Chapter 183
Chapter 183
The person we were most grateful to right now was Pan Xiaorou. She was the one who had saved Meng Yifan.
But none of us could have imagined that she was also the one who had led Meng Yifan to Tao Xiaoyu.
I had already matched the number that sent the text message. It was Pan Xiaorou’s number!
Seventh Master took the phone and had a look. Even he couldn’t help sighing. “She really is clever. As a woman, she managed to beat out all those people from her husband’s family and get the entire board to vote her in as the new chairwoman. This woman has real methods.”
Meng Yifan frowned. “Are you saying this President Pan who got me out is the same person who sent me that text?”
Song Xiaotian sighed and nodded. “It was her.”
“Then I’m going to settle the score with her!”
Meng Yifan slammed the table in anger and stood up, about to go find Pan Xiaorou.
We quickly held him back and tried to talk him down. “What good would it do to go find her now? All she did was send you a text. You were the one who played along perfectly. Besides, what can you do to her? She’s the chairwoman of a corporation. You only just got out, so don’t go causing trouble again.”
Still fuming, Meng Yifan sat back down.
Song Xiaotian frowned. “I don’t get it. She was already planning to send someone to kill Xiang Kai and Tao Xiaoyu, so why did she have to set Meng Yifan up too?”
It did seem like an unnecessary extra move.
I said, “That’s exactly where she’s smart. When she sent someone to kill Xiang Kai and Tao Xiaoyu, she didn’t know Du Yunting was also going to kill Xiang Kai. If she’d succeeded, it would’ve been a straightforward crime of passion. Not only would the police suspect her, but Xiang Kai’s family and the people in the corporation would suspect her too.”
“But if she found a scapegoat and had that scapegoat take on most of the suspicion, then the suspicion on her would be cleared.”
“So from the beginning, she planned to make Meng Yifan the scapegoat. As for why both Meng Yifan and the killer she sent were able to enter the residential complex so easily, she probably bribed the security guard on the night shift that day. She just didn’t expect Du Yunting to show up too. The way things developed went beyond her expectations.”
But whether Du Yunting went or not actually made no difference to her. On the contrary, Du Yunting muddying the waters meant even fewer people would suspect Pan Xiaorou.
Before we went to see her, she might even have thought Meng Yifan was the one who killed Xiang Kai.
Later, when we went to her, not only did we tell her the truth, Song Xiaotian even gave her an idea and prepared to use the incident to keep Du Yunting in check.
All in all, from start to finish, Pan Xiaorou was the biggest winner in this whole matter.
Song Xiaotian broke out in a cold sweat. “That scheming woman is terrifying. I thought she was just some hopeless romantic…”
I thought to myself, Pan Xiaorou was indeed a hopeless romantic, but that didn’t affect her intelligence.
“And I can pretty much guess who the killer she sent was.”
I said, “Xiang Kai’s driver and personal assistant. The man who parked the car near Pan Xiaorou’s house.”
Song Xiaotian caught on. “The one you said was cutting me with his eyes?”
I nodded.
Seventh Master also came to a sudden realization. “No wonder that man kept standing guard there. He must like Pan Xiaorou, and Pan Xiaorou used his feelings for her to manipulate him into killing. The excuse she made up was probably something along the lines of: after he killed Xiang Kai, Pan Xiaorou would be with him.”
“But after Xiang Kai died, not only did Pan Xiaorou not get together with him, she even got together with…”
At that point, probably because Meng Yifan was present, Seventh Master found it inappropriate to mention Song Xiaotian’s private affairs, so he changed his wording. “Anyway, that man got angry, so he hates Xiaotian.”
I nodded. “Someone will definitely have to take the fall for Xiang Kai’s death in the end. If any rumors threaten Pan Xiaorou, she’ll most likely push that driver out.”
Song Xiaotian pulled out a napkin and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
Judging by the look on his face, he was probably already panicking inside.
He had gone and provoked a Poison Rose.
After we finished eating, we left the restaurant.
We told Meng Yifan to go home and rest for a couple of days.
But he was a workaholic. His business had finally started picking up, and he was terrified his shop would collapse again.
“I didn’t go in that day, but Tao Xiaoyu’s villa… I’m guessing it’s worth quite a bit.”
Meng Yifan looked at us and asked, “That villa… is it really under her name?”
Song Xiaotian and I were both stunned. “What are you planning?”
Meng Yifan lit a cigarette and said with a perfectly serious face, “All the money I’ve made over the years went to her. In the end, she was the one who betrayed me. Shouldn’t I at least make some of it back?”
Song Xiaotian sighed. “The way you do business is honestly terrifying.”
Meng Yifan said, “Someone died in there, so that villa is now a Stigmatized Property. It might not be a mansion, but the profit margin on a villa is definitely several times higher than an ordinary apartment.”
I said, “People who can afford a villa-do you really think they’d be tempted by a discount and buy a Stigmatized Property?”
Meng Yifan laughed. “That’s where you don’t understand. I’ve looked into this before. Villas or mansions where people have died are actually more sought-after than ordinary Stigmatized Property. If that villa is worth three million and we knock a million off the price, we won’t have to worry about finding a buyer at all.”
“We can list the villa with a professional auction house. They have a specialized team that can build hype around the property-in other words, market it. The final sale price might end up far higher than our reduced reserve price.”
“Then we’ll work on Tao Xiaoyu’s family and scare them with the idea of a ‘Stigmatized Property.’ Instead of letting it rot in their hands, they might as well sell it cheap. Based on what I know about Tao Xiaoyu’s parents, even if we tell them the house is only worth less than a million, they’ll believe it. The profit we can make could reach seven figures.”
Song Xiaotian and I were dumbstruck.
This guy had been locked up for so many days, and it still hadn’t made him stupid.
He really was one hell of a profiteer.
After that, we took him home first so he could shower, shave, and change into clean clothes.
He didn’t rest for even a second. He immediately started working on flipping Tao Xiaoyu’s villa.
Only now did I realize just how incredible the book my grandfather left me really was.
Earlier, I had written down the hexagram I cast for Tao Xiaoyu on a piece of paper, along with the entire interpretation process.
Now, looking back at the whole process and the conclusion, I was genuinely shaken.
At the time, I had calculated that Wu Fire, which represented Tao Xiaoyu, generated Xu Earth, which represented Meng Yifan. Fire Generates Earth. Tao Xiaoyu generated Meng Yifan. In this context, it meant Meng Yifan would benefit from Tao Xiaoyu.
I had never been able to figure it out before. Tao Xiaoyu was already dead, so what benefit could Meng Yifan possibly get from her?
But now I knew. That benefit was Tao Xiaoyu’s villa.
Actually, just from this alone, I should have been able to tell whether Meng Yifan would be executed or not.
If Meng Yifan had really been executed, then he would be dead. And if he were dead, how could he receive any benefit from Tao Xiaoyu?
So the hexagram did reveal Meng Yifan’s outcome. It was just that my understanding was still too shallow, and I hadn’t grasped the true essence of Six Yao.
And this was only Six Yao divination. If I managed to learn the entire book on Six Yao-
Wouldn’t I basically take off into the stratosphere?