"Don't say I didn't warn you. President Zhang is not some scumbag or lowlife you meet on the street. You'd better keep your dirty tricks to yourself around him, or you won't even need the loan sharks to finish you off—you'll be completely ruined! A figure like him could crush you as easily as an ant. I advise you to know your place!"
Swindler, con artist—that was how Chen Yinuo perceived her "husband."
Nor did she believe for a second that Ye Chen could ever shed his deeply ingrained flaws.
And now, seeing him here at Yuntian Network, acting as if he were on friendly, familiar terms with Zhang Jingshan, she naturally assumed he was trying to pull his usual scams on Zhang Jingshan.
Otherwise, how could a social parasite like him ever catch the eye of someone like Zhang Jingshan?
"Yinuo, are you worried about me?" Ye Chen asked, completely oblivious to whether someone was praising him or cursing him, as he eagerly stepped closer with a pleased expression.
Little did he expect Chen Yinuo to snap at him fiercely, "Get away from me!"
Then she let out a cold, bitter laugh. "Worried about you? You're overthinking it. I just don't want you getting into any accidents before our divorce goes through—I don't want to be stuck with the marital status of a widow! Once the divorce is finalized, you can drop dead for all I care, and it will have nothing to do with me!"
If this had happened in the past, at words like these from Chen Yinuo, Ye Chen might well have flown into a rage and raised a hand against her.
But now, he felt nothing but overwhelming guilt.
Reborn into this life, he knew that Chen Yinuo was all bark and bite; her harshness stemmed entirely from the fact that his past bastardly behavior had hurt her far too deeply!
Thinking of how, in his past life, Chen Yinuo had gone so far as to sacrifice her own happiness and future—borrowing money from that bald middle-aged man just to pay off his debts and save him from the loan sharks—a fresh wave of heartbreak gripped Ye Chen's chest.
Right at that moment, his phone rang sharply.
"Hello, who is this?" Chen Yinuo answered.
"Is this Ms. Chen Yinuo?" a voice came from the other end.
"Yes, that's me. Who are you?" A vague sense of unease gripped Chen Yinuo's heart.
The voice on the other end continued, "Hello, Ms. Chen. We're calling from the Yanjiang Police Station. Your younger brother, Chen Yihao, is currently detained here for fighting and injuring someone. Since the victim's family is also at the station right now, you'd better come over immediately to see if a settlement can be reached. If we can't negotiate a settlement, we'll have to initiate formal legal proceedings!"
What?
Yihao fought and injured someone?
Detained at the police station?
In an instant, the news struck Chen Yinuo like a bolt from the blue!
Her face turned violently pale, and her slender body instantly went weak!
If Chen Yihao actually ended up with a criminal record, what kind of life would he have left?
"Ms. Chen, are you still there?" the voice on the phone asked again.
"I'm here, I'm here! I'm coming, I'm coming right now!"
Chen Yinuo answered in a panic, her voice trembling and choked with tears, on the verge of breakdown.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing Chen Yinuo put down her phone in a panic, Ye Chen asked anxiously.
"Yihao beat someone up and is locked up at the police station!" Chen Yinuo blurted out as a reflex.
The moment the words left her mouth, she instantly regretted them.
Why was she telling this scumbag any of this?
"It's none of your business! As long as you stay away from me and stop bothering me, I'll thank my lucky stars!"
With that parting shot, Chen Yinuo ran frantically to the roadside and flagged down a taxi.
Seeing this, Ye Chen originally wanted to go with her.
But after a moment's thought, he abandoned the idea of sharing a cab with Chen Yinuo, and instead hurried to hail another taxi.
"Follow that taxi ahead, license plate 2628, please!"
As for Chen Yihao, this brother-in-law of his, Ye Chen knew the young man hated him enough to skin him alive, grind his bones to powder, and burn him at the stake.
In his past life, after the tragedy befell Yinuo and Youyou, Chen Yihao had cried and roared like a madman, grabbing a knife to come kill him!
If someone hadn't stopped him that day, he, resigned to his fate, probably would have been hacked to death by Chen Yihao on the spot!
Yet, although Chen Yihao had always held a hostile and bitter hatred toward him, and although he and Chen Yihao had been at each other's throats like fire and water in the early days of his past life, in this second chance at life, all that hostility inside him had completely vanished.
Because Chen Yihao's hatred toward him was entirely justified, rooted in the torment he had inflicted upon his older sister. Moreover, Chen Yihao's spoiling and doting on his daughter, Ye Youyou, had never changed.
For these two reasons alone, he had no grounds whatsoever to resent Chen Yihao; all that remained was a profound sense of indebtedness.
Yanjiang Police Station.
They arrived very quickly.
After getting out of the cab, Chen Yinuo saw that Ye Chen had followed her here, but she had no energy to spare for that now.
