Chapter 133: The Blazing Fire (Part 1) – 3
“Since she was hospitalized at the end of August, she only brought summer clothes with her.”
Jinglin, wearing gloves, piled the clothes from the closet onto the bed, five by five.
“Just her summer clothes take up a whole closet…” Yingli’s expression was one of disbelief.
“My mom gets rid of clothes at regular intervals, and she almost never buys ready-made clothes.”
“I can see that.” Perhaps to fit her status, Li Yuejiao’s clothes were mostly dark.
“That’s it.” Taking out the last dark red dress, Jinglin threw up her hands. “See, no white at all.”
“Your impression is correct.” Yingli rested her chin on her hand and turned to look at the styles of the clothes. Li Yuejiao was a natural clothes horse, and she looked good in any style. The ratio of skirts to pants was also quite close.
After a while, Jinglin couldn’t help but ask, “Can you see anything?”
A woman who wears all sorts of styles in her daily life, but only wears one kind of outfit when she’s committing a crime? And it’s a color she never chooses…
Does it really have a special meaning?
“Tang Yingli?”
“White… naturally makes one think of clean, bright, or bright impressions. Is she trying to hint at something?”
Does it mean that all the cases she has committed symbolize light—that is, the right side? Or does it have another meaning?
“Usually, the clothes worn during a crime should be as inconspicuous as possible, but my mom did the opposite.”
She touched her forehead in frustration. “Oh, no. I can’t get the image of my aunt in a white suit out of my head.”
“Maybe she just wants to make it so we can’t guess her identity. After all, she’s had plastic surgery.” Jinglin threw down the dress and put her hands on her shoulders. “Alright, don’t think about it. Do you think we need to make a trip to Taoyuan?”
“Let’s go back first. You said you’ve never seen your aunt in white, and this has already been proven here, so I guess it’s the same in Taoyuan.”
“At most, we can ask the precinct police there to help us check.”
“Yes, that’s a good idea.”
Although they had returned empty-handed, Jinglin’s mood was very cheerful, as could be seen from the corners of her lips.
“You’re smiling.”
“Ah.” She pushed at the corners of her lips and turned the steering wheel. “I was just thinking, it’s been a long time since we’ve investigated together.”
“Since the Dr. Tao incident.”
Jinglin pursed her lips, her tone inexplicably a little sour. “Yes, and after that, there was also Dr. Lian.”
“Huizhu? What’s wrong with her?”
“It’s nothing.” The hand holding the steering wheel paused, and Jinglin looked at her sideways. “Hey, do you have a particular liking for this junior?”
“Do I?”
“D-o y-o-u n-o-t? You only call her by her first name when you’re talking to her, and you don’t even use her full name.”
“Oh, that’s just a habit.” So nonchalant.
“I’m telling you… a form of address can subtly express how close or distant someone is in your heart.” She pouted and looked away.
“I know. It was even more obvious when I was abroad.” Pushing up her glasses, she smoothly changed the subject. “By the way, when you were stating your position to the director before, did you pay special attention to his expression?”
Why are we back to the case? “Um, what expression?”
“Did you feel that something was not right when he was talking about your aunt?”
“Let me think…” Jinglin bit her lip. “I think it was fine… ah, there was one time, after I had just finished speaking, he stared at me for about five or six seconds without saying anything.”
“Could you tell what he was thinking?”
“I think it was more like… he was in a daze.”
She raised an eyebrow. “In a daze?”
“Yes, on the surface, he was looking at me, but it was as if he were looking at someone else.”
Could it be that Zhou Zengxiang was staring at her face and thinking of the old Li Yuejiao? A former superior and subordinate, and especially since Li Yuejiao was a pretty, smart, and capable female agent… it’s hard not to have other fantasies about such a combination.
Are they… really just a simple superior-subordinate relationship?
“You’ve contacted your aunt’s colleagues before, right?” she was referring to Xu Shanni, “and you also accidentally got some information from the current owner of ‘Givenchy’.”
