Page 28

Hearing Shen Chengan's aggrieved self-mockery, the guests gathered around frowned. Although Cheng Lang and Shen Huaiyu had come to collect a debt with "evidence for the court," they had known Shen Chengan for decades, after all. With their preconceived notions, they naturally preferred to believe that Shen Chengan was not a bad person.

Perhaps there really was some misunderstanding.

Shen Huaiyu parted his lips, not knowing how to refute Shen Chengan.

Cheng Lang said with a smile, "President Shen, that's not quite right. Our classmate Huaiyu didn't want you to pay for the funeral because he was being considerate of you. He thought that, at your age, with a wife and children to support, making a living wasn't easy. Several hundred thousand yuan was no small sum for any family. He didn't want his family's affairs to burden yours any further, so he insisted on paying for the funeral himself."

"Who could have imagined that President Shen could turn a four-hundred-thousand-yuan funeral into one costing a million? Forgive me for being blunt, but even middlemen profiting off the difference wouldn't dare fleece people this hard. President Shen, you're truly talented! Being the mere president of a calligraphy and painting association is beneath you. With your talent for stripping a goose bare as it flies overhead, if we went back three hundred years, you'd at least be a grand chancellor!"

"Pfft!" Cheng Lang's mouth was truly vicious. Someone at the scene could not hold it in and burst out laughing.

Hearing Cheng Lang compare him to the greatest corrupt official in history, Shen Chengan's face turned green. A surge of anger shot straight to his head, but he did not dare let it show. He could only say with a grim expression, "I know you have some misunderstandings about me. How about this? It's chaotic out here, and this isn't the place to talk. Let's go inside and discuss it slowly."

After saying that, Shen Chengan glanced again at the LED screen across the plaza, where the recording was still playing on a loop. He pleaded once more, "Could you turn off that screen first?"

"No." Cheng Lang shook his head and said decisively, "Do you know how much I spent renting that screen? It costs several hundred thousand yuan for a single day! How could I just stop it whenever you say so?"

Shen Chengan clenched his back teeth. "I'll reimburse you for it."

"I'm neither related to you nor close to you, President Shen. Why should I take your money?" Cheng Lang looked at Shen Chengan with a faintly mocking smile. "If I took it, and one day you got upset and called the police to accuse me of extortion, I wouldn't be able to explain myself even if I had eight mouths."

Shen Chengan had indeed been planning to do exactly that. Seeing that Cheng Lang would not take the bait, he could only smile and say, "This classmate is a little too paranoid. No matter how much trouble your actions have caused me, your original intention was to help Huaiyu. I'm Huaiyu's biological uncle. How could I blame you?"

Cheng Lang smiled. "You're Shen Huaiyu's biological uncle, yet barely over a month after his parents died, you'd already cheated him out of four or five million yuan. I'm an outsider, and an outsider who has caused you trouble at that. If you wanted to cheat me for another four or five years, I'm sure it would only take you four or five sentences!"

Seeing that Cheng Lang would not yield and kept needling him sentence after sentence, Shen Chengan could no longer maintain his pleasant expression. "What exactly do you want?"

Cheng Lang smiled. "President Shen, you're pretending not to understand when you know perfectly well. Didn't I just say it? We're here to collect a debt."

"The five-million-yuan difference on the house, plus the six-hundred-thousand-yuan difference in funeral expenses, comes to a total of 5.6 million yuan. Return the money, and we'll leave immediately. From then on, we'll stay out of each other's way."

Shen Chengan took a deep breath. "5.6 million yuan is no small amount. Even if I have to raise the money, I'll need some time, won't I? Let's go inside and talk first. Don't worry, I'll return every last cent of it to Huaiyu."

Even at this point, Shen Chengan did not forget to make excuses for himself. "My brother and sister-in-law passed away too suddenly. I know Huaiyu needs money right now. I never intended to swallow this money. You're all just too impatient. You never gave me a chance to explain."

"Cut the crap!" Cheng Lang said. "Lu Chengxuan just bought that house for 7.8 million yuan. And now President Shen is crying poverty to me? Don't tell me you spent all 7.8 million yuan in less than a week?"

Shen Chengan's expression changed. Just as he was about to speak, Cheng Lang continued, "And don't even think about stalling me. I know President Shen's wife is a hot-tempered, difficult woman. If you're planning to drag this out until you can call her here to fight us, then I'm sorry to tell you that you've miscalculated."

"To be honest with you!" Cheng Lang pointed behind him at the LED screen across the plaza. "...This is only part of it. If you don't give me the money today, I've already found out where you live, where your calligraphy and painting studio is, your wife's workplace, the home addresses and workplaces of all her relatives, and even your child's school."

Shen Chengan finally could not hold back any longer. He stared at Cheng Lang with a livid face and gritted his teeth. "What do you want to do?"

"Don't be nervous. I definitely won't do anything illegal." Cheng Lang said with a smile, "But I've already made arrangements with the restaurants and convenience stores near those places. Starting tomorrow, they'll play this recording every day. If you don't want everyone around you to know that you're a greedy, shameless piece of trash who cheated his own brother out of funeral expenses and his own nephew out of life-saving money, then hand over the money obediently."

At this point, the smile finally vanished from Cheng Lang's face. He strolled forward a few steps and looked down at Shen Chengan. "You dared take this kind of money. Don't you have nightmares at night? Have you no shame in the daytime?"

Cheng Lang's words completely shattered Shen Chengan's psychological defenses.

Shen Chengan knew that if he did not do as Cheng Lang said, Cheng Lang really would do those utterly deranged things.

"For this little bit of money, you're harassing my family so shamelessly. Don't you think you've gone too far?" Shen Chengan rebuked him with a dark expression.

"For this little bit of money, you could actually stand by and watch your own nephew die. Don't you think you're utterly shameless?" Cheng Lang said with a smile. "Don't try that moral blackmail on me. You don't even have morals yourself. What makes you think I do?"

Shen Chengan looked at Cheng Lang, utterly defeated.

After a long while, Shen Chengan came back to his senses and ground his molars. "I'll give you the money. Now get the hell out!"