“Focus on the road.”
“Oh.”
Ah Wan obediently shut his mouth.
Shortly after, Jiang Zhi’s phone started ringing.
Feeling too lethargic to even hold up his phone, he put the call on speaker mode. “What’s up?”
It was Qiao Nanchu’s call.
“So, we’ve just had a man come into one of our stations, alleging that he had been acting under Z’s identity.”
Jiang Zhi regained his energy slightly after hearing such news. “Has he been tested?”
“Yeah, our forensics team collected swabs from his body and they’ve confirmed that the robbery and everything else was committed by this guy.”
Jiang Zhi tapped his fingertip on the side of the milk can. “Who instructed him to do so?”
To admit his guilt after deliberately causing so much chaos, this reeked of something fishy. This criminal was just a pawn used by a puppet master to create civil unrest. If the puppet master was not taken down, targeting a small fry like this man was akin to beheading a Hydra.
Qiao Nanchu shared the same opinion as Jiang Zhi. “He was pretty stubborn about this. Said he only did it for money. Supposedly, the reason why he operated under the guise of runner Z was due to the fear of authorities going after him. However, after checking his background thoroughly, we’ve discovered that he was an employee of the Luos.” Qiao Nanchu then put forth his hypothesis. “This should be related to Zhou Qingrang’s incident from before. Somehow, Z must’ve pissed Luo Qinghe off.”
Jiang Zhi pondered for a moment.
“Then why is she letting her off now?”
This point raised lots of suspicions.
Once Luo Qinghe bit down, she would never let go of her prey so easily. Her grudges could last over a millennium if she could live that long.
Qiao Nanchu was in a pretty good mood today. He laughed and replied carefreely, “Who knows? Maybe Z has already taught her a good lesson.” The way he dragged his speech implied a different kind of “lesson”—the type that involved fists and waterboarding. “This Z sure ain’t no simpleton, I can tell you that.”
Jiang Zhi remained silent.
Qiao Nanchu decided to tease him. “Hey, since you’ve bumped into her so many times, apart from the smell of milk, have you made any new discoveries as of late?”
A second later…
“Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo…”
Jiang Zhi had hung up the phone.
Qiao Nanchu massaged his chin, the smile he wore now faded away.
‘Something was wrong,’ he thought.
Once they arrived at the set, Jiang Zhi called Assistant Director Zhao over. He scanned the place behind him before asking, “Where’s Zhou Xufang?”
The first thing he asked upon setting foot here was about Miss Zhou?
With no immediate answer to offer Jiang Zhi, Assistant Director Zhao quickly made up something to satisfy the Director. “She’s not here yet.”
Jiang Zhi knitted his brows. As pretty as his eyes were, there was something intimidating about his gaze, like how one would feel when staring into the eyes of a predator.
“Get her over.”
This was an order.
Assistant Director Zhao wore a troubled look on his face. “But sir, we don’t have any scenes involving mass-actors today…”
Jiang Zhi’s eyes narrowed. His gaze was arrogant—quite befitting of a noble, it seems.
“Then why don’t we make one?”
‘Miss Zhou must be really important in the eyes of the director.’
The assistant director’s interest had been roused. “Ok, will do.” He whipped out his phone and was about to contact their group leader, but at the last moment, Jiang Zhi stopped Assistant Director Zhao.
“Forget it.”
“Huh?”
Assistant Director Zhao was left even more puzzled.
‘Why though? He’s been acting really weird recently.’
In his personal lounge, the director rested on his cozy recliner. Closing his eyes to get some sleep, he switched positions 3 times within the first minute. His brows were constantly furrowed before he finally gave in and took out his phone. After fumbling around the screen for what felt like an eternity, he finally decided to press the call button.
“Hello?”
That voice sounded as cold as it did before.
Jiang Zhi coughed once before opening his mouth. “It’s me.”
This was the first time Jiang Zhi had ever called her from his phone. From the delivery app, he had already memorized her number to the point where he could recite it backward without stuttering, and yet, this was his first time calling her.
For some reason, he was feeling a bit uneasy.
Zhou Xufang spoke with zero intonation, reflecting her lifeless personality. “Who’s this?”
“…”
‘How dare she not save my phone number!’
‘How dare she not recognize my voice!’
Jiang Zhi cleared his throat, trying his best to remove the hoarseness in his voice that had developed after consecutive nights of insomnia. “It’s me, Jiang Zhi.” He sounded pretty aggressive over the phone. Anyone could make out the displeasure in his voice, with the only exception being Zhou Xufang.
Zhou Xufang went silent after realizing that it was Jiang Zhi who had called her. She finally started speaking a few seconds later. “Hi, Jiang Zhi.”