Chapter 155

Chen La's son?

Several people stared repeatedly at the fat guy Ye Hao pointed out, unable to say why.

Chen La's son, Chen Ze, had just entered university when his family ran into trouble; it wasn't Chu Hua Da Xue, I recall it was the city's financial and economics university, and he got in on his own merit. However, many wealthy families' children attend good universities, so compared to them Chen Ze wasn't particularly outstanding; moreover, his appearance at that time was completely inferior to his sister and some children of wealthy families, so not much is known about him. But...

Ye Hao stubbed out his cigarette butt in the ashtray, then said: "To disappear this thoroughly, unless they were silenced long ago, they're not an ordinary person. The Chen La couple aren't fools either; otherwise they wouldn't have seized the opportunity to get rich. Their biggest mistake was misjudging people, getting stabbed in the back by Lai Er."

"It's also possible that Chen La's friends helped." Long Qi said.

"It's possible, but," Ye Hao paused, then said: "I've heard that Chen La has a document; I don't know exactly what it is, but Seventh Master said back then that this document could prevent Lai Er from turning things around. However, no one found it back then, and Lai Er searched for years afterward with no result. So I suspect that if Chen Ze is still alive, the document must be in his hands. Now Lai Er's men have lost two, still in the same way as before; he must have learned something and should have acted long ago. However, there are not few people who want to get hold of that document."

"You also want to get it?" Wei Leng asked.

"Of course. Besides, if the document falls into the hands of Lai Er's people or others who want to cooperate with Lai Er, it would definitely be a major blow to us. Lai Er's appetite now is not small."

"Hey, tell me about Lai Er, I'll analyze a bit." Wei Leng also became somewhat interested.

"Lai Er, well, I heard Seventh Master say that Lai Er originally didn't have the surname Lai; one day Lei Da laughed and said to Lai Er, 'You're really sneaky,' and Lai Er replied, 'Since Lei Da says we're sneaky, let's change our surname to Lai from now on.' Lai Er was second in his family back then, so after that everyone called him Lai Er. Until now. However, he doesn't see it as shameful; on the contrary, he thinks the name 'Lai Er' is a glorious symbol, recording his glorious history of stepping on Lei's head and rising up."

Ye Hao was telling them about Lai Er's past, but Zheng Tan kept looking at the photo of the Chen La family in the opened folder. He compared the fat guy on the left with La Mei Shu. Looking closely, they are somewhat similar. But overall, it's indeed hard to tell, because Chen Ze in the photo is extremely fat. At that time he looked like a raw college kid, while La Mei Shu has a normal build and also bears the weathered look of years.

Zheng Tan also compared the pretty little girl on the right; she is the only one among the four with a normal figure. However, according to what Chen La himself said in the materials, the daughter looks like her mother, and Chen Ze looks like his father. The photo shows Chen Ze and Chen La indeed look alike; it's just unknown whether, if they slimmed down, they'd look like La Mei Shu.

Based solely on the photo, one cannot conclude that La Mei Shu is Chen Ze; Zheng Tan also hasn't seen any photos or similar items in La Mei Shu's room. Moreover, Zheng Tan himself is just going by feeling; he harbors doubts in his heart and cannot be certain of anything.

While thinking, Zheng Tan glanced at a line of text beneath the photo; the material there introduced some information about Chen La and his family, and what caught Zheng Tan's attention was that it said Chen La's wife's surname is Mei.

La Mei?

If we're talking about connections, this also counts as a connection point.

Zheng Tan pondered for a while, still decided to go to La Mei Shu's house later to have a look; for now, thinking more is just suspicion without confirmation.

If that person really is Chen Ze... as a cat I probably can't do much, and I'm too lazy to get involved; according to Ye Hao, the situation has likely escalated, so this little cat is better off just crouching nearby and watching.

The gaze shifted from that four-person photo to another photo; when Ye Hao and the others were discussing Lai Er, they talked about the woman in the photo, who back then was fairly close to Chen La's daughter and played well with her, but it was she who brought Chen La's daughter to the bridge, possibly having tampered with things; otherwise, why would a perfectly normal little girl jump into the river to kill herself?

Thanks to Lai Er's protection and Chen La's downfall, that woman in the photo has remained unharmed all these years; but this time, the avengers have come.

Who gave that woman the psychological suggestion?

Who set up these killing traps?

Anyone capable of doing this surely has a high IQ.

Over there, Ye Hao and Wei Leng were no longer discussing Lai Er and the Chen La matter; they turned to talking about the current few engineering projects. Zheng Tan crouched aside listening to them chat, while listening he scooped up a few peanuts and stuffed them into his mouth—anyway, Wei Leng had already peeled them and placed them in front, so all Zheng Tan needed to do was eat.

From beginning to end, Jueye just lay on that sofa seat with eyes closed, resting; occasionally twitching his ears to show he was still alert to the surroundings. Compared to Zheng Tan, Jueye is really too well-behaved.

