A madman in France? How come he's always at crime scenes!

Chapter 94 The Group's Past

Chapter 94 The Group's Past

October 11th, 9:20 AM.

Lin Zhiyi walked into the Tianyue Group building, and the receptionist, as usual, stood up to greet her.

"Miss Lin."

Lin Zhiyi nodded, and without stopping, walked straight towards the elevator.

The elevator doors closed, and my face appeared in the mirror.

Her makeup was clean, and her expression was calm.

No one could tell that she hadn't slept much all night.

Wu Liang's words kept swirling in my mind.

If you can find any recollections of this incident from anyone in your company, please let me know immediately.

That's easy for you to say.

Lin Zhiyi knew very well that investigating matters from twenty years ago at Tianyue was not as simple as checking a project ledger.

Tianyue was not originally a group that started in an office building; it was initially just an engineering team that started on several construction sites in the west of the city.

Back then, there weren't so many rules and regulations, nor were there so many beautiful corporate culture walls. Projects, construction sites, and conflicts were only hidden in the idle chatter of veteran employees after a few drinks.

The elevator doors opened, and the sound of a keychain clinking was heard first.

Tan Ming walked towards us, sunglasses hanging from his collar, his hair casually styled.

A young woman from the administration department followed behind him, carrying a stack of documents, the top one of which was almost sliding to the ground.

Tan Ming replied to the message with his head down, muttering impatiently under his breath.

"It's just signing a transfer form, why do you make me run from the first floor to the twenty-third floor? Are you crazy?"

Looking up, I saw Lin Zhiyi standing in front of me.

The sound immediately decreased.

"sister."

Lin Zhiyi glanced at him.

"Who did you go drinking with last night?"

"No, no," Tan Ming chuckled. "It's just business entertainment. Since I have to go to work, I need to get used to business settings beforehand, right?"

Lin Zhiyi's gaze fell on the sunglasses on his collar.

"What kind of business occasion involves going to a racetrack at 3 a.m.?"

Tan Ming's expression froze for a moment.

How did you know?

"I saw this on your friend's WeChat Moments. Didn't you look incredibly handsome in their video?"

Tan Ming turned his head and cursed, then turned back to a smile, no longer turning the car keys in his hand.

"Sis, I just went to check, it's really not open!"

Lin Zhiyi took two steps forward and pressed the documents that were about to slip out of the young girl's arms back.

"You're really taking it easy, having a young girl help you carry your documents."

Tan Ming looked back and then remembered that there was someone behind him.

"I'm not—"

He tried to find a reason, but couldn't, so he had no choice but to reach out and take the document.

The young woman from the administration department felt as if she had been granted a pardon and quickly left.

Tan Ming held the documents, his face even more displeased.

"My dad really has too much free time. He insisted that I start in administration. Stamping documents, delivering files, listening to the old men in the department talk about their entrepreneurial history—what's so interesting about that?"

Lin Zhiyi paused slightly.

"Who told you their entrepreneurial history?"

"Uncle Kang, he's a slovenly old man, but he's quite a fun guy. Yesterday at dinner, he had a couple of drinks and said that Tianyue used to be much more interesting than it is now."

The elevator button was pressed by the person downstairs, and Tan Ming cursed again. Lin Zhiyi pressed the button for him.

"What did he say?"

"What can you say?" Tan Ming scoffed. "You could say that running around construction sites back then wasn't as troublesome as it is now. Whoever had the strongest fist and drove their car in first could take over the area."

He lowered his voice and spoke of these stories of the martial arts world with a sense of novelty in his voice.

"They also said my dad was much tougher when he was young; everyone called him Brother Ren, how cool was that!"

Lin Zhiyi listened silently. These weren't really secrets; she had known them before.

"But Uncle Kang stopped halfway through his story—wait, sis, why are you asking that?"

Lin Zhiyi looked at him.

"The group's 30th anniversary internal publication is going to do interviews with veteran employees, and the brand department asked me if I had any suitable people."

In recent years, Tianyue has been keen on building its corporate image, including its entrepreneurial history, philanthropic history, and contributions to urban development. Similar materials are updated every year.