"Excuse me, officer! I am Chen Yihao's older sister, Chen Yinuo. Where is Yihao right now? Can I see him?"
Catching hold of a police officer, Chen Yinuo asked in a panicked, trembling voice.
"Ms. Chen, please calm down first! Chen Yihao is in the detention cell right now. According to standard procedure, you cannot see him at this stage. However, you can negotiate a settlement with the victim's family right now. If a settlement can be reached, Chen Yihao can be released immediately; if not, we'll have to proceed with the case," the officer said.
"Okay, okay, okay! We'll negotiate! Where is the negotiation? Where is the victim's family right now?" Chen Yinuo's voice was laced with tears.
"In the mediation room. Follow me," the officer said, taking the lead.
At that moment, Ye Chen, who was preparing to follow, was stopped by another officer.
Before the officer could even speak, Ye Chen spoke up first: "I'm her husband. Chen Yihao is my brother-in-law."
Burning with anxiety, Chen Yinuo no longer had the bandwidth to care about that.
Seeing that Chen Yinuo raised no objection, the officer nodded and allowed Ye Chen to follow them.
Outside the mediation room:
"The victim's family is right inside. Work it out amongst yourselves!"
At the officer's words, Chen Yinuo nodded frantically and hurried inside, closely followed by Ye Chen, whom she still didn't have the mental capacity to deal with.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I am Chen Yihao's sister, Chen Yinuo. It was my brother's ignorance that led him to hurt someone. I'm begging you to show mercy and let my brother off this once. Please!"
As soon as she stepped through the door, Chen Yinuo immediately choked up, tears in her eyes as she bowed deeply.
The sight made Ye Chen's heart ache fiercely from behind her.
"Sorry? If apologies were any use, what would we need the police for? Show mercy and let your brother off the hook? Hah, talk is cheap! Why didn't you tell your brother to show mercy when he was smashing my brother's head open? My brother had to get seven stitches on his head—a full seven stitches!"
There were three people on the other side: a middle-aged couple and an aggressive young man with dyed gray streaks in his hair.
The middle-aged couple kept quiet, but as the dyed-hair youth finished speaking, he used his fingers to make the number seven with an expression of furious outrage, shouting at the top of his lungs.
Upon hearing that Chen Yihao had cracked the other person's head open and needed a full seven stitches, Chen Yinuo felt her legs turn to jelly once again.
Choking back sobs, she pleaded, "It's my fault as his older sister for failing to discipline him properly. I'll make him come and apologize in person later, and make amends to your family. I'm begging you, please show mercy and let him go just this once!"
"Apologize and make amends? He beat my brother until his head was bleeding, and a few words of apology are supposed to make it all better? How about I smash your head open with a brick and then apologize to you?" the dyed-hair youth sneered relentlessly.
Without missing a beat, Chen Yinuo took him literally and asked, "If you do that, will you let my brother go?"
The dyed-hair youth was instantly choked up, momentarily speechless.
After a stunned pause, he blurted out, "We're law-abiding citizens! We don't do things like that!"
"Alright, cut the crap. So-called settlements always come down to money. Name your price!"
Unable to watch any longer, Ye Chen spoke up.
He had seen this kind of farce far too many times before.
Still, since Chen Yihao was the one who had struck first, they had to take the hit, even knowing they were being extorted.
"Ye Chen, this has nothing to do with you! Get lost, get out of here right now!"
Hearing Ye Chen jump in and meddle, Chen Yinuo panicked instantly.
Was she stupid? Did she not know the other side just wanted money?
But trapped in her current destitute situation, where on earth was she supposed to find money?
Her parents might still have two or three hundred thousand saved up, but that was strictly for Chen Yihao's future wedding apartment. Short of absolute desperation, she wouldn't let her parents find out about this!
That was precisely why she was lowering herself to beg these people for mercy.
Yet Ye Chen had just blurted those words out of nowhere—how could she not panic?
"Who the hell are you? Do you even have a right to speak here?" the dyed-hair youth demanded, unsure of the relationship between the two.
"I'm Chen Yihao's brother-in-law. Do I have a right to speak?" Ye Chen replied calmly.
He then turned to look at Chen Yinuo. "Yinuo, do you really think a few low-headed pleas are going to make them let Yihao go?"
Faced with Ye Chen's question, Chen Yinuo choked, robbed of speech.
Could it?
Impossible!
She was just hoping against hope, indulging in a fantasy!
How could she not know that these so-called settlements were just bought with cash?
Yet after taking Ye Youyou and moving out to rent a cheap place, she couldn't even scrape together two hundred yuan!
