Chapter 310 Bitter Grievance

“Mr. Qin!” Qin Jinhuan turned around in surprise when he heard a familiar voice calling him, but he didn’t expect the person standing behind him to be Yin Anran whom he hadn’t seen in a long time.

After Yin Anran was slashed in the face by Dong Wanqing, he made her rest at home with the excuse that she needed time to recuperate. Since then, he hadn’t seen her up until now.

The woman in front of him was dressed neatly as always. She had on a face of elegant makeup and styled her hair in her favorite big, loose curls—she looked just like old times. The only difference was there were now two scars on her face, and even the foundation she had on couldn’t erase their existence. They weren’t exactly hideous, but the presence of them on such a beautiful face formed a contrast, making them look especially ugly.

Naturally, Qin Jinhuan knew the story behind the scars—Yin Anran had gotten them from Dong Wanqing when the latter slashed her face with a knife to vent her anger. However, he didn’t expect that Yin Anran would leave them untreated on her face.

“Hello, M-Mr. Qin.”

Yin Anran was obviously not used to addressing him this way; when she noticed him staring at her face, her hand instinctively moved up to lightly touch her scars. A painful and bitter smile tugged on her lips.

“Why didn’t you get plastic surgery?” He averted his gaze and asked her in a seemingly nonchalant manner.

“There’s no need for that.”

“There’s no need for that?!” He turned to look at her again, his eyes filled with astonishment.

Hasn’t she always been most particular about looking beautiful and presentable?

He remembered one time when her arm was accidentally scalded by a drop of oil in the middle of cooking. After washing it off, she noticed that it had formed a faint brown mark on her skin. She was worried that it might leave behind a scar and overreacted all of a sudden—in fact, she was so anxious that she had even lost her appetite after that. In order to make her feel better, he brought her to a beauty salon to treat it. Nevertheless, Yin Anran still couldn’t let go of her worries. She made him visit a plastic surgery clinic with her to inquire about scar removal procedures and only let the matter go after the scar on her arm was completely gone.

Her response to such a faint mark on her arm was already of such exaggeration; if she had suddenly gotten two scars on her face back then, wouldn’t it have cost her life?

However, now she’s saying there’s no need to treat the scars on her face! How’s that possible?!

He thought that what she said didn’t sound like the Yin Anran he once knew at all.

On the other hand, Yin Anran knew the reason why he was as startled as this. She smiled slightly and said, “I used to care a lot about my appearance because I wanted to be my most perfect self in front of the man I loved; I was hoping he would cherish me more that way. Sadly, now…”

Perhaps she realized that it wasn’t appropriate to say those words, for the corner of her lips twitched awkwardly and she immediately changed her tone of speech. “I’m leaving these scars here to teach myself a lesson and know my place; I want to constantly remind myself to differentiate between what I should and shouldn’t do.”

As she spoke, her eyes became clouded with emotions. She hastily pretended to fix her hair and swiftly turned her face slightly while casting her eyes downward.

Even so, the hint of sadness in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed under Qin Jinhuan’s sharp senses.

Little did he expect for her to say something like this. Other than feeling shocked, he couldn’t help but take pity on her. Nevertheless, he didn’t let it show; his voice was still as calm as ever when he spoke again, but there was now an unintentional sense of concern to it.

“You should let go of the past and focus on living the rest of your life.”

Yin Anran nodded solemnly and said, “I know that. I’ll try my best to live positively from now on. Thanks, Huan… I mean, thanks for your concern, Mr. Qin.”

When she called him ‘Mr. Qin’, there was the faintest crack in her voice. It stirred Qin Jinhuan’s heart as he deliberately tried to remain indifferent.

This woman was no blood relation to him, but he had been taking such good care of her for so many years. Aside from carrying out her sister’s dying wish, he could see a shadow of himself in her. They were the same, for both of them had lost the chance to experience parental love at a young age and were forced to survive alone in this cold and merciless world. To him, he’d rather not have a father at all than to have one like Qin Wentao; as for his grandfather, he had spent a long amount of time in the rebellious stage of his youth hating him like an enemy.

He had always been caring and affectionate toward Yin Anran because he knew that he was the only person she could rely on and trust. Similarly, she treated him with no reservations and was willing to do anything for him.

