“I feel like you’ve been off lately too!” Gao Xiaofei said, putting a hand on Ping An’s shoulder after returning from the phone call. “I trusted you too much, I even agreed to your ridiculous request!”
“What?” Ping An asked.
“Whether that great painter liked to paint butterflies with his peonies, no one knows for sure. But by chance, there were two peony paintings by that great painter in the corridor of their office area. One had butterflies, and the other didn’t,” Gao Xiaofei said, looking at Ping An with sympathy. “That’s not the point. The key is that Director Xiang found out about our actions today and thinks it’s a wild goose chase. Although it’s a clue, the urgent task is to quietly and meticulously investigate along the line of Liao Yuan and Wang Huan’an’s relationship.”
Hearing Gao Xiaofei’s words, Ping An squatted down in frustration.
“Go back and get some rest. You’ve been under a lot of pressure lately,” Gao Xiaofei patted Ping An’s shoulder…
An iron chain was tightly locked around Ping An’s waist. His arms were tied and hoisted to the left and right by leather ropes. His legs, the only parts not restrained, felt nothing…
A whip suddenly landed on Ping An’s back, a searing pain instantly spreading through his body. He gasped for air, and just as he endured the pain, another whip fell without warning…
“Why are the butterflies in the painting red?”
“Are they really red?”
“Why are butterflies in the painting attracting flies?”
“Is it… to cover up… bloodstains?”
A familiar voice rang in Ping An’s ear. Strangely, as soon as the voice appeared, the whip on his back vanished.
This voice is so familiar! Who is speaking?
The iron chain on his body disappeared, the leather ropes on his arms vanished. Freed from restraint, Ping An ran desperately. He ran and ran, and suddenly saw a door. He casually opened it and stepped inside, finding himself in Wang Huan’an’s home. At this moment, a pale Wang Huan’an stood silently in the corner, holding a rope. In front of the floor-to-ceiling window, a woman in black was strangling a naked woman.
“Bang!” The woman in black suddenly let go. The naked woman fell heavily to the ground, blinked, and lost her breath.
The woman in black suddenly discovered Ping An, an unwelcome guest. With a quick turn, she threw the strangling rope into Wang Huan’an’s hands. The moment the rope was thrown into the air, a drop of black blood splattered onto the painting next to the woman in black. It turned out that during the strangulation, the tiger’s mouth of her left hand had been torn due to excessive force.
“Hahahaha!” The woman in black, having discovered Ping An, didn’t take him seriously at all. She even took off her veil.
Beneath the veil was Liao Yuan’s face.
A red laser shot into the room, hitting Ping An’s face. Another red laser shot into the room, hitting Ping An’s face. A third, fourth, fifth… At some point, the room was filled with red lasers.
Ping An, enduring his discomfort, followed one of the lasers and saw a telescope and a peeping person.
Just then, behind all the red lasers, a telescope and a peeping person appeared.
Ping An ignored the peepers and, pulling himself together, looked for the woman in black. But the room was empty except for the painting. On the painting, where there had been a blank space, a bloodstain had appeared. This bloodstain seemed to be moving, and as it moved, it suddenly turned into a butterfly. Strange, this butterfly flew out of the painting, dodged the lasers filling the room, and flew towards Ping An.
“Don’t come closer, don’t come closer! Ah!” After a scream, Ping An suddenly sat up in bed.
“Honey, are you alright?” Qiao Yiyan, dressed in a purple nightgown, gently cupped Ping An’s face, kissed him deeply, and gently patted his back.
“Damn it! Another dream!” Ping An, now calm, was limp all over. He leaned on Qiao Yiyan, trembling, “You scared me to death!”
“Honey, you can’t go on like this. You’re too obsessed with this case. You need absolute rest. Trust me, I’m a qualified psychological expert,” Qiao Yiyan said with some reluctance, comforting Ping An. “You’re going to break down if you continue like this. Listen to me, put the case aside and go on vacation. I’ll go with you!”
“Okay, I’ll listen to you, I’ll listen to everything…” Ping An, on the verge of collapse, curled up in a fetal position, resting his head on Qiao Yiyan’s thigh, and drifted back to sleep.
“Sleep now, with me here, you’ll sleep soundly!” Qiao Yiyan glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. It was just 2 AM.
In the early morning, Su Tang, with her hair in steel curlers, descended the stairs like a ghost. She kicked open her master’s bedroom door. Good, no one there again!
Seemingly used to it, Su Tang grunted and drifted into the kitchen.
With the start of school drawing nearer, she had no time to settle scores with her master. If she didn’t finish her summer homework, her aunt would kill her.
Besides, a detective needs evidence to “settle scores.”
In Qiao Yiyan’s small apartment, Ping An, having taken a shower, sat tiredly at the dining table drinking juice.
Last night’s dream had greatly stimulated his nerves. He really needed to go back and catch up on sleep, but Gao Xiaofei had already called three times.
He was meeting Liao Yuan today.
“There’s a harvest festival next week. Come with me, put the case aside,” Qiao Yiyan, with her ponytail, looked radiant. She considerately brought breakfast and didn’t forget to kiss Ping An on the forehead.
