My grandmother was taken away, and I was feeling particularly down. Yu Xiaoluo came over and patted me, saying, "It's precisely because reality is often cruel that we are reluctant to believe it."
"Besides reporting, do you have any evidence?"
"No direct evidence, but several scams related to the 'x driver' can prove his connection to Grandpa Lin."
"You also believe Grandpa is the 'x driver'?"
"Tang Nan, I believe in evidence."
"Since that's the case, I will go and find evidence for you to prove Grandpa is not the 'x driver'."
...
I kept telling myself not to be swayed by emotions, to stand as an observer and understand the situation. I knew it clearly in my heart, but I couldn't do it. I stubbornly believed Grandpa was not the 'x driver'.
...
I didn't return to the Lin family and stayed in a hotel for a night. When I couldn't sleep at night, I thought a lot. I must personally prove that Grandpa is not the 'x driver'. In the morning, I had two espressos in the breakfast area, and as soon as Huang Aiguo's shop opened, I entered his health supplement direct sales store.
Huang Aiguo looked distressed, "Didn't you say you would let me go?"
"Not until I understand the truth. I'm asking you, how did you know Grandpa was the 'x driver'?"
"He told me himself."
About eleven years ago, housing prices hadn't surged as rapidly as they have now. A real estate developer built some houses around the scenic Lishan Mountain, but these houses were unpopular. Not a single unit was sold in two years, the developer was on the verge of bankruptcy, and the sales team had left.
It was at this time that Grandpa, under the names of others, signed a lease agreement with the developer. At that time, the developer was desperate. Hearing Grandpa say he intended to use the houses as dormitories for his employees and to alleviate their financial difficulties, they signed the contract without hesitation.
After leasing these new houses at a low price, Grandpa renovated several of them beautifully. He hired the then unemployed Huang Aiguo as his driver and brought some elderly people to view the properties. Although it was a lease, they were selling the houses to others. Huang Aiguo couldn't understand it at all. Later, he figured it out and seriously said to Grandpa, "Old Man Lin, aren't you deceiving people?"
Grandpa chuckled, "You just need to drive. Three hundred and sixty yuan a day. Besides telling me what happens in the car every day, you don't need to worry about anything else."
Three hundred and sixty yuan a day, one thousand a month. This salary was astronomical in the 1990s. Huang Aiguo was stunned. He didn't want to deceive people, but he couldn't resist the temptation of money.
Seeing Huang Aiguo's state, Grandpa sighed.
And so, Huang Aiguo became Grandpa's driver. He started using a small van to take those elderly people to the resort every day and report what happened to Grandpa. Over time, Huang Aiguo became increasingly curious about Grandpa's actions. He never saw Grandpa involved in the scam, and the person in charge of sales was a young man named Fang Sheng. That young man appeared capable and not at all like a scammer.
Gradually, Huang Aiguo couldn't help but ask Grandpa, "What exactly are you trying to do?"
"Didn't I tell you not to worry about it?"
"How can I not worry? More and more people are buying houses. They'll find out sooner or later, and the police will question us."
"So what? The police won't find me."
"Because Fang Sheng is the person in charge?"
"Not just because Fang Sheng is the person in charge. Even if the police catch Fang Sheng, they won't find me. Fang Sheng is just a tool; he only knows that he serves someone called 'x driver'."
Hearing Grandpa say this, Huang Aiguo was extremely surprised, and then terrified. "You're telling me all this, aren't you planning to silence me?"
"You're overthinking it, Huang Aiguo. There are some things I can't do conveniently, so I have to ask you to do them. Telling you all this is to let you know that we're in the same boat. If I'm finished, you're finished too. My son has grown up, married, and started a family. You have a lovely daughter. So I'm not afraid, but your family can't be without you. Your wife doesn't have a job, and your daughter is still in school."
"I know."
"Good."
Because of this threat, Huang Aiguo worked as Grandpa's assistant for over ten years. However, most of the time, he participated as a victim, responsible for conveying the emotions of the deceived to Grandpa. It was only in the recent collectibles investment scam that he officially became a tool, though he didn't actually cheat anyone, instead becoming a hero who exposed the scam.
...
No matter how you look at it, Huang Aiguo was a minor figure. Apart from receiving a hefty payment from Grandpa, he never actually cheated anyone. His biggest offense was witnessing others being deceived and not exposing the scam.
Therefore, using Huang Aiguo as a breakthrough was clearly impossible. I directly asked, "Do you know Zhang Bing?"
"Yes, in the resort scam, Zhang Bing was a tool for Old Man Lin."
"Can you tell me about it?"
I was particularly concerned about Zhang Bing because my grandmother had specifically said that Grandpa deserved his fate for harming Zhang Bing's family. I hoped to learn about Zhang Bing's situation through Huang Aiguo.
"I don't know much either; I was just a driver back then."
"Doesn't Zhang Bing have a son and a daughter? Can they be found?"
"Yes!"
...
Huang Aiguo drove a van and took me to Huaqing Pool to find Zhang Bing's son, Zhang Jianfu. There were some renovation projects in the scenic area. Zhang Jianfu, in his forties, had dark skin and was covered in dust. He was just a temporary worker for this construction team, responsible for loading the garbage from the renovation into trucks. When we found him, Zhang Jianfu looked dull-witted. Upon hearing that I wanted to know about his father, he simply shook his head and uttered a phrase in local Xi'an dialect.
