Plan

"I've already called the brothers at my station. They'll be here soon. Xiao Chen, don't be afraid. I'll make those people pay the price they deserve.

Father Lin felt terrible when he saw Xue Chen like this, but he knew this was as much as he could help. He could tell that the child was not as fragile as he looked, but he was still just a child. Things were not as complicated as he imagined.

If this matter had not been uncovered, his relatives might have taken him in, sweet-talked him a little, and ruined him. Even that bit of family property might have been swindled away under various pretexts.

After so many years in criminal investigation, he understood the ugliness between adults better than anyone.

"Thank you, Uncle Lin." Xue Chen spoke softly, his expression as desolate as could be. To the adults, he looked like a pitiful child who had been abandoned.

Mother Lin's heart ached even more when she saw him. "Silly child, why be so polite with us? Your family helped ours so much back then. Otherwise, our household would have fallen apart long ago. Now that you're suffering, we naturally can't stand by and do nothing. We'll send all those demons and monsters to prison."

Plan

"Xiao Chen, although your parents are gone, I know it isn't appropriate to come looking for you now. But your parents owed me twenty thousand yuan. You have to pay it back, right? If you can't pay, I'll start moving the things in this house." A fat middle-aged woman with a mean-looking face sat rudely on Xue Chen's sofa, her shifty eyes sweeping over the room's furnishings.

"What are you saying? Xiao Chen will definitely repay whatever his father owed you. If he truly has no money, you can take whatever you want from the house." Xue Qing smiled as though she were the owner of the house.

"That's right. My elder brother was always a principled man. Paying back debts is only natural." Xue Chen's second uncle, Xue Hui, wore a righteous expression as he casually pinned the accusation on Xue Chen's father.

As more and more debt collectors arrived at the Xue Household, Xue Chen still said nothing. His eldest aunt, Xue Pan, could no longer sit still. "Xiao Chen, why are you so ignorant of the rules? Since they've come to collect their money, hurry up and take out the money your mother hid—" Suddenly, she noticed that her elder brother's usually mild-mannered son was looking at her in a frightening way. It scared her so badly that she dared not say another word.

"Wait. Not everyone is here yet." Xue Chen glanced indifferently at Xue Hui, who had remained silent, then said to Xue Pan, "Eldest Aunt, why not wait a little longer?"

"Alright, alright." Xue Pan swallowed instinctively.

Knock, knock, knock! Someone knocked on the door.

"Uncle Lin, you're here?" Xue Chen stood and opened the door. When he saw the people outside, he spoke calmly, his face still utterly composed.

The door was pushed open, and seven or eight people in police uniforms entered. Behind them was a refined, handsome man in a black suit, carrying a briefcase and wearing gold-rimmed glasses.

After they entered, more police officers stood waiting outside. They held guns and stood silently at the entrance like guardian gods.

When Xue Pan saw the group of police officers, she recognized their leader as the man who lived across from her elder brother. Seeing him in uniform, her heart leaped into her throat. "Xiao Chen, why did you call... call the police?"

"To settle accounts." Xue Chen's words carried a double meaning, making Xue Hui and Xue Qing's eyelids twitch.

The suited man who had just entered opened his briefcase, took out a thick stack of documents, and spread them on the coffee table. "Mr. Xue, we can begin now."

"Mm." Xue Chen nodded, then looked at the first woman who had come to demand money. "You said my father owed you twenty thousand yuan. Tell me your name so I can check the accounts."

The moment he said that, everyone in the room aside from the police and lawyer changed expression. Yet the middle-aged woman still clung to a trace of hope. "Liu Alan. Last July, your father borrowed twenty thousand yuan from me!"

"Liu Alan, from Province U, elementary school graduate. At eighteen, you married Yu Dagui from the same village. In 1974, you came to S City together to work. That same year, your husband was injured in a fall and had no money for treatment. While begging on the streets, you encountered Mr. and Mrs. Xue Yao, who lent you twenty thousand yuan. However, your work has been unstable these past few years, and your husband has continued taking medicine, so the money was never repaid. May I ask how my client's father could have borrowed these twenty thousand yuan from you?

"Mr. Xue, under our criminal law, fraud exceeding three thousand yuan carries a prison sentence of three to ten years." After reading this, the lawyer looked toward the silent Xue Chen, as if waiting for his response.

The middle-aged woman collapsed onto the floor. She had never expected this young man to have investigated her background so thoroughly. She knew what awaited her.

"I was wrong, I was really wrong! I was blinded by greed and listened to someone else's instigation. I'm begging you, please spare me. My husband is sick, and I have a child. I can't go to prison." She kept kowtowing and begging for mercy.

Xue Qing looked at the woman without the slightest pity in her eyes. "Uncle Lin, I'm not only pursuing her for fraud. I also want her to repay those twenty thousand yuan. If she can't, I don't mind having her sentence increased."

Father Lin's eyes were full of heartache as he looked at Xue Chen. Then he said to a nearby officer, "Lao Liu, take her away." Things proceeded so smoothly mainly because all the evidence against everyone in the room had already been verified. Coming here was merely a formality.

"I came to repay a debt. I owed your father three thousand yuan, and I have three thousand five hundred with me. I actually came today to return the money. I can't bring myself to bully a child who has lost both parents." At that moment, a woman stepped forward and placed the money from her pocket on the table. Xue Chen glanced at it. "Uncle Lin, let her go. Give her the five hundred yuan."

"Alright. Go sign your name." Father Lin nodded. A police officer beside him took out a record book for her to sign. After she finished writing, the woman left.