Chapter 143: Premonition

Lu Fengzhou had not contacted Qiao Jiu for a whole week, and it slowly dawned on Qiao Jiu that this fellow was angry.

He must have still been annoyed when he left her place that night, and the subsequent contact was purely because he knew Liu Changyong had returned.

She sneered inwardly. Fortunately, she had managed to keep her composure over the past two days and hadn't proactively tried to flirt with him.

At a time like this, it was all a game of chicken to see who could hold out longer.

After getting off work in the evening, just as she hailed a taxi, Qiao Jiu's phone rang.

She recognized the number—it was the private investigator Jiang Qingchen had introduced to her.

Just like Lu Fengzhou, he had gone completely silent for a week. Reaching out so suddenly now meant he must have made some progress.

The person on the other end spoke up, "Miss Qiao."

Qiao Jiu let out an acknowledgment, "Found out?"

The other person replied, "Found out. There is quite a bit of material. Shall we meet up so I can hand the documents to you in person?"

That was fine too; some things were indeed inconvenient to discuss over the phone, so Qiao Jiu agreed.

They arranged to meet at a small teahouse, and Qiao Jiu promptly asked the driver to change the route.

When she arrived, the other person was not there yet, so Qiao Jiu ordered a pot of tea.

After waiting for five or six minutes, the man arrived.

There weren't many people in the teahouse at this hour. After entering, the man looked around, and Qiao Jiu immediately guessed his identity, raising a hand to signal him, "Over here."

It was their first meeting, and to be honest, the man's appearance quite surprised Qiao Jiu.

She had imagined that an underground investigator would look shifty-eyed and cunning, but this man looked quite scholarly, and when he smiled at her, he looked a little shy, with dimples at the corners of his mouth.

Such an appearance, so contradictory to the nature of his work, could also be considered a form of disguise.

He carried a document bag and pushed it across the table as soon as he sat down.

The file was quite thick. Qiao Jiu picked it up and opened it, "I only asked you to look into the plot of land my dad initially acquired and the real estate project he built. Why is there so much content?"

The man spoke in a gentle, warm tone, "Since I take money to do a job, I try to get everything investigated as thoroughly as possible for you."

The first part of the document was a biographical introduction of her late father. It was truly thorough, almost tracing his life from birth all the way to his eventual death from illness.

The first half wasn't very important and was mostly a summary, but starting from the acquisition of that plot of land, the details became very specific.

She flipped further back. The latter sections contained an introduction to the plot of land, as well as specific details about the completed housing development.

There was no way she could finish reading so much all at once, so Qiao Jiu closed the file, "You investigated all this in a single week. You certainly have some capability."

Knowing what she meant, the man said, "You were introduced by someone I know, so I would definitely not rip you off. The information is guaranteed to be authentic. Even if there were some ambiguous parts in the middle, I marked them all out for you. Brother Chen's friends are my friends, and I won't smash my own signboard."

Qiao Jiu nodded, then pulled out her phone and transferred the final payment to him.

Checking that the funds had arrived, the man immediately smiled, "If Boss Qiao has any needs in the future, just look for me. I'll give you a discount next time."

Sensing there was nothing else, he stood up, ready to leave.

Qiao Jiu hurriedly stopped him, "Would you dare to investigate a large enterprise?"

The man paused, "How large of an enterprise?"

Qiao Jiu thought for a moment, "An enterprise on the scale of the Liang family. Would you dare to investigate their president's private life?"

Hearing this, the man laughed, "That kind of thing? That's fine."

Qiao Jiu warned him, "Don't just say it's fine. I'm not just asking you to uncover the matter; you also have to ensure that the other party won't trace it back to you along the vine."

The man curved the corners of his mouth, still smiling somewhat shyly, "I know a lot of people. It can't be traced to me, and as long as you stay hidden behind me, it won't be traced to you either."

He probably also knew about Qiao Jiu's past, as he clicked his tongue, "Are you thinking of investigating Lu Fengzhou?"

He pursed his lips slightly, "He is investigable, but it would be a bit more difficult. He has a lot of people under him and strong counter-reconnaissance skills, so I can't guarantee a timeframe. It will probably take quite a while."

Qiao Jiu let out a soft breath, "All right, I'll look for you when the need arises."

Having settled the matter, the man left first. Qiao Jiu waited for a while before heading out to hail a cab home.

She had no appetite for dinner. After changing her clothes, she curled up on the sofa and opened the document bag.

Skipping the biographical details of Qiao Sman, she flipped forward to the information regarding the plot of land.

Originally, it was a neglected place. Dozens of scattered households were not well-off, and the surrounding area consisted entirely of wasteland.

Yet, inexplicably, overnight, this very patch of land became a coveted prize fought over by everyone.

Not only Qiao Sman and Liu Changyong, but several major real estate tycoons had their eyes on it as well.

When a piece of meat is eyed by several hungry wolves, it naturally becomes difficult to handle. Besides, for some unknown reason, those scattered dozens of households were quite stubborn, and the majority of them refused to agree to relocation.

If the residents consistently refused, developers could not privately expropriate the land, and in the end, they could only wait for the government to acquire it and carry out old-town reconstruction. By that time, outsiders wanting a slice of the pie would find it much harder.

Therefore, in order to grab the land as quickly as possible, developers not only played dirty tricks against each other but also sent working groups to the households to lobby them.

Qiao Jiu licked her molars. They called it lobbying, but she had seen it on television—much of it involved coercion, inducement, and intimidation.

The investigation report showed that in order to secure that plot of land back then, her father and Liu Changyong spared no effort in running errands and pulling strings, spending a significant amount of money just on gifts and kickbacks.

Qiao Jiu recalled that her family didn't have much money back then. Let alone kickbacks, they probably couldn't even afford many high-grade gifts.

As for Liu Changyong, he wasn't a wealthy man in her impression either.

So the high probability was that these two men also had some real estate tycoon standing behind them, acting merely as frontmen to do bidding for others.

However, after running around like this, it did yield results. The majority who had previously refused unified relocation dwindled to a small fraction, and by the end, only a dozen or so households remained.

The information also mentioned that Qiao Sman and Liu Changyong frequently visited the households that had agreed to relocate.

While they couldn't be held entirely responsible, every time they visited, those households would band together to make trouble for the remaining dozen or so families.

There had even been bloody clashes that broke out over disagreements.

Qiao Jiu grabbed her hair in frustration. The investigation was truly meticulous; they were actually able to unearth all of this.

After prolonged pressure, some people were tempted by the benefits, while others were worn down until they lost their temper. In the end, only two or three households refused to budge.

When faced with this situation, the demolition company wouldn't pamper them too much and resorted straight to force.

Qiao Jiu hurriedly flipped further back, only to find that the subsequent pages detailed the acquisition of the land and the construction of the housing project.

She hastily grabbed the phone lying beside her and called the private investigator.

As soon as he answered, he let out an "Ahem," "Looking for after-sales service so soon? Is something not right?"

Qiao Jiu said, "It's not that something's wrong. I just flipped through the files, and the back part doesn't mention this: I wanted to ask you, during the expropriation of that land, some people still refused to the very end. There must have been forced demolitions, right? Did any lives get lost?"

The investigator was taken aback, "Lives?"

He pondered for a moment and asked, "Did you get some insider information? I had people go and ask those displaced residents, and they said no major incidents happened."