Chapter 1 Because of the Encounter

Because of Jia Wenjun's experience on the ship, and the fact that the mastermind is still at large, Wu Peng instinctively distrusted everyone on the Seashell. Even Bai Ma Shan, who everyone praised as a great guy, Wu Peng remained wary.

Lying in bed at night, Wu Peng recalled Bai Ma Shan's refusal to testify for Jia Wenjun today. As a man himself, Wu Peng didn't believe that Bai Ma Shan didn't know what Lu Maowang's purpose was in appearing in the dark hold in the middle of the night and wrestling with Jia Wenjun.

But Bai Ma Shan insisted that it was too dark at the time, only saying that Lu Maowang and Jia Wenjun had a dispute, but he didn't know why the dispute occurred. Wu Peng couldn't figure out Bai Ma Shan's psychology. Was he afraid of retaliation from Lu Maowang if he testified? Or did he know the truth but chose to protect Lu Maowang?

The star projector was on in the room, and Wu Peng watched the shifting patterns of light on the ceiling, imitating the star clusters of space. Perhaps the human heart was even more unpredictable than the cosmos.

But no matter what Bai Ma Shan's psychology was, as long as Lu Maowang's bodily fluids were detected on the clothes, Lu Maowang wouldn't be able to escape.

At this time, Lu Maowang was at home, drinking and cursing. He had just received a text message from an unknown number, telling him that Jia Wenjun's lawyer had already collected evidence and was going to sue him for rape, telling him to prepare to go to jail.

Lu Maowang couldn't even hold the wine bottle steady. His eyes, bloodshot, glared. "Damn it, a murderer dares to sue me? Hiring a lawyer to investigate me, huh? I'll show you!"

Fueled by alcohol, Lu Maowang found a screwdriver at home, grabbed a bag of trash, and went downstairs.

The next day, there was a light rain. The old man told Wu Peng not to ride his motorcycle today. Wu Peng glanced at the sky. "It's okay, this drizzle will stop soon. I have a lot of places to go today, it's more convenient to ride."

"Take your raincoat," the old man said, seeing that he couldn't dissuade him, he could only tell him not to get caught in the rain.

Wu Peng agreed, picked up his helmet and raincoat, and went downstairs.

He wasn't going to wear this raincoat. He wouldn't wear it even if he got wet. Who wears such an ugly plastic raincoat while riding a motorcycle?

But he didn't want to be nagged by the old man, so he brought the raincoat down.

The rain had subsided a lot. He put on his helmet, stuffed the raincoat on the bike, started the engine, and with a roar, the bike slowly drove out of the neighborhood.

The road was wet, and Wu Peng wasn't driving fast. Seeing that there was only one more traffic light before reaching the police station, a person suddenly rushed out to cross the road. To avoid them, Wu Peng leaned into a turn, but unexpectedly, the bike suddenly blew a tire. The ground was slippery, and he was already leaning to the side. With a loud bang, he crashed into the curb with both the bike and himself, falling to the ground.

The traffic police at the intersection rushed over to check the situation. Dazed from the fall, Wu Peng propped himself up from the ground, clutching his bleeding arm, and looked at the bike lying on the ground a few meters away. He didn't go to help the bike up first, but immediately went to pick up the bag containing Jia Wenjun's clothes from the ground.

"Hello, do you need us to call an ambulance for you?" the traffic police asked him.

Wu Peng's arm was still bleeding. He looked at the police station gate only a few hundred meters away and shook his head. "Thank you, no need. Please help me move the bike to the side of the road."

His right hand was badly injured, and there was no way to ride the bike. Wu Peng could only take the evidence to Zhang Lin.

Zhang Lin was talking to a colleague in the office when he turned around and saw Wu Peng covered in mud and blood on his arm, he was shocked. "What happened?"

Wu Peng handed him the package. "I accidentally fell off my bike. This is Jia Wenjun's clothes."

