Yan Lin didn’t continue to make things difficult for Luo Siyu. After fully recording their conversation and getting Zhong Heng’s contact information, he asked her to leave. As she went out, he reminded her to keep in touch with them, otherwise, once they discovered she was trying to run, they would choose to call the police to solve the problem.

Luo Siyu was already shaking like a leaf, nodding and agreeing to everything Yan Lin said.

After seeing her off, Yan Lin returned. The other two in the living room had fallen into a gloomy silence. He sighed silently and sat down on the sofa in the living room.

“So, let’s reorganize the sequence of events now,” Yan Lin loosened his collar, “and look for a breakthrough.”

He began a clear statement and reasoning.

Around 2013, the domestic real estate industry ushered in a wave of policy adjustments. Developers could not hoard land and sell off-plan properties, and higher requirements were placed on corporate standardization and financial strength. At that time, the Fengyuan land had been in Haoting’s hands for over a year. To avoid being taken back by the government and worsening the company’s operating conditions, Su Ruini was naturally eager to develop it.

Runyuan’s development in the real estate sector had always been sluggish. Yuan Jianxin had also bid for Fengyuan but unfortunately failed. He also coveted this piece of land, hoping to rely on it to stage a comeback. Thus, a conspiracy arose.

On the one hand, he bribed the nail households of Fengyuan at that time, secretly instructing them to make unreasonable sky-high compensation demands to Haoting, delaying Haoting’s development cycle and increasing Su Ruini’s financial pressure. On the other hand, he also secretly contacted Rongda Engineering, forging a contract in Haoting’s name and signing it with the other party, causing a forced demolition accident. After public opinion erupted, he pushed Haoting into the abyss.

Luo Siyu’s role in this incident was very simple. The contract was signed in duplicate. Her responsibility was to secretly put the “Haoting” copy into Su Ruini’s study, so that the prosecutor would find it during the search, using it as direct evidence to convict Su Ruini. How could Su Ruini have thought that someone would enter her home? Her company office was heavily guarded, and outsiders had no chance to enter at all. Only her home was a blind spot, giving the people behind the scenes an opportunity.

The key to the validity of this series of deductions lies in explaining the reason why Su Ruini did not defend herself—if she was really wronged, why didn’t she object when she was being investigated by all parties at that time?

Yan Lin believed this was related to Hou Feng’s death.

According to the police report at the time, the perpetrator who killed Hou Feng was a direct relative of a victim of the Fengyuan forced demolition accident. However, how could an ordinary person find out the residence and whereabouts of Su Ruini’s relatives? Moreover, Su Ruini had not yet been sentenced at that time, and the relatives of the victim should obviously be more concerned about the sentencing of the person involved, rather than going after her relatives.

Behind this, there may have been instigation from Runyuan. They used the hatred of the victim’s relatives, inciting them to kill Hou Feng, and using this to threaten Su Ruini: confess, otherwise we will kill your son just like we killed your husband.

Hou Zihao thus became a living hostage.

Judging from the fact that Su Ruini allowed Yuan Jianxin to take over the Haoting shares held by Hou Zihao, Yuan Jianxin did not reveal his true colors to Su Ruini. He may have used Wang Ran as the “bad cop,” making Su Ruini believe that this conspiracy originated within Haoting, while he himself could play the role of a “good cop,” using the shares he obtained from Hou Zihao to achieve greater control over Haoting’s internal business and resources, thereby gradually hollowing out Haoting and fattening his own Runyuan over the next few years.

And why did Su Ruini insist on having her child hand over the shares? Probably at that time, she had already realized that this was a brutal struggle, and she would rather have Hou Zihao go abroad far away than let him become an innocent victim devoured by capital.

As for Yuan Jianxin, although he had been successful in recent years, a person who had done evil would inevitably feel uneasy. Therefore, he had always restricted Hou Zihao from returning to China. However, he was also worried that if Hou Zihao flew too far, he would become uncontrollable. Therefore, he finally chose to let him return to Runyuan, staying under his nose, constantly under his surveillance.

Everything made sense.

Zhou Leqi, who had listened to the entire process, was trembling uncontrollably. She didn’t know why she was like this—was it because she was terrified by this elaborate scheme that cost lives? Or was she heartbroken for the man sitting beside her at this moment, who had once been trapped in the net?

Even her voice trembled slightly as she asked Yan Lin, “Then what should we do next... call the police? Apply for a reinvestigation?”

“No,” Yan Lin shook his head, “We don’t have direct evidence to prove that there was a problem with the case seven years ago. The recording is not conclusive enough to reopen the investigation. Now...”

“Calling the police now would only be a premature move that alerts the enemy,” Hou Zihao finished Yan Lin’s sentence, while taking out his vibrating phone from his pocket. The caller ID flashing on the screen was none other than Yuan Jianxin’s name.

Zhou Leqi’s heart skipped a beat, and her palms instantly went cold.

She was also an extremely intelligent person, and her mind worked very quickly. Presumably, Yuan Jianxin had already heard from his subordinates about the failed car accident, and might even have found out that Hou Zihao had saved her... What was his purpose in calling Hou Zihao now? What was he going to do? Would he hurt him?

Her blood rushed to her head, and she subconsciously grabbed Hou Zihao’s wrist. He turned to look at her, his eyes dark yet faintly carrying a comforting meaning, the little tenderness left in his heart.

