Chapter 478: She Went to Wu Chen’s House
by cnwebnovelsChapter 478: She Went to Wu Chen’s House
“Damaged… someone digging something up?” Wei Jianhe hesitated, as if giving it careful thought.
In fact, he hardly needed to think. This was his only factory, split into an old section and a new one. Once the new section was finished, the whole company had moved over. He had no other business to look after, and nearly every day of his life revolved around the new site.
If anything there had been damaged, he would have known. Someone would have reported it.
He remembered nothing of the kind. Not even anything that might have been.
Still, with Donghai’s richest man asking, he had to at least look as though he were thinking it over properly. After ten-odd seconds, he shook his head. “No! Boss Su, I can say for certain. The factory was completed three years ago, and there’s been no damage, and no one digging anything up. Definitely not!”
“Has any of the ground been repaired?” Su Ruiwen asked, turning to him.
“Well… we did some repairs inside the production building last year. The forklifts are always running around, and the forks keep hitting the floor when they pick up pallets… But outside, anywhere else on the grounds, and especially where your men are digging, nothing’s been repaired. I’m sure of it.”
“The place is only three years old. With normal use, there’d be no need.” Wei Jianhe answered every question Su Ruiwen put to him.
His business had nothing whatsoever to do with Su Ruiwen’s Jinfu Group. Tianhe Machinery Factory made mechanical components and electric motors. Jinfu dealt in gold and jewelry.
But Su Ruiwen was Donghai’s richest man, worth more than ten billion yuan!
Anyone with half a brain could imagine the kind of connections he had in Donghai, or across the whole country.
And he had come in person for this bizarre business!
It had to be something big!
Wei Jianhe badly wanted to help him pull it off.
He wouldn’t ask for anything up front.
He knew that as long as he took good care of this distinguished guest, Su Ruiwen would never treat him shabbily afterward! A word or two from Su Ruiwen in the right ears could land Tianhe Machinery Factory deals and orders it could never have won before. The benefits would be endless!
Wei Jianhe watched Su Ruiwen, his mind racing.
“Hmm…” Su Ruiwen lapsed back into thought.
This had gone beyond anything logic could explain. The other things Wu Chen had told him might have been leaked by someone. They hadn’t all been verified yet, so it was hard to judge.
But Xu Zhenyuan killing his mistress and burying her? Wu Chen had pinpointed the burial site far too precisely. So precisely that not even Xu himself could have been sure of it!
Su Ruiwen was even starting to have doubts again.
Could Wu Chen have been lying?
Li Ruobing clearly hadn’t even known what Wu Chen had told him, and yet she’d covered for him. If Wu Chen were lying… that made no sense either. It would be far too easy to expose.
It was baffling!
The Mercedes-Maybach was silent.
Su Ruiwen looked out through the windshield again and went on waiting without a word, his face expressionless. If he couldn’t work it out, he would simply wait. Soon enough, they’d know whether there was a body!
…
A little over twenty minutes later.
Inside the canvas-enclosed parking shelter, five or six bodyguards stood around the edge of a pit, shining their flashlights down into it.
Two more stood in the pit, digging steadily. They were already quite deep.
Clack!
On the next thrust, the shovel seemed to hit stone and sank only halfway in.
The bodyguard changed his angle and tried several more times, but it wouldn’t go any farther. Either there was a large rock down there, or something else was in the way.
“There’s something here,” he said. He tossed the shovel aside, crouched with a small spade, and started digging. The other bodyguard crouched beside him. Before long they’d turned up some fragments, and then… a badly decayed suitcase.
Only the top of it had been exposed, but they could tell it was an ordinary hard-shell ABS suitcase, the common kind. They’d even uncovered a wheel at one corner.
It had evidently been underground for so long that it was falling apart. It barely held together. A piece could be snapped off by hand.
In the end, the two of them cleared the soil from around it with their bare hands.
The lock had long since broken.
The bodyguard on the left pried at it, and the suitcase came open. He lifted the lid just a little, glanced inside, then frowned faintly and went still.
There was a corpse inside.
Judging by the tattered clothes, a woman.
The body itself… had partly skeletonized! In Donghai’s climate, a body buried underground would need at least three or four years to reach this state.
But it wasn’t entirely bone. Some dried tissue still clung to it.
Long hair.
It was a horrifying sight!
The bodyguard’s expression barely changed. He closed the suitcase first, then stood and looked up. “Tell the boss we found it. A woman. At least three or four years…”
…
Outside the office building.
