Chapter 108#

Late at night in a suburban cemetery.

This was Ji Yang’s second time here.

The feeling was different from when he’d come with Nie Xu last time. The cemetery in the dead of night was especially eerie and terrifying — the daytime tranquility and desolation were gone, replaced by nothing but endless darkness and the rustling of wind.

“In such a hurry? Are you sure you don’t want to call the police first?” Yu Qin asked.

“I need to figure this out immediately, and I can’t make too big a scene.” Ji Yang tilted his chin toward the several people around them, some burning yellow paper, others kowtowing. “It’s all just speculation for now. We’ll talk once we’ve confirmed further.”

Yu Qin glanced at the people he’d found, sighed, and acquiesced.

It was also Ji Yang’s first time learning that there was a profession called a “bone exhumation master.”

People who did this exclusively.

Ji Yang looked at the gravestone. “Even if the lead turns out to be wrong, I’ll just treat it as my own family’s affair. Worst case, I get branded as superstitious and unfilial.”

“Not telling Nie Xu either?” Yu Qin asked.

Ji Yang: “I haven’t hidden it from him. It’s just that he might not make it back these few days. The case isn’t closed — there’s still a lot that needs his cooperation.”

Yu Qin said nothing more.

The leading bone exhumation master was in his early fifties. While burning the paper, he kept shaking his head, saying, “Not good, not good.”

“What’s not good?” Ji Yang asked.

The man pointed behind the grave. “The mountain ridge behind the grave has been cut through by a highway. That’s called a severed dragon vein — it means the fortune of the descendants is abruptly cut off, with nothing to carry on the line. Terrible.”

Ji Yang smiled. “Don’t worry. I didn’t bring you here for that.”

But the part about the descendants having nothing to carry on wasn’t entirely wrong, either.

Sexual orientation isn’t something you can force.

Ji Yang patted Yu Qin’s shoulder. “Besides, the family incense of the Yu household depends on you.”

“No respect for your elders,” Yu Qin scoffed lightly. The atmosphere didn’t feel heavy at all.

But as this excavation progressed — with the horizon showing the first pale light of dawn and the yellow paper burning to ash — the scene suddenly plunged into a prolonged silence.

Ji Yang watched as the old, mud-caked coffin was pried open, revealing an empty interior.

It was an empty coffin. Not a single bone, not even a piece of clothing.

Yu Qin hadn’t anticipated this at all and stood frozen on the spot.

Even the experienced bone exhumation master was stunned. “I’ve been in this line of work for so many years, and this is the first time I’ve ever seen something like this.”

Ji Yang was silent for a long moment. Finally: “Call the police.”

Six thirty in the morning.

The sky was overcast. The wind was cold.

A layer of pale, white mist blanketed the surroundings. Dew from the overnight hung on branches and leaves. The hillsides in the distance were mostly obscured, with only a few streaks of varying greens peeking through.

When the police arrived, Ji Yang was sitting right there on the ground by the mound of earth, watching the special task force members and forensic doctor coming up the stone path.

When the figure leading the group gradually came into clear view, Ji Yang froze for a moment.

Nie Xu looked just as sleepless as he was.

He was still wearing the same outfit he’d left in, though the jacket was now off, the tie pulled loose and hanging well out of place, tangled with the shirt collar in a way that looked disheveled and careless.

From that distance, Ji Yang could feel his aura pressing low.

“Why are you here?” Ji Yang looked up at the person who had stopped before him.

Nie Xu lowered his gaze to look at him. “If I didn’t come, how long did you plan on sitting here?”

Ji Yang reached out his hand to him. “Until you came to pick me up. You’d come eventually, wouldn’t you?”

Nie Xu looked at him deeply for several long seconds after hearing those words, then grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet.

Ji Yang was enveloped in Nie Xu’s jacket as he watched Yu Qin exchanging words with the task force members. He turned to Nie Xu: “I thought they’d file it as grave robbery. How did the special task force get involved directly?”

Nie Xu held his ice-cold hand, transferring his warmth into it. “The news that your mother is Elara has been confirmed. Her disappearance is of the utmost importance, and given your identity, reporting to the police now means everything gets handled with the highest priority.”

Ji Yang recalled that before Nie Xu had gone to the border, he’d mentioned submitting both his and his mother’s identities for verification early on. That was probably the main reason there was such a swift and efficient response now.

All work at the scene was proceeding in an orderly manner.

The forensic doctor, after preliminary examination, confirmed that the grave showed no signs of having been disturbed or renovated in the past decade.

