Chapter 234 - 233: No Zuo No Die

Chapter 234: Chapter 233: No Zuo No Die

A short while later, Yu Zhiming saw Yan Ling driving up to their villa in a golf cart with a middle-aged man.

When they met, Yu Zhiming learned that the middle-aged man Yan Ling had brought with her was the general manager of Lake and Mountain Lodge.

He expressed his heartfelt thanks to Yu Zhiming and announced that the rental fee for their villa stay would be completely waived.

Yu Zhiming also learned from the general manager that the child had been successfully transported to the nearest top-tier hospital, the Armed Police General Hospital, and was currently undergoing emergency treatment.

Furthermore, after a thorough investigation, Lake and Mountain Lodge had determined that the child did not belong to any of their registered guests.

They had already sent people to check with the nearby residents.

The general manager of Lake and Mountain Lodge also told Yu Zhiming and the others that there would be a performance of the Huangmei opera "The Female Royal Son-in-Law" at the small theater at 8:30 tonight, which the lodge’s guests were welcome to attend...

After seeing off Yan Ling and the general manager, Yu Xiangwan said cheerfully, "Not bad, Fifth Brother. Your heroic act saved us a lot of money."

"The villa is six thousand a day, so that’s eighteen thousand for three days."

Yu Zhiming chuckled softly and asked, "Have your appetites returned yet?"

"We can go eat now. After dinner, you should have just enough time to make it to the Huangmei opera."

Fu Xiaoxue rubbed her little belly and said pitifully, "Uncle, I still don’t have an appetite."

Yu Zhiming mused, "It’s probably just in your head. Once you smell the food, your appetite will likely come back naturally."

"Qingning, can we order food to be delivered to the villa?"

Gu Qingning nodded. "Absolutely, no problem."

"The villa has a kitchen too. If we wanted to cook for ourselves, they could also deliver all sorts of ingredients."

Yu Zhiming made the final call. "Let’s just order. We don’t want to waste their fine ingredients..."

Using the tablet in the villa, they connected to Lake and Mountain Lodge’s ordering system and found a dazzling and extensive array of dishes available.

The group ordered eight dishes and two soups featuring ingredients like mountain mushrooms, bamboo shoots, bullfrogs, pheasants, and bamboo rats...

Just as Yu Zhiming had predicted, as soon as the fragrant dishes were laid out, the appetites of Fu Xiaoxue, Gu Qingning, and Yu Xiangwan instantly returned, and they ate with more gusto than anyone.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, the four women went to the small theater together for the Huangmei opera, leaving Yu Zhiming alone at the villa...

It wasn’t that Yu Zhiming had no interest in Huangmei opera.

It was just that buildings like theaters and cinemas, in addition to their acoustic and amplification designs, used large-scale sound systems, which were not at all friendly to Yu Zhiming and his hypersensitive hearing.

Left alone in the villa, Yu Zhiming went to the first-floor bedroom with the en-suite bathroom. After washing up, he closed the door and windows and lay down on the bed.

The bed was quite comfortable.

Yu Zhiming quieted his mind and listened to the sound of the wind outside, the interwoven chirping of countless small insects...

And, in the distance, the occasional cry of a startled bird from the dense forest, the sound of furiously beating wings...

The sounds were chaotic and jumbled, yet as clear as if they were right beside his ear. Despite this, Yu Zhiming didn’t feel any sense of annoyance or discomfort...

The night passed without incident...

At six the next morning, Yu Zhiming woke up. He got out of bed, washed up, got dressed, and went to the living room.

He stood in the living room and listened quietly for a moment.

Hearing no stirring from any of the rooms upstairs, he knew the others were still fast asleep.

Yu Zhiming hesitated for a moment but ultimately decided against waking them up one by one.

He stepped out of the villa, took a deep breath of the morning air, fragrant with grass and trees, and began doing his fitness exercises, bouncing and jumping on the open ground in front of the villa.

He wasn’t even twenty minutes into his routine when he saw a man in a police uniform approaching from a distance.

As the man got closer, Yu Zhiming saw that it was an acquaintance.

Wei Hao from the municipal bureau.

Yu Zhiming jogged over to meet him.

"Are you here about the diving incident?"

"What diving incident?"

Wei Hao asked back, then continued, "I’m here about the child from yesterday."

"They couldn’t save the child?" Yu Zhiming’s heart clenched involuntarily.

Wei Hao shook his head. "He’s not dead yet, but he’s not out of the woods either."

"The doctors also said that even if the child makes it through the critical period, it’s still uncertain whether he’ll ever wake up."

Hearing this, Yu Zhiming let out a soft "oh" and breathed a sigh of relief.

’It’s good that he isn’t dead. As long as there’s life, there’s hope.’

Wei Hao continued, "However, based on the information provided by the child’s father and the medical examiner’s preliminary assessment, there’s a high probability that the child’s injuries were not caused by an accident."

Yu Zhiming was startled and quickly asked, "What exactly happened? Are you at liberty to say?"

Wei Hao smiled. "It’s not classified. There’s no harm in telling you, Dr. Yu."

"Last night, the staff at Lake and Mountain Lodge found the boy’s family. They live over on the next mountain."

"Their family built some houses and runs them as a B&B!"

"The boy’s father called the police and insisted that his son would never have accidentally fallen off that cliff—he was sure he was harmed by someone."

Yu Zhiming found this odd. "Why is he so sure it wasn’t an accident and that someone harmed him?"

Wei Hao chuckled. "Dr. Yu, this next part is pretty messed up."

He paused for a moment, then lowered his voice.

