Qiming Chapter 16

Chapter 16

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"What's your plan?" Xu Chengyue had 'leniency to those who confess, severity to those who resist' written across his face.

"I've given it some thought." Gu Yunfeng, uncharacteristically, placed a hand on his shoulder and sat down next to him, sincerely suggesting, "Professor Xu, no, Brother, Buddy, only you know about this. You have to keep it a secret for me."

Otherwise, he might be laid off and become an unemployed youth.

"Keep it a secret?" Xu Chengyue frowned slightly, blinked, and then heavily patted the desk. "What about your sense of justice?"

In fact, Xu Chengyue had no intention of telling anyone about his discovery. Yuan Man's case and Guan Jianhua's case were strongly connected only between the two of them. The kidnapping case had already been almost twenty years ago. All the criminals had been punished according to the law, and those who had been victims, who had tried to forget that past, were no longer willing to take up arms against a heinous ant.

Moreover, he was a newcomer who received special attention. The boundaries of many matters were not so clear, and he couldn't foresee how a seemingly casual choice would impact the future.

"Sense of justice? What I want is to solve the case quickly. Cao Yan is in great danger now. I hope to catch the culprit before anything happens to her." Gu Yunfeng sighed helplessly. "Yuan Man is innocent, and Guan Jianhua was just a running accomplice back then. I will seek justice for them and also resolve my own concerns."

He was quite obsessive about certain things, like this case.

"Then write a letter of guarantee," Xu Chengyue said.

Gu Yunfeng looked bewildered. "Guarantee to whom? Does it need an official seal?"

"To me. Guarantee that you won't abuse your power for personal gain."

He looked at Xu Chengyue incredulously. After confirming that the other was serious, he quickly wrote the so-called letter of guarantee and sighed in relief. Watching Xu Chengyue satisfactorily put it away, he thought to himself that geniuses who had stayed in their ivory towers for too long were indeed different, their thought processes were so peculiar. Did they not know that such a piece of paper had no practical use except for psychological comfort?

But in reality, no matter how ineffective the guarantee letter was, Xu Chengyue now had something on him. He might be subject to Xu Chengyue's control from now on, his power reversed, and his leadership position rendered null.

"What are your plans next?" Professor Xu opened the door and walked out of the criminal investigation team with him. He had to return to the lab in the evening, and if there was nothing special, he wouldn't stay with the team.

"Oh, tomorrow I need to visit Tianyi to see Yuan Man and her agent, Chen Yu."

"Then I'll go with you." Xu Chengyue held the letter of guarantee with his slender fingers and said, "Since I promised to keep your secret, I need to be responsible for your actions."

Gu Yunfeng: "???"

"I've made up my mind. Whenever you're in contact with anyone related to the case, I'll be by your side, not moving an inch, watching you closely to restrain your actions."

"Buddy, what if you have classes?"

"You're more important."

How touching.

He felt he was about to cry.

—————

Tianyi's building stood in the bustling central business district of Jiangdong, right on Binjiang Avenue, with the surging river just outside its doors.

"We can't just walk in, can we?" Xu Chengyue asked, adjusting his tie. His navy blue jacket made his slender frame appear sharp and upright, blending seamlessly with the business people coming and going in the central business district. In contrast, Gu Yunfeng, with his cap pulled low and wearing a casual T-shirt, looked every bit like a paparazzo lurking around the agency.

"Mhmm, there's a security gate. She said I should contact her when I arrive, and she'll send someone down to get us." He didn't want to cause any unexpected commotion and preferred to enter as a regular person rather than announcing himself as a police officer.

Saying this, he took out his phone from his pocket and dialled the number, but the phone suddenly went black after just a few rings.

"Sorry," he said, blushing with embarrassment. "My phone ran out of battery."

Xu Chengyue replied, "... I don't have her contact information."

So, he had no choice but to walk toward the reception desk, where an impressively poised security guard in his forties nodded at him professionally.

"Hello, Jinping District criminal investigation team." Gu Yunfeng flashed his badge. "I have a three o'clock appointment with Miss Yuan Man at Tianyi. Could you please inform her?"

The security guard, probably close to fifty, exuded elegance and had a remarkably good hairline for his age, standing out among his peers.

