Chapter 14 — The Brilliant Wife and the Mute CEO

As expected, Xuân Lam tried to start a conversation with the chef on a free morning, skillfully leading the story about her grandson-in-law who was an investigator that she had mentioned before.

"His name is Ky, Hoàng Tuấn Kỳ. He used to work as an investigator for a large insurance company, specializing in verifying accidents and insurance fraud." The chef said, without the slightest doubt the true intention behind Xuân Lam's question. "He's retired now. He still occasionally takes on a few private cases for acquaintances. He has a quiet personality and is very trustworthy," Xuân Lam asked for a phone number, using the excuse that she wanted to help find a distant relative in her hometown who had been lost for a long time. That same evening, she secretly called Mr. Ky from a newly purchased secondary phone, not using her main number to avoid being traced.

The first meeting took place at a small cafe hidden in an alley, far from the center and even farther from the sight of anyone in the Úc mansion. Hoàng Tuấn Kỳ was a man in his sixties, with a simple appearance but sharp, experienced eyes, exactly as the chef described.

"You want me to find a person named Nguyễn Văn Khoa, who used to work as chief engineer at Riverside construction site of Úc Thịnh Group, disappeared more than a year ago," Mr. Ky repeated the request, his eyes examining Xuân Lam for a moment. "Miss Lam, I have been doing this job for a long time. I immediately realized that this is not a normal matter of finding a lost person. Can you tell me the truth, what this involves, so that I know how to act appropriately, to avoid causing danger to both parties."

Xuân Lam hesitated for a moment, then decided to believe, briefly telling about the suspicions surrounding her husband's accident, about the unusual difference in investment capital, and about the fateful appointment with engineer Khoa on the night of the accident.

After Mr. Ky heard, his face became serious. "If it's true as you say, this is not a simple case, possibly related to a conspiracy to gain power within a large corporation. I will accept, but you must promise me, all the information I find, you must only share with people you truly trust, and absolutely must not act rashly without enough evidence." Xuân Lam nodded in agreement, giving him an old business card and some little information she had collected from Bách Chu's notebook.

During the next two weeks, Mr. Ky silently followed Nguyễn Văn Khoa's footsteps using old relationships in the profession. He went to the boarding house where Khoa lived before disappearing, asked about his old neighbors, tracked down social insurance records, and compared them with the list of former employees of the Riverside construction site that he obtained through an acquaintance working in the construction industry.

"This person disappeared very carefully, almost erasing all traces of contact with relatives after the night of your husband's accident." Mr. Ky reported back to Xuân Lam during the second meeting, his voice full of thought. "But I found a clue. His elderly mother still lives in a neighboring district, and occasionally receives anonymous deposits through an intermediary transfer service. The amount is regular every month but the origin is unknown."

When Xuân Lam heard that, a ray of hope arose in her heart. "So that means he's still alive and still cares about his mother."

"Yes, and that gives me direction," Mr. Ky said. "If he still sends money regularly, it proves that he hasn't gone too far, may still be hiding somewhere in the country, and still keeps indirect contact with his family through some channel that he believes is safe. I will try to track this transfer service, hoping to determine the area where he is hiding."

While waiting for news from Mr. Ky, Xuân Lam did not sit still. She took advantage of the parties and meetings in high society, which she had previously considered torture, to cleverly solicit more information about the personnel changes at the Riverside construction site around the time of the accident, from acquaintances who had little doubt she was investigating anything.

Once, during a meeting with the corporation's partners, she happened to start a conversation with an engineer who used to work at the same construction site as Khoa, but has now moved to another project.

"Ah, Mr. Khoa, back then he was very good and popular with his superiors, but he suddenly disappeared without saying goodbye." The engineer said, his voice a bit regretful. "I heard that before he disappeared, he seemed very tense, as if he was under some terrible pressure. Everyone in the technical department found it strange."

That small detail further strengthens Xuân Lam's suspicion that Khoa was under heavy pressure from someone before disappearing, most likely the people behind the plot to harm Bách Chu.

She also cleverly asked the other engineer about who was directly managing the construction site engineering team at that time, and received an answer that made her even more confident in her judgment: all financial and technical personnel of the Riverside project were directly supervised by a trusted person of Vĩnh Khôi, this person had now been transferred to work at another branch of the group in the Central region right after Bách Chu's accident occurred, an arrangement that at that time No one paid attention to that point, but looking back now, it seemed like a calculated move to clean up the behind-the-scenes.

A few days later, Mr. Ky contacted again, his tone was a bit more cautious than last time. "Miss Lam, I have to warn you in advance. While asking for information about the transfer service, I discovered that someone else was also secretly monitoring Mr. Khoa's mother's account movements. It seemed that they were not normal acquaintances. I suspect the other side is also trying to find out his whereabouts, possibly to silence him forever before he falls into our hands."

Hearing that, Xuân Lam felt a cold current run down her spine. If so, the race to find Khoa was now not only about finding the truth, but also a race against time to save the life of an important witness.

"So what should I do now?" She asked, her voice already a bit worried.

"I will speed up the process, but you also have to prepare yourself, this is no longer a safe, silent investigation," Mr. Ky replied. "From now on, you need to be doubly careful in every action, don't reveal any loopholes that could make people suspect you're behind this search."

That evening, when she told Bách Chu all the progress of the investigation, she saw his eyes light up with a strong ray of hope that she had never seen before, even during the physical therapy sessions that showed the most obvious progress.

He wrote on paper, his handwriting more decisive than usual: "If we find Khoa, we will have a living witness. This will be strong enough evidence to overthrow Uncle Vĩnh Khôi's entire plot."

"I think so, too," Xuân Lam replied, squeezing his hand. "But we need to be careful. Mr. Ky said we must act slowly and avoid alerting the snake in the grass. If that side finds out we are investigating, they may kill the witnesses before we can find them or turn their attention directly to us." Bách Chu nodded, but in his eyes he still could not hide a new emerging belief, the belief that justice for his year of silence and humiliation was finally coming closer than ever.

He wrote another line, his hands shaking slightly with emotion: "If I find Khoa before they take action, I want to meet him personally. I owe him an apology, for dragging him into my matter without foreseeing the consequences."

Xuân Lam looked at that line and felt an indescribable emotion in her heart. Even while he was the victim of a cruel plot, Bách Chu still did not forget his responsibility to the person who had to suffer for a year because of him. She was even more certain that she had not chosen the wrong person to bet her family's future on.

"Don't worry, when I find it, I'll let you say that to him yourself," she said, her voice was rare and gentle. "But first, we both have to survive this period, because I have a feeling, the coming days won't be easy at all."

Her prediction, just a few days later, proved to be completely accurate, when the first signs showed that Vĩnh Khôi's faction had begun to realize that someone was secretly revisiting the past that he thought had been buried forever.