"You're that punk's brother-in-law? Good, that makes it easier. You seem like a sensible guy. Unconditional settlement is out of the question—I'm not going to beat around the bush or sugarcoat it. If you want us to drop the charges, fine: cough up one hundred thousand yuan! Not a penny less, or that punk gets a criminal record! Compared to a criminal record, one hundred thousand is cheap. You're lucky you ran into our family; anyone else would bleed you dry!"
The dyed-hair young man struck a posture that brooked no compromise.
At the mention of the sum of one hundred thousand yuan, Chen Yinuo almost collapsed to the floor!
One hundred thousand.
To her right now, that was an astronomical figure!
If it were twenty or thirty thousand, she might have been able to call some friends, borrowing two or three thousand from each, and somehow scrape it together.
But one hundred thousand? Who could she borrow that from? Who would even be willing?
"One hundred thousand, is it? Fine, you've got it!"
Before Chen Yinuo could beg the other side to lower the price, Ye Chen decisively agreed.
With that, he tipped a brown paper bag upside down onto the table.
Bundles of ten thousand yuan each—he picked up ten stacks and piled them together.
"Here is one hundred thousand. I expect you to withdraw the charges immediately and drop all pursuit against Chen Yihao!" Ye Chen said, looking straight at them.
At the sight of the cash, the eyes of the middle-aged couple turned green.
As for the dyed-hair young man, his expression twisted into a strange mix of complexity.
He instantly regretted not asking for more!
"I—I suddenly realized ten thousand—err, one hundred thousand isn't enough! My brother's medical expenses, emotional..."
Before he could finish, Ye Chen cut him off.
"This place has audio and video surveillance. Keep talking like that, and this crosses into extortion. At that point, it won't be a matter of whether you're pressing charges against Chen Yihao; it'll be us pressing charges against you! Take my advice: one hundred thousand is plenty. Quit while you're ahead! Otherwise, you won't get a single red cent. Chen Yihao's case isn't that severe, or the police wouldn't have suggested a settlement in the first place!"
"Under these circumstances, even if you insist on pushing the case, he'd at worst serve a short stint and walk right back out with a record, leaving you guys with absolutely nothing to show for it. So, is one hundred thousand enough now? Or do you still want to tack on nutritional fees, emotional distress fees, and lost-wage compensation?"
Ye Chen's words instantly rattled the middle-aged couple.
How could they let a duck that was already in their pot fly away?
"One hundred thousand is enough, one hundred thousand is fine!"
The middle-aged man, with skin tanned dark by the sun and dressed like a blue-collar laborer, anxiously blurted out.
As he spoke, he eagerly reached out and scooped the hundred thousand yuan pile into his own arms.
"What about you, big brother? Any objections?" Ye Chen asked casually, looking at the dyed-hair youth.
Clearly intimidated by Ye Chen, the young man had lost all his previous arrogance.
"Since my old man says it's fine, then it's fine!"
Beside them, Chen Yinuo's mind had gone completely blank.
She hadn't even recovered her wits by the time that family packed up and left.
Where on earth did that bastard get so much money?
Wait—he had been empty-handed when they went to Yuntian Network, and that brown paper bag only appeared after he came out!
Could this money have been given to him by President Zhang Jingshan?
But how was that possible? Why would Zhang Jingshan ever give him money? And in an amount like one hundred thousand?
Could he have borrowed it from Zhang Jingshan? No, that couldn't be right either. A gambling scumbag like Ye Chen couldn't even borrow a hundred yuan outside, let alone hundreds of thousands from Zhang Jingshan!
The next moment, Chen Yinuo's mind leaped to plots from movies and television shows: had Ye Chen done some shady, unspeakable dirty work for Zhang Jingshan, and was this blood money paid out to him?
Or had that bastard Ye Chen swindled it out of Zhang Jingshan through some scam?
As if reading her thoughts, Ye Chen smiled faintly.
"Stop racking your brain over it. The money's origin isn't dirty, nor did I scam it out of Zhang Jingshan. This morning at the Antique City, I picked up a valuable piece for a song. I happened to run into President Zhang, and he bought it off me for three hundred thousand. After the deal, he realized he'd forgotten his phone and bank cards, so he asked me to come to his company to pick up the cash. I never expected to run into you at his company—I really wasn't following you!"
"Picked up a piece for a song? You, finding a three-hundred-thousand-yuan treasure in the Antique City?"
Regaining a shred of her composure, Chen Yinuo curled her lip in utter disbelief.
"You take enough tumbles in life, the wheel of fortune is bound to turn eventually," Ye Chen replied.
"True to form, still harboring those gambling, get-rich-quick vices!"
Chen Yinuo sneered. "I just hope what you're saying is true, and that you aren't pulling your sleazy cons on someone like Zhang Jingshan. Otherwise, you won't even know how you died!"
Without giving Ye Chen a chance to reply, she abruptly pivoted the conversation.
