Lu Qingqing finally waited until school was out. She wanted to find Ouyang Wen and ask him to go to Shibati, as it was a shortcut through Daijia Lane.
"Hey? Sister-in-law!" Luo Wenwu exclaimed in surprise, pointing behind Hu Jia. Hu Jia turned his head and saw Lu Qingqing approaching from a distance.
Is she here for me? Hu Jia wondered, thinking his fiancée seemed a bit clingy.
Li Yang also turned his head. By then, Hu Jia had already started waving at Lu Qingqing.
His large hand waved back and forth in front of Li Yang's eyes. Through Hu Jia's hand, Li Yang saw Lu Qingqing passing the stall selling malt candy.
At this moment, the three of them formed a straight line, with Hu Jia in the middle.
Huh?
Li Yang seemed to have thought of something. He pushed through the crowd and ran towards Lu Qingqing.
Lu Qingqing, on the other hand, hadn't expected to meet Li Yang here. Seeing him run towards her, she felt surprised, "What are you doing?"
Unexpectedly, Li Yang ignored her and went straight to the malt candy stall. He first looked back at the spot where Zhu Sishui had committed suicide, then asked the stall owner, "Boss, do you remember me?"
The owner certainly remembered him, as it had only been a short while ago. "Sir, do you want to buy some candy for your niece again?"
Li Yang's face lit up when the owner recognized him. "Boss, was the girl I brought to buy candy earlier here before?"
Li Yang pointed in the direction where Zhu Sishui had died and added, "Was she here too when the incident happened over there?"
"Yes, a man was also buying malt candy for her at that time. He was holding her and standing right here," the owner replied.
"Do you remember what he looked like?" Li Yang asked.
"He looked very ordinary." The owner couldn't describe his specific features. "What? You don't know him? Then why was he holding your niece to buy candy?"
Li Yang didn't answer. "After the incident over there, where did that man go?"
"I didn't pay attention to that," the owner said, unable to help. He was already busy with his stall, so he didn't have the energy to notice a passerby.
"What's wrong? Did something happen?" Lu Qingqing could tell that Li Yang was investigating the case.
"Duobao was right. Someone is indeed following Lao Da," Li Yang said.
Just now, Li Yang had seen Lu Qingqing through Hu Jia's hand. And Lu Qingqing had just passed by the malt candy stall.
This reminded him that before Zhu Sishui committed suicide, he had first glanced at Luo Wenwu, and then looked at himself. At that time, his eyes revealed a sense of pain and unwillingness. Finally, as if making a decision, he resolutely took out a dagger and killed himself.
At that time, he felt that Zhu Sishui's gaze was not on him. Now that he thought about it, Zhu Sishui wasn't looking at him at all; he was looking at the malt candy stall behind him.
"Nuannuan said she had just eaten red malt candy, and the boss also said an uncle bought her candy, so I came to ask. Now it's confirmed, Nuannuan was at this stall when Zhu Sishui committed suicide."
Li Yang said that if his guess was correct, that person was threatening Zhu Sishui with Nuannuan, forcing him to commit suicide, precisely to prevent Zhu Sishui from being captured and revealing information about him.
Otherwise, there was no way to explain why Zhu Sishui would choose to end his life in such a crowded place, nor why he hadn't thought of suicide for two years, yet decided to do it this time.
After listening to Li Yang's analysis, Lu Qingqing's expression also turned grim.
If Li Yang's analysis was correct, then Hu Jia would be facing a cruel and reckless opponent.
"Let's go and tell Lao Da," Li Yang said with a worried expression.
"Wait!" Lu Qingqing called out to Li Yang. "Let's keep this a secret for now."
Huh?
Li Yang looked at Lu Qingqing in confusion.
"This definitely won't be the first, and it won't be the last," Lu Qingqing explained.
"First, Hu Jia already knows someone is following him, and the person following him is just a small fry, so there's no need to worry about his safety."
"Second, since the other party could threaten Zhu Sishui into committing suicide at the scene, it means they are capable of tracking Hu Jia. However, they sent ordinary people without any tracking skills, which indicates that their purpose is not to collect Hu Jia's whereabouts."
