“Professor McCarthy must think I’m beyond hope!”
She decided not to tell Zhou Cheng about this, not wanting to unnecessarily burden him. Zhou Cheng would wonder if she couldn’t complete her undergraduate degree at Cornell because of him… While Zhou Cheng was indeed part of the reason, it mainly didn’t fit with Xia Xiaolan’s plans.
She was growing increasingly fond of architecture, but unlike Ning Xue’s pure obsession, it hadn’t become the most important thing in her life.
Ning Xue would probably accept P&W’s invitation, right? She was already planning to complete her undergraduate degree at Cornell, though it remained uncertain whether she would pursue further studies.
Xia Xiaolan forced herself to forget about P&W’s invitation as soon as she left Professor McCarthy’s office. Cornell University’s desire to commend Zhou Cheng’s heroic intervention also needed to be suppressed.
Harold must have spoken with the reporters, as the newspaper’s coverage of the shooting these past few days only briefly mentioned Zhou Cheng’s actions, referring to him as “a Chinese man who subdued the gunman.”
Thank heavens they hadn’t published Zhou Cheng’s photo!
Xia Xiaolan did appear in the paper once, on stage at the award ceremony, receiving the C·W championship trophy from Harold.
She was merely part of the news background, with others on stage and Harold showing just a small profile.
Because of the sudden shooting, the news reports mentioned the “C·W Architectural Design Competition” in passing, which increased the competition’s publicity. The Wilson Hotel, however, suffered badly – after the shooting, cancellations surged while bookings plummeted.
This Wilson Hotel in Queens, New York, was truly unfortunate. Having just resolved a termite problem last year and reopened with a fresh look after renovations, they now faced a shooting incident.
If Xia Xiaolan were to visit the hotel now, she wouldn’t encounter any “fully booked” situations – the occupancy rate was dismally low.
Even Daisy worried for Harold:
“Mr. Wilson seems like a good person, and he sponsored the competition. I hope he can overcome this crisis!”
Daisy wasn’t captivated by Harold’s charm – she was now Zhou Cheng’s devoted fan. She feared that if the Wilson Hotel’s business was affected, they might not build the new hotel in Washington, and then winning first place wouldn’t lead to involvement in the new hotel’s design!
“That’s impossible. This kind of investment isn’t temporary – everything’s already prepared. They won’t stop because of a minor incident!”
As Xia Xiaolan said, while the Wilson Hotel needed to regain customers’ trust, this incident wouldn’t destroy the hotel. The newspaper and television coverage hadn’t affected the hotel’s daily operations… At least the sponsorship money had successfully reached the architecture school. The $50,000 prize money arrived and was distributed as previously agreed – split evenly.
Each person received $12,500.
Xia Xiaolan wanted to give her share to the others, but Daisy and the other two refused.
So Xia Xiaolan’s account gained over ten thousand dollars, which amazed her. She said to Zhou Cheng:
“Did I make money on this trip to America?”
Apart from her investment in Xu Jing and Ma Hai, including buying the car, Xia Xiaolan hadn’t spent much in her two-plus months in America. The car was bought with the $10,000 Zhou Cheng had transferred, which wasn’t even fully spent, and now with the prize money – hadn’t she indeed made a profit?
“You earned this through your abilities.”
Zhou Cheng didn’t know what else to say. His wife seemed to make money wherever she went. If money fell from the sky, why didn’t it fall into others’ laps?
It still required skill!
Without sufficient architectural design ability, there would be no championship and no prize money.
If one couldn’t even understand business themselves, how could they advise Du Zhaohui and get 10 million Hong Kong dollars from him? Xia Ziyun wanted to advise Du Zhaohui, but Du Zhaohui didn’t believe in Xia Ziyun’s abilities…
Xia Xiaolan told no one about refusing P&W’s invitation. Zhou Cheng could only stay in New York for ten days. Last weekend they went to New York for the award ceremony, and this weekend they had planned to visit Washington, but Jim called from San Francisco:
“I’ve confirmed the location of Xu’s grave. Whether to exhume the body now depends on your decision.”
Private investigators already operated in legal grey areas – strictly speaking, many of their investigation methods were illegal, which was why evidence from private investigators wasn’t admissible in court. But Xia Xiaolan wasn’t filing a lawsuit; she wanted to investigate whether Xu Zhongyi was dead or alive. As long as the price was right, Jim didn’t mind doing something slightly illegal.
Digging up bodies at night… Jim would do even that.
For examining a body, there were official procedures and private investigators’ methods.
“The current leads all point to this body. Can’t find Xu Zhongyi’s wife and children? Then have any antiques Xu Zhongyi brought to America circulated in the market over these years?”
Xia Xiaolan was just trying her luck, but Jim found something:
“I traced a vase that was publicly auctioned last year. The seller is unknown, but the buyer was from Hong Kong! I’ve faxed you the photos – awaiting your confirmation for next steps.”
Jim had found antiques that Xu Zhongyi brought to America!
Xia Xiaolan couldn’t be certain even after looking at them – she only knew the markings.
“Looks like we need Grandmother Yu to identify it.”
Xia Xiaolan felt troubled. Zhou Cheng analyzed, “You’re afraid Grandmother Yu can’t bear the grief, but without her involvement, you can’t confirm if that body is Xu Zhongyi. Xiaolan, you can’t keep delaying the decision. It’s time to tell Grandmother Yu.”
The investigation had reached a circular dead end.
All the “truth” Jim uncovered was based on Xu Zhongyi dying in a gang robbery-murder and arson in 1967.
If that body was indeed Xu Zhongyi, Jim’s direction was correct, and following that lead might uncover Xu Zhongyi’s wife and children. If the body wasn’t Xu Zhongyi, Jim had been misled by the old case and needed to correct course.
Zhou Cheng believed they needed to be decisive now. Xia Xiaolan rationally agreed but emotionally hesitated.
“Alright, I’ll ask Uncle Tang to help Grandmother Yu with travel documents. We won’t tell her about identifying the body yet, just say we found some of the Yu family’s former collections in America and need her to come identify them!”
How to find the collections?
Let Jim continue investigating the seller!
If the body was Xu Zhongyi’s, the seller might be his murderer!
They also needed to track down who bought the vase… Having a Hong Kong buyer was already fortunate – easier to trace than collectors from other countries.
She and Du Zhaohui were still business partners; asking him for help with inquiries shouldn’t be a problem.
Among the Du family, only Second Young Master Du seemed passionate about buying antiques…
They’d met at a private auction before.
Du Zhaohui, being uncultured, might not know people in those circles.
Tang Yuanyue seemed quite familiar with such occasions, but Xia Xiaolan had been cheated by Tang Yuanyue before, so now she kept her distance!