Beneath the Marriage Pact

Chapter 6: Late Night Visitor, Old Friend Message (2)

Qin Feng? Shen Zhixia had never heard of this name. Did Qin Zheng have a younger brother?

"Chen Mo." Ling Xu 'an suddenly shouted. Chen Mo quickly poked his head in through the hole: "Boss?"

"Check if Qin Zheng has a younger brother named Qin Feng." Ling Xu 'an's voice was deep. "Focus on finding out where he is now."

"All right! "I'll check right now!" Chen Mo's voice echoed.

Shen Zhixia looked at the word "Qin Feng" on the diary and suddenly had a bad premonition in her heart. Did Aunt Zhang deliberately write this name here to say... Does Mom's death have anything to do with Qin Feng?

It was already dawn when they came out of the secret room. The sunlight cast long shadows on the broken walls of the warehouse. Shen Zhixia was sitting in the car, still clutching the photo of Aunt Zhang and her mother, with a small patch of tears on the edge of the photo.

"Don't be too sad." Ling Xu 'an handed her a tissue. "Aunt Zhang took good care of you. She kept her promise to Qingyao."

Shen Zhixia nodded and wiped her tears: "When we get the final draft from the old house, let's go and pay our respects to Aunt Zhang." She paused, "I still have to say thank you to her."

Ling Xu 'an made a "mm" sound, and suddenly the phone rang. It was Chen Mo calling. He picked up the phone, listened for a few words and his face changed: "Are you sure? He died three years ago?"

Shen Zhixia's heart gave a sudden jolt. Is Qin Feng dead?

"How do you put it?" After Ling Xu 'an hung up the phone, she hurriedly asked.

"Chen Mo checked and Qin Feng is indeed Qin Zheng's younger brother." Ling Xu 'an frowned tightly. "He died in a car accident while on a business trip abroad three years ago."

Dead? What's the point of Aunt Zhang writing this name? Could it just be a casual note?

"No." Shen Zhixia suddenly remembered something. "Aunt Zhang's diary was given to Lin Yue last month. She must have known that Qin Feng was dead when she wrote this. She wrote it down on purpose... Could it be that she was trying to say Qin Feng wasn't dead?"

Ling Xu 'an's eyes lit up: "It's possible. Qin Zheng trusted Qin Feng so much back then. Maybe he deliberately spread false information to make Qin Feng hide." He paused and picked up his phone, "I asked Chen Mo to look into it again, focusing on the details of Qin Feng's car accident."

Shen Zhixia's phone rang halfway through the car. It was Lin Yue. She picked up the phone and just said "hello" when she heard Lin Yue's crying voice: "Zhixia! Oh no! The old house has been broken into! The old locust tree in the backyard was dug up in a mess!"

Shen Zhixia's head buzzed and her phone nearly dropped to the ground. Was it pried open? Is it Qin Feng? Or...

"Don't be in a hurry. Speak slowly." She forced herself to be calm. "How did you know?"

"I intended to go back to the old house today to get something for Aunt Zhang, but as soon as I reached the door, I saw the gate open, the soil in the back yard turned over and there was a big pit under the old locust tree!" Lin Yue's voice trembled violently. "I've called the police and they say it looks like it was dug up last night..."

The final draft was taken away? Shen Zhixia's heart sank to the bottom. They were still a step too late.

"Let's go to the small town right now." Ling Xu 'an turned the car. "Don't worry. Maybe it hasn't been taken away yet."

Shen Zhixia didn't say a word, just clutched her phone tightly. She had only one thought at the moment - she must find the final draft and not let the efforts of her mother and Aunt Zhang fall into the hands of bad people.

As soon as the car got off the highway, Chen Mo's phone came after him. Ling Xu 'an pressed the hands-free button, and his urgent voice with the sound of electric current came out: "Boss! There's something wrong with Qin Feng's car accident! The report from the foreign police back then was' driver error ', but in the insurance company's payout record, the beneficiary was Qin Zheng's distant nephew - that guy immigrated last year, I just asked a friend at the immigration office to check, he's in Panama!"

