The car moved steadily along the road. Inside the cabin, there was no sound. Silence hung like a heavy curtain, pressing down on Xu Ruyi's head and body.
Old He summoning her definitely meant trouble.
But Old He didn't speak.
He didn't say where they were going, just drove through intersection after intersection, heading straight for the city outskirts.
By the time the car stopped, the sky was overcast, looking like rain was imminent.
"Get out," Old He said.
Xu Ruyi had no idea what he was scheming, but she could only obediently follow him out of the car.
This was the Qingshui River on the outskirts of the city.
"There are benches over there. Come on. You must be more familiar with this place than I am." He spoke as he strode purposefully towards the riverbank steps and down to the water's edge.
Xu Ruyi was indeed familiar—she was born nearby. Her father's hometown was right around here. As a child, her father often brought her to play by this river. When she grew up, on weekends and holidays, he would still bring her back for visits.
Her father was a nostalgic, sentimental man. He always happily took her to chat with her grandparents, play in the village, and enthusiastically help neighbors with this and that. It was only after her grandparents passed away, the area was demolished, and all the familiar people moved away, that her father rarely came back.
Thinking about it, it had been about ten years. The changes were huge. A residential complex developed by a well-known company was being built with great fanfare across the river. Beautiful pedestrian walkways and guardrails had been constructed along both banks.
Old He was already sitting under the shade of a tree.
It was a little past three in the afternoon. There was no sunlight; the sun hid behind layers of clouds, leaving the air oppressive and heavy, pressing down layer by layer.
Xu Ruyi took deep breaths repeatedly but still felt slightly suffocated.
"Everyone's busy, so I'll get straight to the point."
Old He unscrewed his thermos, took a sip of water, and squinted at the calm river surface, not looking at Xu Ruyi. "Your parents' deaths are both related to Qin Guan."
This sentence was like an invisible pair of scissors, cutting through the veil of obscurity.
Though cruel, and though he genuinely sympathized with Xu Ruyi and wanted to help her from the bottom of his heart, Old He had to do this—Qin Guan was thrashing desperately, the case was frequently trending, and whether it was the pressure from above or his own urgent determination to uncover the truth, he couldn't afford to take slow, roundabout paths anymore.
Facing an opponent like Qin Guan, digging out the truth might be the only way to truly help her.
"You knew this early on. The precise timing was after your father passed away," Old He turned his head to look at Xu Ruyi.
Xu Ruyi's face had turned deathly pale.
"I found one of the shareholders of Qin Guan's law firm, Qi Wei. He's also a good friend of your father's, a local. He withdrew from the firm's business two years ago due to health reasons and went to the US. Last year, he had major surgery and has been recuperating ever since. I found him and confirmed one thing: shortly after your father passed away, you called him, asking related questions."
Xu Ruyi stood motionless, only swallowing with difficulty.
Indeed, details could nail Qin Guan, but they could also betray her.
She had called Uncle Qi.
Right after learning her father's death might have another cause, after discovering Qin Guan might have murdered her parents, her first thought was to seek help from her father's good friend—Uncle Qi was a formidable lawyer, though he had retired early due to health issues and gone to recuperate at his daughter's place in the US.
Of course, to avoid suspicion, to not alert the enemy, Xu Ruyi lied, saying the client was a friend of hers.
"It's something that happened to my good friend who lives far away in Shanghai. She needs some more objective professional advice," she had said.
During that call, she was extremely calm. Neither her attitude nor her wording showed any obvious flaws.
Therefore, Uncle Qi harbored no suspicion whatsoever. He completely stood from the perspective of a lawyer and elder, analyzing the situation carefully for her.
Although Uncle Qi was unlikely to contact Qin Guan, after making that call, Xu Ruyi still felt she had been rash. She called again the next day, earnestly informing him that her friend had decided to hire a lawyer in Shanghai. On the call, Xu Ruyi wrapped up the matter in a few sentences and then carefully inquired about Uncle Qi's health and life abroad.
Her performance had been flawless.
So, when Qin Guan was arrested and the case dragged on, Uncle Qi hadn't remembered this minor incident—separated by vast oceans, he might not have seen the news here promptly. Even if he had, he certainly wouldn't have connected the dots, realizing that what he analyzed was intimately linked to the case Xu Ruyi was experiencing.
Yet, it was precisely this small matter that the seemingly unremarkable man before her had managed to uncover.
Clearly, he had sensed the problem first and then gone looking for clues.
Which meant that in his mind, he had long been convinced she, Xu Ruyi, was involved—if that was the case, why not invite her to the police station? Interrogation would be faster and more direct. Why bring her here?
"The content you consulted him about wasn't extensive or detailed. So, besides him, you must have consulted other professional lawyers. It's illogical and inconsistent with your subsequent actions to rashly confront Qin Guan without fully understanding everything. You are meticulous and thorough, so you must have fully understood the situation beforehand,"
Old He sighed—the opening he was cutting was getting wider, bringing him closer to the truth, but simultaneously, a pang of sorrow welled up in his heart.
"But, apart from calling Qi Wei twice, your phone number never contacted any other lawyers. Neither Feng Xiangping's number nor the numbers registered under Feng Xiangping's name had any such call records. It was only when I traced this far that I finally understood: you, Xu Ruyi, always had another number. Your third phone number."
The third phone number. Before all this happened, or more precisely, after Qi Wei told her this case had no evidence and couldn't be won—when she was in despair and heartbroken—she began to contemplate how to retaliate against that man herself. That man, legally trained, who had callously caused her parents' deaths.
To deal with a man like that, she could only operate from the shadows.
To act covertly, undetected, the first thing she needed was a hidden phone number.
"The phone number ending in 5677, registered under Feng Xiangping's name, was actually just a decoy from the very beginning. A shield. The existence of this number was solely to cover up the real number hidden in the shadows, controlling everything,"
Old He spoke slowly, his voice clear, enunciating each word as he looked at Xu Ruyi—so when this number was "thoroughly investigated" by Qin Guan, aside from finding contacts with Li Yang and a few calls to Feng Zhi, there were no other useful leads.
That number was essentially a gift for Qin Guan to find.
Qin Guan had been fooled. And so had he, Old He.
This woman, who looked frail and weak, like a gust of wind could knock her over, had planned with extreme meticulousness from the very start.
Xu Ruyi stood by the railing, motionless as a puppet.
"Naturally, I couldn't trace this number of yours. If you didn't hand it over voluntarily, I might never find it in my lifetime, because I could never possibly know which lawyer you actually consulted."
Xu Ruyi lifted her chin, her jaw tight, still silent.
"But I know what you consulted about."