Chapter 148

Lei Jinrong did not receive the news of his son Lei Ming's accident until half an hour later. It was Jiang Xionghui, the head teacher of Class 124, who called the crane factory and went through a long process before finding him.

This news was like a bolt from the blue for Lei Jinrong.

He is just an ordinary operator room worker, receiving a meager salary every month and leading a poor but stable life. He is nearly fifty years old and has been law-abiding and honest for most of his life. Breaking the law is too far away from his life.

He held the receiver in his hand and stared blankly for a long time.

After making sure he was not having a nightmare, he hung up the phone, ran out of the Jiangchuan Crane Factory in his work clothes without asking for leave. It took him half an hour to find his wife Cai Lihua, a sanitation worker, on the street and told her about his son's situation.

Cai Lihua's eyes went dark and she almost fell down.

Perhaps what kept her from falling down at that time, besides her husband's arms, was also the safety of her son Lei Ming.

The bewildered couple squatted on the side of the road and discussed like headless flies for more than ten minutes. At first, they wanted to go directly to the police station to see their son, but later decided to go to their son's class teacher Jiang Xionghui to find out the situation. So they stopped a taxi on the side of the road and drove straight to Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School.

This was the first time the couple had taken a taxi in their lives.

After arriving at the No. 1 Middle School, the couple didn't know where Jiang Xionghui's office was. It was a kind-hearted student who took them to find Jiang Xionghui.

In the office, after Jiang Xionghui heard the couple introduce themselves, he stared at them in a daze for a long time.

This was the first time he met Lei Ming's parents.

Their overly shabby clothes and old appearance really surprised him.

Jiang Xionghui always thought that Lei Ming's family situation was very good. If not rich, it was at least well-off, because Lei Ming usually dressed fashionably and spent money lavishly. In the class student information sheet, in the column of father's work situation, he filled in the product manager of Jiangchuan Crane Factory. Usually, when there was a parent-teacher meeting or when something bad happened, Jiang Xionghui asked him to call the parents to school, and he always called a 30-year-old man who claimed to be Lei Ming's uncle. Now think about it, this uncle should be cheap.

Jiang Xionghui had given up hope on Lei Ming a long time ago. Now, after seeing Lei Ming's parents, he even hated them with a vengeance. But as a teacher, he didn't want any of his students to go to jail. Lei Ming did an extremely stupid thing and he deserved to be punished. But he was only a seventeen-year-old child after all, and there were many possibilities for his future. If he went to jail, his life would be almost ruined.

Jiang Xionghui informed the panicked Lei Jinrong and his wife of all the details he knew, and offered them his advice: "See if you can make up the money, apologize sincerely, and strive for reconciliation."

Lei Jinrong immediately said: "Then Mr. Jiang, do you know where Zhangji Fish Powder Shop is? I will go there to apologize and pay the money now."

Jiang Xionghui stood up and said, "I'll take you there."

Before leaving, Jiang Xionghui went to Class 168 of Grade One to find Jiang Lihua. He had been to Zhangji with Jiang Lihua for breakfast before and knew the student Zhang Yunqi. He also knew that Jiang Lihua was Zhang Yunqi's class teacher and had a good relationship with Zhangji's boss Zhang Yunfeng, so he wanted to get him to be a lobbyist.

After hearing what happened, Jiang Lihua agreed.

On the way there, Lei Jinrong took out a transparent plastic bag containing money from his shirt pocket, and Cai Lihua also took out the loose change she had on her body and counted them together.

Jiang Xionghui had been paying attention to the pair of hands counting the money. Perhaps due to years of heavy work, the hands had become dry and rough, with protruding joints, like a pair of chicken claws painted black. He held a handful of money and counted them one by one. The money was not much, all small bills, but he counted them a little slowly and with difficulty, and they were still trembling slightly.

After counting, the total was 87 yuan.

Lei Jinrong stuffed the money into Cai Lihua's pocket and asked hoarsely, "Is there any money left at home?"

Cai Lihua's eyes were red: "It's all here."

Lei Jinrong immediately said: "Then I'll go to the factory and borrow it from someone."

Cai Lihua's wrinkled face was filled with despair: "But who will lend us money now? The money we borrowed from Lei Ming to pay for the school construction fee has not been repaid yet. If we knew it would be like this, we shouldn't have listened to him and let him study at the No. 1 Middle School. Now look what happened. Not only has he emptied his family's savings and is in debt, but he's also in jail."

Lei Jinrong suddenly stopped.

He squatted on the ground, lit up a pack of Dumbo brand cigarettes that cost 3 cents, and smoked it in silence.

In the early 430s, yuan was indeed a considerable sum of money, but it was something that most ordinary families could afford. However, for an elderly couple who were heavily in debt to pay the high school construction fees so that their son could attend the No. Middle School in the city, it was not a sum of money that they could easily afford.

After a long time, Lei Jinrong said to Jiang Xionghui and Jiang Lihua: "Two teachers, you accompany my wife to apologize to them first. I will go to raise some money and will be back in an hour."

How to raise money? Selling possessions? Or selling blood? Jiang Xionghui didn't know. He looked at the thin and dull old man, his fingers trembling as he held a cigarette butt and was reluctant to throw it away. He suddenly understood the profound meaning of the word "desperate". "Wait a moment, I'll be back soon."

