Jin Yuanyuan's Top-Tier Life

Chapter 102 The Hidden Secret

Two weeks later, Jin Yuanbao was able to walk on his own and had recovered about 70-80% of his previous strength. The doctors thought he was quite remarkable and had excellent physical condition. Then, Liu Yaozu brought up Jin Yuanbao's nickname "Nine-Jin Cat" again, making everyone burst into laughter.

When Zhu Hongying came to visit him, he asked Zhao Zhuoran to call Liu Yaozu and Aunt Hong over in advance.

Zhao Zhuoran quietly called Jin Yuanyuan again, because he felt that something must have happened. "Yuanyuan, your dad is very serious. You have to come over."

Jin Yuanyuan quickly put down the socks she was making and had Cao Xiaoyu drive her to the hospital ward. Zhao Zhuoran said, "Your arrival is especially timely, saving us from the initial pleasantries."

"I knew you'd call Yuanyuan." Jin Yuanbao still had a slight cough, but he was able to speak normally now. "What I wanted to say was that the moment I fell, my only thought was that I had to tell Hongying what happened, otherwise, if I really died, she might hate me for the rest of her life. Of course, by then, I probably wouldn't even know if she wanted to scold me."

"Pah, pah, Uncle Jin, what you're saying is really unpleasant to hear," Cao Xiaoyu said, lightly patting the hospital bed in dissatisfaction. But Jin Yuanbao didn't seem to care and continued, "Everyone has to die eventually, but I just think you'll probably find out sooner or later anyway, so why don't I tell you? Let's start from the day Liu Xueli died."

Zhu Hongying simply looked at him, a hint of hesitation in her eyes. Aunt Hong visibly trembled and sat up straight as well.

Twenty-one years ago, Jin Yuanbao and Liu Xueli were going to acquire window frames from an old house in Suzhou. Zhu Guangshan offered to go with them. At that time, Jin Yuanbao's father had passed away a year earlier, and Zhu Guangshan felt extremely down because he had lost one of his best fellow apprentices. He thought it would be good to go out of town to clear his mind.

Zhu Guangshan was also an expert in appraising antiques. After arriving at the scene, he quickly discovered that several old screens being sold cheaply were actually paintings by famous artists, and he immediately bought them. Afterwards, the owner mentioned that there were some more in the attic and invited him to go up and take a look.

Upon hearing this, Liu Xueli perked up and immediately followed Zhu Guangshan to the attic to take a look.

Jin Yuanbao followed behind the two of them, also somewhat excited.

The attic was at the top of the third floor, accessible by a dilapidated wooden ladder. Zhu Guangshan climbed up and looked around, discovering that the wood used for many of the "broken windows" was actually of excellent quality boxwood and rosewood. Whether they were re-polished or salvaged for other uses, they could make a fortune.

He went up and down several times, and even asked Liu Xueli to come along, since Liu Xueli now had his own methods for dealing in secondhand goods. The two of them quietly discussed it and felt that they could try to lower the price a little further.

Liu Xueli and the homeowner started chatting, while Zhu Guangshan pondered a plan. They had a common tactic: pretending to be injured while moving items, then forcing the homeowner to sell everything to them at a low price.

Jin Yuanbao despised this behavior, but Zhu Guangshan was his father-in-law and Liu Xueli was his master's son, so he had no way to say anything to them.

Taking advantage of a moment when no one was looking, Zhu Guangshan stepped on a plank of the wooden ladder leading to the attic, cracking it. He wanted to let his foot sink into the plank and bleed in front of the head of the household. He was certain that because he was wearing shoes and socks, even if he was injured, it wouldn't be too serious.

The plan was indeed perfect, and it had worked perfectly in other deals before, but it failed this time.

While Liu Xueli was talking to the head of the family, he suddenly tried to climb up to the attic to get something. As a result, he stepped on the cracked plank. Perhaps the rotten wood was too fragile, because not only did his foot sink in, but his entire body fell from the broken plank and crashed to his death on the gold bricks on the first floor.

Faced with this unexpected turn of events, everyone present was stunned. It took them a while to react and call an ambulance to rescue the person.

Jin Yuanbao rushed downstairs in a panic and knelt beside Liu Xueli. He was already on the verge of death, bleeding profusely. It seemed he had landed headfirst, hence the extremely severe injuries.

Liu Xueli probably realized that he might not be able to keep his pregnancy, so he said to Jin Yuanbao, "Take good care of my wife. It's too hard for her to be pregnant all by herself. Why don't you marry her and give my child a proper status?"

Jin Yuanbao pressed his trembling hand against the large hole in Liu Xueli's head, hoping to stop the gushing blood. But life is fleeting, and humans are so fragile.

By the time Zhu Guangshan and the family head ran down, Liu Xueli was already dead. No one had expected such a turn of events; the business deal was off, and the family head even called the police.

Of course, the head of the household only thought of calling the police because he saw that someone had died. But Zhu Guangshan wasn't thinking about that; he was worried about whether his damage to the horizontal board would be discovered. But these kinds of things are quite normal to have cracks after so many years.

He remained silent, seemingly paralyzed with fear. Only Jin Yuanbao knew their scheme; he had even witnessed Zhu Guangshan deliberately damaging the plank. But what could he do? What could he say?

When the police arrived and conducted their investigation, Jin Yuanbao didn't say anything.

Zhu Guangshan didn't even glance at Jin Yuanbao. He simply told the police that the murder was caused by the disrepair of the attic and demanded that the head of the household compensate Liu Xueli for his life.

The police had never seen anything like this before and didn't know what to do, so they took Liu Xueli's body away and told them to find a lawyer in court to handle the rest.

Zhu Guangshan looked at the head of the family and asked, "This place is now a haunted house. You must pay for my apprentice's life."

The man was terrified and begged Zhu Guangshan not to go through legal proceedings, otherwise his house would be even harder to sell.

Zhu Guangshan stared at him with bloodshot eyes, saying he would take all the old things in the attic without paying a single penny. The homeowner, completely unaware of the value of those items, readily allowed Zhu Guangshan to take everything.

Later, during the legal proceedings, the homeowner was still found guilty of negligent homicide and had to pay Liu Xueli 500,000 yuan in death and funeral expenses. This was a considerable sum at the time, enough for Liu Xueli's widow to live a comfortable life.

But as the saying goes, "Man proposes, God disposes," and just as Liu Xueli received the money, his widow suffered a severe postpartum hemorrhage and was on the verge of death. In the end, it was this 500,000 yuan that saved her life.

She's lost all her money and her life, her health is extremely weak, and she has a newborn baby to feed. How is she going to survive?

Jin Yuanbao watched all this with great sadness, but he knew that he could not tell the police a single word about the truth of the matter.

"Could it be Aunt Hong?" Jin Yuanyuan suddenly asked, because she saw Aunt Hong wiping away tears.

(End of this chapter)