Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
Her eyelashes lowered, giving her an especially meek look.
In the past, this was the trick that fooled me most.
Now Pei Xun recognized it too.
“Go on,” he said.
Jiang Chuyue looked up. Her eyes were red.
“Brother Pei, you said you wanted to teach her a lesson.”
“You said it had to be so deep she’d never forget it.”
“I only wanted to make it seem a little more real.”
“Don’t you see? If it were only the Su family’s debt, Sister Ranning wouldn’t be afraid.”
“It had to happen to the whole family.”
“The people she cared about most had to suffer.”
“Only then would she break off the engagement.”
As she said this, her voice was calm and gentle.
So in her eyes, I was just a prop that had to be made “real enough.”
On the steps outside, a police officer finished a call and walked in.
“We caught them.”
“All three men were staying at a hotel on the east side of town. None of them got away.”
“They thought this was just a debt. They were waiting for the boss to come back and pay them.”
“One of their phones had a copy of a bank statement.”
“The money came in three days ago.”
“The transaction note had two words.”
The officer paused.
“Profit share.”
Pei Xun closed his eyes.
“What does ‘profit share’ mean?”
The officer glanced at Jiang Chuyue.
“The three men said Miss Jiang agreed to split it with them.”
“They would get thirty percent.”
“She would get the remaining seventy.”
Jiang Chuyue jerked her head up.
“I didn’t!”
“I only did it because I was afraid they wouldn’t take the job seriously!”
Pei Xun did not look at her.
He turned to my father.
Father clung to the doorframe and slowly stood up.
His voice was as rough as sandpaper.
“Let’s not talk about that yet.”
“Bring the bodies back first. I’ll take care of the funeral arrangements.”
“Let’s keep this quiet for now.”
“Don’t open a case.”
The officer looked at him.
“Mr. Su.”
“Three people are dead.”
“This is no longer a private family matter.”
My father’s face turned white.
“Could you please not open a case just yet?”
The officer shook his head.
“There are three bodies at the scene: one person slit her own throat, one overdosed, and one fell from a height and miscarried.”
“We already have the forensic report.”
“We’ll handle it as a homicide case.”
My brother suddenly dropped to his knees.
“Then I’ll turn them in.”
“I’ll hand over the creditors.”
“I’ll pay compensation. Whatever it takes.”
“Can you please not open a case?”
As he spoke, he was still holding my sister’s coat.
A dried smear of blood was on the sleeve.
The officer did not answer.
Pei Xun had been standing there the whole time.
He walked up to Jiang Chuyue.
She thought he was going to reach out to help her.
She extended her hand.
Pei Xun did not take it.
“Report every payment, every thing you said, and every phone call.”
Jiang Chuyue’s face gradually lost all color.
“Brother Pei…”
“Don’t call me that.”
Pei Xun turned away.
He was still clutching the pregnancy test result.
“If Ranning could come back to life, I’d do anything.”
“But she can’t.”
“So I can only make you pay with your life.”
Just as he finished speaking, footsteps sounded behind him.
A police officer came over to stand beside him.
“Mr. Pei.”
“We need you to come with us too.”
Pei Xun froze. “Me?”
“You signed off on the transfer of thirty million.”
“Miss Jiang found those creditors at your direction.”
“You were involved in instigating unlawful detention.”
The officer’s voice was calm.
He showed them a document.
It listed four names:
Jiang Chuyue.
Su Cheng.
Su Shaoze.
Pei Xun.
Chapter 7
The next day, the news was on the front page of every financial newspaper.
“The Su Group’s failed gamble” had been a lie.
“The hundreds of billions in debt” had been a lie.
“The chairman jumping into the river” had been a lie too.
Three people had died in the main Su residence.
Their deaths were the result of a performance that had gone too far to stop.
The Su Group’s stock hit its daily limit down as soon as the market opened.
Not because it had gone bankrupt.
But because the chairman had locked his wife and two daughters in the house and left three outsiders to keep watch over them for half a month.
The board held an emergency meeting that afternoon.
Father was stripped of every position.
The official statement was phrased very politely:
“Unable to perform his duties for personal reasons.”
The Pei family’s response was even more decisive.
Pei Xun was an only son and the designated successor to the group.
Three days after the scandal broke, the Pei family issued a statement.
It contained only one sentence:
“Mr. Pei Xun will no longer hold any position in the group as of today for personal reasons.”
The online comments were even more lively than the news.
For the first two days, everyone cursed the three creditors.
On the third day, public opinion shifted.
People dug up old photos of our family.
Some said the eldest daughter of the Su family had been spoiled since childhood, was a pampered princess, and couldn’t endure the slightest hardship.
Some said she had only been locked up for half a month. Was that really enough to make her do this?
Some said with a personality like hers, this was bound to happen sooner or later.
I read the comments and suddenly remembered the day Mother had cut her own throat.
The creditor had said the same thing.