Which meant that Yu Fei’s disappearance wasn’t a matter of the grave being robbed because the Blue Sea Project had come to light and raised suspicions. She had been gone from here since long, long ago.

The special task force had been established specifically to follow up on the evidence chain of the Blue Sea Project. They were well aware of Ji Yang’s identity.

The team leader stood before Ji Yang and shook his head. “There’s not much more we can find here. Too much time has passed. We’ll have to start from scratch.”

Ji Yang said, “No.”

“No what?” The team leader didn’t understand.

Ji Yang looked directly at Nie Xu. Nie Xu met his gaze and explained to the team leader on his behalf: “This matter shouldn’t start from the Blue Sea experiment. She’s more than just Elara.”

The team leader glanced at Ji Yang, understanding dawning, but still said: “According to our findings, starting from her time studying abroad, Elara was secretly involved in this research as an international researcher. Later, when international organizations discovered the research was being used to reap enormous profits and harm human subjects, and that it was gradually expanding into China, that was when she resolutely chose to return, going deep undercover to investigate. Her identity as Yu Fei was too clear-cut, which is also why her other identity remained buried until her death. Twenty years ago, the heavy blow dealt to this project — she was instrumental in it. Her disappearance shouldn’t be unrelated to the matter itself.”

Ji Yang looked around, murmuring vaguely: “But what if, from the very beginning, she knew she had to die — die as Yu Fei? She may never have intended for anyone to know she was Elara. That wasn’t what she was after.”

The workers nearby all stopped what they were doing upon hearing this and fell silent.

Ji Yang took a bouquet of daisies from the base of the cemetery hill.

He went to see Ji Changshou at the detention center prison.

“I went to see my mom.” Ji Yang placed one of the daisies on the table in front of him.

After days of detention, Ji Changshou looked disheveled and haggard, exuding a defeated aura. He glanced at the flower. “If you went, you went. Why tell me?”

As he spoke, it seemed something occurred to him, and he suddenly grew animated for a moment. With his cuffed hands placed on the table, he addressed Ji Yang: “Here’s the deal — as long as you agree to testify to the police that I did nothing wrong, I’ll agree to divorce Yao Zhaoling. You care so much about your dad having illegitimate children, don’t you? From now on, Dad will have only you as a son! I swear!”

Ji Yang felt his stomach churn violently.

He laughed coldly. “You don’t still think being Ji Changshou’s son is some prestigious title, do you?”

“I know you look down on me.” Ji Changshou grew suddenly agitated. “That Yao Zhaoling, even if it’s only for my money, is still better than your mother! Since your mother married me — did she ever once look at me with genuine regard?! She was so proud, so lofty, and wasn’t she the one who died early?!”

Ji Yang clenched his fists tightly, his tone colder than ever before: “You killed her?”

“I didn’t kill her!” Ji Changshou roared. “She was already dying! What does her death have to do with me?!”

Ji Yang stood there, staring at him. “Then where did you hide her?”

It was as if someone had suddenly clamped down on Ji Changshou’s throat. His entire body went abruptly still from those words, and he dropped back into his seat.

He stared at Ji Yang through gritted teeth: “You were tricking me into talking?”

Ji Yang repeated: “I’m asking you. Where did you hide her?”

Ji Changshou looked at Ji Yang, then suddenly tugged at the corner of his mouth in a grin. “You really are just like your mother — you’d both rather see the Ji family rot in hell. But I’m not stupid. I haven’t actually done anything. Without evidence, the police have no choice but to release me sooner or later. As for your mother — same as I said, she died of illness, and I gave her a grand burial in the cemetery. Do you know how much that plot of land cost? And this is how you talk to your own father…”

Ji Yang lunged across the table and seized Ji Changshou by the collar of his prison uniform. “Listen to me. I know better than anyone — with your brain, you couldn’t have pulled this off alone. So you’ve got one last chance: lay out the whole story, tell me where she is. When I come to collect your corpse, I won’t mind getting you a coffin of comparable value for a send-off befitting your station.”

Ji Changshou hadn’t expected Ji Yang to act so suddenly. His eyes flickered, but his jaw stayed clamped shut.

Outside the one-way mirror.

Nie Xu stood there with members of the special task force.

The team leader was rather surprised. “Ji Yang is holding his composure better than I expected.”

Nie Xu rested his hand on the counter, watching inside, then turned to the task force members: “Bring him out soon. He really will hit someone.”

The team leader quickly signaled for someone below to go get him.

