Chapter 144: The Koi Died

Since they even went and asked the people whose homes were demolished, there should really be no problem.

Qiao Jiu said nothing more, and the call came to an end.

Leaving her phone aside, she sat holding the documents, lost in thought.

There was still plenty of content further down in the files, but for some reason, she suddenly lost all interest in reading it.

After sitting on the sofa for a while, she stood up, walked back to her bedroom to place the documents in the cabinet, and then went to the bathroom to wash up.

When she looked into the mirror, she noticed her complexion was rather poor. In truth, after digging up so much information and finding nothing questionable so far, she had no idea what she was even afraid of.

She did not do business herself, but she knew that the business world was hardly pristine, and there were always a few murky, unsavory dealings.

Back then, however, her late father had merely been a pawn for others—just running errands to earn an honest, hard-earned living.

That project had been massive, and if there had truly been any sordid business involved, he likely wouldn't have had the qualification to know about it or participate in it.

After letting her mind wander through these chaotic thoughts, she hurriedly finished freshening up, returned to the bedroom, picked up her phone, and casually scrolled through her feed.

To her surprise, a photo of Lu Fengzhou appeared right there in her Moments.

She stared at the account for a moment before remembering whose account it belonged to—it was Lu Fengzhou's assistant, whose surname was Cui.

She had added him a long time ago, back when she was still the pampered and arrogant young miss of the Qiao family.

Lu Fengzhou always returned home late, and his excuse was invariably the same: he had business social events to attend.

Naturally, she hadn't believed it, so she had privately obtained his assistant's phone number and WeChat, telling the man to keep an eye on him and report back to her promptly if any issues arose.

Thinking about it now, she must have been truly foolish. How could that assistant possibly obey her? In terms of closeness, he would undoubtedly listen to Lu Fengzhou; there was no way he would side with her.

She tapped open Assistant Cui's Moments, which was set to restrict visibility to the last three days. Anything posted before that was invisible, and even within the past three days, the only post was the photo just uploaded.

Qiao Jiu enlarged the picture. The main figure was Lu Fengzhou, with a woman seated beside him. The two of them had their heads leaning close together, whispering about something. The angle was favorable, capturing just the hint of a smile on Lu Fengzhou's face.

Just by looking at it, the two of them appeared quite intimate.

Qiao Jiu let out a cold laugh. Such cheap tricks.

She and Guan Wei had both used this exact tactic before. The story of the boy who cried wolf—it didn't mean the warning had to be shouted by the same person; having someone else shout it no longer worked anyway.

She had originally intended to like the post, but fearing that Lu Fengzhou might misinterpret her intention, Qiao Jiu ultimately backed out of the page directly.

***

When she woke up the next day, her nose felt slightly stuffy, her temples throbbed with a dull ache, and her appetite was poor, so Qiao Jiu simply skipped breakfast altogether.

Taking a taxi to the company, she had just stepped into her office when the phone in her bag rang.

She fished it out and glanced at the screen; it was a call from her late father's former assistant.

She answered it promptly.

The person on the other end hesitated, sounding somewhat uncertain. "Miss Qiao, after our call yesterday, I went back and thought things over carefully. I'm not sure if what I remembered is of any use, but after turning it over in my mind, I still wanted to tell you about it."

Qiao Jiu asked hurriedly, "What did you remember?"

The assistant paused to gather his breath. "During the old master's entire period of serious illness, he didn't suffer too terribly, but toward the very end, his mind became somewhat muddled, and he started saying some very confused things."

He continued, "Back then, he would frequently call out 'A-fang.' I don't know if that's someone's name, but those two characters were the ones he muttered most often."

Qiao Jiu's body stiffened, and it took her a long while to catch her breath. "It's a name. It was my mother's name."

Her mother, Su Fang, had passed away more than twenty years ago.

Later on, when Qiao Siman achieved success in his career, it wasn't as though no women had thrown themselves at him. Whether he had played around outside, Qiao Jiu wasn't certain, but he had truly never entertained the thought of remarrying.

Right up until the time he fell ill and was hospitalized, a photograph of Qiao Jiu's mother still sat in his bedroom.

