244: Invitation

Liang Yuzhu frowned immediately when she saw Li Wenbin threatening them with the famous painting in his hand.

"Li Wenbin, don't be impulsive. If you really destroy this painting, you'll never get out of this place for the rest of your life."

Li Wenbin didn't react to Liang Yuzhu's dissuasion; instead, the anger in his heart burned even fiercer.

"This painting was clearly bought by my father; he spent so much money. Our family can do whatever we want with it; it's not for you to manage!"

Li Kangsheng, who was following behind Liang Yuzhu, almost choked with anger when he heard Li Wenbin say such words.

He scolded him, exasperated, "Wenbin! What are you doing? I already said I donated this painting to the country; it no longer belongs to us! Let go of it quickly!"

Li Wenbin refused without hesitation: "I won't! Father, you spent one hundred million to bid for this painting. How can I let your money be wasted like this? And you like this painting so much, why would you donate it?"

Li Kangsheng felt extremely anxious listening to Li Wenbin's stubborn refusal to give up.

"Although I like this painting, I don't absolutely need it. Wenbin, quickly put this painting down and apologize to Officer Liang and the others immediately."

Li Wenbin was unmoved by Li Kangsheng's words and still held tightly onto the painting in his hand, refusing to let go.

Li Wenbin used the painting as a shield, making it difficult for Liang Yuzhu to bring people in to apprehend him. The crowded basement fell into a stalemate for a time.

Su Yue saw that Li Wenbin refused to let go of the ancient painting and reluctantly spoke to persuade him: "Young Master Li, your father has already decided to donate this painting. Why do you insist on keeping it? Aren't you making things difficult for your father?"

Li Wenbin snorted coldly upon hearing this, losing the gentle demeanor he had at the banquet.

"What do you know? This painting originally belonged to our family. Why should I give away my own things?"

Li Kangsheng almost died of anger hearing Li Wenbin say that.

"What do you mean 'our family'? I already told you I was going to donate this painting. Your current behavior is clearly theft! Put the painting down immediately, or I won't forgive you!"

Li Wenbin ignored Li Kangsheng. Li Kangsheng's heart grew colder the more he looked at Li Wenbin's attitude.

He could only look at Liang Yuzhu pleadingly, trying to get her to give Li Wenbin a break.

"Officer Liang, it was my son's momentary lapse in judgment that made him take the ancient painting to play with. Can you give me some time to talk to him properly? I promise the ancient painting will be returned to the museum completely undamaged."

Liang Yuzhu shook her head: "I'm sorry, Li Zong, this is not something I can decide alone. Young Master Li purchased the frog mascot costume and even threw it into the garden. It's clear he had premeditated all of this, not just a momentary lapse in judgment as you said."

Li Kangsheng was unaware of Police's investigation process and heard about Li Wenbin purchasing the frog mascot costume for the first time. He immediately widened his eyes in disbelief and looked at Li Wenbin.

Li Wenbin dared not look at Li Kangsheng's disappointed eyes and stiffly shifted his gaze away.

Liang Yuzhu immediately noticed Li Wenbin's abnormality and quickly seized this opportunity to step forward and apprehend him.

Li Wenbin sensed Liang Yuzhu approaching and instinctively clutched the ancient painting in front of himself nervously.

However, Su Yue had the same thought as Liang Yuzhu and seized Li Wenbin's moment of guilt, using a stone he picked up in the garden to smash his hand.

Li Wenbin's hand hurt, and he subconsciously let go.

Just then, Liang Yuzhu had already rushed in front of him. She caught the ancient painting in time, then kicked Li Wenbin to the ground.

Liang Yuzhu, who trained daily, naturally had a physique that Li Wenbin, a rich young master, could not compare to. Coupled with the stone Su Yue timely threw at his knee, Li Wenbin immediately fell to his knees on the ground.

Liang Yuzhu's subordinates also rushed forward immediately and cuffed him.

Li Kangsheng subconsciously first noticed the ancient painting in Liang Yuzhu's hand. Seeing that the painting was undamaged, his heart, which had been hanging high, finally relaxed. Only then did he look at Li Wenbin on the ground.

Seeing Li Wenbin struggling on the ground, he was still extremely angry.

"Wenbin, are you crazy? Why would you steal the painting!"

Li Wenbin still showed no remorse and was very calm: "I said, this painting belongs to our family. I just want it to stay in our family."

Li Kangsheng was furious: "I told you long ago that this painting cannot stay in our house. Why won't you listen? You even planned to steal the painting behind my back. I'm truly too disappointed!"

