You Mingxu flared up instantly, saying: “What former girlfriend? Where did you hear that?”

Xu Mengshan looked at her expression uncomfortably: “Li Mingdi said so.” After a pause, he added: “Back during the Tibet incident, everyone assumed that.”

You Mingxu’s face turned ashen as she asked: “What else did this Li Mingdi say?”

Xu Mengshan answered more smoothly this time: “He also said that when Yin Feng wasn’t there, Su Ziyi was responsible for daily guard duty, watching him for several years. While he was locked up there, he wrote… manuscripts as required, and Su Ziyi would take them away. He claimed he was from a wealthy family and had loved and excelled at writing since childhood, and that’s why Yin Feng kidnapped him.”

You Mingxu sneered: “Wasn’t Su Ziyi guarding him for Yin Chen? This Li Mingdi is one of the Punisher’s people—how can his words be trusted?”

Having heard about the Guizhou incident from her before, Xu Mengshan tried to comfort her: “Don’t get angry. This sounds like a false accusation. So what if they found fingerprints? Wasn’t Yin Feng also kidnapped for a while? They must have been left then under duress. We brothers aren’t so blind that we can’t see through such tactics. It’s just that now there’s physical evidence and testimony, making things a bit more complicated. We just need to investigate thoroughly.”

You Mingxu nodded and asked: “Has Su Ziyi been summoned?”

Xu Mengshan replied: “Yes. When our people found her, she was heading to the airport with her luggage. She’s being brought back now.”

You Mingxu let out a light snort.

Xu Mengshan said: “However… they’re trying to implicate Yin Feng now…”

You Mingxu understood his meaning and said: “I understand. Keep him away from it for now, to avoid putting you all in a difficult position.”

After talking with Xu Mengshan, You Mingxu returned to her office to find Yin Feng sitting behind her desk, idly flipping through some case files.

He looked up and asked: “How is it?”

You Mingxu suddenly felt a wave of heartache and indignation. What kind of person was he, refusing to submit to evil thoughts, bearing so much for so many years? Now he was being slandered in such a disgusting, despicable way. She pulled up a chair and sat beside him.

Yin Feng sensed something and asked: “What happened?”

You Mingxu calmed herself and told him everything.

Sometimes, when Yin Feng sat there straight-backed, neither smiling nor showing any expression, he could look quite intimidating. Like now.

After a while, he laughed coldly: “Though the method is crude, it’s quite effective—produce a victim, thrust him before the police, and they can’t ignore it. They’re trying to remove me from the case to clear their path.”

You Mingxu agreed. Who understood Yin Chen as well as they understood themselves? Who was the only person who had seen the Punisher’s true founder? And who had dealt the Punisher organization such a devastating blow? Without Yin Feng’s help, it would be much harder for the police to eliminate the remaining Punishers.

You Mingxu held his hand and said: “Since we understand their game, we needn’t fear whatever tricks they might play. You should go home now—it’s not appropriate for you to do anything. I’ll watch them, see what they’re trying to do. They won’t succeed.”

Yin Feng stared at her for a moment, and seeing no one else in the office, leaned over to kiss her lips, saying: “I know. I have Ah Xu to clear my name. What is there to worry about?”

Seeing him still joking, You Mingxu smiled, thinking that the opponent’s move might not be a bad thing—after all, if they kept hiding, what could be done about them? Now that they’d actively emerged, they could follow the trail and see what they might uncover.

Yin Feng went home. Following the procedure, Xu Mengshan assigned two officers to guard outside his house. You Mingxu waved it off, not taking it seriously.

Su Ziyi was quickly brought in, with Xu Mengshan and another colleague handling her interrogation. You Mingxu stood in the observation room—now that it involved Yin Feng, it wasn’t appropriate for her to intervene directly.

You Mingxu thought about how it had been over a year since she’d last seen Su Ziyi. Since the Yu Yingjun period, this woman had only appeared briefly before Yin Feng a few times and then vanished. You Mingxu had dismissed Su Ziyi as just one of Yin Feng’s past romantic entanglements—Yin Feng probably hadn’t even thought about her since, so You Mingxu hadn’t considered her significant.

But now, this seemingly harmless figure had emerged, implicated as Yin Feng’s accomplice in kidnapping, imprisonment, and abuse, in her capacity as his former girlfriend.

In the interrogation room.

Su Ziyi looked unchanged from a year ago—beautiful, quiet, with a perpetual hint of melancholy between her brows. She sat there in silence, head lowered, no matter how Xu Mengshan and the others questioned her.

Later, Xu Mengshan said: “We found numerous fingerprints belonging to you in a wooden cabin near Xianjia Lake. How do you explain that?”

He pushed Li Mingdi’s photo in front of her: “Do you know this person?”

Su Ziyi’s eyes reddened, her eyeballs rolling inside, biting her lip in silence.

You Mingxu’s brows furrowed. What an actress! This demeanor was as good as telling the police it was all true!

Xu Mengshan and his colleague exchanged glances, though their inner thoughts differed. Xu Mengshan, like You Mingxu, thought: Damn, keep acting, just keep acting! A woman’s heart is most poisonous.

The other colleague, however, became sensitively suspicious.

Xu Mengshan’s eyes shifted, and he suddenly asked: “When was the last time you saw Yin Chen?”

Su Ziyi paused before answering: “Yin Chen… hasn’t he been dead for over ten years? The last time I saw him was before his death, of course.” It sounded watertight.

But Xu Mengshan smiled slightly.

In the observation room, You Mingxu also mentally applauded, closely watching Su Ziyi’s expression. If Su Ziyi were innocent, Xu Mengshan’s question should have sparked bewilderment—being asked about someone dead for over a decade. But her reaction was too calm, a calm denial. That wasn’t right.

Su Ziyi knew Yin Chen wasn’t dead.

Su Ziyi also realized her mistake, a flash of embarrassment crossing her eyes. Xu Mengshan inwardly sneered, about to press his advantage, when suddenly a commotion erupted outside.

You Mingxu frowned and had to open the door. The interrogation room was on the second floor, and she saw two elderly people with graying hair in the courtyard below, crying and trying to rush in while two officers attempted to reason with them and hold them back.

Suddenly, the elderly woman burst into loud sobs, crying out: “Ziyi! Ziyi! Where are you? How could you be arrested by the police? There must be some mistake! Some mistake!”

You Mingxu felt her temples throbbing when suddenly she heard the door next door bang open. Su Ziyi rushed out to the balcony, calling out: “Dad, Mom!” Tears rolled down her face, clearly showing regret and pain.