Attention Sir, I Have Your Heart Handcuffed!-Chapter 487 - 352. A drizzly afternoon, an unexpected encounter (2 Chapters 1).
Tang Yanqing came to work energetically early the next day. As he walked into the police station, he saw James sitting at his desk through the glass partition of the office.
He also saw him from a distance and raised his hand in greeting.
Tang Yanqing gradually put away his morning excitement and made himself calm and composed.
Jia Tianzi came up first and said softly, "James Ford, the brother of George and Huangfu."
Tang Yanqing nodded, "I recognize him."
Jia Tianzi was slightly surprised but suppressed it. He thought perhaps Tang Yanqing had seen photos of these three Fords countless times over the years and recognized him.
"He said he wants to report a murder case. He just won’t report it to anyone else, only to you."
Tang Yanqing nodded, "Alright."
Walking into the office, Tang Yanqing smiled and walked up to him, extending his hand first. James also stood up, and the hands of the two men of nearly the same age clasped together.
James’s blue eyes sparkled, "From a family bloodline point of view, I’m also your cousin."
Tang Yanqing laughed, "You’re at most a year older than me, so let’s skip the brother-sibling titles; it’s too outdated."
James shrugged, "Then call me James, and I’ll call you Yanqing."
Jia Tianzi and Gao Cheng exchanged a glance. They hadn’t expected James to be different from George and Huangfu Huazhang; he was somewhat likeable in his straightforward manner.
Tang Yanqing invited James to sit and turned to Jia Tianzi: "Let me introduce you to our team’s secret weapon: Jia Tianzi. He makes excellent coffee."
Jia Tianzi resignedly went to make coffee. Between him and Tang Yanqing, Tang Yanqing was the man, greeting and sending people off; Jia Tianzi was the woman, in charge of serving tea and water.
Holding a rich coffee in his palm, James gave Jia Tianzi a thumbs up and then got straight to the point, "I’m here to report a case. A murder case. I’m only at ease handing it over to you."
Tang Yanqing opened his notebook and uncapped his pen, "Go ahead."
Their attitudes remained relaxed, yet both could feel as if there was a tension string slowly tightening between them.
"My granduncle, Arthur Ford, died of kidney failure in 2001. I find the cause of death odd."
Tang Yanqing chuckled, "2001? Why are you reporting it only now?"
James wasn’t in a hurry, "Back then, I was just a 14-year-old kid. Even if I had suspicions, I wasn’t of legal age to report a case. Moreover, I was sent to Europe after that, and due to all these years, I couldn’t come back. Even if I wanted to report a case, I couldn’t do it independently."
"Although many years have passed, I believe pursuing legal justice is never too late; and a detective with a sense of justice wouldn’t use the statute of limitations to brush me off. Don’t you agree?"
Tang Yanqing shrugged noncommittally.
James took a sip of his coffee and smiled calmly, "Moreover, the suspect continued to commit crimes afterward, so even though the case occurred years ago, strictly speaking, the statute of limitations should be extended accordingly."
He scooted his chair closer to Tang Yanqing, "Besides, this is also me helping the police with the case, isn’t it?"
Tang Yanqing smiled, "Is that so?"
"Because the suspect I want to accuse is Huangfu Huazhang. Isn’t the police investigating him?"
"Do you have evidence?" Tang Yanqing maintained his smile, "We can’t assist with a report based purely on speculation."
"Of course I do." James remained unhurried, "In fact, the police should have long been aware of it, right? The Rosa Clown Case, Rosa is the evidence."
Whether Rosa herself was ready or not, James wasn’t giving her any more time to hesitate.
Tang Yanqing personally called Rosa, asking her to come to the police station to assist with the investigation.
Rosa hadn’t expected that everything James had seen back then had already been told to the police. She looked at Tang Yanqing in a daze, "If I still want to deny it, what would the police do?"
Everyone more or less has past events they never want to confront. Tang Yanqing nodded, "I respect your personal wishes. However, since this matter has entered the procedure of legal investigation, if we can’t get clues from you, then we’ll have to legally summon your former psychiatrist, as well as your parents, neighbors, and everyone related to that time."
Rosa smiled sadly, "Forget it, I’m in no position to disturb them anymore. Fine, I’ll speak."
