“Let me give you a disclaimer: I’m here to help you take a look. If any secret happens to land in my lap, you can’t silence me.”
Yes, I was free, but we needed to have a proper agreement in place.
“I won’t. Brother Wu, is that the sort of person you take me for? Besides, would I tell you I’d silence you if you asked? I would deny any intention to, brother.”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“What are you looking at me for? Is there a clue on my face?”
“Not a clue, but a green hue.”
“…”
A doctor had no business with investigating cases, but I was curious if Gu Xianxian was truly given the green hat, and I figured I could use the process of elimination to eliminate candidates of the organisation Kuanggu Sheng mentioned.
All of the rooms in the base were designed the same. Even though being simple was a universal trait, the couple did add their own touch of personality. Rather than describe it as a couple’s room, it resembled the room of a maiden from a rich family.
“Yo, Brother Gu, your room oozes the vibe of a virtuous maiden. It looks as if you don’t sleep here.”
“Because I don’t.”
“Say what?”
Gu Xianxian scratched his cheek. “This isn’t my room; my room is next door. Ah, you already know my embarrassing predicament, so I won’t hold back. The two of us have been sleeping separately for a long time. Not only does she avoid me at night, but she avoids me during the day, too. Even now, she’s out instead of staying here because we don’t need to be together for anything.”
Needless to say, I knew he meant she only avoided him when off duty. The majority of people stationed at the base didn’t care about the time outside, frankly.
We split up to frisk the room since it’d be inappropriate for me to be going through her bed and clothing cupboards. Hence, I went through the vases, bookshelves and what have you. Upon finding a chest of herbs, I inquired, “These yours?”
“No, they must be hers.”
I glanced down at the herbs and thoughtlessly questioned, “You brought drugs into the base with you?”
“No, there was no way we’d have had time for that. We only brought a select few set of clothes. The majority of our clothing was provided by the base.”
In other words…
“These must’ve come from the dispensary, then.”
“Probably. Why?”
“Don’t worry about it.” I shut the chest with an inkling as to what caused their marriage to fall apart.
Gu Xianxian emotionlessly went through the bed and underneath it. All of a sudden, he spaced out and shed tears.
I had finished going through everything worth inspecting when I spotted small box inside a hanging flower vase. Inside the box was a stack of paper.
Gu Xianxian wiped his tears and asked, “You found something?”
“Yeah.” I waved around a few sheets of paper.
With red eyes and his jaws tightly clenched, Gu Xianxian exclaimed, “I see how it is. I’m going to copy down all the love letters she wrote to her lover. Ning Zhuoru, you wronged me! Let me see!”
“Relax.” I checked the desk, then stuck my hand under the top part to find yet another stack of paper. I proceeded to find a variety of differently-sized sheets of paper in books, under the inkstone and even bricks on the ground.
“Br-Brother Wu, are you born in the year of the dog? H-how did you even know there was a sheet under the brick?”
“Save yourself the headache of trying to understand the professional knowledge because you won’t comprehend it even if you try. More importantly, do you want to know what’s written here?”
“Yes!” blurted Gu Xianxian, only to stop himself before he fully stretched his hand out. Curious, yet afraid of facing reality, he chose to let me read on his behalf and just tell him the results.
“This one, contains insults towards you. This one, is about insulting your dad. This one, addresses your dog. This one, consists of insults for Jiang Chen.”
“Definitely. Jiang Chen definitely deserves to be insulted.”
“Wait, my mistake. It’s another page dedicated to insulting you.”
“…”
Pretty much all of it were grievances about their everyday life. Ning Zhuoru used writing as a means of venting; however, she couldn’t burn or throw the sheets out since her husband was her neighbour, so she hid them away.
“Is there not a single one that isn’t about her complaining?!”
“There actually is. This last one. And I must say, the writing is quite enthralling.” I waved around the sheet I found under a brick.
“What is it about?”
“An assassination plan.”
It took a moment for Gu Xianxian’s brain to start operating again. “What?!”
I cordially pointed to the sheet. “Look. Doesn’t it state so right here? Assassination Plan, day, year and month of the job… No specific name is written, only a target.”
Gu Xianxian snatched over the sheet to read for himself, making himself sweat bullets of cold sweat.
“You don’t know anything about this?”
“Of course not. If I knew…” Gu Xianxian lowered his voice prior to continuing, “How should I have known she’s been desperate to do this?”
I was confident I knew what Gu Xianxian’s “this” referred to. There had to be some explanation for his wife’s recent odd behaviour. In addition, there were only two “assassinations” in the base recently – Yan Jibei and Kuanggu Sheng. Lord San Shen was only a suspect at this point in time. Gu Xianxian was most likely imagining the scene of his wife assassinating Kuanggu Sheng.
I had no reason to be fretting as I knew who the true culprit behind those assassinations was. That being said, I had no idea Ning Zhuoru was plotting an assassination, and I had no idea who she was targeting.
Who could she assassinate here with her skills? And those herbs… It doesn’t make sense.
The two of us rubbed our chins as we contemplated different things.
Gu Xianxian suddenly looked up at me and asked, “Do you reckon we should notify Zero?”
“She’s your wife, you know?”
“That doesn’t matter! Kuanggu Sheng is dead! What if I’m the next assassination target?!”
I stopped to think, then shook my head. “Have you considered what would become of your wife if you report this to Zero?”
“Obviously… She’d be placed under arrest. But, as her family, I am duty bound to report such malicious conduct.”
Your sense of duty to ruin your wife sure is strong, buddy.
Before I could come up with an excuse to prevent Gu Xianxian from acting on impulse, I heard light footsteps outside from someone not deliberately trying to sneak up on us. Gu Xianxian soon heard the footsteps, as well.
The handsome guy opened the door whilst drinking wine and froze upon seeing us. “What are you two doing here?”
