HBWMA -Chapter 373 The Murderer

“Knock, knock—”

Jiang Huashan was lounging on a soft chair scrolling through her phone when a knock suddenly sounded from behind her. Without thinking much, she assumed it was Zhang Ru and replied casually without even lifting her eyelids, “Come in.”

The door opened. After waiting a moment and still not hearing Zhang Ru speak, she finally looked up.

Shen Guiling was leaning lazily against the doorframe, moonlight draping over his half-dry hair like a soft, silvery veil.

Jiang Huashan froze for a second, then quickly got up from the chair. “You… why are you here?”

Shen Guiling slowly straightened but said nothing as he walked into the room.

“What are you doing?” Jiang Huashan immediately became alert, shrinking back against the cushion.

He stepped closer, lowering his gaze. His gentle eyes shimmered with a watery light that felt almost overwhelming.

“You were at the bar last night too?”

Jiang Huashan twisted her neck. “No. Don’t try to frame me without evidence.”

Shen Guiling raised an eyebrow and pulled a black hair tie with a pink teddy bear from his pocket.

“No evidence?”

Jiang Huashan’s expression changed slightly. Without a word, she lunged to snatch it, but he had already seen through her intentions and easily dodged her hand.

In a low voice, he said, “I restored all the surveillance footage from that night. At 10:10 PM, when you entered through the back door of the bar, you were still wearing this teddy bear hair tie. At 12:15 AM, the police received a report about a group fight—and this hair tie was found at the scene.”

“…”

Jiang Huashan looked up, spread her hands, and admitted, “Fine. I admit it. I just took the opportunity to punch her once.”

Shen Guiling turned and sat on the nearby sofa, leaning slightly as he tilted his head to look at her. “I already reminded you—I restored all the surveillance footage.”

Her expression shifted again, and she shot him a glare.

Hackers really are the worst. No privacy at all.

Seeing that she still wasn’t planning to come clean, Shen Guiling stood up. “In that case, I’ll just let Grandpa—”

“Hey, hey!” Jiang Huashan shot up like an enraged cat, grabbed his arm, and dragged him back onto the sofa.

“Wait.”

Without another word, she ran into the study and, with practiced ease, pulled out two bookmarks hidden inside an encyclopedia.

After two years, Shen Guiling was already immune to this trick. He lowered his head and straightened his shirt.

Seeing that only two thin pages remained from what used to be a thick stack of bookmarks, Jiang Huashan hesitated for a moment before reluctantly tearing one off and handing it to him. “Here. Keep it secret.”

Now she finally understood what it meant to have “too many lice to feel itchy.” Over the past two years, Shen Guiling had learned at least eighty of her secrets.

Shen Guiling glanced at her and raised his hand. Their fingertips hovered just 0.01 centimeters apart.

Pretending not to notice, Jiang Huashan let go first. Shen Guiling smiled faintly, sat back down, and absentmindedly played with the pink teddy bear.

“What were you looking for last night?”

His tone sounded casual, as if he didn’t really care.

But if he didn’t care, why ask at all?

“… ”

Jiang Huashan’s gaze shifted. Though slightly flustered, she secretly encouraged herself.

It’s fine. Even if Shen Guiling saw all the footage, he might not guess what she was doing.

“Last night, you slipped into the staff control room during the chaos. You searched the freezers, the ingredient area—even the trash bins.”

As he spoke, Shen Guiling carefully observed her expression. His tone was firm. “Fourth Uncle’s bar has been open for less than a month. You’ve been there twenty times. You’re investigating him?”

“Investigating what? You even checked the storage room. You suspect there’s something wrong with the bar’s supply?”

Jiang Huashan’s eyelids twitched.

This green-tea turtle really couldn’t be underestimated.

After her sixteenth birthday, she and Fu Sui’er had been constantly on edge watching over Shen Jiao, afraid something might happen again. It wasn’t until her seventeenth birthday passed safely that they finally relaxed.

But a few months ago, Shen Che invested heavily in opening a bar. The Shen family had businesses in all sorts of industries, so Jiang Huashan didn’t pay much attention at first. But during its trial run, the bar suddenly changed its name to Chao CLUB, and that frightened her.

In her previous life, Fu Jiaming had also opened a bar known as a trendsetter for young people—it was called Chao CLUB.

The reason she remembered such a small detail was because that bar was later shut down for drug trafficking. The incident caused a huge uproar, with students from half the district in Jinggang involved. In the end, Fu Jiaming shifted all the blame onto the bar’s general manager and walked away unscathed.

So Jiang Huashan began reconstructing everything again.

In her previous life, Shen Jiao’s posthumous disgrace came from two things: her promiscuity and her connection to drugs. Meanwhile, Fu Jiaming’s bar had also been exposed for drug trafficking. The coincidence was simply too great.

