Records of the Halls of Ten Thousand Affairs: Chapter 73

It was almost midnight. Chen Wu was so tired that her head kept nodding off on the way back, nearly asleep.

Chen Jiu drove along, lost in her own thoughts.

Chen Wu had said she couldn’t reach the client. When she called the number, no one answered. All the signs pointed to two possibilities: one, Xu Wei’s mother had her personal freedom restricted, along with her ability to contact the outside world; or two, she was already dead.

After settling Chen Wu in the back room, Chen Jiu came out and poured herself a glass of water. Chen Xiao Xuan and Bing Bing were curled up together, fast asleep, making the faintest snoring sounds.

The next morning, Chen Wu was holed up in her junior sister’s shop, rolling around comfortably on the bed. She hadn’t dreamed of Xu Wei the night before, and had slept well, so she didn’t bring up the matter during the day. She planned to use the art of procrastination until everyone forgot about it.

She was happily scrolling through short videos when the bed curtain was suddenly pulled aside. Chen Jiu poked her head in with a cold smile and snatched the phone away. “Senior sister, you took on this case. Are you waiting for me to string it together for you? Putting it off won’t solve anything. Pull yourself together and stop trying to run away.”

Chen Wu drooped her eyes and let out an “oh.” She got up, washed up, ate, and then sat next to Chen Jiu at the front counter.

Su Xiao Yu was whirling around the shop like a little tornado, busy everywhere. In the midst of all that, she still stopped at the counter to ask Chen Wu if she wanted to play frisbee with Bing Bing for a while.

“No, no.” Chen Wu waved her hand in refusal, then rested her chin in her palm and watched Su Xiao Yu bounce away with envy. “Kids are so great, carefree and full of energy no matter what they do.”

Chen Jiu said mercilessly, “She’s way more mature than you. The first time she came to me, it was to get justice for her good friend.”

Chen Wu pouted. “I know everyone should shoulder their own responsibilities, but I have sloping shoulders.”

“…” Chen Jiu said, “You win.”

The two went over all the information they’d gathered the day before and agreed that other paths had hit dead ends. The next step was to find a way to contact Xu Wei’s boyfriend, Zheng Kai.

After Zheng Kai became famous online, he and the people around him had pretty much spilled all his personal information. Finding his contact details and address wasn’t difficult at all. So Chen Jiu didn’t bother Chen Wu with it. She spent half an hour digging through various social platforms and dug up his info herself.

By sheer coincidence, just as Chen Jiu and Chen Wu were working hard to verify things, Zheng Kai had just posted a new update on Weibo.

The content was several photos, one of which was a selfie of him wearing sunglasses. The caption read: “May we all find our way out of pain one day.”

The location tag was hidden, but Chen Jiu zoomed in on the third photo. In the reflection of the floor-to-ceiling window, there was the outline of a building. She could roughly figure out where he was when he posted it.

Comments flooded in quickly. Some wished him a speedy recovery. Some asked if there were any new developments in Xu Wei’s case, feeling like there was more to the story. But when Chen Jiu tried to click on that person’s profile, she found the comment had already been deleted.

So what ended up in the public eye were mostly comments showing concern for Zheng Kai, warm and harmonious.

Chen Wu was confused. “Did he delete it himself? Or did Zheng Kai delete it? Or did the system delete it?”

“That comment didn’t seem particularly extreme to me,” Chen Jiu said, implying something more.

Most people had complete faith in the Zheng Kai who was crying his eyes out in the video from the scene. So anyone casting doubt in the comments would easily get attacked. That attack included online harassment and real-life confrontation. The power of public opinion was no joke these days. Anyone online could face backlash.

Thinking this through, Chen Jiu suddenly realized something. The reason Zheng Kai dared to act heartbroken so recklessly online was because he was sure that video of Xu Wei’s confession was under control. But what if Xu Wei’s mother had made some new discovery, or had some power to sway public opinion?

“Let’s go.” She grabbed Chen Wu’s hand and rushed out. “Xiao Yu, watch the shop!”

Su Xiao Yu: “Roger, roger.”

Chen Wu yelled, “Right now?! I’m not ready!”

But she really had no strength to fight her junior sister. The two vanished from the shop in a flash.

Chen Jiu moved fast and her judgment was spot on. When they arrived, Zheng Kai was still sitting in the spot where he’d taken the photo, a cup of coffee by his hand and a game just starting on his phone screen.

The two sat down diagonally across from him, one aisle away, each ordered a cup of coffee, and chatted casually.

Before long, a woman in white-collar attire walked in with a bag on her arm, looked around the shop, and broke into a delighted expression when she spotted Zheng Kai. She clicked over in her high heels and sat down across from him.

Zheng Kai tilted his sunglasses slightly and frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“Relax, not that many people care about you in real life.” The woman took a sip of his coffee and smiled. “What do you plan to do next?”