The assistant paused on the other end, his voice filled with emotion. "Is that so."

Qiao Jiu pressed down the rising tide of emotion in her heart. "Did he say anything else?"

The assistant replied, "Just before lapsing into a coma, the old master experienced a brief moment of lucidity. He grabbed Mr. Lu's hand and repeated a single sentence, saying that the koi fish in the fountain had died, and told Mr. Lu he must go back and take a look."

Qiao Jiu frowned. When the fountain in the old family estate was in regular operation, there had indeed been a whole pond of koi fish raised at the bottom.

Whether her old man had listened to the advice of some feng shui master or not, the fountain was built in two tiers, with aquatic plants growing on top and koi fish kept below.

While he was critically ill, people were still living in the old estate, the fountain was functioning normally, and all the koi were still alive.

The assistant said, "He repeated those words many times. Mr. Lu even specifically called the servants at the old estate, had them take pictures, and showed the photographs to the old master, telling him the fish were all fine. Yet the old master still kept muttering that the koi had died and insisted he had to go back to check."

Qiao Jiu sighed. "My dad always loved that pond of koi fish very much; I suppose he just couldn't let it go."

The old man had been a firm believer in feng shui and destiny, constantly claiming that the pond of koi was a symbol of good luck, which was why he doted on them so specially.

The topic was somewhat heavy, and the assistant hadn't thought of anything else useful, so he didn't say much more, and the call ended there.

After hanging up, Qiao Jiu placed her phone face down on the desk.

She wasn't entirely clear what ultimate fate befell that pond of koi fish, but they had indeed been her father's favorite living creatures during his lifetime.

The family kept no pets; apart from humans, the only living things in the house were in that fish pond, and their fish food was even imported from abroad.

It was only natural that her father couldn't let go of them on his deathbed.

Qiao Jiu raised a hand to massage her temples. Over the past two days, she had absorbed too much information without any clear direction, leaving her feeling utterly dizzy and dazed.

After waiting a short while, the office door was pushed open, and Liang Xiucheng walked in.

Liang Xiucheng gave her a single look before striding over, his brow furrowed. "What's wrong? Why is your complexion so terrible?"

Qiao Jiu turned to look at him. "I probably didn't eat breakfast, so I have a bit of low blood sugar and feel dizzy."

Liang Xiucheng reached out and pressed a hand against her forehead. "Low blood sugar, my foot. You've got a fever."

Really? Qiao Jiu hadn't felt it herself.

Liang Xiucheng walked around the desk, bent down, and touched his forehead against hers. "You're definitely burning up."

Qiao Jiu instinctively shrank back in discomfort, but Liang Xiucheng seemed completely unbothered by her reaction. Straightening up, he said, "I'm taking you to the hospital. Your temperature isn't low; you must have started running a fever last night."

Qiao Jiu braced herself against the desk and stood up. "There's no need. I'll just go out and buy some medicine."

The fever must have started last night. All through her sleep, she had felt chilled, and no matter how tightly she wrapped herself in the quilt, she felt as though there was a draft blowing right against her chest.

Liang Xiucheng frowned. "You still need to go to the hospital. Given how you look, taking medicine on your own probably won't cut it."

He raised a hand to support her arm, guiding her toward the exit. "You're in this state and you still didn't eat breakfast? Do you even know how to take care of yourself at all?"

While she was sitting down, she hadn't felt it as much, but once she stood up, the dizziness hit her far harder.

She hadn't felt this way when she arrived in the morning; taking that phone call had certainly packed quite a heavy impact.

Qiao Jiu didn't put on airs either—only the person suffering knew how miserable it felt.

She followed Liang Xiucheng out of the company. As they reached the curbside, she couldn't hold it in any longer, suddenly whipped around, braced herself against a streetlight pole, bent double, and vomited with a retching sound.

Having skipped dinner the night before, she brought up nothing but water.

Liang Xiucheng was startled, rushing over to support her while patting her back. "Are you alright?"

Qiao Jiu waved a hand. "I'm fine. I probably just ate something bad."