Upon hearing what the head of the detective agency said, Si Ren became even more convinced that the murderer was Li Wenjing's mother.
"Alright, let's leave it at that. Thank you, boss."
Si Ren put away his phone and drove toward the Shangdong Manor Villa Area.
Passing by the security guard post, Si Ren had rehearsed a whole bunch of excuses in his head, but not a single one was needed.
The moment the security guard saw the Alphard, he immediately let him through.
He shook his head helplessly, laughing at himself.
"If I had driven my Iveco or that beat-up old Kia of mine, I bet this security guard would have interrogated me until I had to name my ancestors back to generation one."
He arrived smoothly at the entrance of Li Wenjing's villa.
He pressed the doorbell lightly.
"Ding-dong." After a full five minutes, still no one came out.
Si Ren pressed his face against the window to look inside.
The windows were tightly blocked by curtains, and he couldn't see a thing.
Could she not be home?
Yet Si Ren was extremely reluctant to just turn back like this.
So he went back to his car, prepared to wait like a rabbit waiting by a stump.
The sky gradually grew dark, and the streetlights in the neighborhood all lit up.
The lights inside Li Wenjing's house were brightly lit.
"Huh? When did she get back?"
Si Ren had kept watch at her door all afternoon, yet he never caught a glimpse of Li Wenjing.
Then whose lights were those in the house?
He got up from the car and rang the doorbell once more.
"Ding-dong..."
Still no response.
Si Ren sensed that something was amiss.
The lights in the house must have been on the entire time; they just hadn't been visible against the glaring daylight.
"Could this Li Wenjing have fallen victim to foul play too?"
At this thought, he walked all the way around the villa, hoping to find an entrance to the house.
Finally, at the back of the villa, he discovered a half-open basement.
The basement was pitch black. Si Ren took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and swept the beam around the basement a few times before finding the entrance to the rooms.
Pushing open the door, he entered a straight corridor. At the end of the corridor was a door that presumably led to the main hall.
Si Ren hurried over to the door, only to find that no matter what he did, it wouldn't open.
The light seeping through the crack of the door proved that the interior of the villa lay just beyond it.
He chewed lightly on his fingernail, his mind caught in a struggle.
If he forced the door open and Li Wenjing wasn't even inside, wouldn't he turn out to be a burglar? There would be no talking his way out of that.
And what if Li Wenjing really had been murdered? Then he would become the sole criminal suspect. How would he explain this to the police?
Yet if he didn't go in, what if Li Wenjing wasn't dead yet? What if she was just unconscious, clinging to her last breath? This was a matter of life and death.
Faced with this dilemma, Si Ren's head pounded with stress.
"Old Li, for the sake of that good review of yours, today this buddy is going all out." With that, he turned back into the basement and found a crowbar.
Then he returned, wedged the crowbar in, and forced the door open.
The moment the door gave way, Si Ren instinctively tightened his grip on the crowbar, as if it alone could give him a sense of security.
The main hall was filled everywhere with funeral wreaths and elegiac couplets.
Paper money was scattered all over the floor.
In the center stood a table with four memorial tablets, but only three photo frames; one of the tablets had fallen face down on the table surface.
Si Ren walked slowly up to the table and looked at the names on the tablets.
Late father Li Shengli, grandfather Li Jiacheng, grandmother Wang Wenjuan.
He reached out and righted the fallen tablet. The moment he saw the name on it, his hair stood on end.
Late mother Zhang Huizhen! The date of death was clearly recorded: June 3rd.
The boss of the detective agency had told him that Li Wenjing's mother went missing in early June, which lined up perfectly with this date of death.
He had far too many mysteries in his head right now; perhaps only Li Wenjing could help him unravel them.
Si Ren set Zhang Huizhen's tablet upright and bowed deeply three times to the four tablets.
Then he picked up the crowbar and began searching the rooms one by one for Li Wenjing.
Just as he turned to leave, with a sharp snap, Zhang Huizhen's tablet fell over face down once again.
