- Home
- The Lady’s Facade Was Ruined
- Chapter 66 - What do you think they were hiding from you?
What do you think they were hiding from you?
When Jiang Jin’s friend contacted the police officer in charge of Fang Ke’s case back then, he had told him about Huo Cheng in advance. Because Huo Cheng was Fang Ke’s son, he agreed to meet with him.
When contacting him, it was easy to get an appointment. The officer had a busy schedule, so all Huo Cheng had to do was find a time that suited him.
After the appointment was made, he sent a message back to Shen Wanying:
【He said he’s free before 9am tomorrow, I made an appointment to meet with him at 8am】
【Ah Wan: Alright】
【Huo Cheng: Let’s go see him together】
【Ah Wan: Okay】
When Shen Wanying went to the villa with Huo Cheng on Saturdays, she would usually leave at that time, so she didn’t find it too early.
That night, she kept thinking about the meeting tomorrow and couldn’t settle down.
If Auntie Fang’s case really wasn’t an accident, then why did Uncle Huo stop pursuing it? If it was just an accident, then what about the people in the car?
Huo Cheng’s mother had been in a car accident soon after meeting someone; no matter how you looked at it, it was a bit unnatural.
Shen Wanying pondered over this back and forth so much that she didn’t fall asleep until late into the night. The alarm clock woke her up again at six thirty. She opened her eyes and quickly got up and went to the bathroom to wash.
After she had finished her breakfast at seven-thirty, she went out with her bag. Huo Cheng’s car was already parked outside the door. She entered the car and asked Huo Cheng next to her, “Have you been waiting long?”
“No, I just arrived.”
“That’s good.” She fastened her seat belt as the car drove out.
The meeting place was a café set by the other party. When they arrived, a man eating porridge waved at them.
Huo Cheng spotted him, and the two walked over to him. “Officer Zuo?”
“Yes. You are Huo Cheng?” The man put down the bowl he was holding and swept his gaze from Huo Cheng to Shen Wanying next to him. “Is this your girlfriend? Aren’t you a bit too young to be dating?”
Instead of answering, he just pulled out the chair in front of him and sat down opposite Officer Zuo. “I’ve already told you the reason for my visit, I want to know if my mother’s car accident was really just an accident.”
Officer Zuo looked at him for a while before he asked him, “What made you suddenly think of investigating your mother’s case?”
“When it happened, I was too young, and the adults all told me that it was an accident. But after I returned to China, I felt they were hiding something from me, so I decided to investigate on my own.”
Officer Zuo asked, “What do you think they were hiding from you?”
Huo Cheng was silent for a while before replying, “Back then, my mother seemed to be emotionally involved with a man. I suspect that her death is related to him.”
“Oh,” the officer said as he finished the bowl of porridge before continuing, “You mean Xiang Chong, right?”
Hearing this, the kids both froze. Huo Cheng frowned and looked over. “Did you really investigate him back then?”
“After the car accident that year, we retrieved the surveillance along the road and found that there was initially one more person in the car.”
“That was Xiang Chong?” Huo Cheng asked.
“Yes.” Officer Zuo glanced at him, a probing look flashed in his eyes, “How old are you?”
“Seventeen,” Huo Cheng said, without batting an eye.
“It’s rare to see a seventeen-year-old like you.”
Officer Zuo had seen many precocious children because of his work, but Huo Cheng was different from them.
“I’m not meeting with you so that you can analyse me.”
Officer Zuo’s lips curled. He said, “You have the soul of a grown man.”
Huo Cheng frowned. He had asked around about this Officer Zuo before he arrived. He was only twenty-three when his mother had a car accident, a young junior cop. But he soon showed his talent as a cop and had solved quite a few cases in those seven years since. Now, at thirty, he was an elite in the police force.
But Huo Cheng did not expect a policeman’s intuition to be this sharp.
He calmly said, “I’m simply more mature because of my upbringing.”
Shen Wanying, off to the side: “……..”
“It wasn’t Xiang Chong who did it.” Officer Zuo smiled a little and directly addressed the question he most wanted the answer to.
It was quiet for a few seconds before Huo Cheng opened his mouth and asked, “How did you come to this conclusion?”
