Jiang Wan's revenge plan is proceeding step by step in an orderly manner. After provoking the relationship between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Gu family, she set her next target on the files of the car accident that year. She needs to find the most original evidence to prove her innocence.
She began to frequently visit archives and libraries, and even tried to contact the retired police officer who was in charge of her case. Although her actions were secretive, a single woman frequently investigating an old case from five years ago inevitably attracted some people's attention.
That night, Jiang Wan came out of a private detective agency when it was already dark. This detective agency was the only one she could find that was willing to take over the investigation of an old case from five years ago, but the fee was high and the progress was slow.
She took a quiet shortcut back to her hotel. The alley was dimly lit except for a flickering street lamp at the end.
Just after she walked a short distance into the alley, she was keenly aware of footsteps coming from behind her. More than one.
Jiang Wan's heart tightened and she subconsciously quickened her pace.
The footsteps behind her quickened, and they doubled over her, blocking her way forward and backward.
"Miss, please come with us." Two burly men in black T-shirts surrounded her from the front and back with unfriendly eyes.
Jiang Wan looked at them calmly, quietly holding the backpack in front of her, which contained all the information she had collected. "Who are you?"
"Don't worry about this. Someone wants to see you." The leading man said as he reached out to grab her.
Jiang Wan's eyes flashed, she dodged sideways, and at the same time, she used her elbow to hit the opponent's ribs fiercely. This was the fighting technique she learned in prison, fast, accurate, and ruthless.
The man didn't expect that this thin-looking woman would dare to resist, and he groaned in pain.
But the opponents were two tall and strong men after all. After a brief fight, Jiang Wan was quickly at a disadvantage, with one of them holding her arms behind her back, unable to move.
"You're asking for death, woman!" The man who was hit became furious and raised his hand to slap her.
Jiang Wan closed her eyes, ready to take the blow.
However, the expected pain did not come.
All I heard was a dull thud and a scream.
She opened her eyes and saw a tall figure who had appeared in the alley at some point. He had his back to the streetlight and his face was hidden in the shadows, so it was hard to see clearly. But he used only one move to knock the strong man who tried to hit her to the ground.
Seeing this, the other man who was holding her immediately let go of her and rushed over with his fists raised.
The mysterious man did not move, but when the other party approached, he kicked him sideways and hit him in the chest. The strong man flew out like a broken sack, hit the wall, and curled up in pain.
The whole process took only a dozen seconds, so fast that it was shocking.
After solving the two problems, the man slowly turned around and walked towards Jiang Wan.
Only then did Jiang Wan see his face clearly. It was a face with clear contours, sharp eyebrows, starry eyes, a high nose bridge, and thin lips pursed into a cold line. His eyes were as deep as the sea, with a sense of vicissitudes of life and a hint of danger that was not easily detected.
This is a very handsome, but also very dangerous man.
"Are you okay?" he asked, his voice low and magnetic.
"I'm fine, thank you." Jiang Wan kept a distance from him cautiously, "Excuse me, who are you?"
The man did not answer her question. Instead, he approached her step by step, his deep eyes fixed on her, as if he wanted to see through her.
"You are more capable than I thought." He suddenly said something without any context.
Jiang Wan's pupils suddenly shrank.
"Who are you?" she asked in a deep voice, her body already in a defensive posture.
The man stood in front of her, looked down at her, and slowly uttered two words. His voice was not loud, but it was like a thunder, exploding in Jiang Wan's ears.
"Jiang Wan."
He knew her real name!
In an instant, Jiang Wan's hair stood up. She thought her disguise was perfect, but she didn't expect that she would be seen through at a glance.
"I don't know any Jiang Wan." She denied it flatly and turned around to leave.
"Number 734." The man spoke again and uttered a number that gave her an electric shock.
That's her prison number!
Jiang Wan suddenly stopped and looked back at him in disbelief. Who was this man? How could he know so much?
"Don't be so nervous." The man seemed to see through her panic, and the corners of his mouth raised an arc with an ambiguous meaning, "We are not enemies. On the contrary, we have a common enemy."
"What's the meaning?"
"My name is Huo Yunchen," the man introduced himself. "Five years ago, I was also in Chengbei Prison, just in a different ward. I got out a few months earlier than you."
Huo Yunchen? Jiang Wan seemed to have heard this name somewhere. She tried hard to search in her mind and finally remembered it. Five years ago, there was a sensational financial case in City A. Huo Yunchen, the prince of the Huo Group, was charged with "illegal fundraising" and "commercial fraud" and was thrown into prison. The Huo family was also devastated.
The biggest beneficiary behind the case is the Gu Group, which has swallowed up most of the Huo's industries!
"It's you." Jiang Wan understood everything in an instant.
"It seems you remembered." Huo Yunchen's eyes flashed with admiration, "Yes, the person who sent me in was Gu Hanshen. So, I said we have a common enemy."
"Why are you helping me?" Jiang Wan still did not let down her guard. She was no longer the fool who easily trusted others five years ago.
"Helping you means helping myself." Huo Yunchen said bluntly, "Gu Hanshen is now a business tycoon in City A, with a deep foundation. It's difficult for me to bring him down alone. But you, Jiang Wan, you are the only 'stain' in his life, and the biggest time bomb in his family now. You are the best weapon against him."
"So, you want to use me?" Jiang Wan sneered.
"It's cooperation, not exploitation." Huo Yunchen corrected, "I know you are investigating the car accident five years ago, and I know you are facing many difficulties. I have my channels and resources to help you get what you want. In return, I need you to detonate the bomb of Gu's family at the right time and let his backyard catch fire, so that I can take the opportunity to deal him a fatal blow from a business perspective."
