Kong Huai and Xue Cheng met in a private restaurant in the south of the city.
Kong Huai was in a bad situation after all that had happened to his family. The bit of gossip he received that morning about Ke Lin being arrested meant that all the things he’d done over the years were going to be revealed. Ke Li’s father was also arrested for allegedly murdering his first wife and taking bribes.
These were not what worried him, however. What Kong Huai was really worried about, was the vengeful ghost which drove Ke Lin mad with fear.
The person who told him the news had also said that the person who called the police that day was Ke Lin himself. When the police got there, the room was full of words written in blood-red. Ke Lin and Ke Li had pissed themselves in fear, and Ke Li was still in hospital, fighting for his life.
Add the recent appearance of the metaphysics masters, and Kong Huai’s fears doubled. He had to meet with Xue Cheng to discuss things.
However, Kong Huai did not expect that Xue Cheng would want to run away by himself.
“Don’t you dare!” Kong Huai grabbed Xue Cheng by the collar. “Ke Lin and I are in trouble now. You think you can run away?”
“Ke Lin is in trouble because of his father. Your family’s in trouble because those metaphysics masters are being relentless. What does either of that have to do with me?” Xue Cheng gave a laugh, like it had nothing to do with him.
Just as he said that, Kong Huai’s phone rang. He answered the call, then looked at Xue Cheng and laughed. “Looks like we’re destined to be good brothers. No one’s escaping.”
After saying that, Kong Huai turned around and left. Xue Cheng hurriedly made a phone call, and cold sweat instantly trickled down his body.
The anti-corruption department had started on a big case rather unexpectedly, and this big case was closely related to him, Ke Lin’s family and Kong Huai’s family.
The cause was also interesting, because it was due to some world famous paintings of great value.
The word “art” could be both elegant and vulgar, but there would always be some unique artworks beyond the comprehension of ordinary people.
For example, the “No. 5, 1948” which was purchased for 165 million USD. Many people could not understand what the painter was trying to express, because at first glance, it was just a mass of something that looked like marble patterns. But this was the kind of painting which sold for an overwhelming price.
So the crazy fascination that art brings is huge, and one can never guess where the ceiling for the price of art is.
Generally, anything involving money always gets attention and some discussion. So, after this gossip blogger wrote his piece, there were a number of responses that followed.
Some of them were about the history of the painting, while others lamented that the common people were short-sighted. Some said that those who made art these days were basically rich if they could get their foot in the door.
But then, as if to prove this statement that all who studied art were rich, someone actually gave an example that sounded like nonsense.
“Someone in my group of friends had a painting and said it was painted by a talented twelve-year-old girl painter. She’s just a teenager, and one painting of hers is already worth over a hundred thousand, even millions. Geniuses really aren’t from the same world as mortals.”
However, this comment of his quickly raised doubt among the netizens.
“C’mon bro! I’ll still believe it if you say that a twenty-one-year-old genius painter, who has won awards abroad. A twelve-year-old? Anonymous genius girl? It’s definitely fake.”
“That’s right. If that’s true, I’ll fucking livestream myself eating the keyboard!”
“What a brag. Even young painters who have won awards abroad won’t sell for that much, unless it’s an award with a very high monetary award. Otherwise it’s useless.”
Many netizens replied right away. All of them thought that that guy was bullsh*tting. The guy was stubborn, and he took a screenshot of his group chat.
At first glance, it had the same feeling as the famous painting called “No. 5, 1948″ — a bunch of messy marbling. The bank transaction details in the picture really wrote 176,000 too.
Many people were confused. Bigger questions followed.
Was it a copy, or a prank? Or a new scam?
Curious folk went digging. Soon, the friend of this person who’d posted the picture was dug up. This friend was a famous dude in the industry, and the painting in question was not his own purchase, but a picture of he’d taken at Xue Cheng’s place.
The so-called genius girl’s identity was also uncovered. It was Ke Li’s youngest daughter. And the kicker? Ke Li’s youngest daughter had even made a kind of ledger, similar to a micro-business, in the circle of friends.
Every time a painting was sold, a price would be written out. In total, the count was over tens of millions.
And it was mostly because of the little girl’s vanity. So Ke Li’s youngest daughter even told the school that she had sold a painting for more than a hundred thousand dollars.
When a disguised reporter interviewed her, she even proudly showed the transfer records to the reporter, naively thinking that she was a genius girl painter.
Things were clear now.
Originally, the matter of Ke Li’s corruption and bribery was only a shadow of a suspicion, but now that this matter of buying paintings had come out, the situation became difficult to handle.
In China, large sums of money from unknown sources could also be brought up for investigation. Ke Li’s family was soon detained. Although Xue Cheng was only assisting in the investigation for the time being, he was suspected of bribery and he would have to go in sooner or later.
This sort of thing usually meant a chain of arrests. Because of these two accidents, Kong Huai and his family would be finished, sooner or later. But Kong Huai and Xue Cheng were not the type to sit around waiting to die. They began to go desperately through their connections, trying to get themselves out of trouble.
But the busier they got, the more problems arose. Kong Huai and Xue Cheng coincidentally received each other’s letter, which simply said, ‘I have a good way to get you scot free. I need you to cooperate.’
However, when they actually met, they realized that the two of them were locked up in a closed room with nothing but a laptop.
“What are we supposed to do?” Xue Cheng was calm, but Kong Huai collapsed all of a sudden. He knew more details about what had happened in Ke Lin’s home, so seeing a computer made him even more scared.
But what happened next didn’t give him any room to breathe.
“Here are two files with the charges against each of you. If these are given to the police, you’ll have to stay in jail for the rest of your lives, so here’s the question: which one of you two is willing to go to jail for your brother for the rest of your lives? Who’s willing to die for a brother?”
The guttural voice sounded particularly treacherous in the closed room, and Xue Cheng and Kong Huai’s expressions grew ugly when they saw the contents of the data on the computer.
“What’s your goal? If you want money, I can give you money!” Xue Cheng was the first to speak.
But that voice laughed. “Money? No! I want your lives!”
“To your right, there’s a phone, and the first one to pick it up and call the police to report the other guy is the winner. I’ll destroy his data.”
“Also, don’t worry about bad choices. For scum like you, you always operate by unscrupulous and depraved methods anyway.”
“Who the hell are you?” Kong Huai was already going crazy.
A fog had risen inside the room, and had somehow transformed into the figure of a young man.
It wasn’t clear, but Kong Huai and Xue Cheng were still able to recognise it as Han Feiran, who had jumped to his death back then.
“Xie Qianchen! It’s you, isn’t it?! You’re messing with me!” Xue Cheng yelled at once.
But the voice had no intention of paying any attention to them, instead it filled with laughter. “Xue Cheng, if you don’t fight back, Kong Huai will make that police call!”
“What?” Xue Cheng turned around just in time to see Kong Huai trying to dial the phone to call the police.
“You’re crazy! This was all set up by Xie Qianchen!”
“You’re the one who’s crazy! I don’t want to go to fucking prison!” Kong Huai was weak of character, and had gone a little mad with trying to escape from prison.
Man or ghost, he didn’t care. He would definitely escape. He ruthlessly pulled Xue Cheng’s hair, and bashed his head against the wall. Only after Xue Cheng’s head was dripping with blood and he’d lost consciousness did Kong Huai become dazed and paralyzed, not reacting for a long while.
And on the ground not far from him, the mobile phone that had been used to call the police was still live, and the police were listening. As for the police, they were also getting closer and closer to the two of them.
There was no way that these two would be able to escape now.
Good brothers, ha! Song Yucheng looked on with eyes of ice, and told the System to clear the past records.