“Because we saw Xiang Chong get out of the car early in the surveillance.”
“Couldn’t he have done something to the car beforehand?”
“Back then, your father also suspected it was him,” Officer Zuo said. “But we checked your mother’s car after we salvaged it, and it hadn’t been tampered with.”
Huo Cheng frowned as the older man ate a fried dumpling, and then said, “But I also think that your mother’s death was not an accident.”
Officer Zuo mimicked the forward motion of a car with one finger when he looked over. “Your mother’s car ran straight into Sanqin Bay, without signs of braking.”
Huo Cheng was stunned.
“As I said earlier, after the car was salvaged from the sea, we checked it carefully and there was no problem with the brakes.” Officer Zuo looked at him. “Then there’s only one possibility: the person driving the car didn’t apply the brakes.”
A thin layer of sweat coated Shen Wanying’s palms as she listened. She looked at the boy beside her and asked somewhat nervously, “Officer Zuo, then what you mean is ……”
“I think it was a suicide,” he said. “I had been advocating that it was suicide at the time, but Fang Ke’s family members all said she couldn’t have committed suicide, especially her husband. Since there was also no other evidence that she had committed suicide, and she had been recuperating before the accident according to the accounts of her family and doctors, it was possible for her to have been in an altered state of mind, so we finally ruled the crash as an accident.”
No one spoke for a while, and it was now even quieter than it had been earlier. Shen Wanying dared not think about what Huo Cheng would do if Auntie Fang really had committed suicide. She looked over at Officer Zuo and asked him, “Is there a possibility that Auntie Fang had already lost consciousness before the accident? The other person in the car at the time knocked her out in advance and then used some sort of mechanism to make the car rush into the sea on its own.”
Officer Zuo was amused at this. “Little girl, do you watch a lot of crime dramas?”
Shen Wanying: “……”
“Let’s say he left no traces when he set up these mechanisms in the car, the location where he disembarked alone meant that he couldn’t have made the car run into the sea by itself without anyone driving it.” Officer Zuo gestured to her on the table with his left hand, “The car wasn’t parked on a downhill road and even turned a corner before it reached the crash site. Unless it was remote-controlled, I can’t think of any other mechanism that would allow the car to drive this far down the road and then rush into the sea.”
“……,” Shen Wanying thought about it and offered a second guess. “Then, is it possible that it was psychological manipulation?”
“You mean hypnosis?” Officer Zuo shook his head, “We investigated Xiang Chong carefully back then, he didn’t have this knowledge at all.”
T/N: Thank you to Bright Eyes for helping me with this chapter too! My goodness, it got real dark real fast. I mean, not that murder would’ve been any better, but this is even more tragic. Then again, it’s not like we know for sure…. yet…. why would she leave Huo Cheng behind, and just when they were all looking forward to going home together? Unless… she was blackmailed into it….. But that’s just my brain jumping to conclusions again… hahaha. Thank you for reading, the next chapter is a sweet one, see you there <3
NO NOT A CLIFF NOOO IT’S GETTING GOOD 😭😭😭
IT’S NOT JUST YOU THE BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN ZYM AND FYC IS LIKE A CHEMICAL REACTION
ay? wait? i got something?
HE NICKNAMED HER AH WAN AAAAA
Alright I’m somehow more convinced that he believed himself to be the “killer” because he blamed himself for Fang Ke’s death without being actually the cause of it? What if it’s like a suicidal pact situation? where fang ke is the one who’s a bit loco in the head and initiated the accident, planning to die with both the guy and he just has a survivor’s guilt after?
THE WAY YOU DESCRIBED HIS SECOND LIFE AS NG+ PLUS I’M CRYINGG
ughh now i feel like it’s really a huge red herring instead. It’s too clear and obvious
made an account for commenting here, but my current leading theory, considering the premise of the painted veil that was hinted before, his mom had cheated, his dad knew about and gave her a choice. Something to do with her disease and forced her to live in the mountain villa or to divorce, and for the sake of Huo Cheng she just rather go to the villa. They fixed their relationship and either his mom ended up cheating again or her lover is a yandere.
