Chapter 147 — The Long-Awaited...

This Li Deding did have some genuine skill, it had to be said; he was just a bit too lecherous. Wang Yanqiu, seeing that he never went too far, had let him be—after all, he had never gotten anything off her. But now, with Yang Ce's help, he had been taught a lesson, and Wang Yanqiu was naturally delighted.

"Heh heh, killing him's impossible—I had the measure of it," Yang Ce chuckled. "I was counting on the old lecher not daring to make a scene. He wanted to feel up your thigh, so he had to pay the price."

Wang Yanqiu shook her head with an amused smile. Yang Ce really was interesting at times. In truth, getting rid of Li Deding would have been child's play for him, but Yang Ce had not done that; instead he had used other means to give him a small lesson, leaving him unable to voice his grievance.

"My long-distance running coach in high school was always leering at me—it was disgusting," Wang Yanqiu explained. She herself did not know why; Yang Shuoxuan had not asked, so she could easily have left it unexplained.

"Mm, I know. With your taste, how could you possibly fancy him?" Yang Yuting nodded and said, "If anyone, it'd be me you fancy."

"You're even more disgusting than he is," Wang Yanqiu said, glaring at Yang Puqi.

"But however disgusting I am, don't I get to touch whenever I want?" Yang Ce said with a cheeky grin, wiping his hand across Wang Yanqiu's thigh, which earned him a roll of her eyes.

Wei Jin stared blankly as his father's attorney explained to him the estate his father had left behind. Though he still did not know exactly how his father had died, the property in his father's hands was about to pass into his own.

"How did my dad die?" Wei Jin asked, his face sorrowful, after signing the estate transfer documents.

The lawyer shrugged. "That I'm not too clear on either, but according to a friend of mine inside the police department, the preliminary findings at the scene indicate that Zheng Laoliu lit the fuse of a detonator, the detonator exploded, and both men were killed in the blast."

"Zheng Laoliu blew my dad up? Why?" Wei Jin could hardly believe it. Hadn't Zheng Laoliu always been utterly obedient to his father? And how was it that the two of them had died together?

"Young Master Wei, I'm only a lawyer, not a detective. I don't know the specific reason either, but today's newspapers ran a great deal of gossip about Mr. Wei and Zheng Laoliu," the lawyer said.

"News about my dad? Where? Let me see," Wei Jin said urgently the moment he heard.

"This is a morning paper I bought on my way here. Take a look for yourself." The lawyer took the newspaper out of his briefcase and handed it to Wei Jin.

Wei Jin took the paper and began reading the news. At first there was nothing much—it merely reported that an explosion had occurred the previous night inside the Dekang Building, killing both Wei Dekang, chairman of Dekang Real Estate, and Zheng Laoliu, general manager of its subordinate construction company, the cause being the detonation of a detonator.

But the feature article that followed was rather outrageous, describing in detail the grievances and entanglements between Wei Dekang and Zheng Laoliu. It said the two men were homosexuals, trapped by their love and constrained by the eyes of the world, and so the two had chosen to commit suicide.

The article was written with such circumstantial detail that even their trysts were described vividly. Even Wei Jin, reading it, grew somewhat suspicious. No way—was all this true?

Wei Jin thought it over. Since his father and mother had divorced, his father really did seem never to have taken up with any other woman, and that Zheng Laoliu seemed always to have been single as well. Could what the report said really be the case?

Thinking this, Wei Jin felt it quite likely. After all, the story was written so plausibly, and Wei Jin had his own doubts besides, so he could not help but believe it. A cold shudder ran through him: "Is all this in the paper true? My dad was a homosexual?"

"Whether it's true I couldn't say, but the two of them certainly died together. However, the bodies were blown to pieces, so nothing more can be determined. The only clue obtained was that a lighter at the scene bore Zheng Laoliu's fingerprints," the lawyer said.

Wei Jin fell silent. To say he was not grief-stricken would be a lie, but what good was grief? His father was already dead, and such a scandal had broken. Wei Jin did not want to dwell on it further: "Sorry to trouble you, Lawyer Zhou. If you have business to attend to, go ahead. I'd like some time alone."

The lawyer nodded, took his briefcase, and left Wei Jin's room, while Wei Jin drew a deep breath, gripped his hair with both hands, and did not know what to do with himself.

Sister Gu came out from the inner room and sat quietly beside Wei Jin: "Young Master Wei, don't be sad. The dead cannot come back. Restrain your grief and accept what has happened."

Seeing that Wei Dekang was dead, Sister Gu's heart began to stir. If she served Wei Jin well now, perhaps she could rise in one stroke to become Wei Jin's girlfriend—and then half of the Wei family fortune would be hers.

Wei Jin nodded. "Sister Gu, I understand. But what's to become of the company now? My dad just up and washed his hands of it all of a sudden. Of his three capable men, Zheng Laoliu went with him, and Zhou Xiaoming and Ma Fengzi are both in the hospital. My company—"

"Young Master Wei, if you ask me, you'd be better off just selling the company. We take the money and live a carefree, easy life. If you keep the company and it turns out you can't run it, you'll only lose more," Sister Gu suggested.

"Let me think it over properly," Wei Jin said with a sigh. He had no heart left for company affairs anyway. Perhaps what Sister Gu said was not such a bad idea.

Besides, his father had died right there in the company. Wei Jin was somewhat reluctant to face the place.

By the time Yang Ce got back to the villa, Chen Shutang, Lin Yanhe, and Zhou Yanning were all up. As Yang Ce went upstairs, the three of them happened to be coming down, all yawning—evidently none of them had slept well the night before. Who knew how late those three girls had chatted.

"I bought some fried dumplings and left them in the dining room. Go wash your faces and eat," Yang Hengye said.

"Hey, will you look at that—Yang Ce, buying us breakfast!" Chen Shutang was rather surprised that Yang Ce would do such a thing.

"One trip out and I can please all three of you at once—only a fool wouldn't do it," Yang Xutang said afterward with a sly grin.

Chen Shutang, hearing this, challenged him: "So you're saying that when there's only one person, you wouldn't buy any?"

Yang Ce had not expected Chen Shutang to catch him out on his phrasing. He gave a dry laugh and, instead of answering, changed the subject: "I'm going to the company with Zhiyun today. The company caught fire yesterday, and I need to go handle the aftermath."

Chen Shutang said nothing more. She had only been teasing Yan to begin with, and she did not want to press Yang Ce too hard—otherwise, if Yang Ce really did say he would not buy any, then she, the "big sister," would lose far too much face in front of Sister Lin and Jiajia.

Yang Ce went back to his room and carefully inspected the bed, erasing every last trace of Wang Yanqiu from it. Otherwise, if that little green-eyed monster Chen Shutang found out, there would be no end of trouble.

Both of them had fiery tempers, and Little Wang was even fierier than Chen Shutang. Yang Ce was truly afraid that if she took something the wrong way, she might go and kill Chen Shutang—and then everything would be well and truly screwed.

To be continued

984. A Troubled Heart

984 A Troubled Heart