94: Investigation of Zhong Xiaoru

"Okay."

She nodded gently, her voice carrying a trace of imperceptible softness.

"I will."

Although Shen Zhixia had always considered herself a sufficiently rational and strong woman...

...at this moment, Lin Chao's simple and unadorned concern made her feel more at ease than any flowery rhetoric ever could.

Her heart felt warm.

Shen Zhixia stepped forward and personally escorted Lin Chao to the door.

She opened the door and watched him step into the elevator.

Only when the elevator doors slowly closed and the soft "ding" echoed in the empty corridor did she withdraw her gaze and gently close the door... Meanwhile, on the other side.

Lin Chao entered the elevator and pressed the button for the 18th floor.

The elevator descended smoothly.

He returned directly to his own home downstairs and casually placed the medicinal herbs that didn't belong to Shen Zhixia in the entryway.

Immediately after, he took out his phone, skillfully found a number in his contacts, and dialed it.

The call was answered almost instantly.

"Hello?" A crisp and pleasant female voice came through the receiver, tinged with an irrepressible hint of excitement.

Lin Chao walked to the balcony, slid open the glass door, and spoke in a relaxed tone.

"Qiaoqiao."

"Are you free tonight?"

"Let me treat you to dinner."

On the other end of the line, Yan Qiaoqiao was delighted to hear this, and her voice became several degrees sweeter.

Without any hesitation, she immediately agreed.

"I'm free! Of course I'm free!"

The smile at the corners of Lin Chao's lips deepened slightly.

"Alright, then I'll pick you up at the company entrance when you get off work."

Hanging up the phone, Lin Chao casually tossed it onto the sofa.

He stretched, and the joints all over his body let out a series of "crackling" pops.

After being busy all afternoon, he could finally take a break.

However, before his butt even touched the sofa, the phone he had just tossed vibrated with a "buzz."

A crisp notification sound broke the silence of the room.

Lin Chao subconsciously glanced at it.

He raised an eyebrow slightly and reached out to grab the phone.

K: [The items you requested.]

Below was an encrypted compressed file.

Lin Chao's gaze changed instantly.

His eyes, which had been somewhat lazy and relaxed a second ago, suddenly sharpened, like an eagle that had spotted its prey.

The smile at the corner of his mouth also quietly faded away.

The person Xie Mengya introduced really had an extraordinary level of efficiency.

Without a word, he took his phone and walked straight into the study.

*Clack.*

He flipped open the laptop with one hand.

The faint blue light of the screen instantly illuminated his expressionless face.

He connected the phone to the computer, his movements smooth and fluid without a single redundant pause.

Receiving the file, decompressing.

A folder named [Zhong Xiaoru] lay quietly on the desktop.

Lin Chao moved the mouse and double-clicked to open it.

Inside was a PDF document so detailed it was staggering.

Starting from the first page were Zhong Xiaoru's ID photo and basic information.

The girl in the photo had straight bangs and clear eyes, looking pure and innocent.

[Zhong Xiaoru, female, eighteen years old, recent graduate of Linhai City No. 3 Middle School.]

Lin Chao's gaze scanned down rapidly.

The school was indeed very ordinary, not even considered third-rate in Linhai City.

Her family conditions were also indeed quite impoverished, just as Lan Qingyu had said.

[Her father, Zhong Jianjun, had an affair and left home when Zhong Xiaoru was eight years old; his whereabouts remain unknown to this day.]

[Her mother, Wang Xiulian, worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant in her early years. Later, due to overwork, she developed severe kidney disease and rheumatism, making her unable to continue working. She has been recuperating at home for many years.]

Seeing this, Lin Chao's expression didn't change at all.

This was all information he already knew.

That silly girl Lan Qingyu had even personally gone to her dilapidated tenement building for lunch.

It was precisely because of this that she believed Zhong Xiaoru's words without a doubt.

Lin Chao scrolled down with the mouse wheel and continued reading.

However, when the document turned to the third page, his finger suddenly stopped.

The light from the screen reflected in his bottomless pupils, glinting with a trace of coldness.

[Personal Resume (Junior High School Stage)]

[First semester of eighth grade: Introduced by classmates, she began contacting delinquent youths outside of school.]

[Same year: Witnessed multiple times smoking in off-campus KTVs, bars, and other venues.]

Lin Chao's brow furrowed imperceptibly.

He leaned back against the chair, switching to a more comfortable position, but his gaze became even more focused.

Interesting.

He continued reading.

The next line of text made the air in the entire study seem to drop several degrees instantly.

[From the second semester of eighth grade until graduation from ninth grade: Maintained improper relationships with multiple idle social elements, with seventeen confirmed records of hotel room bookings.]

The document even included several low-resolution photos captured from hotel surveillance.

In the photos, Zhong Xiaoru was intimately linking arms with different men, the smile on her face bright yet world-weary.

She looked like a completely different person compared to that pure ID photo.

Any trace of a smile had completely vanished from Lin Chao's face.

All that remained was a cold indifference.

He continued scrolling down. At the end of the materials, there was a supplementary note regarding her mother's illness.

[Confirmed through visits to neighbors and community personnel: Her mother, Wang Xiulian, has a weak personality and neglected her daughter's discipline.]

[Zhong Xiaoru has been extremely rebellious since junior high school, frequently engaging in heated arguments with her mother over issues such as staying out all night.]

[A significant part of the reason for the worsening of Wang Xiulian's condition is long-term emotional depression caused by being provoked by her daughter's words and actions.]

"Heh."

A very faint cold laugh escaped Lin Chao's throat.

Sick from anger?

He slowly closed the laptop.

The soft "snap" sounded exceptionally piercing in the quiet study.

That impoverished girl who cried so pitiably before Lan Qingyu, appearing sensible and filial... turned out to be like this behind the scenes.

What a great show.

The air in the study seemed to have frozen into ice.

Lin Chao's fingertips lightly tapped on the cold laptop casing.

The rhythm was neither fast nor slow, like the pendulum of the Grim Reaper.

A few seconds later, as if remembering something, he opened the laptop again.

The folder named [Zhong Xiaoru] still lay quietly on the desktop.

Besides that PDF, there was also a subfolder named [Supplementary Materials].

He had been reading too fast just now and had actually overlooked it.

Lin Chao moved the mouse and clicked into it.

With a whoosh, thumbnails of over a dozen photos instantly filled the screen.

Most were blurry surveillance screenshots, similar to what he had just seen in the PDF.

But a few were clearly much higher in resolution, appearing to be taken at close range with a mobile phone.

Lin Chao's gaze was firmly attracted by one of them.

The background of the photo was a neon-lit KTV private room.

Zhong Xiaoru was laughing uncontrollably, a slender lady's cigarette between her fingers, her entire body practically hanging off a yellow-haired hoodlum.

Lin Chao recognized the yellow-haired guy at a glance.

He was none other than one of the "creditors" who had cornered Lan Qingyu in the alley that day, claiming Zhong Xiaoru owed him money!

Lin Chao's gaze suddenly turned cold.