Luo City, Central Garden.
Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling stood outside the gates of a villa. On the beige courtyard wall hung a wooden sign that read, "Central Garden, Villa 33. Peace and joy."
Wang Huiling said in a sarcastic tone, "When your older brother's family first moved into this house, your sister-in-law invited us over for barbecues every few days. You'd think they were the only ones with a villa and a yard. She just couldn't show off enough!"
"Don't you have a villa now too?" Chen Shuo said smugly. "Would you be living in one if your man weren't so clever?"
Wang Huiling happily linked her arm through Chen Shuo's. "Aren't you pleased with yourself!"
Chen Shuo used his fingerprint to unlock the door. When it opened, they saw a grand, high-ceilinged living room with a crystal chandelier and an imported Italian sofa upholstered entirely in leather.
Yet on the coffee table in the most conspicuous spot in the living room stood a black-and-white memorial photo of Chen Ji's parents, with fresh fruit placed before it.
"How unlucky," Wang Huiling muttered. "Why put their memorial photo in the living room? Doesn't Chen Ji know any better? Doesn't it creep him out? Even if he doesn't find it disgusting, what if a guest came over and saw it? How uncomfortable would that be?"
With a clatter, Chen Shuo casually tossed the memorial photo into the trash.
Back then, he had wanted to go into big business with a partner and asked his older brother to lend him four million. But his brother had insisted he wasn't cut out for big business and had given him only two hundred thousand to open a small supermarket. He'd really treated him like a beggar.
Wang Huiling sat on the leather sofa, touching it here and there. She looked at the hundred-inch LCD television across from her and said happily, "How comfortable would it be to watch dramas here? They really lived like immortals before."
"Forget the TV. Hurry upstairs and find the property deed. I remember they bought some gold too. Find that as well."
Certificates of merit were mounted on the wall of the second-floor corridor: "Three-Good Student" and "First Prize, Luo City Go Tournament." They all belonged to Chen Ji.
Wang Huiling curled her lip at the sight. "Every time we came over, your sister-in-law had to drag us upstairs for a tour. She just couldn't show off enough. Hurry up and throw them away. I'm sick of looking at them."
Unable to wait another moment, Wang Huiling took down all the certificates and threw them on the floor.
They opened the doors to the bedrooms. Chen Ji's room was stacked with books, mostly popular science books on military subjects, along with detective, mystery, and spy novels and many specialized popular science books.
An acceptance letter from the Army Foreign Languages Institute also lay on the desk.
Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling rummaged through the rooms, clearing out Chen Ji's family's belongings and throwing them away. It seemed the house would only belong to them completely once they had erased those traces.
In the living room, Chen Shuo scratched his increasingly thinning scalp. "Huh? Where's the deed? Where did Chen Ji put his property ownership certificate?"
"Could he have guessed something and hidden it somewhere else?"
"That can't be. Old Liu said he still thought we were doing this for his own good."
Wang Huiling hurriedly said, "We really are doing it for his own good. Ever since his parents passed away, he's shut himself up at home all day without going out. If this keeps up, something's bound to go wrong. He's completely cut off from society!"
Ding-dong.
The doorbell rang.
Chen Shuo froze for a moment. "It's so late. Who is it?"
He went to open the door. Outside stood a middle-aged man in a black Tang suit, his skin dark and his short buzz cut making him look especially tough. "Where's Chen Ji?"
Chen Shuo eyed him suspiciously. "Chen Ji isn't home. Whatever it is, you can tell me. I'm his second uncle."
"Second uncle?" The middle-aged man pushed past Chen Shuo and walked in. Only then did Chen Shuo see another person following behind him.
The man's head was bald and shiny, but a scar more than ten centimeters long ran from the crown to the back of his head like a centipede.
"Who are you people?" Wang Huiling backed away in fright. "We're calling the police!"
The middle-aged man looked around as though no one else were there. "My friends like to call me Brother Pao. I do a little moneylending. This is my little brother, Erdao. Don't be afraid. Erdao's scar looks nasty, but he got it when he missed his footing and fell while working at a construction site. His head hasn't been quite right since, and he's a bit stubborn."
Brother Pao continued, "We're here because Chen Ji put this house up as collateral. He called this afternoon and said he couldn't pay me back, so he told me to come take the house."
"What?!" Wang Huiling's face went pale. "What right did he have to mortgage this house? It's ours!"
"Oh?" Brother Pao said calmly. "The ownership certificate has Chen Ji's name on it. What does it have to do with you?"
