The story wasn’t complicated. She had been with Zhang Moyun, who was a construction contractor at the time, when she was eighteen or nineteen. It was common for young people to quarrel constantly. She had been a renowned beauty in the area back then, with a proud personality. Zhang Moyun had a bad temper, was stubborn, and was single-mindedly focused on making money, so the two often had conflicts.

The most serious time, they broke up for two years.

Li Yilin was Wu Xinhui’s first love boyfriend from high school, completely different from Zhang Moyun—fair and handsome, gentle in temperament, and sweet-talking. At that time, he came to pursue her again. Wu Xinhui wavered and got back together with him.

However, after being together for about a year, Wu Xinhui broke up with him. She still couldn’t forget Zhang Moyun.

Zhang Moyun never knew about this, and Wu Xinhui never mentioned it. In his mind, his wife had only been with him—completely pure and innocent.

So when Li Yilin showed up at their door, Wu Xinhui panicked. She didn’t want Zhang Moyun to know that she had slept with Li Yilin back then. Every time Li Yilin came, it was for money, and he didn’t ask for much. Wu Xinhui simply gave him money to send him away. As for Li Yilin making physical advances on her, Wu Xinhui firmly resisted. After they scuffled a few times, Li Yilin didn’t dare do anything more.

“But…” Li Weiyi was puzzled. “Even if Uncle Zhang found out, that was over twenty years ago. He shouldn’t be angry, right?”

Wu Xinhui’s expression was defeated as she answered, “Li Yilin has some… photographs. I was young then and foolish—he coaxed me into taking them. I didn’t expect he’d still have them. I don’t want Moyun to see those.”

Li Weiyi understood. Li Yilin as a chess piece was extremely useful to those people. A mixture of truth and lies, leaving no survivors.

Li Weiyi said solemnly, “Auntie, don’t worry. I’ll tell Ding Chenmo about this privately and have him find those photographs and destroy them. Absolutely no one else will see them.”

Wu Xinhui’s eyes reddened. “Good child, I feel much better having said it. Thank you!”

——

Li Weiyi and Wu Xinhui came out of the room. Ding Chenmo had already brought two police officers upstairs. Li Weiyi hurried to Zhang Jingchan’s room and saw him personally handing a USB drive to Ding Chenmo. Zhang Moyun stood nearby with a grave expression.

This was the moment when the dust settled, the result of all her and Zhang Jingchan’s efforts over so many attempts, yet everything seemed so calm. Li Weiyi slowly exhaled. But why did she still feel vaguely uneasy somewhere in her heart? Probably because Xu Yi was too cunning—it had been half a day since they’d traveled through time, and there had been no movement from his side.

Ding Chenmo took the USB drive and examined it carefully for a while before asking, “You collected this?”

Zhang Moyun nodded.

Because this economic crime case involved Fu Ming, the city’s leading enterprise, with enormous sums involved and possibly mixed with an attempted murder criminal case, Ding Chenmo had already received authorization from leadership before departing. On the spot, using Zhang Moyun’s computer, he had the economic crimes personnel conduct a preliminary review of the materials.

After looking for a while, the economic crimes officer nodded at Ding Chenmo, who had been leaning in to look the whole time, his brow furrowed tightly, seemingly deep in thought.

Ding Chenmo straightened up and said to them, “I’ll have the bureau issue arrest warrants for Liu Ying, Zhang Fengming, and Cheng Chuan right now. As for Xu Yi, we’ll need to investigate thoroughly before we know whether he’s connected.”

Zhang Jingchan said, “Xu Yi is Liu Ying’s biological younger brother.”

Ding Chenmo’s eyes gleamed sharply as he glanced at him and said, “I see.”

At that moment, a police officer came knocking at the door and called Ding Chenmo over to whisper in his ear. Ding Chenmo turned around, his expression even more serious. “We searched both Liu Guizhi and Li Yilin’s residences and found accelerants and tools for arson. The people have been detained. Liu Guizhi hasn’t said anything yet, but Li Yilin confessed everything after just a little intimidation: he took money, Liu Ying approached him to set the fire tonight, saying it was to scare the Zhang family. This is no longer a simple economic crime—it’s extremely serious in nature. I’ll report to leadership immediately.” He paused, then said, “We’ll also take Xu Yi into custody right away.”

Li Weiyi was slightly startled.

She felt that today’s Ding Chenmo was a bit strange—not his usual decisive, no-nonsense self. It seemed like he had something on his mind.

She quickly figured it out. Ding Chenmo was sharp—the Zhang family’s report had come too suddenly. Maybe the old man was suspicious again, or perhaps he too had been affected by the repeated cycles and had fragmented intuitions.

Well, let him be.

Li Weiyi smiled at him. Ding Chenmo noticed, looked at her deeply, and said, “Li Weiyi, come with me.”

Zhang Jingchan spoke up. “What for?”

