Chapter 83
Chapter 83
“Why should I be the one to face the consequences?”
I kept a cold face, staring straight at Old Zhao Seven. “We trusted you so much before. I thought you could help us, but even if you weren’t going to help, you didn’t have to sell us out!”
“Meng Yifan and I just wanted to survive. We’re innocent in all this, and my girlfriend was even more so!”
“Now my girlfriend is dead. She was only twenty-three, in the prime of her life! Why the hell should I be the one facing consequences!”
At the mention of Fang Man, I couldn’t control my emotions at all.
I just sold a house. I had no idea what the hell had happened in that house, yet I was inexplicably dragged into this mess, and I even got Fang Man killed.
Where the hell was the justice in that!
Old Zhao Seven took a breath and turned serious as well. “Ask yourself, have I ever helped you? When you wanted to perform Spirit Writing to summon Li Xiumei’s Ghost, didn’t I help you then?”
“I did sell you out, but think carefully-have I ever actually harmed you? If I hadn’t told you to take those two Ashes Urns, would you have been able to swap Meng Yifan out?”
Hearing this, Meng Yifan got agitated too. “Just because you haven’t harmed us doesn’t mean you can use us!”
Old Zhao Seven was left speechless.
I laid my cards on the table. “So you’re admitting it then. You’re also plotting against Du Ruhai. What kind of grudge do you have against him? What’s your goal and your plan?”
Old Zhao Seven snorted. “No comment.”
“Fine.” I looked at him. “Tell us what you know, whether it’s about Du Ruhai or anything else, and then we’ll go our separate ways. We won’t care what you do after that. But if you keep helping Du Ruhai plot against us, I’ll tell him everything you’ve been doing. If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me.”
Old Zhao Seven glanced at me and repeated those same two words: “No comment.”
“Fuck!”
Song Xiaotian picked up a knife from somewhere and pressed it directly against Old Zhao Seven’s neck. “Say that one more time if you’ve got the guts.”
“What-what are you doing!” Old Zhao Seven’s face paled. “Are you going to commit murder now? You got what you wanted, are you trying to silence the witness!”
Song Xiaotian said, “They might not dare to kill you, but I do. I’m going to count to three. If I don’t hear something useful, I’ll give you a stab. Let’s see how many you can take.”
“One!”
“Two!”
“Wait, wait! I’ll talk!”
Old Zhao Seven folded. After all, he didn’t dare gamble his life on Song Xiaotian’s courage.
“I have something that can prove Du Ruhai is Lv Zhengxian. That thing could absolutely end him.”
Hearing Old Zhao Seven’s words, the three of us were stunned.
Something that could prove Du Ruhai was Lv Zhengxian…
That was Du Ruhai’s Achilles’ heel!
“What is it?” I asked urgently.
Old Zhao Seven said, “It’s the correspondence between him and his father, Lv Jun. He kept all the letters Lv Jun wrote to him. In those letters, Lv Jun addresses him directly as ‘Zhengxian’ and calls him his son. In short, all those letters prove that Du Ruhai is Lv Zhengxian.”
My eyes widened instantly.
This Lv Jun… had known all along that Du Ruhai was Lv Zhengxian?
“Where is this stuff now? At Du Ruhai’s house?” Meng Yifan couldn’t help but ask.
Old Zhao Seven shook his head. “Du Ruhai has a private Club. It’s very high-end and usually only hosts entrepreneurs and the wealthy. I discovered those letters by accident, but I didn’t have time to take photos of them back then.”
I felt a strange surge of excitement.
If those letters really existed, then regardless of whether we could use the law to punish Du Ruhai, having that evidence in our hands would mean we completely controlled him. We would have him by the throat!
But then, Song Xiaotian let out another cold laugh and pressed the knife back against Old Zhao Seven’s neck. He even made a preparatory motion as if he were about to slit it.
Old Zhao Seven’s face turned pale. He shouted frantically, “What are you doing? I told you everything! I shared such a massive secret with you, what more do you want!”
Song Xiaotian said coldly, “Do you take me for an idiot? Do you think my years as a cop were for nothing? You think I’ll just believe any random story you cook up? You’re very naive, Old Man.”
Turning to look at Meng Yifan and me, Song Xiaotian added, “After I butcher him, you two go find some bags. We’ll dump him in the river tonight.”
My eyelid twitched. For a moment, I couldn’t tell if Song Xiaotian was joking or serious.
“Wait, wait!”
Old Zhao Seven cried out again, “Everything I said is true! I’m not lying to you! Besides, you haven’t even investigated it before accusing me of lying. What is wrong with you? Are you just hell-bent on killing me? I’ve got no grudge against you!”
Song Xiaotian countered, “Fine. Then let me ask you: where are those letters kept, how many are there in total, how did you find them, and what happened at the time that prevented you from taking them as evidence?”
Without a moment’s hesitation or thought, Old Zhao Seven blurted out, “They’re in his private lounge at the Club. There’s a safe inside. I know how to pick locks, and I found those letters in the safe while I was investigating him. Just then, Du Ruhai sent someone to bring me over to discuss business. I heard footsteps outside the door and had no choice but to give up on taking the evidence.”
Old Zhao Seven’s explanation was logical and organized. He didn’t have the pauses typical of someone lying; he said it all almost in a single breath.
This time, let alone us, even Song Xiaotian couldn’t find a flaw in his story.
While we were deep in thought, Old Zhao Seven spoke up again. “Du Ruhai isn’t at the Club tonight, and there aren’t many people there. I’ve been looking for an opportunity to take those letters, but it’s hard for me to move alone.”
“If you believe me, let’s cooperate. We’ll go get those letters together and find a way to bring him down.”
I was honestly tempted by his proposal.
But I didn’t say anything.
Meng Yifan let out a cold snort. “Cooperate with you? On what grounds? On the grounds that you sold us out?”
Old Zhao Seven defended himself, “I did sell you out, but that was a tactical move. I didn’t actually harm you. My goal was to make Du Ruhai trust me more so it would be easier for me to get his secrets.”
“Since our goals are aligned-we both want to deal with him-we can absolutely cooperate. Besides, after stealing those letters, there’s no way I can stay with him anymore. You don’t need to worry about me betraying you again.”
After he finished, Song Xiaotian lowered the knife, but he didn’t immediately agree to the request for cooperation.
“What’s the prerequisite for cooperation?” Song Xiaotian asked him in return. “It’s trust. Trust is built on mutual understanding. We don’t know you at all. We don’t even know what kind of grudge you actually have against Du Ruhai.”
“Without understanding and trust, I’m afraid this cooperation will be difficult to pull off.”
Old Zhao Seven sighed, seemingly intent on working with us. He said, “Fifteen years ago in Lanjiang City, there was a series of bloody murders. The same MO, seven identical cases.”
“You should know what I’m talking about.”
“I am a family member of a victim from one of those cases.”