Shen Zhixia tightened her grip on the corner of her dress again, Panama? Why didn't Qin Zheng mention this nephew when he was overthrown?

"What about the old house?" Ling Xu 'an asked straightforwardly.

"Lin Yue sent photos of the scene. There was a shoe print beside the locust tree pit. I asked the technical department to compare it - it matched the model of the shoe print left at the scene of Qin Feng's car accident three years ago. It was both 'iron head work boots', a rare brand that few people in China wore." Chen Mo took a deep breath. "And! I found out that among the materials Qin Feng was responsible for delivering back then, there was a batch of 'special catalysts' that went into Qin's account, and the whereabouts are unknown. It happened exactly three days after your mother's accident!

Special catalyst? Shen Zhixia suddenly remembered the label on the glass jar of the secret room - in her mother's early samples, it was indeed mentioned that a "highly active catalyst" was needed to increase the conversion rate. Could it be that Qin Feng is using this to threaten Qin Zheng? No, Qin Zheng has been arrested...

"What does he want the final draft for?" She couldn't help but interject.

Ling Xu 'an's hand holding the steering wheel paused for a moment: "The 'Star Project' lacks the catalyst ratio for the final draft. It's just a waste of data." Qin Feng took the final draft, either he wanted to mass-produce and sell it for money, or... He didn't go on, but Shen Zhixia understood - either someone had bribed him to get it.

When the car drove into the old street of the small town, Lin Yue was crouching at the entrance of the old house crying. The police had just finished inspecting the scene and the yellow cordon was still on. When she saw them coming, she grabbed the ground and stood up, her eyes as red as a rabbit: "Zhixia, it's all my fault... If only I had come earlier..."

"It's not your fault." Shen Zhixia pulled her up and glanced into the yard - the blue brick ground was trampled with mud marks, and a fresh earthy smell wafted from the backyard.

Ling Xu 'an did not enter the yard and went straight to the backyard. The pit under the old locust tree was not very deep, about half a meter, and the mound was covered with wood shavings - as if something had been wrapped in a wooden box and buried, scraped off during the digging. He crouched down and pinched a handful of soil with his fingertips: "I dug very fast, but I didn't dig anything."

"Not found anything? Lin Yue was stunned. "That pit is empty!"

Shen Zhixia also crouched down. The soil was wet, and when she got closer to smell it, there was a bit of... Smell of engine oil? She dug through the surface of the soil and touched a cold hard object, not a stone, with her fingertips.

"Ling Xu 'an, look at this!" She pushed aside the surrounding soil, revealing a palm-sized iron plate with a rough welded edge and a rusty chain attached to it.

Ling Xu 'an pulled out a Swiss army knife and pried open the plate. There was a dark hole at the bottom, and the chain hung down with a rustling sound. He turned on the flashlight of his mobile phone and shone it in - it was an old vegetable cellar, about two meters deep, with several earthenware jars piled up at the bottom and a wooden box on top, the lid open and empty.

"The stuff was taken away." Ling Xu 'an's voice was as deep as ice, "but it wasn't dug from above. It was taken from the vegetable cellar." Pointing to the fresh scratches on the chain, "someone found the entrance to the cellar first, took something, and then deliberately dug a tree pit to frame someone."

Lin Yue listened with his eyes wide open: "Vegetable cellar? Aunt Zhang never said there was a vegetable cellar in the backyard..."

"The map drawn in Aunt Zhang's diary has a small triangle next to the cross." Shen Zhixia suddenly came to her mind and pulled out her phone to look through the photos - in the diary page taken in a hurry in the morning, there was indeed a faint triangle symbol beside the cross sign by the old locust tree. "It's the mark of the vegetable cellar! She was afraid that if she drew it directly, it would be understood..."

Before she could finish speaking, Ling Xu 'an's phone rang. It was Uncle Zhao. He picked up a few words and his face changed abruptly: "What did you say? Grandpa's antihypertensive medicine has been tampered with? !"

Shen Zhixia's heart tightened sharply -- Grandpa Ling!