He gently patted the back of her hand, glanced at Yan Lin again, and then pressed the answer and speakerphone buttons.

“Hello, Zihao?”

Yuan Jianxin’s voice quickly came from the other end of the phone, sounding very calm and steady, making it completely unimaginable that he would be a bastard with blood and sin on his hands.

“Have you seen your mother? Did you have a good chat?” he asked, sounding very kind.

Hou Zihao replied equally calmly and gently, saying that he had seen her, and that he and his mother were very happy. However, Zhou Leqi saw that the hand he had placed on his knee had bulging veins, as if he was desperately suppressing the anger and hatred in his heart.

“Is that so? That’s good,” Yuan Jianxin sounded pleased, and continued, “Then when will you come back to the company? The IPO work can’t be sloppy, we still need you here.”

What was he doing? Asking Hou Zihao to return to Beijing? Was it to prevent him from continuing to investigate deeply in City A?

Hou Zihao remained calm. A mature man already had deep cunning, able to think calmly and make correct decisions in any situation. He quickly replied to Yuan Jianxin, saying, “I was supposed to go back yesterday, but I unexpectedly encountered a classmate who almost had a car accident. I helped out and got a minor injury, which delayed me.”

This was proactively revealing information to confuse the issue, pointing out what Yuan Jianxin already knew, thereby minimizing his suspicion as much as possible.

“Injured? How could this happen! Is it serious?” Yuan Jianxin’s acting was also superb. The voice coming from the other end of the phone sounded extremely anxious, just like a kind father concerned about his child’s safety, “Can you still return to Beijing? Why don’t I have Huihui and your aunt go back to see you?”

Exquisite and realistic.

Zhou Leqi saw the coldness in Hou Zihao’s eyes and heard his warm and polite words, saying that he was fine and could return to Beijing tomorrow, asking Uncle Yuan not to worry.

Yuan Jianxin then seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, repeatedly saying “That’s good, that’s good,” and gave Hou Zihao several hypocritical instructions before finally hanging up the phone.

The living room was silent.

Hou Zihao’s emotions had also gone through great turbulence. Zhou Leqi and Yan Lin could both see that he had put in a lot of effort to barely suppress the anger in his heart. Even so, he still couldn’t hide the gloom in his eyes. They heard him say, “He’s already suspicious. I have to go back tomorrow. I can’t go back to City A anymore. Now, we can only first look for a breakthrough from this person, Zhong Heng.”

Yan Lin nodded in agreement. He was somewhat worried about Hou Zihao’s situation, so he asked one more question, “Have you heard of this person? Is it convenient to investigate him?”

Hou Zihao was silent for a moment before replying, “He used to be Yuan Jianxin’s secretary, transferred about two or three years ago, probably also to avoid suspicion.”

He paused and added, “Not easy to investigate. I’ll figure out a way, you don’t need to worry about this.”

He said it calmly and firmly, looking like he had already made a decision. But Zhou Leqi couldn’t be at ease and couldn’t help but ask, “What are you planning to do? Yuan Jianxin already suspects you. Will he give you a chance?”

Hou Zihao glanced at her, hesitated slightly, as if considering whether to tell her some things directly. After a while, he said to her rather meaningfully, “Where do you think the transaction details after 2010 that you asked me for back then came from?”

Zhou Leqi was stunned. Then a thought flashed through her mind, and she quickly grabbed him and asked, “Someone helped you?”

He remained noncommittal, but she already knew the answer and continued to press, “Who? Are they trustworthy? Will it be detrimental to you?”

His brow furrowed, as if this was a somewhat difficult question to answer. Later, he had no choice but to reply under her eager gaze, “A temporary community of interests. They may be trustworthy at this stage, but it’s hard to say about the future.”

He was referring to Zhang Jun.

Yuan Jianxin’s brother-in-law, Zhang Min’s younger brother.

He was the second-in-command of Runyuan, but in recent years he had gradually become estranged from Yuan Jianxin. A large part of the reason for this was that Yuan Jianxin had an illegitimate child outside—this matter was still a secret, at least Zhang Min, Yuan Jianxin’s wife, was still in the dark, but Zhang Jun already knew, and Hou Zihao had also indirectly found out about this news.

Runyuan was a completely old-fashioned family business, and the relationships of interest were largely determined by kinship. The reason why Zhang Jun could sit in the second chair now was solely based on his personal relationship with Yuan Jianxin. But what if Yuan Jianxin’s illegitimate child grew up? What if the mistress he kept tried to compete for Yuan Jianxin’s property? At that time, Zhang Jun’s interests would inevitably be difficult to guarantee.

Therefore, Zhang Jun was currently observing. He might know the truth of seven years ago, but he might not have been directly involved. Giving Hou Zihao open access to Runyuan’s internal data was essentially giving him a chance to bring down Yuan Jianxin. If Hou Zihao succeeded, although Runyuan would inevitably suffer some losses due to Yuan Jianxin being held legally responsible, from a long-term perspective, Zhang Jun would still gain, at least much better than being completely suppressed by Yuan Jianxin’s illegitimate child. And even if Hou Zihao failed, Zhang Jun was not afraid, as there was no possibility of him suffering any loss of interest.

Now, the only help Hou Zihao could get in Runyuan was Zhang Jun... To investigate that Zhong Heng who had been transferred and sidelined, he was the only hope.