He Junjun wasn't lying.
She had truly never met Xu Ruyi.
It was Xu Ruyi who had seen her.
"He Junjun mentioned that three months ago, she briefly met a friend, had a drink with them, and recounted this experience in great detail. I suspect that so-called 'female friend' was arranged by you," Old He said.
Xu Ruyi naturally didn't admit it. She remained silent.
"Anyway, through He Junjun, you learned the true events, the entire sequence, leading up to your mother's attack. What He Junjun knew was only the fragment she witnessed. But you, you saw the whole picture."
"Because you understood your mother. You understood Qin Guan. Qin Guan's greatest fear was you finding out. And your mother, witnessing her son-in-law's betrayal of her only daughter, could never swallow that anger. She would be furious, she would contact you immediately. And that, that was the key point of that day."
Old He continued, "So, I went back to Jiayuan Complex. I asked your neighbors. That day, when your mother and Qin Guan returned to Jiayuan Complex one after the other, you and your father had just left for Guanlan Court. You passed each other unseen."
"But your mother didn't know you were gone at first. After discovering something so monumental, the reason she rushed back to Jiayuan Complex was because she knew you and your father were there! Meaning, her original intention was to come home and tell you both, to expose Qin Guan's affair right then and there."
"But, you and your father happened to not be at Jiayuan Complex. And not long after returning home, your mother was gone. Crucially, your mother also never called you to tell you about it. Why?"
Xu Ruyi closed her eyes. Countless invisible knives, mixed with saliva, were swallowed painfully down her throat.
Yes, this was the "whole picture" she had later pieced together and understood—she knew her mother's temperament best. Discovering something so important, already back home at Jiayuan Complex, the next step, finding her husband and daughter weren't there, would have been to call and inform them immediately. Yet, in the end, she had received no call from her mother.
There was only one explanation: Qin Guan had stopped her.
How did he stop her?
"You can imagine it. Physically, your mother was no match for Qin Guan. Nine times out of ten, your mother tried to make the call, but Qin Guan snatched her phone away."
Old He took a deep breath—years of experience made it easy for him to reconstruct the sequence.
"But the most critical thing wasn't the phone. It was the fury. Your mother was already physically weak, with high blood pressure. The sudden rage, coupled with the shock of seeing her son-in-law's true nature, left her extremely vulnerable. At that moment, whether through action or words, the slightest push could easily make her collapse."
"And that's exactly what happened. She collapsed in a fit of rage, vomiting blood and dying. The bloodstain on the doorframe is the proof."
Old He sighed, looking out at the river—the clouds were thicker now, layered like massive stones pressing down, suffocating.
This was the source Qin Guan spoke of. This was the reason Xu Ruyi meticulously planned her revenge step by step from the shadows.
No one could calmly accept such a truth—that her most trusted first love, her husband, had cheated, betrayed her, and cruelly caused the death of her beloved mother.
And this was only the beginning.
"Then there's your father…"
Old He rubbed his stiffening face and continued, "Actually, it was your suspicion about your father's death that led you to investigate the truth about your mother's passing. Comparatively, your father's departure was even more sudden. Qin Guan's suspicion was lighter because at the time of the accident, Qin Guan wasn't even near your father. He was at the park entrance."
Old He frowned. "You know what? I went looking for that surveillance footage. It was gone. Vanished within just a few months. The nearby cameras, the recordings, the video from that day—all gone."
Qin Guan had deleted it.
Xu Ruyi had looked for it too.
Qin Guan had the "connections." He'd boasted about it at home.
"So I understand why you didn't choose to confront him directly. His abilities, his skills, his methods—they were beyond your reach."
"He must have secretly arranged to delete the video from that day after the accident investigation concluded. He's always been meticulous. He knows exactly which step to take and when. So, you should have remained in the dark forever. But then… the will."
Old He looked at Xu Ruyi. "Your father's will shattered everything you had believed."
A will that was suspiciously unfinished.
"That will didn't have your fingerprints. You wiped them off later. But wiping fingerprints has a flaw. That was one of your small slip-ups that day. If you wipe, you have to wipe everything. So, the will also lacked your father's fingerprints. That was one of the reasons I first became suspicious and started seriously questioning Qin Guan's testimony."
How could a will written in one's own hand lack their own fingerprints?
"Nor did it have Qin Guan's. I suspect you couldn't manage to put his on there. Aside from a few smudged, chaotic prints, the clearest belonged to Qi Min." Old He looked at Xu Ruyi's still-raised head. "You really went to great lengths with that detail."
"But your efforts pale in comparison to Qin Guan's. That car accident—Qin Guan managing to execute it so flawlessly in such a short time—that was true ingenuity."
Old He had inspected that scene countless times.
From the park to that intersection, he knew every inch of ground by heart.
"The accident spot was conveniently on a steep slope. Your father was using a brand-new, smart wheelchair. Once the wheelchair malfunctioned and slid down that steep slope, it was impossible to control."
"What a perfect excuse. What a perfect alibi. The perpetrator didn't even need to be present to manipulate the accident. Because that intersection, strictly speaking, was a multi-way junction. It had five branches, heavy traffic, and a flower bed nearby that conveniently blocked the driver's view."
"Even I, unfamiliar with the area, could see at a glance how prone to accidents that junction was. How much more so Qin Guan, who knew the roads inside out?"
Xu Ruyi remained motionless, only biting her lip fiercely.
He knew everything.
In just these few short days, this old detective had followed the vines back to the source.
What else did he know?
"The unfortunate thing is, after the accident, the wheelchair was thrown away without a trace. No evidence left."
Old He sighed. "Disposing of the wheelchair—Qin Guan did that flawlessly too. Because it was the wheelchair you bought for your father. You must have been filled with guilt. You couldn't face that object."
Xu Ruyi lowered her eyelids. Something pricked her eyes silently.
She endured it. She forced herself to endure.
What this man said was all conjecture. No evidence.
"Yes, I have no evidence," Old He frowned, a bitter smile on his face. "But you know what, Xu Ruyi? I went looking for that wheelchair."