He scrutinised the photo on Gu Yunfeng's badge and then looked him over, making him feel uneasy.

"How can you guarantee the authenticity of this badge?" He held the badge up alongside him, looking him up and down. "A couple of paparazzi recently snuck in here posing as police officers, also claiming to see Miss Yuan Man. Are you colleagues of theirs?"

"Posing as police officers? Da Ge, that's illegal," Gu Yunfeng said, half-laughing. "Do you have surveillance footage of these two? You can report them, and we'll handle it according to the law."

"Of course, this kind of case is out of our jurisdiction," he spread his hands and turned to Xu Chengyue.

"This... is unnecessary, and it's troublesome," Xu Chengyue said.

Gu Yunfeng deliberately glanced at the guard's name tag – Tang Zhihai, employee number starting with 22, indicating he had joined the company last year. On his desk were dozens of magazines, all featuring the girl group AIR or solo photos of Yuan Man. On the covers, they smiled brightly, adorned with summer flowers, holding colourful balloons, trailing rainbows, and standing atop white clouds.

The purest and most beautiful images.

Each cover included Yuan Man. Tang Zhihai was clearly a loyal fan of hers. Last year, Yuan Man and her group had just started gaining public attention, and coincidentally, that was also when Tang Zhihai joined the company as a security guard. Quite the coincidence, Gu Yunfeng thought.

"I've informed Miss Chen Yu," Tang Zhihai said, putting down the phone and gesturing gracefully. "There's a seating area with tea to the right of the lobby, next to the pantry. Please feel free to help yourselves."

"Thanks."

Before they could move, they saw a few student-like boys and girls at the reception, blushing and pleading with the guard to let them in, only to be firmly refused. Uninterested in such entertainment gossip or understanding the fan culture, Gu Yunfeng quietly sat in the tea area, made himself a cup of tea, and casually picked up a brochure introducing Tianyi.

This company mainly managed artists, signing many who were not particularly famous. AIR was one of the groups that had recently exploded in popularity, and the company was capitalising on their fame by signing them to numerous advertisements and shows. Besides artist management, the company also produced a few movies and TV dramas annually, all low-budget and not very impactful. Recently, there was talk about creating a tailor-made idol drama for AIR, aiming to fill a gap in the long-stagnant idol drama market.

The TV in the lobby played AIR's concerts and commercials on a loop. After a while, Xu Chengyue, bored, reached over and took the brochure from Gu Yunfeng's hands.

Gu Yunfeng propped his head on one hand and protested loudly, but then pulled another magazine from the shelf behind him.

The ground floor, connected to the outside, had the air conditioning set too low, making it a bit warm inside. Xu Chengyue took off his jacket, draped it over his arm, and leaned in closer to him. "I'm quite curious... how will you face Yuan Man?"

"The same as before."

"Do you hate them? Cao Yan, and all the people who indirectly caused your sister's death."

Hate? He used to. For a long time, hatred filled his family, causing them to blame and hurt each other, directing their anger at their closest ones.

He thought for a moment and said, "They've already faced legal judgement."

"And what about Yuan Man? She was responsible."

Gu Yunfeng turned his head away, as if the question hit a sore spot. Everyone had faced judgement, except for Yuan Man. She had saved the devil, bringing disaster, being the original sin yet blameless.

"All I can do is treat her as an ordinary person who has nothing to do with me," he said calmly.

Gu Yunfeng suddenly realised that sharing his secrets with others wouldn't hurt him, he just lacked the courage to peel off the self-applied band-aid, constantly suppressing a scar that should have healed naturally.

"I still don't understand why Yuan Man didn't report to the police when she knew she was being followed," the corners of his mouth turned upwards, his heart much lighter. "Cao Yan probably wants to squeeze more out of her daughter. They won't contact Yuan Man directly for a while, but who knows in the future."

He leaned back, fully lying on the tea lounge sofa. "The surveillance clearly showed Yuan Man noticing someone following her, but she lied about it. What harm would it do to tell us she was being followed?" Gu Yunfeng lamented, finding women's hearts unfathomable and young girls' minds even more so.

Girls with such unique childhood experiences were even harder to understand.