Li Wenbin, who had been struggling fiercely, suddenly paused his movements, his whole body stiffening slightly.

"Father! Wasn't this painting your favorite? I just didn't want you to give away something you liked. What did I do wrong?"

Li Kangsheng had not expected that Li Wenbin's purpose in doing this was all for him. He was suddenly somewhat incredulous.

"You... what did you say?"

At this moment, Li Wenbin didn't want to talk to Li Kangsheng anymore and turned his head away, no longer looking at him.

Li Kangsheng was shocked by Li Wenbin's words. He questioned Li Wenbin further but received no response.

Su Yue roughly guessed the purpose of everything Li Wenbin had done and changed his view of him quite a bit.

Seeing that Li Wenbin refused to speak, Li Kangsheng was a little anxious. Su Yue hesitated for a moment and said, "Actually, you already stole this painting and brought it here, right?"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone present was greatly startled by Su Yue's words.

Even Liang Yuzhu looked at Su Yue with some surprise, but she quickly suppressed it.

It was also thanks to Su Yue's reminder that Liang Yuzhu finally sorted out the parts of the case that she didn't understand.

No wonder they found nothing abnormal when checking the surveillance footage, and no wonder they found no evidence related to the case other than the frog mascot costume. It turned out that Li Wenbin had already hidden the real painting.

Li Kangsheng was still very shocked to hear Su Yue say this: "How is that possible? Although I haven't displayed it recently, this painting has always been in my study. I can tell that the painting was real."

When Su Yue questioned him, a trace of panic flashed in Li Wenbin's eyes. After hearing Li Kangsheng's suspicion, he quickly calmed down again.

He smiled and retorted, "Exactly, do you have any evidence to prove that I did it? I could even say that the painting in my hand is fake."

Lan Zijun couldn't help but worry for Su Yue when she heard Li Wenbin's questioning.

She had been with Su Yue the whole time and didn't know when they had found evidence proving that Li Wenbin had already stolen the painting. Now that Su Yue was being questioned like this, her heart also tightened.

Surely Su Yue wouldn't speak without evidence?

Seeing Lan Zijun and Liang Yuzhu's silence, Li Wenbin, who had been very flustered, immediately relaxed. He chuckled disdainfully.

"Mr. Su, are you spreading rumors? If that's really the case, I'll have to contact my lawyer."

Li Kangsheng didn't like Li Wenbin being so arrogant at this time. He frowned in displeasure: 'Wenbin!'

Sensing Li Kangsheng's anger, Li Wenbin restrained some of the mockery on his face, but his eyes were still full of disdain.

Li Kangsheng also felt a bit of anger seeing Li Wenbin like this.

"Quickly tell me what's going on!"

Li Wenbin felt conflicted sensing Li Kangsheng's anger, debating whether to tell Li Kangsheng the truth. Su Yue, whom he had just mocked, calmly had Liang Yuzhu's subordinate display the surveillance footage.

Watching Li Wenbin in the surveillance footage secretly steal the ancient painting from Li Kangsheng's study and hide it in a secret room in the garden, the surroundings fell silent.

Then Li Wenbin's eyes widened, his face full of disbelief: "No! Impossible! How did you find this surveillance footage! I clearly..."

Li Wenbin realized something and ultimately did not say those words.

Li Kangsheng, who had still held a glimmer of hope, felt despair once again when he saw the surveillance footage.

Li Kangsheng looked at Li Wenbin with eyes full of disappointment: "Wenbin! It really was you who stole the ancient painting!"

Li Wenbin quickly explained to Li Kangsheng: "No, it's not, Father, it's not... it's not me, that's not me..."

However, in front of the high-definition camera, Li Wenbin's explanation was extremely weak.

Li Kangsheng didn't dare to speak easily for Li Wenbin in front of Liang Yuzhu, fearing that one wrong word might make him a suspect as well.

Seeing that Li Kangsheng was angry and unwilling to talk to him anymore, Li Wenbin blamed all the mistakes on Su Yue, looking at him with terrifyingly sinister eyes.

He gnashed his teeth: "It's all you!"

Su Yue was very calm in the face of the angry Li Wenbin. He said, "Don't you want to explain?"

Prompted by Su Yue, Li Kangsheng also quickly turned his head and asked, "What exactly is going on? Why did you steal the painting?"

Seeing that Li Wenbin had no intention of speaking, Liang Yuzhu roughly speculated on the reason in her mind and said, "If you confess voluntarily, there's a possibility of a reduced sentence. If you refuse to speak, then we'll just have to wait until we get back to Police Station."

