Bai Jinyi walked into the cell phone room in her striped prison uniform. She adjusted her gold-rimmed glasses and asked slowly, “Who was that?”
” … She said she was a lawyer, surnamed Gu.”
“A lawyer with the surname Gu?” Bai Jinyi frowned. She immediately thought of someone she loathed, so she turned around and walked out. “I’m not seeing her.”
The prison staff in charge of answering the phone didn’t stop her. They helplessly said to Gu Nianzhi on the other end of the phone, “Did you hear that? She doesn’t want to see you. What can I do?”
Prisoners had human rights too. If she didn’t want to see her, how could thy force her?
Gu Nianzhi chuckled lightly. “She doesn’t want to see me? Tell her that I’ll go ask her brother, Prime Minister Bai, and see if she’ll want to see me then.”
Gu Nianzhi knew that Bai Jinyi’s only hope of getting out of here alive was her brother, Bai Jiancheng, Prime Minister Bai.
Bai Jinyi would definitely abide if Gu Nianzhi threatened her with Prime Minister Bai.
As expected, the staff member stopped Bai Jinyi, who was walking out, and said, “Lawyer Gu said that if you don’t see her, she’ll go to Prime Minister Bai and ask him to speak to her…”
Bai Jinyi stopped in her tracks and cursed Gu Nianzhi inside for being too cunning.
But she couldn’t let Gu Nianzhi really go to her big brother…
She knew that Gu Nianzhi was a little girl who wouldn’t budge. Not only was she capable, but she also had Huo Shaoheng backing her up.
She couldn’t afford to offend him or hide from him, so she had to see her.
With a straight face, Bai Jinyi turned around and walked back. She took the phone from the staff member and said in a flat voice, “Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m Gu Nianzhi. You should remember me.”
“Huh, Gu Nianzhi? No. ” Bai Jinyi denied it outright, just because she wanted to make things dificult for Gu Nianzhi.
Gu Nianzhi didn’t mind and said indifferently, “You don’t remember me? You’re so young, yet your memory is already fading from dementia?”
“Shut up! ” Bai Jinyi felt so angered by Gu Nianzhi’s words that her chest heaved up and down, and she could hardlyt control her temper.
Gu Nianzhi curled her lips, but her voice was still flat. “Do you remember me npw? Let’s get back to business. I want to see you. The prison guards said that I can only come to see you if you agree to it, so I called first to ask for your permission.”
Bai Jinyi’s face twitched. She wanted to say, “I won’t agree to it”, but Gu Nianzhi had already took the lead by saying, “If you don’t agree, I’ll go and talk to Prime Minister Bai. I’ll see if Prime Minister Bai will do me a favor and ask a busy woman like you to free up time to see me.”
Her tone wasn’t without sarcasm, and also a subtle threat.
Bai Jinyi’s eldest brother, Bai Jiancheng, was the prime minister. He was also a prime minister who cherished his reputation very much.
The Bai family had four biological siblings. Two of them had met with mishaps. The second brother, Bai Yusheng, had committed treason. She was the youngest sister, but had been sentenced to death for murdering Luo Xinxue. Although the sentence was suspended for two years, there was a high chance that it would be commuted to life imprisonment, However, if Bai Jiancheng wanted to “do justice to his family”, she would be doomed.
Bai Jinyi dared not bet on it because she knew how many years her elder brother had worked hard to be elected to the position of prime minister.
This was also a position that the entire Bai family was proud of.
Her life had already been ruined. She couldn’t ruin her elder brother again.
If she ruined her elder brother, she might as well go die.
Bai Jinyi suppressed her anger inside and said stiffly, “If you want to come, then come. I’ll make it clear in advance that I’m just a felon. I can’t do anything. I can’t help you or hinder you.”
This was exactly what Gu Nianzhi wanted.
“Okay, then I’ll make an appointment with your prison to meet with you as soon as possible. ” After Gu Nianzhi finished speaking, she had Bai Jinyi transfer the call back to the staff member from earlier.
Since Bai Jinyi had personally agreed, the staff member no longer made things difficult for Gu Nianzhi and made an appointment for them to meet.
The women’s prison in Green City was more than 200 kilometers away from the imperial capital. In order to meet Bai Jinyi as soon as possible, Gu Nianzhi made an appointment for 9 a.m. the next day.
She put down the phone and saw that it was already dark outside. She nonchanantly went downstairs to eat something before going to bed.
She needed to go to bed early because she needed to get up at seven in the morning and head to Green City to meet at nine.
…
That night, Huo Shaoheng didn’t return to his official residence. Instead, he went to the military headquarters compound to ask General Ji who handled his uncle Huo Guanyuan’s funeral after Huo Guanyuan had died. He also asked General Ji where Huo Guanyuan’s will had been.
He understood immediately after hearing Gu Nianzhi’s explanation.
As a soldier, he would write a will before every major mission.
He had a will, and so did his father, Huo Guanchen. His uncle, Huo Guanyuan, should have a will.
It had been 17 years. Although the military had detailed records of such incidents, for the sake of confidentiality, all records related to the experimental accident were kept on paper and weren’t allowed to be entered into the computer network.
Huo Shaoheng could only go to the reference room of the headquarters to search.
He led Yin Shixiong and Yin Shixiong all the way up to the basement of the reference room. Finally, when it was almost dawn, they found the case file of the experimental accident.
