“Mr. Hao, my name is Lawyer Liu. I was hired by Old Mr. Hao to represent you.”
Lawyer Liu sat across from Hao Yiming, smiling slightly, giving off a very approachable vibe.
Hao Yiming, feeling slightly calmer, asked in surprise, “Why is it you? Where’s Lawyer Zhang?”
Lawyer Liu’s smile remained unchanged as he gently explained, “Second Young Master’s business ran into some issues, so Lawyer Zhang is handling that.Old Mr. Hao entrusted your case to me.”
This revelation hit Hao Yiming like a punch.
His mother only gave birth to him. Where did this “Second Young Master” come from?
It was a bastard child!
His father was choosing to save a bastard over him?
This realization ignited a burning rage in Hao Yiming’s heart, but soon, that fire was doused as if someone had poured cold water over it.
Suddenly, he realized something.
His father had given up on him.
Despite all his hard work over the years, despite growing Jiangyuan Group into such a big company, his father was still willing to abandon him.
“Mr. Hao?”
Lawyer Liu’s voice snapped Hao Yiming out of his thoughts. He watched as Lawyer Liu pulled out a few documents from his briefcase. “This is a voluntary property forfeiture agreement.Old Mr. Hao wishes for you to sign it.”
Hao Yiming glared at the thin stack of papers, his expression unreadable.
The dim lighting in the interrogation room cast a faint shadow over his face.
“So, you’re telling me my father wants me to sign this? He’s leaving everything to that bastard?”
Even though Hao Yiming’s voice was hoarse and his eyes bloodshot, Lawyer Liu remained unfazed. His smile was stiff and mechanical. “Please sign the document.”
Hao Yiming’s nerves were stretched to the breaking point, and hearing Lawyer Liu’s words only fueled his anger. He grabbed the agreement off the table and tore it into pieces. “I’m not signing.”
Yet Lawyer Liu seemed to have expected this. He wasn’t the least bit surprised. “Very well. Either way, your guilt is already established. You’re facing either the death penalty or life imprisonment. Signing it won’t make much of a difference.”
“Then…” Why did they still want him to sign?
Carrying his briefcase, Lawyer Liu stood up. “I was only here to deliverOld Mr. Hao’s message. His exact words were: ‘The Hao family can have a son who is sentenced to death, but not one who is a death-row heir.’ It seems Mr. Hao has understood that, so I’ll be leaving now. No need to overstay my welcome.”
With that, Lawyer Liu nodded to the police officers standing nearby and turned to leave.
But just as he was about to open the door, Hao Yiming called out to him.
“Wait a minute.”
Lawyer Liu turned around, still wearing that professional smile. “What is it?”
Hao Yiming stared at him for a moment before suddenly asking, “Have I seen you somewhere before? Why do you look so familiar?”
The smile that had been plastered on Lawyer Liu’s face from the beginning slowly faded. After a brief pause, he finally answered, “Mr. Hao, it seems you’ve forgotten. We were schoolmates.”
“Schoolmates?”
Seeing Hao Yiming’s confusion, Lawyer Liu straightened his posture and said, “It’s understandable that someone of Mr. Hao’s status wouldn’t remember a nobody like me. My name is Liu Shuo. I was in the class next to yours in high school.”
Hao Yiming’s puzzlement remained.
Liu Shuo, noticing this, decided to show a bit of mercy. “I was also one of Ding Jing’s admirers.”
Ding… Ding Jing?!
Hao Yiming’s eyes widened in shock, and the wrinkles on his forehead became exaggerated.
Satisfied with the reaction he saw, Lawyer Liu nodded at Hao Yiming before finally leaving the interrogation room, feeling content.
Although his memories of Ding Jing were now faint, being able to do something for a girl he once liked gave him a sense of closure.
Zou Shuyang and Captain He were standing outside the interrogation room. Zou Shuyang was still frowning, lost in thought.
Lawyer Liu approached them and asked, “Could I visit Shao Heng as well?Old Mr. Hao has some words he wanted me to pass on to him.”
Naturally, this was allowed, and Captain He swiftly escorted him to the adjacent interrogation room.
Within ten minutes, Lawyer Liu emerged and politely bid farewell to Zou Shuyang and Captain He. He then walked out of the police station, opened an umbrella, and disappeared into the rain.
Before getting into his car, he turned back to glance at the police emblem hanging prominently above the station’s entrance.
The net of justice is vast, and no one can escape it.
At least this once, he had played the role of a hero.
Not long after Lawyer Liu left, Captain He approached Zou Shuyang with a strange expression on his face. “Shao Heng confessed.”
“Wasn’t that inevitable?” Zou Shuyang asked, puzzled. “Why do you look so surprised?”
“Do you know what that lawyer said to him?”
Zou Shuyang looked up. “What?”
“He just said one sentence: ‘Your son doesn’t need a death-row father.’”
Zou Shuyang raised an eyebrow. “Hitting him where it hurts, huh? That got Shao Heng right where it counts.”
Captain He scoffed. “Forging an identity is illegal, you know.”
Zou Shuyang chuckled. “But if you pay someone to willingly take the fall, that’s not illegal, right?”
Captain He’s eyes widened, as if he couldn’t believe that such a tactic was even possible.
——
Jian Mengyan had just finished a video Q&A session with her students when she received a call from Yin Zhuo.
The sound of heavy rain and the rushing waters of the Yangtze River could be heard on Yin Zhuo’s end.
“Let me guess, you’re near the Jiangzhou Bridge right now?”
