"You're awake?" Lu Xingzhi held a spatula in one hand and stroked Jiang Yao's hair with the other. His face was full of tenderness. "Go brush your teeth and wash your face before you eat. After lunch, we'll go to Jin City in the afternoon to buy some things. It's New Year soon."

Jiang Yao felt energized. She nodded and asked, "Are you going to invite your comrades to the New Year's Eve dinner? Zhou Junmin and the others haven't settled down yet, and they don't have any vacation days to visit their families. You can invite them to join in the fun."

Jiang Yao scratched her head. "It's a pity that I don't know how to cook and can't help you."

"No need." Lu Xingzhi pushed Jiang Yao to the bathroom door. "It's just the two of us spending the New Year together this year. That's enough."

That was the first time he and Jiang Yao spent the New Year together. He did not want anyone else, and he did not like the fun either. As long as Jiang Yao was with him, it was enough.

Jiang Yao went to wash up, and Lu Xingzhi went back to the kitchen to cook. When Jiang Yao finished washing her face and came out, she heard Lu Xingzhi's phone ring. Lu Xingzhi was cooking in the kitchen, so he did not hear it. She took the phone and looked at it before she went to the kitchen.

"Your phone is ringing. It's a call from Yuan City." Jiang Yao handed it to Lu Xingzhi. As she looked at the oil in his hand, she asked, "Do you want to pick it up?"

"Pick it up and put it next to my ear." Lu Xingzhi nodded. When he realized that Jiang Yao was tiptoeing, he chuckled softly and bent downward. There was a hint of ridicule in his smile.

Jiang Yao pretended not to hear his laughter, but she still glanced at him and reached out to press his head down a little. Only then did she put the phone next to his ear.

The two of them were close, so Jiang Yao could hear everything the person on the phone said to Lu Xingzhi.

Jiang Yao did not know who the person on the phone was, but she could understand their conversation.

Yuan City's Madam Chai had been seriously injured by her cellmate in prison and was sent to the hospital. After that, she died without any chance of resuscitation.

The woman who used to be able to control everything in Yuan City had died in prison.

Lu Xingzhi talked on the phone for more than three minutes before telling Jiang Yao to take the phone. Then, with a natural expression, he continued to pour the dishes out of the pot.

Lu Xingzhi was calm. His mood did not fluctuate because of the phone call, but Jiang Yao was terrified when she heard it.

"That should be considered as killing the mother and protecting the child, right?" Jiang Yao poked Lu Xingzhi's arm.

The man told Lu Xingzhi that Madam Chai had been beaten to death by her prison mates with farm tools during an argument, but that was only on the surface.

In reality, Madam Chai was murdered.

The man told Lu Xingzhi that he had investigated the person who beat Madam Chai. He learned that the woman was sent to prison because she had done many illegal things in the underworld. She had been sentenced to life imprisonment. That woman had a son outside and had been living in poverty. However, that son had recently received a large sum of money and had been eating and drinking everywhere. He had also found out that the son had opened an account at a bank with hundreds of thousands of dollars in it.

Before Madam Chai was beaten to death, one person had visited the woman in prison. It was a woman. She had sent the woman some food, a few books and said a few words to her.

That person went for a few days in a row. Two days before that incident, she did not visit again. When he investigated the woman who visited the person who did the deed, he learned that she had used fake information.

That person was nowhere to be found, nor was there any trace of her.