He had always been aware of her feelings for her, but he chose to feign ignorance because he could only give her the love of a family—he was also only willing to give her as much as that. He never once thought of her in a romantic way, for he felt the same in the past and even now—that feeling wouldn’t change even in the future.

He had always thought that they could remain as siblings who counted on each other in this dark and cruel world even without being related by blood. To him, she was Anran; to her, he was Huan, her brother-in-law. However, at the end of the day, they couldn’t escape from the shackles of romance, the whimsical part and parcel of human nature.

At that moment, he forgot about the people who were busily rushing past him, and bitter anguish wasn’t the only thing that rushed up to his chest.

“Mr. Qin.” Yin Anran was the one who broke the silence. “Can I return to work at the Qing Tian Group?”

She asked the question with such caution, and she looked like a penniless little girl nervously pointing at a lollipop on display, asking the shopkeeper to spare her one with innocent doggy eyes. The scared look on her face as she anticipated rejection was awfully heartbreaking to watch.

Qin Jinhuan’s heart was a little swayed right then, but he tactfully denied her request nonetheless. “You should take some more time off at home.”

“Mr. Qin…”

Qin Jinhuan dismissed her with a wave of his hand. “I have to return to my office now. Let’s talk about this again next time; you should head home and get some rest.” Then, he didn’t wait for her reply before he continued walking in huge strides without looking back, leaving her standing alone as she stayed rooted on the spot.

Meanwhile, Weng Yun sent Mu Yu back to the Bureau under the woman’s request.

When she arrived at the forensic lab, Feng Rubing was still busy at work. Immediately, Mu Yu knew that she hadn’t taken a break all night and quickly went up to her with guilt in her chest.

“You should head home to get some rest, Madam Feng. Just let me know if there’s anything that needs to be done.”

When Feng Rubing saw that Mu Yu had misunderstood her, she explained without putting down her work, “Yunkang came and took over my shift last night; I just came this morning.”

“I see. A-Are there any new leads, then?”

“No.” Feng Rubing let out a sigh right then, obviously very unhappy with such a conclusion.

Similarly, Mu Yu leaned against the table; she was quite disheartened to hear that as well.

“I heard that something happened at the sales center of Xinyue Estates. Is that true?”

“Yeah, someone took advantage of Qian Dacheng’s death by picking a fight and causing trouble there. They incited the property owners to get a refund and withdraw their ownership. Meanwhile, the sales center didn’t handle the situation properly in the heat of the moment and there were many deaths because of that.”

“Did you say there were many deaths?!” Feng Rubing was aghast. She only knew that there was an incident at Xinyue Estates, but not the specific details of it. She didn’t think it would be as serious as this.

Mu Yu immediately realized that she had been too general with her description, so she quickly explained herself, “There have been three deaths so far, while a few hundred had been injured.”

“That’s pretty serious too.” Feng Rubing sighed again. “I didn’t think this case would have such an influence on the public.”

“Most importantly, some ill-intentioned people are sabotaging us from behind the scenes! They’re using this opportunity to gain profit for themselves!” Mu Yu sounded both angry and annoyed. “There haven’t been any leads in our case, and I’m afraid only more people will start using this incident to their advantage!”

Feng Rubing jolted slightly at Mu Yu’s words. Instead of answering the latter, she simply replied with another question and asked, “Is Rong Jian not back yet?”

“No, he said he was heading to the hospital to understand the situation.”

“Weren’t you guys going to visit the quarry?”

“That’ll have to wait till Rong Jian is done on his side.”

“He should just leave these inquiry matters to someone else. What’s most important right now is for him to crack the case with the Special Investigation Unit! Otherwise, more people will start using this incident to create unnecessary problems.”

“Perhaps Chief Rong has his own plans to deal with this. He…”

Before she could finish, her phone rang. She immediately picked up once she saw that Rong Jian was calling. “Chief Rong, you…”

“Yu, are you still at Xinyue Estates?”

“I’m back at the forensic lab.”

“Are things busy over there?”

Mu Yu glanced at Feng Rubing standing next to her before she replied, “Not really. Are you heading to the quarry, Chief Rong?”

