A madman in France? How come he's always at crime scenes!

Lin Zhiyi's gaze fell on the calendar on the desk.

She had circled the page for October 7th with a fine pen a long time ago.

"I'm going to the cemetery this morning."

"I know."

Tan Yongren's voice was very gentle.

"The flowers have already been prepared, white chrysanthemums and irises. Your dad used to think lilies smelled too strong, so he covered his nose and threw them in the trash as soon as we put them in his office."

Lin Zhiyi chuckled softly.

"You still remember?"

"How could I not remember?" The person on the other end of the phone laughed. "Your dad is the kind of person who has to make sure every penny is accounted for perfectly when he's doing the books, and he has extremely high standards for living, which gives us a lot of headaches."

Lin Zhiyi looked down at the pay details on the table.

The numbers are densely packed, and the tables are neatly arranged.

Suddenly, I remembered the nights when I was a child, my back bent under the lamp, always accompanied by the soft sound of abacus beads being moved.

Actually, her memories are quite faint; many things about her father were filled in by her godfather.

Was my dad very fierce before?

"Fierce?" Tan Yongren chuckled. "That's called being serious. Tianyue was a mess when it first started. If it weren't for your dad, it wouldn't have been able to build a solid foundation."

Lin Zhiyi smiled slightly.

"What time tonight?"

"Around 6:30, don't rush."

Suddenly, a young man's complaint came from the other end of the phone.

"Dad, I made plans with someone on the night of the 7th."

Tan Yongren didn't try to hide his voice; it was a little far from the microphone, but his tone left no room for doubt.

"It's cancelled."

"I already promised them."

"Did you say yes?"

There was a sudden silence on the other end.

Lin Zhiyi couldn't help but laugh when she heard this.

"Did Tan Ming upset you again?"

"When does he ever not make me angry?"

Tan Yongren picked up his phone again, his tone not showing much anger.

"He's in his early twenties, and all he thinks about is racing, drinking, and making friends. He acts like it's his life if you ask him to look at a report. Could you keep an eye on him for me when you have time?"

Lin Zhiyi spoke in a relaxed tone.

He never listened to me when he was a child.

"He wouldn't dare. He'll behave himself the day we cancel his card."

Tan Ming on the other end of the phone immediately started yelling.

"Dad! I heard you!"

Lin Zhiyi lowered her head and smiled.

She had lived in the Tan family for many years and was no stranger to this kind of scene.

Tan Yongren is a man of his word outside, but at home he often can't handle his youngest son. Tan Ming is both afraid of him and clings to him, and when he gets into trouble, his first reaction is to run to Lin Zhiyi for help.

"He should be growing up by now," Lin Zhiyi said.

"That's why I invited him back for dinner," Tan Yongren said. "It's been too long since the house has been lively."

"it is good."

……

"Captain Meng, why has the quality of our cafeteria food declined?"

Wu Liang rummaged through the food on his plate with his chopsticks for a while before finally picking up a piece of something that looked like either a potato or a radish and stuffing it into his mouth.

Then he vomited it up.

"Damn, ginger!"

Meng Jiang and Zhang Ze sat opposite each other, each holding a bowl.

"It's good enough that we have something to eat; the chef went home for National Day."

"Who did this?"

Meng Jiang raised his chin and pointed to a young auxiliary police officer behind the cafeteria window.

The young man was wearing an apron, his expression as serious as if he were on guard duty.

Wu Liang silently pushed his plate a little further away.

"Being a police officer is really tough. You need to know how to arrest people, and you also need to know how to cook a bit."

Zhang Ze laughed, but before he could say anything, his phone rang in his pocket.

He answered the phone, listened for a few minutes, and then his expression turned serious again.

"Okay, I got it. Send it to me."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Ze put his phone on the table.

"The cybersecurity team responded. Several accounts that were stirring up trouble had very different IP addresses, including some overseas, and there were obvious signs of them using proxies."

"Outsourcing?"

"It looks like it." Zhang Ze took a bite of rice. "But it was handled quite cleanly, and it's hard to find out the specifics behind it."

Wu Liang picked up his phone, intending to browse the comment sections of the accounts Zhang Jiajing was following, but he paused as soon as he clicked on them.

