Chapter 499: Heart

“Feng Haoli’s father mentioned that he once overheard Feng Haoli talking about an issue with someone on the phone and Feng Haoli lost his temper when his father questioned him about it. His reaction was exactly the same as how Chen Yuke described. I suspect that these two issues were actually the same issue.” Qi Youxuan drew two lines to connect both the trip to Mêdog County and the threat message together on the whiteboard before playing the whiteboard marker pen with his slender fingers. “This is the cycling club’s name card. You guys can contact them and ask about the details of the trip to Mêdog County. Get a name list about the involved participants and if possible, get their photographs too.”

“Besides, all of you missed a point just now.” Qi Youxuan placed the whiteboard marker pen down before continuing, “Not only did Feng Haoli’s laptop go missing, but his cellphone had disappeared too. Smartphones nowadays are very convenient to use but they aren’t safe either. Many will turn on Cloud’s automatic backup system, so even when the users delete the content in the cellphone by accident, they can still retrieve the data on Cloud.”

“Yang Shaozhan, decrypt Feng Haoli’s Apple ID password after you’re done decoding his WeChat password,” instructed Qi Youxuan.

“Okay,” Yang Shaozhan acknowledged the instruction while decrypting Feng Haoli’s WeChat password, but deep down he was criticizing Qi Youxuan for mentioning the password decoding process like it was as simple as a thief breaking into a safe.

Yang Shaozhan, who was working behind a computer screen, raised his hand after a while. “I have the WeChat password.”

Then, he jotted down a bunch of numbers and passed it to Jiang Yuecheng before launching his attack on Feng Haoli’s Apple ID password.

Subsequently, they used a cellphone and logged into Feng Haoli’s WeChat account. After scrolling the screen for a while, they finally found the pictures of Feng Haoli’s trip to Tibet which were posted one year ago.

The first photograph was taken when a group of three males and two females were assembled and ready for departure. All of them wore uniform outfits and equipment and were sitting on their bicycles respectively with the tip of their left feet pointing toward the ground. The shooting was done while facing the sun, creating faint halos around their hazy backs which appeared especially stunning, like a poster.

The following photographs mainly consisted of scenery along the journey and overnight stays in local residents’ houses or tents.

The rest of the photographs were mostly of infinitely greened hills and empty roads when they had reached some desolate areas.

These photographs were not posted daily, obviously due to unsatisfactory cell phone reception which disallowed Feng Haoli to get a network connection.

The captions became depressing with the initial excitement disappearing into thin air as the scenery became more magnificent and vast but barren at the same time.

Feng Haoli posted his status on the third of July. “I feel heavy emotionally. I figured that the trip would be tough and exhausting but I didn’t expect it to end up like this.”

On the fifth of July, a photograph of a campfire built on a soiled cemented floor in a courtyard was posted with the following caption attached. “Heart.”

Subsequent posts became more and more dispirited afterward.

Finally, the photograph revealed that they had arrived at Lhasa on the eleventh of July.

Instead of Potala Palace which was the iconic symbol of Lhasa, Feng Haoli shot photographs of believers kneeling with utmost sincerity and a row of prayer wheels at the Jokhang Temple. One of the photographs showed a man’s hand spinning the prayer wheels, and based on the angle the shot was taken, it was fairly obvious that Feng Haoli was the one taking the photograph.

The attached caption stated. “Is it too late to purify my soul?”

This was the last photograph Feng Haoli posted regarding that journey.

Qi Youxuan had a feeling that they must have reached Mêdog County in the end. Two months later, when the semester had begun, Feng Haoli started posting in his WeChat stories again but the updates were lesser in comparison with the past.

“Looks like something definitely went wrong during that trip and it wasn’t a small issue either. Those captions he posted were depressing as hell,” Zhang Ming rubbed his chest and tried to get rid of the goosebumps even though the captions were not as exaggerated as they were.

“Did you notice that there wasn’t any selfie or wefie after the third of July? There were a lot of group photographs or selfies before that,” said Qi Youxuan.

Then, everyone in the department noticed that not only were there group photographs or selfies before the third of July, but each of them had a delighted smile on their faces too.

“I’ve hacked into Feng Haoli’s account,” Yang Shaozhan let out a sigh of relief.

The crowd went to have a look immediately and found out that there were a few additions of group photographs in the Cloud system.

“Weren’t these the photographs of Feng Haoli’s trip to Tibet on the phone just now?” yelled Wei Muran surprisingly as she pointed at the screen.

“Why were these uploaded two weeks ago? Judging by the captions on his WeChat, it was obvious that he didn’t want to see any of these photographs again, so why did he re-upload them into his phone after one year? The analysis just now also mentioned that he didn’t even put any photograph of that trip at home, so why would he put them into his phone to look at?” asked the curious Zhao Yiyang.

“These weren’t taken by him,” answered Qi Youxuan.

