Li Yunhui could hear his own heart beating.

Thump-thump.

Thump-thump.

He stared intently into Li Shuyun’s bright eyes, completely unable to look away. His gaze was so bright, it seemed capable of illuminating the entire racetrack.

Li Yunhui couldn’t help but ask, “What did you think?”

Even as he asked, Li Yunhui had already guessed the answer in his heart.

Li Shuyun was panting softly, calming his nerves after the intense experience of his first time speeding in a car. But his smile was sincere, and his eyes were sparkling.

Li Shuyun’s eyes curved into a smile as he answered, “I thought it was great, brother.”

…

After the banquet ended, Cheng Huanzhen drove alone for a long time before finally returning home a little after eleven at night.

Cheng Zhaorui had not come back. He had work in another province the next day and had to catch a flight tonight to check into a hotel and rest. The butler was also not home today, having taken leave to go back to his hometown to handle some matters.

Therefore, the house was exceptionally quiet today.

When he opened the door, the creaking of the gate was the only welcome the house offered him.

Cheng Huanzhen stood in the silent, empty entrance hall for three seconds, quietly took off his shoes, and walked up to the second floor with his bag.

He walked past his own bedroom, took one more step, and entered the room next door, which had once been his little uncle’s bedroom.

His little uncle’s room was still kept exactly as it was before he left. Nothing was missing, and there was no dust accumulated on the desk or floor.

Cheng Huanzhen walked to the side of the bed and sat down, grabbing a red throw pillow from the headboard.

Lately, he always liked to come to his little uncle’s room and stay for a while by himself after getting home. It helped to calm his irritable mood from another day of no progress and perhaps helped him have fewer nightmares at night.

Expressionlessly, he took out his tablet, opened his email, and downloaded the compressed intelligence file sent by Li Yunhui.

There were three documents in the compressed file. One was a summary of inferences based on the existing intelligence; one was all the current evidence and materials; and one was a list of relevant personnel who had been or were yet to be investigated, along with their contact information.

Cheng Huanzhen opened the first document.

The first part of the document was the conclusion of a study on the “young masters” who had appeared in the wealthy families of the Imperial Capital in recent years:

Over the past three years, a total of ten “new young masters” have appeared among the wealthy and powerful families of the Imperial Capital, in forms such as suddenly returned illegitimate sons, new young masters suddenly returning from overseas, and true young masters who were once switched at birth.

Among them, the illegitimate son type was the most common, accounting for a full five cases. The other two types were relatively rare. There were three cases of switched-at-birth incidents and two cases of young masters returning from abroad.

In half of these cases, the young masters’ situations were normal.

In the remaining half, there were three deaths and two disappearances.

The three death cases were: one in the Qi family, one in the Fang family, and one in the Qian family. The cause of the Qian family’s illegitimate son’s death was very clear—he died in a battle for the family inheritance. His body had been autopsied, and there was nothing suspicious.

The two disappearance cases were: one in the Cheng family and one in the Yang family. The missing person from the Yang family was also an illegitimate son. Like the previous one, his loss was clear, and his disappearance was clear.

Therefore, the investigation focused mainly on the Qi, Fang, and Cheng families.

The ultimate goal of the investigation was to determine the true cause of Fang Chengyu’s death.

Cheng Huanzhen quickly scanned the summary at the beginning. He wasn’t interested in Fang Chengyu’s death. He only wanted to see if Li Yunhui’s intelligence contained any clues that could help him in his search for his little uncle.

He only paused slightly at Li Yunhui’s speculation about the cause of death for Qi Wendong and Fang Chengyu:

Li Yunhui’s main theory leaned towards “inheritance disputes.” The existing siblings in the Fang family were all capable and excellent heirs who could share the family assets. Each additional person could mean a loss of billions in inheritance for them. This was one of the main reasons to suspect that the death was not natural but man-made.

Although the Qi family had fewer children and Qi Xiuyi didn’t seem to have strong ambitions for inheritance, his firm refusal to believe or cooperate during the investigation meant that his involvement could not be completely ruled out.

However… this situation wouldn’t occur in the Cheng family. The current heir favored by his grandfather was him. If someone wanted to fight for the inheritance, they should be targeting him, not his little uncle.

Ruled out.

Cheng Huanzhen quickly moved on to the case similarity analysis section he most wanted to see.

“In the death cases of Qi Wendong and Fang Chengyu, several important factors are highly similar:

One, the preservation time for both bodies was very short, far shorter than the normal duration for a family to keep a body, and neither underwent an autopsy after their deaths from illness. Fang Chengyu’s cause of death was a heart attack that occurred in the suburbs. In this situation, directly determining the cause of death without suspicion or examination is not logical and raises suspicion of destroying evidence.”

Little uncle… little uncle has no “body.”

“Two, after the incidents, the doctors responsible for the deceased’s health did not suffer any negative impact on their work or life. No family questioned their medical skills or care. On the contrary, Qi Wendong’s attending physician received a very rare opportunity to study abroad after his death. The personal doctor responsible for Fang Chengyu was transferred to work alongside Fang Lian, who is in charge of the African market, with an estimated salary increase of more than three times.”