Zheng Kai glanced around the room like a thief with a guilty conscience, making sure no one was paying special attention to them. Then he said, “This persona of mine still has its uses. Don’t mess things up for me. As long as this story stays hot, I keep getting traffic, and our shop stays afloat.”

“I know. Look how good I’ve been online, not saying a word. No one knows.” The woman chided him playfully. “But you always pick such weird places to meet. Who’s going to see us?”

Chen Wu sat with her back to them, listening intently to every word. For a moment, her eyes went red with anger.

Xu Wei had only just died. How could Zheng Kai treat her like this?

Chen Jiu patted her senior sister’s hand soothingly, signaling her to stay calm and keep listening.

The woman continued, “What about her mother? What do you plan to do?”

“Play it by ear. She’s the most unstable risk factor right now. If I let her run around causing trouble, it’ll ruin my positive image in front of the public. I really had no choice but to do this.” Zheng Kai put on an air of being deeply troubled, addicted to the act. He hadn’t gotten enough of performing online, so he kept playing the part of the kind-hearted man in front of his current girlfriend. “You know how stubborn she is. She still thinks I killed her daughter. The police already cleared my name, but she’s the only one who won’t believe it.”

“After all, it was her own daughter. It takes you time to move on, let alone her.” The woman said somewhat sympathetically, “I know you’re hurting too. Once this period passes, it’ll be better.”

It sounded like this woman was actually somewhat human, Chen Jiu thought with a helpless sigh. Although they still couldn’t tell whether Xu Wei was directly killed by her boyfriend, Xu Wei’s mother’s disappearance could pretty much be confirmed to have something to do with him.

The next course of action was crystal clear: follow them.

Chen Wu had never taken on such a thrilling and risky case since she went out on her own. Her expression instantly turned serious. Chen Jiu whispered, “Just act like you don’t know anything. Stay close to me and don’t do anything rash like going over to slap him in the face, okay?”

Chen Wu whispered back, “No problem. Don’t worry, junior sister. I have enough self-control for that.”

After Zheng Kai and the woman finished their coffee and got ready to leave, to their surprise, it was actually the woman who paid.

Chen Jiu paid their bill, and the two hurried after them, walking and chatting and laughing as they went, looking just like a pair of best friends out for fun.

Over the next few hours, the pair went shopping, eating, and buying things. They even went into a movie theater, but since there was nothing they wanted to watch, they came out halfway through.

Zheng Kai looked at the two girls who had just passed him, adjusted his sunglasses, and muttered, “Why do those two look kind of familiar?”

“You think every young girl looks hot, don’t you?” The woman smacked his shoulder in displeasure.

Zheng Kai laughed and quickly put his arm around her. “That’s not what I mean. Look, it’s getting late. Should we head back early?”

The woman put on airs of modesty, hummed for a long moment, then asked, “Your place or mine?”

“Yours.” Zheng Kai leaned in and whispered something in her ear.

The woman’s face instantly flushed red. She punched his shoulder a few times, not too hard, and said, “You’re awful!”

Behind their backs, Chen Jiu bought Chen Wu an ice cream. The dessert did a great job of soothing Chen Wu’s emotions. She had been following them so long her steps were getting wobbly, but after eating the ice cream, she got a bit of her strength back.

The two walked out of the mall, called a ride-hailing car with their phone, and left.

Chen Jiu memorized the license plate, hailed a taxi, and told the driver to follow the car ahead.

The driver was very wary. “What are you girls doing? I can’t get involved in anything illegal, you know.”

“We’re catching a cheater,” Chen Jiu said seriously, then pointed at Chen Wu, who looked haggard. “Her boyfriend betrayed her!”

“!” The driver was instantly filled with righteous fire. He stomped on the gas and shouted, “You two hold on tight!”

The taxi roared and shot forward.

…

The sky was growing dark. The two successfully reached their destination.

After carefully following the woman to her place, Chen Jiu finally understood why Zheng Kai had chosen to come here. It was remote enough, and far enough from familiar eyes. At least no one who knew him would recognize him in his disguise being intimate with a woman who clearly wasn’t his girlfriend.

Chen Wu clung to Chen Jiu’s arm and whispered, “We’re not going to wait here all night for him to go see Xu Wei’s mother on his own, are we?”

“That’s exactly what I had in mind,” Chen Jiu said half-jokingly.

Chen Wu let out an “oh,” looking all wronged, but she didn’t say anything like “shouldn’t we go back first” or “let’s come back tomorrow.”

Chen Jiu looked at her with new respect. “You don’t mind?”

“I think we should find Xu Wei’s mother as soon as possible.” Chen Wu sighed. “The person closest to her in this world is already dead. There’s no one left to help her. If we don’t help her, what is she going to do?”

Chen Jiu slowly raised an eyebrow. “Senior sister, you’ve grown up.”

Chen Wu: “…”

Is that something a junior sister should say to a senior sister? Why did it feel so weird?