Qi Youxuan explained himself after everyone turned toward him in shock. “These shots were taken by a different person. Perhaps it was a little difficult to conclude from group photographs since they could just ask someone else to take the shot, but take a look at these selfies. The one taking the selfie will definitely stand right in the middle at the forefront position, but these photographs showed a different person at this exact location, so obviously Feng Haoli wasn’t the one taking these shots with his phone.”

The group of five had planted a deep impression in the crowd’s minds after glancing through Feng Haoli’s photographs just now. Thus, they had preconceived assumptions that these were taken by Feng Haoli as well, but after listening to Qi Youxuan’s explanation, they found the differences at last.

“Besides, the effective pixels are different, which means the cellphone used to take these shots was different too.” They had no idea when did Yang Shaozhan transferred the photographs from Feng Haoli’s WeChat account and Cloud into the computer and started analyzing and comparing between the photographs from these two sources.

“Pixel and brightness are different too,” said Yang Shaozhan while pointing at the screen.

“Someone sent these photographs to Feng Haoli’s phone two weeks ago. Judging from his behavior, he must’ve deleted them immediately but had forgotten about the fact that the photographs would be uploaded to Cloud automatically,” said Qi Youxuan confidently.

“This lady… seems familiar,” Wei Muran muttered with a frown.

“You’ve seen her before?” asked Jiang Yuecheng immediately.

Wei Muran shook her head in response. “No, I’m very good at recognizing faces, so I won’t forget anyone whom I’ve seen previously. She looks familiar even though I’ve never seen her before, perhaps she looks similar to someone else.”

Wei Muran frowned as she failed to identify the lady despite racking her brain for quite some time.

In the meantime, Yang Shaozhan started messing around with the desktop Qi Youxuan brought back from Feng Haoli’s house, while Zhang Ming called the cycling club based on the contact number on the business card. Then, he realized that it was way past office hours at that time after the phone call went unanswered.

Qi Youxuan received a phone call from Qi Youning when he was stretching himself. “Brother, why haven’t you guys come out yet? We’ve been waiting outside for quite some time.”

Qi Youxuan stood up abruptly. “What are you doing here? Why are you troubling me?”

“How can you say so? You were regarding me as an outsider when you didn’t tell me about your successful relationship with Muran. It was alright if I didn’t know about this, but I saw both of you together this morning, so here I am. Let’s grab dinner tonight, shall we?” Qi Youning’s voice sounded soft but Qi Youxuan knew that she was fighting her urge to laugh by listening to her voice.

“Today is my first official date with Mumu, so why are you following us for? Be a good girl and enjoy your sweet time with Wen Xu,” Qi Youxuan coaxed.

Qi Youning was exasperated after realizing that Qi Youxuan was actually coaxing her like he was coaxing a child when he was young. Was she really that stupid?

“Ah Xu is with me right now. It’s perfectly fine if you’re unwilling to join us, I can just ask Muran out alone too. I’ll always ask Muran out in the future and you’ll learn the truth whether Muran prefers to follow me or you!” replied Qi Youning happily with an innocent and cute tone.

“You… you!” Rage was boiling deep inside Qi Youxuan. He would have lost his cool if it was not for the fact that he had to protect his image in the presence of Jiang Yuecheng and his team. He ran toward a corner after peeking at the crowd and whispered, “Your brother had just courted hi wife successfully, so you can’t possibly put a spoke in my wheel right now. Are you still my little sister?”

Qi Youning rolled her eyes in response. “I’m trying to develop intimacy between my future sister-in-law and I. How can you say that I’m putting a spoke in your wheel? The development of intimacy between your wife and sister is of utmost importance! Why are you so annoyingly talkative anyway? Fine, I’ll just give Muran a phone call. Bye!”

“Wait!” yelled Qi Youxuan immediately, holding his breath and finally letting it out in disappointment. “What do you want for dinner? If you promise that this disturbance will be the first and last time, I’ll pay for your dinner tonight.”

“Humph! Humph!” Qi Youning did not give her word on this.

“You… If you insist on disturbing us and the intimacy between Mumu and I can’t grow further, don’t come looking for me when Wen Xu and you face any trouble in the future!” Qi Youxuan threatened.

“Humph!” Qi Youning expressed her dissatisfaction and exasperation clearly.

Qi Youxuan persuaded again. “Your brother isn’t a stingy person and loves you dearly! You should treat me kindly in return too, right? I know you’ve been eyeing up a set of emerald pendant and earrings. I’ll buy them for you!”

Qi Youning’s eyes shone brightly and her face was flushed pink in an instant. Wen Xu’s gaze on her became gentle at the sight of her attractive rosiness.

Wen Xu could not help but reach out to poke Qi Youning’s pinkish and tender cheek.

Pink tint seared through Qi Youning’s cheeks instantly. She buried her face in her palms and stared at Wen Xu with her big, round eyes, trying to tell him to knock it off.