"… No?" Xie Qingying smiled awkwardly.
Although the two people in front of him had denied it, it was still particularly glaring to see the two of them speaking in unison.
Gu Nianzhi took the opportunity when He Zhichu turned to look at Xie Qingying to quickly push him away. She smiled and said, "Young Master He, Cousin Xie is here. Why don't you entertain Cousin Xie first? I'm very tired today. I want to go back and rest. Let's talk about what you just said another day, okay? "
He Zhichu grabbed her arm again and didn't even look at her. He stared at Xie Qingying and said, "Qingying, something came up at the last minute today, so I can't have dinner with you."
Gu Nianzhi, "…"
Xie Qingying's gaze lingered on Gu Nianzhi's arm for a moment, but she maintained a polite smile on her face. She ran her hand through her hair and said flirtatiously, "Fine, we have dinner together every day anyway. It's fine if we don't eat together for a day."
As she spoke, she opened the car door. Just as she was about to sit back down, she looked up and said with a smile, "But Young Master He, if something happens in the future, can you inform me earlier? In order to have dinner with you, I declined several invitations from my relatives and friends. "
Her voice was clear, and there was a hint of coquettishness when she said this. She tilted her face slightly, and her tall and exquisite nose was exactly the same as Gu Nianzhi's. They were both from the Gu family.
He Zhichu's heart softened.
When he found out that Xie Qingying was flying back to the Huaxia Empire, he couldn't think of anything else. Of course, he couldn't call Xie Qingying to cancel his dinner date.
He was the one who broke his promise and let Xie Qingying down.
He Zhichu nodded slightly. "I understand. I'll definitely notify you in advance next time."
Xie Qingying was stunned for a moment. She could barely maintain the smile on her face. She hurriedly got into her car and said to the driver, "Drive."
Her car was a custom-made sky-blue Chevrolet bulletproof sedan. The body of the car was tall and spacious, with the bulkiness and sturdiness unique to American cars.
Compared to her exquisite attire and appearance, it presented a strange contrast of cuteness, making her look even more slender and exquisite, and the car inadvertently added a bit more style.
It was rare to see a famous car and a beautiful woman bringing out the best in each other.
Gu Nianzhi watched the car leave and clicked her tongue. "Young Master He, you're too careless with your words. Cousin Xie is unhappy …"
He Zhichu glanced at her and frowned. "Why are you unhappy? Isn't she pretty happy? "As he spoke, he pulled Gu Nianzhi's arm towards the door.
Gu Nianzhi was dragged by him to walk a few steps faster. She caught up to his pace and deliberately tried to make conversation to ease the tension between them.
"… How could I be happy? She said that she wanted you to inform her earlier, but in fact, she was acting coquettishly and complaining … What she really meant was that she didn't want you to do this, but you said 'I'll definitely inform you earlier next time', as if there will be more of such things in the future. How can Cousin Xie be happy? "
He Zhichu: "…"
"How troublesome," he muttered. "Is it necessary to think so much?"
He turned to look at Gu Nianzhi and opened his mouth to speak.
Gu Nianzhi narrowed her eyes and smiled at him. "Young Master He, you guys have been having dinner together a lot lately? Looks like it's going well … "
He Zhichu's brows furrowed even more. He walked silently for a while before arriving at the door. He pushed it open and pulled her all the way to the stairs.
When they went up to the second floor, he brought her into Gu Nianzhi's suite in the He residence.
The furnishings inside were exactly the same as when she left last time.
He Zhichu pulled her into the room and pushed her onto the sofa closest to the door. Then, he leaned on her and placed his arms on the armrests of the sofa, trapping her in it. He stared into her eyes and bowed as he asked hoarsely, "… What the hell is going on?! That photo … and why did you suddenly go to New York? Is Lorraine looking for you? You guys used Wen Shouyi as a replacement, didn't you? "
Gu Nianzhi: "…"
"Young Master He, don't you already know?" Gu Nianzhi could tell that He Zhichu's emotions were unstable, so she could only suppress her emotions and try her best to say calmly, "Wen Shouyi wasn't supposed to go abroad. After Mr. Peter contacted you, you instructed the relevant departments to return her passport and let her go abroad."
He Zhichu closed his eyes and nodded. "Yes, Peter said that this was the only way to confuse the scientists on Lorraine's side. Otherwise, they wouldn't let you go." “
The only thing that could make He Zhichu relent was Gu Nianzhi's safety.
