Who Did It?

Huan Mao's explaination of the business didn't make sense at all and she explained it to him several times before his head ached with the pain of the information.

It was more complex than he expected, and so intricate that he couldn't bear to force himself to understand.

Because of this, Huan Mao invited him into her home office to observe how she handled things. Di Gaohun quietly typed away by her side as she gave him instructions for drawing up contracts.

Huan Mao was fully healed by this time and received a stack of paperwork regarding potential suspects of the attack. Big and small fish* were named, but few were affiliated with Da Confeng.

Xin Tuyong was assigned the task of sorting through the information to report on it for a later meeting within Huan Mao's small circle of trusted associates.

Even her own people were suspected. Xin Tuyong saw familiar names of people he worked with in his team, and those who he dealt contracts to.

As he sorted through the large stack, the room was silent except for the sound of Di Gaohun typing and Huan Mao flicking through other files.

After sorting through half the pile, Xin Tuyong was startled upon seeing the suspect name in his hand: Tao Ming, his former boss. His boss was drowning in debt, leading to Xin Tuyong and many others losing their jobs.

In the end, Tao Ming had to sell his assets, including his company, to clear his debt. He was left with almost nothing and had to slowly rebuild.

He was a suspect because his money was owed to Wan Pharmaceuticals, a major medical manufacturing company owned by Huan Mao, after he stole drugs to sell on the streets.

The company was a front for drug sales, but he acted independently for his own gain leaving a careless trail of evidence to affect the company itself.

His sloppiness alerted police and put Wan Pharmaceuticals under close scrutiny once authorities discovered that it was related to the illegal drugs trafficked throughout the country.

Tao Ming narrowly avoided jail by obtaining a scapegoat in exchange for a large sum of money, but it was suspected that he harbored feelings of malcontent towards Huan Mao because of his debts, despite them being a result of his own greed.

He was also a major suspect because of previous offenses towards Huan Mao's businesses.

Xin Tuyong paid special attention to the suspect lists, and after an exhausting week of compiling information, he came up with a shorter list of major suspects.

Strangely enough, many names on his new list were familiar to him. Da Confeng, some Da Corps associates, Tao Ming, and others who he had met before were at the top of his list.

He had an ominous feeling about the information and was nervous about the upcoming presentation of the information.

It was like he was missing something, but regardless of how hard he thought, he couldn't pinpoint what was wrong.

He went over the information with both Di Gaohun and Huan Mao, but they didn't show a trace of an unusual connection. He felt more vulnerable than the day he fainted from paranoia.

Di Gaohun was dismissive with an "I see," while Huan Mao cheerily congratulated him on completing the list.

The night before before the meeting, he tossed and turned with his strange feeling.

He couldn't sleep, and Huan Mao was out again, so he could only meander through the house. His instincts told him to double-check the information in Huan Mao's office, but he resisted.

It didn't feel right to enter that room without supervision. Huan Mao and Di Gaohun were family, while he was just an outsider.

After an hour of pacing and internal conflict, Xin Tuyong abandoned his morals and went to the office. He turned the door handle, but the door wouldn't open.

How strange... He'd never seen anyone lock the room, but it did make sense -- there was sensitive information in there.

Xin Tuyong lived at the house for more than a year, but there were still rooms he'd never been in. He twisted the handle of another door.

Huh... Another office?

He knew where the bedrooms were, so he knew not to try those doors, but at the end of the hall, he found only a single unlocked door.

He entered with careful footsteps, taking care as to not even breathe audibly, closing the door with slow but deliberate motions.

The large room hummed with the sound of technology. It was dimly lit by multitudes of monitors lining the wall.

On the desk in front of the monitors was a short stack of papers. He held his breath as the floor creaked beneath his foot.

* "big and small fish" means "powerful/influential people and average workers"