Dr. Yang had indeed also gone abroad. That was after his little uncle’s disappearance. Dr. Yang was grief-stricken, and to console him, his father had specifically given him a vacation.

Cheng Huanzhen’s brows furrowed slightly.

“Three, both Qi Wendong and Fang Chengyu returned home in January and died of illness about a year after their return. The ‘about’ timeframe is within ten days. This similarity has no direct logical connection to the initial main theory of ‘inheritance disputes’ and seems more like a coincidence with only two cases. However, if the Cheng family’s disappearance case is added to the comparison, with three cases showing similar circumstances, the probability of coincidence is greatly reduced. This illogical similarity might become the key to breaking the case. At the same time, the probability of the ‘inheritance disputes’ theory holding true will also be significantly reduced. The possibility of interference by a third-party individual or organization should be considered, and their interference may not only include death and disappearance but also their return to the family.”

Cheng Huanzhen’s gaze finally landed on this last point of similarity.

He frowned tightly and quickly opened the second document to check the related evidence.

On the evidence list, two pieces of intelligence were marked as core evidence:

Qi family: Before Qi Wendong returned home, Qi Xiuyi stated that he had never heard any related information. A review of newspapers and media reports from the year before his return also showed no news of anyone searching for “birth parents.”

Fang family: Before Fang Chengyu returned home, Fang Ji also stated that he had never heard any related news. Not a single step of the entire process of searching for family/child and verifying his return was disclosed to him.

If the Qi and Fang families’ cases involved being “switched at birth” or “taken away,” considering the precedent of the He family, it wasn’t entirely inexplicable that they would choose to conceal the process to avoid turmoil.

But if the Cheng family’s situation was taken into account, then this explanation no longer held up.

According to enthusiastic sources within the Cheng family (Anonymous 1), (Anonymous 2), and (Anonymous 3), they had never heard of the existence of this “little young master” before Cheng Yiming returned home. Of course, the possibility that information about Cheng Yiming before his return was a family secret, known only to a limited number of people not including these three sources, could not be ruled out.

Cheng Huanzhen: …

Cheng Huanzhen looked at this piece of intelligence with difficulty.

Of course, he understood the Cheng family’s situation better than Li Yunhui did. He clearly remembered that on the night his grandfather brought his little uncle back, all the relatives reacted just as he had; none of them had ever heard of or known about this person’s existence before.

How strange.

How strange.

How could everything line up so perfectly?

Although he had indeed wanted to get some useful clues from Li Yunhui’s investigation, this… this wasn’t the kind of clue he wanted!

If all of this was orchestrated by someone, then the first two were dead. His little uncle… could his little uncle still be alive now?

Cheng Huanzhen’s heart constricted, beating rapidly and heavily.

He read through the documents again and again, trying to separate his little uncle’s situation from these similarities.

However, the more he looked, the deeper the doubt and unease in Cheng Huanzhen’s mind grew.

The time reached three in the morning.

The tablet’s battery died, and it abruptly shut down.

Only then was Cheng Huanzhen jolted out of the anxiety brought by the intelligence, sitting dazed on the edge of the bed.

No… He didn’t believe the deaths of Qi and Fang were man-made. Otherwise, could his little uncle really still be alive? Maybe… maybe his little uncle realized someone wanted to harm him, so he ran away beforehand?

But even so, with his little uncle being blind and outside the protection of the Cheng family, how… how could he escape the persecution of those people??

A fine layer of sweat had unknowingly broken out on Cheng Huanzhen’s back.

No. It can’t be man-made manipulation. He would absolutely not allow it!

Cheng Huanzhen’s mind spun rapidly with anxiety.

When he was a child, relatives always praised his intelligence, but he felt nothing and didn’t care. It was only later, when he was desperately using his brain to earn money for his little uncle’s medicine, that he suddenly realized his relatives might have had a point.

Li Yunhui had investigated the deaths. There was no evidence, no way to break through. This indicated that it was not the right angle to approach from.

Then what about approaching it from the opposite direction?

His little uncle’s situation before returning home, and the process of his return. If they were real and without external forces, then the possibility of a third-party organization’s deliberate killing would be greatly reduced!

Returning home… that was something his grandfather orchestrated. Few people knew the details. It would be difficult to start there.

Then… he would start by investigating his little uncle’s situation before he returned home!

Traces of life cannot be hidden. Life requires resources, requires money, and his little uncle also needed medical care and medicine.

That’s right. That’s right. This is it! As long as he could prove that his little uncle’s past was exactly as his grandfather had described, that would be enough!

Cheng Huanzhen felt as if he had found a life-saving straw. He hugged the pillow in his arms tightly, his body trembling slightly, his teeth biting his lip so hard that it bled.

The taste of blood spread in his mouth, but Cheng Huanzhen paid it no mind, his attention completely focused on the rapid reasoning in his brain.

How to prove his little uncle’s past?

…Lately, his grandfather’s control over him had loosened a lot. The two-year period was up, and not only had his grandfather not summoned him back to the old residence, but he also rarely made demands or gave guidance on the management and operation of the company’s affairs.

In that case, he had the space to use his identity and status as the heir to do things he had never done, never even thought of doing before.

For example—

Checking—the accounts!

Check the family’s accounts, check the accounts for the traces of his little uncle’s life over the past eighteen years