Chapter 37: Demons

Qin Qing suddenly thought of a question.

“Did Yang Xiaoyan pay?”

Lu Yang: “Yes, her sister paid. She also wanted to pay me for car washing, but I didn’t take it.”

Qin Fanghao sensed something unusual and asked, “Is there a problem?”

Qin Qing took a sip of coffee, the milky, bitter, yet fragrant taste spreading across her lips and teeth.

She slowly said, “Things developed a bit unexpectedly. I’m worried she won’t pay.”

Both employees stopped what they were doing and looked at her.

Qin Qing said, “I sent her parents to the Police Station.”

She added, “They’ll probably go to jail.”

She quietly recounted the general misdeeds of the Yang couple to her two curious employees.

Lu Yang regretted that he couldn’t participate in the police station part, which meant his parents would have less to brag about.

No one paid attention to this silly young master whose thought process was different from ordinary people; they left him to sigh while pulling burrs.

Qin Fanghao said indignantly, “As soon as I entered their house, I felt something was off. The elderly person in the family was missing, and there was still braised pork under the lid of the leftover dishes on the table. In the middle of summer, they still had the mood to make such complicated dishes. There must have been a problem, but I didn’t expect it to be so abominable. The old lady painstakingly raised him from a baby, and not only was he ungrateful, but he also poisoned her. Is this still human?”

“Gratitude?” Qin Qing scoffed, “For Yang Xiaoyan’s father, there might be more hatred.”

Otherwise, without a blood relationship, Qin Qing wouldn’t see the elderly person appearing in his Character Relationship Map. If the couple could harm the elderly person, their intimacy must not have been enough. The only thing that could form a Character Relationship Map would be hatred reaching a certain high threshold.

Qin Fanghao sighed softly, a faint sorrow coloring his eyes.

“I wonder what Yang Xiaoyan will think when she knows the truth. I’m just afraid she’ll hate us too, think we meddled, and come to the studio to cause trouble.”

Lu Yang, who was still lightening the load on his pants, interjected, “This matter has developed to this point; what we do has nothing to do with her anymore. Her parents’ actions are criminal and have touched the law, so this is not just a simple family matter. She has no reason to trouble us. If she wants to blame someone, she should blame her parents for not being human.”

Qin Fanghao: “That’s true in principle, but people in this world don’t act according to principles. More people only look at their own interests.”

Lu Yang: “I don’t think Yang Xiaoyan is that kind of person. Even if she only looks at interests, I haven’t seen her parents treat her very well. Just look at her and her brother’s names; I heard they are even twins.”

Qin Fanghao was still worried: “No, I have to talk to the property management at the studio and tell their security guards to be vigilant. If they find any suspicious people, they should inform us immediately. It wouldn’t be good if something like a medical dispute happened.”

“Why bother with security? Isn’t it enough to have our senior sister here?”

Qin Fanghao: “Are you stupid? The boss can calculate, but she can’t fight. If it comes to physical harm, she’s just like us.”

Qin Qing: “…”

Thanks for the mention, I feel like a knife just pierced my heart.

Stop scolding, self-defense is already being practiced.

The boss smiled without speaking.

The boss quietly savored her coffee.

The boss silently waited to see when these two would realize they were complaining about the boss to her face.

It was a failure; these two didn’t realize.

She somewhat missed Han Jun and Zheng Yi’s emotional intelligence.

Lu Yang belatedly realized the fact that his boss was actually a glass cannon.

And he was quite seriously concerned.

“Senior sister, why don’t you hire a bodyguard? Let my dad recommend one for you.”

With puppy dog eyes, he looked at Qin Qing worriedly.

A bit silly, but kind.

Qin Fanghao: “A bit extravagant, but it can solve many problems.”

Qin Qing: “Let’s talk about it later. Without big orders, the income isn’t even enough to pay your salaries.”

–

Just as Qin Qing had predicted.

The Yang couple themselves were already guilty. Once they entered the Interrogation Room, the police didn’t even need to use many psychological tactics; with a little scare and coaxing, both confessed separately.

They said the old lady was lucid and detailed the events, and also mentioned that voluntarily confessing would lead to a lighter sentence.

The couple meticulously spilled all the details.

Yuan Liang asked, “In this matter, what help did Yang Feilong provide you?”

The couple unanimously denied their son’s involvement.

“It all came to this because of his marriage. He didn’t know?”

The couple, in different Interrogation Rooms, swore to God that Yang Feilong was innocent.

Yang Feilong was cleared from this incident.

Of the family of three who entered the police station, only he came out.

Standing at the police station entrance, Yang Feilong was as bewildered as a lost rabbit.

He took out his phone, opened the pinned chat, and wanted to message his girlfriend. But his hand recoiled.

Looking at the charming smile on his girlfriend’s avatar, his eyes felt scalded.

Yang Feilong didn’t have the real feeling that his family members had committed crimes and were imprisoned. He only knew that after his parents were arrested, he couldn’t get money. Without money, he couldn’t afford a wedding house, and his girlfriend wouldn’t agree to marry him. He had nothing.

A moment later, anger and malice flickered in the rabbit’s eyes.

Yang Feilong went to the hospital.

The two sisters at the hospital knew nothing yet. Yang Feilong went there and caused a scene in the ward.

He didn’t know someone had called the police; he just thought the old lady was causing trouble.