After recounting her past experiences, Rosa shook her head sadly, "But even though you all want me to say that the clown was Huangfu Huazhang, I still can’t say for sure: I really don’t know if the clown was him. After all, I was young back then, and every time he appeared in front of me, he was dressed as a clown, so I couldn’t see his face."
Tang Yanqing nodded, "James’ record can corroborate your testimony. That house is his, so we can legally summon him."
.
James left the police station and went to see George.
The two brothers hadn’t met in years; all their communication had been reliant on the internet and phone. Now finally sitting face to face, they found themselves at a loss for words.
James smiled sadly, "Acquiring shares wasn’t as smooth as we expected. Fude Group’s stocks were quickly depleted, and our funds were limited. By the time we gathered more funds to enter the market, the shares for sale had already been swallowed up."
George was somewhat disappointed, but he quickly brushed it off, "It doesn’t matter if we don’t have the stocks, as long as we can bring down that bastard! When the time comes and the company has no leader, it will still be ours, the two brothers’."
George’s face, strikingly similar to that of Huangfu Huazhang, twisted into a near-menacing smile, "As long as we can bring him down, I’m willing to pay any price!"
James left the prison, and it started to rain outside.
The fine, threadlike rain soaked the red-brick path, nourishing the little green grass beside the road. James walked aimlessly forward along the red-brick path.
His hatred for Huangfu Huazhang differed from George’s.
George was the eldest son, ten years older than him. When Huangfu Huazhang was brought to M Country, he was only thirteen, while George was already twenty-three. In terms of age, that thrilling battle for inheritance mainly revolved around George and Huangfu Huazhang, and he himself was more swept along amid it.
At thirteen, a child doesn’t have that strong a desire for inheritance. Moreover, as the second son, he hadn’t been systematically educated as an heir as George had been, so objectively speaking, his hatred for Huangfu Huazhang wasn’t as intense as George’s.
But later events still changed his viewpoint.
Because of Huangfu Huazhang’s arrival, because of that inheritance war, the thirteen-year-old had to personally witness his mother’s breakdown. His mother vented all her anger on him, and he had no choice but to move closer to the Old Buddha.
Due to Huangfu Huazhang, he lost his father, family, and inheritance, and even lost motherly love and... his innocence.
So all in all, his hatred for Huangfu Huazhang, in turn, grew beyond George’s.
That year, the brothers lost everything; George was exiled to Asia, and he was sent to Europe before he was even sixteen. A teenager yet to come of age went to that continent alone, completing his studies there in solitude, step by step getting to where he is today.
In a sense, he relived Huangfu Huazhang’s past experience. Banished, growing up lonely. But Huangfu Huazhang lost only his legs, while what he lost was far beyond just a pair of legs!
Feeling tired of walking, he stopped by the roadside, took shelter under the eaves of a store, and leaned against the wall to light a cigarette.
At this moment, he saw an Eastern girl approaching from a distance. She was holding a red polka-dot umbrella, wearing a knee-length woolen skirt, and red hunting boots.
Her long black hair, like satin, cascaded down from her shoulders, reaching her waist.
Her face was hidden under the umbrella, unseen, yet her fresh aura was palpable and became a bright sight in this early spring afternoon draped in fine rain, on this quiet, cold street.
He exhaled smoke, unable to resist squinting at her feet. Hunting boots were originally too rugged, not easy for a girl to pull off gracefully; let alone such a delicate, refined Eastern girl? Yet the way she walked with her bare, lotus-like legs in red hunting boots didn’t seem awkward, but rather exceptionally appealing.
Somehow, a bit of tobacco flake ended up in his mouth, and he spat it out.
Oddly, he recalled his former girlfriend, a supermodel and emerging designer, who had once shown him a series of editorials, featuring English-style outfits paired with hunting boots. That girlfriend had said, at last, hunting boots were gaining fashion industry appreciation, but they were still rarely well-worn. Anyone who could wear them nicely was surely blessed with an innate fashion sense, and they had to be strikingly good-looking.
He had been separated from that woman for a long time, couldn’t even remember her face, but inexplicably remembered that sentence. He couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly, wondering if remembering it was just to find a huge interest in a passer-by on such a drizzly afternoon?
Strangely, he genuinely wanted to see the face hidden under the umbrella.
Would it be naturally destined to be beautiful, just as his ex-girlfriend had said?
He then stubbed out the cigarette, straightened up, and purposefully walked toward that girl.
.
