Chapter 59
Chapter 59
To get to the bottom of what had happened, the police first questioned Pei Yuming’s father, Pei Xianyu. After all, this whole incident had started with him.
The strange thing was, no matter whether he was facing the officers or his own family, the old man refused to say why he had given money to those two thugs.
In the end, even the police were at a loss. They had no choice but to hand the difficult task of prying open the person involved back to Pei Yuming while they went to interrogate the two men first.
Their group counted as victims, so the officers arranged for all of them to wait in a large reception room. Pei Yuming sat beside his father, looking at the stubborn set of the old man’s profile. A sudden sense of helplessness rose in his chest. Only then did he realize that he seemed to have never really tried to get close to or understand this whole family of his.
“Dad…” Pei Yuming had just opened his mouth when Bai Xue and Su Jin, led by an officer, pushed the door open and came in.
“Oh my God, honey, how did you get beaten up like this?” Bai Xue cried out, making a fuss as she jogged to his side and carefully checked his injuries from every angle. “No, come on, I’m taking you to the hospital. What if there’s internal damage?”
Bai Xue’s worry was completely genuine. Listening to that familiar tone, Pei Yuming finally felt the bitterness spread through both his mouth and his heart.
If none of those things had happened, if they had not been murdered, then right now, he should have been lying in the soft bed in their bedroom, fast asleep. Maybe he would even wake up thirsty in the middle of the night and act spoiled, nudging Bai Xue awake to make him honey water.
Pei Yuming lowered his head and touched his nose, forcing down the sting in it. Only then did he say hoarsely, “I’m fine. They’re just superficial injuries.”
Su Jin came over as well, circling him and looking him over carefully. Then she patted Bai Xue on the back and comforted her. “He should be fine. Don’t worry too much.”
Bai Xue’s mouth trembled, tears brimming in her eyes. When she looked at Pei Yuming, her gaze was full of heartache.
That only made Pei Yuming feel worse.
He took Bai Xue’s hand and gently squeezed it a few times. “I’m really fine. Don’t be upset.”
The atmosphere on their side was far too sorrowful, so Lu Dong seized the chance to cut in. “Lao Pei and my wife are both professionals. Xiao Xue, you don’t need to worry. I already borrowed some spray for bruises and sprains from the officer. Once we spray it on him later, the swelling won’t look so bad.”
“Mm. Thank you,” Bai Xue said sincerely.
“So what exactly happened?” Su Jin sat down beside Lu Dong and looked him over closely. “You weren’t hurt, were you?”
Lu Dong shook his head lightly. “I’m fine. I arrived later and didn’t fight.”
Bai Xue glanced at Lu Dong, then turned back to ask Pei Yuming, “What’s going on? Why were they demanding money from Dad?”
Pei Yuming sighed, thinking, I want to know that too. Under everyone’s expectant gazes, he asked the question he had already asked many times before. “Dad, what exactly happened? How did you get mixed up with people like that?”
Pei Xianyu lowered his head, avoiding everyone’s eyes. He only rubbed his hands together and refused to say a single word.
Bai Xue looked at her husband in confusion, silently asking what was wrong with him.
Pei Yuming spread his hands helplessly. “He’s been like this ever since we got to the station. He won’t say anything. No, Dad, what is going on with you? Did those two threaten you, or what? Just tell me. We’re already in a police station. What are you still afraid of?”
Pei Xianyu merely kept rubbing his hands, not even lifting his head.
Pei Yuming stared at him. After thinking for a moment, he asked, “Did you give them the more than four hundred thousand yuan in your bank account too?”
The moment he said that, everyone turned to look at Pei Yuming. Bai Xue was shocked. “Honey, what did you just say?!”
Pei Xianyu, meanwhile, looked at his eldest son as if he were staring at an alien. He muttered, “You… how did you know?”
“It really was?” Pei Yuming had only said it offhand. He hadn’t expected to actually guess right. A tight, stifling ache rose in his chest. “Why? Why would you give all the money to those two pieces of trash? That was the money my mom saved up over her entire life!”
“I… I…” Pei Xianyu looked aggrieved too, his face utterly defeated. “I didn’t want to either!”
“Did those two threaten you?”
Pei Xianyu seemed like he wanted to nod, but in the end, he shook his head.
Pei Yuming couldn’t help frowning. He was seconds from losing his temper.
Lu Dong, who had been watching the father and son closely from the side, was the first to sense his anger. He quickly got up and came over to stop him. “Hey, Lao Pei, talk it out. From the look of it, Uncle must have his reasons. Let’s let him explain slowly.”
Pei Xianyu looked up and gave Lu Dong a grateful glance. Lu Dong seized the chance and immediately followed up. “Uncle, we’re all family here. Whatever trouble you’re in, just tell us. Is it about money, or is it about people? Either way, you have me and Yuming. You know what we’re capable of. No matter how big the problem is, we can help you solve it, as long as you speak up. Isn’t that right?”
It had to be said that when it came to reading people and the art of persuasion, Lu Dong was the real deal.
After Lu Dong painted such a rosy picture for him, Pei Xianyu’s eyes immediately filled with hope. He glanced at his eldest son sitting nearby, as if he would only be willing to speak after receiving his promise as well.
Lu Dong shot Pei Yuming a look across the table. With the tacit understanding built up over many years between them, Pei Yuming immediately understood and nodded in agreement.
“Yes. If there’s something going on, just tell us. Lu Dong and I will handle it for you. Even if we can’t do it ourselves, we’ll find someone who can. You know Lu Dong’s connections and abilities. If he says he can get it done, he definitely can.”
This polished exchange of mutual flattery completely broke through Pei Xianyu’s defenses. At last, he placed his hands on the tabletop, swept his gaze around everyone in the room, and slowly began to speak.
While he was explaining everything to the family here, at the same time, those two bumbling sidekicks were also sobbing as they confessed everything to the police.
Putting both sides together, the police pieced together the full version of events.
In short, Old Comrade Pei Xianyu, empty and lonely in his daily life, had gone looking for someone to confide in. In the process, he fell into a romance scam run by one woman and two men, and was swindled out of both his money and his feelings.
However, Pei Xianyu only truly realized it was a scam when the police told him the truth. Before that, he had always believed that the beautiful woman named Wang Cuihua really had been taken away because her ex-husband owed gambling debts. To get the people holding her to release her as soon as possible, he had transferred 430,000 yuan to those two men over multiple payments. Just now, he had even given them another 40,000 yuan in cash.
A full 470,000 yuan. Pei Yuming looked at his father in bitter anguish. “My mom scrimped and saved her whole life, and in the end you were generous enough to spend it all on another woman! What exactly did she do to you? Usually you can’t even bear to buy a three-yuan block of tofu, but you can transfer hundreds of thousands to someone else. I really can’t understand it. I really can’t!”
Pei Yuming was getting emotional. Seeing him like this, the officer who had come to inform them of the truth quickly helped explain, “Comrade, please don’t get worked up yet. Although the three of them did spend part of the money, thanks to the efforts of our colleagues in the technical department, we ultimately recovered 380,000 yuan. Including the 40,000 yuan in cash, we’ve now recovered a total of 420,000 yuan. As for the remaining 50,000, you can also seek compensation from the parties involved through legal action. In my view, there’s still hope that the full amount can be recovered.”