Over thirty people beat up one—”Azure Dragon” Zhang didn’t do things by halves.

Jiang Run naturally ended up in a hospital. When Jiang Xiaoyun and Liu De got the news, their hearts almost stopped. They dropped everything and rushed to their son’s side.

The doctor and policemen frowned at the sight of the smartly dressed, obviously well-off couple. Remembering the confession of the people they’d arrested, they thought looks could be deceiving—the two clearly didn’t know how to educate their son.

Jiang Xiaoyun’s psychological defense collapsed the instant the door opened and she caught sight of Jiang Run. Her baby son, her treasure, whom she coddled and cosseted, was lying infirmly in a hospital bed, covered with injuries. The bandages wrapped almost his whole body, and what skin was visible was green and purple with bruises.

Jiang Xiaoyun burst out crying. She shrieked through tears: “Who was it? What son of a bitch did this!?”

She threw herself down on the floor beside the bed, looking as if she was going crazy. The doctor, afraid her heart couldn’t endure, showed her the medical report and comforted, “It’s all right. These injuries might look scary, but in fact, they are minor and won’t have any aftereffects. Only his left hand is slightly serious; possibly because it was repeatedly stomped on, there were some dislocations—of course, it’s already been taken care of. However, even though these are just flesh wounds, they’re relatively painful. The patient has just fallen asleep; we’ll see how he feels when he wakes up. He can be prescribed painkillers if necessary.”

The gangsters who beat Jiang Run were actually pretty clever—they knew exactly how far could they go. The beating caused no major injuries, so the consequences they had to bear were minimal, but their victim felt painful enough to die.

As soon as Jiang Xiaoyun heard the words “minor injury,” she blew up. Crying, she rose to her feet, approached the doctor, and shoved him: “Bullshit! Are you blind? My son is like this, and you say he’s just slightly hurt!?”

As the doctor gaped at her, shocked, she noticed the two policemen in the room. She immediately changed the targets, grabbing the one next to her: “Comrades policemen! Comrades policemen! You have to get justice for us! My son attends Liyun No. 1 High School, he’s an exemplary student! And he was beaten like this! What about his attackers, did you catch them? These animals must be shot!”

The police officer she grabbed was frowning because of her attitude towards the doctor, but had no choice but to treat her with patience—he couldn’t let his private opinions interfere with his duties. He replied officially, “Please calm down, ma’am, this matter is still under investigation. We need to establish the facts first.”

“Establish the facts?” Jiang Xiaoyun stared at him with wide eyes. “My son is lying right there, hurt! What facts! Or, did you get something from…”

“Control your tongue, ma’am!” The policeman interrupted her, frowning. He really didn’t need to listen to her insinuations. “The attackers were a group of unemployed hooligans. The police did arrest them, but the situation is a bit complicated—they claim they had a cooperative relationship with the victim, and that the dispute happened because they couldn’t agree about how to divide the profit from stolen goods. Though we don’t know if their confession is true, we need to interrogate your son too, this is the procedure. I hope you understand.”

Jiang Xiaoyun stopped short. Wait, hooligans? Was it the group that was supposed to browbeat Lin Jingzhe?

Regret drowned her like a tsunami, and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe. However, she was aware she must never admit their two sides cooperated. If Jiang Run got a criminal record, his future would be completely ruined!

Her hand gripping the police uniform loosened, and she staggered back, managing a pale smile, then exclaimed, “Lies! They are slandering my son! Comrades policemen, you can’t possibly believe what these dregs of society are saying!”

It’s not clear who’s the real dregs of society, the policeman thought, inwardly shaking his head. But I’m surprised—who would’ve thought the student of the best school in our town would be so degenerate? It must be because of the way he was brought up—even in this situation, his mother is thick-faced enough to claim he’s an exemplary student.

The reason he was certain Jiang Run and the gang members were accomplices was the evidence they had confirming it.

His colleague came over to discuss something with him in a low voice then took out a passbook and inquired, “Mrs. Jiang, is the account number on this passbook familiar?”

At first, Jiang Xiaoyun was puzzled, but a moment later, she realized what the policeman was holding. She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.

“The owner of this account is you. Three days ago, someone used it to remit 2,000 yuan to the account with number 654*****. Can you tell us who?”

Jiang Xiaoyun felt everything go black and nearly fainted. 654***** was “Azure Dragon” Zhang’s account—and it was she who went to the bank to make the transfer. 2,000 yuan was a large amount of money. At the time, she was actually reluctant but told herself the antiques were indispensable to advance her plans; once she succeeded, she would be rich enough not to care about a meager two thousand. Only then could she force herself to sign.

The policemen weren’t surprised she didn’t answer. They exchanged meaningful glances and continued, “Never mind, we will know once we contact the bank. Now, we need your cooperation to discover the purpose of that remittance…”

At this point, Jiang Xiaoyun stopped listening—she knew refuting would be futile. The bank could easily find both sender and recipient of such a significant sum of money. She’d had no choice at the time: “Azure Dragon” Zhang wouldn’t move without receiving payment upfront. Unfortunately, now that their transaction had been discovered, she could argue until she was blue in the face that Jiang Run had no connection with the gang, but no one would believe her.

The policeman saw her stand there in a daze and repeated his questions a few times, but it was obvious she wasn’t able to give coherent answers. As such, he took his colleague and left, to let her calm down first.

Then, the only people in the ward were Jiang Run, sleeping quietly, Jiang Xiaoyun, who sat on the ground next to his bed looking as if the soul had left her body, and Liu De, who sat at the stool by the door, focused on his cigarette.

The atmosphere was oppressive and still like a pool of stagnant water.

Crash—

Finally, Liu De couldn’t bear it any longer. He stood, picked up the thermos, and smashed it against the windowsill with all his strength.

It shattered. The hot water mixed with the shards of glass and splashed all over the floor. He stared at the sunlight reflecting in the puddles, dizzy. In all his years, he’d never lost his temper like this.

“What a great job you did!” This was the first time he’d mustered up the courage to speak to his domineering wife. Then, tears flowing down his face, he rushed out of the ward, slamming the door shut with a deafening clang.

Jiang Xiaoyun’s weeping intensified until she almost couldn’t breathe.