Chapter 84 A Life with No Choice

Inside the interrogation room, Da Xiong was stunned. He looked at his parents in disbelief, his lips moving, but he couldn't utter a single word.

What could he say? The request hadn't come from Old Yang at the police station, nor from the wealthy and influential Tang Baiqing, but from the very parents who had given him life!

Wu's father had also lost his usual temper and the condescending attitude of a parent. He lowered his head, his voice trembling, "...They're paying us. One hundred thousand for each year he serves."

Da Xiong sat blankly on the chair, replying haltingly, "Dad...Dad...I don't want to go to prison...!"

Wu's father kept his head down, his voice hoarse as he replied, "Son, you know our family's situation. My life is completely ruined, there's no chance for me to turn things around. But...people have to live, don't they? We only have that one broken-down house, but I have three sons! You're all grown up now, what can I use to set you up with a career, get you married, and have children?!"

Da Xiong was speechless. He turned to look at his mother, but she was turned away from him, sobbing.

"I asked that Old Yang earlier. You have a mental disability, which will be taken into account legally. They'll give you a low IQ test report. You won't be in there for too long," Wu's father continued, gritting his teeth. "Six or seven years, we'll get the money, and when you come out, you can get married and have kids. Your eldest and second elder brothers won't forget you...they'll take care of you for the rest of your life."

"I...I won't do it!" Da Xiong couldn't get help from his mother, so he could only stubbornly refuse his father's request.

Wu's father looked up at him. "If you don't do it, when will your eldest and second elder brothers be able to get wives? Do you want me to die without any descendants?!"

Silence. After a brief silence, Wu's father got up and knelt on the ground with a thud. "I'll kowtow to you, okay? Help your eldest brother, your second brother, and help the family, okay?!"

Da Xiong looked at his father kneeling before him and subconsciously turned his head away. He didn't feel sorry for him, nor did he have any emotional feelings. All he felt was helplessness.

"Son, help your eldest brother and your second brother," his mother said, crying with her back to him.

...

Half an hour later, Wu's father and mother left the interrogation room and talked with Tang's father in the car outside for a long time. The two even signed a simple agreement.

For Tang's father, manipulating the case to reduce Da Xiong's sentence wasn't a problem at all. He didn't need to trick the Wu family because it was just a matter of spending money.

For Tang's father, the best result was for the case to pass quickly, for someone to take the blame for his son, and for it not to be brought up again in the future. As for the financial loss, that wasn't his main concern.

Outside the office building, after Su Tianyu and the others had breakfast, they once again asked the officer on duty to see Da Xiong, wanting to ask when he would be released, but they didn't expect the officer to tell him that Da Xiong was about to be arrested.

This stunned Su Tianyu, but he didn't have any connections at the Zhan Nan District Police Department, so he immediately contacted Yu Mingyuan to inquire about the situation.

Yu Mingyuan had also been paying attention to this matter and knew much more than Su Tianyu. So, he hinted at the latter, vaguely telling him that Da Xiong might be taking the blame for Tang Baiqing and that the two families had already met and finished talking.

Su Tianyu was extremely shocked and speechless when he learned this news. Although he had experienced a lot and had become accustomed to the so-called coldness of human relationships and the baseness of human nature in this era, he was still full of repulsion and disgust towards this matter.

After communicating on the phone, Su Tianyu asked Yu Mingyuan to find some connections to let him see Da Xiong, which the latter immediately agreed to.

Before Da Xiong was transferred to the police detention center, Su Tianyu met him in the interrogation room.

Inside the dimly lit room, Su Tianyu looked at Da Xiong in confusion. "Why did you agree? Do you know what this means? It means your life could be ruined!"

"...My...my parents came," Da Xiong said, his voice hoarse, his head lowered.

"You can refuse them! You have your own life! You don't have to listen to your family in everything!" Su Tianyu wasn't pretending to be a saint here or trying to be a moral example. On the contrary, he wouldn't bother with the affairs of ordinary people. It was just that Da Xiong was different. After a few months of contact, he felt that he and Da Xiong were friends, a simple kind of friendship without any interest involved.

"Xiao...Xiao Yu Ge...they...they raised me after all."

Su Tianyu was silent.

"Peo...people...life...life just has a lot of unavoidable things...things," Da Xiong replied, his head lowered. "...I...I can't watch the warehouse for you anymore...Xiao Yu Ge."

Su Tianyu turned his head away, not knowing what to say.

Wu's parents agreed, Da Xiong himself agreed, and the Tang family was willing to pay. Everything had been arranged properly and seamlessly. What could Su Tianyu say? It was all meaningless.

