Chapter 109: Secrets and Death

2022-05-20

Wu Zui leaned forward like he was about to take flight.

Someone pulled the towels out of Liu Yinyan and Liu Feier’s mouths and for the first time, they could finally speak freely. Wu Zui dragged over a desk and a chair. He sat down while Scarface pinned me to my feet nearby, like he wanted me involved in this twisted game too.

Ever since I almost died as a child, my health has never been good. I’ve been frail and sick since I can remember. I wanted to fight back so badly, but Scarface’s hands clamped my arms behind me like a steel trap. I couldn’t move at all. If only I were Gu Chen, maybe I’d have a chance.

“What do you want from us!” Liu Yinyan shouted. “We brought the money like you asked—what more do you want? If ten million isn’t enough, tell me, I can give you even more! Just let my daughter go, please! We didn’t call the police, they showed up on their own!”

Wu Zui reached out and patted Liu Yinyan’s head like he was soothing a child, putting a finger to his lips. “Shh. Be quiet now, no yelling, be good. I know it wasn’t you who called them, I believe you. Look at your daughter, how sweet, how adorable.”

But all I could see in Liu Feier’s eyes was fear. Her body trembled, her face as pale as wax.

Wu Zui leaned in even closer to Liu Feier’s face.

Liu Yinyan’s expression grew heavy. What could a father possibly be feeling right now?

Only after a long pause did Wu Zui finally pull back and say, “Ahem, pardon my rudeness. Alright, let’s play a little game. It’s called ‘I Have Lots of Little Secrets, But I Won’t Tell You’. Doesn’t the name already sound fun?”

“If you want something, take it out on me,” Liu Yinyan begged. “Just don’t hurt my daughter! I’ll die if I have to, I don’t care!”

“Dad!” Liu Feier managed to cry out her father’s name before breaking down in tears.

The pair’s sobs filled the room.

“One more word and I’ll put a hole in both your heads. Got it?”

They nodded desperately.

Wu Zui looked pleased. “Good. Let’s start then. The rules are simple: I ask the questions, you give the answers. Don’t try lying to me. Trust me, the world hasn’t seen the person who could fool me yet.”

“Alright, first question for you, Liu Yinyan. Thirty-five years ago, did you plan the Gold Shop heist?”

Liu Yinyan glanced at his daughter. After a moment of silence, he answered, “Yes. I planned it.”

“Very good. Next up, your turn. Are you still pure?”

Everyone’s eyes turned to Liu Feier now, especially Liu Yinyan. It was clear he cared about the answer.

Liu Feier kept her head down, and whispered softly, “No. I’m not.”

“Not bad, you’re both being honest so far.” Wu Zui seemed satisfied. “Those were the warm-ups. Now it’s going to get interesting. Lie, and you die. Simple as that. Get it? So, Mr. Liu, did you know the man you killed had a daughter with kidney failure?”

He was dragging out the secrets from thirty-five years ago, blowing holes in a father’s dignity right in front of his daughter. He wanted her to see exactly how much dirt lay beneath her father’s crisp suits.

Tears streamed down Liu Yinyan’s cheeks as he looked at Liu Feier. In the end he still said, “Yes. I knew he had a daughter with kidney failure.”

“Now it’s your turn, Liu Feier.” Wu Zui asked, “That first time—was it really with your boyfriend? Don’t lie to me.”

Liu Feier’s face twisted from terror to shock as she stared at Wu Zui. That reaction told me Wu Zui must know all their darkest secrets already, or he wouldn’t be so fearless. And Liu Feier, she clearly wasn’t just the sweet, innocent nineteen-year-old we saw on the surface.

“No, it wasn’t.” The words seemed to tear out from her.

Liu Yinyan’s expression was a storm of rage and shame. “Feier, I raised you better than this! How could you—how could you do something like that?”

Wu Zui shook his head. “No, no. It’s not your turn to ask. My question is: Since you knew he had a daughter dying of kidney failure, haven’t you ever felt ashamed of what you did?”

