Hao Yiming narrowed his eyes, “Alright, you don’t need to worry about this anymore. I’ll go talk to my dad.”
He was about to hang up the phone when, just before the call ended, he heard Lin Shaohuai say, “You’re really going to involve your dad in this? Hao Yiming, have you thought this through?”
Hao Yiming stared at his phone, feeling like Lin Shaohuai had lost his mind, but he still explained patiently, “What’s there to think about? He’s my dad, after all.”
Lin Shaohuai chuckled, “Yeah, he’s your dad, but he’s not just your father.”
Hao Yiming’s expression darkened, “What are you trying to say?”
“I heard that your dad’s illegitimate son is a good student, never causes trouble, and has always been the perfect child. Hao Yiming, do you think your dad prefers a troublemaker like you or your well-behaved little brother?”
Hao Yiming didn’t respond, but his grip on the phone tightened, his fingertips turning pale.
“Hao Yiming, think carefully before you act. Some things don’t always require the help of adults.”
Once his initial anger subsided, Hao Yiming’s mind became unusually calm. For some reason, he suddenly recalled what Lin Shaohuai had said earlier outside the police station.
“Eliminate the problem at its root.”
Combining that with Lin Shaohuai’s analysis, it was true—after all, Shen Tinglan was just a high school teacher.
Within a minute, Hao Yiming came up with an idea that he thought was pretty good. “You get some guys to rough up Shen Tinglan under the pretense that you’re standing up for yourself. Then you call 120.”
“What are you planning?”
Lin Shaohuai’s heart pounded. “Are you going to kill Shen Tinglan?”
“I’ve got connections in the hospital. Even if Shen Tinglan doesn’t die from the beating, he won’t survive after he’s sent to the hospital.”
—-
The recording had finished playing, and Jian Mengyan collapsed onto the floor in a daze.
So that’s how it was.
It really turned out to be this way.
The one responsible for the teacher’s death was actually her.
Jian Mengyan lowered her head and let out a soft laugh. She kept laughing until tears started streaming down her face.
Suddenly, a huge flash of lightning lit up the dark sky, followed by a deafening thunderclap.
At that moment, Jian Mengyan’s phone rang. She lowered her gaze and answered the call.
“How did it go? Did you get what Lin Shaohuai left?”
Yin Zhuo’s voice was urgent, tinged with an unhealthy excitement.
When she didn’t respond for a while, Yin Zhuo asked again, “Mengmeng? Why aren’t you saying anything?”
Jian Mengyan finally snapped out of her daze. “Yeah, I got it.”
“What’s wrong? Why does your voice sound so hoarse?” Yin Zhuo asked, then chuckled knowingly. “Crying again? I swear, Mengmeng, you’re just like water, always so emotional.”
Stumbling to the window, Jian Mengyan listened to the sound of the wind blowing through the crack. “Can you hear it?”
“Hear what?”
“The wind.”
Yin Zhuo paused, confused by the distorted sound coming through the phone. “What are you talking about?”
Jian Mengyan opened the window, feeling the wind brush against her skin and inhaling the scent of the approaching storm. “It’s just like that year.”
“Just like the day Jingjing died—first came the strong winds, then the heavy rain.”
Yin Zhuo didn’t say anything, and Jian Mengyan didn’t care.
She didn’t know if she was talking to Yin Zhuo or just to herself. “The rain that day was so heavy. It hit my face so hard it hurt. You know, I’ve never been good at running, but that day, I practically ran through the entire western part of the city. I was so exhausted. My throat burned, and my lungs felt like they were going to explode.”
“Then I found her.”
“And she was dead.”
Sensing that something was seriously wrong with Jian Mengyan’s mental state, Yin Zhuo hesitated for a moment before shouting, “Jian Mengyan!”
It was as if his voice pulled her back to reality—or perhaps it drove her further into madness. Jian Mengyan responded in a low voice, “Yin Zhuo, we’re guilty.”
Yin Zhuo froze, his hand still on the doorknob.
“Yin Zhuo, we didn’t protect Jingjing. I killed the teacher. We’re all sinners.”
Several minutes passed before Yin Zhuo finally spoke again, just as the downpour outside began. “Mengmeng, you’re tired. You need to rest. Leave the rest to me. Don’t get involved anymore.”
The call ended.
Jian Mengyan stood by the window, staring blankly at the rain outside.
When Zou Shuyang arrived at Jian Mengyan’s building, the rain had just begun. He jogged the last few steps, but his shoulder still got wet as he entered the building.
A chubby middle-aged woman also entered the building with him.
She was carrying a bag, and through the semi-transparent plastic, Zou Shuyang could see a box of paroxetine inside.
Realizing his gaze was a bit inappropriate, Zou Shuyang shifted to the side and offered the woman a polite smile.
They ended up entering the elevator together.
“You’re going to the third floor too?”
They both asked the same question at the same time as they pressed the elevator button.
Zou Shuyang thought for a moment. No one lived next to Jian Mengyan, so he quickly understood. “You’re the new nanny Mengmeng hired?”
The nanny’s round face lit up in recognition. “You must be Miss Jian’s boyfriend?”
She smiled warmly. “You’re here to see Miss Jian, right? She just went out, but she might be back by now. Oh dear, with this heavy rain, I hope she didn’t get soaked. She’s so skinny…”
Zou Shuyang didn’t have the energy to listen to the nanny’s ramblings. “You said she just went out?”
The nanny didn’t seem upset by the interruption. Instead, she smiled good-naturedly. “Yes, Miss Jian got a call this afternoon, and she seemed pretty upset afterward.”
Just as she finished speaking, the elevator doors opened. The nanny stepped out with a smile and opened the door, noticing Jian Mengyan’s shoes on the rack. “Looks like Miss Jian was lucky—she got back quickly.”
Zou Shuyang hurriedly changed his shoes and ran toward Jian Mengyan’s room.
She hadn’t turned on the lights, and the window was still open. The wind had blown everything in the room into disarray, and Jian Mengyan’s hair was wet and stuck to her cheeks.
“Meng… Mengmeng?”
At that moment, Zou Shuyang felt like Jian Mengyan was very far away from him, as if he could lose her at any second if he wasn’t careful.
Hearing his voice, Jian Mengyan turned around and smiled at him.
In the dim light from the streetlamp outside, Zou Shuyang could see her red, swollen eyes and dry, cracked lips.
Click.
Jian Mengyan closed the window, then walked over to the door and turned on the light. “You’re here?”
Before Zou Shuyang could respond, she wiped her hands dry on the bed sheet, picked up the phone, and handed it to him. “This is the evidence that Hao Yiming and Lin Shaohuai conspired to kill the teacher.”
Zou Shuyang took the phone, eager to review the evidence. But before he could, Jian Mengyan added, “There’s also evidence of Hao Yiming assaulting Jingjing in there.”
Zou Shuyang’s hands froze for a moment before he nodded gently. “I had a feeling, but I was missing the evidence.” He raised the phone. “Now it’s over. He won’t get away.”
At first, Jian Mengyan didn’t say anything. It wasn’t until Zou Shuyang found the recording that she suddenly asked, “Is Lin Shaohuai… dead?”
“Hmm?”
“This recording has evidence of him killing someone. He wouldn’t hand it over unless he was desperate.”
Without looking up, Zou Shuyang replied just before playing the recording, “He’s not dead, but he’s not out of danger yet.”
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