The two were silent for a while. Su Tianyu turned to look at Da Xiong. "I'll deposit some money for you later. Take good care of yourself."

Da Xiong didn't reply, staring blankly at the floor.

Su Tianyu pushed open the door and left, not knowing what kind of emotions he was feeling.

At the entrance of the office building, Bai Hongbo asked with a frown, "What did he say?"

"They reached a private agreement. Da Xiong is going to jail."

"...Sigh, this is really fucked up!" Bai Hongbo sighed and cursed. "But it's normal, that's how the world is. The three Yu sisters have one way of living, the prostitutes have another way of living. No one can compare with each other."

Bai Hongbo's words were like shit, stinking and disgusting, but no one refuted him.

...

Around nine o'clock in the morning, Da Xiong was transferred to the police station. This time, Old Yang personally took his statement, and his attitude was no longer so kind. He narrated the course of the case with a serious expression throughout.

"You are the warehouse manager on the third floor, and you have to live there every night." Old Yang smoked a cigarette, speaking slowly and clearly to Da Xiong, "Last night, as soon as you got back, you saw the deceased, Qu Ying, looking for Tang Baiqing, who was gambling. The two had a quarrel and conflict over emotional issues. You and Tang Baiqing knew each other before, so you chose to go downstairs to break up the fight. During the fight, Qu Ying, due to injecting banned hallucinogenic drugs, lost control of her emotions and started hitting and scolding you, and used a hammer for fixing ship bolts to hit you in the back. In self-defense, you snatched the hammer and hit her in the head without any intention of killing her..."

Da Xiong listened without responding.

"In a moment, my officers will take you to the police station hospital for a full body examination. You have to tell the doctor clearly about the external injuries you sustained from Qu Ying's beating. Do you understand what I mean?" Old Yang asked implicitly.

Da Xiong looked up at him.

"Cooperate with the doctor and examine your external injuries." Old Yang reminded him again.

In another room, Tang Baiqing sat on a chair and said to the surveillance camera of the law enforcement recorder, "Yes, Qu Ying hit me first, and then Wu Shixiong came down to break up the fight, and she started fighting with him again. Because I spent a lot of money on Qu Ying, she might be a little afraid of me, so...she took her anger out on that worker, Wu Shixiong. I was pulling her aside the whole time..."

...

That night, after Tang Baiqing signed his statement, he was released by the police station to await the next summons.

9:30 p.m.

At the police station hospital, Da Xiong stood in the room where criminal suspects were photographed and filed, his eyes empty.

"Take off your clothes," the officer shouted.

Hearing this, Da Xiong took off his shirt and pants, standing in front of the height-measuring wall in only his underwear.

Under the bright lights, Da Xiong stood straight, revealing countless wounds of various sizes all over his body. There were cigarette burn marks, long strip-shaped scars from belt beatings, and wounds the size of fingernails.

The colors of these scars varied in depth, some were black, some were brown, suggesting they were not caused at the same time.

The officer was stunned when he saw him. "You...what...what happened to you?"

Da Xiong didn't respond.

"Hold up that personal information card and take a picture," the officer instructed.

Da Xiong picked up the sign from the ground and held it expressionlessly below his chin.

The information card read:

Name: Wu Shixiong.

Gender: Male.

Hukou: Zhan Nan District, Dragon City.

Age: 19 years old.

Crime: Suspected of murder.

Inside the room, the camera flashed on and off, and Da Xiong stood in front of the wall, his face devoid of any subtle expression.

...

A week later, Tang Baiqing resumed his normal work because his father had already finished negotiating with the victim's family. No one knew how much money was spent.

On the first day of resuming work, Tang Baiqing was in a bad mood. Just as he arrived at his workplace and was about to take a nap, a leader of the Zha Nan District Wharf Gang called him. "Baiqing, are you busy?"

"No, I'm at work, what's up?"

"Let's get together?"

"I'm not in the mood."

"Hey, I'm already at the entrance of your workplace, come out!" the other party invited.

Zha Nan, Su Family.

Su Tianyu was sitting in the stone pavilion, chatting with his third sister, when Yu Mingyuan's phone call came.

"Hello?"

"The case is over, get ready to receive the goods."

"Okay." Su Tianyu nodded.

Da Xiong had gone in, but it wouldn't affect any of the offshore business, and aside from Su Tianyu, Bai Hongbo and others, not many people would pay attention to a mentally disabled little person.

...

On a certain island.

A man was sitting in a bar, whispering to another person, "My compensation payment and demobilization pay are almost here, I'll pay you back in a while."

"It's okay, haha!" the other party said with a smile, taking a sip of wine. "Hey, have you contacted Su Da Keng recently?"