Chapter 1095 - 1093: Agitation
West River County, home of Li Huaishan.
Li Huaishan's wife, Huang Zhulan, has been a bit uneasy these past few days, always feeling like something is going to happen. Two days ago, her son, Li Xiaohui, came home and handed her a small notebook, asking her to keep it safe and not let anyone else see it.
Huang Zhulan pressed Li Xiaohui for details about what had happened. Li Xiaohui smiled and said it was nothing, telling her not to worry.
Li Huaishan hasn't been home for two days either, and his phone is unreachable. Huang Zhulan is starting to feel panicked, so she calls her son Li Xiaohui, but his phone is also unreachable.
Feeling even more concerned, Huang Zhulan calls Li Huaishan's secretary, who tells her that Li Huaishan was summoned by Secretary Tang from the City Committee two days ago, but he doesn't know what happened after that.
Unable to get news of Li Huaishan, Huang Zhulan calls Dragon Brilliance Company. Li Xiaohui's secretary says she hasn't been able to reach Mr. Li either, and she's been frantically searching.
Something must have happened, Huang Zhulan becomes fearful, remembering Li Huaishan losing his temper days earlier. Her worry intensifies, and early in the morning, she takes a long-distance bus heading towards Jiangbei City.
Arriving in Jiangbei City, Huang Zhulan, knowing no one there, goes directly to the City Committee to find Tang Yumeng.
Tang Yumeng had just finished discussing matters with Mayor Chen Mingguo when she receives a call from the security at the entrance, saying that the wife of the County Secretary, Li Huaishan, Huang Zhulan, is looking for her.
Tang Yumeng knows Li Huaishan hasn't informed his wife about Li Xiaohui's death, but now that Huang Zhulan has come, Tang Yumeng doesn't know what to do.
After thinking it over, Tang Yumeng decides to meet Huang Zhulan. Some things should not be kept from her; after all, she is Li Xiaohui's mother and will have to know eventually.
This is Huang Zhulan's first time at the City Committee, and thinking about meeting the City Committee Secretary makes her a bit nervous. Although Li Huaishan is a county secretary, he seldom includes her in social affairs, so her circle is just limited to the West River County area.
In Tang Yumeng's office, Huang Zhulan appears quite nervous and says to Tang Yumeng, "Secretary Tang, you, hello."
Tang Yumeng takes a quick look at Huang Zhulan, who isn't very tall but dresses appropriately, and promptly stands up with a smile, saying, "Sister Huang, please sit down."
Given that Huang Zhulan is much older than Tang Yumeng, it's not inappropriate for Tang Yumeng to call her 'sister'.
Huang Zhulan takes a seat, and Tang Yumeng pours her a glass of water.
"Secretary Tang, I heard that our Old Li was called to the City Committee by you. He's all right, isn't he?" Huang Zhulan asks while holding the glass of water that Tang Yumeng hands her.
Tang Yumeng smiles and says, "Secretary Li is fine; it's just that he isn't feeling well, and he's staying at the City Committee guesthouse."
Upon hearing Tang Yumeng's words, Huang Zhulan is suddenly stunned, misunderstanding them to think that Li Huaishan has been placed under double scrutiny by the City Committee.
"Secretary Tang, can I see our Old Li?" Huang Zhulan asks, her eyes pleading as she looks at Tang Yumeng.
Tang Yumeng says, "Of course. However, before seeing Secretary Li, I have something to tell Sister Huang."
Huang Zhulan shudders, spilling quite a bit of water from her cup.
Tang Yumeng continues, "Sister Huang, your son, Li Xiaohui, encountered an incident a couple of days ago."
Before Tang Yumeng finishes speaking, Huang Zhulan exclaims and stands up, asking anxiously, "Secretary Tang, what happened to Xiao Hui?"
Tang Yumeng walks beside Huang Zhulan and gently presses her back onto the sofa, saying, "Sister Huang, don't get agitated. Xiao Hui was murdered a couple of days ago."
Huang Zhulan's water glass falls to the ground, spilling water onto Tang Yumeng, and she becomes expressionless and lets out an 'um' before fainting.
"Someone, get over here." Tang Yumeng urgently calls out, holding Huang Zhulan tightly.
People outside hear Tang Yumeng's call and rush in, and she quickly instructs them to get Huang Zhulan to a hospital.
At this moment, Lin Chuan and Zhou Kai have just returned to Jiangbei City.
Zhou Rui and Li Qiang personally welcome them at the airport. On the road back to Sichuan University Group, Li Qiang informs Lin Chuan of the murder of Li Xiaohui at the Haiqing Pool.
Hearing this, Lin Chuan feels deeply shocked and promptly calls Tang Yumeng.
Tang Yumeng has just sent Huang Zhulan to the hospital when she receives Lin Chuan's call. Learning that he is back in Jiangbei City, she tells him to come to the hospital quickly.
Lin Chuan immediately makes a U-turn and arrives at the hospital entrance within fifteen minutes.
After getting out of the car, Lin Chuan tells Zhou Kai and the others to go back first, while he proceeds into the hospital to find Tang Yumeng.
The two people accompanying Tang Yumeng know Lin Chuan and greet him. Seeing Lin Chuan, Tang Yumeng takes him aside and says, "Lin Chuan, have you heard about Li Xiaohui's murder?"
Lin Chuan nods and says, "Li Qiang just told me. Have they found the killer?"
Tang Yumeng forces a smile and shakes her head, saying, "Not yet, Director Hu is intensifying the investigation, but there are still no leads."