Gu Nianzhi was very touched. She said gently, "Young Master He, thank you. If it weren't for you, we would have been really unlucky this time. You saved me! "
He Zhichu wasn't fooled by her gratitude. He said firmly, "Then tell me, why did you suddenly go to New York? When you went, there were three people leaving the country. When you came back, there were four people. The one who came back with you was President Lu's younger brother, Lu Jin. "
Gu Nianzhi's expression didn't change. She said lightly, "We went to New York to track down clues from Lorraine."
"… Lorraine tried everything to find you, and you still walked right into a trap?" He Zhichu was unmoved and moved closer to her. "Do you think I'll believe you?"
"There's nothing I can do if you don't believe me," Gu Nianzhi said calmly. "Or rather, you only believe what you want to believe. If you don't want to believe it, even if the truth is right in front of you, you pretend you didn't see it."
"Haha …" He Zhichu laughed dryly. "If only I could pretend I didn't see it … Unfortunately, I can't."
Gu Nianzhi's heart skipped a beat, and her eyes finally moved. "What do you mean?"
"What do I mean?" He Zhichu straightened up and threw down a photo. "Look for yourself. What do you think I mean?!"
Gu Nianzhi looked down and her gaze fell on the photo.
It was the photo she had found at the person's house in C City before she went abroad. It was the family photo of Qin Suwen when she was young.
It was also the only photo of Qin Suwen before her face was disfigured.
The little girl in the photo might not even be ten years old, but her big, bright, dark eyes were already very eye-catching. She could see them clearly in the yellowed black-and-white photo.
When she smiled, the childish innocence was especially obvious. It was exactly the same smile as Gu Nianzhi's when she was young.
Gu Nianzhi stared blankly at the photo and said in a low voice, "… Young Master He, who is the person in this photo?"
He Zhichu sneered. "You gave me this photo. You don't know who the person in this photo is?"
"How would I know?" Gu Nianzhi looked up at He Zhichu and frowned. "I've never seen them before, and I don't know them."
He Zhichu crossed his arms and paced back and forth in front of Gu Nianzhi. His emotions gradually became agitated.
"I've seen photos of these two older people when I was young. They should be my maternal grandfather and grandmother. But I've never seen their family photos. The photos I've seen are all composite photos of single people. Because at that time, they had already passed away for a long time. My father used a lot of connections, but he could only find photos of the two of them working at that time. "
"So you've never seen a photo of your mother when she was young." Gu Nianzhi was deep in thought. "What about the person who has this photo? What happened to him? Did he tell you? "
He Zhichu sneered. "If he doesn't, his bones can be squeezed dry."
Gu Nianzhi: "…"
"Young Master He, you didn't do anything overboard, did you?" Gu Nianzhi started to worry. "He's a citizen of our country after all."
"He wasn't a citizen a long time ago." He Zhichu waved his hand and said coldly, "After our investigation, we found out that he already has a foreign nationality. According to our law, our country doesn't recognize dual nationality, so when he obtained a foreign nationality, his Huaxia Empire citizenship was automatically lost. "
"Do we have to give a foreigner special treatment for a criminal in our country?" He Zhichu said mockingly, "Of course he can't enjoy national treatment, and he doesn't have the right to be protected by our law."
The corners of Gu Nianzhi's mouth twitched. "So? You did it? "
"Of course not." He Zhichu sat back on the sofa opposite him with a half-smile. "We have to dirty our hands if we want to torture a foreigner?"
"Then what did you do?" Gu Nianzhi was very curious, and she deliberately talked about it to ease He Zhichu's emotions.
He Zhichu curled his lips. "We locked him up with a group of illegal immigrants … After two days, he couldn't take it anymore. He cried and shouted that he wanted to tell us everything."
"… He was released so easily?" Gu Nianzhi was dissatisfied again. "He had to be locked up for a few more days. Let him reflect on what he did back then. "
"Yes, so after he explained himself, I locked him up again." He Zhichu's voice was cold and reserved, but the meaning behind his words was chilling.
"… So he's been locked up with those illegal immigrants for so many days?" Gu Nianzhi covered her mouth. "Is he still alive?"
"Living a life worse than death." He Zhichu crossed his legs. "Those illegal immigrants don't care if he's a man or a woman. If he's disobedient, they'll punish him. He's already been in the hospital several times."
Gu Nianzhi raised a brow. "And then?"
"He was treated in the hospital and then locked up." He Zhichu clenched his fists. "If you knew what he did, you wouldn't sympathize with him."