"Since you got a sum of money like that from Zhang Jingshan, you should be using it to pay off the loan sharks instead of waiting to get hacked to pieces!"
"Didn't Yihao get into trouble? The top priority was getting him out of this mess. As for the loan sharks, don't worry, I'll handle them for sure!" Ye Chen said.
At that moment, an officer walked in.
"Chen Yihao has been released. You two go get him."
"Oh, right! Thank you, officer, thank you!"
Disregarding whatever else Ye Chen had to say, Chen Yinuo hurried away.
"Sis, why are you here?"
As soon as Chen Yihao walked out of the detention cell and saw Chen Yinuo, a look of profound astonishment crossed his face.
"How have you still got the nerve to ask? Do you have any idea what kind of mess you've gotten yourself into? Who told you to beat someone up? Don't you have any self-awareness of what you're capable of? If you actually ended up with a criminal record, what would happen to your future? If people found out you had a record, would Xiaoqian even stay with you?"
Chen Yinuo broke down, crying tears of bitter frustration.
Yet this kind of scolding was simply another form of expressing deep sibling love.
"Let her leave if she wants, let her marry whoever she wants!" Chen Yihao stubbornly shot back like a reckless hooligan.
"You—are you trying to drive me to an early grave? Even if you won't think about your own future, what about Mom and Dad? If they found out you got locked up and ended up with a criminal record, could they possibly survive the blow?" Chen Yinuo berated him again.
Chen Yihao pursed his lips and fell silent.
But Chen Yinuo had no intention of letting it drop there.
"Tell me, why did you hit someone? How many times have I told you to think three times before acting, to stay calm? Where does one word of it ever go in one of your ears?"
"That piece of trash humiliated us! He said he knew plenty of big bosses and could pull strings to set you up as someone's mistress or side chick! If people hadn't held me back at the end, I wouldn't have just cracked his head open—I would have killed him right on the spot!"
Driven by anger and desperation, Chen Yihao shouted with blazing emotion.
The moment the words left his mouth, however, he instantly regretted them.
Just as he anticipated, Chen Yinuo's eyes turned instantly red, tears welling up in a sudden mist.
It wasn't because she herself had been insulted.
It was because of her younger brother's fierce protection!
"Sis, I—"
Before he could finish his sentence, Chen Yihao caught sight of Ye Chen walking over.
His expression twisted instantly: rage, hostility, hatred!
If it weren't for this guy, how could his sister Yinuo's life have turned out like this?
Not to mention that this scumbag beat his sister black and blue with domestic violence every now and then.
Even though Chen Yinuo had never mentioned it to him, he knew—he knew everything!
"What the hell are you doing over here? Who asked you to come? I'll give you three seconds to vanish from my sight before I kill you!"
With that, Chen Yihao lunged forward like an enraged tiger, charging straight toward Ye Chen—completely disregarding the fact that they were still standing inside a police station.
It was the textbook picture of mortal enemies crossing paths with eyes blazing red!
"That's enough! Killing, killing, killing! Do you still think the mess you made isn't big enough? Do you really want to spend the rest of your life rotting in prison?"
Chen Yinuo rushed forward to block him, shouting in anguish.
"As long as I can kill this piece of trash and give you a chance at a fresh start, Sis, I'll gladly rot in prison for the rest of my life!" Chen Yihao panted heavily.
"I heard your sister say you got arrested for hurting someone, so I followed her over here. I'm just glad you're fine," Ye Chen said bitterly, showing no anger at Chen Yihao's hostility.
"My business has nothing to do with you! Save your fake, hypocritical sympathy. Get lost from my sight, get out!" Chen Yihao roared.
Then, as if remembering something, he turned to Chen Yinuo.
"Sis, you're still hanging out with this trash? You actually told this scumbag that I got arrested?"
Chen Yinuo shook her head. "We happened to run into each other. The police station called me right then to say you were picked up, and when he asked, it just slipped out."
At that, Chen Yinuo gritted her teeth. "Besides, if it weren't for him, you wouldn't have been released just now."
"What? Are you saying he saved me? No way!" Chen Yihao sneered.
"The victim's family demanded one hundred thousand yuan to settle, otherwise they wouldn't drop the charges. That one hundred thousand yuan—he's the one who paid it!"
No matter how reluctant she was to admit it, Chen Yinuo couldn't erase Ye Chen's contribution in this matter.
"The hell you say? This scumbag coughed up one hundred thousand yuan for a settlement? Sis, are you joking with me?"
You couldn't blame Chen Yihao for not believing it.
Could a gambling loser and scumbag like Ye Chen possibly pull out one hundred thousand yuan?
And even if he could scrape up cash, wouldn't he run straight to a gambling den with it? Why would he ever spend it on him, Chen Yihao?