Chapter 48
Because they needed to distinguish whether the suspects’ words were true or false, after they finished speaking, Gu Shuge would mark Shen Juan’s palm. A check mark meant true, and a cross meant false.
This way, Shen Juan could decide the direction of the following conversation based on whether the other party was telling the truth or lying.
Gu Shuge had persuaded herself with this reasoning, which was why after Zhu Yu finished speaking, she drew a check mark in Shen Juan’s hand. But after drawing it, she became unbearably embarrassed. Not only had her little secret been exposed on the spot, she had even personally marked and admitted it!
Gu Shuge buried her face in her palms and became a little ostrich, not daring to look at Shen Juan’s expression.
Of course Shen Juan was pleased. When a person was very, very happy, it was difficult to hide their emotions. More or less, a smile colored her eyes.
“Xiao Ge cared about you so much, but you don’t look like you’ve been affected by the bad news at all,” Xiao Min suddenly said.
What did she mean by that?
Gu Shuge lifted her head from her palms and looked at Xiao Min in surprise.
She remembered that after her remains were stolen, they had deduced that one of the culprit’s purposes in doing so was to torment Shen Juan. The premise for tormenting Shen Juan was that she and the victim had very deep feelings.
But if, after Gu Shuge died, Shen Juan could not even show a sorrowful expression, then this purpose of the culprit would naturally fall flat.
Gu Shuge stared at Xiao Min. Was she speaking up for Gu Shuge, or was she embarrassed and angry because her goal had failed?
It was not only Gu Shuge. Everyone looked toward Xiao Min in unison.
“Xiao Min!” Xiao Yu said in a deep voice.
Xiao Min glanced at her father, lowered her head, and stopped speaking. Fear showed on her face, and Gu Shuge did not understand. From the moment they entered, Xiao Yu had doted on her in every possible way.
With a father like this, even if he scolded her loudly, at most she should have closed her mouth and stopped speaking. Why would she reveal such a fearful expression?
“Xiao Min has been spoiled by me. She speaks without thinking. Please don’t mind it,” Xiao Yu turned to Shen Juan and apologized.
His words and expression were completely proper, fully matching the behavior of a father cleaning up after his troublesome daughter. But Gu Shuge still felt something was wrong.
Zhou Tuo cast a mocking glance at Xiao Min.
Xiao Min looked back, her gaze icy.
The hostility between the two of them was very obvious, but soon Xiao Min turned her gaze away, and Zhou Tuo also restrained himself somewhat. As if by agreement, their hostility vanished without a trace.
So strange.
What was going on with these two?
As Gu Shuge thought this, she saw Zhu Yu looking at Shen Juan.
“How rude,” Liu Wenying said, as though wanting to seize this chance quickly and make Xiao Min draw all the hatred, so the Gu family would forget about holding him accountable for his loose tongue.
“Does grief have to show on one’s face?” Liu Wenying said sarcastically.
Xiao Min did not speak, because her father was watching her and forbidding her from opening her mouth.
Zhu Yu turned her eyes toward Liu Wenying, as though seeing this fool in a new light. She nodded approvingly and even smiled. “That makes sense.”
With someone echoing him, Liu Wenying became even more confident and said with a scoff, “Shallow!”
Shen Juan did not become angry because of Xiao Min’s words. Even on the day she saw Gu Shuge’s remains, when she had even wanted to follow her in death, hearing an outsider lightly criticize her for not being sorrowful enough did not stir much emotion in her. After all, that little ghost was sitting beside her right now. As long as she was here, there was no need to care too much about anything else.
Shen Juan turned to Liu Wenying and said, “If the culprit is determined according to motive, Mr. Liu is currently the only suspect with a motive.”
Liu Wenying’s smug face instantly turned terrified. Trembling, he said, “I didn’t. Why would I murder Miss Gu? Just, just because she rejected me? I’m not that petty!”
Liu Jianglin also hurriedly said, “Children’s little quarrels and squabbles—how could that count as a motive? Our Ah Ying is indeed rather concerned with face, but he’s timid and crude by nature. He could never set up such a meticulous scheme.”