"How is it now?" Ling Xu 'an's voice was trembling.

"The doctor said fortunately it was discovered early and the medicine was just changed. It's nothing serious." Uncle Zhao's voice was tinged with fear. "The nurse saw a man in a white coat wandering outside grandpa's ward in the early hours of the morning and felt something was wrong. He went in and saw that the color of the pills in the bottle was not right. He called the doctor immediately..."

"Wearing a white coat? Qin Feng works on materials, so it's no surprise that he knows pharmacology. But how did he manage to get into the hospital?

"Have you checked the surveillance footage?" " Ling Xu 'an pressed.

"Checked! The man was wearing a mask and hat, his face was not clear, but his height and build matched the information about Qin Feng sent by Assistant Chen!" "He also stole a nurse's electric bike from the hospital parking lot and went west of the city!" said Uncle Zhao.

West of the city? Shen Zhixia suddenly remembered something and tugged Ling Xu 'an's arm: "There's an abandoned pesticide factory in the west of the small town! Aunt Zhang said before that the warehouse used in that factory was built by the same construction team as the old warehouse of the Qin family - maybe there was a secret room!

Ling Xu 'an immediately shouted into the phone, "Chen Mo! Check the location of the abandoned pesticide factory in the west of the small town! Have the police seal off the surrounding intersections again!"

After hanging up the phone, he pulled Shen Zhixia out: "To the pesticide factory! He's got the final draft. He must find a place to verify the data. That place is the most secluded!"

Lin Yue followed quickly: "I know the way! I'll take you there!"

As the car drove west of the city, the sky darkened and the wind, carrying sand and dust, hit the Windows with a crackling sound. Looking at Ling Xu 'an's tense profile, Shen Zhixia suddenly recalled what Aunt Zhang had written in her diary - "Qingyao said that for scientific researchers, the mind should be calm and the hands should be steady, but in this world, there are always people who cannot tolerate clean things."

Did mom expect that what she was guarding would bring about so much bloodshed and turmoil?

"Here it is!" Lin Yue suddenly pointed ahead.

The iron gate of the abandoned pesticide factory was rusty and the paint was peeling off, and it hung crookedly on the hinges. Looking inside, there was a patch of wild grass, waist-deep, and it swayed like waves in the wind. Ling Xu 'an pulled over to the side of the road and just opened the door, he heard a rustling sound in the grass - not the wind, but the sound of people stepping on the grass.

"Don't move." He held Shen Zhixia down, got out of the car first, pulled out the folding knife on his lower back (which he had prepared in case of accident), and took two steps into the grass.

As the grass parted, a dark shadow suddenly emerged, clutching a glass bottle in his hand, and threw it at Ling Xu 'an! Shen Zhixia's heart jumped out of her chest - it was Qin Feng! His hair was disheveled like a chicken coop, his eyes were sunken, and the glass bottle in his hand was filled with yellow liquid, the kind of experimental sample in the secret room!

"Hand in the final draft!" Qin Feng's voice was hoarse like a broken gong and his eyes were terrifyingly red.

Ling Xu 'an turned sideways to avoid the glass bottle and pressed the knife against his throat: "Where is the thing?"

"Burned!" Qin Feng suddenly laughed wildly, "Qin Zheng has been playing me like a pawn for three years! He said that if he got the final draft, he would give me half of the money! He ended up losing first! I burned the manuscript and no one could take it!"

Shen Zhixia's heart sank -- burned? That mother and Aunt Zhang's work...

"You didn't burn it." Ling Xu 'an pushed his knife forward again. "When you got something from the cellar just now, your pocket was bulging. Was it a USB drive?" He glanced at Qin Feng's pocket and said, "I can't remember the catalyst ratio. You have to rely on the final draft in the USB drive."

Qin Feng's face turned pale in an instant and his hand reached into his pocket involuntarily. Ling Xu 'an seized the opportunity, pushed him to the ground with his back hand and pressed his knees against his back: "Chen Mo will be here soon. You'd better behave yourself."