“Yes.” Jinglin nodded slightly. “You’re not planning to use the fact that my mom was a National Security Bureau agent to have me go and confirm it with them again, are you?”
“That’s right. Now that your aunt’s identity has been further clarified, we might be able to get some new information from this.”
“The fact that my mom was an agent, I don’t think Aunt Xu knows. Dingdang might know, but last time, it was because I had saved her life that she told me my mom was still alive.” At the mention of the awkward topic, Jinglin couldn’t help but purse her lips. “I don’t think she’ll continue to provide me with information.”
“In any case, let’s try our best. I’ll propose a search to the director tomorrow morning, and if possible, we’ll seal Wu Jianxiong’s human resources agency as soon as possible.”
Looking at each other, Jinglin suddenly found the trust they had had when they had worked on cases together before.
“Alright, I’ll let you know if I have any further news.”
**
In the ICU of the municipal hospital, Cui Jinlong, who had just had surgery, had finally woken up.
The anesthesia had just worn off, and his head was carefully bandaged. He was wearing an oxygen mask and had not yet fully recovered his speech. He squinted, feeling that there was someone by his bed.
It was Tang Zhichao.
His eyes widened, and he subconsciously wanted to move his right hand, but strangely, he couldn’t feel anything.
“Dr. Cui’s brain infiltration is very serious,” Tang Zhichao said in an emotionless tone. “It’s located in the parietal lobe, near the motor cortex. I’ve been as careful as I can, but your perception of your right hand may be a little affected.”
The parietal lobe of the brain is responsible for the perception of various parts of the body. If something goes wrong, it means the brain cannot feel a certain part of the body—even if the right hand is still connected to the body. And Cui Jinlong now did not think at all that the hand by his bed was his.
“I’ve done my best, but to put it bluntly… you have to be prepared to not be able to use your right hand freely in the future.”
Cui Jinlong glared at Tang Zhichao, whose expression was completely hidden under his mask. “You should rest well… oh, by the way. Yao Wenyu is in the room next door. Maybe he can come and say hello to you tomorrow.”
At the mention of “Yao Wenyu,” Cui Jinlong’s mind went blank.
“It’s fine if you don’t remember him. When he starts his speech therapy, he will definitely have a lot to say to you.” Pulling down his mask, Tang Zhichao sneered. “Excuse me.”
Wait, don’t go, don’t go, his right hand… Cui Jinlong wanted to stop him, but Tang Zhichao strode away, as if with a vengeful posture.
Perhaps his fall this time would not affect the hospital’s reputation, but he, in his identity as a “surgeon,” was completely out.
**
At 8:30 in the evening, Fang Zijun went to a teppanyaki restaurant as scheduled, but when he arrived, the person who had invited him had not yet arrived.
Ten minutes later, Tang Zhichao arrived late. “I’m sorry, it took me a while to find a parking spot.”
“The person who invited me is actually busier than I am.”
“I just finished a surgery, and I went to check on the patient’s post-operative condition. You haven’t eaten yet, have you?”
Since it was a surgery, he must not have had time to watch the news. Fang Zijun patted his stomach. “Of course, let’s go.”
This restaurant was chosen by Tang Zhichao, and Fang Zijun was not familiar with it, so he relied on his and the owner’s recommendations to order.
“Why did you suddenly think of inviting me to dinner?”
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a meal together… and I’m a little curious about my sister’s current role in the Criminal Investigation Division.” Using a wet wipe to clean his hands, he frowned and asked, “You know that Yingli has been going to the hospital a lot for cases recently, right?”
“Oh, that’s related to the case we’re working on now.” Fang Zijun drank his hot tea. “Ah, did you watch the news today? The Director-General and the Director of the Criminal Investigation Bureau held a press conference, and it was a big deal.”
“Oh, I didn’t see it. What case?”
“Simply put, it’s a murder case. And it has a lot to do with the people in the bureau.”
“Could it be related to a certain Officer Zhou?”
Fang Zijun’s eyes widened. “You know… ah, right. The teacher got the information from you.”
Tang Zhichao smiled. “By the way, I just operated on the attending physician who had a malpractice before.”
