I Raise My Wife in a Supernatural Story (Infinite) - Chapter 64

Qi Yan casually bluffed her way through the conversation, acting as though she possessed profound insight, though she was merely echoing Hong Jing’s words.

However, upon hearing this, Meng Jiumo’s expression immediately became hesitant. He had originally thought that this job was about to fall through and that being caught up in such a gruesome murder case was far too unlucky. He had planned to cut his losses and head back to his studio to look for new work.

But listening to Hong Jing and Qi Yan now, it seemed this project might not fall through so easily? Although the developer was dead, everyone else was fine. If this evaluation passed and they secured government support, the government could completely replace Zhao Ruibin as the new developer. If that happened, nothing would be delayed!

In a flash, Meng Jiumo’s mind raced through several possibilities. Realizing the logic behind their words, he immediately abandoned his plan to leave and prepared to follow Qi Yan’s lead. His reasoning was straightforward: Qi Yan was the biggest investor; following her rhythm would surely be the safest bet.

Qi Yan stopped to chat with Hong Jing for a few minutes, completely ignoring Meng Jiumo, who was standing aside lost in thought. By now, the conversation had shifted toward Zhao Ruibin and his company.

This was Hong Jing’s second time collaborating with Zhao Ruibin. Earlier this year, Hong Jing’s team had completed a project that Zhao Ruibin was extremely satisfied with upon inspection. This had solidified their partnership, leading him to hand the primary responsibility for this massive resort project over to Hong Jing’s team with a grand wave of his hand.

“Our company has invested in President Zhao’s projects before. We collaborated once; President Zhao was a straightforward person, and our previous cooperation went quite smoothly.”

Hong Jing gave a small smirk and agreed. “In the business world, dealing with President Zhao was indeed quite comfortable. He was an excellent businessman. All businessmen value profit, and he was no exception—he was greedy for money, yet he placed great importance on his partners and the projects under his care. He worked in construction, an industry where cutting corners is the ultimate taboo, yet it has seemingly become the norm. As long as it passes inspection, many developers choose to swap materials for inferior substitutes. But President Zhao wouldn’t. He insisted that everyone use the specified materials, making people feel he was upright and just. He was a truly clever merchant; he ensured that all the money he made was money he deserved to earn.”

Hong Jing’s appraisal of Zhao Ruibin was surprisingly high. Qi Yan pondered this and remarked casually, “True. There is a lot of chaos in the construction industry these days, but President Zhao managed to hold that baseline. I once invested in an office building project—not one of President Zhao’s—and that developer was later investigated. It was related to withholding public construction funds; the workers stormed the company, and one even lost his life. It seems President Zhao never encountered such issues.”

Hong Jing hummed and smiled. “I’ve encountered the issue of developers withholding payments from construction teams far too many times. Almost every time, I have to personally step in and argue to get the money back. My workers have never suffered for it, but I’ve dealt with plenty of frustrating developers. As for President Zhao, regardless of anything else, his payments were indeed prompt. Every worker who has ever done a job for him would admit that.”

Based on this description, Zhao Ruibin’s death likely wasn’t related to conflicts with site workers. If what Hong Jing said was true, workplace disputes could be ruled out as a motive. However, this was only Hong Jing’s perspective, and Qi Yan wasn’t naive enough to take it at face value.

“Boss Hong has collaborated with President Zhao before, but what about Teacher Meng? Is this your first time working with him?” Qi Yan shifted the focus back to Meng Jiumo.

Meng Jiumo, who had been chatting with Jiang Miao, immediately replied upon hearing Qi Yan’s question, “It isn’t my first time. I previously helped President Zhao design a garden for a residential complex—a simple, traditional landscape style.”

Qi Yan arched an eyebrow. “And have you worked with Boss Hong before?”

“No, the projects Boss Hong and I worked on were different.”

Hong Jing joined in, “The last project I did was an office building. There wasn’t much external environmental design, though I did collaborate with Teacher Dai Qi.”

At the mention of Dai Qi, Meng Jiumo slapped his hands together. “Right! I collaborated with Dai Qi once as well. But since one of us handles external landscaping and the other handles interior design, we didn’t deliberate together much. There wasn’t a lot of overlap.”

Qi Yan’s heart skipped a beat, though she showed no sign of it on the surface. The connections between these people were slowly surfacing; to varying degrees, they had all worked together.

She remarked as if in passing, “Teacher Dai Qi seems very easy to get along with, and her professional skills are top-notch. Speaking of which, my company is planning an expansion. We might build another tower next to our headquarters, and I was planning to invite Teacher Dai Qi to handle the design.”

“Dai Qi is easy to get along with?!” Meng Jiumo’s voice rose, as if he had heard a hilarious joke. “That woman is the definition of nitpicking! Although we didn’t have much overlap, I’ve heard from developers we both worked with that when she does a design, she scolds the clients until they’re red in the face. She accepts reasonable requests, but if a client makes even a slightly excessive demand, she’ll point right at their nose and tell them they’re an amateur and should stay quiet!”

