Dragon Brother sat in his chair. He hadn't moved.
But his expression had changed. The shrewdness, the condescension, the easy command of the room—all of it gone. He was reassessing the man in front of him.
"Director Long." Yin Wuwang sat back down, posture identical to thirty seconds ago, as though nothing had happened in between. "The question about Zhou Wen. Please answer."
Dragon Brother stared at him for a long time.
Then he drew a breath, glanced at the big man still kneeling on the carpet, then at Xiao Wu braced against the wall rubbing his collarbone.
"Which unit were you with?" he asked.
"Sports academy." Yin Wuwang didn't blink.
The corner of Dragon Brother's mouth twitched—half resignation, half concession.
"Fine." He spread both hands flat on his knees. "I don't know much about Zhou Wen. But Chen Wan did come to me once for a loan."
Yin Wuwang's gaze sharpened.
"Two years ago." Dragon Brother said. "He came and said he needed a sum of money. Separate from the repayment plan—an additional loan. A hundred and twenty thousand. He didn't say what it was for."
"You lent it?"
"I lent it." Dragon Brother's tone was flat. "A hundred and twenty thousand isn't much. He'd always paid on time; his credit was solid. I didn't ask about the purpose. But—"
He paused.
"I had someone look into it afterward. That money was transferred into the account of a psychiatric hospital."
The reception room went quiet for two full seconds.
Yin Wuwang glanced sideways at Xie Qingyan. In the notebook on Xie Qingyan's knee, the question mark after "Psychiatric hospital" had been struck through with a single line and replaced with a period.
"Which psychiatric hospital?" Xie Qingyan asked.
"I can't quite remember the name. Something with Kang—" Dragon Brother frowned. "Kangning? Yes, that was it. Kangning Psychiatric Hospital. North of the city."
Yin Wuwang carved this name into his memory. Kangning Psychiatric Hospital. North of the city.
"One more thing—" Dragon Brother added. "Why are you investigating Zhou Wen? Does she have something to do with Chen Wan's case?"
"That's not yet certain." Yin Wuwang stood. "Thank you for your cooperation, Director Long."
He didn't elaborate. Dragon Brother was a businessman—the less you said, the more space you left for speculation. And speculation unsettled people more than certainty. Unsettled people volunteered more information down the road.
Xie Qingyan closed his notebook and rose from his chair.
Dragon Brother didn't call anyone to see them out this time. He sat watching the two of them walk toward the door, his gaze moving from Yin Wuwang's back to Xie Qingyan's profile, and back again.
"Officer Jiang."
Yin Wuwang stopped. He didn't turn around.
"Those moves of yours... impressive." Dragon Brother's tone held a thread of something—an old hand's recognition of a younger one's skill.
Yin Wuwang turned his head, the corner of his mouth shifting a fraction: "Good coaching at the academy."
He pushed the door open, and he and Xie Qingyan walked into the corridor one after the other.
[Cloud City · Long Teng Tower · Parking Garage]
After the elevator doors closed, Yin Wuwang let out a long breath.
"Sports academy?" Xie Qingyan looked at him.
"This sovereign found the explanation very convincing."
"If Dragon Brother checks, there won't be a Jiang Ye in Cloud City Sports Academy's graduate roster for the past twenty years."
"He won't check." Yin Wuwang pressed the button for basement level one. "He's a businessman. What matters to him isn't where this sovereign came from—it's whether this sovereign is worth recalculating the cost for."
The elevator descended. Cold white light pressed their shadows flat beneath their feet.
"Zhou Wen. Kangning Psychiatric Hospital. North of the city." Xie Qingyan strung the keywords together in a low voice. "Chen Wan borrowed a hundred and twenty thousand two years ago, transferred directly into the hospital's account."
"He was repaying a ten-million-yuan debt on one hand," Yin Wuwang said, "and covering Zhou Wen's hospital fees on the other."
"While living in a hundred square feet and eating expired box lunches himself."
Neither spoke for several seconds.
The elevator arrived. Doors opened. The cool air of the parking garage surged in, carrying the smell of diesel and cement.
Yin Wuwang walked toward the car.
"Fuguang." He stopped beside the driver's door.
"Mm."
"Nobody around Chen Wan knows Zhou Wen exists—Dragon Brother only knew there was a 'pretty little girlfriend' five years ago, then she vanished. Xiao Zhou never mentioned her. No leads from the Xu Ruolin side either."
"He hid her deep." Xie Qingyan opened the passenger door.
"The question is," Yin Wuwang braced a hand on the car roof, his gaze crossing over the vehicle to meet Xie Qingyan's, "does anyone know more than Dragon Brother? Is there someone who not only knows which hospital Zhou Wen is in, but also knows why Chen Wan was hiding her?"
Xie Qingyan's hand rested on the door frame. A brief pause.
"If such a person exists," he said, his tone very quiet, "then what they hold isn't just Zhou Wen's whereabouts—it's the truth of Chen Wan's entire story."
Yin Wuwang got into the driver's seat and started the engine.
The car pulled out of the garage and merged into the traffic outside Long Teng Tower. Late October evenings darkened early; the streetlights were already on, glazing the road in a film of amber light.
Yin Wuwang drove for a stretch, arranging priorities in his head.
"Psychiatric hospital admission records are patient privacy. Proper channels require a warrant." Xie Qingyan spoke first. "We report back to Captain Lin, get him to approve the paperwork. Two or three days at the earliest."
"We can't sit around for two or three days." Yin Wuwang said. "The Xu Ruolin line still isn't closed. Little Lu got her contact info—we set up the interview tomorrow."
"Mm." Xie Qingyan paused. "If Branch B isn't closed, we can't confirm all peripheral suspects have been eliminated. The Zhou Wen thread needs investigating, but we can't skip procedure."
Yin Wuwang nodded. Fuguang's pace on a case was always like this—no matter how urgent things got, he never skipped a single step that needed taking.
The car fell quiet for a while.
The city streamed past outside the windows—towers, storefronts, neon signs, pedestrians waiting at red lights. Every person moving in their own direction, every light sheltering its own story.
And in the north of this city, in a place called Kangning Psychiatric Hospital, there was a woman named Zhou Wen. Someone was paying for her stay. Someone didn't want anyone to know she was there.
Yin Wuwang watched the road ahead.
At the end of this thread, there might be more than just Zhou Wen.
[End of V2_Chapter 56]
Next: The Side Effects of Forced PDA