"Heng Rui?"

Shen Zhengning, in the end, couldn't be above the fray. When Heng Rui Group was mentioned, the first impression that surfaced in his mind was the programmer's natural enemy, the sensational news that crashed the social media app: "Is that the President Huo who came out with Xie Guan at the film festival last year?"

Cheng Junsu was clearly used to this reaction and replied calmly, "Yes, Huo Mingjun is the current head of Heng Rui. We handled the PR for the public sentiment after he and Xie Guan made their relationship public. He was quite satisfied with our company's service, and Heng Rui later became one of our major clients."

He put it simply, but Shen Zhengning could figure out with his toes that the chairman of a corporation wouldn't discuss such operational and strategic topics with an outsourcing company for no reason. Given Cheng Junsu's "only one-eighth of the iceberg is above water" style, either he had a closer connection with Heng Rui Group or President Huo himself, or the acquisition progress bar had already secretly started moving, and most people just hadn't noticed yet.

"Alright, since you've said so, I'll wait and see for a while if a pie will fall from the sky onto my head," Shen Zhengning said. "But I'm a bit curious, why are you the one leading the charge? Generally speaking, shouldn't acquisitions be the job of the investment or strategy department?"

"Hmm... how to describe it," Cheng Junsu subconsciously beat around the bush when it came to key issues, dragging out his lazy tone and saying nonchalantly, "You can think of me as the one who haggles the price, the villain responsible for saying things like 'the fabric of these clothes isn't good' or 'the vegetables have worms'."

However, his vivid metaphor did not ease the atmosphere. Shen Zhengning's brow furrowed slightly. "That sounds like a dirty job, President Cheng. Are you sure you're just finding worms, and not putting worms in the vegetables?"

"Of course, our company is a legal and legitimate enterprise, dear," Cheng Junsu replied bluntly. "Besides, if your esteemed company hadn't cut off one of its own arms first, we wouldn't have been able to catch this ride, right?"

His words were like a small hammer striking an invisible barrier, suddenly creating a lingering echo that couldn't be ignored. Shen Zhengning was suddenly stunned, as if a faint, indistinct line flashed before his eyes, and they widened slightly.

"Catching a ride...?"

Cheng Junsu didn't understand. "Yeah, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. I wish you success." Shen Zhengning pulled back his momentarily runaway thoughts and entrusted him solemnly, "You do a good job, be sure to serve our gold-daddy benefactor well, and strive to let me pass the 35-year-old programmer's heavenly tribulation painlessly."

The helplessness on the other end of the line was about to overflow through the radio waves. "...Dude, if you weren't so set on hanging yourself from this programmer tree, you'd earn more even by catching cheaters."

"That's illegal, dear," Shen Zhengning replied with a straight face. "And I lack an adventurous spirit. I just like stable and secure jobs like being a programmer."

Cheng Junsu said nothing and hung up the phone crisply.

Shen Zhengning exited the dialog box and looked down at his WeChat contact list. His finger hovered over Yuan Hang's name, but he hesitated to tap it, waiting until the phone screen automatically turned off.

The black screen reflected his expressionless face. He pulled up the corners of his mouth in a silent smile, not knowing who he was smiling at, then put away his phone, pushed open the heavy iron door of the stairwell, and returned to the restless office.

After getting home from work, Silver was the first to greet him, wagging its tail and affectionately coming closer. Zhuang Mingqi was on the phone as he came down from the second floor. He had the kind of looks that appeared cold and gloomy when he wasn't smiling, making him seem especially unapproachable when he was focused. But the person in question was probably unaware of this, and with a "the weather's getting cold, it's time to make some family go bankrupt" cold face, he reached out and took Shen Zhengning's laptop bag.

He spoke English rapidly, interspersed with some French words. Shen Zhengning pricked up his ears and made out a few sentences; it sounded like he was talking about some exhibition. He hadn't wanted to interrupt Zhuang Mingqi's work call, but then he watched with his own eyes as the young master sauntered into the living room with the bag. Because his attention was mostly on the conversation, and because he was so tall, he very conveniently placed the laptop bag on top of the refrigerator.

Shen Zhengning: ...

Sometimes, a tiring life isn't entirely a trick of fate; it might also be that certain people have quietly increased the difficulty level of living.

There's a popular saying online—'When people are on the phone, they'll take anything you hand them.' Shen Zhengning, with Silver in tow, quietly followed behind him. As he passed the coffee table, he casually grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl and handed it to Zhuang Mingqi without a change in expression.

Zhuang Mingqi naturally took it, tossed it in his hand a couple of times, and casually placed it on top of the liquor cabinet.

A moment later, Shen Zhengning passed by again and handed him a mug. Zhuang Mingqi took it, drank a sip of warm water, and casually set it on top of the display cabinet.

After another moment, Shen Zhengning passed by a third time and handed him Silver. Zhuang Mingqi, completely oblivious, took the twenty-kilogram Samoyed with one hand, even hefted it a bit, and continued to talk on the phone with full concentration.

Shen Zhengning: "..."

Silver: "..."

A short while later, Zhuang Mingqi finally noticed the weight was off. He looked down to see Silver staring back at him with innocent, round eyes, while Shen Zhengning had already turned away, his shoulders shaking like a withered leaf in the wind.

Zhuang Mingqi: "..."

