97. Behind the Scenes

As soon as Chen Ruowen got home, Chen Liwan called her into the study. She had assumed he meant to lecture her about how often she had been running to the Bai residence these past few days, but instead he tossed a file directly into her hands.

"Take a look at Huang Ge and the man behind him."

"Huang Ge?"

She repeated the unfamiliar name and opened the folder.

On the first page was the portrait of a middle-aged man. Chen Ruowen recognized him at a glance: he was the assailant who had slashed Bai Jinyan a few days ago.

A flash of murderous chill crossed her eyes. With a grim face, she finished reading the file.

Huang Ge, thirty-five years old, a longtime employee of Guangxun Media. Half a year ago, the company discovered that he had been skimming kickbacks during procurement and padding the books, and dismissed him for gross negligence. Not only did he receive no severance at all, he was also left in debt after having to repay the company funds.

Worse still, because Guangxun had blacklisted him, every new job Huang Ge found later failed the background check. One could say he had been stripped of all income.

The cruelest blow was that three years earlier, Huang Ge had finally scraped together enough for a down payment on a house, only to be left with a sizeable mortgage each month. After months of unemployment, he could only juggle credit card debt from one hole to another to keep up with the mortgage. In order not to lose the property he had worked so hard to secure, he had no choice but to borrow from several small loan companies to pay off his debts.

Then, last month, with no income to speak of, Huang Ge was cornered at home by debt collectors from those loan sharks.

It was at that moment that a man named Liu Yong came looking for him.

According to Huang Ge's confession, half a month ago Liu Yong showed him a photograph and asked him to "teach a lesson" to the woman in it. If he got the job done, he would be paid fifty thousand yuan.

"All for so little money? And he dared make a move on me?"

Chen Ruowen was stunned.

Fifty thousand yuan would not even buy her a single outfit, yet Huang Ge had dared come at her with a knife for that amount. Bai Jinyan had been slashed because of such a trivial sum.

"For Huang Ge at that time, fifty thousand was a large sum," Chen Liwan explained. "It could cover a year or two of mortgage payments, and it would have bought him enough time to move to another city and look for work."

"Then who is this Liu Yong?" Chen Ruowen thought for a moment. "I don't remember anyone by that name."

"He's just the owner of a convenience store," Chen Liwan said, pointing to the penultimate page of the file. "The one truly connected to him is this person."

Chen Ruowen did as she was told and turned the page. The second-to-last sheet was a relationship map for Liu Yong, listing his family background, friends, schoolteachers, and even a few regular customers who often visited the store. In the upper right corner, in enlarged bold type, was information on Liu Yong's immediate family.

Liu Yong had an older sister named Liu Meijuan.

And Liu Meijuan was Guo Yang's second wife.

The logic of it all became clear at once.

The only question was whether the one who had actually made the move was Guo Yang, or Liu Meijuan.

"Where is Huang Ge now?"

"Still at the police station. After our people questioned him yesterday, they put him back in custody." Chen Liwan gave a measured explanation. "It was attempted assault, after all. Even if Bai Jinyan didn't come forward for the injury assessment, he would still have to be held for five to ten days."

"Attempted assault? Five to ten days?" Chen Ruowen let out a cold snort. "That was attempted murder. Guo Yang probably had a hand in hiring the killer too."

She truly had not expected Guo Yang to be so small-minded. Over a few petty words, he had actually gone so far as to send someone to take her life.

"Father knows." Chen Liwan nodded. "But Guo Yang does hold an official post, so he won't be easy to move against. As for Huang Ge and Liu Yong, how do you want to handle them first? I'll find someone."

Murderous light flickered in Chen Ruowen's eyes. She had never been soft-hearted, and this time, Huang Ge had genuinely wanted to kill her. If Bai Jinyan had not protected her, she would have lost her life, or at least half of it, that day.

Even Bai Jinyan had been severely wounded protecting her, his right hand injured a month before the college entrance exam. If Bai Jinyan had been an ordinary person, that injury might have ruined his entire future.

When she saw blood soaking Bai Jinyan's arm, Chen Ruowen had been heartbroken to the point of pain. If she had not been so consumed with his safety at the time, her temperament would never have allowed Huang Ge to walk away with every limb intact.

For people like that, the best response was to take their lives outright and never give them another chance to harm anyone.

"An eye for an eye, a life for a life, and debts must be repaid. That is only natural."

The answer was exactly what Chen Liwan had expected. Even if Chen Ruowen had wanted to spare Huang Ge, he would not have permitted it.

"With the surveillance footage as proof, that part is not a problem. What about Liu Yong? How do you want him handled?"

"The one who hires a killer to hurt someone is just as guilty."

That answer, too, did not surprise Chen Liwan. This time, however, after considering it for a moment, he shook his head.

"That may be a little difficult." Seeing his daughter's face darken at once, he added, "There is no direct evidence yet that Liu Yong hired the hitman. There are no transfer records, and no video capturing their transaction. Even if Huang Ge admits it, as long as Guo Yang simply refuses to acknowledge anything, we cannot force that charge onto him."

"Why can't we just force it on him?" Chen Ruowen said unhappily, as though asking why the sky was blue. She seemed wholly unaware that they were discussing a human life.

"After all, Liu Yong is Guo Yang's brother-in-law. A civilian cannot fight an official. If Guo Yang insists on protecting him, then even with solid evidence we may not necessarily win."

"I'll call Kang Wenbo and have him suppress Guo Yang's connections."

Chen Ruowen's attitude was forceful. She had never been one to swallow her anger, and this time the matter involved not only herself, but also Bai Jinyan, who had been injured protecting her. She almost wished to play the tyrant and have every person involved cut down on the spot.

"It's not easy. Liu Yong and Guo Yang are practically one and the same. If we move against Liu Yong, we must first bring Guo Yang down. And we still cannot be sure whose orders this really came under, or whether there are other matters tangled up behind it. Before that, it would not be wise to act openly against Guo Yang."

Chen Ruowen hesitated for a moment, then reluctantly nodded.

"Guo Yang..." she said. "I suspect he may also be connected to another matter."

After thinking it over and organizing the things she had heard in her mind, she told Chen Liwan what she knew. "It's only my guess. I can't be certain."

Chen Liwan frowned. "This is no small matter. I'll send people to investigate first. You stay out of it."

"There is one more thing," Chen Ruowen said. "Don't tell Guo Jingyuan about Huang Ge and Liu Yong."

She sighed. "That girl is too fond of wild speculation. I'm afraid that once she hears about it, she'll imagine a whole mess of things, then end up ashamed enough to run away from home. With that timid nature of hers, if she ever left Clearwater Riverside, she'd be practically handing herself over to her fake father and stepmother on a silver platter."