It was a tempting proposition.
Jiang Wan knew that what Huo Yunchen said was true. She was alone and weak now, and it was difficult for her to investigate. If she had his help, her road to revenge would undoubtedly be much smoother.
But is it really safe to seek the skin of a tiger? The man in front of her is deep-minded and ruthless. Will he be her ally, or another enemy who pushes her into the abyss?
Jiang Wan was silent for a long time.
Huo Yunchen did not urge her, but just looked at her quietly, as if he was sure that she would agree.
Finally, Jiang Wan raised her head and met his deep gaze: "How do I know that I can trust you?"
"You have no choice."
Huo Yunchen's proposal was like a beam of light that penetrated the fog and illuminated the only path in front of Jiang Wan. She knew that this beam of light might lead to hope, or it might lead to another deeper abyss. However, she had been in hell for too long and was no longer afraid of any danger.
"I promise you." Jiang Wan raised her head, her eyes firm and calm, "I need you to help me get the most complete and clear surveillance video of the Panshan intersection on the night of the crime five years ago."
"Deal." Huo Yunchen finally smiled, a smile that carried the excitement of a hunter seeing his prey. "Give me three days."
Huo Yunchen's efficiency was far higher than Jiang Wan had imagined.
He did not take her to any shady trading place, but took her to the most expensive area in City A - Genting International Apartment. This is the commanding height of City A. Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows of the top-floor duplex apartment are the bright lights of the entire city.
The decoration of the apartment is minimalist, black, white and gray, full of a sense of technology and cold order. This is very similar to the feeling given by Huo Yunchen himself, mysterious, powerful, and unfathomable.
"Sit down." Huo Yunchen pointed to the leather sofa in the living room and walked straight to a wall that looked ordinary. He entered a series of complex passwords, and the wall slid open silently, revealing a control room comparable to that of a professional intelligence agency.
Various complex data and codes are flowing on dozens of display screens.
Jiang Wan was surprised. She knew Huo Yunchen was not a simple person, but she didn't expect his strength to be so high. It seemed that she was not the only one who had endured hardships in prison for the past five years.
Huo Yunchen sat in front of the console, his fingers tapping rapidly on the keyboard. He called up the background of a city's transportation system, entered a string of code, and an encrypted database immediately popped up on the screen.
"The official records of the city surveillance videos from five years ago have long been overwritten or physically destroyed. However," he turned his head and glanced at Jiang Wan, "any data, as long as it has been transmitted on the Internet, will inevitably leave traces. What I'm looking for is the original backup that was uploaded to the cloud server that year."
This is an extremely complex and dangerous process, tantamount to fishing for a five-year-old embroidery needle in a sea of data, and it could trigger an alarm at any time.
Jiang Wan stood behind him, watching the code scrolling rapidly on the screen, and for the first time intuitively felt the power of this man. This was a power that she had never come into contact with, belonging to the dark world.
Time passes by every second.
Finally, Huo Yunchen stopped and pressed the Enter key.
On the screen, a video file marked in red was successfully downloaded.
"Found it." There was a barely perceptible hint of fatigue in his voice.
Jiang Wan's heart instantly rose to her throat. She walked forward, staring at the screen intently.
Huo Yunchen clicked on the video.
The familiar winding mountain road, the familiar rainy night. The clarity of the video is much higher than the blurry screenshots produced by the police that year.
A red sports car, like a flash of lightning, rushed out of control towards the guardrail and knocked down a man walking in the rainy night.
The car door opened, and a girl in a white dress rolled out from the driver's seat. She knelt on the ground, holding her head with both hands, her body shaking violently because of extreme fear.
Huo Yunchen pressed the pause button and enlarged the image.
Although her face was blurred by rain and tears, Jiang Wan would never mistake that panicked, paper-white face.
It's Jiang Rou!
The person driving the car was really Jiang Rou!
The video continued to play. A few minutes later, a taxi stopped not far away. Jiang Wan, wearing a business suit, rushed out of the car and ran to the scene of the accident. In the video, she saw the victim lying on the ground and her sister huddled beside the car and trembling.
At the end of the video, it freezes on the scene where Jiang Rou is kneeling, grabbing Jiang Wan's trouser legs, begging desperately.
The truth finally appeared before Jiang Wan in the coldest and most irrefutable way.
She was not guessing or doubting, but saw it with her own eyes.
Five years of injustice, five years of torture, five years of resentment and hatred, at this moment, erupted like a volcano. Jiang Wan's body trembled uncontrollably, not because of fear, but because of extreme anger.
She clenched her fists tightly, her nails digging deep into the flesh, blood dripping through her fingers, but she was completely unaware.
There were no tears in her eyes, only raging flames that could burn everything.
"Is that enough?" Huo Yunchen's voice rang in her ears, and he handed her a tissue. "This evidence is enough for you to overturn the verdict."
Jiang Wan took the tissue and wiped the blood off her palm. She raised her head and looked at Huo Yunchen, her voice hoarse but firm: "Enough. This is just the first step."
What she wants is not just to overturn the verdict.
She wants Jiang Rou, Gu Hanshen, and her parents to pay the most painful price for the crimes they committed!
Huo Yunchen looked at the fire burning in her eyes and smiled with satisfaction. He knew that he had found the sharpest knife. And this knife was about to be unsheathed.
He copied the video file into an encrypted USB drive and gave it to Jiang Wan.
"What are you going to do next?"
"Find the best lawyer in City A, reopen the case, and clear my name." Jiang Wan clenched the USB drive in her hand. The small storage device seemed to be as heavy as a thousand pounds. "Then, I will give this 'gift' to everyone who deserves to see it."
Her revenge will officially begin in court.