Evil Love Appears chapter 43
(Partial Overlapping Plot End)
Xu Jiale and Wen Ke returned to B City. During the entire journey, they remained eerily quiet.
During the trip, Wen Ke took a call from Xiao Yun, who was inquiring about the arrangements for the evening’s press conference.
“Business as usual,” Wen Ke replied.
“Wen Ke, Han Jiangque has been in a coma, and if we don’t have evidence that Zhuo Yuan is responsible, we might need to resort to alternative methods. It could be a bit troublesome,” Xiao Yun explained.
Xu Jiale sent several WeChat messages and finally used his hand to press on his temple, clearly exhausted.
“Xu Jiale, I won’t let you go through any trouble,” Wen Ke’s voice sounded calm to the point of being profound. “I have evidence; I have a plan.”
Indeed, he did.
After returning to B City, Xu Jiale finally understood why Wen Ke insisted on holding the press conference for the Love app, even in such a dire situation. It was because the evidence that could pin Zhuo Yuan’s criminal actions was hidden within the Love app.
During the promotional event at B University, Wen Ke had introduced a special feature for the Love app Release Day. The app would have a time capsule function allowing users to upload a 10-minute recording on the release day, and the Love app’s database would store it like a bank for several years before sending it back to the user.
Unbeknownst to Zhuo Yuan, while he and a group of others brutally beat Han Jiangque in an abandoned parking lot, Han Jiangque had managed to record a time capsule during that time.
Zhuo Yuan had been cautious; he destroyed the dashcam in Han Jiangque’s car, used a disposable phone, and even took Han Jiangque’s phone with him. However, it seemed that fate was not on his side. The entire ten-minute assault was captured and uploaded to the Love app’s cloud server.
During the highly anticipated Love app press conference launch, Wen Ke played the complete ten-minute audio recording, which was enough to prove Zhuo Yuan’s guilt.
Back in the villa area of B City, Xu Jiale was sitting in a nondescript Nissan car, watching the live broadcast of the press conference.
The press conference was reaching its end.
In the camera frame, Wen Ke was wearing a blood-stained sweater, bowing deeply towards the camera.
“The name of the assailant is Zhuo Yuan, the only son of Zhuo Ning, Chairman of the East Luminary Group, and the nephew of Zhuo Li, Deputy Director of the Commerce Bureau. Please remember their names. Please help me bring them to justice.”
After delivering this statement, Wen Ke’s gaze was deep, and he stared directly into the camera for a long moment.
The entire venue erupted.
The heinous and shocking nature of this event alone would make the news explode on the internet.
Numerous traditional and social media outlets scrambled to broadcast the content of this press conference in real-time. The name Zhuo Yuan instantly became a trending topic that evening.
It was at this moment that a Mercedes suddenly rushed out of the Zhuo family villa across the street, heading frantically towards the main road.
“It’s Zhuo Yuan,” the driver whispered.
“Follow him” Xu Jiale, sitting in the back seat, propped his chin with his hand. In the dark of night, the driver turned the steering wheel, and the black Nissan car, along with several other civilian cars disguised as ordinary family vehicles, silently followed.
Even before Wen Ke played the recording, a trap had been set around Zhuo Yuan, Zhuo Ning, and Zhuo Li.
That night, none of the three members of the Zhuo family would be able to leave B City.
Zhuo Yuan managed to flee to a small fishing village near the docks. He had apparently prepared for this escape, choosing to hide in an area near the waterfront, enabling him to make a possible getaway by boat.
However, as soon as he entered the fishing village, all the entrances and exits had been discreetly blocked by police cars.
Instead of immediately capturing Zhuo Yuan, they were waiting for others to take the bait.
On the way back from the hospital earlier, Wen Ke had whispered to Xu Jiale, “Even Fu Xiaoyu and I couldn’t find Han Jiangque, but Zhuo Yuan managed to locate him. How is that possible? Xu Jiale, someone from the Han family must have leaked Han Jiangque’s whereabouts to Zhuo Yuan. Someone wants to use Zhuo Yuan to eliminate him.”
