I became the Counterpart of the Winner in a Period Novel-Chapter 263 - 260: The Accident

They arrived early and snagged the spot in the corner. It’s isolated enough that no one would overhear their conversation.

After Jiang Mingyue was seated, someone immediately placed a cup of tea in front of her. She looked up and saw it was another female officer from the institute, Wen Yu.

"Thank you!" It was their first time speaking, and the other seemed to be someone who didn’t talk much.

Wen Yu barely acknowledged with an "Mm."

Gan Fengzhe was busy and arrived half an hour late to their meeting.

"Sorry, I was held up. I’ve already given notice about the dishes, and just double-checked with their manager. They’ll be served shortly. If it’s not enough, we’ll order more."

When Gan Institute speaks, any objections tend to vanish.

"It’s fine, we just got here too. The food will certainly be enough."

It’s notorious that if leadership is present, you can’t enjoy the meal. Too restrictive.

But this Gan Institute is different. He’s so friendly, it feels like chatting with family elders.

Midway, Jiang Mingyue went to the restroom, and when she returned, her seat had been changed.

Gan Institute waved her over: "Xiao Jiang, don’t dawdle—here." He pointed to the seat on his left; Jiang Mingyue approached and noticed the bowl and teacup were hers. Without hesitation, she sat down.

"Xiao Jiang, let me tell you, your family’s wine is the best."

Jiang Mingyue blinked: "Next time I brew some more, I’ll save a bit for Gan Institute."

"That’s splendid." Gan Fengzhe was finally satisfied, and began to talk more.

"Still thinking about San Gou and Ermao? Don’t worry about them. Those two kids are lucky; Liu Siyuan took them to the transport station. Liu Siyuan’s a good lad—learned to drive in the army and is now working straight away. Not only can he drive, but he can also repair, quite the treasure for the unit. Bringing those two along won’t be a problem. Don’t mind them being temps now; they’re doing odd jobs but with a good brother guiding them, they’ve sporadically learned driving. They’re doing decently, as long as they’re hardworking, they’ll certainly have a steady job."

There’s another matter, which Gan Institute whispered, ensuring no third party could hear.

"I know your dad has been investigating Jiang Cheng’s disappearance years ago. The Southern Institute has records too. Your dad likely discovered Jiang Cheng didn’t just vanish; it was Xu Ya and Xu Yong who colluded to hand him over to traffickers. Your dad’s clues should also indicate the person who took Jiang Cheng was named Si Tai. Anyway, Jiang Cheng should be around twenty-eight now. I’ve heard he’ll be in Nanxi City soon for medication, apparently his adoptive mother became a vegetative state."

Jiang Mingyue was very surprised—not at Jiang Cheng, but at the person beside her.

If earlier she was reluctant about the wine gift, now it turned into gratitude. For today’s news, countless jars of wine wouldn’t suffice.

"Thank you!"

"Thank for what? We’re family here at the Southern Institute, and you’re part of the household. Solving problems for family is my job."

Upon hearing this, An Jian felt a bit cynical; obviously, Gan Institute is quite the sly fox—his way of winning hearts is extraordinary, ensuring people remember his kindness without holding anything too hot to handle, receiving their gratitude quite graciously.

They were enjoying the meal and conversation when suddenly there was loud commotion up front in the restaurant. Everyone loves a spectacle, so the Southern Institute’s table instantly focused on the restaurant’s windows, and those with keen vision and hearing soon understood what transpired.

It turned out Chef Liu swapped a guest’s meat bun with a veggie bun, only discovered once bitten. The guest leaned on the window seeking explanation. Normally, just refunding the price difference would suffice, but these two happened to know each other privately.

An altercation had occurred.

The guest suspected Chef Liu of using his position for revenge, deliberately using cheaper substitutes so he’d suffer the loss.

Chef Liu maintained it was his mistake; typically veggie buns have a bit of veggie on top for identification, and meat buns have nothing. Today, a few veggie buns mistakenly lacked the veggie indicator, causing confusion with meat buns, an unintended error.

But each maintained their stance, with the restaurant manager eventually stepping in and Chef Liu personally purchasing a meat bun to apologize, calming the situation.

Suddenly, An Jian got up.

"What’s wrong?"

"I seem to smell blood."

This caused an uproar.

Everyone at the institute knew An Jian’s abilities, and now everyone was looking towards the main restaurant area.

Someone suddenly exclaimed and fled; a man had collapsed on the ground, bleeding from his orifices.

Chaos erupted in the restaurant, and everyone scrambled to distance themselves.

An Jian and his group went to investigate the main area, while Jiang Mingyue looked around and noticed nothing unusual, but spotted a hint of green moving frantically to escape. Jiang Mingyue glanced over, seeing a woman in a green dress, and directly blocked her path. She also summoned her spiritual power to attack.

Seeing someone blocking the way, Xiang Ying became even more flustered!