Li Wenbin did not fall for it easily. He snorted disdainfully: "Then just arrest me and take me back. I don't believe you have any other evidence. Who knows where this surveillance footage came from; I suspect its authenticity!"

Su Yue found it somewhat amusing: "Didn't you delete this surveillance video a month ago? That was the day after your father told the lawyer he was going to donate the ancient painting to the museum."

"The clothes you were wearing at the time were also the clothes you wore to the Shengshi Iron and Steel press conference. The white suit on it should be easy to recognize, right?"

"Speaking of which, this video was indeed deleted by you at the time, but you only remembered this surveillance footage two days later. By then, the surveillance footage had already been uploaded to the cloud, so it was easy to find."

"You were also inexperienced at the time, which is why you only thought of the surveillance afterward, completely unlike this time, where you damaged the surveillance beforehand to disrupt Police's investigation direction and make Police suspect that the painting thief stole the painting today."

Li Wenbin's face immediately turned pale upon hearing Su Yue's words.

Lan Zijun was puzzled: "So why did Young Master Li hide the painting when Li Zong said he was going to donate it? Since you didn't want the painting to be donated, why didn't you stop Li Zong?"

Hearing Lan Zijun say this, Li Wenbin was extremely angry.

"I told him long ago not to donate the painting, but he just wouldn't listen. Since he wouldn't, I could only use my own method to keep the painting."

Li Kangsheng almost fainted from anger hearing Li Wenbin say this.

He was somewhat annoyed: "Do you think I wanted to donate the painting? It's because of this painting that our Shengshi Iron and Steel was targeted by the City. If I didn't donate this painting to protect Shengshi, our Shengshi would be finished!"

Li Wenbin hadn't expected this reason behind it and was somewhat incredulous: "Why didn't you tell me?"

Li Kangsheng also hadn't expected Li Wenbin to do something as foolish as stealing the painting and was now filled with regret.

"How could I have known you would do so much because of this painting? If I had known you would do this, I definitely would have told you the real reason."

But now it was too late to regret. Li Wenbin had stolen the painting he was going to donate to the museum and had even alarmed the City Criminal Investigation Team. Now they couldn't resolve this privately.

Moreover, the painting was lost in front of all the guests. If they knew that the thief was the adopted son he had raised for many years, who knows how those people would look at him? They would probably think he had planned all of this!

The only thing to be thankful for now was that Liang Yuzhu had announced that the painting thief had been found beforehand, and the guests he had invited had all left. Now, only Police and their father and son were left here.

Li Kangsheng's mind raced for a few moments, and finally, he sternly ordered Li Wenbin: "Wenbin, quickly confess everything you've done honestly!"

Because Li Wenbin knew he had misunderstood Li Kangsheng, even if he was still unwilling, at this moment, he could only confess honestly.

"Father, you were very happy when you bid for this painting, and you said it was your most satisfactory collection in your life."

"Therefore, when I learned that you were going to donate your favorite collection to the museum, I couldn't understand it. No matter how I tried to persuade you, you wouldn't change your mind."

"I saw that you clearly didn't want to donate the painting, but you were discussing with the lawyer that you would donate the painting after your birthday banquet. I thought I couldn't let you be sad, so I planned to stage a scene at your birthday banquet. That way, you wouldn't have to donate the painting."

Hearing Li Wenbin's reason, everyone present fell silent for a moment.

Li Wenbin's reason for stealing the painting was actually this simple, but it was precisely because of this simple reason that people didn't know how to talk to him.

After all, even if the painting belonged to Li Kangsheng, the painting disappeared publicly, and it was also related to the museum. Police would naturally take its theft seriously. Even as Li Kangsheng's adopted son, Li Wenbin would have to bear the corresponding legal responsibility.

Even Li Kangsheng was speechless. After a long while, he spoke with a choked voice: "I'm sorry, Wenbin. If only I had told you the reason earlier."

Su Yue also spoke at this time: "Li Zong's painting was bought at an auction, right? Does Li Zong have the auction invitation letter?"

Li Kangsheng immediately looked at Su Yue nervously, very wary: "What does Mr. Su want to do?"

Liang Yuzhu guessed his purpose the moment Su Yue spoke. She cooperated with him.

"Li Zong, you don't need to be so nervous. You're just cooperating with Police in handling the case. If you assist Police in solving the case, Young Master Li might also receive some leniency."

Li Kangsheng immediately frowned, hesitating whether to give them the invitation letter.

After all, that auction prohibited Police from entering.