To Love You Again

"How was it?" Lu Yin Ze asked.

"It costs 1 million Yuan."

"..."

Lu Yin Ze was stunned. Their friend would not even spare them.

"So did you pay for it?" Lu Yin Ze asked. Xiong Zhi was the heiress of Xiong. That was only like a few coins for her.

"Of course, I didn't. You should pay for it."

"..." 

"..." 

Xiong Zhi blinked. Was there something wrong with what she said?

"Alright." Lu Yin Ze transferred the sum to Gu Zhen's account. He did not question why this stingy Young Miss did not pay for it.

"Once the file is in our email, I will look into it," Xiong Zhi offered. They had been tracking down every file and business transactions in the flash drive in various databases. However, like they expected, the files were secured by those companies. 

They could only go to Gu Zhen, since he was very talented and was the only person they could trust with this. When Gu Zhen checked the first file, his passion and enthusiasm was ignited. He said that this file was protected by the same security system that Xiong Zhi had let him open two years ago, with the mysterious 'L' file.

It took him a lot of time, but he still cracked it. When they were about to let him open the next file, Gu Zhen finally asked them a fee, because it took him hours of non-stop effort to open each file, which drained a lot of his energy.

With that, the trio finally made a deal. The harder it was to crack a file, the more expensive it would be. They trusted that Gu Zhen would not deceive them, his pride and credibility would not allow it.

But despite the fees, one successful attempt was enough to gather much information about a listed company. They were all filled with shady dealings that could cause them their downfall. However, this was not enough, as they were planning on giving Ming Zhi Yi a one huge blow that would corner him, without any ways of retreat.

That was why they went deeper. However, the deeper it was, the shadier and darker the things they found. Some even lead them to more questions. Not to mention, it was all matters from ten and eight years ago, and now that two and a half years had passed, it was already around ten years and some cases were twelve years ago.

So even after two years, they only managed to focus on the five files they opened.

As all data in the flash drive were more than a decade old, they could not hold that much impact and damage, so they looked for more. Especially for the recent dealings.

A bone-deep black hand would not be able to easily whitewash, so there definitely would be more of these in the recent years.

For now, they gathered enough evidences to bring some of the listed companies to ruin, or they could use these to rope them in to their sides. Their greatest threat right now that they had no way of breaking was the possible new companies, personages, or political powers that Ming Zhi Yi had added into his disposal after Lu Yin Ze's mother's death, which were obviously not included in the flash drive.

Unknown enemies were more fearsome than those you knew.

Xiong Zhi wondered what Ming Zhi Yi was trying to achieve by destroying the two families, the Xiongs and the Lus. With this in his hand, he could easily dominate the business industry in the whole C country. 

Unless... he was planning to dominate the industry by himself alone... But why he would do that?

Because of the need to investigate their enemy, they formed a rather formidable team to trace down Ming Zhi Yi's background.

However, these couple of years had passed and it did not bring them any news. All of the results of their investigations were dead ends.

The last witnesses when Ming Zhi Yi was adopted died due to an accident or went missing. 

The place where Ming Zhi Yi had supposedly lived in before he went to the Ming family was reduced to ashes. 

Every possible route for his background check was destroyed.

His mystery only grew, as well as the danger he imposed.

"Don't worry about it. I will take this one in the meantime. The Xiong's Anniversary Banquet is coming. I know you will be busy for that in the coming days." Lu Yin Ze's remarks made Xiong Zhi stop in her musings.

She nodded gratefully. "Alright, I really appreciate that. If you want my help though, don't hesitate to call me."

"How about you? Do you want my help this time?" Lu Yin Ze asked. Xiong Zhi helped him a lot with these tedious and risky investigations regarding his father. He also wanted to help her with her matters.

Last year, during their dance in the Xiong Banquet, he had asked her, "You are helping me wholeheartedly, so why don't you let me help you?"

Xiong Zhi could not tell that she was only helping him because of her promise, and also because she wanted to know the root of the Xiong family's demise in the past life. She felt that it was all interconnected, as if there were invisible lines tying everyone's fates together. These black hands in the past had inevitably caused her and Linfeng's deaths. 

She could not forgive those people who caused her sufferings and Linfeng's death.

Alas, Lu Yin Ze was stubborn. So Xiong Zhi let him in to her plan on dealing with the stubborn weeds in the second branch.

Lu Yin Ze was happy that he had become a part of her plan. It would bring them closer and they could spend more time together. Thus, in the couple of years that passed, they have been helping each other with their troubles.

"Yes. I need your help this time. The doctor who is maintaining your blood and health, can you let me borrow him?"