The Drowing Summer

At the same moment, **Lin Qiao**—Xia Xiaoman's best friend and a labor rights lawyer—was sitting in a rundown law office, surrounded by stacks of legal documents related to the Bay Project's displaced workers.

On her computer screen played a blurry surveillance video: late at night at a construction site, several figures in black were pouring some kind of liquid into a cement mixer, while the man overseeing them from the shadows was unmistakably **Li Yunzheng**—Li Moting's cousin and head of the Li Corporation's engineering division.

"Got you…" Lin Qiao bit down on her pen cap and quickly saved the footage.

Suddenly, her phone buzzed with a text from an unknown number:

**"Lawyer Lin, the Bay District workers weren't accidental deaths—they were silenced. Tomorrow night, 8 PM, Warehouse No. 7 at the docks. —An informant"**

Lin Qiao frowned. Just as she was about to reply, the office door swung open.

A man in work clothes stood at the doorway, his face pale. "Lawyer Lin, I'm Wang Qiang's younger brother… He went missing last night."

"Wang Qiang?" Lin Qiao shot to her feet. "The cement worker who was willing to testify in court?"

The man nodded shakily and pulled out a phone from his pocket. "This… this is the last recording he sent…"

On the recording, Wang Qiang's voice was fragmented, the roar of a cement mixer in the background:

**"They… they mixed something into the concrete… not just rebar… it's…"**

Suddenly, a sharp metallic crash cut him off, followed by Li Yunzheng's icy voice:

**"Clean it up."**

The recording ended abruptly.

Lin Qiao's fingers went cold. She quickly stuffed the files into her bag and said to the man, "Go into hiding. I'll find the evidence."

She didn't notice the black car parked across the street, where a man in sunglasses murmured into his headset:

**"Target has made contact with the evidence. Intercept?"**

Over the headset, Li Yunzheng chuckled.

**"Let her dig. We'll use her to reel in whoever's backing her."**