His little brother had run into dry tinder meeting a blazing fire; they were so sticky even at the company.
Young people were impulsive, after all.
Second Brother Lu sighed inwardly.
He decided not to disturb the youngsters getting along. His own matters weren’t urgent; he could talk later.
Second Brother Lu stood outside the office for a while. He figured he should go sit somewhere else to kill time.
His assistant smilingly led him to a dedicated lounge.
Out of curiosity, Second Brother Lu wondered what he would see when he opened the office door.
Inside the office.
Interrupted by Second Brother Lu’s voice, Lin Juan belatedly realized how improper his position was with Lu Yanzhou at that moment. He quickly propped himself up on Lu Yanzhou’s body and sat up. “Your second brother is here.”
“Mm.” Lu Yanzhou steadied Lin Juan, supporting him until he stood firm.
The man’s palm was scorching hot, searing through the thin shirt onto his skin. Lin Juan shrank back as if burned.
Which only pressed him closer to the man’s body.
A low chuckle escaped Lu Yanzhou’s throat.
Lin Juan’s ears burned even hotter. His instincts told him the atmosphere was off, so he scrambled for a topic in a panic. “Let’s go out and see him quickly. He must have some new discovery. We shouldn’t keep your second brother waiting too long.”
“Alright.” Lu Yanzhou went along with Lin Juan’s suggestion and released him.
After tidying themselves up a bit, Lu Yanzhou had the assistant bring Second Brother Lu back in.
Second Brother Lu had just sat down in the lounge when he was led back to the office.
“I thought I’d have to wait a while,” Second Brother Lu teased.
Lin Juan’s face was covered in black lines. He and Lu Yanzhou hadn’t done anything, so why would they need to wait?
Just as he was about to speak, Second Brother Lu got to the main point. “I just got some news. The girl whose identity Qiu Lishu stole back then has been found.”
She was an outstanding student. Every teacher who mentioned her felt deep regret because she had been the most likely to escape the mountains through education, yet she inexplicably got pregnant and went mad overnight, unable to bear it.
“She went mad too?” Lin Juan was surprised.
Just like Mu Xiaowan.
Second Brother Lu confirmed, “Yes. My people negotiated with her parents and plan to bring her to the Imperial Capital for proper treatment.”
Lin Juan asked, “Did her parents agree?”
Second Brother Lu replied, “They initially thought we were scammers. Only after I sent someone with evidence and an offer to make amends for the past wrongs did they agree.”
Second Brother Lu moved quickly. In less than two days, the girl and her parents were brought to the Imperial Capital.
Second Brother Lu personally received them. During this time, besides searching for the girl whose spot had been stolen, he had also exposed Qiu Lishu’s misdeeds online—especially her stealing someone else’s sponsorship quota—which sparked wave after wave of public outrage.
Qiu Lishu’s reputation was utterly ruined.
Lin Juan watched the online backlash.
—This Qiu Lishu is so shameless. I used to idolize her, but it turns out everything was stolen.
—Yeah, she even stole someone else’s childhood sweetheart boyfriend and kept marketing their lovey-dovey image. Total trash.
—And that’s not all. Did you see? To get the sponsorship, she got someone to rape the original recipient, then had the nerve to report the girl for bad conduct when it was her own evil deed.
—Disgusting. After seeing the full story, I want to puke. How can someone like Qiu Lishu exist?
—And yet she married into a wealthy family. That Lu Yanzhong must be blind, ditching a sweet childhood sweetheart for a venomous woman. Wonder what he’s thinking now.
—Rumor has it they’re divorced.
—Divorced or not, she enjoyed a life that wasn’t hers for over a decade.
The online comments ranged from all sorts of vitriol. Lin Juan nudged Lu Yanzhou’s arm. “Your second brother is just letting the netizens curse him like this?”
“He says it’s what he deserves.”
Whether or not it stemmed from his own intentions, the current situation was tied to him. Second Brother Lu was innocent, yet not entirely blameless.
