Back to the Peak

Chapter 42: Finalization

On the one hand, Xing Ou wanted to please Cheng Xuze, and on the other hand, he wanted to make the Yin Family suffer a great loss. Naturally, he moved quickly. After visiting Cheng Xuze, he went directly to the court and proposed to start the trial.

Cheng Xuze greatly supported this. He asked Wang Qing to go with Xing Ou to deal with the matter with full authority.

Normally, Shi Qingyang, as a victim, should follow up on this matter. However, Xing Ou forgot about him, and Cheng Xuze didn’t want him to face the Yang and Yin families, so he completely detached himself from the matter.

After flipping through the news on the Internet, Shi Qingyang found that multitudes of crimes committed by Yang Haitao had been exposed on the Internet. Compared to these other crimes, Yang Haitao sending criminals out to murder Shi Qingyang became a relatively minor matter.

Among them, Yang Haitao was most mentioned for seizing the aphid farm.

The Yang family used to be nothing in Spark City. Twenty years ago, Yang Qiu began to prosper after she married Yin Hao. Sixteen years ago, the Zhao family, which originally owned the largest aphid farm in Spark City, suddenly went bankrupt. Yang Haitao bought the farm at a low price. This was the beginning of the Yang family’s prosperity.

The Zhao family’s farm had been operating for decades, and its business had been excellent. So long as no natural disasters or mutant beast tides came upon it, this type of business generally earned no loss. But then, 16 years ago, the Zhao family’s farm suffered frequent accidents.

First, someone attacked the staff of the farm, which forced the Zhao family to pay a large amount of money. Then, some people who had orders with the Zhao family suddenly cancelled their orders, which made the Zhao family’s capital turnover go into the red…

It never rains, but it pours1. At this time, a group of mutant beasts that ate aphids suddenly rushed into the farm, hunted a large number of aphids, and hurt people wantonly…

Who knew if it was a coincidence. When the beasts rushed into the farm, the owner from the Zhao family had been visiting to boost morale. He and several staff met the beasts and died of serious injuries.

After the death of the Zhao family owner, his parents were pressured into transferring the farm, but his wife could not bear the blow and died of illness…

The events at that time were quite similar to what happened to Shi Qingyang’s parents. After Shi Qingyang’s parents’ affairs were dug up, naturally, some people remembered these events that had once occurred.

Did Yang Haitao obtain the aphid farm of the Zhao family in the same way? At that time, so many people died in the farm. Did Yang Haitao indirectly kill them?

At the beginning, everyone was just speculating, but no one expected that when the trial began, someone suddenly went to the court and said that they had evidence that the Yang family deliberately attempted to seize the Zhao family farm.

In order to show impartial judgment, the leader of Spark City allowed the media to broadcast the trial process live. Shi Qingyang watched the live broadcast at home and saw the woman who took the evidence to the court for the first time.

She was a very beautiful woman, and an acquaintance of Shi Qingyang. It was He Lan.

He Lan once gave Shi Qingyang the impression that she was charming, but this time, her face held only sorrow. She brought a lot of evidence. As Mrs. Zhao’s sister, she sued the Yang family for money and murder.

At first, the wife of the Zhao family owner died not long after her husband died. The two old people of the Zhao family also died one after another in the next ten years. Many people thought that even if there was something fishy with the Zhao family’s matters in the beginning, no one would step forward to pursue the matter in court, but they didn’t expect He Lan.

After He Lan was the first to stand up, several more people took the stand. Most of them had been oppressed by the Yang family in business.

Not only did these people sue Yang Haitao, but Red Hand and others had undergone interrogation with a lie detector, operated by an expert. After that, they also confessed that Yang Haitao asked them to kill.

Yang Haitao was called. His face was pale, but he choked in silence and refused to confess, only allowing a lawyer to speak for him.

