Chapter 182
Chapter 182
The marks on Song Xiaotian’s neck were obviously hickeys.
But didn’t he dislike Pan Xiaorou? How could he still…
Seventh Master shook his head and sighed. “There are thousands upon thousands of words in this world, but only the word ‘love’ is hardest to understand. Maybe this is what they call an ill-fated bond.”
I said, “He doesn’t even like her, but he still slept with her.”
Seventh Master said, “A man and a woman alone together in the same room, and they’d been drinking on top of that. It’d be abnormal if nothing happened. But I imagine Pan Xiaorou must have made the first move. No matter how aloof Song Xiaotian is, he couldn’t have held out.”
Seventh Master did have a point.
President Pan was way too fierce. It was only the second night, and she’d already gotten Song Xiaotian into bed.
“Not being able to hold out is one thing,” I said. “But he doesn’t like Pan Xiaorou, and he still slept with her. How is he going to end this later?”
Seventh Master stopped laughing too. “Isn’t that exactly what a Peach Blossom Calamity is? His upbringing won’t allow him to be irresponsible, but he doesn’t want to be with the woman either. He’s going to have plenty to agonize over from now on.”
“But this is their private business. We shouldn’t keep making jokes about him.”
“Something like this won’t be easy to settle. Who knows? The entanglement might even turn into a real disaster.”
As we were talking, Song Xiaotian came back with the cigarettes, and we hurriedly shut our mouths.
An hour later, a figure appeared on the detention center’s exercise yard. From a distance, I almost didn’t recognize him.
It wasn’t until he walked up to us that I realized it was Meng Yifan.
He looked utterly dispirited, as if he’d aged several years in just a few days.
The moment he saw us, he trembled with excitement. “Am I just being released temporarily, or am I really out for good?”
I patted his shoulder. “You’re really out. We helped clear you of suspicion. No matter who the police end up arresting, they won’t be arresting you again.”
Meng Yifan nearly burst into tears. “I don’t even know what to say. It doesn’t feel right to kneel to you two, so I’ll just kneel to Seventh Master instead.”
As he spoke, he was about to kowtow to Seventh Master.
Seventh Master quickly pulled him back. “Hey, don’t keep kneeling. I’m not dead yet. Don’t kneel me into the afterlife.”
Song Xiaotian threw an arm around his neck and laughed. “All right, what matters is you’re out. Survive a great disaster, and blessings are sure to follow. Come on, let’s go eat first.”
After getting in the car, we went to a large restaurant and ordered a whole table of good dishes for Meng Yifan.
He ate like a starving wolf, just short of grabbing the food with his hands.
Seeing him like that made our hearts ache.
A perfectly decent man had first been cheated on, and before he could even recover from that, he’d nearly been saddled with a murder charge.
These past few days must have been torment for him.
“I survived this disaster thanks to all of you running around for me.”
Meng Yifan raised his glass, and as he spoke, tears started falling. “Being wronged feels awful. I really thought I was finished.”
We all raised our glasses and comforted him, telling him to try to let it go.
“After a person goes through a great calamity, their luck starts to rise,” Seventh Master said with a smile. “So from now on, it’s all good fortune ahead. Do you have any plans?”
Meng Yifan sighed. “All the money I earned these past few years, I spent it all on Tao Xiaoyu. I never regretted it, but I really never thought she’d do something like this. Spending my money while messing around with other men… I honestly couldn’t get past that.”
“But after being locked up for the past few days, I figured it out. Compared to being falsely accused of murder, what she did really doesn’t count for much. And now that she’s dead, well, the dead deserve respect. I won’t hold it against her anymore. I just hope she has a peaceful journey.”
Seventh Master gave him a thumbs-up. “A true man has a broad heart.”
I was a little curious, so I asked him, “How did you know that villa belonged to Tao Xiaoyu? Weren’t you drinking with others in your industry that night? How did you suddenly end up there?”
That was the part none of us had been able to figure out.
Meng Yifan frowned and said, “I drank a little too much that night. After I came out, I was going to call a designated driver to take me home, but then an unknown number sent me a text. The text had the detailed address of that villa and said Tao Xiaoyu was inside having a secret rendezvous with someone else.”
“I’d been drinking, and the alcohol went straight to my head. I lost my temper for a moment and drove over there…”
Song Xiaotian sighed. “My brother, that little trip you took almost got you killed, do you know that?”
Meng Yifan nodded, his face full of regret as well. “Later, when the police showed me the surveillance footage and said I’d killed someone, I realized I’d been set up. But honestly, I had it coming… On the way there, I even stopped and bought a knife. I was thinking of stabbing them to death. But when I got to the gate of that villa, I sobered up. Then I thought, if I killed them, I’d get executed by the police too, so I left again…”
After hearing his account, all of us were left speechless.
This idiot. He actually went and bought a knife.
No wonder the police took him for a scapegoat.
“That villa compound has security on duty. How did you get in?” Song Xiaotian asked.
Meng Yifan thought back for a moment and said, “When I went in, the guard didn’t stop me at all. I just walked right in…”
I figured the guard was probably looking down at his phone and hadn’t noticed Meng Yifan.
I asked him again, “Since you left not long after getting there, why did you come back so late that night?”
Meng Yifan looked embarrassed. “I felt awful, so on the way back, I bought a few more bottles of liquor and drank them downstairs in the neighborhood. I only came back after I finished.”
Song Xiaotian said, “You really know how to create a window of opportunity for yourself, huh? You managed to put every possible suspicion on your own head.”
Seventh Master frowned and said, “The person who sent you that text was clearly deliberately guiding you, making you create suspicion against yourself. That person must have investigated beforehand and known about the relationship between you, Tao Xiaoyu, and Xiang Kai.”
Song Xiaotian cursed, “Who else could it be but that rotten bastard Du Yunting?”
I had to admit, Du Yunting was truly sinister. He had planned in advance to make Meng Yifan take the fall, which meant that when he went there, he had already intended to kill Xiang Kai.
If Pan Xiaorou hadn’t helped this time, Meng Yifan would have carried that blame to his grave.
“Du Yunting…” Meng Yifan said in confusion. “That name sounds familiar. What’s his relationship with Du Ruhai?”
I told him more or less everything that had happened after he was arrested, including the fact that Du Ruhai wasn’t dead, and that the current Du Yunting was Du Ruhai.
After Meng Yifan heard it all, he was completely dumbstruck.
“Is that text still there?” Song Xiaotian suddenly said. “Let me see it.”
Meng Yifan said it was still there and quickly handed over his phone.
Song Xiaotian opened the text and looked at it for a while. Then his expression abruptly changed.
I thought to myself, there wasn’t anything else particularly special about the content of that text. Did he really need to react that strongly?
I quickly snatched the phone over and looked at it.
The entire message was basically just leading Meng Yifan to go find Tao Xiaoyu. There really wasn’t anything else special about it.
But that number… the more I looked at it, the more familiar it seemed.
I hurriedly took out my own phone and pulled up a number to compare it.
After comparing them, I found that the two numbers were exactly the same.
My expression changed too. Cold sweat instantly broke out all over me.
This text… wasn’t sent by Du Yunting.
It was sent by her…