Chapter 611: Catching the Culprit

Gong Jianqin glanced at her watch. The sodium thiopental she had put in the coffee should have taken effect by now.

Without saying goodbye to anyone, she quietly left the sales office, retrieved a black bag from a fire extinguisher box in the corner, and walked to the underground parking lot via the elevator. She took out a coat, hat, mask, folding knife, and gloves from the bag, quickly tied her hair up, tucked it into the hat, and checked the edges to make sure no hair was showing.

Then she put on the gloves and mask, donned the coat, and looked like an ordinary maintenance worker.

She tested the sharpness of the knife, her mind set on killing. Originally, after killing three people and alarming the police, she had planned to stop. But she couldn’t hold back. That man, Chen Shi, had done something that crossed the line. He deserved to pay for his arrogance.

Staring at the blade, she hesitated for a moment. If a police consultant died in the sales office’s parking lot, it would undoubtedly draw the police’s attention here, and they would invest more resources and effort into the investigation.

But she had no choice.

Gong Jianqin walked lightly into the parking lot, searching around. There were no other people here at this time. She finally saw Chen Shi sitting in a Porsche with the door open, sleeping soundly in the driver’s seat.

“You brought this on yourself,” she muttered.

She approached Chen Shi gradually, reaching out with her left hand toward his head and bringing the knife in her right hand to his neck. Just then, a current surged through her body, and she screamed, instinctively trying to pull away.

Her attacker didn’t give her the chance, continuing to press the stun gun against her body. Gong Jianqin fell to the ground, her body stiffening from the electric shock, twitching uncontrollably. She looked over in anger and saw that the person ambushing her was the young girl Chen Shi had brought to view the house.

The stun gun was something Chen Shi had prepared in advance, and it was Tao Yueyue’s first time using it. Hiding in the dark, she had watched this woman approaching Chen Shi, her heart pounding, but she waited for the right moment to strike.

The culprit was down, but Tao Yueyue didn’t stop there. She pressed the stun gun against Gong Jianqin’s neck again, causing her to scream. Fearing that the stun gun might run out of power, Tao Yueyue dropped it and grabbed a belt—taken from Chen Shi—looping it around Gong Jianqin’s neck and pushing her knee into her spine.

Gong Jianqin flailed the knife in pain, but couldn’t reach Tao Yueyue. Tao Yueyue calmly counted, “One, two, three, four…”

It takes fifteen seconds to render someone unconscious, as Gu You had told her. At fourteen seconds, Gong Jianqin’s eyes rolled back, and her head went limp. Tao Yueyue let go, kicked the knife out of her hand, and tied her hands behind her back with the belt.

Everything went smoothly, but once it was quiet, her heart pounded wildly. If anything had gone wrong, she wouldn’t have been able to protect Chen Shi while fighting off the attacker.

Tao Yueyue took a few deep breaths to calm herself, then shook Chen Shi, “Uncle Chen, wake up, we’re safe now.”

The only response was snoring, which annoyed Tao Yueyue. She had risked her life to subdue the killer, and he slept through it all, even snoring. Though she knew it was due to the anesthetic, she couldn’t help but feel a bit miffed.

Using the nearly depleted stun gun, she zapped Chen Shi on the back of his hand. He jolted awake, dazed and confused, muttering, “Luo Xi? Where are you?” as if he was still dreaming.

“I took care of it.”

“Huh?” Chen Shi looked at Gong Jianqin lying on the ground, slowly realizing what had happened. “Call the police!” he said before passing out again.

Chen Shi woke up in a hospital, his head still foggy from the anesthetic. Parched, he reached for a cup on the bedside table but knocked it over.

The sound of the cup breaking brought a nurse in. “Sir, do you need anything?”

“Who brought me here?”

“The police.”

“Oh… I remember now. Am I okay?”

“You’re fine. Just ingested some anesthetic. We’ve checked you over, no serious issues.”

“Can I get a glass of water, please?”

“Of course, one moment.”

For some reason, the nurse seemed to be holding back laughter. Chen Shi wondered if there was something on his face.

He lay down to sleep again but was soon woken by Lin Dongxue’s beautiful, fair face. She smiled, “You fool, why did you use yourself as bait?”

“If I hadn’t, she might have escaped. Even if caught, there wouldn’t be definitive evidence… What happened after I passed out?” he asked, holding her hand, not remembering the moments of waking up earlier.

Lin Dongxue helped him sit up and gave him water, “You should thank Tao Yueyue. Who knew that kid could be so brave and decisive, capturing the killer all by herself? The police were shocked when they arrived!”

“Like father, like daughter,” Chen Shi laughed.

“Promise me you won’t do such dangerous things alone again. At least take me with you. I worry about you.”

“Not mad at me anymore?”

Lin Dongxue glanced at him, smiling, “Where’s your formal apology?”

“Alright, I formally apologize. I won’t make you angry again. I shouldn’t have said those hurtful things.”

“I accept your apology. I shouldn’t have looked at your phone either… You just leave it lying around, and I couldn’t help but peek. But thinking it over, there must be nothing between you and Su Ruijuan. Otherwise, why would you keep the chat history?”

“Women overthink. I was just handling some of Wang Daji’s affairs. Just because I look like him, doesn’t mean I’d take advantage of it. Am I that shameless?”

At the word “shameless,” Lin Dongxue laughed again, and Chen Shi didn’t understand why.

Lin Dongxue reminisced, “Speaking of Wang Daji, there was a time you acted strangely around me. Could it be that it wasn’t you talking to me then?”

“Let me rest a bit more. My brain is so foggy I can’t remember the next line after ‘The moonlight before my bed.'” Chen Shi deflected, not wanting Lin Dongxue to know too much about Wang Daji.

“Sleep well!” Lin Dongxue tucked him in. “When you wake up, we’ll go interrogate that woman…” At the door, she reminded, “Don’t forget to wash your face thoroughly when you wake up!”

After she left, Chen Shi realized something, looked around for a mirror, and used his phone’s selfie camera instead. He found a turtle drawn on his face. No wonder the nurse and Lin Dongxue had been laughing.

It must have been Tao Yueyue’s doing. He thought about teaching her a lesson later and went back to sleep.