Unfortunately, there wouldn’t be any results anytime soon… Shi Qingyang put down his contact terminal and looked at Cheng Xuze nearby: “Grandpa, my teacher asked me to give you the potion prescription. Do you want to have a look?”

Cheng Xuze was talking to Cheng Ran. As a level-8 rad-warrior, he had been doing tasks everywhere to save money for the Cheng family and had little contact with his grandchildren. At this time, he planned to cultivate his feelings with Cheng Ran. Hearing what Shi Qingyang said, he said: “Just give me the prescription directly.”

“Grandpa, that prescription uses two undiscovered herbs. Do you want to have a look?” Shi Qingyang asked.

Cheng Xuze was stunned: “Then take me to see.”

“Ranran, let’s go upstairs together,” Shi Qingyang greeted Cheng Ran with a smile.

On the third floor, in addition to Shi Qingyang’s bedroom was another large room. There were a lot of pieces of fitness equipment and a complete set of medicine making tools inside.

“Ranran can mix it first,” Shi Qingyang said. In fact, he could have directly given the prescription to Cheng Xuze after identifying the two herbs. There was no way a senior pharmacist of the Cheng family couldn’t make medicine Cheng Ran could make, right?

But he wanted Cheng Xuze to know more about Cheng Ran, so he gave Cheng Ran a chance to perform.

Hearing what Shi Qingyang said, Cheng Xuze immediately locked the door: “You must be careful about such things in the future.” Gu Changjin might not be on their side now!

Shi Qingyang smiled. He knew that Cheng Xuze was worried about Gu Changjin. But the more cautious he was, the more suspicious it became. He and Cheng Ran used to keep the door open. Even if Gu Changjin had something he needed, he just shouted at the door… “Grandpa, do you want to take a video?”

“Alright.” Cheng Xuze nodded. Even if there was a prescription for the medicine, it would still likely take several tries to properly mix it. But with a video attached, a master like Ran Xue could mix it in one go.

After finding a recorder not connected to the internet to shoot, Cheng Ran focused on mixing the medicine.

Cheng Ran in his daily life always acted a bit too simply. Cheng Xuze was well-informed, and although he hadn’t been in contact with Cheng Ran for a while, he already knew most of Cheng Ran’s situation. In his opinion, Cheng Ran, who was like a child, would feel pressured and rushed while preparing medicine. He was even ready to see Cheng Ran fail.

Cheng Sisi, Cheng Hui’s second daughter, was one year older than Cheng Ran. She had been studying pharmacy for several years. But now even with the most basic soothing agent, she would fail to mix it four out of five times.

But in truth, Cheng Ran’s situation was the complete opposite. Cheng Ran was very devoted to making medicine. He turned a deaf ear to everything around him and was orderly from beginning to end…

Such a child, even if he wasn’t a rad-warrior, he could have studied scientific research since childhood, but the way Cheng Hong raised him… Fortunately, he was only 16 years old now.

Cheng Xuze felt good about Cheng Ran, but when he thought of what Cheng Hong said before, he couldn’t help sighing.

After the death of his wife, Cheng Hong had been treated him very kindly, but they were father and son after all. Cheng Hong would not lie to him about those matters… Moreover, if the reasons he said weren’t true, how could Cheng Hong treat his son like this?

As for the fact that Cheng Ran may not be of the Cheng family, Cheng Xuze rejected that possibility early in the morning. Cheng Ran and Cheng Hong had similar faces and eyes. The differences were just enough to tell them apart. If they were put together, others could always see that they were father and son.

How could the child’s mother do such a stupid thing? A melon forced off its vine was not sweet2, trying to find shortcuts would not bring success. Some things could harm others as well as oneself.

When he returned to Spark City, he must find some other research materials for Cheng Ran to make medicine… Yet for a person without radiation energy, this road wouldn’t be long-lived at all.