Compared with Liu Wenying’s crude self-defense, Liu Jianglin’s words were much more reasonable and well-founded. Judging from Liu Wenying’s usual careless, thoughtless behavior, he indeed could not carry out such a profound, exquisite murder.
Then the question was: was he truly this foolish and impulsive?
Shen Juan pondered privately.
Because of Xiao Min’s earlier sentence, the three parents besides Liu Jianglin seemed to have all been frightened. They watched their children to prevent them from speaking recklessly again.
No one mentioned anymore what contact they had had with Gu Shuge before her death.
Gu Shuge suddenly felt this had become boring. Today, there was no hope of extracting anything more from them. Bored, she poked Shen Juan’s fingertip with her index finger.
Shen Juan knew she was bored, and she also knew these people would not say anything today. But she was thinking further ahead. When everyone was gathered together, they would say nothing, but in a couple of days, someone might not necessarily refrain from visiting alone.
It was almost eleven. Shen Juan remembered that she had promised Xiao Ge she would not keep them for lunch, and was about to rise and see the guests off when Butler Ji walked in from outside.
In his hands was a delivery box with the logo of a certain technology company on it.
This was the tablet Shen Juan had customized. She accepted it, but did not open it in front of everyone. First, she stood, preparing to speak and send the guests off.
She stood up, both hands hanging naturally by her sides. Gu Shuge thought of something and quickly crouched beside her, writing in her palm, “Later, let’s follow Xiao Min to her house. Things she won’t tell us, she might tell her parents.”
This was an alternative form of eavesdropping.
She wrote slowly, so Shen Juan dealt with everyone while waiting for her to finish.
With skills honed in the business world, stalling for a few minutes was not difficult. No one noticed that she was intentionally delaying. Only after Gu Shuge finished writing and Shen Juan understood her plan did she say the words to see the guests off.
Although everyone was not especially satisfied with today’s visit and felt they had not yet proven their innocence, they also knew that the atmosphere was wrong. With so many people present, staying longer would not produce any results, so they each took their leave.
Once they left, Shen Juan followed them out, drove a car she rarely used, and followed behind the car carrying Xiao Yu and Xiao Min.
Shen Juan naturally had no experience following people, so she did not tail them especially closely. But she knew Xiao Yu’s home address. Their goal was also to follow them home and listen in on the conversation between Xiao Min and her parents, so there was no need to follow too closely.
As for whether Xiao Min would say anything to Xiao Yu in the car, Shen Juan guessed she would not, because the driver was also in the car.
Shen Juan remembered that Xiao Yu was a rather picky person, especially fond of picking at the employees around him. His drivers had always changed frequently, and frequent changes meant he could not cultivate a trusted aide.
“Why did you choose Xiao Min?” Shen Juan asked.
They happened to reach a traffic light. Shen Juan opened the delivery box and took out the tablet inside.
The tablet was customized and only had one function: typing. It was made very light and thin, and its design was also attractive. Shen Juan pressed the power button, then placed it on the dashboard for Gu Shuge to use.
Gu Shuge took up no space, so she moved directly to the area near the gearshift and typed there. From this position, after she finished typing, Shen Juan did not need to lean over; she only had to turn her head to see what Gu Shuge had written.
Typing was much faster than handwriting. The screen was very responsive, and Gu Shuge enjoyed the pleasure of “speaking” quickly.
“I think she’s very strange,” Gu Shuge wrote. The main reason was Xiao Min’s reaction when she saw Gu Yi’an’s photo, which had made Gu Shuge suspicious.
The red light changed. Shen Juan started the car and followed Xiao Min, who was four or five cars ahead of them. She asked, “What about the others?”
All of them are strange, Gu Shuge answered. Every one of them seemed like a different person.
She wrote down what she had discovered.
“Zhou Tuo deliberately distanced himself, but he actually used to come wandering around me quite often.” She could not muster interest in other things, but that did not mean she did not know what was happening around her. “He often asked me about research topics. That time, when the bakery was mentioned, he wasn’t there by coincidence either. I remember he came over halfway through after making a phone call with Liu Wenying.”
But now, he acted as if he was completely unfamiliar with her.
However, this could also be understood as “the less trouble, the better”; he did not want to get involved in this case. It did not prove he was guilty.
“Liu Wenying is pretty consistent from beginning to end,” Gu Shuge wrote.
