BXBX NOVEL Chapter 213 - Two-Hundred and Thirteen: Confess
Old Zhang looked around; when he didn’t see Zhang Tao, he drunkenly muttered, “I’m telling you, it’s all… my wife’s fault. If—if she didn’t… didn’t beat the girl… beat her too hard… she wouldn’t have escaped, yeah? That wretched girl… so ungrateful! She—she ran away!”
Shi Nian stood up and threw the bottle of wine at Old Zhang. Old Zhang’s hands were tied, and he couldn’t catch it. Seeing the wine spill out, he anxiously cried out, “Hey! Hey! It’s spilling, it’s spilling! That’s good wine, you know!”
Shi Nian ignored the man and walked up to Old Zhao. “Do you have anything else to say?” he asked him. “Does your conscience hurt knowing you’re righteously protecting people responsible for such monstrosities?”
Old Zhao couldn’t speak as his face reddened, paled, then reddened again. Zhang Xian hurriedly stated, “That had nothing to do with us! It was my great-aunt who stole the child. She even said that she only succeeded because there was an insider in your family!”
Gu Bei’s gaze sharpened as Chen Yao immediately looked at him. “Who was it? Who helped her?!” he questioned Zhang Xian.
Zhang Xian couldn’t answer that, thinking, ‘How would I know?
Seeing that Zhang Xian wasn’t saying anything, Gu Bei said, “Fine. I can spare your family if you tell me who the insider is!”
“The insider? How—how would I know?” Zhang Xian mumbled.
Gu Bei looked at Zhang Tao, who yelled, “We really don’t know! Only my husband’s elder sister knows. We had nothing to do with it, nothing at all! Don’t listen to that drunkard; I didn’t abuse her!”
Zhang Tao didn’t know what to do even if she had a million tricks up her sleeve. She had heard from her sister-in-law that Xiao He’s family was wealthy, but she didn’t know the family was so powerful. If she had known, she would’ve sent the child back. Who cared if that offended her sister-in-law? That woman had cut off all contact with her after Zhang Tao had taken Xiao He in, anyway.
Suddenly, everyone could hear police sirens coming from outside. The village chief ran like the wind over to them before the police could show up, asking, “What’s this? What happened? What’s going on?”
Old Zhao stepped forward and whispered something to him. The village chief stared at Gu Bei and the others in bewilderment and then walked up to the one who seemed the easiest to talk to in their group—Ye Kun. The village chief inquired, “Young man, could there be a misunderstanding here? I’m the village chief.”
Ye Kun looked at him and smiled. “You’re the village chief? What took you so long? Did you only come because you heard the sirens?”
The village chief wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Did Zhang Xian cause trouble outside?” he asked. “That child has been unruly since he was a kid, always out of line. What kind of trouble has he caused this time? How about you guys just beat him up and let him go?”
Ye Kun smiled. “Chief, did you know this family used to abduct and sell people?”
The village chief’s expression froze. Ye Kun smilingly continued, “We’re here today to demand an explanation.”
The village chief’s expression changed, and his tone became even meeker as he said, “I think there must be a misunderstanding here. The Zhang family used to have an adopted girl, but that was decades ago. That girl had long married and moved elsewhere. She’s no longer here.”
As expected of the village chief, he was skilled in cunning. Even the Zhang family members couldn’t help but be stunned and thought, ‘ Why didn’t we think of that?
The sirens stopped; the police had arrived. The villagers at the entrance all made way for them. The police officer who seemed to be in charge didn’t even look at the villagers and walked straight towards Gu Bei and the others.
‘Mr. Gu, Mr. Shi, Mr. Ye, I’m sorry we’re late,” the officer apologized as he shook hands with everyone in Gu Bei’s group.
Ye Kun chuckled, “No, you came at just the right time. We were wondering how we should resolve this. We were afraid that if we beat these guys up and injured them, it would be a slap to the local authorities’ face, but if we didn’t do anything, people would think we’re easy to bully.”
The police officer felt very embarrassed when he heard the hidden jab in Ye Kun’s words and could only continue to say, “Why don’t we all move to the village committee’s office? The mayor and the province governor will be here soon. It’s more convenient to discuss things there.”
Gu Bei very calmly acquiesced, “Very well. Lead the way.” He turned around and helped his wife over as Chen Yao held the jade pendant in her hand, her face full of grief and anger.
Seeing the pendant, Zhang Xian anxiously shouted, “Hey, that belongs to our family! That’s ours!”
Chen Yao turned around and coldly replied, “Your family’s?! Know your place before you speak! Your entire county can’t afford this jade pendant, let alone your family!”
As the saying goes, ‘ The wealthy can be willful!’ When dealing with ignorant people, perhaps only money could let them know the severity of the situation..