After returning from Ye Lou, two days passed, then Zheng Tan ran to La Mei Shu's place to check the situation, hoping to resolve his doubts.

When Zheng Tan went, it was three in the afternoon, just like last time, with a soft mat and a cup of already-cold milk placed on the balcony. He sniffed; the milk had no odd smell, so it should still be fairly fresh.

After knocking and entering, Zheng Tan jumped onto the desk and crouched there, not running around. From the desk looking out into the room, the other two rooms were closed; one room he had already entered to look at—it was the piano room; the other room remained a mystery.

La Mei Shu placed a cup of warmed milk in front of Zheng Tan; unlike last time, this time La Mei Shu wasn't doing his translation work, but was busy in front of the white large drawing board.

The sticky notes and small slips of paper with "English cursive" that Zheng Tan had seen for the first time have changed; although many such notes with English cursive are still posted now, they are not the previous ones. On the white drawing board, beside the sticky notes, there are also some lines and symbols marked, and La Mei Shu is using a marker to draw and write among those sticky notes; on the white drawing board background, the lines and "English cursive" are increasing.

What annoyed Zheng Tan was that he couldn't understand a single character.

Although he didn't understand, seeing La Mei Shu's solemn expression, Zheng Tan felt that these notes on the board likely interpreted some secrets; Zheng Tan is, aside from La Mei Shu, the closest... cat to that "secret"; unfortunately, even if he crouched in front of the board, Zheng Tan couldn't see anything from it.

Without disturbing La Mei Shu, Zheng Tan crouched on the desk quietly looking over there; unlike when doing translation work, Zheng Tan felt that at this moment La Mei Shu, besides his solemn expression, also had a sense of oppression and heaviness again, seemingly with a hint of killing intent. Zheng Tan's perception of his surroundings is still fairly sharp; right now he feels a bit restless.

To ease this pressure, Zheng Tan shifted his gaze away from that drawing board. On the desk there are many books; not far from where he is crouched lies an opened magazine; these days some magazines still sell well, many people still have the habit of reading magazines, unlike later when computers and phones prevail and everyone loves to look at their phones.

He walked over to the opened magazine and crouched beside it, Zheng Tan looked at the magazine's content, wanting to shift his attention and dispel the earlier oppression and heaviness; but when he saw the text on the opened page of that magazine, that oppression and heaviness not only wasn't dispelled, it grew stronger.

The magazine in front covers many aspects, divided into several sections: emotions, technology, current affairs, etc. And the opened page is an article about psychology.

"How do good people become demons?" is the core issue this article discusses.

The article is very long; even across these two opened pages it's not finished, containing many relatively professional terms, as well as some related experiments and examples; Zheng Tan gave it a rough glance, but didn't read it in detail.

Zheng Tan felt the article was too profound, he couldn't grasp the deeper meaning; he considered himself a mere vulgar person, only able to view the article through a vulgar person's perspective to understand some superficial meanings. Even so, Zheng Tan still felt it wasn't smooth.

"The line between good and evil is not fixed, but mutable and surpassable…… shifts in circumstance can bring about a change in human nature; in certain circumstances, black and white are reversed, conscience and guilt are also reversed…… humans have infinite potential, able to make anyone turn toward good or evil, caring or indifferent, creating or destroying; even Lucifer's fall can become Satan……"

When returning to the Dong Jia Fu residential compound, Zheng Tan's mood was still not very pleasant.

On the community flowerbed, A Huang lay there, probably basking in the sun all afternoon, looking very leisurely, making Zheng Tan envy him immensely; sometimes ignorance is also a blessing. Knowing too much also brings more worries.

When Zheng Tan was unhappy, seeing A Huang at ease, he couldn't help but go over and strike him twice; after being slapped twice by A Huang, the latter still seemed somewhat confused, innocently glanced at Zheng Tan, turned his head, rubbed the ground twice, then suddenly spotted a gray magpie, instantly perked up, with no trace of sleepiness, and walked toward that gray magpie.

In the evening, after the Jiao family finished dinner, Jiao Ba didn't go to the Science and Technology Building, nor did he immediately retreat to his room to attend to his affairs; Jiao Ma also didn't go out to exercise with the other female teachers, but sat on the living-room sofa, and the couple discussed a matter.

Xiao Youzi's tenth birthday banquet?!

Originally somewhat listless Zheng Tan, upon hearing that, his ears perked up and turned toward this.

By this reckoning, Xiao Youzi is indeed almost nine years old; according to Jiao Ba's hometown custom, nine years old corresponds to a nominal age of ten; judging by birth date, the birthday is actually still a few months away; however, Jiao Ba will soon be going abroad, and at that point Jiao Ma alone would find it inconvenient, so after consulting Xiao Youzi's opinion, they decided to hold it next week.

Compared to Xiao Youzi's tenth birthday banquet, other matters have long been kicked aside by Zheng Tan. (To be continued…)

ps: (2.7)