“Yes, I heard from the teacher that he suddenly collapsed during surgery.”
He prepared the utensils for Fang Zijun. “There was something growing in his brain, and it was very difficult to completely remove… it took almost five hours.”
Tang Yingli had submitted a written report, but Fang Zijun knew nothing about brain surgery. “Was that why the surgery failed?”
“Yes… it had infiltrated the motor cortex, and he would suddenly feel weak, numb, or have involuntary convulsions.”
“And he could still operate on a patient like that?” Fang Zijun’s mouth dropped open. “Then if we were to expose this, wouldn’t it affect you?”
“So I have to ask the police to be lenient.”
“This isn’t the main reason you invited me to dinner today, is it?”
“Correct.” Tang Zhichao pointed at him, but then he smiled. “Oh, what are you worried about? If you want to report it, report it. I don’t care… anyway, after this surgery, he probably won’t be able to hold a scalpel again.”
The fried onions on the teppanyaki were giving off a fragrant aroma, but Fang Zijun couldn’t help but shiver. “What do you mean? You failed?”
“What failure? My surgery record is still perfect, okay?” Tang Zhichao rolled his eyes at him. “It took too long. The surgery was very difficult, and even if I tried my best not to damage his motor cortex, it’s very difficult to be 100%.”
“I heard from the teacher that he was a very important doctor. It’s a shame that he can’t operate anymore.”
“It’s fine.” Tang Zhichao ate his fried bean sprouts, his expression blank. “A director like this, who is just a sycophant to the director, even if the person who replaces him is probably about the same, at least it’s a new face.”
“You’re… very dissatisfied with him?” In his memory, he had almost never heard Tang Zhichao speak like this.
“I really can’t condone this kind of dangerous medical behavior that puts patients in danger. By the way, since you know what happened to Mrs. Zhou in our hospital, how are you going to use this information?”
“Logically, it won’t be made public. Because the teacher initially suspected that the stored blood she used in the case was collected when her surgery had failed, which is related to her motive for the crime…” Fang Zijun touched his forehead, “she seems to be both seeking revenge and has the intention of attacking the government’s past actions… to be honest, I still don’t understand what she wants to do.”
“That Mrs. Zhou?”
“Yes.”
Tang Zhichao, who was chewing on his vegetables, cleared his throat. “She… cough, who is she getting revenge on?”
“Well…” Fang Zijun suddenly paused, “no, hey. Why do you know so much?”
“After all, Yingli is also actively helping you with your cases, isn’t she? I have to know what she’s doing, right?”
“She didn’t tell you?” Tang Zhichao threw up his hands. He pursed his lips and chose his words carefully. “The teacher is a member of the special task force, and that… the Mrs. Zhou you mentioned, she has a wide network. The people we couldn’t think of before, we found out later that they were all connected to her, and now we’re all very cautious and can’t casually reveal the details of the investigation.”
“Does her daughter know?”
“Know what?”
“The details of the investigation.”
“To avoid suspicion, she was excluded. Although she has somehow gotten some information… oh, I’ve been off work for a long time. Let’s not talk about this. Let’s eat.” The food Tang Zhichao had ordered had just arrived, which made Fang Zijun breathe a sigh of relief.
“The daughter is a detective, and the mother is a criminal…” Tang Zhichao twirled his chopsticks and said nonchalantly, “she must be very sad.”
“That’s for sure.”
“I remember their mother-daughter relationship… was it quite good?”
Holding his utensils, Fang Zijun, who was smelling the aroma, was already hungry. “Uh, I think so.”
“Although you deliberately excluded her daughter, in the end, a mother and daughter are still a mother and daughter,” he raised an eyebrow, “could it be that she was just turned?”
Knowing that Tang Zhichao was joking, Fang Zijun was still a little displeased. “What do you mean, turned? Jinglin is very responsible, and she is deeply proud of her identity as a detective… don’t make that kind of joke a second time.”
“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Tang Zhichao filled his tea. “I just said something I shouldn’t have… let’s talk about something else.”
