Lu Tingchen's order was carried out without any compromise. Qin Hao mobilized resources far deeper and more covert than Su Wanwan could have imagined, like a silent net cast over the long-buried past of more than twenty years ago.
The investigation was conducted under absolute confidentiality and was astonishingly efficient. A few days later, a detailed report about "Jiang Yue" and her death was placed on Lu Tingchen's desk. The content of the report is far more complete and more... than what Su Wanwan could piece together from her fragmented inquiries. It's terrifying.
Lu Tingchen turned the pages one by one, his expression growing darker and darker. The report confirmed Su Wanwan's intuition that Jiang Yue's death was by no means as simple as an accident.
Jiang Yue, a top chemistry student from a prestigious university, joined the then highly successful core laboratory of "Xinsheng Biotechnology" after graduation. She was exceptionally talented and had a promising future ahead of her. Her accident occurred during a night shift overtime. The official conclusion was that "an operational error led to the leakage of high-risk chemicals, causing a violent reaction and death." The accident report was vague and was quickly suppressed, and it hardly appeared in the media.
But the information Qin Hao dug up pointed in a different direction: A week before the incident, Jiang Yue had privately contacted a journalist friend, suggesting that she had found that some projects carried out in her laboratory seriously violated ethics and the data was fabricated. She had collected some evidence and was preparing to report it anonymously. She also mentioned that she felt she was being watched.
Then, she died "unexpectedly". The evidence she was preparing to submit vanished without a trace. Not long after, that journalist friend also left her job in a hurry for "personal reasons" and moved her family abroad. Since then, there has been no news of her.
What's even more chilling is that Qin Hao followed the clues and found that several key figures who handled this "accident" back then later all had more or less contact with P.P. The foundation has established connections, and some have even been promoted.
All the clues are strung together, pointing to a cold conclusion: Jiang Yue was silenced for attempting to expose illegal experiments. Her death was yet another bloody tactic used by the P.P. Foundation to cover up its crimes in the early days.
Su Wanwan's mother, Li Qingya, as Jiang Yue's best friend, was very likely to have vaguely sensed the truth of her friend's death when she was investigating the experiment her husband was involved in later on. This undoubtedly intensified her fear and determination, and also led her to face her death more quickly.
Lu Tingchen closed the report, leaned back in the chair, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead. The truth is often darker and crueler than imagined. He could almost imagine what kind of shock and danger Su Wanwan would endure if she had investigated to this extent all by herself.
Under no circumstances should she be allowed to come into direct contact with these.
He immediately gave the order: "Clear away all investigation traces that Su Wanwan might have come into contact with." Encrypt and archive everything about Jiangyue, and set it to the highest permission. Also, check if there were any other relatives of Jiang Yue alive back then who secretly offered compensation and protection, but under no circumstances should she (Su Wanwan) find out."
He wants to cut off all possible clues that could get him into trouble and protect her from the frontline of the truth.
In the following days, Lu Tingchen performed flawlessly. He even took the initiative to bring up the idea of sending people to repair Su's mother 's grave, subtly to draw Su Wanwan' s attention back to her remembrance of her mother rather than to dwell on the past.
Su Wanwan had a vague feeling that something was amiss. The several marginal channels she had tried to search for before seemed to have gone offline overnight, and she could no longer find any new information about Jiang Yue. She tentatively asked Aunt Zhou. Aunt Zhou only said that she was old and couldn't remember many details. Instead, she advised her not to think about those sad things anymore.
Is it a coincidence? Or...
Her gaze involuntarily turned towards the study. Lu Tingchen seems to have been busier recently, but every time he looks at her, the tenderness in his eyes is no different from before, and even more considerate.
She shook her head, thinking that she might have been overthinking it. Perhaps Jiang Yue's death was truly just an unfortunate accident. It was because I was too sensitive.
However, the unease brought by that intuition is like a tiny thorn, stuck deep in the heart and cannot be completely ignored.
That day, she was playing in the game room with her son. The little one can already crawl around skillfully, is curious about everything, and is holding a colorful soft building block, chewing on it with great relish.
Su Wanwan sat on the carpet nearby, looking at him, but her mind wandered far away. She took out her mobile phone and subconsciously searched for "The accident at the Xinsheng Biotechnology Laboratory" again. The result was still blank, as if that period of history had been completely erased by an invisible hand.
It's so clean... Unusually clean.
Just then, the son who had crawled far away seemed to have discovered some new continent. He was excitedly babbling and his little hand was struggling to pick at one edge of the skirting board in the corner - there seemed to be a very tiny gap there.
Su Wanwan was afraid that he might bump into something, so she hurried over to try to carry him away.
Just as she bent down, her son's little hand somehow exerted a sudden force. The seemingly seamless skirting board board made a "click" sound and opened up a tiny, extremely concealed slot!
Su Wanwan was stunned.
This game room was renovated later. She had never noticed that there was a hidden compartment here!
The hidden compartment was very small, and it seemed that only one thing was placed inside - an old, black USB flash drive.
Her heart gave a sudden jolt! Almost instinctively, she quickly glanced at the door. The nanny was preparing fruits outside and didn't notice inside.
She quickly took out the USB drive, stuffed it into her pocket, and then quietly pushed the hidden compartment back to its original position, picking up her son who was still babbling and curious.
My heart was pounding in my chest, almost about to burst out.
This USB flash drive... Who hid it? What could be inside? Why was it hidden in such a secluded place as the children's playroom?
Was it hidden by Lu Tingchen? Why did he hide a USB flash drive here?
Or... Others?
A bolder and more astonishing conjecture emerged: The former owner of this manor... Or, even earlier? Could it be the mother? Or... Lin Wanru? Could it even be that Jiang Yue she had never met? What was left behind at some unknown moment?
Great curiosity and an indescribable impulse seized her.
She didn't hand the USB drive to Lu Tingchen immediately.
This time, she hesitated.
She recalled his recent subtle abnormality and the interruption of the investigation clues... An inexplicable intuition told her that the things in this USB drive might be exactly what he was preventing her from touching.
She wants to know the truth. She must know.
In the evening, when Lu Tingchen fell asleep and the entire manor was in a deep sleep, Su Wanwan quietly got up, took the small but heavy USB drive, and walked into the spare small room beside the study, turning on the computer.
Before inserting the USB drive, her palms were all sweaty.
She had no idea whether what lay within was hope or deeper despair, whether it would bring relief or trigger a new storm.
Taking a deep breath, she pressed the read button.
On the screen, a dialog box popped up asking for a password.
And, a small, familiar font prompt:
Qingya, if you see this, the password is the publication year of your favorite poem. **
Su Wanwan's pupils suddenly contracted!
This is... What did Jiang Yue leave for her mother? !
(To be continued...)"