Chapter 594: Secret Scheme

Translator: Azza

Editor: Conspiracing

In the evening, everyone sat around the conference table without eating or drinking. Everyone was immersed in today's failure.

"The defense was so strict, but Zhou Tiannan still succeeded!" Lin Qiupu sighed.

Old Zhang said, "I think Zhou Tiannan's original plan was dismantled by us. He spontaneously arranged Yan Ke to switch the poisoned eye drops and chucked him out as a scapegoat."

Chen Shi shook his head. "I’ve said it a thousand times. It wasn’t switched by Yan Ke. I’m certainly not defending him. I hate Yan Ke more than you guys, but the fact is the fact. Besides, Yan Ke just escaped legal sanctions. Would he do a task that would put him in jail? The tasks assigned to these people by Zhou Tiannan must all look harmless so that they’d be willing to perform them."

"That's not necessarily the case!" Lin Qiupu argued, "Didn’t we speculate that Zhou Tiannan holds something over all these people? He could have threatened Yan Ke to poison the victim."

"Yan Ke is a coward. If he really falls into this dilemma, he would run away."

"Why did Zhou Tiannan arrange such a meaningless task then?" Lin Qiupu said.

Old Zhang said, "It's not meaningless. Didn’t the appearance of Yan Ke lead Old Chen away? Maybe a second person took advantage of this opportunity... Could it be someone from the bodyguards?"

"Impossible. We’ve verified the identities of the bodyguards before and after. They belong to the same company and know each other. The chances of mixing in with them by wearing a bodyguard uniform is impossible in reality."

Lin Dongxue said, "But it’s feasible to pretend to be a reporter. The reporters don't know each other and most of the sponsors don't know them... I think the real murderer was among the reporters."

Lin Qiupu came up with a list. "I’ve written down all the reporters at the scene. We’ll verify them one by one!"

Chen Shi said, "Why did Qu Jingli have to pay?"

"That money isn’t necessarily Zhou Tiannan's. Their company has a lot of account expenditures. It may be other expenses." Lin Qiupu said.

"I'll check out the crime scene!"

"I’ll go too!" Lin Dongxue said.

The two went to the scene of the incident during the day. The hotel had already returned to a state of peace. Chen Shi parked the car nearby and stared at the hotel entrance for a long time. Lin Dongxue said, "There wouldn’t be any clues here, right? Would you like to go in?"

"No, I was thinking... after the first murder, the police would surely guess his method. It would have been almost impossible for Zhou Tiannan to succeed with the same technique. How did he do it?"

"The key is still in the bottle of eye drops."

At this time, the hotel was clearing out the garbage. Chen Shi walked over and said a few words to the staff, and they left behind a large bag of garbage.

He found an area that didn’t affect traffic, dumped the garbage out, and looked inside. Lin Dongxue didn't know what he was looking for, but still helped to find it together.

Suddenly, Chen Shi saw something. He put on his gloves to pick it up and showed it to Lin Dongxue. Lin Dongxue said in surprise, "Identical eye drops?"

Chen Shi opened it and sniffed it. "I’m guessing it's the same bottle... I may know the trick. Accompany me to a place."

Chen Shi's mind was filled with the case. He drove the car to a place where Lin Dongxue had never been to before. Lin Dongxue asked where they were. Chen Shi pointed to the housing community. "Zhou Tiannan's house!"

"You came to his house to confront him?!"

"This is the only way to figure it out. I will record it."

"No, I’ll go with you!"

Chen Shi hesitated for a few seconds and thought about seeing Zhou Tiannan alone. If something happened, he wouldn’t be able to explain it properly, but he was afraid that Zhou Tiannan would let it be known that he was Song Lang.

After hesitating again and again, Chen Shi agreed.

Arriving at the door of Zhou Tiannan's house, Lin Dongxue took Chen Shi's hand. Chen Shi whispered, "He’s not a monster or anything, don't be afraid."

"Must you verify this way?"

"We have no evidence to arrest him formally, but private visits are okay... Actually, I’ve been here a few times before."

The door finally opened. Zhou Tiannan saw the two people outside the door and smiled slightly. He was wearing loose home clothes with a cigar in his hand. There seemed to be a guest in the house.

This was not the first time Lin Dongxue had seen him. She had seen the photos before. When Yan Ke was involved in the case, she also met him at the school. However, in the face of this evil man where the law couldn’t help, she was still inexplicably nervous.

"What wind blew you two here?" Zhou Tiannan asked with a smile.

"Let's talk!"

Lin Dongxue glanced inside the house. There was a charming woman who was eating with Zhou Tiannan. This was probably what his men regularly arranged to "serve" him. Zhou Tiannan said towards the house, "I have to talk to the police. Be right back."

"My dear, don't make me wait too long," the woman said charmingly.

"Your girlfriend?" Chen Shi asked intentionally.

"What's wrong? Can't I have a private life as a teacher?... Ms. Lin, we meet again. You’re still so beautiful." Zhou Tiannan held out a hand. Lin Dongxue hesitated and then ignored him.

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Zhou Tiannan closed the door and walked with them to the balcony at the end of the corridor. He leaned on the iron railing and smoked his cigar leisurely. "Please tell me about what’s happening!"

"Your killing tactics are really brilliant." Chen Shi said straightforwardly.

"Isn’t Mr. Chen's thinking a bit too creative? I don't understand what you’re talking about."

"I know how Qu Jingli died. He killed himself!"

"Oh?"

"I don’t know what you have to do with the Qu brothers, but I can be sure that you wanted to get rid of them. You issued a killing notice. At this time, the police were also investigating the Dahong Group. Qu Jingli was terrified. He knew your ability. Whoever you wanted to die would die! Qu Jingli contacted you and expressed his willingness to pay for his own life. You pretended to agree to this transaction, so you planned the death of Qu Jing’an. As soon as he died, Qu Jingli became the chief executive officer and took over the entire company.”

"But the drama wasn’t over yet. You told Qu Jingli that if he didn't want to be suspected by the police, he should cooperate with you. You arranged a few completely unaware people to pretend to go to the scene, deliberately letting the police see through it, as if posturing that you wanted to kill Qu Jingli. In fact, you had already given Qu Jingli a bottle of poisoned eye drops prior. You told him that this was a bitter plan where he had to poison himself. The amount of poison wasn’t much. He’d be poisoned but he wouldn’t die. That way, the police would think they had successfully stopped your murder plan. Qu Jingli could also live on and you’d get the money...”

"But in fact, you gave him enough poison to kill him. You arranged Teacher Yan, who didn’t know of the plan at the scene, and made him act as a reporter to approach Qu Jingli. Yan Ke didn’t do anything. Qu Jingli did as planned and poisoned himself, killing himself! When he arrived at the venue, he threw away the bottle I checked, took out the poisonous bottle, and placed it in his pocket. Then, he chose a suitable opportunity to perform the trick."

When saying these words, Chen Shi had been observing Zhou Tiannan's reaction. The slight expression on his face was enough. Chen Shi was convinced that his reasoning was correct.