Cheng Xuze’s attitude towards Cheng Ran was somewhat complicated. Shi Qingyang could see this, but he didn’t take it to heart. As long as Cheng Xuze recognized Cheng Ran as his grandson, Cheng Ran would have no problem doing as he pleased in Spark City.

As for the rest… Cheng Ran had a good life in Spark City. Why should he care about anything else? He didn’t want Cheng Xuze to take Cheng Ran away at all.

“I’m ready!” Cheng Ran suddenly said, and then filtered the medicine in the pot and put it in several beautiful bottles.

Like Ning An, the head teacher of Spark Academy, Cheng Xuze had thought that Cheng Ran would give him the potion after he finished it. But then, Cheng Ran put the potion into Shi Qingyang’s hand: “Qingyang, here you are!”

Cheng Xuze suddenly felt sour in his heart.

He recorded a video of Cheng Ran’s preparation of the potion, copied the medicinal prescription, and looked at both the guanzhong and bai niuxi. Cheng Xuze couldn’t help admiring: “Qingyang, your master is really powerful. He can even think of a potion like this.”

“Grandpa, master said that he didn’t come up with this medicine, it’s just that until now, he was the only one who knew about it,” Shi Qingyang smiled and said. This medicine was developed by the people in the Research Institute of Feng family. The Institute was built near Central City. It was very large. Its researchers also conducted human body research. They would have been inspired by an experiment in seven or eight years, and then start to study this prescription…

Shi Qingyang would never take the research results of others, but when it came to that research institute, he would never be softhearted.

Of course, Cheng Xuze didn’t know this, but he thought of the story of “Fang” on his deathbed. He felt that Shi Qingyang probably didn’t know the specific situation, so he didn’t ask much.

Now all cities in China were connected to the virtual network, which was very convenient, but there were also some dangers. Cheng Xuze was not in a hurry anyway, so he simply put away the recorder and planned to show it to Ran Xue when he went back.

“Grandpa, can you not let others know about this?” Shi Qingyang asked again.

“Yes,” Cheng Xuze immediately agreed. Cheng Ran had no radiation energy. If he met danger, there would be no way for him to protect himself, so Cheng Xuze had to protect him.

After going back, he should ask Ran Xue to sign another confidentiality agreement.

Having made a good plan, Cheng Xuze suddenly looked at Shi Qingyang with a smile: “Qingyang, Xiao Ran can prepare potions. Are you in need of these potions? Would you give them to Grandpa?”

“Grandpa, these are for Qingyang,” Cheng Ran suddenly said. “If Grandpa wants some, I’ll make some for you.”

“Xiao Ran still loves Grandpa,” Cheng Xuze laughed.

Cheng Ran soon started to make medicine again. At night, Cheng Xuze received a box of medicine bottled into the most common medicine containers.

“Xiao Ran, why is this bottle different from Shi Qingyang’s.” Cheng Xuze suddenly remembered this matter that had made him very depressed before.

“Grandpa, I bought those bottles for Shi Qingyang,” Cheng Ran said. Seeing that Cheng Xuze didn’t seem to like the bottle in his hand, he flipped through his own contact terminal. “Grandpa, I have run out of pocket money this month. Next time I have money, I can buy some for you?”

It turned out that he had no money… The money to buy a few bottles was nothing to Cheng Xuze: “Ranran, you don’t have any pocket money? Grandpa will give you a red envelope!” He used the red envelope transfer system and directly transferred a large amount of money to Cheng Ran.

Cheng Ran had only just learned a bit about the idea of money recently. Of course Gu Changjin wouldn’t give him too much. Seeing such a large amount of money, Cheng Ran even became a little silly.

Cheng Xuze thought Cheng Ran would thank him. Seeing Cheng Ran’s dumbfounded expression, he became worried. Today’s children had rebellious periods. Sisi once complained that they only gave her money and didn’t care about her life. Would Cheng Ran do the same? Also, does the child feel that he has hurt his self-esteem by throwing money at him like this?