Lin Juan always respected others’ choices in their fates. Since it was Second Brother Lu’s own decision, he said no more.
After the sponsorship scandal broke, the Lu Corporation conducted an internal audit. Since the issue involved one of their charitable foundations, they weathered a minor storm.
Worried that Fan Xiwen, whose sponsorship had been stolen, might have been polluted, Second Brother Lu asked Lin Juan to check on her.
Over a decade later, Fan Xiwen had grown up, but she no longer had the spirited drive of her youth.
Her parents were a pair of farmers with little education. They’d finally produced a studious child, and life had seemed to be improving—until this happened.
The Fan parents had lived in the mountains their whole lives. Coming to the bustling metropolis for the first time and staying in a five-star hotel with top luxury felt utterly alienating.
By age, they should have been in their fifties, but Lin Juan saw two elderly folks who looked seventy or eighty.
Hardship had left deep scars on them.
They lived in abject poverty.
Their only daughter had gone mad. To care for her and cure her, they toiled desperately in the fields. But as uneducated peasants, no matter how hard they tried, they could barely sustain a basic existence.
Second Brother Lu’s people had first contacted the Fans under the pretext of investigating the sponsorship theft. The parents were wary at first, only easing up after seeing full documentation, including the school’s recommendation letter for Fan Xiwen.
Lin Juan had already learned the details from the investigators.
Fan Xiwen had suddenly gotten pregnant—a massive scandal for the school, especially after being reported for associating with delinquent youths from outside. The teachers couldn’t believe it; how could such a good girl change like that?
They spoke to Fan Xiwen privately. At first, she clenched her teeth and refused to talk. Later, her homeroom teacher pieced it together from clues and suspected she had been assaulted.
But by then, the new sponsorship list had been submitted, and Fan Xiwen had been forced to drop out due to the pregnancy.
Up to that point, Fan Xiwen’s mind had still been sound. She was a resilient girl who didn’t let the incident break her. It wasn’t until her parents took her to abort the child.
“The baby was aborted at Xiwen’s insistence,” Fan’s mother wiped her tears. “It was never meant to exist in the first place. Since Xiwen didn’t want it, there was no need to keep it.”
Another child.
Lin Juan recalled that Lu Yanzhou had once mentioned Mu Xiaowan had also miscarried a child.
Could their madness be related to the lost children?
Lin Juan noted this silently without voicing it immediately.
The conclusion needed verification; blurting it out wouldn’t help.
“After some time caring for her, Xiwen seemed to come around. She told us she wouldn’t study anymore and wanted to work outside. We thought a change of environment might help, so we didn’t object.”
“Who would’ve thought, she packed her bags excitedly that night, full of enthusiasm. But the next morning, she had gone mad.”
“Did she say anything that morning?” Lin Juan asked.
“No, she just kept hurting herself. No matter what we asked, she wouldn’t respond. Her dad noticed something wrong—it was just one night, and suddenly she didn’t even recognize us.”
“Can I see her?” Lin Juan needed a look to confirm his suspicions.
“After that incident, she resists anyone getting close,” Fan’s mother said without refusing, just stating the facts.
“I won’t get close.”
Fan Xiwen was placed in a separate room, lying on the bed with her back to the door. Fan’s mother opened it, and Lin Juan stood outside without entering, observing for a moment.
A very faint aura of Weird Phenomena clung to Fan Xiwen.
Lin Juan felt confirmed.
Leaving the hotel, Lin Juan spoke up proactively. “Miss Fan’s condition is similar to Miss Mu’s. Her madness is very likely related to Weird Phenomena.”
“Then I’ll trouble you, Mr. Lin. I’ll pay Miss Fan’s fee.”
Though he didn’t have much cash on hand lately.
Second Brother Lu pondered ways to make money.
“Your previous payment was more than enough. Besides, since their cases are similar, it can count as one commission.” Second Brother Lu had already paid plenty; Lin Juan felt bad taking more.
