At the thought, ng Kexi grew sowhat uneasy.
"Could there be a problem with the spring eye?"
Xia Liang nodded. "Exactly."
"That's easy!" ng Kexi bood, clearly pleased that Xia Liang had pinpointed the issue. He then turned to the tour bus driver and said, "Get an excavator over here! Let's dig this place up and take a look."
Xia Liang's expression turned grim. "If you do that, you can forget about anyone ever living in this manor again."
"Ah?" ng Kexi's smile froze on his face.
Xia Liang stood up, gesturing first to the spring eye and then to the artificial lake in the distance. "There's a saying: 'Water need not be deep; if there is a dragon, it is spiritual.' This spring eye is the eye of the entire manor's dragon vein. Even though the source of this dragon vein has a problem, it would be a miracle if this place didn't beco an ominous land after you indiscriminately dug it up."
Hearing this, ng Kexi waved his hands in resignation, a miserable look on his face. "So, Master Xia Tian, what should we do now?"
Xia Liang stroked his chin. "Our only options are to determine the location of the source or find the people who did the original construction."
Out of necessity, Xia Liang decided to press the issue. After all, he was certain there was sothing wrong with the spring eye. He asked, "What was the na of the construction team's boss?"
ng Kexi frowned, thinking for a long ti before finally slapping his thigh. "I think the boss's na was Xia Mingjie. We usually just called him Old Xia, but we haven't heard from him in recent years."
Ard with this information, Xia Liang imdiately began to pinpoint the relevant mories in ng Kexi's mind. After all, ng Kexi had lived for decades, and his mind was cluttered with too many mories, so a targeted search was necessary. Soon enough, Xia Liang sifted through ng Kexi's mories and found the man known as Old Xia.
Xia Liang thought for a mont and decided to call Gao Hesheng. Given his and his friends' status in the real estate industry, plus their backgrounds as forr laborers, finding a contractor shouldn't be too difficult. Even if that construction team was no longer in Qingyun City, they might still know his whereabouts.
Before long, Xia Liang's phone rang. "Old Gao, how's it going?"
Gao Hesheng's voice ca through the phone, sounding intermittent and choppy.
Xia Liang frowned slightly. "Old Gao, co to ng Kexi's manor at the foot of Longhu Mountain. It's too complicated to explain over the phone." With that, he hung up.
「Almost an hour later.」
Gao Hesheng's car drove into the manor. "Master Xia Tian, why the sudden interest in finding Xia Mingjie?"
Gao Hesheng hurried over to greet Xia Liang before shaking hands with ng Kexi. Though the two didn't know each other, Gao Hesheng had heard of ng Kexi's reputation.
Xia Liang didn't answer his question. "Old Gao, what did you find? Any leads on his whereabouts?"
Gao Hesheng shook his head. "The guy seems to have vanished a few years ago. I've asked several foren, and none of them know where he went."
Xia Liang's frown deepened. That was strange. "Logically, even if he left, he would have stayed in contact with his forr colleagues. How could he just vanish without a trace?"
Xia Liang was puzzled. After all, if Xia Mingjie was in the construction business, he would surely return for good projects, even if he'd left Qingyun City. How could he disappear completely, leaving no trace, like a stone sinking into the ocean?
Although Xia Liang had his thods of deduction, he couldn't glean anything unusual at the mont, as neither ng Kexi nor Gao Hesheng had much of a connection to this Old Xia.
Do I really have no choice but to dig up this spring eye? Xia Liang wondered.
Just then, Gao Hesheng's phone rang. It was Qian Donglai calling. A mont later, Gao Hesheng's face lit up with delight.
"Master Xia Tian, we've found Xia Mingjie! Turns out, he's been living incognito on the outskirts of Qingyun City for the past few years."
Xia Liang frowned. "What? He never left Qingyun City?"
Gao Hesheng nodded. "That's right. One of Xia Mingjie's old foren happens to be working on a site for Old Qian. He's the one who just told . Apparently, Xia Mingjie disbanded his construction team a few years back, bought so properties in Qingyun, and has been living off the rent ever since. He himself lives in a villa district in the southern suburbs of Qingyun City."
Hearing this, ng Kexi grew even more confused. "That's bizarre. With Old Xia's assets, he shouldn't have been able to afford a villa. Did he stumble into so other lucrative project these past few years?"
Xia Liang waved his hand. "Let's not worry about what he's been up to. The priority is to et him. We have to find the source to understand the root of the problem."
ng Kexi nodded and ordered one of his n, "Go to the southern suburbs and bring Xia Mingjie here. Tell him ng Kexi has summoned him!"
ng Kexi, though afraid of his wife, was not so weak in public. Otherwise, he wouldn't have achieved his current status. He still had so clout in Qingyun City. After giving the order, he turned to Xia Liang. "Master Xia Tian, while we wait, why don't you check the feng shui of my residence?"
Xia Liang nodded and walked toward the main house. After spending half the day investigating, he could only shake his head. "There's nothing wrong with the residence. The eeriest part of your entire manor is that spring eye."
「Ti ticked by.」
Finally, as the sun began to set, a balding, middle-aged man arrived at the manor.
ng Kexi stared at Xia Mingjie for a long mont before he finally spoke.
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