254: Money Has Been Stolen

The businessman’s name was Jiang Jiarong. He was different from the business partners that the Wang Ningkai father and son usually cooperated with, in that he was not a real businessman. Instead, he was a rookie who had just become involved in the business industry. He came to Shanhai City with a million yuan in order to make a fortune. Unfortunately, he had to ran into the Wang Ningkai father and son who were in need of money.

The Wang Ningkai father and son discovered that he had a million-dollar net worth right as the company was about to go bankrupt, and figured they could use Jiang Jiarong to get through the company's bankruptcy. So, the two fooled Jiang Jiarong to jump in by hiring someone to testify about their company. Jiang Jiarong had been deceived and cooperated with them, transferring half a million.

The Wang Ningkai father and son initially planned to use the money as a fund to recover the company, but in two days, when they discovered that it wasn't working, they closed the company and ran away.

Jiang Jiarong didn’t find out at first, even when he later contacted them by phone. At that time, they were afraid of being exposed, so they made up a set of lies over the phone to deceive him, also blaming Jiang Jiarong himself for being stupid. He believed them without asking for any evidence. By the time he realized something was wrong, the company had already closed down, and he then realized that he had been cheated.

The deceived Jiang Jiarong was so anxious that he unwillingly ran below Wang Ningkai's company, thinking that he might be able to catch them. However, how could that be possible?

Zhang Wu asked his people to tell Jiang Jiarong that they knew the Wang Ningkai father and son, so if he wanted to get his money back, he should cooperate with them. They could guarantee that his money would be returned.

Jiang Jiarong became more vigilant since he had been deceived, but he still didn’t know anything about the Wang Ningkai father and son. No matter whether these people were telling the truth or not, he had no other choice. Therefore, he could only choose to believe them for now, and hope for good fortune in his future.

That afternoon, the Wang Ningkai father and son finally drove back, in the car that they had been reluctant to sell. Unexpectedly, a while after they arrived, an angry roar suddenly came out of their house without warning, startling the neighbors. People nearby then heard the sound of someone of pounding a surface, before bursting with an endless round of cursing.

A neighbor who didn’t know what was going on couldn’t help but run out. Just as he neared the house, a woman’s scream scared him. The voice was very familiar; it was clearly Wang Ningkai’s wife, Wang Xiaoyan. Who knew what happened, but Wang Xiaoyan seemed to be crying: "It was not me, I don't know anything," or something like that.

The voices of Li and Granny Wang seem to be mixed in with hers, saying that she was the only one at home this morning, so if it was not her, then who could have stolen it?

What was stolen?

The neighbor pricked up his ears and finally heard a few vague words; they seemed to be referring to a safe, and some amount of money, possibly hundreds of thousands. The neighbor who had always been clever immediately turned these words into a message. Shouldn’t this mean that their family’s money was stolen, and it was a large amount, too? But that wasn’t quite right. Wasn’t this the family who said that they had no money? In the past two days, they’d been arguing about borrowing money from Wang Hongxin. How could they have so much money stolen from them? Could it be that them needing money was a complete lie?

After happening across such a big secret, the neighbor couldn't wait to find someone to share it with.

At this time, Wang Ningkai and his family were still arguing about who stole the 200,000 yuan from the safe!

Although they all thought that it might have been Wang Xiaoyan, the actual probability of that hypothesis was very low. Setting aside the fact that only the Wang Ningkai father and son could open the safe, it was unknown whether the money had been stolen today, yesterday, or the day before yesterday. So, if Wang Xiaoyan really had stolen the money, she would have been long gone by now.

Wang Ningkai’s family didn’t want to believe that the money had been stolen by a thief. There was no surveillance in the village, so there would be almost no possibility of getting the money back. It also happened that this matter could not be publicized. However, they soon had more reason to be aggrieved: now that they’d lost 200,000, the deal with Wang Cheng was their only option.

However, without doing a thing, they had suddenly lost two hundred thousand. The family was still unreconciled, so they thought of a compromise.

For example, they would say that they borrowed 200,000 yuan from an external party, and the cash was just mailed this afternoon, but was stolen soon after it was put in the safe. In this way, the police would help them catch the thief as soon as possible.

Ten minutes later, Li went to the police station to report the case, while the Wang Ningkai father and son went to Wang Cheng.

After Wang Cheng heard the latest news about this from Bodyguard A, Bodyguard B walked in and informed him that the Wang Ningkai father and son wanted to see him. Wang Cheng knew that a good show was on its way and asked for Bodyguard B to let them in.

The current Wang Ningkai father and son had long lost their original vigor, and looked to be two complete losers, losers who had even committed crimes.

"Eldest uncle, eldest cousin, it really has not been easy to meet the two of you recently." Wang Cheng rested his hands on the armrest of the sofa while slightly tilting his head to look up at the two of them. His expression was amused, but there was a hint of irony in his words.

Wang Ningkai became very upset in his heart when he saw the obvious differences between Wang Cheng’s temperament and his. Wang Ningkai knew that Wang Cheng had already reached new heights in these several months that they hadn’t seen him, and that he’d now become a person they could only look up to. However, now that he was witnessing this with his own eyes, he was still very jealous.