"Then you can't go wrong with Uncle Kang. He knows a lot."

The elevator has arrived.

Lin Zhiyi smiled slightly as she looked at her silly younger brother.

"You're not stupid."

Tan Ming walked in carrying the documents, snorting with dissatisfaction.

"Sis, I'm just lazy, not stupid."

"Then go and prove that to your dad."

Tan Ming immediately fell silent.

The elevator doors closed.

Lin Zhiyi looked at herself in the mirror, her expression calm.

Noon.

Lin Zhiyi carried a glass of warm water to the small restaurant on the third floor.

Several long-time employees from the administration department were eating by the window, chatting about everything from their children's school admissions to their health checkup results.

As she walked over, Sister Gu saw her first.

"Miss."

Several people hurriedly tried to get up.

"Sit down, no need to be so polite." Lin Zhiyi put down her cup and smiled slightly. "The brand department wants to do an internal publication, mainly about things from early projects. I was worried that the younger generation wouldn't understand, so I came to listen first."

Sister Gu smiled.

"Then we have to choose what we can write. All that messy stuff from before just doesn't make sense when we write it down."

"Of course." Lin Zhiyi sat down, her tone calm. "The company newsletter will definitely still be about how the team got through it."

Uncle Kang picked up a piece of food and became interested upon hearing this.

"Back then, it was nothing like now. There were no procedures or approvals, and project meetings would go on for ages. In the past, when it came to grabbing a construction site, it was really a matter of whoever got there first and put their equipment in first, and that was how you secured half a step."

Sister Gu glanced at him.

"Old Kang, Miss is asking about the internal publication."

"I know, I know," Uncle Kang waved his hand. "I didn't say I couldn't write it."

He took a sip of soup, but the words slipped out unnoticed.

"Take those projects in the south of the city for example. Huijin was eyeing them back then. Shen Xuejun's bids were incredibly low, and he had extensive connections. If we hadn't been tougher, Tianyue wouldn't have had a chance to rise to prominence later."

Lin Zhiyi listened casually.

"South of the city?"

"Yes," Uncle Kang said. "The southern part of the city developed rapidly in those years; the elevated roads and supporting roads were all prime real estate. I remember Huijin was very popular back then, and Shen Xuejun..."

"Old Kang."

Sister Gu suddenly put down her chopsticks, cutting him off before he could finish speaking.

Uncle Kang suddenly remembered something, his smile froze, and his eyes showed a hint of embarrassment as he looked at Lin Zhiyi.

Lin Huaishan's incident occurred during those years.

Lin Huaishan is Lin Zhiyi's biological father.

"Miss, that's not what I meant." Uncle Kang chuckled. "It's been too long, I just misspoke."

Lin Zhiyi raised her head, her expression unchanged.

"It's okay."

She even gave a slight laugh.

"I was too young back then and didn't really understand these things. The brand department, which focuses on promotion, certainly wouldn't touch these complicated details."

Sister Gu continued the conversation.

"Yes, just write about how everyone suffered. The office used to be small, drafty in winter, and had no air conditioning in summer; those are things you can write about."

Uncle Kang nodded quickly.

"Yes, yes, yes, writing about enduring hardship. Back then, it wasn't like now, where there are dedicated teams to prepare tender documents. Every part related to funding was painstakingly painstakingly painstakingly extracted by Engineer Lin, page by page."

Lin Zhiyi's eyelashes fluttered slightly, but she didn't ask any further questions.

Sister Gu pinched Uncle Kang hard from under the table.

Uncle Kang then realized that he had flattered the wrong person, lowered his head, ate a few mouthfuls of rice, and said nothing more.

Lin Zhiyi sat for a while, listening to them circle the topic back to the old office building and canteen, before getting up to leave.

After walking a little further away, I heard Sister Gu say something in a low voice.

"Your mouth will get you into trouble sooner or later."

Lin Zhiyi stepped into the elevator without looking back.

Shen Xuejun.

Huijin Group.

South City Project.

"Wu Liang————"

She murmured the name to herself.

"Could it be that, as you say, there are suspicious circumstances surrounding my father's death?"