Meng Jiumo scratched his head. “Anyway, as fellow designers, I’m bullied by clients every day, but she bullies the clients every day. That woman is definitely not easy to get along with! President Shi, don’t be fooled by her appearance!”

“My, I was wondering why I was sneezing so much. It turns out someone is speaking ill of me behind my back.”

Just as Meng Jiumo finished speaking, a crisp, cold voice came from behind. He spun around with a start, only to see Dai Qi standing a short distance away with her arms crossed, looking at him with a cold smirk.

“Y-you! Why did you pop up like that and scare me!”

“Scare you? I didn’t realize Teacher Meng enjoyed gossiping so much! For a grown man to be so loose-lipped is a bit unseemly, don’t you think?”

“Who are you calling unseemly?!”

Well, speak of the devil. Qi Yan discreetly took a half-step back, leaving the stage to the two of them to let them have at it.

Hong Jing, noticing her retreat, smiled slightly and stepped aside as well. She completely ignored the standoff between Meng Jiumo and Dai Qi, instead looking around. “Where is Manager He?”

Qi Yan blinked. She had almost forgotten about He Xueyan. Since entering the script, everyone had interacted to some degree except for He Xueyan. She seemed like an introvert who hated communicating, frequently showing signs of nervousness and appearing constantly distracted.

“I haven’t seen her since lunch. And… she gives me a distracted vibe. Could she have run into some trouble?” For some reason, Qi Yan had an unexplainable feeling. He Xueyan acted like a new player—constantly panicked, much like Qi Yan had felt during her first script: terrified, confused, and helpless.

But this clearly wasn’t a novice script. If a new player were sent into a script of this difficulty, it would be equivalent to a death sentence.

Therefore, He Xueyan’s behavior was very strange. If she wasn’t a player, she was an NPC, and that panicked state made her exceptionally suspicious. Perhaps there was some unknown conflict between her and Zhao Ruibin, causing her to be so distracted while on this business trip with her boss.

Of course, this was currently just Qi Yan’s speculation. There were too few clues, and she hadn’t had a chance to get close to He Xueyan to investigate further.

Now, however, was a good opportunity. Qi Yan glanced at the consistently calm Hong Jing, then quickly exchanged looks with Jiang Miao and Tang Shanshan. Through the team system’s messaging feature, the three decided to split up.

Qi Yan would use the excuse of future collaboration to chat more with Hong Jing and see if she could fish for more information. Meanwhile, Jiang Miao and Tang Shanshan would go to mediate between the two who were still arguing and find an opportunity to talk to them.

“My company has expansion plans. My mother decided to buy the land across from us to build another office tower. I might need to collaborate with you then, Boss Hong.”

Hong Jing laughed. “That sounds great. If President Shi is proactively bringing work to me, I am naturally more than willing. However, our connection is slight—it wouldn’t even be an exaggeration to call us mere passing acquaintances. Are you really that comfortable hiring me directly?”

Qi Yan joked, “Who said we’re just passing acquaintances? This is the bond of traveling together and encountering a murder case. Some people never experience that in a lifetime.”

“Haha, President Shi, you’re quite humorous.”

“Mostly, I admire you, Boss Hong.”

Hong Jing’s brow arched in surprise. “Oh? Why is that?”

Qi Yan said, “From starting out as a cook at construction sites to beating those men who looked down on you and women into submission, you never let your spirit break even when you faced jail time. You insist on what you believe in and do what you think is right, providing more opportunities for female workers. Because of all that, I admire you. After all, I am a woman too.”

Hong Jing seemed even more surprised by these words. The way she looked at Qi Yan changed—the detached, indifferent expression she had maintained until now vanished, replaced by a gaze that was seriously observing Qi Yan as an individual.

“President Shi, you truly surprise me,” Hong Jing said bluntly. “I thought someone with your background would be more… well, traditional.”

Qi Yan knew she had found the right direction for the conversation. She let out a laugh. “That is a huge misunderstanding. My family’s culture is quite open. My parents run our company together; my mother holds a lot of power in the group. As a woman herself, she understands too well how difficult it is for women, so whether in the group or the business world, she is always more willing to give women opportunities.”

Hong Jing narrowed her eyes. For the first time, she looked less lazy and spoke with genuine sincerity. “You and your mother have certainly changed my perspective. If there’s an opportunity in the future, I would be very happy to collaborate with you.”

The two were about to continue their chat, and Qi Yan hadn’t finished fishing for info, when a police officer’s voice came from nearby: “Everyone, please gather. We have some matters we hope you can help us with!”

Qi Yan froze for a second, her mind instinctively racing. Why would the police need them at this time?

“Surely it isn’t because they need our help to find the killer?” Hong Jing remarked in her usual nonchalant manner.

But that seemingly casual joke made Qi Yan incredibly alert. A thought instantly flashed through her mind: If she were an NPC, how could she think so quickly that the police would ask for their help in finding a killer?

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