As soon as Sang Ning and Gu Yezhou arrived upstairs, a secretary led them to a reception room to wait.

And wait they did—for a full fifteen minutes.

“Isn’t Lin Zedong putting on a bit too much of a show?” Sang Ning disliked waiting for people. She disliked waiting for suspects even more.

Gu Yezhou, however, had picked up a comic from the reception room and started reading. His gaze settled on the author’s name at the end.

“Looks like President Lin is already prepared.”

Sang Ning turned her head. “How so?”

Gu Yezhou was flipping through a comic, and by coincidence, the heroine on that very page had her face.

Sang Ning rose and walked over, leaning in.

Her soft hair brushed lightly against Gu Yezhou’s rolled-up sleeve, leaving a faint tickle on his arm. He lowered his eyes to her smooth hair. She was so small beside him, as if he could hang her on himself like an accessory at any moment.

“Isn’t this Shi Li’s comic? Lin Zedong put it here?” Sang Ning felt something was off. “If this case really has something to do with Lin Zedong, shouldn’t he destroy everything related to Shi Li?”

Wasn’t this openly telling them Shi Li had ties to the Lin Group?

“It’s only a comic. It doesn’t prove anything.” Gu Yezhou’s voice softened slightly.

As they were speaking, the reception room door opened.

Lin Zedong’s secretary walked in. She was tall and unsmiling.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. President Lin would like to invite you to sit at the café. Would that be all right?”

Gu Yezhou and Sang Ning naturally had no objection.

The café was the very one Sang Ning had seen downstairs earlier.

At this hour, there were almost no customers inside. Only one table still held two cups of coffee, not yet cleared by the staff.

They chose seats by the window.

“President Lin should arrive in about five minutes.”

The female secretary stood nearby and ordered a coffee for each of them, including one for Lin Zedong.

She handled everything in an orderly manner. During that time, she even took a call about Lin Zedong’s schedule. Unable to make the decision herself, she finally replied that she would have to ask President Lin.

Gu Yezhou asked, “President Lin is going on a business trip these next two days?”

The secretary nodded. “Yes. He was supposed to go last week, but something delayed him, so it kept being postponed.”

“May I ask what delayed him?” Sang Ning asked.

Last week?

Sang Ning had happened to see Lin Zedong once then. At the time, he had looked somewhat anxious. She’d thought it was work pressure, maybe being scolded by a superior.

So it had been trouble with his own company.

The secretary smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. We have no right to ask about President Lin’s private affairs. You may ask him directly when he arrives.”

Sang Ning understood, but noticed that ever since they’d entered the elevator, the secretary had been checking the time.

Curious, she said, “If you have something else to do, you can go take care of it. You don’t need to wait here with us.”

Working for others really wasn’t easy.

The secretary stiffened when she realized her small movement had been noticed, then quickly regained her composure.

“Apologies. I must remain by President Lin’s side at all times. He’ll be here soon. Whatever questions the two officers ask, I’ll be present to listen.”

Then she added with a polite smile, “If anything is unfavorable to the Lin Group, I’ll arrange a lawyer for President Lin in advance.”

Gu Yezhou studied her. “You’re quite direct.”

The secretary nodded, then looked toward the café entrance. Seeing the familiar figure, she immediately went forward to greet him.

At that moment, the waiter brought their coffee over. Sang Ning took the opportunity to ask, “The coffee at that table hasn’t been cleared. Is that customer coming back?”

The waiter glanced over. “No. We just haven’t had time to clean it up yet.”

So she had overthought it.

When Lin Zedong walked up to Sang Ning, he suddenly said, “I apologize to you on my brother’s behalf. I heard the two of you were supposed to register your marriage yesterday, but he drank too much and missed the appointment. I’ll discipline him properly when I get back.”

“President Lin, I didn’t come here to discuss personal matters with you.”

Sang Ning casually lifted her coffee and took a sip. The bitterness made her brows draw together slightly.

“Not used to it?” Lin Zedong thoughtfully called over a waiter. “Bring this lady a glass of lemon water.”

“President Lin, please don’t act like we’re close,” Sang Ning said, displeased.

Lin Zedong didn’t mind. “If you and my brother had registered yesterday, you’d be my sister-in-law. What’s wrong with caring about family?”

The female secretary glanced at Sang Ning without changing expression, then quickly recorded something on her tablet.

From the moment she came out, her hands had never left it.

Gu Yezhou said in a low voice, “President Lin, where were you at ten o’clock on the night of the ninth?”

Before Lin Zedong could answer, the secretary spoke first.

“President Lin was in a meeting at ten that night. There was an urgent project. Everyone in the conference room can testify.”

Gu Yezhou asked, “When did the meeting end?”

The secretary replied, “Eleven-thirty that night. Afterward, I drove President Lin home. We arrived around midnight.”

“You’re a very dedicated secretary,” Sang Ning said, looking at Lin Zedong. “After returning home, did President Lin wash up and sleep? Did you go out again?”

Lin Zedong looked puzzled. “After work, of course I went home to rest. Why would I go out?”

Gu Yezhou asked, “Can anyone prove that?”

Lin Zedong laughed in anger. “I was sleeping in my own home. Do I need someone to prove that too? Officer, isn’t that alibi request a little forced?”

Seeing his temper rising, the secretary said helpfully, “President Lin has surveillance cameras at home.”

At the mention of cameras, a subtle change flashed across Lin Zedong’s face.

No one caught it.

He silently lifted his coffee and took two sips. “If the officers want to watch the unsightly surveillance footage of me sleeping, then go ahead.”

Lin Zedong nodded toward the secretary. “Are the cameras at my house connected to that tablet?”

“Yes.”

The secretary placed the tablet in the center of the table.

“President Lin’s home has cameras in many areas. At night… it should be the master bedroom?”

She asked Lin Zedong tentatively.

Lin Zedong smiled. “Sometimes I make do in the study.”

Next, they opened the study footage and the bedroom footage.

But after checking them all, they found only footage from when he entered the house last night. From the night of the ninth to the daytime of the tenth, the surveillance feed was nothing but black.

For a moment, all four of them fell silent.

Lin Zedong said unnaturally, “I don’t know why the footage from those two nights is black. My secretary can testify for me. She drove me home that night.”

The secretary nodded.

Her fingertips moved rapidly across the tablet. Soon, she found the note beneath the president’s schedule for that day and let out a breath of relief.

She smiled and said, “President Lin must have been too busy and forgotten. Before the meeting on the ninth, at four in the afternoon, he asked me to contact a repair technician. The cameras at President Lin’s home had been broken for over half a month. After the repair request was filed, no technician came. I’ve been following up on this matter.”

“There was such a thing?” Lin Zedong looked at the tablet suspiciously.

Clearly, even he didn’t remember it.