So he cursed the old lady: “You old hag, why don’t you just die? People should do what’s appropriate for their age. I’m the only male child in the family, I’m the continuation of the family line. When I grow up, I should marry and have children. And you, you’re old, and old people should die. Why aren’t you dead yet?”

A nurse heard the commotion and came to stop him, but he pushed the nurse away: “Your hospital is an accomplice too. The news keeps talking about serious aging population, but what’s the use of just talking? There should be a rule that people over 60 are not allowed in hospitals.”

Yang Xiaoyan also tried to stop him, but he forcefully threw her against a bedpost.

“And you, I haven’t even cursed you, and you’re already acting so important. Don’t think you’re amazing just because you’ve studied at university for a couple of days. If it weren’t for you being nosy and finding someone to look for this old woman, everything at home would be fine. It’s you, it’s all you!”

He was like a madman, cursing everyone he saw, quite hysterically.

Hospital security guards arrived and, using shields and steel forks, jointly pinned down Yang Feilong before taking him out.

Yang Xiaoyan and Yang Denan, the sisters, still didn’t know what was going on. After hearing some rumors from the villagers and when the dust settled, the sisters went together to the detention center to visit their parents.

Their mother looked indifferent, and after chatting for a long time, she only spoke of irrelevant things.

She cared about the corn drying at home needing to be harvested, the pickled vegetables needing to be drained, and that she bought 20 eggs from a villager without paying and reminded the sisters to remember to pay. She also talked about how to arrange the gifts for her maternal uncle’s grandson’s full moon celebration: “Your cousin treats you well, remember to buy something nice for your little niece. There’s money in the drawer by my bed. I heard your grandaunt from San’aozi fell a couple of days ago, remember to go visit her when you have time.”

It was as if this wasn’t a visiting room at a detention center, but rather their home yard, where they were enjoying the cool air and chatting about daily life.

Yang Xiaoyan was stifled and irritated by her mother’s contrasting attitude.

She interrupted her mother’s rambling instructions and asked her, “Mom, you can think well of everyone else, and care about them, so why did you treat Grandma like that?”

Her mother lowered her head and said nothing more. No matter how much she asked, she didn’t speak again.

Until the female guard came to take her away, Yang Xiaoyan, who thought she wouldn’t speak again, heard her say with a choked voice, “Keep an eye on Feilong. That child is sensitive and can’t handle stimulation. You two should comfort him more. With Mom and Dad gone, you two need to support each other.”

For some reason, this sentence made Yang Xiaoyan feel a pain in her chest, and two lines of tears fell uncontrollably.

Then she went to visit her father.

Yang Xiaoyan didn’t understand her mother, and even less her father.

It was no secret in the family that her father was adopted by her grandmother, and that her grandmother was not the biological grandmother of the three children.

She heard that if her grandmother hadn’t agreed to adopt him, her father might have been drowned in a尿桶 (urine bucket) when he was born.

So, what could be greater than the kindness of saving a life, or the kindness of raising someone?

“Hmm?” Her father sounded as if he had heard a joke.

“Yan, you’re just too naive, you haven’t seen enough. If you had met your biological grandmother, you wouldn’t think that way.”

Yang Xiaoyan still didn’t understand.

Her father said, “When I grew up, I went to find your biological grandmother. Yan, you don’t know how well your grandmother lived. The husband she married later was in construction and was very rich. When I went, I saw their yard was bigger than our house, and there was nothing planted in the yard, only grass. Did you hear me clearly? Only grass!”

His eyes gradually became frenzied: “A dog was rolling a ball on that lawn. That dog was cleaner than my clothes, and the kind of ball it played with, you sisters have never played! But that was just a dog. When your grandmother saw me, she was very afraid of her husband finding out, so she gave me tens of thousands of yuan and sent me away, saying that since I recognized your grandmother as my mother, I should be filial to her and live a good life.”

“To hell with living a good life! How can you live a good life without money? Do you know, your biological grandmother later had another son and a daughter. The son became a CEO like his father, and my sister became an official in the county.”

As he said these things, his face showed a longing for a happy life.

Suddenly, the light in his eyes vanished, and he said viciously, “I am their elder brother. I should have lived the same life as them. But that old woman was nosy. If it weren’t for her, your grandmother would have taken me with her when she got married. Then, when I was little, I could have played ball on that lawn like that dog, and when I grew up, I could have become a CEO.”

Yang Xiaoyan realized that she had never truly understood her father.

His frenzy was exactly like Yang Feilong’s at the hospital.

Yang Xiaoyan said weakly, “Since you long for your birth mother so much, you should continue to look for her, instead of hurting Grandma.”

She noticed that after hearing this, her father’s eyes showed some tension and fear.

Perhaps there were other things regarding her biological grandmother, she didn’t ask further, and her father didn’t say anything more.

Yang Xiaoyan walked like a zombie on the road, her eyes blankly watching the crowd flowing past her.

One, one, and another.

Men, women, old, young.

Violent, gentle, happy, sorrowful, leisurely, hurried…

She thought blankly, wondering how many of these two-legged creatures, wrapped in colorful packaging, constantly breathing and walking, were truly human?

And how many had human heads, but wolf hearts and dog guts in their bellies?

And how many, wearing human skin, hid demons, ghosts, and monsters beneath?

When she was little, listening to stories at night about ghosts and monsters, she was never afraid.

Now, under the blazing sun, she felt a chill deep in her bones.

People become afraid of ghosts when they grow up; it turns out to be true.