In this life, Fu Jiaming had already been eliminated early on. Logically, everything related to him should have been reduced or erased from the storyline. Yet the drug-trafficking bar still appeared.

After much thought, Jiang Huashan arrived at two possible explanations:

First: The bar only shared the same name and had nothing to do with the previous life’s Chao CLUB.

Second: Fu Jiaming was never the real boss—the true mastermind had always been Shen Che.

Based on her experience dealing with the “power of the plot,” Jiang Huashan leaned toward the second explanation. It was more complete and left no loopholes.

If that assumption was correct, then the likelihood of Shen Che being a traitor was extremely high.

To prove whether the two bars were the same, the strongest evidence would be whether Chao CLUB was involved in drug trafficking.

So ever since the bar opened, she had been gathering evidence by every possible means. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to delegate the task—it was just that the rules of the plot were too strict. If she wanted to avoid forced corrections, she had to handle everything personally.

Heaven knew how tragic she had felt digging through trash bins.

Seeing her remain silent, Shen Guiling pinched the bridge of his nose. “At sixteen, you investigated Shen Qian. At seventeen, Shen Yuan. Now you’re not even eighteen yet, and you’ve started investigating Shen Che. After that, are you going to investigate Shen Rang too? What exactly are you investigating?”

He had originally thought Jiang Huashan was only wary of the second branch of the family. He hadn’t expected her to be wary of the entire Shen family.

Jiang Huashan waved her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Just keep it secret for me.”

Shen Guiling looked at her thoughtfully.

“… ” Afraid he might see through her, Jiang Huashan quickly turned her head toward the window.

Her shoulders were slender, and from the side, her collarbone faintly showed through the gap.

Shen Guiling lowered his gaze as he stood up, his eyes softly sweeping over her pale neck.

“For your last condition, you’re not going to exchange it for a hundred promises again, are you?”

Jiang Huashan froze, a little guilty. “Of course not! Do I look like someone with no sense of contract?”

Shen Guiling smiled, slipping his hand through the teddy bear hair tie. He glanced at the time. “Get some rest early.”

With that, he put his hands in his pockets and turned to leave the room.

Jiang Huashan frowned.

What was that smile supposed to mean?

Right!

Her little bear hair tie was still in that turtle’s hands.

Jiang Huashan got up, ready to chase downstairs, but suddenly thought of something and immediately sat back down.

No… the current Shen Guiling wasn’t as easy to deal with as he was two years ago.

His affection value now was dangerously high.

…

A summer vacation free from academic pressure made even the scorching 39-degree sun feel bright and pleasant.

“Ah~~~”

Floating on her back in the water, Jiang Huashan let out a lazy yawn, her gaze unfocused as she stared at the clear blue sky above.

The clouds drifted with the wind, changing shape in the blink of an eye.

To distinguish this life from her previous one as much as possible, she had deliberately learned how to swim after turning sixteen. Once she mastered it, she completely fell in love with the sport. During summer, whenever she had nothing to do, she practically lived in the pool.

Fu Sui’er sat by the edge, idly kicking at the shimmering reflections in the water. “Someone’s about to steal your strategist away, and you’re still this relaxed?”

With her eyes closed and an almost serene expression, Jiang Huashan replied, “What, Gu Yuzhu came again?”

Ever since Old Madam Gu paid a visit, Gu Yuzhu had been bringing Lan Dai to the Shen residence every few days to see Shen Mianzhi. Out of courtesy, Shen Mianzhi couldn’t refuse.

Gu Yuzhu was lively and restless. After wandering the garden for a few days, she got bored and began inviting Shen Mianzhi to go shopping and hang out with her circle of friends.

Although the wealthy ladies of Jinggang all belonged to the same social class, that didn’t mean everyone got along—each had their own clique.

For example, Gu Yuzhu got along well with Su Yun, but didn’t particularly like Su Miao, who was at odds with Su Yun. And everyone knew Su Miao was closer to Jiang Huashan, so Gu Yuzhu’s group rarely interacted with the Shen family’s daughters.

After the incident at the bar, Shen Mianzhi’s performance left a strong impression on Gu Yuzhu. After several interactions, she found Shen Mianzhi considerate, gentle, and polite, and gradually developed the intention to befriend her.

During their outings, she even invited all her close friends along.

Gu Yuzhu’s circle consisted of old aristocrats from Country A—experts in indulging in life. As the legitimate daughter of the Shen family, Shen Mianzhi was treated with great respect, and everyone got along well.

After several days together, people in Gu Yuzhu’s circle began treating Shen Mianzhi as one of their own—and Shen Mianzhi never denied it.