Shen Juan held the steering wheel with both hands and glanced at the screen. Seeing that Gu Shuge was talking about Liu Wenying, she read more carefully.
“He used to come looking for me all the time. Unlike Zhou Tuo, who always happened to run into me, Liu Wenying came specifically to find me.” Gu Shuge distinguished this very clearly.
Shen Juan did not speak. In her heart, she thought, That was because he wanted to pursue you.
Gu Shuge wrote again, “He also often brought different girls over.”
Shen Juan: “…”
That was because he wanted to make you jealous and test you.
“He often called me out too.”
Shen Juan sighed. That was because he wanted to go on a date with you.
Because Liu Wenying kept bringing girls with different appearances around from time to time, Gu Shuge had assumed he was dating them and never thought he was pursuing her. Only after hearing Muzi say it last time did she find out.
Gu Shuge felt rather defeated. She lowered her head, and only after a long while did she write, “Am I very slow?”
She is quite slow, Shen Juan thought. She wanted to tell her the truth so that in the future, she would be more vigilant and stay away from people with unclear intentions.
But she suddenly remembered that in the morning, when Xiao Ge had asked whether Shen Juan would go on dates with her after she had a body, Shen Juan had been mentally unprepared and had only answered with one word: yes.
Although Xiao Ge had still happily left, Shen Juan had remained regretful, feeling that she had been too cold.
She should not be so cold to Xiao Ge.
So when the words reached her mouth, they changed. Shen Juan said, “Xiao Ge isn’t slow. Our Xiao Ge is the smartest. Liu Wenying was just too unclear in his pursuit.”
Gu Shuge had originally still been upset about why she was so slow. But when she heard Shen Juan say this, she immediately felt it made perfect sense. It was definitely Liu Wenying’s problem. His method was wrong. Who pursued a girl while bringing other girls in front of her?
As she thought this, she wrote, “I think so too.”
A smile appeared on Shen Juan’s face, faint and not especially obvious, so Gu Shuge did not notice that what Shen Juan had just said was purely to comfort her and was not the truth.
Ahead of them, Xiao Yu’s car pulled over by the roadside.
Shen Juan also slowed the car.
Xiao Yu got out, and the car started again.
This was not right. Why did he leave midway? Gu Shuge did not understand. His daughter had been caught up in a murder case and had just met the victim’s family. No matter what, he should comfort her or think of a way together, right? Why had he left halfway?
Shen Juan glanced at the buildings along the street and followed Xiao Min thoughtfully.
“I remember Xiao Yu has a mistress,” Shen Juan said.
The word “mistress” came out of her mouth just like “Xiao Yu has an eraser” or “Xiao Yu has a blanket.” There was no charming or decadent color to it at all, as though a mistress was only an ordinary object.
Gu Shuge let out an “Ah” and became a little gloomy.
Back at the Gu residence, Xiao Yu had acted as though he especially doted on Xiao Min, as if he protected her like a little princess. In the end, he was actually this kind of person.
Xiao Min definitely knew what he had gone to do. He did not even bother to hide it.
“He has an illegitimate son, eighteen or nineteen years old,” Shen Juan said again.
Gu Shuge: “…”
She simply had no desire left even to complain.
They did not speak again and followed Xiao Min into a villa district.
Perhaps because Shen Juan’s car was rather high-end, the security guard at the entrance actually did not stop her and let her pass directly.
There were definitely many cameras inside the residential compound, but as long as they were not discovered, no one would deliberately check the surveillance. Shen Juan followed Xiao Min and parked the car near their house.
Gu Shuge said, “Wait for me outside, okay?” and left.
She quickly floated to Xiao Min’s side. Sure enough, she saw Xiao Min’s expression was very cold, anger gathered between her brows and eyes.
Seeing that she had left, Shen Juan drove the car toward the Xiao family’s back gate, wanting to be as close to Gu Shuge as possible. She remembered that once Xiao Ge left a certain range around her, the evil thought would come out to bully her.
This villa was not large, probably only a quarter the size of the Gu residence. It had a small courtyard, about the size of half a basketball court, and the building’s footprint was only around two hundred square meters.
But its location was very good, situated in a bustling area. This villa definitely was not cheap.
