Donghu Hospital, VIP surgical ward.
Lu Jinsong and his wife Yan Yufeng sat by their daughter Lu Yue’s bedside. Their son, Lu Hao, who had just returned from a business trip, stood behind them, his face filled with anger.
After several days of rest and with her husband’s surgery being successful, Lu Yue had been transferred from the intensive care unit to the adjacent VIP ward. Her spirits had returned to normal, though she was very weak after the miscarriage.
Little Cheng Yang, perhaps having witnessed his parents being beaten, had been somewhat traumatized. He was now unusually quiet, snuggling obediently in his mother’s arms, a stark contrast to his usual mischievous nature.
“Dad, tell me, who beat Sister and Brother-in-law like this? I’ll make them wish they were dead.”
Lu Hao, twenty-nine years old and just over a year younger than Lu Yue, was the president of Hanhua Commercial Group, a retail giant in Hancheng, as well as a board member and shareholder. He was the youngest business prodigy in Hancheng’s business circles.
He had just returned from an overseas study tour and rushed to the hospital directly from the airport upon hearing that his sister and brother-in-law had been hospitalized after an assault.
Becoming the president of a listed company at such a young age was not solely due to his father’s influence.
He possessed not only a superhuman business acumen but was also generous and had connections with major figures in both the legitimate and underground circles of Hancheng. He also had close friends among the “princeling” circles in Beijing.
Therefore, upon hearing that his sister and brother-in-law had been beaten and hospitalized, his immediate thought was to cripple and kill the perpetrators himself.
Lu Jinsong glared at him. “Are you in the mafia? Wishing people dead at the drop of a hat. You’re a president, can’t you be more composed? I’m not retired or dead yet, don’t I know how to handle this?”
“How can you handle it? You’ll just have them arrested, sentenced, and fined. That’s too lenient for them. I won’t let them off easy.”
Seeing Lu Jinsong about to lose his temper, Yan Yufeng quickly intervened. “Alright, alright. You two father and son always bicker. Can’t you sit down calmly and discuss this? Lu Yue has just recovered. The doctor said she needs rest. How can she rest if you keep arguing?”
“Mom, what exactly happened? Given Sister and Brother-in-law’s personalities, they shouldn’t have gotten into a conflict with anyone.”
Lu Hao stopped arguing with his father and wanted to understand the whole story.
Yan Yufeng, a university professor, was articulate and concisely recounted the events of that night, as told to her by Lu Yue after she regained consciousness.
“Alas, it’s all our fault for spoiling Yang Yang too much, making him so willful and pampered. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have caused such a big disaster.”
After explaining the situation, Yan Yufeng sighed deeply. Her son was not yet married and didn’t even have a girlfriend. She was already semi-retired. Her husband and children were usually busy, and her grandson was her only spiritual support, which led her to spoil the child excessively.
“Mom, you can’t say that. No matter how naughty Yang Yang is, he’s still a six-year-old child. He didn’t cause any substantial harm to the other party. After Brother-in-law apologized, they still resorted to violence. That’s entirely their responsibility, and it’s unforgivable.”
“Alas, fortunately, that young man named Yang Jian intervened in time. Otherwise, your sister and brother-in-law would have been beaten to death. It’s just that he’s now detained in the detention center and suffering, and he might even face imprisonment if this isn’t handled properly. We feel terrible about it.”
“Mom, you don’t need to worry about that. Since Yang Jian is our family’s savior, I will definitely compensate him. No matter how much money it takes, I’ll get him out.”
Lu Hao was a very loyal person and had already developed a great liking for Yang Jian, whom he had never met.
As they were talking, a man in his thirties, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, knocked and entered. He was Lu Jinsong’s secretary, Hu Cheng.
After greeting Yan Yufeng, Lu Yue, and Lu Hao, Hu Cheng stood beside Lu Jinsong.
“Director Lu, I just returned from Xinhe. The matters you asked me to investigate are basically clear.”
“Little Hu, you’ve worked hard. Let’s start with the case. What’s the progress of the investigation?”
Lu Jinsong was a direct relative of the involved parties, so he was not allowed to interfere with or participate in the investigation. Therefore, he could only have Hu Cheng follow up at all times.
Hu Cheng nodded. “The Xinhe task force is being very thorough. They have re-questioned all involved parties and collected evidence from some onlookers. It has been confirmed that Yang Yang was naughty and poked Geng Bin with a skewer from a meat skewer, and that Zhifeng did not deliberately provoke them. A female witness also corroborated this.”
“Hmm, it’s good that this matter has been confirmed. Geng Bin was the one who initiated the physical assault.”
“The most crucial issue now is that the other party insists that Yang Jian was with Zhifeng and Lu Yue. The waiter also confirmed that before the dispute, Yang Jian’s sister had interacted with Yang Yang, giving him a meat skewer, and Zhifeng and Lu Yue smiled at her.”
As he said this, Hu Cheng looked at Lu Yue, asking her to confirm this detail.
Lu Yue nodded. “Yes, we were walking home from Mom’s place and passed by the barbecue restaurant. Yang Yang insisted on eating barbecue, and we happened to be near Yang Jian’s table.
Seeing how insistent Yang Yang was, a young girl offered him a meat skewer. After Yang Yang refused, we decided to eat something before going back and nodded and smiled at the girl to thank her.
I already told the police officer who took my statement yesterday about this detail. We don’t know Yang Jian and his group at all. They only intervened to save us out of sympathy. How can they be framed as being involved in a brawl?”
Seeing Lu Yue getting agitated, Lu Jinsong quickly waved his hand. “Yueyue, don’t get agitated. The truth will prevail. Little Hu, what’s the attitude from the Ministry of State Security?”
“Given the special identities of Zhifeng and Lu Yue, and with their research institute’s superior authorities pressuring provincial and municipal leaders, the Ministry of State Security has also formed a task force to collaborate with Xinhe police in the investigation.
The Ministry of State Security plans to use a lie detector to test some witnesses and involved parties. This is because the testimonies of Yang Jian and others, as well as Lu Yue, all mention that Yang Jian did not intervene to save Zhifeng and Lu Yue immediately. It was only after Zhifeng was hit with a beer bottle and Lu Yue was kicked down that Yang Jian intervened upon hearing that Lu Yue was pregnant.
However, the eight people on the other side adamantly claim that Yang Jian intervened as soon as the dispute began, and it was mutual combat, with both sides bearing responsibility.
Therefore, as long as it can be proven that there was a time difference between Yang Jian’s intervention and Zhifeng being assaulted, it can be determined that Yang Jian and his group were not familiar with Zhifeng and Lu Yue, that Yang Jian acted out of chivalry and self-defense, and that the responsibility lies entirely with Geng Bin.
The lie detector should be able to detect lies, especially from those three women. They did not participate in the assault, nor did they drink, and they clearly witnessed the entire process with clear minds. They must have provided false testimony.”
Hu Cheng knew that Cheng Zhifeng and Lu Yue were senior engineers at a military research institute, currently leading a very important scientific research project. Their incident would be investigated as a spy case. All involved parties would not only undergo criminal investigation but also political vetting.