I thought for a moment, took out five hundred yuan in cash, and Zhang Jianfu agreed to talk to me about his father, Zhang Bing, during lunch. Zhang Jianfu grew up locally and worked in manual labor. He had hardly left Xi'an and didn't speak Mandarin at all. It was only through Huang Aiguo's translation that I understood the story of his father.
Zhang Jianfu was sent to a juvenile detention center because of Zhang Bing. After being released, he dropped out of junior high school and started working at fifteen or sixteen, rarely returning home. Zhang Jianfu didn't even notify his father when he got married, and he didn't attend his father's funeral when he passed away. This seemingly honest man harbored a bone-deep hatred for his father.
...
In that era, Zhang Bing's family was considered well-off. Zhang Bing worked at a museum, his wife at a textile factory, and they had a son and a daughter, living happily. Their lives, which should have been ordinary, were completely disrupted by a national treasure theft incident.
At that time, due to construction, another ancient tomb was discovered in Shaanxi. Eventually, the local museum was responsible for overseeing the excavation of the tomb. Ancient tombs were ubiquitous in Xi'an, and they didn't attract much attention at that time. However, as the excavation began, this tomb offered new interpretations of ancient burial customs and culture.
From the burial objects unearthed, the tomb's owner was likely a dignitary. Even tracing the tomb owner's identity back to the Han Dynasty was not unusual in Xi'an. However, the jade pendants (yuhan and yuwo) buried with the tomb owner attracted widespread attention. In jade burial culture, ancient people believed that accompanying jade would preserve the body and appearance after death. Therefore, there were many gold-woven jade suits, yuhan, yuwo, and jade plugs in the tomb. Yuhan were placed in the mouth, similar in shape to a cicada, while yuwo were held in the hand, usually in the shape of a pig.
However, the yuhan and yuwo in this tomb were unusual. These three burial jades did not have the shapes of cicadas or pigs. Instead, a single piece of jade was cut into three sections, each serving as a yuhan, yuwo, or jade plug.
This situation was rare. The museum defined it as a new research direction. Because of this, the inconspicuous burial jades, seemingly buried in haste, became national treasures.
However, just before experts were due to come to Xi'an to define ancient burial customs, these three pieces of jade went missing.
The person in charge of excavating this ancient tomb at the time was Grandpa. If this matter were investigated, Grandpa's entire future could be ruined. Therefore, Grandpa found Zhang Bing and asked Zhang Bing's son, Zhang Jianfu, to take the blame. A child in his teens, acting out of ignorance, sold the national treasure to opportunistic antique dealers, minimizing the responsibility.
Back then, Grandpa must have made grand promises to Zhang Bing, and Zhang Bing handed his son over to the police. Everyone thought it was a minor issue, but they didn't expect Zhang Jianfu to be sent to a juvenile detention center for half a year. His life changed drastically after he came out. At school, classmates pointed at him and called him a thief, and teachers looked down on him. Zhang Jianfu couldn't bear this humiliation and dropped out of junior high school at a young age.
Many years have passed since this incident. Although Zhang Bing is deceased and Zhang Jianfu can recount the details of the matter for five hundred yuan, I can still feel the seething hatred in his voice as he speaks.
...
During the investigation, I gradually understood the cruelty of reality. Grandpa was not a good person. He ruined a child's life to preserve his own career in his seemingly perfect life.
After parting ways with Zhang Jianfu, Huang Aiguo, who had been watching my silence, tentatively asked, "Old Man Lin wasn't a good person, was he?"
"Mm."
"Then do you believe me now? Can you let me go? Comrade Tang Nan, my daughter is getting married. She's very sensible, and the person she admires most is me, her father. I can't let her know her father is a liar when happiness is about to arrive."
"How much money did you cheat?"
Huang Aiguo bit his lip and remained silent. I glared at him, "Speak!"
"The profit did not exceed 20% of the cost. The health products also have national approval numbers, but I used flowery language to deceive those elderly people, and the sales were good."
20%? Huang Aiguo's situation could be considered false advertising, not fraud. I looked at him. He seemed to understand what I was asking, "Old Man Lin helped me plan it so that no one would arrest me."
I was almost ready to admit that Grandpa was the 'x driver', but Huang Aiguo's words made me notice something incongruous. Assuming Grandpa was the 'x driver', with his numerous large-scale scams involving hundreds of millions and over three hundred people from his organization arrested, how could the only person who knew his identity consistently operate on the fringes? This was illogical.
Illogical, something was wrong. Usually, these were schemes, and this must be a scheme that even the old ghost would acknowledge. Yet, I couldn't see any brilliance in this scheme, or perhaps it was so brilliant that I couldn't even discern it.
Or?
Suddenly, my mind went down an unconventional path, remembering something incredible.
Liu Chenxi left me three items. The first, a green jade thumb ring, has been returned. The second, a Qing Dynasty hairpin, I used it to lure out Leng Yan. The third is a piece of 'dead man's jade.'
Yes, 'dead man's jade'?
Could it be related to the tragic background of Zhang Jianfu that I just learned about?