In the restaurant, there was a cry of alarm that the man had already stopped breathing. The woman, Jiang Mingyue, who was dining with him seemed familiar. After a while, she realized it was Zhou Ye, who had gained so much weight.

No, it was her belly; she must be nearing her due date.

Zhou Ye leaned at the window, crying and cursing, saying Chef Liu poisoned her brother Zhou Gang.

So the protagonist of the earlier dish incident was actually Zhou Ye’s brother, Zhou Gang!

I had heard of him in my original memory, but I had never met Zhou Gang.

Chef Liu was now in hot water, and everyone would instinctively think it was him. After all, the argument happened first, and the poisoning came after. People who fancied themselves as detective Conan thought they had figured out the truth.

And in front of them, Jiang Mingyue blocked the woman in the green dress at the door, not letting her out. In reality, if the woman in the green dress were a bit more assertive, she could have left. Of course, a rabbit that takes off quickly would soon be caught by the hunter.

But this person was stopped, demanding to be let through. Jiang Mingyue wouldn’t let her, so she simply didn’t move.

Especially when Jiang Mingyue said something that hit the nail on the head: "Sister, Zhou Gang surely deserved to die, but if he committed any crime, we’ll arrest him. You have no right to take his life."

The girl in the green dress suddenly collapsed to the ground, crying.

Jiang Mingyue gestured for Little Chao Lei Gong to handcuff her, then turned back inside.

The scene had already been secured, and soon the forensic team arrived.

The guest no longer showed any vital signs, and the blood that flowed was black, while the face of the deceased turned increasingly blue. Meanwhile, Gan Institute had already privately questioned Jiang Mingyue, and she truthfully explained everything. Gan Institute immediately tasked An Jian to ensure that the forensic team takes back the bowl of spicy fish soup for testing.

It turned out that the woman in the green dress, Xiang Ying, was the friend of Zhou Gang’s ex-wife, Li Lanhua. Li Lanhua was introduced to Zhou Gang through their elders. Before marriage, Zhou Gang pretended to be attentive and well-mannered, but after marriage, he revealed his true nature. He spent his money eating and drinking outside, leaving his wife to fend for the family financially. He would often come home drunk and beat his wife. Eventually, the wife couldn’t take it anymore and signed up for a rural work program.

Not seeing each other every day, the two could still maintain a decent relationship, but during one of the wife’s visits back to the city, she unexpectedly caught Zhou Gang with another woman at home. She asked for a divorce, but Zhou Gang refused.

Li Lanhua, who was naturally somewhat timid, could only blame her misfortune. She became melancholy, and one day, as she was walking on the dam, she accidentally fell into the reservoir. At that time, no one was around, and by the next day, her body had already floated in the reservoir.

As Li Lanhua’s only friend, Xiang Ying witnessed the transformation from her friend being vibrant to her death. She believed Zhou Gang was to blame for it all. To avenge her friend, Xiang Ying had been looking for an opportunity for a year, and today was entirely by chance.

Coincidentally, Zhou Gang was arguing with someone, and Xiang Ying thought it was a good opportunity. While Zhou Gang and Zhou Ye were theorizing at the window and the surrounding people caught up in the spectacle, she slipped arsenic she carried with her into the spicy fish soup Zhou Gang ordered.

She originally thought that after the incident, everyone would blame Chef Liu, and she could slip away. By the time they figured out it wasn’t Chef Liu, she would have vanished without a trace, making it hard to find out who had tampered with the dish. But she hadn’t expected someone to see through her disguise and catch her in the act.

"Gan Institute, we’ve found a package of the drug in the suspect’s bag." 𝕗𝐫𝚎𝗲𝘄𝐞𝕓𝐧𝕠𝘃𝕖𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝚖

"Hand it to the forensic team, and take her bag as well. Take everything back for testing."

Chef Liu, who was falsely accused earlier, was quickly cleared of suspicion due to the intervention of Gan Institute’s team.

The onlookers, realizing what had happened, were incredulous.

And Zhou Ye, having stopped scratching at Chef Liu, turned to pull on Xiang Ying’s hair, but her impending childbirth caused labor pains after all the commotion.

"Ah! My, my belly hurts, help, help me..."

The scene turned chaotic, with enthusiastic onlookers wanting to help but only suggesting crude methods like carrying her to the hospital on a wooden board found in the restaurant.

As they were still discussing, a slender girl suddenly bent down, easily picking up the pregnant woman, and like a gust of wind, disappeared from sight.

Xiao Qian among the crowd rubbed his eyes hard.

"I must have been seeing things."

"I think I was seeing things too, how did that slim girl have that kind of strength?"

"Let’s go check, lest she collapses halfway."

"Alright, let’s go."

...

While carrying the pregnant woman, Jiang Mingyue quickly calculated the time in her head.

Eleven minutes, and she had delivered the woman to the emergency department of Nanxi City Hospital in such a short time.