Chapter 111: A Witness to Fatal Dirt

Chapter 111: A Witness to Fatal Dirt

Wu Chen’s understanding of Ding Ruilong was thorough in every direction.

Although Ding Ruilong wasn’t in Donghai but in Nanguang City, Wu Chen had gone to Nanguang many times during the repeating July 7. The flight took only a little over two hours.

Inside the loop he had gone every morning. In different repeated iterations he investigated different intelligence, and in the end he had even kidnapped Ding Ruilong and questioned him about a great many things.

Across a thousand years of loops, Donghai was what Wu Chen understood best, but of course he had touched the world beyond it too. Most of the time it was passive. When he investigated someone in Donghai and a person elsewhere proved to have a major connection to them, Wu Chen would go out, find that person, and investigate everything about them.

At present, nearly everything Wu Chen knew of Nanguang City’s secrets had to do with Ding Ruilong. Not that all the secrets concerned him—rather that the people holding secrets had direct connections to him.

Because Ding Ruilong was the source that had driven Wu Chen to Nanguang to gather intelligence in the first place.

Ding Ruilong was also why Wu Chen had gone to investigate in Modu. Modu was nearer to Donghai; there was no need to fly, and the high-speed rail took a little over two hours.

Though the first time Wu Chen went to Modu to investigate, it hadn’t been because of Ding Ruilong. Only later, after he learned Ding Ruilong had an illegitimate daughter living there, had he gone back to Modu to look again.

Wu Chen opened the message from No Envy by the Abyss and began typing a reply.

No Envy by the Abyss: Hello, Teacher Xingchen.

Xingchen: Don’t call me teacher. I’m not that old.

No Envy by the Abyss: You’re too modest, teacher. Your sketches are so good—calling you teacher has nothing to do with age.

Xingchen: Thanks for the compliment. The drawing’s only passable.

No Envy by the Abyss: Teacher, you’re far too modest. How could that be passable? I’ve hired plenty of tutors for Xinxin, and next to yours, their drawings are what deserve to be called passable.

No Envy by the Abyss: Xinxin is my daughter. She’s in middle school.

Xingchen: Your daughter’s learning to draw too? How long has it been?

No Envy by the Abyss: Three years. She even studied with Teacher Wang Zhengtao of Modu Academy of Fine Arts, but then Xinxin got into trouble and he stopped teaching her. This child really gives me headaches.

Xingchen: It’s normal for children to be a bit mischievous.

They chatted very naturally about drawing, and along the way about the child learning to draw.

After Wu Chen replied once more, the other side paused for more than ten seconds, then sent a picture. A sketch photographed with a phone. A drawing of dinner…

After that, No Envy by the Abyss went on sending pictures, five or six in a row.

All sketches. Flowers, birds, fish, insects, fruit, street scenes—everything.

No Envy by the Abyss: Teacher Xingchen, could you take a look? These are all my daughter’s. Could I trouble you for some comments?

Wu Chen waited a moment.

He didn’t need to look at the drawings. He had seen them during the loop.

But looking at drawings took time, so he couldn’t reply immediately.

A little over ten seconds later, he answered.

Xingchen: They’re very good. Much better than what those children in the group posted just now. Your daughter’s only in middle school? How old is she?

No Envy by the Abyss: She’ll start ninth grade in the second half of the year. Fourteen.

Xingchen: To draw like this at fourteen is already very impressive. She has very high talent. If your family is willing to cultivate her carefully, she can develop in this direction. Her future won’t be a problem at all.

No Envy by the Abyss: Even you say so, Teacher Xingchen… That’s exactly what I keep saying. My child can do it. Everyone says she has talent. Her school and those tutors all praised her talent too.

Xingchen…