Gu Nianzhi sighed and rubbed her temples. She said weakly, "I didn't agree with him. On the contrary, he must have done something unspeakable back then. Oh right, what did he say he did? "
"He said he finally convinced my grandfather, Mr. Qin Huichang, to agree to sell the land. Because he took money from Qin Baye. "
Gu Nianzhi was shocked. "That's it? You believe him? "
"… There's no other evidence to prove he's lying." He Zhichu spread his hands. "So I wanted to ask you, how did you find out about him? And how did you find this photo? Why did he want to deal with you? "
"But you left the country in a hurry, and I couldn't get in touch with you." He Zhichu's mood worsened again.
God knows what kind of torment he'd endured these past few days.
He couldn't get in touch with Gu Nianzhi, and the photo constantly reminded him of another terrifying fact.
He didn't dare to think about it further, so he could only fill his work schedule every day and not let himself have any free time.
Xie Qingying invited him to dinner, and he quickly agreed and immediately returned the favor.
Xie Qingying saw that he was interested, so she naturally seized the opportunity.
As time went by, it became a routine for the two of them to have dinner together.
Until today, He Zhichu's people at customs sent him a message saying that Gu Nianzhi had flown back to the Huaxia Empire.
He then rushed to the airport to pick her up.
He really had too many questions and couldn't wait any longer.
Gu Nianzhi silently lowered her head when she heard He Zhichu's words. "It's my fault. I should have said it more clearly."
At the time, her heart was filled with her father's safety, so she really didn't have the time or energy to answer He Zhichu's questions.
She also thought that giving He Zhichu some time to calm down would be good for everyone.
She didn't expect He Zhichu to not calm down these past few days. Instead, his suspicions grew stronger and stronger.
He Zhichu listened to Gu Nianzhi's detailed explanation of the cause and effect of discovering the photo. He sighed deeply and said, "… I see. You discovered this person in the process of reverse engineering the Qin family's fortune. "
"Yes." Gu Nianzhi nodded. "The Qin family was so thorough that we couldn't find any loopholes at all, so we could only start from the party who sold the land."
"We studied a lot of information and finally found that only the Qin family's first pot of gold back then was problematic. It wasn't necessarily a violation of the law, but it was definitely of unknown origin."
"Yes, I remember my mother also investigated this matter." He Zhichu's emotions finally calmed down, but perhaps it was because Gu Nianzhi was sitting in front of him, but she naturally had a force that calmed him down.
He Zhichu continued, "In the end, we also found out that the Qin family's first pot of gold came from the land that my grandfather owned. However, the process of them buying the land was completely legal, and even the transaction price was higher than the market price at the time. There was no suppressing the price or fraudulent purchase. "
"… Yes, it was higher than the market price. But compared to the market price a year later, it was too low. " Gu Nianzhi said implicitly, "Did your mother investigate why the Qin family suddenly wanted to buy that land?"
"Are you saying that they might have obtained some inside information?" He Zhichu propped his forehead with his hand and thought for a while. "Only the highest-ranking leaders knew about the construction of a special zone in Z City. I don't think the Qin family's hands could stretch so far at that time. "
At that time, the Qin family only owned a small orphanage, and it was in the remote Z City.
Also, at that time, Z City was just a small fishing village, not some bustling metropolis.
In other words, the Qin family didn't have the financial resources and connections to come into contact with such high-level information.
Gu Nianzhi pondered for a while and asked tentatively, "Then did your mother investigate who the person behind the Qin family was?"
"You mean, they have someone supporting them?"
"Yes."
"She did, but there was no one in the higher-ups who was familiar with the Qin family, and no one had any business dealings with the Qin family. My mother even checked the minutes of the meeting at that time. My mother did a background check on every senior who attended the meeting, but she didn't find any new suspicious points. "
"So, in the end, we could only assume that the Qin family was lucky, and the case was left unsettled."
Gu Nianzhi raised an eyebrow and leaned back on the sofa. She said disdainfully, "Do you believe in free lunches?"
"Of course not."
"That's right. Why did the Qin family have such good luck? I can't accept this. " Gu Nianzhi smiled faintly as she raised her right index finger and wagged it. "I think I can provide another way of thinking."
"What idea?" He Zhichu leaned forward and asked nervously, "What did we miss?"
"Have you ever thought that perhaps no one in the country will help the Qin family, but what if there are people overseas?"
"But at that time, the country wasn't open yet. Even if foreigners wanted to contact people in the country, it was almost impossible …"
He Zhichu asked in confusion, but his heart quickly skipped a beat as he remembered something.
※ ※ ※
This was today's chapter update: Page 1840, "If only I could pretend I didn't see it."
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