Yin Shixiong didn’t have enough security clearance to open the case file.
Therefore, after he handed the case file to Huo Shaoheng, he walked to the corridor outside the door and stood guard for Huo Shaoheng.
Huo Shaoheng sat alone on the sofa in the basement of the reference room. His expression was calm as he flipped through the records related to the names of the people who had died in the experimental accident, the inventory of their belongings, the list, and the procedures for their final delivery.
” … Huo Guanyuan, Male, 36 years old, senior colonel rank, sacrificed in the… belongings… all to his wife, Luo Xinxue.”
However, his will wasn’t listed in the list of remains.
Could it be that his will had only been delivered to his wife? It hadn’t been recorded?
The receipt that Luo Xinxue had signed for was also in his file, and there was no separate will listed in it.
This was a little strange.
Could it be that there was really no will?
However, he had a feeling that since Huo Guanyuan had mentioned it to Song Jinning, it couldn’t be a bluff.
Huo Shaoheng frowned and thought for a while. In the end, he put down the documents and left the information room.
He saw that the sky was almost bright, so he and Yin Shixiong lay in the lounge upstairs for a while to rest.
It was seven o’clock. He and Yin Shixiong left the information room building to look for General Ji.
General Ji had just returned from his morning exercise and met Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong at the door.
“Shaoheng, Big Xiong, good morning. ” General Ji greeted them with a smile.
Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong stood upright and saluted. “Good Morning, chief!”
“Good, good, good. Don’t be so formal. Come, have you all had breakfast? If not, let’s have breakfast together.” General Ji kindly led Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong into his own home.
Refraining from formalities, they followed General Ji to his restaurant for breakfast.
General Ji had the taste of an elderly person. In the morning, he ate deep-fried golden fried dough sticks, soy milk, and a basket of steamed white and warm tofu buns. The fillings inside were all vegetarian fillings — bean curd, vegetarian chicken, tofu, and fresh mushroom dices. They were very delicious.
However, even though the taste was good, to Huo Shaoheng and Yin Shixiong, the food wasn’t fulfulling.
Even after the two of them each ate five tofu buns, it still felt as if they hadn’t eaten anything.
They had no choice but to eat a few more deep-fried dough sticks each.
General Ji watched the two of them with great emotion as he said, “It’s good to still be young. Everything tastes so delicious.”
Huo Shaoheng: ” … ”
Yin Shixiong almost choked on a mouthful of deep-fried dough stick. It took him a long time to swallow it.
Huo Shaoheng glanced at him and immediately understood. Heasked, “What would you like to drink?”
Huo Shaoheng ordered Colombian black coffee, while General Ji still wanted Pu’er tea.
Yin Shixiong took the opportunity to leave the dining room. He went to the kitchen to make coffee and tea so that Huo Shaoheng and General Ji could speak in private.
“General Ji, I have a private matter to ask you… ” Huo Shaoheng lowered his voice. “If it’s inconvenient for you, you don’t have to tell me. Please don’t feel pressured.”
“You little brat! Tell me, hwta’s the big deal!” General Ji laughed as he pulled out a cigar and tapped it on the dining table.
Huo Shaoheng quickly took the blade and helped General Ji sharpen the cigar. He then lit the lighter for general JI and said, “It’s like this. I want to ask, who did my uncle give his will to?”
General Ji was caught off guard. “Huo Guanyuan’s will? Didn’t he give it to his family? Doesn’t he have a wife and daughter?”
Huo Shaoheng looked at General Ji without batting an eye. “My aunt passed away and was killed by Bai Jinyi. His daughter, Luo Jialan, wasn’t his biological daughter either. She was the child of his fallen comrade.”
General Ji slapped his forehead in realization. “Oh, Oh, I’m getting old. My memory is really bad. I remember now, that’s what happened. Sigh, your uncle is so pitiful. He sacrificed himself for the country and didn’t even leave behind a descendant. ”
Huo Shaoheng nodded. “I just remembered, too. As a soldier, my uncle would definitely have a will when he carried out that kind of mission. However, I didn’t see a suicide note on the list of his belongings.”
General Ji took a puff of his cigar and looked at the French windows across from him. He said softly, “Shaoheng, when your uncle died, the suicide note didn’t stipulate that it had to be on the list of his belongings.”
Huo Shaoheng: ” … ”
He was only 12 years old at the time and hadn’t joined the army yet, so he didn’t know anything about this.
“Because in that era, the soldiers who died had a will to give to their families. This was a common practice and didn’t need to be specifically mentioned. Everyone knew about it, so the military didn’t insist that the ‘will’ had to be on the list as one of the relics.”
Huo Shaoheng understood.
“Then later, the military made it mandatory for the ‘will’ to be listed as one of the items on the list. Was it because something happened?”
“Yes, ” General Ji said straightforwardly, “Something did happen later. The will of the soldiers who died was maliciously withheld, destroyed, or tampered with, causing many property disputes. Later, the military made it mandatory that the will was also a relic of the soldiers who died. It had to be listed on the list of items. When it was handed over to the family, the family had to sign it to indicate that they had received the will.”
He stared at Huo Shaoheng. “It seems that your uncle’s will was also intercepted or destroyed. ”
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have taken them 17 years to track down the whereabouts of the suicide note.
Huo Shaoheng thought about it for a moment. “Do you still remember who handled the will at that time?