As if a spring breeze had thawed a frozen lake, his eyes couldn't help but curve into a gentle arc, revealing a chiding expression mixed with helplessness. He quickly ended the call in a few sentences, put Silver back on the floor, patted its round head, and accused with a straight face, "You're so mean!"

His dazed look just now had greatly pleased Shen Zhengning. 'Teasing the cat is so much fun, I have to do this again next time,' he thought, but he feigned a sincere apology out loud: "Sorry, hahaha..."

Zhuang Mingqi didn't fall for his act at all. "Hmph, you must be thinking you can be even meaner next time."

Shen Zhengning verified his assertion with his actions. He stifled his smile and said with slight surprise, "How did you suddenly get so smart?"

"You're getting meaner and meaner!"

"Sorry, I'm groveling, please don't jump up and hit me," Shen Zhengning tried his best to hold back his laughter. "After all, you're a man who can carry a twenty-kilogram little loaf with one hand, pfft, now you've truly become a hexagonal warrior."

"..."

When you didn't know him well, Zhuang Mingqi was genuinely aloof. After you got familiar with him, his temper was actually quite good. When teased, he wouldn't scratch or hiss, he would just gradually look more and more wronged, his direct gaze turning into a sidelong glance, as he asked aggrievedly, "Why are you suddenly bullying me..."

"Right?" Shen Zhengning didn't answer but asked instead, "Since you're done with your call, can you help me get my laptop bag?"

Zhuang Mingqi: "Sure, where is it?"

Shen Zhengning's current expression could be directly used to replace the yellow smiling-face emoji on WeChat. He repeated in a soft, gentle voice, "Yes, where is it?"

Zhuang Mingqi looked left and right, letting out a bewildered "Eh?"

Shen Zhengning's shoulders started shaking again.

Three minutes later, Zhuang Mingqi was sitting at the small bar, with the laptop bag, apple, and mug placed in front of him, and Silver in his arms. He looked utterly dazed, as if sleepwalking. "Did... I put these here?"

His habit of putting things up high wasn't a new one. When he couldn't find them, he would whine to Shen Zhengning, wasting his brain cells over such trivial matters. Shen Zhengning took the apple, peeled it, cored it, and sliced it. He skillfully cut it into three pieces, giving one each to the eagerly watching Silver and Zhuang Mingqi. "Who else, young master? Do you need me to pull up the surveillance footage for you to face yourself?"

"Yuan Hang, not leaving yet?" A colleague passed by Yuan Hang's desk and inadvertently glanced at his computer screen. "How many days have you been watching this surveillance video over and over? Still haven't figured it out?"

Yuan Hang listlessly hit the spacebar. The image froze on a pale light in the dark, rainy night, at the exact moment a figure holding an umbrella quickly walked into the underground garage.

"Yeah," he answered his colleague's concerned question with a sigh, as if talking to himself. "Nine minutes and forty-three seconds, what was that time even used for..."

The colleague was already used to his stubborn refusal to give up and patted his shoulder comfortingly. "If you can't figure it out, maybe just put it aside for a bit. A great detective isn't made in a day. Doesn't your wife nag you for working overtime and never being home?"

"She went on a business trip yesterday. It's boring for me at home by myself anyway. You go ahead, I'll think about it a bit more."

Yuan Hang waved to his colleague and watched him leave the office. He then stretched out long and hard, got up, and rummaged through a box next to the file cabinet for some instant noodles, planning to make do for dinner.

At his strong "Daddy, love me one more time" request, the video investigation unit had pulled up all the surveillance videos along Gao Qihui's route on the night of the incident. Yuan Hang carefully compared them with Gao Qihui's testimony from beginning to end and actually found something that seemed a bit off—

At 22:03 on the night of September 25th, Gao Qihui's friend drove him in a black Audi A6 to the intersection of Gaoxin Avenue East Road Bridge and Park North Road. Gao Qihui got out on the west side of the intersection, walked across the crosswalk with an umbrella, and entered an undeveloped section of road with no surveillance cameras. At 22:13, the surveillance camera at the east side of the office building's underground garage captured his figure with the umbrella. At 22:23, Gao Qihui drove his own silver-grey BMW out of the garage and went straight home without stopping.

Between 22:03 and 22:13, those 10 minutes without surveillance were Gao Qihui's biggest point of suspicion at present. For an adult man, walking over two hundred meters should only take 3 minutes. It was also strange to be dropped off only at the intersection, especially when it was raining that night. Normally, one should be driven to the garage entrance to prevent a friend from getting wet.

Gao Qihui's explanation for this was that the road was slippery due to the rain, there was a lot of standing water, and the streetlights weren't very bright, so he walked very slowly. As for not being dropped off at the garage, it was because his friend's route home was to go straight through the intersection and onto the bridge. To drop him at the garage would require a "left turn—U-turn—left turn," which was unusually troublesome, so he preferred to walk a little further himself.

This explanation was a bit far-fetched upon close examination, but since it couldn't be disproven, it was barely plausible. Yuan Hang thought about it for a long time but couldn't find any flaws. Unwilling to give up, he pulled up the park surveillance footage of Ye Tongsheng from that night again, trying to find out where he went afterward, but he still couldn't make anything out from the blurry video.

'Have I hit a dead end?'

He stared blankly at the small water droplets gathering in the seam of the instant noodle lid, his hand unconsciously reaching for the phone on his desk. He hesitated at the unlock screen for several seconds before hesitantly pulling it back.