Second Brother Lu said, “I’ll tell the Fans you’re an expert I hired, to make it easier for you to ‘treat’ Miss Fan.”
Lin Juan had no objections, but there was one thing he hadn’t felt right asking the Fan parents directly.
“Did the Fan parents know who assaulted Miss Fan? Did they report it to the police?”
From their demeanor, they didn’t seem the type to swallow their anger for the sake of reputation. They wouldn’t have stayed silent after their daughter was harmed.
“They did report it, but no one’s been found even now. Technology wasn’t as advanced back then, and it happened deep in the mountains. We checked with the police too—Fan Xiwen filed the report herself, but it was dark during the incident, and she’d lost consciousness, so she had little information to provide.”
With the similarities to Mu Xiaowan’s case, Lin Juan decided to inform Director Liu anyway. He had a feeling Qiu Lishu alone couldn’t have orchestrated the whole thing; other forces must have been involved.
After all, Qiu Lishu back then was just a high school student.
No matter how scheming, she couldn’t have pulled it off without a trace. Just drugging Fan Xiwen and arranging the assault wasn’t something a high schooler could easily do.
Whether it was the drug to knock out Fan Xiwen or the perpetrator—was it even human?
Director Liu took the matter seriously and immediately sent people to Fan Xiwen’s hometown for a thorough investigation.
The Fans had come to treat their daughter, so the next day, they headed to the hospital.
It was the one where Zhuang Yufeng worked.
Zhuang Yufeng brought his team to examine Fan Xiwen, including standard physical checks plus tests for pollution-related issues.
The routine physical results showed no major problems.
Zhuang Yufeng’s assistant handed the results to the Fans and explained how to read them. Zhuang Yufeng then pulled Lin Juan aside to the office.
“Any issues?” The two were alone.
“We detected very faint pollution on her, most pronounced in the abdomen. I suspect she encountered Weird Phenomena before.”
Zhuang Yufeng had gotten the full story from Director Liu and had some theories. “I suspect Weird Phenomena lingered in her abdomen.”
“You mean the child she was carrying had issues?” Lin Juan sat across from Zhuang Yufeng. “I’ve thought of that too. I had Second Brother Lu’s people check the hospital where Miss Fan had her surgery—strangely, there’s no record of the doctor who performed it.”
A doctor from a rural hospital shouldn’t be untraceable.
Unless that doctor had problems.
“But if she was pregnant with Weird Phenomena, she couldn’t have survived,” Zhuang Yufeng said. No ordinary person could withstand such pollution—he knew that better than anyone.
“Right,” Lin Juan agreed. “We need to figure out exactly what happened back then.”
“I have a colleague, a mental ability user who can read memories,” Zhuang Yufeng said slowly. “If conventional methods fail, we’ll have to use him.”
“Will it harm Miss Fan?”
“The stronger the defenses, the harder it is. He can only read memories from those with lower ability levels than his, and there’s a time limit. For Miss Fan’s state, we can try hypnotizing her first, then reading.”
“It won’t have major side effects. We use this method often for interrogations,” Zhuang Yufeng added.
“That works.”
With the plan set, Zhuang Yufeng called in the mental ability user, Zhu Yueming.
“I’ve heard so much about you, Mr. Lin.”
Zhu Yueming was a man in his thirties, refined and scholarly—not like an ability user, more like a lawyer.
“Mr. Zhu.”
Lin Juan shook his hand.
Zhu Yueming handed over a business card. “I’m a lawyer. If you ever need legal help, Mr. Lin, feel free to contact me.”
He really was a lawyer.
Lin Juan took the card. “From the moment I saw you, Mr. Zhu, I thought you looked more like a lawyer.”
“Haha,” Zhu Yueming laughed. “Mr. Lin has a keen eye.”
After a brief chat, Zhu Yueming donned a white coat. “Never thought I’d be Doctor Zhuang’s assistant one day.”
Lin Juan also changed into a white coat and tied back his hair.