Hearing the sound, Si Ren froze in his tracks. His intuition told him that the source of the noise was definitely Zhang Huizhen's tablet.
Stiffly, Si Ren turned his neck toward the direction of the tablets.
Sure enough! It was Zhang Huizhen's tablet!
He didn't dare move a muscle, staring fixedly at the tablet's direction, as if Zhang Huizhen might pop out from that spot at any second.
Si Ren's nerves were stretched to the limit, like a frightened bird at the mere twang of a bowstring; he was ready to bolt the moment he sensed any abnormal sound in the house.
Yet after waiting for a long while, no further sound occurred.
He breathed a silent sigh of relief. Maybe the table wasn't level, causing the tablet to refuse to stand.
He could only comfort himself this way.
He turned back to the table and placed the tablet upright once more.
"Don't scare me, please. We have no grudges between us, and I only came with good intentions." Si Ren checked repeatedly to make sure the tablet wouldn't fall over this time.
Yet the moment he turned and took two steps, "Snap!" The sound rang out again.
"Big sister, please really stop messing with me. My heart is genuinely tiny."
This time, Si Ren chose not to go back and stand the tablet up, but instead muttered continuously under his breath.
"Lin, bing, dou, zhe, jie, zhen, lie, qian, xing.
Namo Great Compassionate Guanyin Bodhisattva, Tathagata Buddha of the Western Paradise, Jade Emperor, Supreme Lord Laozi, heed this command instantly as the law!"
It was a good thing he knew so few deities, otherwise all the gods across the heavens would have had to endure his chanting.
It seemed this really did make him feel less afraid. He pushed open the doors one by one.
Finally, he noticed something wrong at the bathroom door.
The bathroom door was locked from the inside, and the faucet inside was running with a steady rush of water.
He shouted Li Wenjing's name outside the door, but received no response whatsoever.
Having no other choice, he had to deploy his crowbar once more and pry the door open.
Li Wenjing was currently submerged in the bathtub, her eyes tightly closed, her pretty face deathly pale.
Si Ren reached out to test her breath. It was very faint, as if it could stop at any moment.
There was no time to think. He immediately scooped Li Wenjing out of the bathtub.
The moment his hands touched her body, he found that Li Wenjing's skin was ice cold, and her limbs were somewhat stiff.
Si Ren carried Li Wenjing onto the bed, wrapped her tightly in a quilt, and quickly dialed the emergency services.
"Hello, is this the emergency center? Hurry and send someone to Building A18, Shangdong Manor. There's a girl here who's about to die.
Right now her limbs are stiff and her body is ice cold, but she still has a very weak pulse of breath."
The dispatcher immediately reported the situation upward, their tone steady as they tried to calm Si Ren.
"Sir, please don't panic. I've already notified the nearest hospital to dispatch an ambulance. They'll be there in 10 minutes."
Si Ren said anxiously, "She looks like she could die at any second. Are there any first aid measures I can take?"
The dispatcher explained patiently, "Since we don't know what caused the patient's condition, there is no way to perform emergency treatment.
Please wait patiently where you are, and professional personnel will arrive to administer aid."
Si Ren tested Li Wenjing's breath again with his hand and found that she had stopped breathing altogether. He said to the dispatcher with a trembling voice, "It's over. She... she stopped breathing."
The dispatcher's voice remained exceptionally steady. Though speaking rapidly, every single syllable was crystal clear.
"Sir, please don't panic. Put your hand over her heart and check if it's beating."
Following the dispatcher's instructions, Si Ren probed the region of her heart.
"It... it's not beating."
"Sir, now I am going to teach you how to perform artificial respiration.
First, lay the patient flat on her back, preferably with nothing binding her upper body. Then take a deep breath and blow it into the patient's mouth, making sure to pinch the patient's nose shut while you do so.
After one breath, cross your hands inward and press on the heart area 16 to 19 times.
Then continue blowing air and continue chest compressions. Do you understand?"