Gu Bei exerted more pressure. "Speak!"
Xie Bingxia's mind raced as she tried to come up with a more appropriate excuse. Just then, there were a few knocks on the door behind her, and Li Yishan pushed it open. "I heard quite a commotion. You guys aren't arguing, are you?"
"Of course not." Xie Bingxia waved her hands hurriedly and took the opportunity to run out. "I need to use the restroom."
Li Yishan turned to Gu Bei and asked in confusion, "What were you guys talking about?"
"Educational issues. She's in her rebellious phase." Gu Bei changed the topic. "By the way, have you ever talked to Xie Bingxia about your childhood? Like dissecting frogs in junior high school..."
Li Yishan was even more puzzled. "We just met yesterday. It's impossible for us to have confided in each other about junior high school memories."
Gu Bei understood and then asked, "You have a wide network of contacts in the United States. I want to investigate a matter related to an orphanage. Can you help?"
"Sure." Li Yishan agreed readily. "I have many media friends there. I can dig into it thoroughly for you."
"Great. I'll send you the information on your phone right away." As Gu Bei said this, he walked out of the room while operating his phone. "Xie Bingxia, you..."
But Xie Bingxia was nowhere to be seen. She had already fled without a trace.
Xie Bingxia managed to slip out of the hotel and hailed a taxi straight to Li Duo's place.
"Hey, what brings the goddess here?"
It was the summer vacation, and Li Duo was dressed casually as he came out to greet her. Xie Bingxia didn't beat around the bush and said directly, "Help me check some surveillance footage."
Li Duo scratched his head. "I need to ask my hacker friend first."
"Stop pretending. It's getting old." Xie Bingxia gave him a knowing look. "My great master, can you help?"
Li Duo suddenly looked serious. "Since the goddess has such sharp eyes, I must help."
He opened the door to his bedroom. The large room was filled with all kinds of computer equipment, and strings of numbers were constantly scrolling on several big screens. According to the information provided by Xie Bingxia, his fingers tapped on the keyboard rapidly. "Well, the surveillance footage from that period has indeed been deleted. It'll take some time to recover it."
"As long as it can be recovered." Xie Bingxia patted Li Duo on the shoulder. "I'll go out for a while. You start working on it."
Xie Bingxia walked to the door and then turned around to ask Li Duo, "Does Qin Feng know how capable you are behind the scenes?"
"He thinks I just like playing with computers. He's so innocent and cute." Li Duo smiled.
"Okay, I know you two are in love." Xie Bingxia laughed along.
Her next stop was the city art museum. Li Yishan was going there in the morning. She probably wanted to investigate something. According to the news media, the victim at that time was not the curator but an ordinary employee. No matter his identity, it was definitely related to the art museum, so it was right to go there.
However, when Xie Bingxia arrived at the destination, she was told that the museum was closed and could not receive visitors.
"I'm a journalist. I have an appointment for an interview." Fortunately, Xie Bingxia had planned ahead and asked Li Duo to PS a journalist's ID before leaving. Seeing this, the security guard at the gate welcomed her in.
After the museum closed, the already quiet art museum became even more silent. Under the influence of various famous paintings and sculptures, it made people feel a bit scared. Xie Bingxia wanted to find a staff member to inquire about the situation. As she was wandering around, she was suddenly stopped by someone.
"Miss, the museum is closed. May I ask what you need?" A person who seemed to be a staff member walked over. Xie Bingxia took out her journalist's ID. "I'd like to know about the incident where an employee was killed here half a year ago."
The staff member frowned and looked embarrassed. "We're going to maintain the artworks today. Please come another day."
"I won't take much of your time." Xie Bingxia didn't give up. The person had no choice but to say, "I've only been working here for less than two months. I'm afraid I don't know about the things half a year ago..."
Bang! In a room not far away, there was the sound of something shattering. Xie Bingxia ran over before the staff member. She saw a person dressed as a cleaner with their back to her, squatting on the ground to pick up the fragments of a statue.
The staff member immediately started scolding. "What are you doing? Do you know how valuable it is?"
"S-sorry. I'll clean it up right away." The cleaner was submissive, with their head lowered even more. Their face was buried under a cap, so it was hard to see their exact appearance.
The staff member quickly changed his attitude and said to Xie Bingxia, "See, it's really inconvenient today."
Xie Bingxia kept her eyes on the cleaner. She always felt that something was very off. At this time, another group of voices came from outside the room.
"It seems that there's no one in the art museum after it closes."
