The car arrived at the Fireworks Factory.
The driver confirmed it several times before leaving, as An Nuan was very sure that was the place.
An Nuan took advantage of her phone's flashlight to walk inside.
What lay before her eyes was a scene of ruins, apparently ravaged by fire.
Basically, only the frame of the entire factory remained.
An Nuan carefully walked inside.
It was past 11 pm right now.
Because the Fireworks Factory was some distance from the city, in a relatively remote countryside area, everything around was pitch black. On such a dark night, there was an eerie feeling that was somewhat terrifying.
It would be a lie to say she wasn't afraid.
Especially since so many people had died here today...
Thinking of this, An Nuan couldn't help but shiver.
But she still forced herself to walk forward, slowly surveying the factory.
She figured that since this was a drug trafficking base, there would surely be some clues left behind, it wouldn't be completely clean.
She carefully inspected inside the factory.
But because of the darkness, her phone's limited flashlight didn't allow for a thorough check.
Moreover...
Even if she had brought a power bank, her phone would eventually run out of battery if she kept using it like this.
She hesitated for a moment, deciding to stay here for the night and take a better look at things in the morning.
Having settled on this plan, she found a relatively clean spot to sit down.
Upon sitting down and having nothing to occupy herself with, her surroundings felt even more terrifying.
Sometimes scaring oneself was the most frightening thing.
An Nuan gritted her teeth and told herself to endure.
Just a few more hours and it would be over.
And so she sat there in the factory by herself, lasting through the entire night.
It wasn't until daybreak that the sky finally lit up.
From beginning to end, An Nuan did not fall asleep, as she simply couldn't, and was also worried about catching a cold sleeping outside. So she stubbornly sat through the entire night, watching the sky grow brighter, before making her numb body stir to stand up and start searching the factory for evidence.
An Nuan searched very carefully.
But everything was cleaner than she had imagined.
This was definitely not just because of the explosion and fire destroying the factory, there should have been deliberate cleanup efforts.
After all, more than a day had passed.
While rescue efforts were underway, evidence could have been destroyed at the same time.
An Nuan felt somewhat discouraged.
She thought of how Ye Jinghuai had staked his life on this, and if her efforts turned out to be fruitless...
No. Ye Jinghuai wouldn't do something without certainty.
Could it be that Ye Jinghuai had already found evidence, but hadn't had the chance to expose it due to the emergency?
If he had obtained evidence, where would he have hidden it?!
An Nuan told herself to calm down.
Yu Tao had just said that Ye Jinghuai came to find evidence, but hadn't brought out any evidence yet when he was discovered, which then led to the explosion and the factory's complete destruction. In such a short timeframe, if Ye Jinghuai had already obtained evidence and wanted to hide it, where would he have concealed it?! It wouldn't make sense for him to take it away - if something happened to him on the way out, the truth would never come to light. To be safe, Ye Jinghuai definitely wouldn't have taken it with him.
If he didn't take it away...
An Nuan suddenly had an idea.
Ever since the explosion, Ye Jinghuai's phone had remained off.
Of course, it was possible he had turned his phone off to avoid being tracked, but also, could he have stored the evidence on his phone? After all, for most people nowadays, their phone was the best storage medium.
Thinking this way...
An Nuan immediately started looking for the phone, feeling quite certain that if Ye Jinghuai hid something, he would have concealed it here.
Because he wouldn't have had time to take it anywhere else, plus the most dangerous place was often the safest - others wouldn't expect Ye Jinghuai to leave evidence at the scene.
And if he wanted to hide a phone, he would have buried it underground. She just needed to search the ground.
An Nuan searched very carefully inside the factory for a long time.
A very long time.
From day to nightfall.
It really wasn't as simple as she had imagined.
An Nuan felt a little disappointed.
She was also so exhausted she could barely stand up straight, having spent most of the day hunched over searching.
She figured that reality was never as idealized as her conjectures...
Just as An Nuan was about to give up.
She suddenly caught sight of a black object peeking out from under a broken section of floor.
An Nuan hurried over.
Her hands trembled excitedly as she moved away the floorboard, revealing a familiar-looking black phone underneath.
Confirming it was Ye Jinghuai's.
An Nuan was immediately elated inside,
Yet she tried hard to maintain her composure externally.
She quickly sat down, ready to turn on the phone.
"It's a pity this has now become a piece of ruins..." Suddenly, an unfamiliar man's voice rang out.
An Nuan was startled.
Clutching the phone, she hurriedly hid behind some debris, not daring to make any sound.
"Who knew how much we lost?!" Another man irritably said, "I told you not to invest or buy shares back then, we could have evenly split the net profits. But you had to be so gutsy and insist on acquiring shares for equity. Now look, my entire fortune is about to go down the drain."
"Don't worry. As long as this doesn't get exposed, we'll still have a chance to turn things around. The most important thing now is to not alarm the police in Qing City. We'll pass off this incident as an accidental explosion at the fireworks factory. Afterwards, once things have recovered, there will still be money to be made!"
"I know that rationale, but I heard that Ye Jinghuai, the new official who recently joined the Ministry of Politics, seemed to be investigating this. It's said he went to pursue Jiang Datong!"
"It'll be impressive if he manages to catch up to me. Even if he does, he'll just end up dead! Rest assured - as long as we're in Laitan Town, he can't escape my clutches."
"Did you deal with his assistant, that Yu Tao person?"
"Taken care of. Had someone dump him in the Blue Sea last night. He actually thought he was hot stuff, saying he cracked a big case for me. What a fool!"
"Don't be too complacent. Jason disappeared last night too and still hasn't been found. The surveillance footage was also tampered with, no idea who did it! Suspect it was Qin Jiang's group, but their whereabouts are also currently unknown. Just thinking about it gives me a headache."
"Don't panic. I've arranged for people to guard all the exit routes from Laitan Town. They can't escape. We'll capture them directly and toss them into the Blue River."
"In any case, I took a huge loss this time. You'll have to pay me back later."
"You can rest assured on that!" The man said. "Alright, let's get going. The theatrics are over."
The two men's footsteps gradually faded away.
An Nuan's heart raced wildly the entire time as she watched the recording software on the phone, hands shaking as she pressed stop.
She carefully made sure the audio file from earlier was successfully saved, before slightly relaxing.
Next, An Nuan picked up Ye Jinghuai's phone and switched it on.