Everyone who knew of Wang Cheng's past couple years couldn’t wait for such luck to fall upon themselves, and Wang Ningkai was no different.

Wang Hongwei was afraid that the situation might change for the worse, so after sitting down, he immediately got to the point and said: "Wang Cheng, your uncle just learned that your grandma had been bothering you. We weren’t able to help you and your parents at the time, so I will apologize to you now in your grandma’s stead. The old lady was only temporarily confused, so could you just..."

"Hold on, my surname is Zhou now. Granny Wang is not my paternal grandmother, my paternal grandmother has already passed away. However, don't worry, I won't make trouble with the old lady," Wang Cheng interrupted.

Wang Hongwei did not know what to do for a moment.

Wang Ningkai knew that Wang Cheng was a different person now, so he said, "Wang Cheng, today my father and I came today to discuss the matter of borrowing money. My mother has already informed me of your proposal, and I agree..."

"Wait a minute," Wang Cheng interrupted them again.

A trace of anger flashed across Wang Ningkai's face, and his tone was a little unhappy as he said, "What's wrong?"

Wang Cheng paid no attention to his behavior. He changed his posture and said, "I just received some very interesting news. The two of you probably haven’t heard of it yet."

"What interesting news?

"I heard that hundreds of thousands of yuan was stolen from your house?" Wang Cheng said in a shocked manner.

The Wang Ningkai father and son were also shocked, and almost blurted out 'how did you know'. Wang Hongwei quickly responded by directly refuting the news: "Impossible."

Wang Cheng sneered, "How is it impossible? Several people testified that they heard some yelling from your house not long ago, saying that hundreds of thousands of yuan was stolen from your safe. It would be impossible for the whole group of people to have auditory hallucinations together. So, I want to ask you both: since your family is so rich, why are you lying to my parents and saying that you have no money? Now I have reason to doubt your intentions."

The two didn't expect to be overheard, and for the news to have spread so quickly. Fortunately, they had already figured out a countermeasure. Wang Ningkai immediately informed Wang Cheng using the excuse they had discussed beforehand.

Wang Cheng mocked: "This is the first time I have heard of someone sending hundreds of thousands home."

That was right, the most doubtful part was that, based on their excuse, the money was originally sent to them. If it was a few thousand, that was one thing, but was shipping hundreds of thousands possible? Were they not afraid of losing the money halfway? The adults didn't believe in such an excuse and all felt that the money in the Wang Ningkai father and son’s safe must have already been there.

In the end, Wang Cheng refused to lend them money on the grounds of this incident.

The two had to leave dejectedly.

Li was also embarrassed by the time she returned home. She had heard of the rumors, and was ashamed from being pointed at all the way back from the police station - she still had not forgotten the suspicious looks in the policemen’s eyes.

Meanwhile, Granny Wang had been scolding the several neighbors who spread this matter for ten minutes. She deliberately cursed them loudly, saying things like ‘why don’t you go and have a son born without an asshole’*. Though they were originally worried about whether or not they did something wrong, after they heard her, they didn’t feel any guilt.

[T/N: a common curse said towards someone considered immoral, basically cursing their future children as punishment (having a child born without an anus is pretty unfortunate).]

In the evening, Wang Cheng received a call from Papa Wang.

Although his parents agreed to temporarily stay in Chengping in order to leave this matter to Wang Cheng, they were still very worried.

Wang Cheng didn't tell them the shocking truth, and only said that the matter would be resolved soon, so that they could continue with peace of mind for a few days. He promised that the old lady and his eldest uncle's family would not come to pester them again for a while.

Papa Wang chose to believe his son’s words.

At the end of their conversation, Wang Cheng tentatively asked, "By the way, Dad, do you remember which 70 to 80-year-olds the two Wang elders were close with before the disbanding of the Wang’s Village?"

"Of course I remember. What’s the matter?" Papa Wang asked in a surprised manner.

"It's nothing, I’m just curious. Will you tell me?" Wang Cheng didn't bother making an excuse, as he figured his father would know about this sooner or later. Papa Wang was quite honest, so he wouldn't think too much about it too much right now, even if he was suspicious.

"Of course, the ones most familiar with your grandparents were the ones in your grandpa’s former card-playing group, like Second Grandpa Wang who lived next door, and Grandpa Zhang. Oh, the old village chief of the Wang’s Village also had a good relationship with your grandpa, what a pity that Village Chief Wang passed away.” Papa Wang grew quite nostalgic when talking about the past. Although his previous life was not as easy as he had it now, they were still happy memories. “Your dad still remembers that Village Chief Wang loved me very much when I was young, and would often bring delicious things for me to eat."

Because Papa Wang was not spoiled at home, he didn’t have toys and delicious food to eat like other kids did when he was a child. His two older brothers had these things, but he didn’t. Village Chief Wang had sneakily given him these things, but had been discovered by Papa Wang’s two older brothers, who had told their mother. After she learned of this, she had angrily beat up Papa Wang and ordered him not to accept other people’s things again, and locked him up as punishment. After Village Chief Wang found out about this, he invited his mother to a meal. It was unknown what they had spoken of, but when Papa Wang found that his mother didn't lock him up anymore, he was very grateful to Village Chief Wang.

The endlessly-talking Papa Wang didn't realize that his son was distracted.

***

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