Chapter 102

The ruins of the hotel were all cleared and pulled away in the following month, from which the remains of several implicated staff members were retrieved, but ultimately, Qing Li was not found.

Yue Zhi gave the victim’s family a huge amount of compensation, bought that piece of coast, built a simple wooden villa right on that piece of cliff, moved in, and looked at the sea day and night, not having the energy or stamina to care about anything.

Xiji stayed by his side to take care of him, but they couldn’t speak more than three words a day.

Day by day, he became thinner and more depressed, and seemed to be pursuing a kind of chronic self-murder. He was tortured day and night by the severe pain of stomach contusion and serious ulcer, and he weighed less than one hundred and thirty pounds for a man of more than one meter nine.

West pole day and night to study cooking, a good sniper, have forgotten what it is like to hold the gun.

One day Yue Zhi suddenly fell into a panic, he was lying on the ground, staring at the ground, looking around, rubbing his hand on the ground, and crazy like, “No, can not find.”

Xiji hurriedly pulled him, fearing that he hurt himself, kept asking him, “What’s gone! Tell me, don’t worry, I’ll help you find it!”

“The ring, the ring that Ah Li left me is gone!” Yue Zhi was trembling, pinching his palms and looking at the ground nervously.

“It must be in the bedroom, I’ll help you find it.”

They finally turned the bedroom upside down before finding the ring engraved with their initials inside the gap between the mattress and the head of the bed.

Yue Zhi wore it on his ring finger, cupping his hand as if he was holding his lost and found life.

“You’re too skinny, the ring is a bit loose, it will definitely fall off again, it’s easy to lose it like this, I’ll have someone wrap a loop of metal wire around the inside, which will narrow the opening of the ring.” Xiji sighed as he looked at his pale and thin hand.

Yue Zhi stared at the ring for a while, but in the end, he took the ring down and gave it to Xiji to deal with.

He was more afraid of inadvertently losing it forever than the ring being gone for a short while.

“What do you want to eat?” Xiji asked out of habit when he returned from outside, even though he knew he wouldn’t get any answer.

Yue Zhi was wrapped in a blanket and sitting on a deck chair on the terrace, his withered face stiffened by the sea breeze.

“Cupcake ……” The words spoken were like the last breath before death, exhaled and dissipated.

But they were still heard by West Pole, who turned around in shock, “What did you say?”

“Cupcakes, this big, the cups are pink and white, tied with lace bows, the cake embryo is a bit hard, the buttercream isn’t whipped well, it’s a bit thin, and one of the framed flowers collapsed into a slice of ……,” Yue Zhi said in a low voice.

Xiji began to realize that he was not talking about a random cupcake, but “that one cupcake”, and thinking about what Mongoma and the others said that Qingli had been making desserts before the wedding, he guessed that it might be one of the cupcakes that Qingli had made that night.

He didn’t have the means to make Qing Li’s cupcake, he could only make a standard cupcake, but Yue Zhi didn’t say anything, and ate it slowly and carefully.

Xiji seemed to have figured out a little way to be able to get Yue Zhi to eat normally, “This is Qing Li’s favorite white porridge in the morning.”

“It’s not the special product sent by Ms. Lily that she kept saying she wanted to eat before, Mongema had her wife send some more over.”

But wherever there was any connection to Qingli, regardless of whether it was true or not, Yue Zhi was able to eat more or less, he was still as skinny as ever, but the situation didn’t continue to deteriorate any further.

Yue Zhi never went back to the manor, he did not have the means to face up to the space where he lived with Qing Li for the longest time, and even demobilized most of the members of the mercenary corps, leaving only a few people at the core, and occasionally went to the company, and he didn’t go into his own office, which had almost become Liang Jin’s office.

He was afraid that if he looked up and couldn’t see Qingli’s familiar figure sitting on the sofa, he would instantly collapse.

Going to the company is not for the sake of work, but just to inquire about the progress of Li Chaoke’s case and cooperate with the police’s forensic investigation.

Li Chaoke’s matter continued to fester, it was no longer possible to cover it up, the party quickly abandoned him, took out more evidence of his guilt, with the support of Yue’s family, Qi Yuyu’s father re-emerged to put all the party members who had committed crimes on trial, the party reorganized and rectified itself, changed its name, and became a fringe party.

Because the case spans a long period of time, and even correlates to Li Chaoke’s deceased father, the party’s previous leader, plus it’s not just Southeast Asia anymore, so the investigation is difficult, and it’s already a long time just to get the evidence and sort out the case.

Yue Zhi wasn’t really in a hurry, he just needed to be able to send Li Chaoke to hell before he died.

The following summer, he was tending to a garden by the coast when he received a call from Chen Sai. The typhoon made landfall, the power was interrupted for a while, and no one paid attention to the fact that the greenhouse system had not returned to normal, and it was only two days later that he realized that almost all of the pear trees were smothered, and their roots had composted.

The sprinkler in Yue Zhi’s hand fell to the ground, he stood in place for a while, “I know, tear down the greenhouse.”

Pear blossoms will not bloom in this kind of place after all.

The cultivation garden was still there, the servants in all corners of the villa would still dutifully change a bouquet of flowers every day, but the white building was so empty and silent, there was no more cool and beautiful girls praising them, today’s flowers are beautiful, the flower arrangement is very nice.

Like a self-redemption and purification, Yue Zhi began to intoxicated public welfare and charity, although in the past Yue would also bet a lot of money in this area, but that was just a necessary move for the group’s image, but now it was Yue Zhi’s inner choice.