"How much did he borrow against it?" Chen Shuo asked nervously.
"Fifteen million." Brother Pao sprawled on the sofa. "We do things by the rules. As long as the customer can pay back the principal and interest, we'll have no trouble. But I've taken a liking to this house now. He doesn't need to pay me back; the house is mine."
"No!" Wang Huiling shrieked. "Chen Ji is mentally ill now. The mortgage contract he signed can't count."
Her words also reminded Chen Shuo. He said urgently, "That's right, Chen Ji is mentally ill. We have his diagnosis right here!"
Brother Pao frowned.
He looked at the date on the diagnosis in Chen Shuo's hand and laughed in anger. Chen Ji had arranged for him to come take the house tonight, only to produce a diagnosis at the last minute. He was clearly trying to cheat him. Having no money to pay a debt was understandable, but making a fool of him was going too far. "So this is where you were waiting for me. You all planned this immortal-jumping scheme together, didn't you? Kneel."
"What?" Chen Shuo almost thought he had misheard those last two words.
Erdao said, "Brother Pao, where should they kneel?"
"In front of me."
Before Chen Shuo and Wang Huiling could react, Erdao hauled them in front of Brother Pao and kicked each of them behind the knees. Both fell to their knees before him.
Brother Pao bent down and stared at Chen Shuo. "I've been rolling and crawling through the world for so many years. What haven't I seen? You think you're worthy of pulling an immortal-jumping scheme on me? Break one of his fingers, then we'll have a proper talk."
Erdao asked, "Which one?"
"His index finger."
Erdao asked, "Which joint?"
Brother Pao scratched his eyebrow helplessly. "The second one, then."
Their conversation was bizarre. Erdao did everything by the book, doing exactly as Brother Pao told him.
Erdao's hand clamped around Chen Shuo's index finger like an iron vise. With a crack, he precisely broke it at the second joint.
"Ah!" Chen Shuo cried out in pain.
"I'm calling the police!" Wang Huiling shouted.
Brother Pao said, "Erdao, slap her."
"How hard?"
Brother Pao sneered. "Slap her until she sees her great-grandmother."
Erdao thought for two seconds, then swung his arm in a wide arc and slapped Wang Huiling, making everything go black before her eyes.
After the slap, Erdao studied Wang Huiling's expression, then turned to Brother Pao and said seriously, "She should have seen her."
Brother Pao took the diagnosis from Chen Shuo. "I'm a reasonable man. Since Chen Ji said he couldn't pay, the house is mine. By rights, that should be the end of it. But the thing I hate most is being lied to. You set me up, so you should face the consequences of lying to me."
"No!" Chen Shuo gradually began to understand. "No, no, no! We weren't the ones who set you up. Chen Ji was the one who set you up. We were tricked too!"
"Oh?"
Chen Shuo's finger hurt so badly that cold sweat poured down his forehead. "Chen Ji said he couldn't pay you back, so he arranged for you to come take the house. But as far as I know, his parents left him at least thirty million! There's no way he's short of money, and he had no need to mortgage the house. There's even less chance he couldn't pay you back!"
That surprised Brother Pao. Chen Ji wasn't short of money?
As Chen Shuo analyzed the situation, his head gradually cleared: everything Chen Ji had done at Qingshan Hospital that afternoon had been an act, all to make them come back with the diagnosis and anger Brother Pao, while Chen Ji himself stayed safe and sound at the hospital.
That was why Chen Ji had passed over so many legitimate banks and instead chosen a ruthless underworld figure to take the house!
Brother Pao looked thoughtful. "Chen Ji? He seemed honest and shy to me. You're not trying to fool me, are you?"
He recalled his impression of Chen Ji. When they signed the contract, Chen Ji had been especially shy and quiet.
Could a student raised in a greenhouse have the cunning to set everyone up?
Seeing his hesitation, Chen Shuo continued, "Can't you see he tricked me too? I didn't even know he'd signed a mortgage contract with you until now. Doesn't that tell you something? Besides, don't you want this house? He has the money to pay you back whenever he wants. Once you've dealt with me, he can redeem the house, and all you'll get is a little interest! He's playing you!"
Brother Pao smiled mildly. "So, according to you, a high school student used me?"
"He's not a high school student. He got into the Army Foreign Languages School through special recruitment."
Brother Pao raised an eyebrow. "That school teaches more than foreign languages. Its graduates become military attachés posted abroad... Interesting. Where is Chen Ji now?"
"At Qingshan Psychiatric Hospital!"