My sister broke off her engagement to marry someone richer? My older sister married me and became in

Lu Qingshan stuffed the fake account back into the brown paper bag, took out half a bottle of cheap liquor, and handed it to the skinny monkey on the ground.

"Open your mouth and drink it."

The skinny monkey trembled with fear, took the bottle shakily, and gulped down several mouthfuls, choking and crying with tears and snot streaming down his face: "Cough cough... sir, I drank it, please spare me..."

Lu Qingshan snatched the bottle, tilted his wrist, and splashed most of the remaining liquor onto the skinny monkey, while a small portion was spilled next to the overturned gasoline drum.

"Sizzle."

Lu Qingshan struck a famous match and lit a few torn pages of the fake account book, then casually moved it to the skinny monkey's wine-soaked trouser leg.

The flames suddenly shot up.

"Ah! Fire! Help!" the skinny monkey cried out in terror.

Lu Qingshan stomped out the flames and said coldly, "Shut up, a few charred marks would make it look proper."

He casually grabbed a crowbar, dipped it in pine resin, threw it on the ground, and then kicked a thick piece of wood at the skinny monkey.

"Snap!"

"Ah—!" the skinny monkey screamed as his wrist, which had just been bitten, was pressed down hard by the log.

"Stop howling." Lu Qingshan looked down at him. "Listen, everyone's here now."

The skinny monkey gasped in pain, "Sir... what are you going to do...?"

"I'll teach you how to save your life." Lu Qingshan said expressionlessly. "What will you say if Gao Jianjun asks?"

"I..." The skinny monkey stammered.

"The first thing I said was that you were lazy and drank alcohol at night."

"I...I was lazy and drank alcohol," the skinny monkey repeated, trembling.

The second line says, "He was drunk and knocked over the lantern, which started a fire."

"The lantern was overturned... and caught fire..."

"In the third instance, while frantically trying to put out the fire, his right hand was broken by a piece of rolling wood."

"His hand was broken by falling wood."

Lu Qingshan's eyes turned cold: "What about those loaders who ran away?"

Skinny Monkey's mind raced, and he blurted out in a tearful voice, "Yes! I hired odd jobs down the mountain to save trouble! They all ran away when they saw the fire, afraid of taking responsibility! It has nothing to do with Captain Gao, nothing to do with anyone...!"

"At least your brain isn't completely useless." Lu Qingshan patted his face. "If you had missed a single word, Qingwei would have bitten your neck next time."

"Understood! I understand everything! I didn't see anything! It was all an accident!" The skinny monkey kowtowed repeatedly.

Lu Qingshan didn't waste any more words, turned around and called out softly, "Qingwei, let's go."

The big black dog silently followed from the shadows.

Lu Qingshan smoothed out the footprints on the muddy ground with his feet, pushed open the back door, and a cold wind carrying pine resin rushed in.

He glanced back at the trucks filling the yard with red pine branches and coldly uttered:

"Good wood, too bad you can't take it away."

Before the words were even finished, the man and the dog had already disappeared into the dark forest.

……

As the first hint of dawn appeared on the horizon, the courtyard gate creaked softly.

A chill, carrying the scent of pine needles and frost, crept into the room through the crack in the door.

Lin Xiulan sat up abruptly on the kang (a heated brick bed); she hadn't dared to sleep soundly all night.

Lu Qingshan walked in, his work clothes were covered with morning dew, but his face showed no signs of fatigue.

"You're back." Lin Xiulan's voice was a little hoarse. She quickly got off the kang (a heated brick bed), scooped a bowl of hot water from the pot that was warming on the stove, and handed it to her.

The bowl of water was still too hot to handle.

Lu Qingshan took it, holding it in both hands, the warmth of his palms relaxing his tense nerves.

He tilted his head back and drank the bowl of hot water clean.

"Did something happen?" Lin Xiulan looked at him, but didn't ask any further questions. She simply turned the fire up a little brighter.

"Um."

Lu Qingshan took off his coat, took out a small booklet wrapped in oilcloth from his inside pocket, and handed it to her.

"I caught Gao Jianjun reselling timber in warehouse number six."

He made things very simple, omitting all the details of what happened.

They simply said that they happened to stumble upon their transaction and took advantage of the chaos to obtain the booklet recording the number of truckloads.

Lin Xiulan took the booklet, flipped through it, and glanced at it. It contained strings of numbers and codes written crookedly in pencil.