Qin Feng was still struggling and cursing, nothing more than how Qin Zheng had tricked him and how he had been hiding for three years. Shen Zhixia had no mind to listen. She crouched down and rummaged through his pocket - and indeed pulled out a black USB drive with mud on its shell, very similar to the one Ling Xu 'an had held before.

She clutched the drive in her hand, her fingertips shaking. Found... Finally found it.

A siren was heard from afar. Chen Mo ran over with his men and handcuffed Qin Feng while still Shouting, "That script can make a lot of money!" What do you know!"

Shen Zhixia ignored him and walked up to Ling Xu 'an, handing him the USB drive: "Look... Is it this one?"

Ling Xu 'an took it, looked at the light, and then pulled out his phone and plugged it in (he had an OTG connector). When the screen lit up, both of them heaved a sigh of relief - the folder was named "Starlight Project Final Mix", and the dates of the documents in it were exactly the day Mom had an accident.

"This is it." Ling Xu 'an put the USB drive away and reached out to rub her hair. "It's over."

As the police car honked away, Lin Yue pulled out an old rattan box from the yard, and the corner of the box hit the threshold with a "thud". "Zhi Xia, this was left by Aunt Zhang. She said she would give it to you when you 'got it done'."

When Shen Zhixia took the box, she shook it and rustled inside - it wasn't something hard. She crouched under the locust tree and opened the box, which was covered with a layer of blue cloth. When she lifted it, it was a small cotton-padded jacket that had been washed and turned white, with crooked stitches, exactly the one Aunt Zhang had described in her diary. There was a hidden pocket sewn on the chest of the cotton-padded jacket, in which was folded square letter paper, much thinner and softer than Qin's notes, and was mother's handwriting.

"Xia Xia, by the time you see this letter, you must have grown up. Aunt Zhang is not very talkative and is afraid she won't be able to explain it clearly. Some things are better for me to write clearly myself."

Shen Zhixia's fingertips rubbed against the pages, creating a few wet stains.

"The catalyst Qin Feng took, I deliberately let him take. That batch of catalysts, mixed with 'stabilizers', looks usable but actually won't last three charge and discharge cycles - I can't let' Starlight Project 'become something to harm people. Aunt Zhang understands what I mean. She will take you away and wait until you can tell right from wrong to decide for yourself whether to bring out the draft or not."

"What Qin Zheng wants is never technology. He wants to use technology to get 'access permits' - he buried a batch of goods in Southeast Asia in the early years and wants to bring them back through the logistics channel of the new energy project. I've checked, and I didn't have time to report... Let's not talk about this."

"Don't be afraid. Aunt Zhang will protect you. When you grow up, if you want to continue with the Starlight Project, go to the old man of the Ling family. He knows where to find a reliable laboratory. If you don't want to, find a small town to live a peaceful life and mom will be happy."

The last page contains a photo of the mother holding her in swaddling clothes, standing at the door of the laboratory smiling, with a gardenia brooch pinned to her white coat behind her, exactly the same as the jade pendant given by Grandpa Ling.

"Turns out..." Shen Zhixia choked up and couldn't speak. Ling Xu 'an crouched down, wiped her tears with his sleeve, and rubbed his fingertips against the red corners of her eyes.

"Your mother has already paved the way back." He said in a soft voice, "Even the catalyst in Qin Feng's hand is' fake '. She predicted that Qin Feng would steal it and that it would be of no use if he took it."

Lin Yue came over to read the letter and wiped his face: "Aunt Zhang always says' Qingyao is smart ', so smart..." She suddenly slapped her thigh, "Right! Aunt Zhang also left a clay pot! "Said it was buried at the bottom of the vegetable cellar and I'll dig it myself when you come back!"

The earthenware jars in the cellar were buried so deep that Ling Xu 'an had to jump down to reach them, and when he brought them up, the jars were sealed with wax. When he opened it, there was no gold or silver inside, but neatly folded experimental records, more complete than those in the secret room, even the sketches of the catalyst molecules that his mother had drawn casually, with a little coffee stain on the edge of the paper, as if he had dozed off while writing.

