ECG -Chapter 107 Love, Hate, and Old Grudges

He Qing’s house was a single-story house with a large courtyard. There were many people standing both inside and outside, and as soon as they entered the yard, they could smell a burnt, charred odor.

Zhou Dongbing led the three of them inside. Many people recognized him and greeted him one after another.

Lin Hao immediately noticed a large piece of colorful plastic tarp covering the window beside the door. The tarp fluttered in the wind, and at the exposed edges, the dark scorch marks left behind from the burning could still be clearly seen.

Could there have been a fire?

“Sister-in-law!”

After Zhou Dongbing entered the living room, a slightly plump woman in her mid-to-late thirties came over.

“Dongbing!”

The woman’s eyes were already swollen red. After calling out once, tears began streaming down her face again.

“Sister-in-law, please accept my condolences.”

Zhou Dongbing’s eyes were also red. After comforting her for a few moments, he walked over to the mourning hall.

In the mourning hall, the black-and-white photos of He Qing and Fourth Sister were placed side by side. On the offering table were some fruits like melons, pears, and peaches.

Zhou Dongbing took out three incense sticks from the table, lit them, respectfully bowed three times, and then placed them into the incense burner.

Perhaps because the window was broken, the temperature inside the hall was very low. Lin Hao noticed that no one was standing near the broken window. The floor there was empty, probably because it had already been cleaned up. The walls on both sides were blackened by smoke.

He secretly found it strange. It was obvious that a fire had happened, but judging from the scene, only this small area had burned. How could it possibly have burned three living people to death?

Zhou Dongbing quietly called out to him. Lin Hao pulled Wu Xiaozhou along, and the two hurried over to pay their respects.

Looking at Fourth Sister’s smiling face in the photo, Lin Hao’s vision became blurry again and again. Holding the three incense sticks above his head, he bent down and bowed three times. Tears fell onto the floor tiles.

The custom in Long Province was to hold the funeral after three days, because the body would be cremated the next day. Zhou Dongbing told Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou to follow them to a nearby hotel to rest.

Lin Hao really wanted to know what had happened, but Zhou Dongbing did not go to the hotel with them. Instead, he went to the local police station.

After he and Wu Xiaozhou washed up, it was already the middle of the night. Hearing the sounds from the room opposite them, Zhou Dongbing still had not returned, so they had no choice but to lie down and sleep.

…

The next morning at seven, they arrived back at He Qing’s house.

The funeral procession was extremely grand, with a whole fleet of luxury black cars. More than two hundred vehicles, including Mercedes-Benzes, BMWs, Land Rovers, Cayennes…

But no matter how glorious someone was while alive, after death they were nothing more than a wisp of smoke, turning into a pile of white bones.

Because the bodies had burned too badly, there was no funeral farewell ceremony. When Fourth Sister’s ashes were brought out, a young man in his mid-to-late twenties cried extremely sorrowfully. His small eyes had already swollen from crying until they were almost squeezed shut, and two young men beside him kept supporting him.

Thinking of his last phone call with Fourth Sister, and looking at the white bones in front of him, Lin Hao also burst into tears. Wu Xiaozhou held his shoulder tightly with reddened eyes.

He heard that several of He Qing’s brothers had bought the burial plot. At 9:30 in the morning, they left the crematorium and went straight to the burial site. Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou also stayed and helped with everything.

At noon, the funeral banquet was held at the largest restaurant in the provincial capital. Because many people had left along the way, the hundred tables were not even fully occupied.

Before the meal began, He Qing’s wife Shang Na led a six- or seven-year-old boy and bowed to everyone in thanks. Then a dignified-looking man in his early forties said a few words before the meal finally started.

Lin Hao and Wu Xiaozhou had not prepared anything at all. Besides, Fourth Sister had not married, so they did not give any condolence money. They had spent the whole morning helping out, and their sincerity was enough.

This kind of banquet was extremely difficult to eat through. Hardly anyone drank alcohol, and in less than half an hour, everyone dispersed.

After the banquet, the two followed Zhou Dongbing back to He Qing’s house and sat there for a while. When they were leaving, Lin Hao saw Zhou Dongbing quietly slip a bank card to He Qing’s wife.

After leaving He Qing’s house, Zhou Dongbing spent the entire way making phone calls. Then he went to the local police station again. Lin Hao, Wu Xiaozhou, and Hu Pangzi waited in the car the whole time. More than an hour later, he finally came out.

After coming out, Zhou Dongbing kept his brows tightly furrowed.

When the four of them returned to the hotel, it was already dark. Sitting in the room, Wu Xiaozhou busied himself making tea.

