Father Zhang took out a cigarette, lighted it, and continued, "I also considered going directly to her and giving her money. I can still afford to fork out a few hundreds of thousands of yuan, but my wife told me that this trick wouldn't work. This type of girls who haven’t suffered don’t understand the concept of money and can’t be bribed. If she told Jinlei about it, he would know that we were doing things on the sly. So we had to figure out a perfect solution.”

"My wife understands my son more. His personality is quite straightforward. If we can stain the girl’s reputation, they’d break up by themselves and everything would be fine. My wife followed her and found out that she was close to a boy who was a gangster. They did suit each other quite well..."

"Yue Chao?"

"Yes, that was the name. My wife found Yue Chao and hoped that he would break up the relationship between the girl and our son, but Yue Chao said that he couldn't help us. This girl only liked my son and she was hopelessly in love. I really don’t understand these youngsters! But this Yue Chao had an idea. He knew that there was a place where high school girls would sell themselves. He’d trick and lure the girl there, call the police and get them all arrested. If my son knew that she did that kind of thing in private, he definitely wouldn’t want to see her again."

Lin Dongxue was shocked to hear this. Chen Shi thought that this plan may not have been devised by Yue Chao. Father Zhang could be just trying to dump the blame on him.

Chen Shi asked, "The plan sounds good, but how would your son find out?"

"That was easy to handle. I contacted my friends in the media. We’d take some pictures at the scene and publish them. Then he’d find out!" When he was saying this, Father Zhang raised his eyebrows, seemingly proud of how resourceful he was.

"How did the plan play out?"

"It went quite smoothly, but I wonder if Yue Chao’s head only holds shit in it. He ran out at a critical moment and snatched her away from the police. In the end, the photos weren't able to be taken... Aiya, young people at this age are so unreliable. We had agreed that if he helped me to do this, I’d give him 200,000 as a reward."

"Mr. Zhang, now the problem has circled back to the original point. Your framing scheme went bankrupt[1]. You may have taken extreme measures to get rid of her!"

"I didn’t! Heaven and earth conscience[2]. How could I have killed someone?!"

"For you, your son’s ability to go to a good university was more important than anything. What’s another way to describe an extremely strong desire? Motivation for criminal activities! You have criminal motives."

"Aiya..." Father Zhang sweated anxiously. "I was so angry that I hoped that she’d be killed by a car when she went out. No, no…” Father Zhang desperately slapped his own mouth. "No, no, it’s impossible for me to kill people. I did whole-heartedly think about my son’s future, but I would never kill someone! I was about to be promoted as a party cadre at that time. How could I risk my own future?"

"Then let me ask you something. Your plan failed and the lies were about to be exposed. What action did you take? You were so persistent in separating the lovebirds, you wouldn’t have stopped just like that."

"I... I gave Yue Chao 200,000 to let him fix the problem."

"How would he fix it?"

"Rape the girl, and then take some pictures to show my son. He agreed."

Lin Dongxue was stunned for a moment. He even thought of such desperate measures. If Yue Chao really did it, Zhang Jinlei would probably have killed Yue Chao at the time!

"What was the date back then?"

"I don’t know. You can ask Yue Chao. He promised me that he would definitely complete the task. Later, that incident happened. The girl died. My first reaction was that Yue Chao did it. He must have killed her after failing to rape her or something. He was a gangster to begin with. Although I was secretly pleased, I couldn’t say anything, let alone call the police. Knowing my son’s character, he would have gone nuts. But it’s been so many years that it doesn’t matter if I reveal it. You can go to investigate this Yue Chao. The probability of him having committed the crime is very high. It can’t be wrong!" Father Zhang said confidently.

Chen Shi gave Lin Dongxue a glance and stood up. "Well, thank you for your cooperation."

"I hope that after this case is solved, you’ll inform my son tactfully. I'm afraid he would become impulsive. Please be considerate of a parent’s heart!" Father Zhang begged with his palms together.

"Mr. Zhang, if the murderer is really Yue Chao, you will be guilty of abetting murder. You should explain it yourself at the time!”

After dropping this bombshell, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue left together and Father Zhang sat paralyzed in his chair, as if he had lost his soul.

After leaving the bank, Chen Shi made a phone call. Lin Dongxue said, "If I didn’t hear it myself, I wouldn't have imagined that there could be such a parent in the world. Sometimes I'm glad that I am an orphan."

"What's more terrifying is that he still thinks he had sincerely done everything for his son. Let's head back."

"Are we not going to look for Yue Chao?"

"Old Peng just told me that the fingerprint analysis has come out, and that the brocade banner had been sent by him. We’ll take the evidence over, so we won’t have to worry about him staying silent."

"It was analyzed so easily. Could this pig brain[3] be the killer?"

The two returned to the bureau, took the fingerprint identification results, and settled their lunch in the cafeteria. Then they went directly to see Yue Chao.

At the moment, Yue Chao was meeting customers in the company. The so-called "customers" were a group of elderly people. The company had invited them for a simple lunch, and then started selling a healthcare product on the spot.

This kind of marketing method is called conference marketing. The atmosphere at the scene was very lively. No one noticed that Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi had come in through the back door and were standing on the side watching them.

Yue Chao stood on the podium. His burly figure looked as though it was about to burst through the cheap suit. He said passionately, "Let me tell everyone some good news. I just received internal news that you can buy one and get one free with all the products here today. Yes, as long as you pay $998, you can buy a box of cordyceps essence specially supplied by the Beijing Military Region, plus a box of nanotechnology restorative capsules! Only today, only for now!"

The speakers played “Grateful Heart”. A group of salesmen ran in front of the old people and asked them to sign the bills. Every time an old person signed, the salesmen would shout things like "Aunt Li signed for three sets!" and “Old Master Wang has signed for a set!”

The atmosphere was very animated.

Lin Dongxue's cheek twitched. "Isn't this blatant deception?"

"Let's tell the relevant department later to check out this healthcare product company."

After the conference was over, the old people took their healthcare products and left with satisfaction. Yue Chao was flushed and sweaty, and he looked very excited. He chatted with his colleagues about how much money he had made today. Then his eyes fixed on Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue who were walking over.

"Your sales ability isn’t bad." Chen Shi said.

"Oh, it's just arduously-earned money. Do you need me for something?”

"Let’s talk."

1. Failed.

2. It means that the heavens and earth know it to be true and they can live with their conscience. Used when people want to say that they’re telling the honest truth.

3. Used to describe stupid people.