“At this critical juncture, it might not be good to go out and have fun. Xiaofei even postponed his wedding,” Ping An still felt a bit uncomfortable. He awkwardly accepted the kiss, saying with a hint of embarrassment.
In the interrogation room, Gao Xiaofei’s questioning was nearing its end. To everyone’s surprise, Liao Yuan readily admitted to what Liao Yuanchao had called “homosexuality” and “sex reassignment surgery.” She also stated that she knew Fang Xin, Huang Juan, and others, and had an “improper female-female relationship” with Wang Huan’an.
“Although Yang Jie and I have the name of husband and wife, we do not have the substance. Although Jiaozi is not related to me by blood, we have a deep emotional bond. I am indeed planning to undergo sex reassignment surgery this year. I must confess, I have also purchased an identity abroad and planned to go abroad after the surgery, then disappear with my current identity, and finally return to the country with my new identity to marry Huan’an openly.” Liao Yuan said. Unfortunately, plans do not always keep pace with changes. She never expected that her husband and father would be at loggerheads, and she had dedicated her entire life to the wind power company. If she left now, she would be legally “dead.” According to the company’s current system, her shares would be divided between her father and husband. Even if her husband received a larger portion, he would not be able to contend with her father. Later, she learned of her husband’s plan. For the company, for her husband, and even more so for her daughter, she decided to postpone the surgery and cooperate with her husband in a play. Now, although the plan had succeeded, the Huan’an she deeply loved was gone, and Fang Xin, the only one who could help her with the surgery, had died under mysterious circumstances.
“So, you genuinely don’t know how Fang Xin and Wang Huan’an died?” Gao Xiaofei asked. “What about Jiaozi? What role did Jiaozi play in these matters? What about her adoption? Why did Liao Yuanchao gift some of his shares to Jiaozi?”
“This is a question of equity structure!” Liao Yuan said with a smile. “Outsiders think my father is sentimental and is gifting equity, but any discerning person – oh, right, Ping An! Didn’t Ping An explain it to you? My father’s actions were simply to create a voting right!”
“What?” Gao Xiaofei, who knew nothing about business, didn’t quite understand Liao Yuan’s explanation.
“The shares my father gifted to Jiaozi came with conditions. First, Jiaozi is not yet an adult, and any assets she receives need to be supervised by her guardians, Yang Jie and me. So, my father – or rather, someone – first found a way to expose Jiaozi’s identity and publicize it. Then, my father, under the guise of ‘giving Jiaozi a fair deal,’ fabricated a partner out of thin air and, with the help of public opinion, magnanimously gifted it to Jiaozi,” Liao Yuan said. “However, the gift agreement contained three clauses. The first is that Yang Jie and I, as Jiaozi’s actual guardians, must agree to Jiaozi accepting this gift. The second is that given Jiaozi’s adoptive status and the fact that the gift is actually the purported legitimate equity of my father’s partner, my father would continue to hold the shares on behalf of Jiaozi until she turned eighteen. The third is that given our prenuptial agreement, Jiaozi, as the actual third-generation descendant of the Liao family, has the right to directly inherit all my assets upon reaching adulthood at eighteen…”
“So, if you were to undergo the surgery, Jiaozi would become the de facto second-largest shareholder of Fengdian Group after turning eighteen?” Gao Xiaofei finally understood.
“This agreement is too vicious. Not only does it sow discord between us and Jiaozi, but it also forces us to agree to the first clause, otherwise, we would appear to be coveting the Liao family’s wealth and unwilling to give it to Jiaozi, who is not related by blood,” Liao Yuan said. “Yang Jie and I were caught in a bind and couldn’t explain clearly, allowing opportunists to take advantage. Not only did Jiaozi suspect us of valuing money over people, but they also slandered me, accusing me of poisoning the child.”
“Then why did you sign it? If you truly loved Jiaozi, it wouldn’t have mattered,” Gao Xiaofei said.
“My father wanted to see us in a dilemma. He doesn’t dote on Jiaozi; he clearly wants to create a figurehead second-largest shareholder with no real power, thereby gaining full control of the board,” Liao Yuan said. “My father has disliked Yang Jie for a long time. Even before I married him, the prenuptial agreement stated that Yang Jie, aside from his own technical dry shares, would not touch the Liao family’s shares. So, if we didn’t sign, we would alienate Jiaozi, and in the eyes of outsiders, we would appear as people who value money over affection. But in reality, my father knew I had seen through everything. I’ve wanted to have the surgery for a long time. After I have the surgery and Jiaozi turns eighteen, she will inherit my shares, and these shares will then be in my father’s hands. If we signed, my father would use the agreement to create a new equity holder, and his position on the board would be more stable. Jiaozi would only become a puppet.”
“But, you ultimately did your esteemed father… ” Gao Xiaofei said tactfully.
“That was because of my sacrifice, and Huan’an’s sacrifice. You don’t know, we bought a large number of scattered shares, but even so, we only succeeded with a narrow advantage at the board meeting. But in reality, because we ultimately signed that agreement, my father will push us down again after Jiaozi turns eighteen,” Liao Yuan said. “At that time, we might die horribly, and even Jiaozi….”
“Obsession,” Gao Xiaofei sighed helplessly.