Cheng Xuze was thinking about Cheng Ran’s reaction, but he saw Cheng Ran move to Shi Qingyang and put the contact terminal in front of him: “Qingyang, I have a lot of money. Do you have anything you want? I’ll buy it for you.”

He said, with heroic spirit shooting into the sky, that he was willing to spend a lot of money for Qingyang.

Shi Qingyang suddenly felt, he needed to urge Cheng Xuze over the Internet to open the pharmaceutical factory quickly so that he could get some profits and dividends fast..

Although Cheng Ran was happy to take care of him, if it was Shi Qingyang saying this to Cheng Ran, that would make Shi Qingyang happier.

Cheng Xuze still stayed in the villa. That night, Shi Qingyang slept with Cheng Ran again.

After last night’s experience, the two people slept naturally next to each other. It was also that night that Yin Tiancheng handed in his application and went to see Yang Haitao.

As the Yang family’s case was, it usually took months to resolve such huge cases, but this time the situation was different…

The next day, Yang Haitao changed his previous attitude of not saying anything, instead, he confessed all the things he had committed.

He admitted that he had asked Red Hand to chase Shi Qingyang. He admitted that he had plotted to seize Shi Qingyang’s parents’ land. He admitted that sixteen years ago, he wanted the Zhao family’s farm, so he began to attack it…

The fragmented charges added up, and Yang Haitao’s admission was enough to sentence him to death several times.

Yang Haitao confessed quickly and wept bitterly, but at the same time, he also picked the others clean.

For example, before that, there was evidence that the inspection team did nothing after receiving the distress signal from Shi Qingyang’s parents. It was suspected that Yang Haitao and Yin Hao were in collusion, but Yang Haitao resolutely did not admit this. He only said that he had dragged the people of the inspection team, and did not let them go investigate.

He did the same for all the other things.

Yang Haitao’s happy confession was beyond everyone’s expectation. His good cooperative attitude, such as crying bitterly and being willing to compensate the victims for their losses, also made the residents of Spark City less hostile to him.

At this time, Yin Hao also stood up. He apologized to all the people in Spark City and took the initiative to resign without saying anything. He also handed in the criminal charges of many people in the patrol team, made all this public, and demanded that Xing Ou be severely punished.

In fact, Xing Ou was ready to pull Yin Hao off his horse. There were many people in Yin Family who had been operating in Spark City for many years. As an outsider, he had been suppressed before. Of course, it was impossible to uproot the Yin Family just this time, but it was not difficult to slowly break the Yin Family’s muscles and bones. Yet he never thought that Yin Hao would go so far.

If the criminal evidence submitted by Yin Hao was false, or if the person of the inspection team he reported had not been his confidant, Xing Ou could have taken this opportunity to embarrass Yin Hao. But he actually disclosed the illegal acts of his confidants, including his own younger brother, father, and mother.

In the past, Yin Hao’s kindness to his younger brother was obvious to all, but this time, he directly handed that brother over…

At this time, even Xing Ou admired Yin Hao’s act of breaking his wrists. Ordinary people who had been very hostile to Yin Hao had also lost a lot of their bad feelings towards him. Thinking of Yin Hao’s good image in the past, they only felt that Yin Hao was implicated by his younger brother and wife.

It was Xing Ou’s intention at the beginning to ask Yin Hao to resign, then attack the Yin family’s forces. Now that had all been done, but it was entirely Yin Hao’s initiative…

Was Yin Hao plotting something? Xing Ou guarded against them, but the Yin Family made no movements, and was extremely low-key.

Maybe the Yin Family was really scared by Cheng Xuze! Xing Ou was relieved, then began his takeover of the Yin Family’s power.

Footnotes

1 – 屋漏偏逢连夜雨, when bad situations happen, it isn’t a minor matter but instead becomes a major problem. [return]

2 – A melon forced off its vine is not sweet: A forced marriage/relationship won’t be happy. [return]