In the past two days, Gu Yuzhu had been visiting even more frequently. Not only did she bring Lan Dai, but also Su Yun. Because Fu Sui’er was close to Su Miao, she instinctively disliked Su Yun. Earlier, when she went to find Shen Mianzhi, she happened to see the four of them having afternoon tea together, which made her so angry that she turned around and left Chun Garden.

The more Fu Sui’er thought about it, the angrier she became, splashing the water forcefully. “What’s going on with Zhizhi? Can’t she see what Gu Yuzhu is up to? And she’s still chatting and laughing with them!”

Jiang Huashan glanced at her sideways. “What exactly are you angry about? Just because we’re close, does that mean Zhizhi isn’t allowed to make new friends?”

After thinking it over, Fu Sui’er realized that made sense. With a splash, she jumped into the pool, swam underwater to Jiang Huashan, and surfaced beside her.

Jiang Huashan tilted her head to avoid the spray. With a kick of her long legs, her graceful body glided across the shimmering water, golden flecks of light scattering beneath her. Even though Fu Sui’er had seen it countless times, she was still stunned by the beauty of that fleeting moment.

After soaking for a while, the two climbed onto an inflatable mattress to rest with their eyes closed. Little Pitiful, who didn’t like swimming, lay belly-up by the poolside, sunbathing.

The cicadas’ summer chorus soon lulled them to sleep.

In the wellness center beyond the wall—

Shen Lanxi, Shen Guiling, and Shen Qingyu stepped out of the “little black room” almost at the same time.

Shen Zhuang fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan under the pavilion. “Not bad, not bad. All your physical indicators have met the standard, and your antibodies are stable. Looks like you haven’t neglected my teachings at school.”

The three remained calm. After five years of Shen Zhuang’s merciless training, they had developed iron wills. The tests in the black room were nothing to them now.

“Come, sit.”

They entered the pavilion one after another and sat around him.

Shen Zhuang looked at them in turn, his gaze subtle. “You’ve all grown up. If I still restrain you, it would be against nature. From now on, I won’t interfere in your affairs.”

“…”

Each of them had a different expression, their thoughts unclear as they looked off in different directions.

As the sun set, Jiang Huashan and Fu Sui’er woke up from the cold and hurried back to the garden to change into clean clothes.

When Zhang Ru heard that Jiang Huashan had soaked in the pool all afternoon again, she immediately brewed a large pot of red date ginseng tea, nagging nonstop.

“You can’t do this again. It’s only the start of summer and you’re already craving the cold—what will you do in August or September?”

“You must finish this tea. You’re still young now, but when you grow older—especially after having children—you’ll understand. Women mustn’t catch a chill.”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Holding the hot tea, Jiang Huashan let the words go in one ear and out the other, thinking that in this life, Aunt Zhang was even more nagging than Aunt Feng.

That night, when Shen Zhuang heard that Jiang Huashan had treated the pool like a hot spring, he immediately had Shen Zhi expand an indoor constant-temperature pool in the wellness center.

Shen Jiao didn’t hold back either—she even invited a renowned traditional Chinese doctor from Jinggang to treat her.

At first, Jiang Huashan thought everyone was overreacting—until her period suddenly arrived.

Not only did it come early, but on the first day, the pain in her abdomen felt like she was being hollowed out alive. To avoid embarrassment, she clenched her teeth and claimed she was ill.

After suffering through it, she immediately behaved. When Zhang Ru told her to take medicine, she took it; when told to soak, she soaked. After three days of cooperation, she finally recovered.

Coincidentally, the Gu family sent word that everything at the resort villa was ready, and they would depart tomorrow.

Jiang Huashan hadn’t been very interested, but since Lan Dai would also be going, she was worried about missing new plot developments—so she gritted her teeth and decided to go anyway.

Meanwhile, Bai Dina was nearly losing her mind with rage.

Just moments ago, she learned that the Country A police had concluded that she was primarily responsible for the brawl, labeling it as provocation. Mainstream media had portrayed her as a lawless, arrogant, and vicious princess. Because of this, the military academy planned to reassess her admission qualifications.

“Outrageous! These lowly people of Country A are all the same!”

Bai Mi glanced at the mess on the floor, his tone tinged with sarcasm. “I told you long ago—this isn’t Country S. Charging in recklessly won’t work here. Try using that brain of yours.”

“Shut up!” Bai Dina sneered. “And you—how embarrassing. A dignified prince calling every stray ‘sir’? Aren’t you afraid of being laughed at?”

Bai Mi let out a cold laugh. “You should worry about how to explain this to Grandmother.”

Just then, the phone in the room rang.

Bai Dina’s face turned pale. Bai Mi smiled faintly and walked out.

“Your Highness, your letter.”

“A letter?” Slightly puzzled, Bai Mi took it from the guard—but suddenly paused.

On the letter, a line had been pieced together from newspaper clippings:

—[The one who killed Bai Zheng is Jiang Huashan]