Chapter 95

PS: It's now available, and I urgently need your support on the first day. Please subscribe, vote, tip, and give a thumbs up. Thank you all.

Around nine o'clock the next morning, De Gaulle called Ye Feng, saying he had already contacted the families of the missing persons and the police, and they had agreed to meet again at his bar at ten o'clock the next morning. He asked Ye Feng what he should say and do at that time.

Ye Feng told him, "You don't need to worry. The two missing people only visited your bar the night before they disappeared. Neither the police nor the families have any direct evidence linking you to their disappearance. They are probably investigating you because they have no other leads. Even if the police suspect you, you don't need to worry. The police need evidence to act. Without evidence, they can't do anything to you. Additionally, when you meet with them tomorrow morning, you only need to confirm that the two people did indeed visit your bar. As for who they met and what happened, you don't know and don't recognize them. Don't worry about the rest; I will help you resolve the issue."

De Gaulle on the other end of the phone let out a long sigh, repeatedly agreeing before hanging up.

After eating a simple bowl of noodles at home, Ye Feng received a call from Gu Nian, who informed him that the families of the deceased migrant workers had already arrived at the headquarters of Zhengyang Group that morning.

Ye Feng hailed a taxi and rushed to the headquarters of Zhengyang Group, located in the prime location on the Yangtze River Road, where he met with Gu Nian.

Under Gu Nian's arrangement, Ye Feng also went to the site where the compensation negotiations were taking place. Sitting in a corner, he finally saw the families of Zhu Zi and the other workers.

Since Zhu Zi's two children were still minors, his mother had already passed away, and his sister was seriously ill and could not come, Zhu Zi's family only consisted of his wife and father. The families of the other two workers included their parents, wives, and siblings. From his corner, Ye Feng could see them, but they would not notice his presence.

Seeing the grieving families of the workers, Ye Feng felt very heavy-hearted. The graves of his brothers in the space were still adorned with yellow flowers. Recalling the days they had worked together, through many springs and autumns, many dawns and nights, the memories of those times were deeply etched in his heart. The scenery in front of the door remained the same, but the brothers who were once like family had already passed away. Now, the people and events had changed, and facing their families, he could only remain silent, with tears welling up in his eyes. Even if he had a thousand words to say, he could not explain everything to them.

On the Zhengyang Group side, the current executive president, Gu Nian, personally appeared, along with two legal department staff members and two government officials from the district where the construction site was located, who were present as witnesses.

Gu Nian had already streamlined the compensation procedures as much as possible. The agreement had been drafted, and the group's legal department lawyer explained it in detail to the families of the deceased. The agreement clearly stated that although the deaths were accidental, the group, as the employer, bore non-fault joint liability. To soothe the families and maintain social stability, the group would compensate each deceased person's family with 7.5 million yuan in death benefits and provide each direct relative with a free lifetime accidental injury insurance policy. Additionally, the group would cover all educational expenses for the deceased's children from primary school to university. However, to receive the compensation, each family member must sign and fingerprint the agreement, with government officials supervising and witnessing the process. Signatures for those over 80 years old and under 14 years old could be signed by other direct relatives.

This compensation agreement was the best Gu Nian could do, not only advancing the compensation time as much as possible but also specifically notifying the families that they did not need to come in person. They only needed to wait in the nearest city with an airport, and Zhengyang would send people to bring them to Mingzhu by plane, greatly reducing their travel time and avoiding the hardships and troubles of a long journey. The compensation amount was also much higher than the standards for similar accidents, and the group also took responsibility for the families' insurance and the education of the deceased's children, showing genuine sincerity.

Therefore, the families of Ye Feng's coworkers had no objections and signed and fingerprinted the agreement. Afterward, the legal department of Zhengyang Group would work with the finance department to complete the necessary procedures and pay the compensation to the families via bank transfer or check, a process that would not take more than five days.