Then he turned back to Nie Xu: “What’s your read?”

“Ji Changshou has no bottom line, and at the same time, his psychological defenses are very easy to break through.” Nie Xu watched inside, where Ji Yang was being pulled away and Ji Changshou wore a fleeting, unmistakable expression of smug confidence. “Elara’s disappearance must be tied to him in some way. But even someone like him is biting his tongue and refusing to break — that proves he knows one thing clearly: as long as the materials aren’t discovered, there’s still room to maneuver.”

Team leader: “So right now, Ji Yansong is our only option? How’s his physical condition? Can he withstand interrogation?”

Nie Xu shook his head. “Starting from him would essentially be a waste of effort. My recommendation is to narrow the scope and investigate people one by one.”

Elara, under her identity as Yu Fei, had voluntarily returned to the Ji family. Not long after, the Ji family publicly announced her death from illness.

Even though it was still unknown what exactly she had done.

The last people to have contact with her were all members of the Ji family.

But now that it was confirmed there was no body of Yu Fei in the grave, the Ji family was under the most suspicion.

If someone had intended to destroy the evidence, they would have chosen cremation from the start.

Since they hadn’t, it meant they had deliberately hidden it.

Nie Xu: “From what I know of Ji Yansong’s suspicious nature, on Elara’s matter, he likely wouldn’t have kept the lab in the loop. Quite the opposite — in a multi-sided game of cat and mouse, he’d treat this as a life-saving trump card. The key is he has a habit: anything he considers important must be kept within his range of surveillance. The Ji family let go of a batch of old servants back in the day…”

When Ji Yang came out of the interrogation room, he leaned against the wall outside without moving.

The entire special task force office was bustling at a frantic pace.

Ji Yang listened as the team leader’s voice carried over clearly.

“I know everyone has been running on empty for days! But we have to push through right now!”

“Next, we’ll conduct round-the-clock interrogations of Ji Changshou in shifts — we must crack him open. The rest will conduct field visits and interviews, with the focus being… We are racing against time. Until the evidence chain is complete, there will be criminals attempting to get away, innocent people dying because of it…”

Ji Yang tilted his head back, staring at the ceiling. The people hurrying past him around seemed to exist in a different world from his own.

He couldn’t help but wonder: on the first day he woke up, had he ever imagined a scene like this?

He thought of the mother who had never once appeared in his memories.

He had come to understand who he was.

His family was like a beast with bared fangs, and the musty stench inside was nauseating.

Behind the wall of this very building was locked up his biological father, and here Ji Yang stood — in order to make him reveal where his mother’s body was.

That sense of helplessness, that suffocating feeling of having his throat seized.

“You okay?” A young female officer handed him a cup of water.

Ji Yang tugged at the corner of his mouth in a thin smile. “I’m fine.”

Just then, another hand reached in and took the water from the officer.

The officer was clearly familiar with the person and nodded before leaving.

Ji Yang looked at the newcomer and completely dropped that forced smile. He gazed at him and asked very earnestly: “How have you managed all these years?”

Nie Xu bent down slightly, looking into his eyes. “Tired?”

“It’s the anger of being powerless.” Ji Yang pushed off the wall and rested his head against Nie Xu’s shoulder, speaking softly: “I really wanted to kill Ji Changshou just now. I think I’m pretty terrifying myself.”

Nie Xu reached out and pinched the skin at the back of his neck. “It’s fine. I’ll cover for you.”

Ji Yang froze for a moment, not expecting him to say that, then laughed. “Brother Xu, what about your principles?”

“Principles depend on who they’re for.” Nie Xu coaxed gently.

After going nearly two days and a night without sleep, leaning against him, the exhaustion truly washed over Ji Yang in waves.

He forced himself to pull away and reached into Nie Xu’s pocket.

“What are you looking for?” Nie Xu caught his hand.

Ji Yang: “Your cigarettes. Give me one — I’m really sleepy.”

Nie Xu pulled his hand out.

“I quit,” Nie Xu said.

Ji Yang’s eyes went wide. “Liar — I just saw you smoking outside with the team leader.”

On this matter, Nie Xu didn’t even bother making up an excuse. He said directly: “Then you saw wrong.”

Ji Yang: “…”

Good. He wasn’t sleepy anymore.

He turned and gave Nie Xu a kick.

Though the kick was very light, and after delivering it, he just sank back into place.

Ji Yang asked softly: “Will I be able to find her?”

Nie Xu looked at him seriously. “You will.”