Chapter 399: Li Jingyu

Xia Qingzhi was extraordinarily sensitive to my suspicion. She was like a drowning victim adrift in a pitch-black river who had finally grabbed a lifesaving branch, only to discover, just as she put all her weight on it, that it was tearing loose from its roots.

My phone number was displayed on her screen. The moment she ran into trouble, her very first instinct had been to call me for help. That subconscious reaction was a display of tremendous trust.

Holding the phone and looking at the tear tracks staining Xia Qingzhi's face, I felt a complicated knot of emotions.

I would rather face a malicious ghost brimming with resentment than have Xia Qingzhi look at me like that.

Her gaze seemed to interrogate me: "You were the only one who chose to believe me, so why are you doubting me now? Why go back on your word? If you knew it would end like this, why give me hope in the first place?"

Xia Qingzhi stood before me, but her older brother Xia Chi's words echoed relentlessly in my mind, as if the long-missing man were standing right behind me.

Caught between the two siblings, I didn't know who to believe.

Xia Chi represented an interest group led by the first-generation Underworld Live Show Streamer. They had reaped massive rewards from the Underworld Live Show before realizing that accumulating ten thousand points was an impossible task. Thus, they had joined forces to secretly resist the Live Show through other means.

Logically, I should stand with them as an ally in the same camp. Xia Chi had taken an enormous risk to contact me during my tenth broadcast, likely to win me over and pave the way for me to join them.

I could see his overtures, but could I truly trust him?

On one side was a high school girl who treated me as her only lifeline; on the other was a long-missing former streamer who held the clues to my lost memories.

Both of them had given me reasons to trust them, but neither could convince me entirely.

I lowered my phone, trying to glean something from Xia Qingzhi's expression, but even after using Judging Eye, I found nothing.

No one liked being falsely accused, especially by the person they trusted most.

To my eyes, she was just an ordinary girl—frail on the outside, but actually incredibly stubborn and strong.

"Leave your brother's situation to me," I said. "Someday, I'll drag him back here and have him talk to you face-to-face." I didn't know if there was some misunderstanding between Xia Qingzhi and her brother, nor did I grasp the true meaning behind Xia Chi's words. I just felt that someone who had entrusted all their hope to another person shouldn't be let down.

"Go home. As long as I'm alive, this commission isn't over. Whatever the truth is, whatever the outcome, I will shoulder it all."

I turned to leave, but she suddenly caught my hand. Xia Qingzhi unhooked the Plum Blossom Pendant from her phone and pressed it into my palm. "My amulet. It's yours."

Without another word, she grabbed her bicycle and fled as fast as she could. I looked down at the Plum Blossom Pendant in my palm; its silver petals gleamed like the morning star.

"Thanks! It's beautiful!" I shouted after her. I pulled out my own phone, only to realize it didn't have a spot to attach a charm. Patting my pockets, driven by some inexplicable urge, I pulled out the Underworld Live Show's Large-Screen Phone.

There happened to be a small lanyard hole at the bottom. Without overthinking it, I threaded the pendant through. "From now on, this phone is one of a kind."

I gave a wry smile, hailed a cab back to Ting Tang Road, and silently cultivated the Profound Truth Mental Method.

Ever since becoming an Underworld Live Show Streamer, I had realized that this world was far vaster than I could have ever imagined. Everything was unknown. I was like a toddler just learning to walk, forced to grow stronger under the brutal training of the Underworld Live Show, stepping closer to the truth one inch at a time.

The night passed uneventfully. Early the next morning, I called Li Jingyu and arranged to meet at nine o'clock, then caught a ride to Xinhu's Haixing District.

Xinhu City sat at the border of three provinces and was the largest second-tier city in the South-Central region. Renowned for its industry, it drew a massive influx of migrant workers every year. Compared to the thousand-year-old Jiangcheng, Xinhu was a booming young metropolis that only really took off after the economic reforms. Here, you could clearly see the shifting tides of the era, along with the grotesque urban chain forged by extreme wealth disparity. It wouldn't be strange to find an upscale villa complex right next to an occupied shantytown slated for demolition. One side of the street would be all green hills and clear waters, while the other was drowning in garbage and rubble.