Jiang Xionghui jogged all the way to the faculty and staff residential area and came back in less than five minutes. When he came back, he had 400 yuan more in his hand, which he directly gave to Lei Jinrong.

Lei Jinrong's eyes turned red: "Teacher Jiang, I will definitely find a way to pay you back this money!"

Jiang Xionghui smiled and said: "It's okay, let's go to Zhang's Fish Powder Shop and pay the money back first."

Zhangji Qifengdu Fish Powder Shop was just diagonally opposite the school gate, a few minutes' walk away. After the four of them arrived, Jiang Lihua introduced Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua to Zhang's mother.

The couple hurriedly handed 487 yuan neatly to Zhang's mother and apologized repeatedly, saying that Lei Ming had made a big mistake in this matter and that they were to blame for not educating their son well. At the end, Cai Lihua wiped her tears and wanted to kneel down and kowtow to Zhang's mother.

Aunt Zhang grabbed Cai Lihua.

She was easily persuaded and would not tolerate tough situations. When she learned that the cockroach was thrown into the fish meal by Lei Ming, she felt suffocated in her chest. However, now, witnessing the miserable appearance of the couple, she could not get angry at all.

Hey! They are all miserable people, all parents, so how could Zhang Ma not understand the feelings of this couple? When her son Yunqi committed a serious mistake, wasn’t she in such a miserable situation in the police station?
Now, the other party has come to apologize, and the attitude of the apology is so good. Aunt Zhang doesn't want to waste her energy to investigate further, but now Lei Ming has been arrested, and she doesn't know what to do.

Mother Zhang looked at her son Zhang Yunqi and said, "Yunqi, what do you think we should do about this?"

Zhang Yunqi asked Chu Jian to take a leave this afternoon. He did not go to class and stayed in the store the whole time.

To be honest, he didn't know that the situation in Lei Ming's family would be like this, and he also felt that the couple was quite pitiful, but the arrow has been shot and there is no turning back. Now the arrow has only been shot halfway, and it will not be over until he shoots his grandson Gao Ming into the wall.

Zhang Yunqi said to Lei Jinrong and his wife: "Uncle and aunt, I'm telling you the truth. This cannot be settled privately. We can only reach a settlement on compensation. But I don't think your son is the mastermind in this matter. He was obviously instructed by someone. If he can confess the problem, there is still room for maneuver. At least he can be dealt with leniently."

Zhang Yunqi's words brought hope to the bewildered couple. Their panicked eyes seemed to brighten up all of a sudden. However, the irony was that the young man who was giving them advice was the one who sent their son to the police station. Perhaps, in their simple and honest thinking, their son did something wrong and they could not blame others. But as parents, how could they remain indifferent when seeing their own flesh and blood facing imprisonment?

After listening to Zhang Yunqi's analysis, Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua immediately decided to go to the police station.

Jiang Xionghui looked at their busy backs as they left the house, and said to Zhang Yunqi with some emotion: "Young man, you are very good."

Zhang Yunqi just smiled.

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When Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua arrived at Nanhu Police Station, the two police officers in charge of the case, Hu Xiaojun and Sun Longquan, had just returned from Jiangchuan No. 1 Middle School and brought three students with them.

Lei Ming was always unwilling to explain the key issue, so they wanted to start with other people. At 12: noon today, three students including Yu Tao who went to Zhangji Qifengdu Fish Powder Shop with Lei Ming were taken back to the police station by Hu Xiaojun and Sun Longquan for investigation.

After Hu Xiaojun and Sun Longquan learned of the identities and purpose of Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua, they felt that judging from Lei Ming's current mood, it would be helpful to solve the case if this outwardly strong but actually weak child could meet his parents, so they made arrangements for the family of three to meet.

Sun Longquan asked two colleagues to interrogate three boys including Yu Tao separately, while Hu Xiaojun accompanied Lei Ming to meet his parents Lei Jinrong and Cai Lihua.

In the room, when Hu Xiaojun and another female police officer who was taking the statement brought the pale-faced Lei Ming in, Lei Jinrong did not show his deep affection as imagined. Instead, he came up to Lei Ming and slapped him in the face, causing his lips to bleed.

The female police officer wanted to step forward to stop him, but Hu Xiaojun waved her hand to stop him. He looked at this skinny, shriveled, plain-looking father with red eyes and shouted: "How could I give birth to a beast like you! I really should strangle you to death as soon as possible to prevent you from harming society!"

Lei Ming fell to his knees with a thud.

He said nothing and buried his head on the ground.

Cai Lihua, who was standing next to her, had tears all over her face. She grabbed her husband Lei Jinrong and said to Lei Ming: "Lei Zi, tell me, tell me quickly, who told you to do this evil thing? Tell the police quickly! Explain clearly, and we will try to get leniency!"

"Great, brilliant."

These words came out of Lei Ming's throat. His voice was a little hoarse, weak, annoyed, and desperate, and it seemed to be mixed with a little bit of inexplicable resentment.

After hearing this, Hu Xiaojun asked the female police officer to take notes, then left the room and lit a cigarette in the corridor and smoked silently until Sun Longquan and two other colleagues finished interrogating Tao and the other two and came to him with the notes.

Hu Xiaojun compared the three transcripts and found that the contents were all consistent. The mastermind behind their investigation also pointed to one person - Gao Ming!
Hu Xiaojun closed the notebook and said, "Let's go to No. 1 Middle School."

(End of this chapter)