Also another thought is that daisies represent “innocence” which may suggest that his mom is innocent and she was wrongly blamed, either for the cheating or for something else that we don’t have enough information on. Or if still in line with the ‘cheating’ and the painted veil plot, it may suggest that His mom is someone who’s shallow/gullible like the main character of that novel is.
Watch as I’m embarrassingly wrong/this is a red herring thrown in by the author to kick us off guard. This is honestly such an interesting subplot to the fluffy and light-hearted high school romance
um what o.0
p.s. tho its a bottom line, im glad he dont have impure intention toward her
hey! thanks for all the comments c:
i know, he’s so full of nonsense. but i’m glad too!! the ML we all deserve,,
thanks for reading!
when he keep looking at her as if she gonna disappear 😉
you both said whats on my mind. there many possibility for mysteries and im invested
this too cute, i got diabetes 😭
backstory! that explains a lot
AHAHAHAHAH why she is so fixated to maintain image, isnt it tiring
ah ah so sweet
i like how natural he taking care of her .. as if theyre married
Definitely shipping the silly puppy boy and the spunky cat girl!
Being able to deduce the ship-status by what brand of water he buys! She should be detective!
⁄(⁄ ⁄•⁄-⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄
From this chapter onwards on NU the chapters are incorrectly numbered (10 chapters ahead).
Thank you for the chapter! (*^^*)
this site won’t let me see which chapter it is, but i’ll defs get that checked out, thanks for bringing it to my attention!
thank you for reading! ♡
I think I know why he got stabbed now
Thank you for the chapter!
Gah! I caught up again! Σ( ̄□ ̄lll)
How does one aquire these *shifty eyes* “advance chapters”? Groveling? I can grovel! ┬┴┬┴┤(✧w✧├┬┴┬┴
Also, can we talk about what a smooth criminal Hup Cheng is?! That quiet hug made me blush! (⁄ ⁄•⁄ω⁄•⁄ ⁄)⁄
HELLO!! i am SO SORRY, i am apparently dinosaur/boomer/dumb dumb and never checked the comments until now, so i am just seeing this! thank you for all your kind comments, they really made my day 🥺 about the advance chapters, if you’re still interested, the best way would be to enquire via the discord server! there is a channel specifically for this book, the link is right up in the header (: if you have any issues, yell @ me! i’ll defs be checking back ;; <3
and oh my god YEAH tell me about it, the amount of squealing that has happened on my end of the computer. embarrassing to say the least. 🙈🙈🙈 there will finally be an update on tuesday, sorry for the wait! i hope you enjoy <3
I’m crying, why he is so sweet? I also want a boyfriend like that…
oh my good lord i am so sorry, like the comment after yours, i also, only just saw this T_T thank you for reading and interacting! i agree, where to find a man like this?!?
there will be an update on tuesday, so sorry for the wait as well!
Waiting for new chapter,😘😘
I finally figured out how to make an account in order to post comments! 😂
I was so confused!
This story is so good! Im totally hooked! 💕
I love your translations! They’re very smooth and comfortable to read even if you don’t read many Chinese novels.
Would this advance release you mentioned be more premium chapters that we’d have to pay for or would it be an early release on Novel Updates?
Most obvious thing is that his mother had an affair, and he ended up dead from something related to it.
Hello, I am new reader. I am loving the novel. Thank you so much for your hard work! And thanks for the new chapter.
About your note, since this novel is short and as far as I can see, is more on the fluffy than anything else, I don’t think the Huo family has anything to do with the ML mother’s death. Maybe one of then did something that stimulated her and thus lead to the cause of her death? But I think must of the reason is because she probably really betrayed ML father… The flowers ML saw are probably from the other man, and maybe he also did something that end up causing the ML mother’s death? Everything about that is very strange. Let’s observe more…
Not related but I just want to say: I really don’t believe the FL was the one who killed Huo Cheng. There must be something fish about his death as well. I trust FL.
Sorry my bad english.
Hey!! Not to be rude or anything but I don’t see any link to a discord server… Can someone please send it to me? Thank you so much!!
Don’t worry you weren’t rude at all. We’re still working on setting up the discord server link though. Thanks for being patient.
Here’s a temporary invite to the server:
https://discord.gg/j77SgVky