Yu He arrived at the consultation room. Qin Yonghui was sitting on a rosewood chair, twirling prayer beads. Qin Xinyao, holding a thermos flask, was looking around.
Seeing her, Qin Xinyao immediately went over and shoved the thermos flask into Yu He’s hands. "Pretty sister, eat, you eat. These are dumplings I made, you eat."
"No need." Yu He glanced at the thermos flask he was offering and didn't take it.
Qin Xinyao persisted, pushing the thermos flask into her hands. "Eat, you eat."
"Miss Yu, I'm sorry. I explained to him last night that you saved him. He insisted on coming today to bring you the dumplings he made," Qin Yonghui said, stepping forward to explain.
She tried to take the thermos flask from Qin Xinyao, coaxing, "Yao'er, sister isn't hungry now. She won't eat. Let's see the doctor first, okay? Big Aunt will hold it for you."
"No!" Qin Xinyao clutched the thermos flask protectively, refusing to let her touch it no matter how she pleaded.
"Follow me." Yu He glanced again at the thermos flask he was guarding and walked into the consultation room next door, which was now empty.
Qin Xinyao obediently followed her into the consultation room. Seeing Yu He about to close the door, Qin Yonghui hurriedly asked, "Can I come in and stay with Yao'er? I'm worried he'll be scared."
Before Yu He could refuse, Qin Xinyao said foolishly, "I'm not scared. Pretty sister saved me, I'm not scared."
"Nannan doesn't like to be disturbed when she's seeing the doctor. Miss Qin Er, please wait here," Elder Madam Yu explained.
Qin Yonghui cast a worried glance at Qin Xinyao. Seeing that he didn't need her at all, she finally went with Elder Madam Yu to the waiting room next door.
The consultation room door closed, and Yu He deliberately locked it from the inside before turning around.
Qin Xinyao, with a foolish expression, hugged the thermos flask and touched things here and there.
"There are no surveillance cameras here, and the soundproofing of the room is at the highest grade, level 6," Yu He said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
Only then did Qin Xinyao relax. He shed the foolish facade he had maintained all the way, his eyes fixed on Yu He. "You're investigating the murderer of my father, aren't you?"
Yu He had been wondering how to get him to talk about his father's case when he unexpectedly brought it up himself.
His question implied that he also didn't believe Lord Qin Six had killed his father.
Looking at his sincere gaze, Yu He's heart surged.
Since she returned to investigate the mastermind behind her adoptive mother's death and the culprit who framed her adoptive father, he was the first person who so firmly believed her adoptive father wasn't the murderer of Lord Qin Three, and who stood on the same side as her.
Even Qin Beiting, who had provided her with a lot of help, had not expressed such a firm belief in her adoptive father.
"Yes," Yu He nodded, but she was still a little confused. "How can you believe that my father... Lord Six isn't the murderer of your father?"
Usually, the family members of the victim would not so firmly testify for the murderer.
"Back then, I also thought that Uncle Six killed my father to seize power. I hated Uncle Six quite a bit," Qin Xinyao said. "But when I saw Aunt Six constantly looking for evidence to vindicate Uncle Six, frequently meeting with my mother to analyze the case, I started to waver.
"Only those who are wrongly accused would be more eager to restore the truth than the victim's family. Aunt Six was like that."
He continued, "The day before Aunt Six was about to expose the murderer, she died in a car accident.
"My mother said it wasn't an accident, and that's when I completely believed Uncle Six was innocent. But my mother wouldn't let me say anything, saying that if I did, we would become the next Aunt Six.
"So, she forced me to pretend to be sick, crazy, and foolish. She forbade me from speaking out and from participating in any matters of the Qin Group, saying that only then could I live safely in the Qin family."
As it turned out, she left first, leaving him alone in the Qin family.
He had survived, but his life was a living hell.
Yu He thought of how he had even stuffed mud into his mouth to pretend to be foolish in the Qin family, and her throat suddenly felt a little choked.
But now was not the time for sadness. She took a deep breath. "So, do you know who the murderer is?"
"I don't know," Qin Xinyao shook his head. "My mother didn't want this matter to involve me. No matter how I asked, she never told me."
Yu He could empathize with this.
Back then, her adoptive mother had never told her the truth about the matter. To avoid implicating her, she had even sent her to her maternal grandmother's. She had faced everything alone...
"But you should know," Qin Xinyao suddenly said.
"Me?" Yu He was confused.
Qin Xinyao affirmed, "Yes!"
Yu He looked at him suspiciously, waiting for him to continue. How could she possibly know?
Qin Xinyao didn't speak directly. He suddenly stepped forward, grabbed her hand, and asked earnestly, "Can you guarantee that after I tell you everything I know, you will definitely bring to justice the real murderer of my father?"
For years, he had pretended to be foolish and crazy as his mother had asked, not just to survive in the Qin family.
He was unwilling. Unwilling that his father was dead, the murderer was free, and the innocent was suffering in prison.
Yu He felt the grip on her hand, which was particularly strong, as if he were entrusting his heavy burden to her.
She nodded solemnly. "Absolutely!"
She would definitely vindicate her adoptive father and find the mastermind behind her adoptive mother's death, bringing them to justice!
"Okay, I believe you!" Qin Xinyao released her hand, placed the thermos flask on the table, and then opened the lid. Inside was a large lump of something that was impossible to tell if it was dumplings or wontons.
Yu He: "..."
Qin Xinyao then took out the lump and revealed a lower compartment filled with flour. He reached into the flour and pulled out a white bag containing a mobile phone.
Yu He: "..."
As expected of you, so cautious.
Qin Xinyao turned on the phone, disabled the data and Wi-Fi, and then tapped on the photo album, handing it to Yu He. "This is a photo of Uncle Six's case files that I secretly took years ago."
Seeing how cautious he was, Yu He didn't blame herself for not being able to get any information from him before.
Even the strongest hacker couldn't break into an offline, powered-off electronic device.
She wanted to transfer the photos to her computer, but the cautious Qin Xinyao refused. Yu He had no choice but to look at them on his phone.
The photos were of paper case files. All the evidence at the crime scene pointed to her adoptive father as the murderer. Furthermore, her adoptive father had eventually given up on hiring a lawyer to defend himself, accepted the trial, and was imprisoned.
From these photos, Yu He couldn't discern the information that Qin Xinyao had mentioned earlier about her knowing the murderer.
"I've looked at these photos repeatedly for a long time, and I discovered two traces at the scene that were not included in the case evidence."
As Qin Xinyao spoke, he leaned forward and tapped to bring up another photo from a different folder.
The photo showed the area under the table at the crime scene, a close-up of a storage cabinet. The cabinet door was half-open, and a small clip had fallen out. There were clear signs of movement near the table leg by the cabinet door.
"This photo seems to have been taken by a detective hired by Aunt Six after the incident. This photo was not mentioned in the police files. And the whereabouts of the evidence are unknown."
Qin Xinyao zoomed in on the small clip in the photo. It was a small clip inlaid with pink diamonds.
"Does this small clip look familiar to you?" he asked, looking at Yu He.
The clip looked somewhat familiar to Yu He. When she was little, her adoptive mother liked to buy her similar sparkly accessories. Paired with a gauzy dress, she would be dressed up like a little princess.
Combined with this cabinet, it was one of her favorite hiding spots when she played hide-and-seek with her adoptive father in Ya Garden...
Could it be...
Yu He thought of something, her pupils constricting.