"The father confessed that his son often crossed the mountain to play in the woods over here, but he had an ulterior motive."

"Well, it’s because men and women from Lake and Mountain Lodge often go deep into the woods for a... primal release."

Yu Zhiming blinked, understanding instantly.

"At such a young age, he was into peeping on people? What a little monster."

He then questioned, "Hey, but even if they were seen, they wouldn’t go so far as to kill him to silence him, right? A beating at most."

"He’s just a twelve or thirteen-year-old kid."

Wei Hao, suspecting Yu Zhiming might be feigning innocence, said, "If it were a married couple or lovers who were seen by a child, they would, at most, give the kid a beating."

"But what if it was the kind of clandestine relationship that couldn’t be exposed?"

Realization dawned on Yu Zhiming.

Wei Hao added, "There’s more. The kid wasn’t just peeping; he turned it into a way to make money."

"The father said he once noticed his son’s allowance had suddenly increased, and he was spending money extravagantly."

"Under his questioning, the boy confessed that he had come over here and seen a pair of ’demons fighting.’ The male ’demon’ gave him several thousand yuan to keep him quiet."

"The father stated that after learning about this, he strictly disciplined the boy and forbade him from coming here again."

"Now that his son has fallen from the cliff, it’s highly likely he came back here and saw something he shouldn’t have."

Wei Hao added in a cold voice, "We had a medical examiner conduct a preliminary examination of the boy’s injuries."

"The examiner said there’s a significant chance the injury to the back of the boy’s head was caused by someone striking him at close range."

"Right now, my colleagues from the forensic investigation team are at the cliff collecting evidence."

Just then, Wei Hao’s phone rang.

He answered, listened for a moment, then ended the call and shook his head at Yu Zhiming. "That kid... he’s really something else."

Before Yu Zhiming could ask, Wei Hao explained, "My colleagues cracked his gaming account. They found that in the last year, he’s spent nearly a hundred thousand on in-game purchases."

"Tsk, tsk. Looks like he was quite good at making money..."

Hearing this, what little sympathy Yu Zhiming had for the problem child all but vanished.

’A top-tier problem child like that was just asking for it. Didn’t he know to be afraid? Sooner or later, he was bound to run into someone ruthless...’

"By the way, Dr. Yu, what was that you said earlier about a diving incident?"

Caught off guard by Wei Hao’s sudden question, Yu Zhiming didn’t hide anything. He explained, "I already reported it to Deputy Chief Jin Feng, and he said he’d filed a report."

"Oh, and there have been some new developments..."

Yu Zhiming briefly recounted the matter concerning Lin Qingyan and his girlfriend, Wang Min.

Wei Hao let out a soft "oh" and nodded. "That case is quite interesting, too."

"When I get back to the bureau, I’ll see if I can apply to take charge of that investigation myself."

"Anyway, let’s get back to the matter at hand..."

Wei Hao said in a serious tone, "Right, about the problem child’s injuries and treatment yesterday evening..."

"Dr. Yu, did you notice anything suspicious?"

"Suspicious?"

Yu Zhiming thought back carefully, then shook his head. "The boy’s injuries were very severe; he could have died at any moment."

"At the time, I was completely focused on treating his injuries. I didn’t notice anything suspicious, and I really couldn’t pay attention to anything else..."

After Wei Hao left, Yu Zhiming finished his fitness exercises and then went for a casual stroll along the nearby mountain paths.

Around seven o’clock, he returned to the villa and saw Gu Qingning, dressed in a red sweatsuit, stretching in front of the building.

"Zhiming, how did you sleep?"

Yu Zhiming smiled back. "Pretty well, actually. I got at least five or six hours, which is quite good for me."

"I’m feeling pretty energetic today."

Gu Qingning’s eyes lit up. "So, you can get a good rest in a place with beautiful mountains, clear waters, singing birds, and fragrant flowers?"

Yu Zhiming chuckled. "A place like this is only suitable for a vacation. I still have to work."

"You won’t find this kind of environment in the city. Building an underground villa is still the more reliable option."

Gu Qingning couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

The next moment, she said challengingly, "Zhiming, how about we go for a run together?"

"See who gives out first?"

Yu Zhiming shook his head. "Exercise should be done in moderation. This competitive style of training of yours can easily lead to problems."

Gu Qingning pouted but didn’t press the issue, starting her own fitness exercises in front of the villa.

A short while later, Zeng Yan, Fu Xiaoxue, and Yu Xiangwan also came out of the villa one by one and began their exercises.

Watching the beautiful, energetic young women bouncing and jumping, Yu Zhiming felt that life was particularly wonderful...

However, the presence of several police cars and ten or twenty officers at Lake and Mountain Lodge had undoubtedly made the atmosphere in the valley much more tense.

Around eight in the morning, Yu Zhiming, Yu Xiangwan, Gu Qingning, and the others went to the restaurant in the lakeside complex for breakfast, where they heard a piece of news from their butler, Yan Ling.

Apparently, the police had found an important clue: the scene where the boy’s head had been struck.

Using a blacklight not far from the crime scene, the police also discovered bodily fluids left by the suspect.

Yan Ling also gave them a notice: all guests at Lake and Mountain Lodge were required to provide a DNA sample for verification.

Yan Ling also made a point of relaying the message that this was the only opportunity for the perpetrator to turn themselves in and seek lenient treatment...

Yu Zhiming and the others were still having breakfast in the restaurant when they saw Wei Hao approaching, his expression grim.

"Dr. Yu, the woman turned herself in."

"The man ran off. He fled into the mountains..."