"If they don't harm people and don't collect whereabouts, what is the purpose of following Hu Jia? We'll only know the answer when we catch the next person who follows him. Since we have to wait for the next follower, there's no need to tell Hu Jia the truth now and let him spend these seven days joyfully."
Li Yang thought about it and realized she was right.
It wasn't easy for Hu Jia to have a few days of peace. There was no need to make him rack his brains to solve the case. They just had to quietly wait for the next follower to appear.
After the two reached a consensus, they walked towards the others.
"Why did you come over? I still have a little while. Once I'm done packing, we'll go home together." Seeing Lu Qingqing approach, Hu Jia smiled at her.
Uh...
Lu Qingqing's face darkened. "Um, I was just passing by."
Passing by?
She wasn't even on the way home, so how could she be passing by?
Not only Li Yang didn't believe her, but even Luo Wenwu's eyes showed suspicion.
Lu Qingqing couldn't be bothered to explain to them, and besides, she couldn't explain this kind of thing. "I have something to do, I'm leaving now."
With that, Lu Qingqing walked away without looking back, leaving the men with a cool silhouette.
"Lao Da, look how good your sister-in-law is to you, she even came to see you specifically," Li Yang clicked his tongue twice.
Huh? Hu Jia looked at Li Yang in surprise. "Didn't she say she was passing by?"
"How is that possible? Your sister-in-law is just shy. What she says and what she means are two different things."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. So you should visit her often too. It only makes sense if there's mutual effort."
...
Lu Qingqing, of course, didn't know that she had been inexplicably arranged again.
She arrived at the Criminal Investigation Team right on time.
Ouyang Wen's office was so familiar that she could find it with her eyes closed.
Just as Lu Qingqing was about to push the door open, a very discordant voice came.
"Stop!" It was Tong Meng.
Lu Qingqing was speechless. Why did she run into her every time she came?
"What do you want?" Thinking that Tong Hua was Tong Meng's brother, Lu Qingqing didn't have a good attitude towards her.
"This is our captain's office. How can unauthorized personnel enter casually?"
"Tch!" Lu Qingqing rolled her eyes and, with a twist of her wrist, unlocked the door and pushed it open.
"You?" Tong Meng was flustered when Lu Qingqing ignored her and went straight into the office.
But before she could rush to the door, Lu Qingqing slammed it shut with a "bang."
"Huh? Qingqing." Ouyang Wen was surprised to see Lu Qingqing and looked delighted.
Just then, Tong Meng also rushed in.
Seeing Tong Meng's clumsy appearance, Ouyang Wen's expression immediately turned grim.
"Ouyang Ge Ge, is your office a place anyone can enter? Even subordinates don't knock when they enter. You stumble when you walk, barge in clumsily when you open a door, you have no posture when standing, no posture when sitting. The image of your Criminal Investigation Team is truly varied." Lu Qingqing spoke before Ouyang Wen could, directly confronting her.
Hearing Liu Qingqing's words, Ouyang Wen's expression grew even uglier. "Tong Meng, don't you understand the rules?"
"Captain Wen, I saw someone barging into your office, so I was anxious, and that's why..." Tong Meng glared hatefully at Lu Qingqing.
Lu Qingqing slowly walked to a chair, sat down, and leisurely poured herself a cup of tea.
Anger flared up in Tong Meng. "Lu Qingqing, what right do you have to talk about me? Didn't you also push the door open directly?"
Lu Qingqing glanced dismissively at the woman. "Can we compare? I am a guest. What are you? A servant!"
"Lu Qingqing!" Tong Meng was about to explode with anger, being called a servant.
"Oh my, I'm so uncultured. I meant subordinate, subordinate," Lu Qingqing said with a light smile. "Um, who is it? My apologies. I didn't expect you to be so reckless and undisciplined, I was so angry that my mind went blank and I misspoke."
A suppressed chuckle came from outside. Someone was amused.
"Alright, Tong Meng, what is it?" Ouyang Wen interrupted Tong Meng's counterattack in time.
Seeing Ouyang Wen so protective of Lu Qingqing, Tong Meng stomped her foot in anger and ran out.
"It seems you don't like her very much either," Lu Qingqing said in a teasing tone as she closed the door.
"She has no skills. If it weren't for Xiao Jia, I wouldn't want her."
For Hu Jia?