Chapter 823 - Replace? (1)
Su Chen looked silently at the picture before him. After a while, he sighed and picked up one of the pictures, squinting those sharp eyes of his as his sunken face fixed his eyes onto it.
“Notice anything interesting?”
Zhou Zimo leaned in and looked at the picture in Su Chen’s hand too. He was instantly stunned, “Qi Qiming?”
Qi Qiming was a public figure who appeared in public often, and Zhou Zimo was quite familiar with him. Even though the picture in hand was not too clear, but Zhou Zimo could immediately recognize him, yet he could not tell who this man in black with sunglasses beside Qi Qiming was. He stared at it for quite a while before turning to look at Su Chen, puzzled. “Who’s this?”
Su Chen lifted a hand to massage the frown between his brows as he sighed, and then turned to look at the other pictures on the table. He picked one of it up and handed it to Zhou Zimo as he said softly, “You should be able to tell who this is from this picture, can’t you?”
Frowning, Zhou Zimo took it and studied it for quite a while. Suddenly, his eyes lit up. “Gu Qiwu… Are you saying that this man in black is Gu Qiwu? What does this mean?”
When Su Chen heard that, he moved the pictures in front of him aside. “See for yourself. These two days, I followed Ah Chen’s orders and secretly gathered these pictures and information. Indeed, as he expected, I told someone to track Qi Qiming who did go to the riverside to meet Gu Qiwu. After that, at the cemetery, I also saw Gu Qiwu going to pay respects to…”
“Are you saying that Gu Qiwu might have done this?”
Zhou Zimo squinted at Su Chen and flipped through the pictures in his hand. When he saw Gu Qiwu before Mu Zi and Mu Lingtian’s tombstones, his expression turned stiff and his movements paused. He hesitated for a moment, then took a deep breath and blinked before tossing the pictures onto the table. He sighed out loudly. “No wonder he was so sad…”
Su Chen leaned back against the chair, his eyes dim. “This is inevitable. If Grandfather and Grandmother Mu find out, I wonder what storm would brew. What do you think we should do about this?”
Zhou Zimo rubbed the space between his brows and shook his head feeling at a loss. “To be honest, if it were me, I really wouldn’t know what to do.”
“Just leave it to him to handle. Get him out first. He said that Li Si will be delivering some evidence soon, but I don’t if he’s telling the truth or not. The police have found traces of damages to the electricity generator circuit on the ship. That means that this was planned. There are CCTVs on the ship, and I’ve cut off a section of the clip two minutes before the incident of Wang Qin together with Ah Chen’s surroundings, but the footage isn’t that clear. It was quite hard to inspect it, so I couldn’t identify many people.”
“Didn’t the police inspect every person on the ship? We can compare them again with the information we’ve gotten through the inspection,” said Zhou Zimo, squinting at that picture. He continued, “Or maybe we can get some clues from Qi Qiming.”
“Ah Chen suspects that this might’ve been Gu Qiwu, but we can’t find any evidence. People like him who do things watertight won’t give it away so easily, but I think that no matter what, he wouldn’t have killed Wang Qin. This doesn’t benefit him, and it’d only bring him lots of trouble. How are things on Glory World’s end?”
“How else could it be? The shares keep falling. Earlier, when I came over, I even heard that Zhang Lan’s going to the government. It’s probably for the South River project which is one of Glory World’s biggest ones in recent years. If anything happens to it, the outcome won’t be good,” Zhou Zimo said helplessly.
Su Chen nodded. “I’m helpless on this too. You know that I don’t understand business matters at all. Let’s play by ear then. Alright, I’ll go find out about the situation from Li Si and Lawyer Wang. It’s getting late. Let’s have dinner together! Then, we’ll take a good look at these things again. Hopefully, we’ll discover something new.”
As Su Chen said this, he stood up and picked up the coat beside him to put on.
Zhou Zimo nodded as he helped to tidy the things on the table.
…
The storm continued for quite a few days, and only subsided that morning.
Inside Qi Qiming’s office, Qi Qiming and Gu Lingsha were discussing a proposal when the secretary suddenly entered and reported with a smug expression, “CEO Qi, I’ve just received news that Glory World’s Vice President Zhang Lan was called over. Based on Glory World’s current market situation, if it goes as expected, their South River Project No. 1 might need to suspend construction.”
Qi Qiming and Gu Lingsha both paused and looked gleeful.
“Is that confirmed?” Gu Lingsha asked.
“It can’t be false. I found out about it from people on the government’s end,” the secretary responded.
Gu Lingsha then grinned and said happily, “This is great news, Uncle Qi, I’m sure that means we’ve got one less competitor for South River Project No. 2. In fact, for this project, we could even replace them. My father’s been wanting to expand in City Z. If he could use this chance to gain a foothold, this would be a great thing.”
She had just finished when Qi Qiming’s gaze darkened slightly. Then, he smiled calmly. “Hopefully.”
“Is Qi Lei still not at work? It’s been quite a few days since Aunty Wang’s incident. How… how is he?” Gu Lingsha’s eyes held a hint of concern as she looked at Qi Qiming. “This incident’s been a huge blow to him, Uncle Qi. Qi Lei’s a simple person. You should be more concerned about him. I’m sure he just said all that in the heat of the moment. If Aunty Wang knew he was like this, she would be really sad too.”
When Qi Lei was mentioned, Qi Qiming’s eyes suddenly darkened. Naturally, he did not forget the few afflicted encounters they had.
“I’d be lucky if he doesn’t anger me to death. His temper is just like his mother’s!”
“Alright, Uncle Qi. Find a time to visit him. He’s been having it hard these past few days.”
“You don’t have to care about him. He’ll just make things hard for you. You just work hard on the South River project. Use this chance to hit Mu Yuchen where it hurts!” Qi Qiming’s eyes turned cold as he said coldly.
Gu Lingsha’s eyes froze for a bit, then she asked, “Uncle Qi, this time, will Mu Yuchen… really get into trouble?”
Qi Qiming scoffed. “That will depend on what Mu Tanghuan and the rest will do!”
“Uncle Qi, do you think it was him who did it too?”
“What I think isn’t important. As long as other people think it was him, Shasha, this is considered revenge for you, Weiwei, and Ah Feng!”