“Then this person wouldn’t want Zhuo Yuan to be arrested and interrogated by the police,” Xu Jiale recalled having responded at the time.
When they exchanged glances, they knew that they were both thinking the same thing.
They needed to use Zhuo Yuan to draw out the person hidden within the Han family.
As the morning dawned, Wen Ke’s car also arrived, and the situation they were waiting for had finally occurred. Two men who looked like dangerous individuals discreetly entered the small fishing village.
Plainclothes police officers gave a signal, and they all got out of their cars and followed silently.
Xu Jiale and Wen Ke also got out of the car but stood at the entrance of the fishing village, patiently waiting.
Sure enough, in less than three minutes, sporadic gunshots could be heard coming from the fishing village.
“Drop your weapons! Drop your weapons!”
The police car’s lights suddenly flashed on, illuminating the sky over the fishing village. Sirens blared, accompanied by shouting and begging from inside.
They had been undercover for an entire night, but the actual arrest was completed almost instantly.
In less than a minute, Xu Jiale saw Zhuo Yuan being escorted out by two tall police officers.
The two thugs who had gone in earlier, who were clearly after Zhuo Yuan, were also subdued. If the police had acted any slower, they might have succeeded in killing him.
Zhuo Yuan’s face was covered in mud, he looked disheveled, and his thigh had a gunshot wound. A streak of blood trailed behind him, and every step he took was accompanied by agonizing cries.
However, when he was being dragged past Wen Ke and Xu Jiale, he suddenly fell quiet for a moment. He stared at Wen Ke and his throat made a hoarse sound, as if he was calling, “Xiao Ke.”
Wen Ke said nothing and just stared back at Zhuo Yuan.
Zhuo Yuan’s gaze shifted again, landing on Xu Jiale’s face, and in that moment, his expression was clearly one of shock.
Xu Jiale gazed back at this detestable Alpha with a blank expression. It had been many years since he had seen Zhuo Yuan. When they were in North Three High School, Xu Jiale had been a prominent figure, adored by everyone, while Zhuo Yuan was just a barely noticeable shadow in the class. It was only after Wen Ke and Zhuo Yuan got married that they exchanged a few words on different occasions.
Xu Jiale never liked Zhuo Yuan; he was a dull, unimpressive, gray soul, much like a lump of mud.
But at that time, he hadn’t expected that their reunion would be under these circumstances.
Xu Jiale stared at Zhuo Yuan expressionlessly for a few seconds and found that Wen Ke had already returned to his Bentley to discuss with Han Zhan.
Finally, Xu Jiale shrugged, put his hands in his coat pockets, and took a step towards Zhuo Yuan.
“Xu… Xu…” Zhuo Yuan’s voice was trembling, and in the midst of the chaos, he was both fearful and hesitant, yet unwilling, seemingly unable to decide whether to address Xu Ge or Xu Jiale.
“Zhuo Yuan,” Xu Jiale said softly, “Be careful in the detention center.”
“Police… Police… he… he threatened me!”
Zhuo Yuan sounded as if he’d seen a ghost. His knees were trembling violently, and he cried out in pain with every step taken as he was slowly escorted into the car.
Xu Jiale nonchalantly stomped on the frozen soil beneath his feet, watching the morning light, and let out a sigh. He then lowered his head and made a phone call.
Although it was very early, he knew that the person on the other end hadn’t gone to sleep.
As expected, the call was immediately answered.
“Fu Xiaoyu,” Xu Jiale said in a hoarse voice, “Zhuo Yuan has been caught.”
The Omega on the other end of the phone didn’t respond right away, but Xu Jiale heard him lightly, very lightly, inhale through his nose.
“Have…” Xu Jiale stopped himself from saying the rest.
They fell into a period of silence, and eventually, it was Xu Jiale who said quietly, “I’m going to hang up.”
Fu Xiaoyu, have you been eating like you promised me?
He eventually swallowed that part of his sentence. Perhaps, at that moment, he could still keep his concern within certain bounds.