“Yeah. You don’t have to come if you’re busy, though.”

At that moment, Feng Rubing interrupted just at the right time and said, “Is he asking you to visit the quarry with him?”

Mu Yu nodded as her eyes swept across the documents on the desk which were only arranged halfway.

Feng Rubing knew her concerns at once. She waved her hands dismissively and said, “I can handle this alone. You should go.”

“Okay. I’ll help you when I get back.”

“There’s nothing much to do here. See if you guys can find any new leads over there.”

Mu Yu nodded as she passed on Feng Rubing’s words to Rong Jian before she asked him, “Where should I wait for you?”

“Come to the main entrance. I’ll be there right away.”

“Okay.” After hanging up, she bid Feng Rubing goodbye and proceeded to leave the forensic lab with hurried steps, heading straight to the main entrance of the Bureau.

After waiting for around seven to eight minutes, Rong Jian arrived in his car. Mu Yu quickly boarded his car and noticed that Wu Xing was there as well. She greeted him briefly and leaned back against the seat before asking Rong Jian about the situation at the hospital.

“There haven’t been any additional deaths; those with minor injuries have been treated and most of them have gone back home. We aren’t too sure about the condition of those who were severely injured, and we’ll only know after some time.” Upon sensing that she was worried, Rong Jian added casually, “It shouldn’t be too big of a problem.”

“Will those people keep insisting on getting a refund after they’ve gone home, though?”

“I left for the quarry immediately after making sure that the situation was fine, so I didn’t ask much.”

“Some people have become even more insistent that they withdraw their property ownership,” Wu Xing chipped in. “I heard a few of the older victims talking; they felt that the reason behind this incident was because of the bad omens surrounding Xinyue Estates, so they aren’t going to settle on anything other than a full refund. They were afraid that they’d lose their lives in the future and were all saying that nothing was more important than staying alive. Many people agreed with them as well.”

Rong Jian was confused. “I was at the hospital for some time, so why didn’t I hear any of that?”

“That’s because you were either outside the emergency rooms or the ICU. Those people couldn’t speak and their families were too busy worrying about them. Naturally, they weren’t in the mood to think about matters regarding their property ownership.”

Mu Yu’s heart sank even more after hearing Wu Xing’s words. She let out a long sigh as she said, “Hopefully Huan and the others can think of a suitable way to properly resolve this issue.”

“I know they will. Don’t forget that Huan is an experienced fighter on such battlefields.”

“But now that Zeyu has left the company, I’m afraid he’ll be greatly impacted by that.”

“There’s no need to worry—Qing Tian Group has never lacked capable people.”

“There’s no use for me to be worried; I can’t help much, anyway.” Mu Yu smiled bitterly. “If there’s one thing I can do, that would be cracking this case as soon as possible. Sadly, we don’t even have a single lead at the moment.”

“Solving a case is like embroidering—it has to be done with great care and effort. Yu, I talked to Qian Xiaoyu alone last night, but she was too sad and kept crying. We kept going off-topic because of that, so I couldn’t get any useful information out of her in the end. Hence, I’ve decided to visit the quarry today to find out more from Tian Maocai.”

As he spoke, Rong Jian checked his watch. “Come to think of it, the guy is probably waiting for us at the quarry right now.”

After that, the few of them ran an analysis on the case while traveling there, but they still couldn’t come up with any leads even after going through each detail. Eventually, the car went quiet.

More than an hour later, they arrived at the quarry located by the hillside on Mount Anyue.

A skinny bald man came up and greeted them warmly as soon as they got down from the car. He then introduced himself—he was Tian Maocai, the head of the quarry who had been working there for more than 10 years.

Mu Yu and the others followed him to his office.

Tian Miaocai was very friendly as he made them tea and gave them sweets. It almost seemed like they weren’t here to investigate a case but to have a business meeting.

Rong Jian knew that it was just one of the man’s occupational habits, so he didn’t react in an overly polite manner. He thanked the man and was about to ask him for information directly when someone stormed inside all of a sudden.

“Oh no, Mr. Tian! Miss Qian has passed out!”

“What?!” With that, Tian Miaocai didn’t bother with his hospitality anymore. Without even saying goodbye, he rushed out of the office.