Read Chapter 23: — THE FALL OF GAO XINGCHEN

Once the twin secret became operational fact, the network around the brothers began to fracture.

Witnesses who had remained silent while the situation seemed stable started talking.

Financial flows linked intermediaries.

Communications placed Gao’s associates near critical events.

Former security contractors described surveillance, intimidation and plans to gain leverage over the orthopaedic programme.

Jiang Haozhe returned with additional information and surrendered records he had previously hidden.

The case no longer depended on one dramatic witness.

It had structure.

The evidence increasingly suggested that Gao’s network had ordered action against Zou Shiyuan. Whether the original goal had been kidnapping, coercion or murder became less clear than the fact that violence had followed.

Before investigators could put every question to Gao in court, he died suddenly.

The news travelled through Jingzhou’s business community in minutes.

Some people called it fate.

Others called it justice.

Li rejected both words.

“Death is not a verdict. Evidence is.”

Chenxi agreed.

“My father is dead. I don’t want poetry in a criminal file.”

The investigation continued into accomplices, illegal detention, financial coercion, fraud and the people who had carried out orders. A powerful man’s death did not erase everyone else’s responsibility.

For Li, one question mattered more than the rest.

Where was the real Zou Shiming?

Susan’s records led police toward a chain of private research locations and protected contacts. Some had helped hide Shiming. Others had believed they were protecting a valuable scientist from business pressure without understanding the family deception around him.

A final location emerged outside Jingzhou.

Police entered carefully.

The man they found was older than the memorial photographs.

Thinner.

Marked by confinement and months of fear.

But alive.

Professor Zou Shiming looked at Chenxi first.

“You’re Zhao’s daughter.”

She froze.

“You knew my father?”

“He came close to finding me.”

Her face tightened.

“He died trying.”

Zou lowered his head.

“I’m sorry.”

Then he saw Li.

For several seconds, neither man spoke.

The story that had begun with professional hatred had finally brought them into the same room without an audience.