"What's wrong, Brother Er Meng?"
"Someone set fire to our manor, burning our greenhouse. Hurry over."
Ling Zhenfei's mind buzzed, and the world went dark for a moment, nearly causing him to fall to the ground. Even with Divine Skill protecting him, he couldn't fend off such a huge emotional shock.
Ling Zhenfei got up, drove Fatty's car, and headed straight for Qinghe Village. He drove at top speed all the way to Qinghe Village.
By the time he arrived at Xishan Manor, the fire had been extinguished, but the air was still filled with the scent of a major blaze. The fire was intense, and the entire greenhouse had been reduced to a skeleton.
"The fire started all at once; it must have been premeditated. Only one greenhouse is left, because Brother Er Meng was sleeping inside, so he discovered the fire as soon as it started, and it was put out in time to save it."
Zhou Yun was crying as she told Ling Zhenfei all this. Just when the sale of vegetables was starting to look up, this disaster struck. Zhou Yun had devoted all her energy to Xishan Manor, and now that the greenhouse was burned, it was as if her own child had been torched. How could she bear it?
"Did you catch anyone?"
"We were too busy trying to put out the fire; we had no time to chase anyone, only Brother Er Meng went after them."
Ling Zhenfei felt extremely guilty. After the poisoning of the fish pond last night, he knew someone was up to no good, yet he had forgotten to tell Xishan Manor to be more vigilant. If only he had been a little more careful, this might not have happened.
"Should we call the police?" a worker came over to ask.
"Call the police, of course. Catch those damned people and execute them all." Zhou Yun was on the verge of collapse, wishing she could catch those people and kill them all herself.
"There's no need to call the police. It's useless; it would only make us a laughingstock. The online public opinion about Xishan Manor was almost over, but if we were to call the police and make the news again, it would only draw more attention to Xishan Manor, which would be counterproductive."
"Don't those people deserve to be punished?" Zhou Yun was very puzzled by Ling Zhenfei's approach. In her heart, when something like this happened, they should call the police and have all the bad guys arrested.
"It's a lesson, a lesson for the start-up phase of the business. Let it be. Starting tomorrow, Xishan Manor will stop selling vegetables for a while. We'll rebuild the greenhouse as quickly as possible, and we'll wait for my signal to resume sales."
After saying that, Ling Zhenfei turned and left. Since the incident had already occurred, there was no use in staying at the scene. Securing against further trouble was not too late; never letting it happen again would be the best outcome.
It was now early morning, and the sun hadn't risen yet, but the East was already showing a pale light. Hardworking people were up and about their labor. Although he had not slept all night, Ling Zhenfei felt not a trace of sleepiness.
"Officer Han, where are you?"
Ling Zhenfei called Han Lian, feeling it was necessary to talk to her about the incident, hoping there might be some gains.
"I was actually about to look for you. Come over, I'll wait for you at the breakfast place downstairs in a while."
Han Lian didn't say much else, just told him to come over, leaving him wondering whether the matter she wanted to discuss related to the incident at Xishan Manor.
Driving to Han Lian's place, he found her eating breakfast alone. Today Han Lian wasn't wearing her police uniform but was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, looking very spirited. She greeted Ling Zhenfei when she saw him.
"You really have good timing, I'd just ordered food when you showed up."
Ling Zhenfei didn't bother with pleasantries and sat across from Han Lian to eat. He hadn't had a meal since yesterday, and now he was truly hungry.
"I thought you wouldn't be in the mood for food. Seeing you eat makes me relieved."
"You already know?"
"It's impossible not to know about your situation," Han Lian couldn't help but feel somewhat smug.
"There's something you definitely don't know, though. Another incident has occurred; my Xishan Manor was set on fire as well."
Ling Zhenfei spoke as if it was a trifling matter, which, on the contrary, shocked Han Lian.
"You must be joking. Xishan Manor is your lifeblood. If Xishan Manor had been burned down, could you really be so calm and sit here eating? I don't believe it."
"I didn't report it to the police, of course you wouldn't know."
"You didn't report such an incident to the police? What are you planning to do?"
Han Lian immediately thought that Ling Zhenfei must have some plan in mind; it was a police officer's intuition.
"Do nothing. What's happened has happened and can't be changed—unless I could find out who did it."
"I'm telling you, I am a police officer, and I won't allow you to do anything illegal."
Han Lian said this very seriously and earnestly to Ling Zhenfei, knowing Zhenfei's capabilities—if he found out who was responsible for the poisoning and arson, he was sure to do something drastic.
"You're quite amusing. Someone poisoned my fish pond and you police couldn't find the person; someone set fire to my Xishan Manor and you police still couldn't find the person. In the future, if I do something bad, as long as you police can't find the evidence, isn't that fine?"
Actually, Ling Zhenfei was somewhat joking. Even if he knew who was behind the poisoning and arson, he hadn't decided what to do.
"I am a police officer, you are my friend, and I don't want to see you jump into a pit of fire."
"Enough talking, did you say that you have something to discuss with me? Go on."
"It's nothing. I just genuinely wanted to remind you, even if you find out who the killer is, you can't do anything extreme."
"Anything else?" Ling Zhenfei knew it couldn't be that simple—it was just something Han Lian had just thought of.
"Also, I have a day off today and I wanted to ask you to go shopping with me,"
"Boring. I'm not going."
"Come on, I guarantee it will improve your mood a bit, and there's also an important matter I want to tell you about. It's about your manor; someone has some suggestions for you. I believe you'll find them quite enlightening after hearing them."
"Whose suggestions? They're not yours, are they?"
Han Lian's words struck a chord with him; he was at a loss as to what to do. If someone could provide some insight, it would be most welcome.
Just then, his phone suddenly rang. When Ling Zhenfei saw it was from Zhou Jian, he hurriedly answered.
"Brother Zhou, what's up, did you get any news?"
"Exactly. We've found a clue. That night, the early morning when your fish pond was poisoned, one of my brothers drove back and saw a guy called Xiao Si near the back door of your base. This kid just came out from the area of your fish pond. Xiao Si isn't known for being good; he's always up to petty theft, so we didn't pay much attention."
"It wasn't until I put the word down yesterday that my brother felt Xiao Si was suspicious, especially since the timing was quite coincidental. So I took people and yanked the brat out of his bed first thing this morning. After a beating, he confessed. It was a guy named Wei Damin who paid him to do it."
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