He went to see Masha’s mother and sister, her sister’s grades are very good, she likes to paint, Yue Zhi sent her a lot of expensive painting materials, and also found her a professional teacher.

When he was leaving Masha’s mother pulled him, “Mr. Yue, did you eat properly?”

Yue Zhi didn’t say anything, he couldn’t remember what he just had for lunch because it didn’t even matter, as long as he didn’t starve to death.

“I made fried rice, Miss Qing Li had it once, she liked it, do you want to try it?”

Yue Zhi’s throat rolled, “Please.”

One meal had put his fragile stomach into the hospital, and the first thing he did after healing was to move Martha’s ashes to temples around Kuala Lumpur so that Martha’s mother could visit her often.

Through his channels and routes, he helped the police crack down on human trafficking several times, and as he watched the girls and their families hug and cry, he couldn’t help but think that it would have been nice if Li Jinwei had managed to get rescued back then, too.

Li might not be the same Li as she is now, and their fates might not have intersected at all, but at least she would have been able to live well like an ordinary little girl, and not be buried at sea with no bones left.

Every time he thought of this, Yue Zhi’s heart ached so much that he couldn’t wait to die immediately.

The year 2025 passed half, Yue Zhi immediately thirty-seven years old, A Li left also almost two years, on the eve of the trial, Li Chaoke suddenly to submit important evidence of crime on the grounds of the police escort left the prison, two police cars encountered an ambush, the signal is cut off, was found, things have been the past seven hours, Li Chaoke without a trace.

Yue Zhi knew it was calm, “He is used to living a life of luxury and indolence, even if he has a few die-hard beloveds, he is just a street rat, sooner or later he will show his face, the big deal is that he will come to me for revenge, it’s okay, I’ll wait for him.”

If he could send Li Chaoke to hell, he would gladly embrace death.

But Li Chaoke never moved, it was as if he had disappeared from this world without a word.

Xiji and Liang Jin, however, were getting busier and busier, Xiji didn’t accompany Yue Zhi for several days, and sent quite a few people from the manor, Yue Zhi was the only one in the wooden house at the cliff side, and the surrounding area was very quiet, but in fact, the several villas at the two sides were full of people, except for a few of the Mongoma and Falcon who were responsible for the security, the others were taking care of Yue Zhi’s ups and downs.

Even though Yue Zhi had already closed his heart, he could notice that something was wrong, he leaned on his cane and walked to the nearest villa with a step and three gasps, knocked on the door and stared at Meng Ge Ma and asked, “Where is the West Pole, no news on Liang Jin or not, what are they doing?”

Montgomery and Falcon looked at each other, no one said anything, “I don’t know.” This was the truth, although they sensed that the two were hiding something from them, and they couldn’t let Yue Zhi know, they really didn’t know exactly what it was.

“Call Liang Jin.” Yue Zhi said, “Put it on speakerphone.”

Although he was thin and sickly, when he was serious, he was even more imposing than before, Menggema had no choice but to call Liang Jin.

Liang Jin quickly picked up, “Mongeroma, what’s up, is there something wrong with Mr.?”

Menggema was just about to open his mouth, wanting to give Liang Jin a slight hint, when he was glared at by Yue Zhi, and silently shut up.

Liang Jin did not hear an answer and was slightly anxious, “Mongoma? Menggema! Is something wrong?”

Yue Zhi listened intently to the background sound on his phone, just as Liang Jin’s tone began to panic, he spoke faintly, calm and oppressive, “Liang Jin, what are you doing in China?”

He heard the sound of the airport broadcast in the background, standard Mandarin Chinese, not doing anything else but China.

Liang Jin choked on his sudden voice, “Mr. …… I’m transferring from China.”

“You are not in the company where to go, why do you want to transfer from China, West Pole? Is it something to do with Li Chaoke? Don’t you waste your efforts, Li Chaoke has been wanted for so long, there is absolutely no way he would go to China, what kind of place do you think that is.” The only reason Yue Zhi could think of was this.

But Liang Jin didn’t say anything, neither admitting nor denying, choosing to remain silent.

“Liang Jin, tell me the truth, what exactly are you going for, where is the West Pole?” Yue Zhi’s heart was beating a little fast, but he still maintained his composure.

Liang Jin hung up the phone.

How could Yue Zhi not expect to get this kind of reaction, it was unprecedented, and it also let him know that things were not that simple, “Mongema, drive over, I want to go to the company.”

After arriving at the company, he realized that Liang Jin had been absent for two days, things were handed over to the vice president, and could only be contacted by phone.

He stood at the door of his office for a while, his breathing was subtle and rapid, in the end he pushed open the door and walked in, he didn’t look at the sofa for a second, went straight to his desk, turned on his computer, and began to browse through recent documents and Liang Jin’s itinerary.

The secretary also quickly helped him check Liang Jin’s itinerary.

Liang Jin did go to China, but stayed there for a day and just now boarded the plane to leave again.

“Where did he go?”

“With Mr. Nishiji, flying from Shanghai to Manila, Philippines.”

“Go apply for the route …… No, directly book a ticket for the latest flight to Manila.” Yue Zhi got up to leave the office, one foot had already stepped out of the office door, he still didn’t hold back to look back.

The sofa coffee table that wasn’t any different from before.

There was no figure of Qingli, no magazines she liked to read or snacks she often ate, it was spotless and clean, just like it had never been used.

Yue Zhi grabbed his somewhat shaky hand and rubbed the ring, “Let’s go.”