She then heard Lu Qingshan describe the flaws in the fake account book that he had seized and then re-faked the scene.

The woman's delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"The engine number of a car does not match the fuel consumption standard."

"The time it takes for repair parts to be received into the warehouse is even earlier than the time it breaks down."

Lin Xiulan raised her head, her eyes showing no panic, only calm analysis.

"This doesn't seem like a momentary oversight; it's written too roughly."

"It seems... like it was deliberately left for others to see."

Lu Qingshan placed the empty bowl on the table, looked at his wife, and his eyes revealed a hint of approval.

"That's right."

"Gao Jianjun, that old fox, never trusted his men from the very beginning."

"This fake account is his prepared scapegoat. Once the truth comes out, he will pin all the blame on Skinny Monkey and his gang, and clear himself of all charges."

"What he truly relies on is not this fake account." Lu Qingshan lowered his voice slightly.

"It's the 'yin-yang ledger' that Accountant Sun has."

Lin Xiulan immediately pulled out a few sheets of paper from under the sewing basket on the kang (a heated brick bed).

One is a hand-drawn, simplified map of the county town.

The other one is a structural diagram of the family compound of Hongshilin Forest Farm, with several names and marks marked in red pen.

"Accountant Sun, Sun Defa, 42 years old, bookkeeper in the finance department of the forest farm."

Lin Xiulan's finger pointed to a box on the structural diagram of Unit 2, Building 3.

"I live in Room 201, Building 3, Forestry Farm Family Compound. I leave home at 7:30 every morning, ride a 28-inch bicycle to work, return home for lunch at noon, and finish get off work at 5 pm."

"He hardly goes anywhere except the forest farm and his home."

"I asked around and found out that this person is timid and cautious. He's been in the company for twenty years and has never even argued with anyone. He nods to everyone he meets and can't even speak fluently."

Lu Qingshan looked at the movement trajectory on the map, which was outlined in red and was a straight line between two points.

His fingers tapped lightly on the table.

An honest man whose secrets have been held by others for twenty years, yet he remains unscathed.

That's dishonest in itself.

"The thing this kind of person fears most is getting into trouble," Lu Qingshan said slowly.

"Gao Jianjun regarded him as the safest safe deposit box, thinking that he would never dare to betray him."

"But it is precisely because he is afraid that he is Gao Jianjun's most fatal weakness."

It was already broad daylight.

The village roosters began to crow, and the sound of a tractor starting up could be heard in the distance.

Lu Qingshan did not prepare to go to the forest farm as usual.

He changed into clean clothes and intercepted Scarface Liu at the gate of the courtyard as he was heading to the construction site in the western suburbs.

The morning fog was thick, and even Scarface Liu's eyebrows were covered in frost.

"Boss, what's up?"

Lu Qingshan slipped a piece of paper into his hand, on which was written Accountant Sun's name and address.

"Take two of your smartest guys and keep a close eye on this guy."

"He wrote down everything for me, from what he ate and drank to who he met and what he said, 24 hours a day."

Lu Qingshan looked into Scarface Liu's eyes.

"Remember, you are only allowed to see with your eyes and hear with your ears."

"Don't touch a single hair on his head."

Scarface Liu clenched the note in his hand and nodded solemnly.

"Understood, boss."

He turned around and quickly disappeared into the thick fog at the village entrance.

When Lu Qingshan returned to the house, Wang Guifen had already prepared breakfast.

Millet porridge, cornbread, and a dish of pickled vegetables.

The family sat around the table, eating their meal quietly.

No one asked Lu Qingshan where he went or what he did last night.

After finishing his meal, Lu Qingshan hopped on his Forever brand bicycle, the wheels rolling over the frost-covered dirt road as he slowly rode towards the Red Stone Forest Farm.

When he arrived at the forest farm compound, the work bell had just rung.

In the courtyard, groups of two or three workers were smoking as they walked toward their respective work areas.

The atmosphere was a bit off.

Many people gathered together, whispering among themselves, their eyes occasionally glancing toward the second floor of the office building.

Lu Qingshan parked the car and locked it.

He looked up and followed the gaze of the crowd.

On the second-floor corridor, the wooden door to the office of Deputy Director Gao Jianjun was wide open.

There was a person standing at the door.

It's a skinny monkey.

One of his arms was in a sling across his chest with thick bandages, his head was wrapped in gauze with blood seeping through, and his face was as pale as a sheet of paper.