Chapter 339

"Socialite Gathering?" Li Hao gave Li Yuning a wink; he would handle the questioning, and she would examine Zhao Zheng's belongings. They divided the work, listening while searching, so as not to delay either task.

Seeing Li Hao's curiosity about the Socialite Gathering she mentioned, Lu Min did not hold back, saying: "It is a gathering held by a small group of wealthy wives and daughters in Baizhou City—women with backgrounds, money, status, and leisure. They have a small get-together almost every week and a large one every week. Usually, they also form smaller cliques among themselves and hold private gatherings... I was fortunate enough to accompany my husband's sister to one of their small gatherings. At that banquet, the main organizer, Miss Hong, saw me, a new face, and generously gave me this vase, which looked quite valuable, as a souvenir..."

At this point, Lu Min seemed to recall something, her expression suddenly becoming somewhat nervous and flustered. This abnormal look naturally did not escape Li Hao, who had worked as an Enforcer for many years; he saw at a glance that she had suddenly realized something, and this matter was likely related to her deceased husband, the gathering, and the gathering's organizer, the person known as Miss Hong.

"Are you alright, Ms. Lu?" Li Hao asked, feigning concern.

Lu Min nervously gripped the hem of her skirt and forced an unnatural smile: "I... I am fine."

"That Miss Hong, do you know her?" Li Hao asked curiously.

Lu Min lowered her head slightly, her gaze shifting, "I don't know her either. I only saw her once at the banquet. I don't know what her background is. Yes... I don't know."

In just one short sentence, she repeatedly emphasized "don't know" multiple times. In such cases, it is usually true that she doesn't know her; even if she does know of the other party, it is likely just the tip of the iceberg, with very little information.

But all in all, something is better than nothing, so Li Hao decided to fish for more, squeezing out whatever he could.

"To be able to organize such a gathering, her background must be significant, but as far as I know, there is no one with the surname Hong in all of Baizhou who holds high power or great wealth. She must be from out of town, right?"

"... I think so, sister—Zhao Zheng's sister said so."

She is distancing herself.

Li Hao thought: Shifting the conflict to Zhao Zheng's sister; it seems she really has realized something. Perhaps she suddenly guessed that her husband's death was not just a simple accident.

The news currently released is that the elevator fall incident at Baizhou Tower is defined only as a general accident; it has not been publicly declared to be related to an "Abnormal."

Lu Min's sudden panic might be because she just realized something and guessed that her husband did not die in a simple accident, but that it was related to a deadly and dangerous "mysterious Abnormal," which is why she is so strongly resisting and trying to avoid Li Hao's questions.

"May I look around other parts of your home?" After a while, Li Yuning had finished going through the belongings Lu Min had sorted out, and she then made a request to Lu Min.

By now, Lu Min had roughly realized that the Li Hao before her and this young girl, who clearly had nothing to do with being an Enforcer, had not come for condolences or an investigation into a general accident. They had other motives. This young girl, who looked like a high school student, might be involved in a special profession that deals with Abnormal factors—perhaps she is an Investigator!?

Lu Min was not stupid; she was a very clever woman. Recalling the details of how Li Hao and Li Yuning interacted just now, she could see that Li Hao was trying his best to avoid touching her husband's belongings and wouldn't even drink the water in the house, yet he let the young girl who accompanied him "do as she pleased," and in their eye contact, he seemed to be seeking the young girl's opinion.

This young girl is very likely an Investigator!

Realizing this, Lu Min's delicate body trembled uncontrollably, her expression changed wildly, and her intense inner struggle was revealed without reservation.

Li Hao knew that Lu Min must be hesitating. He took this opportunity to be "frank" with her: "Ms. Lu, I am very sorry, I have hidden some things from you. Actually, don't let the fact that the girl beside me looks only sixteen or seventeen fool you; she is actually under the influence of a certain... yes, the kind of Blessing you might imagine. Her appearance and mind were forced to stop at this age. In reality, she is the same age as you and me. She is an Investigator, a Special Consultant for our Shenzhou Mysterious Group, with a senior track record of having broken through Earth-level Abnormal incidents without loss. We suspect that your husband may not have died in a simple accident, so..."

"It was her! It was her! She did it, not me!" Lu Min, like a cat whose tail had been suddenly grabbed, jumped up from the table in agitation, grabbed Li Hao's hands, and said with a pleading face, "I didn't mean to, I didn't know that thing would lead to such a result, I really didn't."

"Ms. Lu, please relax. We do not mean to blame you; you are a victim." Li Hao tried to break free from Lu Min's hands, his gaze also trying to avoid Lu Min's momentarily agitated and disheveled appearance, but considering the need to soothe her emotions, he could only endure it and comfort her in a gentle tone, "Please tell us honestly what we don't know, so that we can help you, can't we?"

As he spoke, Li Hao looked at Li Yuning and found the young girl looking at him with a "kind" gaze. He immediately realized that his previous words had truly viciously slandered her, and he could only secretly cast an apologetic look at her.

Li Yuning smiled without a word, her expression not changing in the slightest, as if frozen, and this somehow gave rise to a hint of terrifying aura.

Lu Min looked at Li Yuning, and Li Yuning immediately put on a gentle smile and nodded faintly.

Seeing this, Lu Min no longer held back and poured out the whole story.

That Socialite Gathering actually had many suspicious points. It was precisely after going once that Lu Min felt that the seemingly high-class and prosperous banquet scene always carried an indescribable and unclear sense of discomfort. Whether it was the people attending the gathering or the scene, which was carefully arranged like some kind of secret ritual, it made her feel creeped out. Although the women at the gathering were all kind and generous, especially the organizer, Miss Hong, who generously gave her a valuable antique vase, she still felt something was strange, so she did not attend any subsequent invitations to the gatherings.

It was not until the reminder from Li Hao and Li Yuning just now that Lu Min remembered what was wrong.

The participants in this Socialite Gathering were all women of top-tier power and wealth in Baizhou City. Their commonality was that they were either single and unmarried, or married and widowed... They had gained vast wealth and high status either on their own or through inheritance. At the gatherings, they often spoke of the opposite sex in a "vivid" way, but their attitude in arranging them was somewhat excessively uncomfortable for normal people; it was as if, in their words, men were a type of prey or plaything.

That Miss Hong also spoke with her privately before the banquet ended, and her words were all aimed at seducing Lu Min into identifying with her ideology of treating men as playthings and tools, and she seemed to want to guide her to betray and plunder her own husband.

Although Lu Min and her husband occasionally had conflicts, she truly loved and cared for her husband, so she naturally could not agree with the other party's ideas.

After refusing Miss Hong's ideas at the time, the other party did not seem annoyed, as if she had expected it, and immediately changed her attitude, stating that she did not mean those things, and smilingly gave her the vase as an apology.

Lu Min admitted that she was a bit greedy; she struggled internally but accepted the vase, even though she actually felt that there was something strange about the vase when she saw and touched it at the time.

And after the banquet ended, before parting with Miss Hong, Miss Hong mysteriously told her that one day she would understand the benefits of not having a man.

As a result, not long after this, her husband died.

Lu Min believed that Miss Hong must have done something; her husband was killed by that Miss Hong, using the vase she sent—the vase full of the Abnormal!