To maintain her image as a pure and innocent girl, Yuan Man appeared cheerful and outgoing on the surface, but in reality, she was very mature and sensitive, with a meticulous mind. She and Cao Yan were completely different in personality and appearance. Cao Yan had ordinary features but an inherent allure, while Yuan Man's big eyes and high nose made her look very cute.

Just from photos, he couldn't believe they were mother and daughter.

"I made a discovery yesterday..." Xu Chengyue said, "Do you know where Yuan Man's original orphanage was?"

"I had them investigate this matter, but there were no results," Gu Yunfeng replied, shrugging. "We tried looking for her previous orphanage. There are only so many orphanages in Nanpu City, but we didn't find her name in any of their records."

"She might have changed her name, but there should still be photos and records."

Gu Yunfeng glanced at the time and then looked towards the elevator. They had been waiting for half an hour, but there was no sign of Chen Yu or Yuan Man.

Xu Chengyue continued, "Yesterday, I investigated recent news on these orphanages over the past five years and discovered that in October 2020, an orphanage called Xingyu had a fire due to ageing internal wiring. Most of the records and facilities were destroyed in the fire."

"That June, Yuan Man had just joined Tianyi."

"You mean the fire was intentional?"

Xu Chengyue nodded. "Yuan Man's talent scout was Du Yusheng, a senior executive at Tianyi, and originally the head of the company's public opinion monitoring room. He discovered Yuan Man, who had just graduated from middle school, during a campus lecture. Thinking she had potential, he introduced her to Tianyi and formed a girl group with her as the leader."

"Unfortunately, he passed away last year due to an illness."

"Then the company went through a major personnel change, and Chen Yu became Yuan Man's manager. Under Chen Yu's management, AIR became famous overnight."

"I think Chen Yu may not know Yuan Man that well..." Xu Chengyue paused, speaking slowly, "Perhaps, Yuan Man isn't completely ignorant of her own background."

Perhaps she had known about her parents all along.

"Tsk... Professor Xu," Gu Yunfeng said, resting his chin on his hand and speaking earnestly, "I think you could be our team's human search engine. Our precinct previously bought an information query service platform from Zhiyin Technology, but it's nowhere near as useful as you."

Xu Chengyue raised an eyebrow, a smile forming at the corners of his mouth. "The system you bought was designed by me during my postgraduate studies, so of course it's no match for me."

The large screen in the lobby finally changed from a concert and advertisement loop to a movie trailer. Xu Chengyue watched the bustling crowd, closed his eyes, and tried to construct a relationship network in his mind to find new possibilities.

It was highly likely that the criminals blackmailing Tianyi over Yuan Man's unique background were a gang formed by Cao Yan and Guan Jianhua. After repeatedly bypassing Yuan Man to extort Tianyi, Yuan Man herself received threatening letters with no substantial content.

There was no indication of what the sender hoped to gain.

Xu Chengyue couldn't come up with a solid idea. All his speculations and assumptions were like a winding line, coming closer but never forming a complete circle.

He gave up and looked up at the looping movie trailer. The heroine was a rebellious little girl with red hair who hated studying but loved singing. After meeting a shy and kind-hearted male lead, she turned her life around, balancing school and songwriting, and eventually got into Berkeley, reaching the pinnacle of her life.

The clichéd story reminded him of Lu Yiran, the little princess who could get away with anything.

"My teacher has a daughter who really likes Yuan Man's group. Do you think... I should help her ask for an autograph?"

"One? That's not enough. Get as many as you can before she starts to dislike us," Gu Yunfeng said, flipping through another magazine and finally giving up, closing his eyes and bracing himself for the inevitable dislike. To push the case forward quickly, one should do whatever it takes within the bounds of the law, even if it means offending people.

"You want to ask?"

"... Professor Xu, you have hands, a mouth, and a handsome face that can charm young girls," Gu Yunfeng waved his hand, patting his thigh in refusal.

"She seems to like you, you could surely get at least a dozen."

"No, no, no, don't say that." He waved his hand as if the idea had traumatised him, recalling some dreadful memory. "Last time, after I gave her and her manager a ride, I ended up on the trending searches and TV. My phone almost blew up that day."

"Yet you still dare to come find her."

"It's for the case," Gu Yunfeng said, spreading his hands helplessly.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: July 1, 2024 by Angel

Edited: July 9, 2024 by Angel