"Huh?"

Zhang Ze looked up.

"They've come up with new ways to criticize you now?"

"no."

Wu Liang handed his phone to Zhang Ze to look at.

Zhang Ze glanced at it and raised an eyebrow.

"Deleted?"

Wu Liang took his phone back and opened several accounts. Some had their homepages completely deleted, while others had been directly deleted, leaving no trace.

Meng Jiang was also puzzled, so he picked up the phone and glanced at it a few times.

The comments section was largely in one direction, with overwhelming criticism of Wu Liang.

However, the rhythm was obviously chaotic, with both objective and subjective elements, making it seem like the comments of a normal netizen.

"Who gave the order to withdraw?"

"I don't know about that." Wu Liang wiped his mouth. "But the fact that these accounts were able to stop attacking in unison means that it wasn't just some nobody acting on a whim. There must be someone in the middle who can give orders."

Zhang Ze thought for a moment.

"Inside Tianyue?"

"Maybe," Wu Liang said, "but they're not of one mind."

Meng Jiang looked at him.

Wu Liang shrugged.

"Unless they suddenly have a change of heart and realize that lawyers are human beings too."

Zhang Ze snorted.

"Your professional self-esteem is quite low."

"There's nothing we can do; societal opinion speaks for itself."

Wu Liang leaned back in his chair and slowly went through his thoughts.

"The issue of Hongyuan demanding back wages may not be closely related to the Cao Yang case, but if I continue to delve into the details of how the project funds flowed into these areas, I estimate that some people will become restless. The reason for smearing me is to divert attention away from Hongyuan."

Meng Jiang added a sentence.

"The reason for retreating now is that some people feel this move went too far."

"Yes." Wu Liang nodded. "At least some people don't want to turn Hongyuan's problems into a case that's being merged with the 9.15 Project."

Zhang Ze paused.

"Lin Zhiyi?"

Wu Liang thought for a moment.

"She has the right to hold this position, and she has the right reasons, but whether it's truly her or not is hard to say."

"Shall we check it out?"

Wu Liang shook his head.

"Investigating public opinion is slow and troublesome; in the end, it mostly involves outsourced companies, marketing accounts, and temporary contracts, with little practical effect..."

Suddenly as if remembering something, Wu Liang turned to look at Meng Jiang.

"Captain Meng, is it convenient to retrieve information about Lin Zhiyi's father, Lin Huaishan?"

"Why are you suddenly asking this?"

Meng Jiang didn't understand what Wu Liang meant. The jump from a public opinion crisis to someone else's father was a bit too big.

Wu Liang certainly couldn't say that he had a booklet in his pocket specifically to remind others that their father's death was suspicious.

"Lin Zhiyi, well..." Wu Liang thought of an excuse, "Her reaction to the Hongyuan matter is like she knows something but doesn't want things to get any worse."

Zhang Ze was biting his chopsticks.

"What does this have to do with her father?"

"Everyone has a past." Wu Liang looked up. "Tan Yongren has raised her for so many years; it couldn't have been just out of excessive kindness, could it?"

Meng Jiang put down his chopsticks and nodded.

"Lin Huaishan."

When the name was mentioned, he seemed to genuinely remember it.

"Does Captain Meng know him?"

"I wouldn't say I know him." Meng Jiang picked up a tissue and wiped his hands. "When I first joined the team, Tan Yongren's company wasn't as big as it is now. Back then, he had a few people around him, and I remember all their names. Lin Huaishan was one of the more important figures."

"Is he also one of Tam Wing-yan's men?"

"The accountant was in charge of the books in Tianyue in the early days, and held a high position."

Wu Liang didn't interrupt, pondering the connection between them.

Meng Jiang continued to recall: "The first time I heard the name Tan Yongren was when someone from Shen Xuejun's side reported to the police that they had been set up by Tianyue."

Zhang Ze frowned.

"Is this related to Lin Huai-shan?"

"I don't know." Meng Jiang shook his head. "I was still a police officer at the time. What could I have seen? I only remember that there were a few people involved in that document, and Lin Huaishan's name appeared."

"And then?"

"Later, Lin Huaishan died."