Suspicion

Lin Li rubbed the USB drive Wells had given him with his right finger and walked towards the underground training room. Barry followed behind him.

Upon arriving at the underground training room, Barry watched with a strange look as Lin Li took out over a dozen ice cream tubs from the refrigerator. He plugged the USB into a tablet and pulled up the files – a sixteen-gigabyte pure text document.

Watching Lin Li devour the ice cream, Barry hesitated and asked, "Lin Li, can I trust you?"

Because of the Speed Force in Lin Li's mind, Barry had always felt a strong sense of connection to him, especially after Lin Li had provided significant assistance during yesterday's battle. This made Barry feel a great deal of trust in Lin Li.

Lin Li didn't answer immediately. He stopped scooping ice cream and thought about what Barry's troubles might be at this point in the TV show.

According to the show, Barry was currently full of pride and confidence, his victory over the Weather Wizard having instilled immense self-assurance.

He certainly wouldn't be saying, "Can I trust you?" to Lin Li with such a worried expression.

If it were about his personal issues with Iris, Lin Li wouldn't have been interested in listening to Barry complain.

Lin Li continued to scoop and eat his ice cream, saying, "Yes, the fact that you can ask me this question shows you trust me. It's just that there might be something making things difficult for you, and you want to confide in someone or perhaps need my help. If it's a secret you need to keep or a relationship matter, I suggest you keep it to yourself."

I really don't want to deal with your messed-up relationship issues.

Barry nodded to himself, "I trust you, Lin Li."

The moment he finished speaking, Lin Li felt his surroundings blur.

Yellow lightning crackled.

People, vehicles, and houses turned into points of light, then rapidly stretched into streaks as they shot past his vision.

Barry was taking him for a run using the Speed Force.

Before long.

The world seemed to pause for a moment, halting from its extreme speed.

Barry brought Lin Li into a house.

It was Joe's house. Joe was sitting on the sofa, poring over a case file, with a cup of strong black coffee on the table.

Barry's sudden arrival at super-speed scattered his files everywhere.

Lin Li patted the smoking embers on his black T-shirt and extinguished them with his hand.

He said unceremoniously, "Barry, I really don't like this. I still have seventeen tubs of ice cream, and I've only just started the first one. What's going on?"

Joe said, "Barry, what are you doing? We can't let anyone close to Wells know about our research."

"Calm down, calm down, Joe. Lin Li will help us. I trust Lin Li," Barry explained.

"Lin Li, Joe and I suspect Dr. Wells is involved in my mother's death. I need your help to monitor him at STAR Labs and see if he's acting suspiciously."

Lin Li's heart tightened. Already suspicious?

The plot was moving too fast.

Lin Li felt as if they had already reached episode 20. Joe and Barry's suspicion of Wells so early was not a good thing. Barry's speed wasn't up to par yet, far from it. Lin Li had only just begun to extract some knowledge from Wells, and he wasn't prepared. This sudden development would disrupt everything for Lin Li.

"What evidence do you have?"

Lin Li said calmly. He needed to stabilize them in Wells's place. Discovering Wells's intentions too early would be detrimental to them. It would only force Wells to desperate measures, possibly by threatening their families and forcing Barry to run faster to gain the speed needed to return to the future.

Lin Li already knew that Joe was helpless and could only hope that Barry's trust in him was truly warranted, which was why he told Lin Li everything related to his suspicions.

"Relying on your experience, Joe, and the fact that STAR Labs was founded by Dr. Wells 14 years ago, and Wells is concerned about Barry's safety, you suspect Dr. Wells is problematic?"

Fortunately, it hadn't progressed to digging up bodies in Star City or collecting blood samples from Barry's old house. This level of suspicion was more like episodes 3 or 4. Lin Li breathed a sigh of relief. It was relatively easy to allay suspicions at this level. There was no decisive evidence. Joe's initial suspicion was dispelled by Wells's deceased wife.

Therefore, Lin Li cited the original work and guided their attention toward Wells's deceased wife. This would reduce a lot of suspicion. Moreover, both Joe and Barry were emotional people, easily swayed by feelings.

Or rather, in the first season of The Flash, everyone except Wells was very easily swayed by emotions.

Lin Li said, "Perhaps you should investigate Dr. Wells's wife. I believe at that time, he wouldn't have been involved with Barry's mother in that state."

It was still too early for this period. Exposing his true colors prematurely would only make him resort to any means necessary, and the ones who would get hurt would be the people around you. Barry, if you had Mach 2 speed, all of this would be easily resolved.

Mach 2 speed, twice the speed of sound, 680 meters per second, would be enough for Barry to collide with hydrogen protons in the particle accelerator, creating a wormhole and traveling through time. At that point, whether it was for Wells, Barry, or Lin Li, they would all be qualified to choose a very good outcome.

Everything was not for now.

Hearing Lin Li's words, Joe and Barry exchanged glances.

Barry said, "Lin Li, what do you know?"

This, I can't explain. Should I tell you, Barry, that I actually know everything?

Lin Li said helplessly, "Your respect and admiration made me curious about what kind of person Dr. Wells is. I looked into some of his past affairs. Other than that, I don't know anything."

In the end, Barry and Joe discussed Wells for a while. Lin Li also offered some guiding opinions, but none of them yielded good results. The case from fourteen years ago wasn't easy to investigate, especially since Lin Li had also skewed some of their viewpoints. Finally, Joe went to investigate Wells's past. As for whether Joe and Barry would temporarily set aside their investigation of him because of Wells's wife, that remained to be seen.

After discussing for a while and finding no results or clues, the group dispersed.

That evening, Lin Li made hot pot. Watching the three of them awkwardly use chopsticks, with pieces of lamb occasionally falling onto the table, Lin Li insisted they pick them up and eat them under the guise of not wasting food. The three of them wore expressions of utter misery as they fumbled with their chopsticks, causing them to burst into laughter.

Lin Li's bond with the people at STAR Labs grew stronger.

For the next few days, Lin Li inquired about the research data on wormholes and, as Barry had asked, "monitored" Wells. Of course, Lin Li knew that all of this was useless; such petty tricks wouldn't work on Wells.

The group mostly analyzed and researched at Joe's house. Sometimes Lin Li would go to the police station or Barry's lab to confer with Joe. Of course, Lin Li wasn't genuinely enthusiastic about exposing Wells's true face; rather, it was because Wells would monitor everything in Barry's lab.

Once Wells caught wind of all this, Lin Li could finally relax and watch Wells put a stop to Joe's investigation.

Wells would be even less inclined to let Joe investigate. After all, Barry's speed had only just begun to increase, and the benefits were just starting to show. How could he tolerate Joe's actions? If Joe happened to uncover something, fourteen years of effort could be ruined.

After some time, there was no progress.

Joe said, "I've arranged to meet Wells to test him."

Inside the Time Vault.

Wells looked at Joe's image on the screen with amusement.