li Weiyi hadn’t yet climbed up into the air conditioning ventilation duct. She stood in the early morning secret room and finally made up her mind, walking toward the safe.

“The computer password is my mother’s birthday.” In a certain dusk in that lifetime, he had mentioned it casually.

…

That computer in the study back then had stored Xu Yi’s most confidential business materials, only Li Weiyi had never been interested in looking at them.

The safe door opened in response. Li Weiyi let out a long breath, glanced at the room’s door, and quickly searched through it. Inside were several passports and some contract documents and materials. At first glance, Li Weiyi couldn’t make sense of them.

Suddenly, her gaze was riveted by a pen in the very corner of the safe. She slowly took that pen out, and tears emerged.

She quickly restored the safe to its original state, sat back on the bed holding that pen, contemplated for a moment, then stuffed the pen into her pants pocket and zipped it up.

She decided to try climbing the ventilation duct, though she knew in her heart there was an eighty percent chance of failure. But what if she succeeded?

Even if she failed, it didn’t matter—she could use it as a diversion to redirect Xu Yi’s attention. If he thought she was trying to escape this way, he wouldn’t notice the voice recorder.

Although she fell, the result was actually better than she’d expected—Xu Yi carried her out of the secret room to the master bedroom. At least she’d made one step of progress.

During that brief moment when Xu Yi walked out of the master bedroom with an unfriendly expression to speak with the butler, a bold and impulsive idea surged into Li Weiyi’s mind—she had a gut feeling that whoever had come outside was reinforcements. She also had a premonition that if Xu Yi sensed danger, he definitely wouldn’t let her out of the secret room again.

She had to leave the voice recorder outside.

Perhaps Xu Yi would discover it—that would only bring her back to square one. After all, it would be very difficult for her to get out again anyway.

But what if someone else discovered the voice recorder? What if it was reinforcements that Zhang Jingchan had brought?

Li Weiyi just had blind faith in Zhang Jingchan. She felt that whoever he asked for help would definitely find this place, find this master bedroom. In that case, she couldn’t just sit and wait for death either.

Never mind all that—take the gamble. Bet a bicycle to win a motorcycle.

As for her sudden attempt to escape after Xu Yi came in, that was just another diversion—still to redirect his attention. If she did nothing at all, that would make him suspicious. After causing such a commotion, he wouldn’t have the energy to notice what extra items had appeared in the master bedroom.

Of course, there was still that saying: what if she really did manage to run out?

When it came to escaping from Xu Yi’s hands, one had to be relentless and leave no stone unturned.

——

At the gas station.

Zhang Jingchan slowly drove the car closer and stopped at the roadside at the gas station entrance. From a distance of more than ten meters, he stared at that large Jeep.

A medium-built man got out of the driver’s seat. He wore an old black padded jacket and a baseball cap, revealing graying temples. He exchanged a few words with the gas station staff, then walked toward the indoor payment area next door.

After a while, he came out, facing directly toward Zhang Jingchan and Li Yunmo’s direction.

Li Yunmo lost his voice: “It’s him!”

Zhang Jingchan stared at that person with ice-cold eyes, his mouth twisting into a smirk.

Everything made sense now. Once a prestigious executive, later a prisoner, arrogant and obsessive, considering himself highly educated—of course he couldn’t bear such a fall from grace and sought revenge on society.

The Jeep drove out of the gas station. Zhang Jingchan drove after it. His phone chimed once. He picked it up and looked—it was an image from Ding Chenmo. On it was a voice recorder with a familiar appearance.

Ding Chenmo still couldn’t resist claiming credit midway.

Zhang Jingchan immediately sent a voice message: “Where did you find it?”

Ding Chenmo also sent a voice message: “Your wife secretly got it out.”

Zhang Jingchan slammed on the brakes, stopped the car by the roadside, and said to Li Yunmo: “You drive.” The two switched positions, and he immediately dialed the phone. Before he could ask his question, his heart leapt to his throat first: “Where is she?”

Ding Chenmo: “She hasn’t been rescued yet.”

Zhang Jingchan: …

He suddenly wanted to give this little old man a thorough beating.

Ding Chenmo laughed: “Should be soon. Who knew your wife was so clever, making preparations for cooperation from inside and out.”

“What’s so surprising about that?” A smile finally appeared on Zhang Jingchan’s face. “Thanks. Notify me the moment there’s news.”

——

That afternoon, a Bentley drove out of the villa—it was Xu Yi’s vehicle.

An inconspicuous sedan was parked on a side road not far from the villa. Ding Chenmo put down his phone, studied the voice recorder in his hand, and frowned: “Why didn’t Xu Yi destroy this pen? He kept it all these years and that girl Li Weiyi managed to dig it up?”

Yin Feng, who had just arrived looking extremely cheerful, scoffed and said: “Isn’t that simple? This was the key to his dark enterprise turning crisis into safety, the symbol of his defeat of his opponent Zhang Jingchan—if he viewed Zhang Jingchan as his greatest rival, of course he’d keep this trophy. Think about it, in a dark secret room, taking out this voice recorder, thinking about how much blood was spilled over it, that kind of secret satisfaction—just thinking about it is thrilling. If it were me, I’d keep it too.”

You Mingxu glanced at him.

Yin Feng sensed he’d said something wrong but didn’t know what, and fell into awkward silence.

Ding Chenmo didn’t pay much attention. Watching Xu Yi’s vehicle drive away, he muttered: “Wonder what he’s going out to do at a time like this?”

You Mingxu unbuckled her seatbelt, patted Yin Feng on the shoulder, and pushed open the car door: “We’ve already flushed out the snake today. Not appropriate to follow him. Let’s rescue the person first. As long as we have witness and physical evidence, Xu Yi can’t escape. Old Ding, you keep watch here. We’ll make our move.”

——

Half an hour later.

You Mingxu expended some effort before managing to bring Yin Feng into the villa’s master bedroom. Facing the completely ordinary-looking wall, You Mingxu said: “Is the secret room entrance easy to find? I got stuck here.”

Yin Feng really did look like a big caterpillar, crawling along the wall feeling it inch by inch. A few minutes later, he knocked on the wall next to the bookshelf and muttered: “It’s right here. Not very sophisticated either. How come Xiao Xu couldn’t find it?”

You Mingxu knocked him on the head and asked irritably: “Can you open it?”

Yin Feng pulled a miniature decoding device from his pocket—before departing, one of his subordinates who was skilled at lock-picking had contributed it; his lock-picking skills were also learned from others—and pressed it against the password panel on the bookshelf.

A dozen seconds later, the password panel beeped. Yin Feng pushed with his hand, and the wall surface receded inward to reveal a door.

Yin Feng turned to look at You Mingxu: “I can open it.”

You Mingxu smiled and patted his head. He immediately bent down and nuzzled her palm with the top of his head.

The two pushed open the secret room door.

Li Weiyi was crouched in front of the safe, looking through those contract documents. She turned to stare at them with wide eyes.