Lin Chuan frowns and is about to speak when the emergency room door opens, and a doctor walks out.
Tang Yumeng quickly walked over and said to the doctor, "Doctor, how is the patient's condition?"
The doctor shook his head slightly, sighed, and said, "The patient has suffered a great shock, the situation is not optimistic."
The Li Huaishan family is indeed extremely unfortunate, but they can't blame anyone else, after all Li Xiaohui was too greedy. Tang Yumeng felt very guilty at this moment, if she hadn't told Huang Zhulan about Li Xiaohui's death first, perhaps this wouldn't have happened.
"Doctor, please do everything you can to save her," Tang Yumeng said, grabbing the doctor's arm.
"Alas," the doctor sighed again and said, "The patient is awake now, you can go and see her."
Tang Yumeng paused for a moment, then quickly ran into the emergency room, Lin Chuan also followed inside.
On the hospital bed, Huang Zhulan was receiving oxygen and had an IV drip. Seeing Tang Yumeng come in, she struggled to raise her arm. Tang Yumeng quickly grasped her arm and said with concern, "Sister Huang."
Huang Zhulan held onto Tang Yumeng's hand, immense sorrow filled her eyes, and she said haltingly, "Tang, Tang, Secretary Tang, tell Old Li at home that I'm going to keep our son company first."
Tang Yumeng could no longer hold back, tears began to fall as she said, "Sister Huang, what are you saying, you'll get better."
Huang Zhulan forced out a small smile on her face and said, "Secretary Tang, don't comfort me anymore. Xiao Hui left me a small notebook before he passed, it's at the bottom layer of the bookshelf in my home. I just saw Xiao Hui, he—he was smiling at me."
Huang Zhulan passed away, she went peacefully, with a slight smile still on her face.
Lin Chuan stood behind Tang Yumeng, patted her shoulder, but didn't speak. Tang Yumeng released Huang Zhulan's hand and turned around, throwing herself into Lin Chuan's arms and began to cry.
Sometimes, human life is truly fragile.
Coming out of the emergency room, Tang Yumeng arranged for the two people who had accompanied her to take care of Huang Zhulan's funeral, then headed straight to the City Committee guest house with Lin Chuan.
Li Huaishan's health condition was also not good, if the news of Huang Zhulan's death was told to him, he might collapse directly.
But reality is cruel, these things would have to be told to Li Huaishan sooner or later. Tang Yumeng felt a bit reluctant, she didn't know how to face Li Huaishan.
Lin Chuan already knew about the situation with Li Huaishan's family, he also didn't know whether to tell Li Huaishan, after all, everyone has a heart made of flesh.
People are not grass or trees, who can be without feeling?
Tang Yumeng couldn't bring herself to tell Li Huaishan about Huang Zhulan, she could only let Lin Chuan do it.
Arriving at Li Huaishan's room in the City Committee guest house, Tang Yumeng and Lin Chuan tried to put on a very calm expression.
Li Huaishan looked much better, his face seemed peaceful, and when he saw Tang Yumeng and Lin Chuan come in, he tried to sit up from the bed. Tang Yumeng quickly pressed him down and said, "Secretary Li, you're not well, please don't get up."
"Thank you for your concern, Secretary Tang, I'm alright now," Li Huaishan insisted on sitting up from the bed.
Lin Chuan, looking at Li Huaishan who had suddenly aged by more than ten years, said softly, "Secretary Li, your wife came to see Secretary Tang today." At this point, Lin Chuan really couldn't bring himself to continue.
"Where is she, where?" Li Huaishan's eyes drifted towards the door.
"She... she's fine, Secretary Tang has arranged for her to be sent back," Lin Chuan wanted to say she had passed away, but just couldn't bring himself to say it.
"Secretary Tang, you didn't tell her about Xiao Hui's death, did you?" Li Huaishan looked at Tang Yumeng and said.
At this moment, Tang Yumeng could only follow Lin Chuan's words and say, "No, Sister Huang came to ask about your situation, I told her you were sent by the City Committee to Beijing for training."
"That's good, that's good." Li Huaishan looked at Tang Yumeng gratefully and said, "Secretary Tang, I've really troubled you."
Tang Yumeng tried to show a smile on her face and said, "Secretary Li, what are you saying, this is what I should do."
The two had initially come to the guest house to tell Li Huaishan about his wife, but ultimately couldn't bring themselves to say it. After comforting Li Huaishan with a few words, they left the guest house.
"Yumeng, I want to go to Li Huaishan's home in West River County now to find the small notebook Huang Zhulan mentioned. Maybe it will uncover the mystery of Li Xiaohui's death." Lin Chuan said.
Tang Yumeng nodded and said, "Sure, I'll call Luo Guoqing right away to have him drive you there."
Lin Chuan agreed, Tang Yumeng took out her phone and called Luo Guoqing, asking him to drive to the guest house entrance immediately.
After waiting for about less than fifteen minutes, Luo Guoqing drove over. After getting in the car, Luo Guoqing first took Tang Yumeng back to the City Committee, then headed straight to West River County with Lin Chuan.
After more than two hours of bumpy ride, Lin Chuan and Luo Guoqing arrived at the city of West River County.
Neither of them knew where Li Huaishan's home was, so they called Tang Yumeng again, confirmed the address of Li Huaishan's home, and drove directly to Li Huaishan's house.
Li Huaishan lived in a community, the two reached the entrance without keys, but this didn't stump Lin Chuan. Using a thin wire, he managed to open the door to Li Huaishan's home.