RYEY -Chapter 345 The Wu Family’s Line Has Been Cut Off

The doctors looked at one another. Dr. Ye saying his medical skills were inadequate—what a joke. And since Dr. Ye had also said the cause couldn’t be identified, then it must be a case of feigning illness.

Wu Fan was thrown back into prison. Seeing the vacant look in his son’s eyes, Wu Shangen bent down and whispered in Wu Fan’s ear, asking who had done this to him.

“Ye… Jun… Cheng… Qiao…”

Those four words drained Wu Fan of every last bit of strength. He looked pleadingly at his father. Wu Shangen closed his eyes—he knew what his son wanted him to do.

Taking a deep breath, he wrapped both hands around Wu Fan’s neck, muttering over and over, “Ye Jun, Cheng Qiao, I’ll come for you.”

A faint glimmer appeared in Wu Fan’s eyes, but it was no more than a fleeting spark. Slowly, his arms fell limply to his sides. At last, he was freed.

Wu Fan’s death didn’t alert the guards on duty outside. Seeing father and son lying side by side, they thought the two were asleep.

The next morning, when breakfast was being handed out, Wu Shangen stood by the small window at the door. “Where’s Wu Fan? Tell him to come get breakfast.”

“Comrade, my son’s pain eased this morning, so he just fell asleep. I’ll get it for him.”

A guard wanted to go inside to wake Wu Fan, but Wu Shangen dropped to his knees, begging them to let his son sleep a bit longer, saying he’d be able to come get lunch himself at noon.

When noon came and Wu Fan still hadn’t appeared, the guards knew something was wrong. They called in a few colleagues and entered the cell, only to find that Wu Fan’s body had already gone stiff.

“Arrest Wu Shangen!”

A guard shouted. Someone immediately took Wu Shangen to the interrogation room and subjected him to harsh questioning, but Wu Shangen answered nothing—no matter what they asked.

When the photos were developed, the strangulation marks on Wu Fan’s neck matched Wu Shangen’s fingerprints perfectly. There was no doubt the killer was Wu Shangen. Everyone was left stunned by what he had done.

After all, Wu Fan was the only remaining heir of the Wu family. Though he’d committed crimes, none of them warranted a death sentence. What Wu Shangen should have done was take all the blame onto himself and leave his only son alive.

Yet he had strangled to death the son he’d treasured since childhood. It was incomprehensible. The guards stared at Wu Shangen in a daze, unsure how to even begin.

Wu Shangen was kept in the interrogation room for most of the day. No matter what the guards asked, he said nothing, staring blankly at his hands and repeatedly miming the action of washing them.

The guards grew impatient and went out for a smoke. Wu Shangen quickly lifted his foot, pulled a hairpin from the sole of his shoe, and fiddled with the keyhole of the handcuffs. With a click, they sprang open.

When two guards came back in and shut the door, Wu Shangen moved. He swung the handcuffs and smashed them hard into one guard’s head. Then he grabbed the guard who’d closed the door and chopped the back of his neck with the edge of his hand. Neither guard had expected Wu Shangen to suddenly attack; both collapsed.

Wu Shangen lined the two guards up and compared them. The one on the left was about his build, so he swiftly stripped off that guard’s uniform. He put it on himself—hat and shoes included—then rummaged through their pockets for money, ration coupons, and identification, before swaggering out.

There were officers on duty outside. Seeing a colleague hurry out, one of them chuckled. That guy was always in a rush—probably needed the toilet or had forgotten something.

Wu Shangen walked out of the Public Security Bureau without obstruction. He was glad his case hadn’t been formally sentenced yet; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been held here.

After getting his bearings, he headed straight for Ye Jun’s home. He’d been to Ye Jun’s siheyuan before and had even coveted the property, but with Ye Chengying there, he hadn’t succeeded.

More than an hour later, Wu Shangen finally arrived. He circled the courtyard once, then chose to climb over the back wall.

The moment he landed, the little red-headed snake in the backyard grass lifted its head and silently slithered toward where he had landed.

Cheng Qiao stood at the bedroom doorway. None of the little red snake’s movements escaped her notice, but she stopped it from lunging up to bite Wu Shangen.

This season was when snakes hibernated; death by snake venom wouldn’t be a good explanation. Cheng Qiao stood in the shadows by the doorway, waiting for Wu Shangen to come.

Familiar with the layout, Wu Shangen crept straight to the main door of the back courtyard. Seeing that it wasn’t even closed, he was overjoyed.

But the moment one foot stepped over the threshold, something seemed to brush across his face. His head grew foggy, and he felt himself about to pass out.

“Damn it—an ambush!”

He turned to run, unsure whether to bolt for the main gate or head back to climb out over the wall. Reason told him the wall would be faster.

After only a few steps, his legs grew weaker and weaker, until they went limp like noodles. He collapsed to the ground. Then his mouth was forced open, and some liquid was poured in.

“Who are you? If you’ve got guts, say your name!”

Cheng Qiao let out a cold laugh. “Breaking into someone’s home and still this vicious—there’s no saving you.”

“You are…”

Wu Shangen wanted to say, You’re Cheng Qiao, but after two words he realized he couldn’t make a sound. Terror seized his heart. At last he understood why his son had been in such agony that he’d begged for death.

“You poisoned my son.”

Wu Shangen knew he couldn’t speak, but his mouth still opened and closed, trying to express himself. Just then, Li Huan appeared, pushing a handcart, and hauled Wu Shangen onto it.

The cart was pushed straight out through the siheyuan’s front gate. Ye Jun stood at the doorway, looking at Wu Shangen with hatred—yet with a trace of pity.

“Ye…”

Wu Shangen saw Ye Jun too. In his already dim eyes, a spark of hope flared—he wanted to beg for help. But in an instant, that light vanished, as memories of what he’d done to the Ye family came flooding back.

The couple pushed the cart to the entrance of the Public Security Bureau, dumped the man in a spot beyond the reach of the lights, quickly cleaned up a few traces, and only then hurried home.

When daylight broke, officers arriving for work found someone lying at the gate. They screamed in shock. When everyone rushed out to look, they realized the man wasn’t their colleague at all.

“Hey, isn’t this Wu Shangen? Why’s he wearing our uniform?”

“Something’s wrong—go check the interrogation room!”

Someone finally snapped out of it and ran to the interrogation room, where they found two men lying unconscious on the floor, one of them stripped of his uniform. They hurried to wake them up.