Reborn a day later, I emptied my enemy's possessions beforehand.

Zhou Fuxiang glanced at her, his lips trembled a few times, and his voice was so hoarse it didn't sound like his own, like an echo coming from a dry well:

"Guiying, what are you doing here? What happened?"

Before Sun Guiying could answer, Zhou Hailong rushed up from behind. His wounds hadn't healed, and he grimaced with every step, but he still managed to dart over to Zhou Fuxiang in a few strides.

"Dad! Was your house also burgled?"

Zhou Fuxiang glanced at his most favored second son, and seeing the bruises and welts on his body, his eyes instantly reddened.

"Hailong, what happened to your face?"

Zhou Hailong gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse and muffled:

"That bastard Zhou Haibing beat me up, emptied my house, and stole my car. He took everything from me, leaving me with nothing."

At this moment, Sun Deming followed him in.

He was wearing a wrinkled white training uniform and slippers. He looked like a wilted eggplant, listless and pale, with no color in his lips.

His gaze swept through the crowd, landing on Sun Guiying, then on Sun Guiwu. His lips trembled, and his voice trembled with tears.

"Guiying...Guiwu...Dad's fish are gone...that blood-red dragon, bought for a million...all gone..."

Sun Guiying rushed over to support him, tears welling up in her eyes, her voice sharp and broken:

"Dad, what are you doing here? Has your house been emptied out too?"

She didn't use a question mark; she used a question she already knew the answer to, but the words still came out of her mouth before she heard the answer.

Sun Guiwu, dragging his still throbbing arms, squeezed in from behind, his voice loud and urgent, as if he wanted to start a fight:

"Dad! Who did this? Was it Zhou Haibing?"

Sun Deming nodded, tears falling and streaming down his wrinkled face, trickling into the corner of his mouth.

He raised his hand and wiped it with his sleeve, his voice choked with sobs, a stark contrast to the imposing village chief he usually was.

"It was him...that beast...He came to me yesterday, saying he wanted to discuss something...and then I don't remember anything..."

I woke up to an empty house... the fish were gone... the car was gone... everything was gone...

Zhou Fuxiang stood to the side, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles turned white, his voice sounding like it was being squeezed out from between his teeth.

Each word spit out was like a blood-stained pebble being spat out:

"Me too... I was drinking with someone when he came... He said he had something to tell me... I sent him away..."

Then I don't know anything anymore... I woke up lying on the floor of the main room...

The house is empty... the car is gone... and that wild ginseng worth five or six hundred thousand yuan is gone too...

The air in the meeting room was as heavy as lead.

Sun Guiying helped Sun Deming back to his chair and sat down, while Zhou Hailong helped Zhou Fuxiang sit opposite him.

Zhao Shuzhen sat in the corner, her hands covering her face, her shoulders trembling, it was hard to tell whether she was crying or shaking.

Wang Jinshan leaned against the wall, his gaze shifting from Zhou Fuxiang's face to Sun Deming's face, then back to the ground, without uttering a word.

Zhou Dongsheng sat next to Zhang Lijuan, one hand gripping the wrist of the other, his knuckles white, his lips tightly pressed together.

An Baojun sat in a wheelchair with his two broken legs propped up on the footrests. He was huddled inside the wheelchair like a crumpled rag.

Zhang Wenbin lay half-reclined on two chairs pushed together, his lower body covered by a towel soaked in blood. His eyes were half-open, and he was muttering something incoherently.

……

Captain Fang stood at the door of the conference room, glanced at the people in the room, and did not come in.

He waited in the corridor.

After a while, a police officer walked briskly from the end of the corridor, holding a tablet computer, and approached Captain Fang.

His voice was very low, with a tense tone as if he had discovered some important clue, and he spoke much faster than usual:

"Team, the video team has compiled all of Zhou Haibing's movements yesterday."

They're arranged in chronological order, would you like to take a look?

Captain Fang nodded and followed the police officer into the office next door.

There was a computer screen and a projector in the office, and the head of the video team was already standing next to him waiting.

The person in charge, surnamed He, was about thirty-five or thirty-six years old. He wore glasses, was tall and thin, and held a mouse in his hand. The screen displayed a partial view of the provincial capital.

A red track is marked on it, running from the east to the west of the city, and turning from the south to the north, like a winding snake, densely dotted with more than a dozen red dots.

"Formation," Team Leader He clicked the mouse, and the screen switched to the first video clip.

"We'll start with Zhou Haibing's first event from yesterday, please take a look."

The screen that popped up was a surveillance video from the entrance of the hospital.

The timecode showed 9:14 AM. At the main entrance of the Provincial People's Hospital, Zhou Haibing walked out of the outpatient building, clutching a piece of paper in his hand, his face pale and his steps unsteady.

He stood on the steps for a long time, his body trembling slightly, as if he had been defeated by something. It took him several minutes to slowly walk down the steps.

"This is the CCTV footage from the entrance of the Provincial People's Hospital," Team Leader He explained from the side.

"Zhou Haibing came out of the hospital around 9 a.m., and he was probably holding something like an examination report or test results."

The specific details are still unclear; we will retrieve his medical records from the hospital later.

But judging from his reaction, it probably isn't good news.

Around 9:40 AM, he got into his car and left the hospital. Surveillance footage from the hospital entrance shows that he didn't drive away immediately after getting in; he sat in the car for a few minutes, seemingly emotionally unstable.

Team Leader He clicked the mouse, and the screen changed.

The surveillance footage at the entrance of the residential complex shows a timecode of 9:41 AM.

A black Mercedes-Benz S-Class appeared in the frame, its license plate clearly visible, and drove into the residential area where Sun Guiying's villa is located.

At 9:55 a.m., the same car drove out of the residential area. The windows were closed, and the person in the driver's seat could not be seen.

"This is the home of Sun Guiying and Zhou Haibing," said Team Leader He. "Zhou Haibing was inside for fourteen minutes."

Captain Fang remained silent, staring at the screen.

The scene changed again.

At the entrance of another residential complex, the timecode shows 10:27 AM.

The same car entered and left at 10:43 AM, staying for 16 minutes.

"Wang Jinshan's house."

The screen continues to jump.

The car entered Zhou Dongsheng's residential compound at 11:11 AM and left at 11:24 AM, stopping for 13 minutes...