Su Ruiwen sat back in the Maybach’s rear seat with his eyes closed. His health was poor and he tired easily. By this hour he felt drained.
Beside him, Wei Jianhe didn’t dare make a sound. He kept unconsciously rubbing his fingers together.
He was a heavy smoker, and the craving had hit. He wanted to step out for a cigarette but didn’t dare leave the car or disturb Su Ruiwen. For now, he had to grit his teeth and bear it.
Rapid footsteps approached outside.
Knock, knock!
A bodyguard came up to the Maybach’s right rear door and tapped twice, lightly, on the window.
Su Ruiwen opened his eyes, turned, and lowered the glass.
“Boss, we found it…” The bodyguard leaned in and spoke to him in a low voice. Su Ruiwen came fully alert at once. He listened, asked another couple of questions, and the bodyguard nodded.
“I understand,” Su Ruiwen said at last.
The bodyguard straightened.
Su Ruiwen raised the window, sat in silent thought for a moment, then turned to Wei Jianhe. “Boss Wei, starting today, your whole factory is shutting down. Every employee goes on paid leave, and I’ll cover the wages. If you have rush orders, I can put you in touch with other factories to make them for you. The profits are still yours. I’ll arrange everything… Does that work for you?”
Wei Jianhe was stunned for a moment, then answered at once. “Yes! Of course it does! Whatever you say, Boss Su! We’ll close right away. I’ll have everyone notified now… As for wages, I can cover those myself. There’s no need for you to pay…”
Su Ruiwen lifted a hand slightly to cut him off. “Whatever it comes to, I’ll pay you. That’s settled.”
They’d found the body, but he certainly couldn’t call the police and have Xu Zhenyuan arrested right away. That would only tip him off.
As things stood, there was no evidence at all tying the body to Xu Zhenyuan.
Even if they proved it was his mistress, that wouldn’t prove he’d killed her.
Su Ruiwen couldn’t possibly let the police look into this yet.
Xu Zhenyuan was a capable man, with plenty of ways to wriggle out of a charge.
If Su Ruiwen was going to move against him, he meant to finish him outright! The day the police came for Xu Zhenyuan would be the day every last piece of evidence was already in place!
He also meant to take back Xu’s shares in Jinfu Jewelry!
The other matters needed investigating too. Setting it all up would take at least a few days.
Strike a snake without killing it, and it would turn and bite. Su Ruiwen would never let that happen!
Nine o’clock that night. Shenghe Tianxia Manor, West District, Donghai.
Built at the turn of the new century, it was one of the most exclusive villa developments in Donghai. It was getting old by now, but it had always ranked among the city’s ten most prestigious luxury addresses. It was unusual in that its grounds were enormous, mostly landscaped gardens, with only twenty-one detached villas in all.
Back when it was built, only the very top tier of Donghai could afford a villa there: the wealthiest tycoons, the highest officials!
To this day, every villa still belonged to someone of that standing!
Villa No. 6!
The gates slowly swung open. The Mercedes convoy returned, circled the fountain and flowerbeds, and stopped at the foot of the front steps.
Su Ruiwen got out, coughed twice into a handkerchief, and headed inside.
A bodyguard opened the front door for him.
In the main hall, old-fashioned in style yet lavish in every detail, Madam Su sat at a piano in the corner, playing rather well.
The music stopped as Su Ruiwen came in.
“Hubby, what on earth was so urgent? Why did you have to go out yourself this late?” she asked, rising and walking over to him with a note of complaint.
But the complaint wasn’t aimed at him. It was aimed at whoever had made him go out and deal with it personally.
“It’s about Xu Zhenyuan,” Su Ruiwen said offhandedly. Then he asked, “Is Qingying back?”
“Not yet.”
“Still not back? A dinner engagement?”
“Not exactly… She said on the phone that she was going to see Li Ruobing. They’d arranged it. She’s been very close with Miss Li lately. She may not come home tonight.”
Su Ruiwen had wanted to talk to his daughter. He hadn’t expected her to go off to see Li Ruobing again today.
“Is she staying at Miss Li’s place? Or do they have something on this evening?” he asked casually, already heading upstairs.
“Neither… Miss Li has been living with her boyfriend lately. Qingying’s probably gone to her boyfriend’s place. Wu Chen’s,” Madam Su said.
Two steps up the stairs, Su Ruiwen stopped dead.