"Should I take you to the hospital?" Zhang Lin frowned, looking at his wound.

Wu Peng said anxiously, "No need, don't waste time, hurry up and send the clothes to the forensics department."

After leaving the police station, Wu Peng walked to his motorcycle and carefully checked the flat tire, finding a screw in the rear tire.

He had bought this bike for so long, and this was the first time a screw had punctured the tire. He muttered to himself about his bad luck, then called a friend from a familiar maintenance shop to come with a pickup truck to transport it to the shop, then he went to the hospital to have his wound treated.

As soon as he left the hospital, his friend from the repair shop called him, telling him that the bike was repaired and he could pick it up at any time. Finally, the other party added that the angle the screw was inserted at looked like someone had screwed it in halfway first, and then the screw had fully penetrated when he was driving, asking him if he had offended anyone recently.

Wu Peng hung up the phone, looked at his injury, and gritted his teeth. It seemed that the matter he was investigating recently had angered some scumbags. This only proved that he was on the right track.

In the evening, the old man saw his grandson return with a bandage on his arm, and hurriedly asked what happened.

Wu Peng smiled nonchalantly. "It's nothing, I was driving a little fast on the road today and took a tumble, just a scratch. I even went to the hospital to get it bandaged, don't worry, I value my life."

"You brat, I told you to buy a car, don't ride a motorcycle, but you just won't listen. No, I'm going to look at cars for you tomorrow."

"Oh, my good grandpa, I'm so grateful to you. I just happened to have my eye on one recently, tomorrow I'll take you with me, and you bring your card, and we'll bring the car back together."

"What kind of car? Do you have pictures?"

Wu Peng opened a webpage. "This one, isn't it handsome?"

The old man looked at the price. "Nine hundred and seventy thousand? You brat, a trainee lawyer driving a car more expensive than Lawyer Liu's, are you trying to get fired?"

Wu Peng looked indifferent. "At worst, I'll park further away. This one is so handsome, it drives faster than my little motorcycle, let's get this one."

"No, you can't buy this car. I'll buy you a Volvo." The old man was afraid that he would drive too fast and be in danger. This brat was deliberately picking this kind of car, how could he feel at ease?

"I'm telling you, Grandpa, I'm in my twenties, not my forties or fifties, who would like that kind of middle-aged car? I only like this one, if it's not this one, I won't drive it. At least my little motorcycle doesn't get stuck in traffic."

Wu Peng didn't really want to buy any car. His father had already squeezed almost all of the old man's money, and he couldn't bear to let his grandfather spend his retirement money on these things.

Seeing him being so reckless, Old Man Wang was also annoyed. "The one I said, take it or leave it."

"Then I won't buy it for now, let's eat." Wu Peng smiled and went to wash his hands, picked up chopsticks and put a piece of braised pork into the old man's bowl.

Back in his room that night, he opened the surveillance footage from the neighborhood that he had copied from the security room, from the camera near the bike shed last night. Wu Peng didn't park his car in the underground parking lot. For convenience, he usually parked it in the small bike shed for bicycles and electric cars closest to the building.

The camera wasn't directly installed in the bike shed, it was about seven or eight meters away. Occasionally someone would come in to get their bike or park it. Wu Peng saw that around eleven o'clock at night, a man in a raincoat came to the bike shed.

Wu Peng didn't know if it was raining at that time, but the other party was not only wearing a raincoat, but also deliberately avoiding the camera. After arriving near his bike, he squatted down as if picking something up. After about a minute or two, he got up and left with his back to the camera.

This person was wrapped up tightly and knew how to avoid the camera, obviously he was extremely familiar with this area. If he wasn't mistaken, it should be this person.

Wu Peng didn't know if this person was from the Seashell. He compared the figures of the men on the ship with the person in the video in his mind, and gradually identified one person.

Could this person be related to the mastermind on the ship?

Wu Peng sent the video to Zhang Lin, then called him.