During these five days of processing, Zhengyang Group would be responsible for the families' daily living expenses in Mingzhu.

What puzzled Ye Feng was that the wife of the foreman, Du Lijun, lived in Mingzhu City, but she was the only one who did not come today.

Ye Feng used the Servant Control Technique to call Gu Nian over and asked in a low voice, "Gu Nian, the wife of my foreman, Du Lijun, lives in Mingzhu. Why didn't she come today? Didn't you notify her?"

"We notified her a few days ago and even called her again last night. But this morning, when our people went to her house, she wasn't there, and we couldn't reach her by phone. We don't know where she went. Strangely, her shop was open, so I left someone to wait for her and look after her shop."

This made Ye Feng very puzzled. Zhao Cai Ping took this matter very seriously and would not forget it. Could something have happened to her?

A sudden sense of unease welled up in Ye Feng's heart. He felt that Zhao Cai Ping might have encountered some trouble.

This time, Ye Feng did not take the initiative to recognize the families of his coworkers because he didn't know how to start the conversation. Seeing Zhu Zi's wife, who had lost her husband, and the unborn child in her swollen belly, Ye Feng felt even heavier in his heart. He vowed to quickly facilitate the cooperation between Gu Nian and Wu Xinghua, earn money as soon as possible, and then face them.

After leaving Zhengyang Group, Ye Feng called Zhao Cai Ping several times, but no one answered.

Ye Feng noticed that the phone was not turned off, which meant that either Zhao Cai Ping had left her phone somewhere or she was unable or unwilling to answer for some reason.

Could it be that the family of the person her brother hit and killed found her and took her out to talk, and during the talk, they didn't allow her to answer the phone?

The more Ye Feng thought about it, the more anxious he became. He decided to go to Zhao Cai Ping's home on Zhufeng Street immediately. He would use his divine sense and carry the Heavenly Eye to try to locate her exact position.

The distance from Yangtze River Road to Zhufeng Street was not short, and Ye Feng could not use his divine sense to locate Zhao Cai Ping from here. The use of the Heavenly Eye also required him to be within the range of his divine sense, so he had to go there in person.

**********************************

In the room of the Tianhao Hotel on Yangtze River Road, Su Qing was looking at Lin Tianhuo, who was bowing his head, afraid to meet her eyes. Su Qing was really angry. This youngest and most favored disciple of her master was very talented but also very arrogant and impulsive. She knew he liked her, but she also knew she could never have feelings for him. Her master had sent him to Mingzhu to investigate the rain night serial murders, initially to train him, but then sent her and Wanxiangcheng because he was not confident in Lin Tianhuo handling such a special case alone.

In the end, she was right. If this case had been left to Lin Tianhuo alone, there would have been no result.

Su Qing was a decisive person with few hobbies. Besides cultivation, she was only interested in collecting ancient jade, which she could use to absorb the spiritual energy from ancient jade to aid her cultivation. Lin Tianhuo had given her an ancient jade, and she was secretly pleased, but she never expected that to win her favor, he would use Wang Yaodong's official power to conduct a city-wide search for ancient jade in Mingzhu.

Coincidentally, a police officer from the Mingzhu Municipal Bureau who was helping Wang Yaodong collect ancient jade had seen the ancient jade in the photo Lin Tianhuo gave to Wang Yaodong. The police officer, also an ancient jade enthusiast, had visited a small jade shop on Zhufeng Street and had seen this type of ancient jade but couldn't afford it due to the high price.

However, the appearance of the ancient jade was etched in the police officer's memory.

Wang Yaodong immediately informed Lin Tianhuo, who personally went to the jade shop early in the morning with his people and offered a high price for the jade. However, the female owner of the jade shop claimed that the remaining two pieces of ancient jade already had buyers and could not be sold to Lin Tianhuo.

Lin Tianhuo, being arrogant and self-important, became angry and tried to forcibly take the two pieces of ancient jade.

