145: Chapter 145 The matter is settled

Li Daguo pulled his wife up, and they slunk off to the other side of the road.

The two pulled out their phones and frantically called Li Yan.

"The number you have dialed is powered off..."

"Damn it! Look at the good daughter you've raised!"

Li Daguo glared at his wife beside him and roared in anger.

"That bitch, she's really grown wings now! How dare she not answer my calls!"

Because of his rage, Li Daguo's expression had become somewhat twisted.

"Call the school office!"

Zhang Guifang suggested.

"Beep... beep... Sorry, the User you have dialed is currently busy."

Their numbers had long been blacklisted by Zhao Yang using the landline, so it was impossible for them to get through to the school office.

The two stood in the cold wind, looking at the school gate that was within reach but inaccessible, and were completely dumbfounded.

They hadn't gotten the money, hadn't seen their daughter, and couldn't even enter the school gate.

"Old man, what are we going to do now?"

Zhang Guifang was shivering from the cold.

"Living and eating in Yanjing is expensive, and we don't have much money left in our pockets!"

Li Daguo looked at the unfamiliar surroundings, his eyes gloomy.

"Find a cheap place to stay first! I don't believe that damned girl can hide forever! We'll just wait it out here! We'll loiter around this school every day!"

The two wandered around the school for half a day, and finally, in an urban village two kilometers away from the school, they found an unlicensed guesthouse that didn't require ID registration.

In a dark and damp basement, a bed only cost thirty yuan.

The next three days were pure torture for Li Daguo and his wife.

Every morning, they would stake out the school gate, but were always chased away by security guards as if they were thieves. Li Yan had seemingly vanished from the face of the earth, and her phone was always powered off.

The dry rations they brought were finished, and the money they had on them was being spent like water.

Anxiety, anger, and greed fermented in that cramped basement.

On the fourth evening.

Li Daguo was squatting in the guesthouse hallway smoking a cigarette, looking dejected.

At this moment, the door of the room next door opened. A seemingly kind middle-aged man walked out, holding a stack of red banknotes in his hand, his face glowing.

"Yo, brother, where are you from?"

The middle-aged man took the initiative to strike up a conversation with Li Daguo.

"Anhui Province."

Li Daguo sighed and said. His gaze glanced at the banknotes in the middle-aged man's hand, and his heart skipped a beat, but he forced himself to look away.

"Oh! I'm from Anhui Province too!"

The middle-aged man said quickly.

Li Daguo was stunned for a moment, looking at the middle-aged man in front of him.

The two chatted, and it turned out they were fellow countrymen!

They were from the same county. Meeting a fellow countryman in a foreign land, after chatting for a while, Li Daguo's guard was quickly lowered to the minimum.

"Old Li, I saw you squatting at the door sighing just now, what's wrong?"

The middle-aged man asked curiously, looking at Li Daguo.

"Sigh, don't mention it. Came to Yanjing to handle some business, it didn't go well, and I'm about to run out of money."

Li Daguo sighed.

"Hey! This place, Yanjing, is paved with gold; it just depends on whether you know how to pick it up."

The middle-aged man shook the money in his hand and lowered his voice, "See that? Just won it. Over two thousand."

"Won it?" Li Daguo's eyes lit up instantly. He was a veteran gambler himself and had played plenty of cards back home; otherwise, he wouldn't have raised a gambling-addicted son.

"Where did you win it?"

"Right around here, there's a place."

The middle-aged man said mysteriously.

"It's run by our fellow countrymen, safe, and the cut is small. The main thing is that there are many big bosses from out of town in there, people who are foolish and have money. I've had good luck these past few days and have been winning every day."

Li Daguo swallowed, his inner craving hooked.

"Brother, can you... take me to see it?"

"Sure! Let's go!"

The place supposedly run by their fellow countrymen was actually just in a residential house in the urban village.

Inside, it was filled with smoke, with a few mahjong tables and pai gow tables set up.

Li Daguo was very cautious at first, only daring to watch from the side. But seeing that middle-aged man win another few hundred yuan after only a few hands, he finally couldn't hold back anymore.

He pulled out the last one thousand yuan from his pocket—that was the money originally reserved for his return ticket.

"I'll just play a couple of hands, and leave once I win." He said to himself in his heart.

At first, he did indeed win. His luck was surprisingly good; in less than half an hour, the one thousand yuan had turned into fifteen hundred.

Li Daguo was so excited that his face turned red. He felt that God was compensating him.

The next day, he went again. This time he brought his wife, Zhang Guifang.

The two were like possessed, soaking in that place every day. The matter of their daughter and the money were all thrown to the back of their minds.

What they didn't know was that the kind middle-aged man was a shill brought in by Gu Jinghuan.

This place was also a den that Gu Jinghuan had already scouted out, specifically used for "fishing."

Not only did they gamble here, but they also engaged in receiving stolen goods and even selling fake invoices.

On the fifth day.

Li Daguo had already lost his mind from gambling; he not only lost all the money he had won but also owed the den three thousand yuan.

Just then, that kind middle-aged man walked over again and patted Li Daguo on the shoulder.

"Old Li, out of money? Don't worry, since you're an honest man, I'll show you a way."

"Please tell me!"

Li Daguo asked quickly.

By this time, Li Daguo had completely lost his mind; he had lost three thousand yuan! No matter what, there was no going back to the past!

And the "clear path" this person pointed out to Li Daguo was that there was a villa area nearby; the people there were very rich, and often no one was home.

Just go in and "take" things to sell!

Li Daguo, who was never a good person to begin with, heard about such a "good thing" and, with no way back, didn't hesitate at all and immediately took his wife to start stealing.

It went well at first; they found a villa and stole all the valuable things inside to sell.

They made a good amount of money, and with the extra cash, they threw themselves back onto the gambling table.

After losing it all, they prepared to go steal again, but soon, Li Daguo and his wife were caught during a burglary.

Yanlin University, Library.

The afternoon sun shone through the floor-to-ceiling windows onto the desk. Zhao Yang was flipping through a monograph on "Elliptic Curve Cryptography."

The phone on the table vibrated once.

It was a text message from Gu Jinghuan:

"The matter is settled. Li Daguo and his wife are suspected of burglary. The chain of evidence is conclusive, the amount involved is huge, and they will be sentenced to at least three years. Those loan sharks also had quite a few criminal records uncovered; they won't be getting out for at least five years."

Zhao Yang glanced at the text message, his face expressionless.

He did not reply, just swiped his finger lightly and deleted the text message.

At noon, Zhao Yang had just come out of the cafeteria after eating.

His phone rang.

He looked down at the caller ID—Li Yan. His finger paused on the screen for a moment, but he answered anyway.

"Hello?"

"Zhao Yang, are you at school?"

Li Yan's voice fluctuated; it was clear that she was feeling very conflicted.

"If it's convenient, I'd like to... have a word with you."

"Now is fine. Where are you?"

"Over by the office building."

Zhao Yang hung up the phone and walked across the playground toward the office building. The afternoon sun was a bit dazzling, and a few sparrows were hopping around in the holly bushes by the roadside.