Coming to Myself

You Mingxu immediately flared up, saying, "What ex-girlfriend? Where did you hear that?"

Xu Mengshan looked at her expression and hesitated: "Li Mingdi said it." After a pause, he added: "Back during the Tibet incident, everyone thought so."

You Mingxu's face turned ashen as she asked, "What else did that Li Mingdi say?"

Xu Mengshan answered more smoothly this time: "He also said that Yin Feng usually doesn't come, Su Ziyi is responsible for daily surveillance, and she's been guarding him for several years. He was imprisoned there, forced to write... manuscripts according to their demands, which Su Ziyi would take away. He also claimed he used to be from a wealthy family, loved and excelled at writing since childhood, and was kidnapped by Yin Feng back then."

You Mingxu sneered, "Su Ziyi is guarding him for Yin Chen, right? This Li Mingdi was originally one of the Punisher's people. Can we trust what he says?"

Xu Mengshan had heard her mention the Guizhou incident and comforted her: "Don't get so worked up. However you look at it, this is clearly a frame-up. What if they found fingerprints? Wasn't Yin Feng also kidnapped for a period? They must have been forced from him then. Our colleagues aren't foolish enough to fall for such tricks. It's just that with physical evidence and witnesses now, things have become more complicated. We'll get to the bottom of it."

You Mingxu nodded and asked, "Has Su Ziyi been summoned?"

Xu Mengshan replied, "Yes. When our team went to her place, she was with her luggage heading to the airport. She's already on her way back."

You Mingxu let out a cold hum.

Xu Mengshan said, "It's just... they're trying to implicate Yin Feng now..."

You Mingxu understood his meaning and said, "I know. For now, tell him not to get involved to avoid putting you in a difficult position."

After talking with Xu Mengshan, You Mingxu returned to the office and saw Yin Feng sitting behind her desk, idly flipping through some case files.

He looked up and asked, "How did it go?"

You Mingxu suddenly felt a pang of heartache and resentment. What kind of person was he? Someone who never yielded to the darkness within, enduring for so many years. Now he was being slandered as some vile and despicable figure. She pulled a chair over and sat down beside him.

Yin Feng noticed and asked, "What's wrong?"

You Mingxu composed herself and recounted everything to him in detail.

Sometimes, when Yin Feng sat upright like that, neither smiling nor showing any expression, he could be quite intimidating. Like now.

After a long silence, he let out a cold laugh: "Crude methods, but effective. They produced a victim and brought it to the police, knowing the police can't ignore it. They want to exclude me from the case so I won't get in their way."

You Mingxu felt the same. Who understood Yin Chen as well as he understood himself? Who was the only one who had seen the Punisher's true founder? Who had dealt the Punisher a devastating blow, leaving them fractured and weakened? Without Yin Feng's assistance, it would undoubtedly be much harder for the police to completely eradicate the remaining Punishers.

You Mingxu held his hand and said, "Since we both understand, we shouldn't fear whatever tricks they pull. You should go home for now; it's not the right time for you to do anything. I'll keep watch and see what they're really up to. I won't let them succeed."

Yin Feng stared at her for a moment. Seeing no one else in the office, he leaned over and kissed her on the lips, saying, "I know. I have A Xu to clear my name. What is there to worry about?"Seeing him still joking, You Mingxu smiled, thinking that the other party pulling such a move might not be a bad thing. Otherwise, if they kept hiding, what could they do about it? Now that they had actively come forward, they might as well follow the clues and see what they could uncover.

Yin Feng went home. Following procedure, Xu Mengshan sent two officers to keep watch outside his house. You Mingxu waved it off, not taking it seriously.

Su Ziyi was quickly brought back, and Xu Mengshan, along with another colleague, was assigned to interrogate her. You Mingxu stood in the adjacent room. Now that Yin Feng was involved, it was inconvenient for her to intervene directly.

You Mingxu reflected that it had been over a year since she last saw Su Ziyi. Since the days of You Yingjun, this woman had only appeared a few times around Yin Feng before disappearing completely. You Mingxu had always regarded Su Ziyi as one of Yin Feng's past romantic entanglements. Later, Yin Feng probably never even thought of her again, so You Mingxu hadn't considered her worth much attention.

But now, this seemingly delicate and harmless woman had emerged. As an ex-girlfriend, she was being accused of being Yin Feng's accomplice, suspected of kidnapping, imprisonment, and assault.

In the interrogation room.

Su Ziyi looked no different from over a year ago—elegant, quiet, with a faint trace of melancholy between her brows. She sat there, head bowed, refusing to speak no matter how Xu Mengshan and his colleague pressed her.

Later, Xu Mengshan said, "We found a large number of your fingerprints in a cabin near Xianjia Lake. How do you explain that?"

He then pushed a photo of Li Mingdi in front of her: "Do you know this person?"

Su Ziyi's eyes reddened, tears welling up as she bit her lip and remained silent.

You Mingxu frowned. What an actress! Her demeanor practically confirmed to the police that there was truth to the accusations.

Xu Mengshan and his colleague exchanged glances, though their thoughts differed. Xu Mengshan, like You Mingxu, thought: Damn, she's pretending! Keep pretending, you scheming woman!

The other colleague, however, grew suspicious.

Xu Mengshan's eyes shifted, and he suddenly asked, "When was the last time you saw Yin Chen?"

Su Ziyi paused before replying, "Yin Chen... hasn't he been dead for over ten years? The last time I saw him was, of course, before he died." Her answer seemed flawless.

But Xu Mengshan smiled faintly.

In the adjacent room, You Mingxu also inwardly cheered, her gaze fixed on Su Ziyi's expression. If Su Ziyi had nothing to hide, she should have shown surprise at being asked about someone who had been dead for over a decade. But her reaction was too calm, too composed in her rebuttal. That wasn't right.

Su Ziyi knew Yin Chen wasn't dead.

Clearly, Su Ziyi also realized her mistake, a flicker of panic flashing in her eyes. Xu Mengshan sneered inwardly and was about to press his advantage when a commotion erupted outside.

You Mingxu frowned and pushed the door open to step out. The interrogation room was on the second floor, and from there, she saw two elderly, gray-haired people in the courtyard below, weeping and trying to force their way in, while two officers tried to calm and restrain them.

Suddenly, the old woman burst into loud sobs, crying out, "Ziyi! Ziyi! Where are you? How could the police have arrested you? There must be some mistake! A mistake!"You Mingxu only felt her temples throbbing when suddenly she heard the door next door slam open. Someone rushed out—it was Su Ziyi. She dashed to the balcony and cried out, "Dad! Mom!" Tears streamed down her face, clearly revealing an expression full of remorse and agony.