Du Yuwei's death

Our persistence finally paid off.

We finally found information on the girl who knocked on doors.

But what we learned shocked us beyond belief.

She was actually Du Ruhai's adopted daughter!

Who was Du Ruhai?

In Lanjiang City, at least, everyone knew his name.

From luxury mansions to cheap apartments, he had built them all over Lanjiang City.

I remembered seeing Du Ruhai himself from a distance at an industry networking event one year.

People at our level could never hope to speak to him. Even catching a glimpse of him from afar was like seeing a major celebrity.

"Could we have gotten this wrong...?"

Meng Yifan even stubbed out his cigarette. "If this Du Yuwei is the girl who knocked on doors, wasn't she adopted by Lü Zhengxian? Could Du Ruhai be Lü Zhengxian?"

"That's bullshit!"

I thought it was bullshit too.

A murderer suddenly transforming into a major business tycoon? How ridiculous would that be?

But if Du Ruhai wasn't Lü Zhengxian, why had Du Yuwei become Du Ruhai's adopted daughter?

I simply couldn't make sense of it.

Brother Liu looked at us curiously. "What are you two talking about? What do you mean, Du Ruhai is Lü Zhengxian?"

Meng Yifan pointed at the documents. "We ran into two ghosts, and this Du Yuwei was one of them. After she became a ghost..."

"I'm not listening! I'm not listening!" Brother Liu hurriedly covered his ears and even moved his chair farther away. "Talk all you want, just don't let me hear it."

He went back to eating and ignored us.

People who truly believed in this sort of thing kept well away from it. They knew that once you got tangled up with those things, no one could save you. Even if you died, the police couldn't get justice for you.

Meng Yifan and I could only discuss it between ourselves.

Putting together everything we knew, we could now confirm that the girl who knocked on doors was the sole survivor of the family massacre fifteen years ago, and that Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei had adopted her.

Now these documents had also given us her identity. Her name was Du Yuwei.

What we couldn't explain was why she had then become the adopted daughter of the business tycoon Du Ruhai.

Logically, either Du Ruhai was Lü Zhengxian, or Lü Zhengxian had let Du Ruhai adopt Du Yuwei. Those were the only ways she could have become Du Ruhai's adopted daughter.

I felt those were the only two possible explanations.

"This is bizarre."

Meng Yifan looked baffled. "Lü Zhengxian was willing to kill Li Xiumei to silence her for Du Yuwei's sake, yet he could bear to let someone else adopt Du Yuwei?"

The way Lü Zhengxian thought really was beyond an ordinary person's understanding.

I asked Brother Liu, "Brother Liu, let's talk about something else. This Du Yuwei... how did she die? Why is everyone else's information so detailed, while hers only says 'car accident'? How did that accident happen?"

Brother Liu put down his chopsticks. "Don't forget who her dad is. He's Du Ruhai. Losing his daughter was already painful enough for him, and the way she died... wasn't exactly something to be proud of. All he had to do was give the word, and people were silenced and information was erased."

Meng Yifan and I were startled. Apparently, Du Yuwei's death wasn't as simple as a car accident. There was more to it.

"What exactly was so disgraceful about it?"

"I can tell you, but don't spread it around."

Brother Liu was very cautious. "This affects Du Ruhai's reputation. I'm not worried about what's likely, I'm worried about that one tiny chance. If he finds out I was the one who leaked it, I could be out of a job tomorrow."

We both nodded quickly. No one could keep their mouths shut better than us.

"Du Ruhai's daughter, this Du Yuwei, arranged to fight another girl. What was it over? A relationship. To put it bluntly, it was a love triangle."

"Two women fell for the same man, and Du Yuwei was the other woman. She wanted this girl to hand her boyfriend over to her, but how could anyone agree to something like that?"

"Du Yuwei wouldn't take no for an answer. She even brought several girls along to corner her and beat her up. From what my friend told me, she left that girl psychologically scarred."

"The girl got scared and ran. When she ran, Du Yuwei chased her. Then, while she was chasing her, a car came along..."

Meng Yifan and I were stunned.

The other woman? Stealing someone's boyfriend and then beating her brutally?

Fuck!

Was that something a normal person would do?

"So she was hit by that car?" Meng Yifan's eyes widened.

Brother Liu nodded. "I heard she died on the spot. But honestly, she kind of had it com-"

Halfway through, Brother Liu abruptly swallowed the rest of his words, probably remembering that Du Yuwei had become a ghost.

He quickly pressed his palms together and bowed in every direction, muttering apologies.

"I heard all this from my friend. He handled the case."

Brother Liu continued, "Then Du Ruhai showed up, and people were silenced and information was erased. Otherwise, just the fact that Du Yuwei bullied that girl would have caused a huge uproar on the internet these days."

"If word got out, it wouldn't seriously hurt Du Ruhai, but it would still damage his reputation and his company's."

This Du Yuwei really was a nasty piece of work.

I wondered if she had turned out this way because Lü Zhengxian and Li Xiumei had influenced her as a child.

"Brother Liu, do you know where Du Yuwei's remains were buried?" I asked.

His expression suddenly changed. "How would I know? I'm not helping you look into that. I'm full. I'm heading back to work. Whatever you do, don't come to me about this."

With that, he made himself scarce.

He really was afraid of ghosts, judging by how terrified he was.

Meng Yifan and I talked it over. With Du Yuwei somehow having become Du Ruhai's adopted daughter, this was probably going to be tricky.

We decided to speak to Seventh Master first and ask his opinion.

I called Seventh Master right away.

Over the phone, he told me he had already been discharged. He couldn't get used to staying in the hospital.

Meng Yifan and I had been covering both his and Xiao Qing's medical bills, but Xiao Qing had also left the hospital. She said she didn't need to stay there, and there was no point in making us waste our money.

Xiao Qing really was a good person. She just had a hard life.

I didn't say much else over the phone and quickly told Seventh Master what we had learned about Du Yuwei.

What I actually wanted to ask was whether Du Yuwei's adoptive father, Du Ruhai, could be Lü Zhengxian.

But Seventh Master seemed focused on something else.

His tone suddenly grew serious. "Are you sure this Du Yuwei died three months ago?"

I told him I was sure. That information was very unlikely to be wrong.

"Then something's wrong."

Seventh Master's tone became even more serious. "She did die an unnatural death, but that shouldn't have turned her into a Vengeful Ghost. It's only been three months. How could she already be coming out to frighten people?"

I didn't quite understand what he meant, so I quickly asked him to explain.

"Let me put it this way."

"In her situation, if she didn't go where she was supposed to go, she would be a Wandering Ghost at most. She wouldn't have the power to hurt anyone."

"Unless someone is raising a ghost..."