Xinhu was divided into six districts, with Haixing District being one of the most underdeveloped. It was packed with all sorts of factories, and its dense, dilapidated apartment blocks primarily housed the workers employed nearby.

As the bus crossed into Xinhu's Haixing District, the sky noticeably dimmed, as if veiled by a thin layer of smog.

"He Bo mentioned that after Lu Xing left him, he likely headed to Xinhu. If that serial killer is hiding here, he'll be a nightmare to track down." I walked out of the station with a cigarette dangling from my lips. A fleet of factory shuttle buses idled nearby, scooping up throngs of migrant workers hauling their overstuffed bags out of the terminal.

"Making a living is never easy." I pulled out an envelope, glanced at the address written on it, and flagged down a cab.

Half an hour later, I stared at the building in front of me, hardly daring to believe it.

The six-story complex had been subdivided into prison-like single rooms. Laundry hung haphazardly outside the windows, but only a scarce few of those windows actually caught the sun.

"The second daughter of Xinhu's richest man lives in a dump like this?" Li Jingyu's situation was far more miserable than I had imagined. Just comparing her to Jiang Fei made it obvious—Li Jingyu had tumbled out of the clouds and landed face-first in the mud.

I rounded to the back of the building, where Li Jingyu was already waiting outside. She looked like she had been there for a long time.

"Over here!" Everything about her—from her clothes to her elegant bearing—was completely out of place in the rundown environment, yet she didn't seem to care in the slightest.

I nodded and followed her inside. She rented a room on the sixth floor for a very simple reason: top-floor rent was cheaper.

"Come in. I'll pour you a glass of water." The space behind the door was tiny, roughly fifteen square meters. The bathroom and kitchen were crammed together, separated by nothing but a wooden door.

Despite the cramped quarters, the room was immaculately tidy and didn't feel terribly claustrophobic.

The rock-hard wooden bed was covered with a single sheet, topped with a meticulously folded thin blanket and a few books. The room was spotless. The only slightly awkward detail was the laundry hanging by the window; the expensive lingerie had been scrubbed with detergent and left wrinkled. It was a bit of a pity to look at.

"Sorry you have to see this." Li Jingyu made no move to hide the laundry, simply setting a cup of water in front of me. "I didn't know you were coming today. The place is too small, so that's the only spot to dry them after washing."

"Seeing the state you're in has only strengthened my resolve to help you. Let's get straight to the point: I'm highly interested in your commission." I picked up the cup, staring at the faint impurities floating in the water. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed that the daughter of Xinhu's richest man was living in a place like this."

"I'm a proud, domineering woman. I've offended a lot of people at the company, from the shareholders down to the security guards—and, of course, my useless brother." Li Jingyu rubbed her forehead. She was thirty-nine years old, had remained single her entire life, and had devoted herself entirely to her career, playing a critical role in securing Li Changgui's position as Xinhu's wealthiest man.

She just never expected that the moment Li Changgui passed away, she would be completely purged from the company's upper management. With everyone turning against her the moment she fell, she went from being the CEO to her current state.

"My father was infertile. My brother and I were both adopted when we were young, so we share no blood ties. The old man passed away suddenly, but what's truly despicable is that my brother locked down the news of his death while I was out of town negotiating a project. Our father's empire spanned the catering, entertainment, electronics, and real estate industries. To seize complete control of the company, my 'good' brother kept me in the dark for an entire month."

Li Jingyu offered me a faint smile. The years had polished this attractive woman, gifting her a uniquely striking aura. "By the time I returned, not only had I been stripped of all my authority, but all the assets under my name had been frozen as well. I'll admit, a portion of it was shady gray income, but those are the rules of the game—everyone in the industry knows it. Right now, I have nothing. With my abilities, I could easily join another corporation and stage a comeback, but I refuse to let it go."

"I refuse to let the empire I spent twenty grueling years building be stolen by a murderer!" Li Jingyu's gaze turned razor-sharp, and her voice slowed. "I suspect my father didn't die of natural causes. I believe he was murdered!"