Gu Shuge followed Xiao Min into the house.
Right away, she saw a Guanyin statue enshrined by the entrance. She was startled and carefully walked over, stopping in front of the Buddhist niche.
The Guanyin statue had kind brows and benevolent eyes, carrying a compassion that seemed to ferry all living beings. Gu Shuge stood in front of it for a while and suffered no harm, so she knew either the Bodhisattva the Xiao family had invited was not effective, or the Bodhisattva did not mind her coming here.
Gu Shuge was willing to believe it was the latter. After all, she had not come with any malicious intent. She only wanted to investigate the cause of her own death.
A middle-aged woman sat in the living room. She looked very young. Seeing Xiao Min return, she walked over, took the bag from Xiao Min’s hand, and asked with concern, “How was it? Did Miss Shen believe you?”
Xiao Min said gloomily, “It didn’t look like she did.”
Gu Shuge floated over. Whenever she grew nervous, she would forget the habits of being human and reveal a ghost’s nature. She floated to Xiao Min’s side just as Xiao Min sat down with the woman.
This woman should be her mother.
“Then we’ll find another chance. Sigh, how did we run into something like this? It’s really too unlucky,” the woman sighed.
Xiao Min leaned back against the chair like nothing had happened and said nothing.
Anyone could tell she was in a bad mood. As her mother, of course the woman could see it even more clearly.
“What’s wrong? Did your dad go over ‘there’ again?”
Xiao Min opened her mouth, but still did not speak. Gu Shuge could tell that she wanted to curse, but was considering her mother’s feelings.
“When he comes back, of course he has to go see his precious son. Shouldn’t you have gotten used to it long ago?” the woman said calmly. “We don’t count on him. As long as you’re well, Mom is satisfied.”
Perhaps her mother’s unresisting attitude finally angered Xiao Min. She said indignantly, “Why should we have to get used to it?”
She still had more things she wanted to say, but her mother lowered her head. Xiao Min’s eyes reddened, and she swallowed her anger.
Watching this, Gu Shuge also felt somewhat uncomfortable. She had never known Xiao Min’s family environment was like this.
Perhaps this situation had long since become familiar. Xiao Min was stubborn with her words, saying, “Why should we have to get used to it?” but in truth, she had already gotten used to it.
After calming down a little, she began talking about what had happened at the Gu residence.
This was what Gu Shuge cared about most. She moved a little closer and listened with full concentration.
“Miss Shen doesn’t seem to care that much about Xiao Ge. She hasn’t even been gone for a month, yet you can’t find the slightest trace of sadness on her at all.”
Gu Shuge frowned. Why was she still fussing over this? Gu Shuge had been accompanying Shen Juan the entire time. Of course Shen Juan would not be sad.
“Sigh, who knows? Feelings are mutual. I heard that once Miss Gu went abroad, she never came back. She also wasn’t close to Miss Shen anymore, so naturally, Miss Shen’s feelings faded too.”
Xiao Min probably still brooded over her father’s matter. Hearing this, she said sarcastically, “I don’t know whether Xiao Ge being closer to Miss Shen would have been useful, but if she could have given Miss Shen a son, Miss Shen would definitely have treasured her.”
Gu Shuge had been listening intently. When she suddenly heard this sentence, she froze, her face full of confusion.
The woman clearly had not reacted either. Only after a long while did she say, “You child, do you think everyone is like your father? They’re both girls. How would they have a child?”
Xiao Min sat sideways in a sulk.
Because of this interruption, Gu Shuge became a little confused about what exactly she had come here to do.
She thought she would be very calm. After all, just as Xiao Min’s mother had said, how could two girls have children? Moreover, she was already a ghost, making it even more impossible.
But when her emotions truly surged up, for some reason, she suddenly got into character.
So she had to give birth to a son before Shen Juan would cherish her? Gu Shuge sorrowfully raised her hand and covered her own lower abdomen, thinking in grievance, If I were pregnant with a daughter, would she not cherish me? Isn’t it that as long as it’s my child, she would like them?
Author’s Note:
Shen Juan: What should I do when my crush turns into my girlfriend and becomes enlightened too quickly? She’s already considering whether to have a boy or a girl.
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