Lin Hao finally couldn’t hold back and asked the question.

Zhou Dongbing’s face was hidden in the smoke. After a long while, he let out a heavy sigh. He didn’t directly talk about the grudge between Chen Yu and He Qing, but first began telling them about his own relationship with He Qing.

“Old Qing and I met fifteen years ago. At that time, Fourth Brother hadn’t left yet, and Old Qing had always followed Fourth Brother. That year, Xiaoyun was only fourteen or fifteen years old, a mischievous little girl. I still remember she had dyed her hair green back then. Haha!”

As he said this, a faint smile appeared on Zhou Dongbing’s lips.

“Regarding the grudge between Chen Yu and them, most people only knew bits and pieces of it. It was only after Chen Yu went to prison that the whole thing slowly spread.”

“Before Chen Yu went to prison, he and Xiaoyun were already preparing their wedding. But no one expected that someone would bring up a murder case from two years earlier!”

“And the person behind it was Old Qing!”

As soon as Zhou Dongbing said this, Lin Hao, Wu Xiaozhou, and Hu Zhigang were all stunned. This was far beyond their expectations. As Xiaoyun’s older brother, why would He Qing push his future brother-in-law into a dead end?

Zhou Dongbing smiled bitterly. “Don’t doubt it, because Old Qing told me all of this himself.”

“The reason was very simple. Old Qing discovered that the deaths of his two younger brothers back then were related to Chen Yu!”

“He Qing didn’t only have one younger sister, Xiaoyun. He also had two younger brothers!”

Lin Hao suddenly understood. There had always been a question in his mind: Fourth Sister clearly only had one older brother, so why did everyone call her Fourth Sister?

Zhou Dongbing continued, “Old Qing had always been unable to let go of the deaths of his two younger brothers. Even though several years had passed, he had secretly been investigating.”

“Finally, one day, by chance, he met someone and found out what had really happened.”

“It turned out that Chen Yu’s older sister had once been the mistress of He Family’s third brother. They had only known each other for two or three months when Chen Yu’s sister was diagnosed with lung cancer.”

“But He Lao San handled the matter dishonorably. Not only did he not give Chen Yu’s sister a single cent, he even disappeared.”

“At that time, Chen Yu’s sister was already pregnant. With no other choice, she had the child aborted, and she died less than half a year later.”

“After Chen Yu buried his sister, he did everything he could to get close to Old Qing and slowly gained his trust.”

“At that time, society in Xuecheng was still quite chaotic. There were many people fighting over territory and businesses. Chen Yu used those tangled interests and conflicts to set up a plan to kill He Lao San, but instead accidentally killed He Lao Er.”

“There’s an old saying: you shouldn’t fear a thief stealing from you, you should fear a thief keeping an eye on you. Before even a year had passed, He Lao San also died a violent death.”

“Although all those people who had caused the deaths of his two brothers were dealt with by Old Qing, he also noticed some suspicious things, which was why he secretly investigated the matter.”

“Chen Yu was an extremely patient person. He stayed silent and no one suspected him. When he realized Old Qing’s attention had turned toward him, he quickly started dating Xiaoyun!”

“Old Qing had hidden all of this from his sister. Both of his younger brothers were gone, and this was the only biological sibling he had left, so he didn’t want her to suffer any harm.”

“The incident from two years ago was also something he deliberately had Chen Yu handle. He just didn’t leave behind a single trace. His purpose was to prevent Chen Yu from surviving and then biting him back someday.”

“But he never imagined that Chen Yu would not only complete the job perfectly but also escape unharmed. So after two years, he finally exposed the matter. His goal was to put Chen Yu to death, but he never expected that Chen Yu would only be sentenced to twenty years.”

Lin Hao and the others understood now. It seemed Chen Yu had learned that He Qing was the one plotting behind his imprisonment, so he escaped this time because he wanted to personally kill him.

The room was filled with a faint bluish smoke. For a long time, no one spoke again.

Zhou Dongbing let out another long sigh. “Old Qing had many friends, but people he truly opened his heart to were very few. He told me all of this last autumn when I invited him to Chunhe and took him hunting at the forestry bureau down below. But who would have thought that Old Qing forced Chen Yu onto a dead end, only to end up losing his own life and Xiaoyun’s as well.”

“Ah, the older someone gets in this world, the more cautious they become. If you ask me, it would have been better to just finish him off directly. Why go through all the trouble of sending him to prison? Chen Yu wasn’t sentenced to death, and instead it created a whole pile of unnecessary trouble!”