"This is the real thing." Ling Xu 'an turned to the last page, which was marked with "Final stable mix ratio," and the conversion rate was written as "72%," higher than the previous final version.

Shen Zhixia touched the coffee stain on the page and suddenly laughed - Mom must have stayed up late again, Aunt Zhang said she loved coffee when she stayed up late and always forgot to add sugar.

It was getting dark when we returned to the villa. Uncle Zhao was waiting at the door, holding a test report in his hand. "Boss, Miss Shen, the old man's medicine has been checked. Qin Feng bribed the caregiver to change it. He only changed two tablets and it's fine." He paused and stuffed a small box into Shen Zhixia's hand. "This is what the old man asked me to give you, saying, 'Qingyao's stuff, it's time for you.'"

It was a silver brooch in the style of the gardenia that mom wore in the photo, with the word "Yao" engraved at the stitch. Shen Zhixia pinned it on the lapel of her dress, and the cold silver touched her heart, feeling warm.

Chapter 6: Late Night Visitor, Old Friend's Message (3)

As Ling Xu 'an plugged the USB drive of the final draft into the computer, Chen Mo sent a message: "Qin Feng summoned, saying that the vice president of the Lin family asked him to buy the final draft - that vice president is a cousin of Miss Lin and wants to seize the inheritance rights of the Lin family."

"Lin?" Shen Zhixia was stunned for a moment, remembering Miss Lin whom her second uncle had mentioned at the banquet.

"Never mind." Ling Xu 'an turned off the message interface and pointed at the proportioning data on the screen. "Let the lab do the trial production tomorrow. Will you go?"

"Go!" Shen Zhixia leaned in to look. Next to the data were small characters written by her mother: "Add 0.3% calcium in a low-temperature environment," the characters were a bit crooked, as if her hands were cold when she wrote them.

"Right," Ling Xu 'an suddenly pulled out a red velvet box from the drawer and pushed it in front of her. "I intended to give it to you when we got engaged, but I forgot."

It was a ring, the diamond ring was not large, and the setting was set with small sapphires, forming a gardenia. As soon as Shen Zhixia picked it up, she saw Ling Xu 'an squat down on one knee, looking up at her, his eyes shining like stars: "Shen Zhixia, we got married by agreement before, now... Will you really marry me?"

Lin Yue let out a "ow" beside her, covering her mouth and laughing. Shen Zhixia's face turned red in an instant, her fingertips trembling with the ring, just as she was about to say "yes", she was interrupted by Ling Xu 'an: "Don't say no, or you won't be able to sign the trial production report in the laboratory."

"Domineering!" She laughed and pounded him, but offered her finger to him. When the ring slipped into the ring finger, it was just right, cool and warm.

On the day of the successful trial delivery, Shen Zhixia went to the cemetery. In front of her mother's tombstone were freshly picked gardenias, which Ling Xu 'an had specially cut from the flower beds in the morning.

"Mom," she crouched down and touched the photo on the tombstone, "the 'Starlight Project' is going to be mass-produced. The first batch will be used in heating equipment in the north, which will burn much less coal in winter." She shook the ring on her hand and laughed, "Also, I'm going to get married, the Ling Xu 'an I told you last time, he's been so nice to me, peeling oranges for me, and... And he would secretly buy me bracelets."

The wind blew through the cemetery, and the gardenias swayed gently, as if my mother were smiling.

Ling Xu 'an was waiting in the car on his way back, with a photo album in the passenger seat, which he had just developed - there were pictures of the secret room, the locust tree of the old house, and a picture of her crying foolishly by the vegetable cellar.

"Why are you laughing!" Shen Zhixia snatched the photo album, but saw a note tucked in the last page, written by Ling Xu 'an: "Go to see the sea next week, bring a thick coat."

When she raised her head, Ling Xu 'an was tilting his head to look at her, with a faint curve at the corner of his mouth. The sunlight fell on his eyelashes, which were soft and not as cold and hard as usual

Mr. Ling.