Zhuo Yuan had been captured, and despite everything, Fu Xiaoyu should be able to release some of his pent-up anger.
He was strong, and he would be fine, and he would eat.
Xu Jiale thought he would be okay.
But Fu Xiaoyu didn’t get better.
…
One by one, Zhao Yuan, Zhao Li, and Zhao Ning were captured, and the influence of the Zhao family and Donglin Group in B City had completely collapsed.
However, Han Jiangque still didn’t wake up.
Fu Xiaoyu stayed with Han Jiangque in Jincheng for a whole week before returning to B City.
This time, he didn’t behave as he used to, circling around Xu Jiale in the Lite building every day.
In fact, after Zhao Yuan was arrested, Han Jiangque’s father had already figured out that Han San was the one who had leaked the whereabouts of his son. It was just that he hadn’t made up his mind to deal with his own son yet.
But in any case, he gave Fu Xiaoyu absolute authority to clean up the remnants of IM Group.
On the day Fu Xiaoyu returned, he went straight to the top floor of the Twin Stars Building and convened a shareholders’ meeting as the executive president. In one breath, he fired several directors and managers that Han San had placed. Some of them had committed criminal offenses, and they were even arrested on the spot by the police Fu Xiaoyu brought along.
He was a young omega, but with such a tough approach, he terrified the whole group.
His subordinates were given important responsibilities again and took over the operation of the company.
Everyone understood that the situation had changed once again.
Fu Xiaoyu had returned to being “that” Fu Xiaoyu, the stern and unyielding president Fu.
Outwardly, he still appeared strong and composed, as if he hadn’t been affected by Han Jiangque’s situation at all, just like a precision computer, handling affairs of IM Group, big and small.
Every day, he worked late into the night, often until 11 or 2 in the morning. Only in the afternoon, he would come down from the top floor for a brief meeting with the team from the Love app project.
That 15-minute meeting was the only time Xu Jiale could see him each day.
Fu Xiaoyu was so thin.
Every day at the meeting, Xu Jiale couldn’t help but notice.
He had actually been sending messages to Wang Xiaoshan and even had him buy crab claws, but he heard that Fu Xiaoyu only ate a few bites and then stopped.
He had no solution to this because Fu Xiaoyu hadn’t sent him any private messages, and he couldn’t even send a message to break down the walls that had been built around this omega.
Spring had arrived, but Fu Xiaoyu always wore dress shirts. He still meticulously wore cufflinks every day, but his wrists had become so thin that it was shocking.
The once radiant Fu Xiaoyu, who used to walk into a room with swagger wearing his Ray-Ban glasses and say “morning” to everyone, had disappeared.
He had become a silent, emaciated omega who rarely spoke outside of work.
On weekends, Xu Jiale would drive Fu Xiaoyu to H City, where Han Jiangque’s father Han Zhan was located. Han Jiangque was being treated at a hospital there, and due to health issues, Wen Ke was also staying behind.
In the car, Fu Xiaoyu always seemed to be asleep, appearing busy and restless. The sunlight shining on his pale face accentuated the dark circles under his eyes.
They would usually make the trip in a single day. Xu Jiale knew that Fu Xiaoyu longed to see Han Jiangque, but he didn’t want Fu Xiaoyu to spend too much time in Han Jiangque’s hospital room.
Fu Xiaoyu’s condition at this time was like walking on a tightrope; he appeared calm, but it seemed like he could break down at any moment.
…
Xu Jiale’s premonition was correct.
One Wednesday night, when he was unable to sleep, he received several WeChat messages from Wen Ke.
Wen Wen Wen: I ran into Fu Xiaoyu outside the hospital in the middle of the night.
Wen Wen Wen: It seems like he’s come secretly in the middle of the night more than once.
Wen Wen Wen: Xu Jiale, it seems like he’s secretly crying.
Xu Jiale immediately jumped out of bed.
They couldn’t continue like this.
In that moment, that was the only thought running through his mind.