Chapter 18

That night, I truly believed, with all my heart, that He Zhou and I had a future together.

But fate is always unpredictable.

A month later, another person went missing.

And all signs indicated that the circumstances of this disappearance were eerily similar to the hundreds of others that had occurred before.

“We were all wrong in our judgment. That case wasn’t over after all…”

He Zhou stood solemnly in the sunlight streaming through the window, tilting his head to look at me.

“Jingjing, I attended that banquet that night with a mission.”

“And indeed, I saw someone there who absolutely shouldn’t have been present.”

A vague sense of unease began to creep into my heart. “What do you mean by someone who shouldn’t have been there?”

He Zhou gazed deeply into my eyes.

After a long pause, he finally spoke in a low voice, “He was supposed to have been executed two months ago.”

He Zhou resumed his routine of leaving early and returning late, carrying out his missions.

Meanwhile, I began trying to pick up my paintbrush again.

It had been so long since I painted that I felt rusty at first. The lines I drew were shaky and uneven, my hands trembling.

But as I gradually adjusted, I quickly rediscovered the feeling I had back then.

“Moonlight in the Wilderness” was purchased by Fu Jun.

I wanted to paint it again-the moonlight and breeze from when I was seventeen.

But before I could finish, He Zhou’s mission took a major turn.

He didn’t share the specifics with me.

He simply handed me a photo with a sharp, intense expression.

“We’ve been undercover for seven years, and yet we still haven’t completely dismantled this human trafficking network.”

He said, “Or rather, when one side is eradicated, another seizes the opportunity to rise.”

In this world, there will always be places where sunlight cannot reach.

When one patch of darkness is destroyed, another emerges to fill the void.

But…

I never would have imagined.

The person in that photo was Xu Wanning.

It had been a long time since I’d last seen her.

I’d only occasionally heard news about her.

Apparently, her art exhibitions had expanded overseas, and she had opened a gallery there, achieving great success.

In just half a year, she had turned her fortunes around.

She had become the celebrated genius artist everyone admired.

“Selling paintings is just a gimmick. She’s using this reputation to establish connections abroad at key points.”

He Zhou grew busier and busier.

The deeper he delved into his investigation, the more shocking the truths that surfaced.

But the high-intensity work was taking a toll on his health.

His cells and metabolic system, already damaged by exposure to radioactive elements, were deteriorating at a rate far faster than that of an ordinary person.

“It’s not just Xu Wanning. It’s the entire Xu Family, and… the Fu Family.”

When he uttered those last two words, his tone carried a chilling edge.

“Fu Jun, the head of the Fu Family, has been involved in these illegal activities since six months ago. After Xu Wanning returned to the country, he used the opportunity of expanding her network and developing the Xu Family’s influence to connect with the mysterious organization she had established ties with abroad.”

At this point, He Zhou’s voice suddenly stopped.

He turned his head away and began coughing violently.

The room gradually filled with the scent of blood, and the moment it reached my nostrils, my heart felt as though it had been yanked onto a towering precipice.

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth as if nothing had happened and continued speaking.

“…We’ve already gathered some evidence.”

“We just need to wait for their next meeting with the other side to catch them all in one sweep.”

Outside, torrential rain poured down.

Heavy clouds blanketed the sky, leaving no room for light to penetrate.

After a long while, a faint golden ray of light wavered and drifted through a gap in the clouds.