Chapter 339: Lao Qian 1

Lao Qian took a look; it was a blue ballpoint pen and replied casually, "It's mine." As he spoke, he took the pen from Qi Fei's hand.

Qi Fei looked at Lao Qian and asked again, "Did you just come back from outside?"

Lao Qian finally finished tidying up his briefcase, stood up, and said, "Yeah, just went to coordinate a project." As he spoke, he looked at the two people in front of him. "Do you guys have new clues and come to investigate?"

Qi Fei didn't answer directly, patted Lao Qian on the shoulder, and said, "Happened to run into you, shall we go sit at your place?"

Lao Qian laughed, "You forgot about my crappy place, it's just a utility room..."

"It's fine, you're an old employee here, you know the things we want to understand best. It's good to have an office where we can sit down and chat slowly," Qi Fei said, gently pushing Lao Qian's back. They passed through the turnstile together and took the elevator upstairs.

Not having been here for a year, the smell of smoke in Lao Qian's utility room seemed even heavier. He dusted off the cigarette ash on the chair and pushed it in front of Qi Fei: "Sorry, no one has been here for a long time, just make do with sitting."

"At Tian Mi's place, she never invited us to sit." Qi Fei looked at Lao Qian with mixed feelings in his eyes.

"Oh, haha, she became a big leader at a young age, it's normal to not pay attention sometimes," Lao Qian squeezed out a dry smile and said.

Qi Fei didn't rush to sit down, but closed the door and signaled Wu Shanqiu to guard it.

The atmosphere became heavy.

Qi Fei sat on the chair Lao Qian had brought over, brewed for a while before opening his mouth: "Lao Qian, where did you go to discuss the project? Can you give him a call?"

"It's not an important project, the other party is in another meeting right now, I'll have him call you later..." Lao Qian brushed it off.

Qi Fei didn't insist, as if this answer was within his expectations. He pointed to the briefcase Lao Qian had placed aside and asked, "Can you take out that blue pen from just now and let me see it again?"

Lao Qian did as asked. Printed on the blue pen barrel was a line of small white characters: "Commemorating the 2025 Xipu University Nancheng Alumni Event."

"Are you a graduate of Xipu University?" Qi Fei asked, holding the pen.

"Yes," Lao Qian replied, his composure almost despairing.

"Xipu University is a good school. Being able to get into this school in your era is not simple."

"I was the first in my township to get in. Others are 'small-town test-takers,' I'm a 'small-village test-taker.' That year's college entrance exam was the highlight of my life." Lao Qian's words still carried pride, as if he had returned to the moment he made the golden list that year.

"We obtained the list for this year's Xipu University alumni event, and you aren't on it. How did you get this pen?" Qi Fei looked up at Lao Qian, his eyes even carrying some expectation, expecting him to give a reasonable explanation.

However, Lao Qian glanced at Wu Shanqiu guarding the door, pondered slightly, and then seemed to make up his mind not to avoid it anymore, saying: "I'm not worthy of appearing on that list. Those invited are all successful people; I, this middle-aged corporate slave, have no qualifications. I was a member of this year's preparatory group, responsible for providing services to them. Heh, just like the work I do in the unit."

"You saw Dong Qianjin at the event site. Did he not recognize you?" Qi Fei continued to ask.

These words stung Lao Qian's heart, and he said indignantly: "People in their circle don't have people like us who do the work in their eyes or hearts."

"Even so, you still carry the souvenir from that event with you." Qi Fei looked at Lao Qian with deep meaning.

"Hmph, that was just casually put in the bag." Lao Qian didn't admit it. "I don't know why you care so much about the alumni association?"

"It's not just the alumni association, everything started from when Zhong Xiaoyu discovered an anonymous letter sent to Nancheng Investment." When Qi Fei said this, a flash of cunning light passed through Lao Qian's eyes.

Qi Fei continued: "After she appeared at Nancheng Investment, that mysterious recipient Xi He stopped appearing. The only explanation is that this person knows Zhong Xiaoyu, that is, Zhong Kui, someone who has had close contact with us. Lao Qian, you are one of them."

"When we came to investigate, you created a chance encounter, revealed the relationship between Dong Ziwu and Tian Mi to us, and made us turn the direction of the investigation toward Tian Mi."

"However, what really made me suspicious of you was when Meng Qian recalled that the person driving for Dong Ziwu was wearing a hat. What was the hat for covering?" Qi Fei shifted his gaze to Lao Qian's bald head. "It's cruel. Those around Tian Mi and Dong Ziwu are all young people; only you are already bald. You anticipated that people like Meng Qian would see the driver, so you wore a hat to cover it up, which instead became a suspicious point. That pen was just the final key to unlocking the answer."

Having said this, Qi Fei was silent for a moment, then asked in a deep voice: "Lao Qian, is Tian Mi still alive?"

The room suddenly became quiet, a deathly silence.

Lao Qian and Qi Fei sat face to face, staring at each other, as if this moment was bound to come sooner or later.

Qi Fei watched Lao Qian's face, watching the seven emotions and six desires on his face fade away like a tide, leaving only cold features, as if he had been dead for a long time.

His lips were purple, and as they opened and closed, only two syllables were uttered: "Dead."

The first to look away was Qi Fei. He felt his heart beating violently, not because of excitement, but as if it were the final beat before death. Lao Qian's eyes were like black holes, consuming his conscience, luring him to cross the boundaries of law and justice, making him believe that Tian Mi's death was deserved.

But he couldn't think that way.

"Where is the person?" he asked Lao Qian. "If she's alive, I want to see her; if she's dead, I want to see the body."

"I can tell you the address, but there is one condition."

"Speak."

"You can send people to find Tian Mi according to the place I say. But you must stay here." Lao Qian said this, rubbing his nose with fingers yellowed by smoke. "I only confess my sins to you."

"Okay," Qi Fei agreed.

Lao Qian said with relief: "She is at Bu Er Jing, near the end point."

"Shanqiu, notify the bureau immediately!" Qi Fei said hurriedly. "You go find her first."

With Wu Shanqiu's departure, only Qi Fei and Lao Qian remained in the room.

Lao Qian took out a cigarette to offer to Qi Fei.

Qi Fei refused, and Lao Qian turned around and put the cigarette in his own mouth, the lighter "clicked" and lit it.

The red sparks flickered with the rhythm of a heartbeat. The room was dim and hazy, and Lao Qian's tired voice came: "If I hadn't been so wholeheartedly building this Computing Department, none of this would have happened. Dong Ziwu was just one of the millions of ordinary people who wanted to take shortcuts. This wasn't his fault. But, I had to kill him..." ===== CHAPTER 340 =====