Ding Chenmo replied, “Don’t protect her! Such a major case—what’s an unrelated child doing getting involved? She should have been asked to leave earlier. I need to lecture her a bit. Don’t you follow.”

The two walked to the staircase. Ding Chenmo still had that sharp gaze that made one’s heart flutter. Li Weiyi felt he might have also noticed that she and Zhang Jingchan hadn’t swapped bodies this time.

But Ding Chenmo didn’t say anything. He genuinely advised, “From what we can see, these criminals are vicious and have strong desire for revenge. You’re a young girl, not even an adult yet. You’re not needed for what comes next. Stay out of things for the next few days and be careful. Once the case is closed, you can be inseparable from that boy again.”

“Oh, got it.”

Zhang Moyun called all four bodyguards together to guard the villa. These bodyguards were all people he had personally found from out of town—safe and reliable. Seeing this, Ding Chenmo left two police officers for protection and hurriedly departed with the others, instructing the Zhang family to come to the police station in the afternoon to give statements.

Li Weiyi walked back upstairs. Zhang Moyun sat on the sofa with his arms around the crying Wu Xinhui, his eyes red. Li Weiyi thought perhaps she could guess what the couple had confessed to each other. Zhang Jingchan sat beside them, his handsome long eyebrows slightly furrowed, also somewhat lost in thought.

Li Weiyi tugged at the back of his clothing. Zhang Jingchan turned his head, his gaze becoming gentle. Still sitting, he held her hand and said, “It’s fine. It’s over. We won. Now it’s just the police making arrests—they can’t turn things around.”

Li Weiyi was filled with mixed emotions. She stood still, gazing at him. He held her hand, just smiling quietly.

“You’ve worked hard too, Weiyi.” Zhang Moyun looked over. Wu Xinhui stood up. “Good child, are you hungry? I’ll go make you something to eat.”

Li Weiyi quickly waved her hand. “No need!” She glanced at the time—it was just noon. “I need to go back to school for class. After all, I’m in my senior year.”

Having said this, the Zhang couple naturally couldn’t insist she stay. Wu Xinhui gave Zhang Jingchan a push. “You take Weiyi to school. On the way, buy her whatever she wants to eat.”

Zhang Jingchan smiled. “Mom, you don’t need to tell me.”

Li Weiyi’s face flushed slightly. She walked out of the villa gates with Zhang Jingchan side by side, a police officer and a bodyguard following about ten meters behind.

Zhang Jingchan said, “There are still two things we need to guard against: First, if Xu Yi guesses our moves, we need to prevent them from fleeing abroad, but that’s up to the police. Second…” He put both hands in his pockets and lowered his head slightly. “Xu Yi has a strong obsession with you, and you just escaped from the secret room he carefully constructed. If he can’t escape abroad and becomes desperate enough to turn back and come looking for you, I’m not at ease.”

Li Weiyi was stunned and speechless.

Zhang Jingchan glanced back at the villa. “So I want to reassign two bodyguards to follow you twenty-four hours a day until they’re all apprehended.”

Li Weiyi thought for a moment and nodded. “Alright, I’ll listen to you.”

Zhang Jingchan’s expression relaxed. He called over the bodyguard behind them and gave some instructions. Soon the other bodyguard also came over.

Li Weiyi was in a quandary. “I can temporarily take a few days off from school, but if they follow me home, where would they stay?”

“Sleep on the floor?”

“Such a big production—I’m also afraid of scaring my parents.”

Zhang Jingchan thought briefly and said, “Then stay in a hotel? Book a suite, or stay in my family’s other property. I’m also afraid Xu Yi will go to your home. After I finish cooperating with the police, I’ll come find you.”

“Then let’s stay at your family’s place.” Li Weiyi thought that the Zhang family had almost gone bankrupt—staying in a hotel suite would be too expensive.

The two looked at each other for a while. Zhang Jingchan pulled her shoulder toward him and lowered his head to kiss her. Li Weiyi quickly dodged, her face red. “No! I’m still a high school student and a minor, and the bodyguard and police are watching from behind.”

Zhang Jingchan laughed, released her without insisting, and instead asked, “When do you turn eighteen?”

“…I’m not telling you!”

Li Weiyi turned her head to look aside and suddenly froze. Before them was a road within the villa district, lined on both sides with detached villas and dense trees. About a hundred meters away, behind a large tree next to a villa, stood a man in black clothes and pants wearing a face mask and baseball cap, gazing in their direction from afar.

Before Li Weiyi could make a sound, Zhang Jingchan beside her had already shouted, “Who?!” and taken off running. The police officer and one bodyguard behind them heard the shout and gave chase. The man behind the tree flashed and turned to run, quickly disappearing from sight.

Li Weiyi stood in place without moving. The other bodyguard stayed by her side with a tense expression. In her mind surfaced the blurred image of the driver in that black Grand Cherokee she had seen so many times. That uneasy feeling surged up in her heart once again.