“But—even if I didn’t do it, his daughter would’ve died anyway,” Liu Yinyan tried to defend himself. “She was already in the late stages! Even with money, there was no saving her! What’s the use? If I hadn’t done it, she’d still be dead. He lost everything and didn’t want to live, so what’s wrong with me going after what I want?”

“That wasn’t my question,” Wu Zui cut him off. “I asked if you feel guilty.”

Liu Yinyan just wilted like a deflated balloon.

“I… I feel guilty.” Liu Yinyan finally said, “For thirty-five years, that night’s haunted my dreams. I see the body they dragged out of the water, his daughter dying without ever seeing her father again. That’s why I started the kidney disease foundation—I’ve saved so many people!”

“Alright.” Wu Zui waved a hand, as if to shut him up. “Now then, Liu Feier, when did it happen?”

Liu Feier stared at the floor, unable to meet her father’s eyes. Maybe she meant to lie at first, but seeing Wu Zui’s masked face scared her into the truth. “I was sixteen. I went out one day, met a man…”

Liu Yinyan began to tremble. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “What? Sixteen? Who was it? Why didn’t you tell me—”

Wu Zui clapped his hands. “That’s enough. That’s not my question. My question is: Do you understand what it means to do anything for your daughter’s life?”

“I—” Liu Yinyan was suddenly at a loss for words.

Just like Ren Tian thirty-five years ago, desperate to keep his daughter alive even if it meant dying himself. Fighting the whole world if he had to. Back then, Liu Yinyan didn’t have a daughter—he couldn’t have understood.

But now, after thirty-five years, Liu Yinyan’s daughter was nineteen.

So… could he understand now?

“I do,” Liu Yinyan said with a bitter laugh. “Thirty-five years ago, I had no choice. If Ren Tian didn’t die, I would’ve. But now I have choices, and I can help so many more people. Why keep clinging to the past?”

Tears streamed down Liu Yinyan’s face.

Wu Zui didn’t respond, instead turning to Liu Feier. “Your turn, Liu Feier. Was it consensual?”

Wu Zui seemed set on smashing this family’s dignity to pieces, dragging a father’s pride through the dirt and laying his daughter’s secrets bare. How would they ever look each other in the eye after today?

Liu Feier’s tears had stopped. Maybe once the truth is out, nothing else matters. She was done hiding. “Yes. I wanted it, and I did it willingly.”

Those words shattered Liu Yinyan. He’d always been strict with everyone, more so with his own family. The shock of what his only daughter had done left him in ruins.

Breaking a person is simple. Just crush what matters most and let him watch.

“Good girl.” Wu Zui stroked Liu Feier’s face, then turned to Liu Yinyan. “You heard everything. Now you know what a heart broken by grief feels like, how bitter and helpless it is. So tell me, are you willing to pay for the sin you committed thirty-five years ago?”

Wu Zui’s words were soft, but every syllable landed on Liu Yinyan like a blow.

A sharp light flickered in Liu Yinyan’s clouded eyes. “I’m already seventy. Not everyone gets to live this long. I didn’t start learning until I was thirty, I built my business at thirty-five, and I didn’t have my daughter until I was fifty.”

“It always felt like there wasn’t enough time. Every day, I pushed myself just to keep up,” Liu Yinyan said, sounding oddly at peace. “After all these years, I finally get it. Sometimes, what you think you want… isn’t what you really want at all.”

“I only came to Dongxing City to find a wife, to have a child. But somehow I lost sight of that along the way.” He closed his eyes. “When did I forget my original dream?”

His words seemed plain, but something about them left a deep ache in my heart. A legend in the finance world, and in the end, his desires were so simple.

When you’re running through life, you often forget the reason you started running.

“So you’ve made up your mind?” Wu Zui asked, suddenly standing.

“Yes,” Liu Yinyan replied calmly.

“Don’t!” I cried out.

“Do it!” Liu Yinyan shouted.

Wu Zui sighed. “A dying man always speaks kindly. But after all these years, let the past be the past.”

All of us breathed out in relief.

Liu Yinyan’s face relaxed.

Blood sprayed everywhere. Liu Yinyan collapsed, falling backward.

“Ha! I was kidding!” Wu Zui burst out laughing.