But he didn't expect the female owner to be very stubborn and refused to let him take them. In the conflict, he accidentally injured her.

What made Su Qing even angrier was that after injuring her, Lin Tianhuo not only did not apologize but also destroyed the surveillance cameras in the jade shop and forcibly detained the female owner at the Xiapu District Public Security Bureau because she had cursed at him and threatened to report him and the police to the municipal government.

According to Lin Tianhuo, he had offered the woman money, and even when she refused, he had forced the check into her hands, so it didn't count as robbery. But the woman was troublesome, threatening to make a fuss and even threatening to die, which made Lin Tianhuo furious. He had never been threatened or insulted, not even by his master, Qingyuan Dashi. How could an ordinary woman have the right to threaten him?

Lin Tianhuo acted on his own, and Wang Yaodong was helpless. After all, Lin Tianhuo was from the Tianjige, and in terms of power and authority, he was beyond Wang Yaodong's control. The police at the Xiapu District Public Security Bureau were also helpless. Lin Tianhuo put pressure on Wang Yaodong, who then passed the pressure to the Xiapu District Public Security Bureau, so they had to detain Zhao Cai Ping temporarily on the grounds of disrupting the order of a state organ, and release her after Lin Tianhuo left.

Back at the hotel, Lin Tianhuo tried to win Su Qing's favor by giving her the two pieces of ancient jade he had forcibly taken. When Su Qing asked about the origin of the ancient jade and noticed Lin Tianhuo's unusual behavior, she pressed him for details and called Wang Yaodong to find out the whole story.

Soon after, Su Qing received a call from the head of the special task force of the Mingzhu Municipal Public Security Bureau, informing her that Zhao Cai Ping had been temporarily detained by the Xiapu District Public Security Bureau.

This made Su Qing furious. She knew Lin Tianhuo was incompetent and arrogant, but she never expected him to use the power of the Tianjige to mistreat an ordinary person. She was also angry with Wang Yaodong and immediately scolded him, ordering him to personally apologize to Zhao Cai Ping and then go to the capital to take responsibility.

But for Lin Tianhuo, no matter how angry and resentful Su Qing was, she could do nothing. She had a secret, a secret about the most favored youngest disciple, Lin Tianhuo, and her master, Qingyuan Dashi, that only she knew among all the disciples.

Lin Tianhuo was not just the youngest disciple of Master Qingyuan Dashi; he was also the only illegitimate child of her master.

The true reason for Lin Tianhuo's arrogance, pride, and self-importance lay in this.

In Su Qing's heart, her master, Qingyuan Dashi, was a true sage, a transcendent being. She and her fellow disciples were all orphans, chosen by her master from the orphanage at a young age and brought up to learn the way. Her master said that to be his disciple, one must be an orphan. Although he didn't explain further, as she grew older and her cultivation improved, she understood that this was because the path of cultivation required one to forget emotions, endure loneliness and danger, and renounce the ordinary life and feelings of common people. The greater one's power, the greater one's responsibility. It was both a blessing and a curse, and at any moment, one might die in battle with special enemies.

What others didn't know was that her master, Qingyuan Dashi, had more than the ten disciples they now had. Several had died before she joined, and a few more had died in the various trials and tasks over the years.

Now, only the ten of them remained.

The secret that Lin Tianhuo was her master's illegitimate child was something she discovered by chance when she read some of her master's personal letters from over twenty years ago, when Lin Tianhuo had just been born.

Perhaps her master had intentionally revealed this to her because she was the only woman among the disciples. He wanted her to take care of Lin Tianhuo and even hinted at a match between them.

Her master could not acknowledge Lin Tianhuo, and Su Qing understood. As the pillar of the Tianjige, her master always upheld the principle of forgetting emotions and worries. He was a transcendent cultivator, a spiritual leader for all members of the Tianjige and even the highest leaders. Therefore, he had to hide the identity of his illegitimate child.

His image could not be tainted by any impurities. (To be continued)