"Keep looking. That girl must be here."
Gu Bei and Li Yishan had actually come! Xie Bingxia immediately said to the staff member, "There are some tourists who accidentally broke in. Why don't you go and deal with them first?"
Rows of fine beads of sweat appeared on the staff member's forehead. He quickly said, "Y-yes, I'll go right away."
He left in a hurry, and Xie Bingxia immediately closed the door of the room. She planned to start with this strange cleaner. Before she could turn around, her waist was pressed against by a cold object.
It was a pistol!
"Don't move!" The person whispered in Xie Bingxia's ear. "Who are you?"
The voice was very soft, but it hit her heart directly. Xie Bingxia instantly froze like a stone, and then her emotions erupted like a volcano, bringing back memories of that fiery night.
She recognized this voice. It was Gu Bei's former personal secretary. He was at the scene of the car accident!
Xie Bingxia's breathing became rapid. She relied on her strong willpower to suppress her surging emotions and retorted, "Who are you? What's your intention in pretending to be a cleaner?"
"I didn't expect you to be so smart." The person chuckled. Xie Bingxia raised the corner of her mouth and said confidently, "When maintaining artworks, the most important thing is to avoid contact with erosive substances, including human sweat. So professional people will always wear flannelette gloves. You didn't wear anything on your hands when you picked up the fragments just now. That was a big mistake."
The person obviously didn't know that the mistake was in such a detailed place. He was surprised. "Are you... a police officer?"
"No. I've already said that I'm a journalist."
"Journalist? Would Gu Bei, the president of the Xie Corporation, personally come here to track down a journalist?" The person's gaze fell on the small glass window on the door. The glass window had special tinting. You could see out from the inside, but from the outside, it was completely a private space.
Outside, Gu Bei took out his phone and showed it to the staff member. The picture on the phone was a frontal photo of Xie Bingxia.
"Speak! What's your relationship with Gu Bei?" The pistol at her waist pressed forward a bit. Xie Bingxia wasn't in a hurry. She negotiated with him. "It won't do you any good to attack me here. I can sit down and talk to you properly, but we need to avoid the people outside first."
The pistol seemed to loosen. The person thought for a while and said, "Okay."
Xie Bingxia added, "After the staff member gets rid of Gu Bei and that woman, we can leave."
The person took two steps back and warned, "Don't play any tricks, or we'll all end up in ruins!"
Xie Bingxia knew that the person was gradually lowering his guard. At the moment when he was about to put away the pistol, Xie Bingxia suddenly bent down, opened the door, and rolled out.
"Damn it, you tricked me!" The person in the room roared. Two gunshots rang out, and the glass on the door shattered. Xie Bingxia stood up against the door and shouted at Gu Bei, who was standing there in a daze, "What are you standing there for? Take Li Yishan and leave!"
The staff member was only in a daze for a second or two. The next moment, he took out a pistol from his waist and pointed it at Xie Bingxia.
He was also one of them?!
In the blink of an eye, Xie Bingxia quickly flashed in front of the staff member and landed a backspin kick accurately on his wrist. The pistol flew out in an arc, and an empty shot was fired.
"Ahh—!" Li Yishan screamed. She finally realized what was going on and squatted down trembling, hugging her head tightly. Gu Bei quickly stepped forward and dragged her away. Seeing the person in the room rushing out, he fired several shots at them.
Gu Bei reacted very quickly. Wrapping Li Yishan in his arms, he narrowly avoided several bullets and rolled on the ground several times. Fortunately, the person was a novice and his shooting skills were not good. He had no rhythm, which gave them a chance to escape.
At the same time, after losing his pistol, the staff member immediately took out a knife. His eyes were bloodshot, and he was determined to fight Xie Bingxia to the death. He was very good at physical combat. Xie Bingxia's arm had been injured before, and she had already used a lot of strength to block the knife. There were cuts all over her body. With a single-leg sweep, Xie Bingxia was pressed to the ground by the opponent. Seeing the dagger stabbing vertically towards her forehead, she caught it with both hands and used all her strength to resist the opponent's wrist - it was a matter of life and death!
She glanced at Gu Bei out of the corner of her eye. She saw the cleaner throw away the empty pistol and take out a single-edged dagger. He wanted to fight his way out and stabbed at Li Yishan in front of him.
Gu Bei was not far away. He got up from the ground and didn't even have time to look at Xie Bingxia. He rushed towards Li Yishan.
Xie Bingxia's pupils suddenly shrank - Gu Bei had chosen to save Li Yishan.