Yin Zhuo’s voice came through with a hint of a smile. “Yes, do you want to join me? After all, today is a special day.”
Jian Mengyan, feeling particularly cheerful, glanced out the window at the downpour that mirrored the one from ten years ago. She agreed happily, “Sure.”
The housekeeper was in the living room, bent over, wiping the dust under the sofa. When she saw Jian Mengyan come out, she quickly got up. “Miss Jian, are you going out? It’s pouring outside…”
Jian Mengyan pointed at the robot vacuum cleaner in the corner. “Use that instead. Crawling on the floor must be tiring. I’m going out for a bit. I’ll be back in the evening, so no need to save dinner for me.”
The housekeeper made a sound of acknowledgment and watched as Jian Mengyan left.
——
Zou Shuyang and Captain He sat across from Hao Yiming, observing him with calm interest.
By now, Hao Yiming no longer looked anything like his former confident self.
He slumped dejectedly in his chair, his stubble seemingly having grown out in an instant, and his collar was crumpled and disheveled.
“So, you’re saying Shao Heng betrayed me too?”
Even now, Hao Yiming couldn’t believe that Shao Heng would actually turn on him.
When Zou Shuyang nodded regretfully, Hao Yiming let out a low, self-mocking laugh.
Alone. He truly had become completely alone.
His family refused to help him, and Shao Heng had turned traitor. The police had solid evidence against him. He had really reached a dead end.
“Hao Yiming, it’s in your best interest to tell the truth and actively confess your crimes. We can help you get a reduced sentence.”
Hao Yiming, who had read the Criminal Law thoroughly after his first murder, chuckled coldly. “Reduced sentence? Reduced to what? From the death penalty to life imprisonment?”
Realizing he had nothing left to lose, Hao Yiming stopped holding back. He lowered his head, shaking with laughter.
“What’s so funny?” Captain He asked.
Hao Yiming laughed for a while longer before finally calming down. “Oh, nothing. I just didn’t expect that while I thought I was the mantis stalking the cicada, there was actually a yellow bird waiting behind me.”
“You asked me earlier why I hired someone like Brother Long, whom I barely knew, to deal with Lin Shaohuai. I can tell you now.”
Hao Yiming rubbed his chin. “I’m not sure either.”
Zou Shuyang repeated, “You’re not sure?”
Hao Yiming shrugged, seemingly carefree. “Yeah, I’m not sure.”
“Last night, I was really stressed. I kept thinking, ‘Lin Shaohuai didn’t die, and I’m not at ease. If he wakes up, he’ll definitely expose me. I need to get rid of him.’ But Shao Heng had already been arrested, and I didn’t have anyone else I could trust. It was driving me crazy. So I had a few drinks, and then suddenly, there was this voice in my ear, telling me about this guy named Brother Long. It said if I paid him enough money, he could do whatever I needed.”
“At the time, I thought, ‘Great! Money? I have plenty of that.’”
Zou Shuyang asked, “So, you contacted Brother Long?”
Hao Yiming nodded. “Yeah, but everything’s fuzzy. When I try to recall it now, I even wonder if it really happened to me.”
“Just now, I finally realized something.” Hao Yiming suddenly leaned forward, most of his body sprawled over the table. “I must have been drugged. Someone manipulated me into doing all of this.”
After saying this, Hao Yiming carefully observed Zou Shuyang and Captain He’s expressions, only to find that both of them… were surprisingly calm.
It was as if they had known all along that someone had been pulling the strings from behind.
Hao Yiming had a sinking feeling. “You guys knew this from the beginning?”
Seeing Hao Yiming’s crazed state, Zou Shuyang spread his hands, his puppy-like eyes full of innocence. “Did you know that when we first started investigating, it wasn’t because of Shen Tinglan’s murder or Ding Jing’s disappearance?”
Hao Yiming was stunned. “Then what was it?”
Zou Shuyang replied, “Do you remember Shen Jun and Cheng Hao?”
How could Hao Yiming forget?
Those were the people he had hired back then to kill Shen Tinglan.
Originally, he thought it would be a one-time deal: pay them to do the job, and that would be the end of it.
But to his surprise, those people kept coming back after they were released from the juvenile detention center. It was as if they had latched onto him. Whenever they ran out of money, they would come to him, refusing to leave without extorting a hefty sum.
Every time, they pushed just far enough, leaving Hao Yiming thinking that killing them over such small amounts wasn’t worth it.
Later, when he heard that those people had gradually died off for various reasons, Hao Yiming had been relieved for a while.
“You started investigating Shen Jun and Cheng Hao’s deaths first?” Hao Yiming exclaimed in shock. “They weren’t suicides?”
Zou Shuyang was almost impressed by Hao Yiming’s naivety. He knew enough to clean up his tracks and keep himself distanced from those events.
But as for being smart…
Leaving loose ends and genuinely believing that Cheng Hao and Shen Jun had committed suicide?
“Shen Jun had just gotten a million yuan from you. Why would he kill himself?”
Hao Yiming muttered under his breath, “Only a million…”
It was clear he truly didn’t think that amount was significant.
Hao Yiming abruptly looked up. “So Shen Jun and Cheng Hao were murdered? And those other people before them were killed too?”
Zou Shuyang raised an eyebrow. “Yes. Following the killer’s trail, we found Shen Tinglan and Ding Jing, then Zhong Langming, and finally, we got to you and Lin Shaohuai.”
Someone was avenging Ding Jing and Shen Tinglan.
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