Chapter 68: Laying the Cards on the Table

When Wen Ming Yue was arrested by the police, Xie Cen was still busy rushing around for Wen Jing’s hand injury, watching helplessly as Wen Ming Yue was taken away, his heart completely sank.

Their family of three had originally been barely scraping by on Wen Ming Yue’s salary. Now, with the addition of Wen Jing’s medical expenses, their life was even more difficult to sustain. Wen Ming Yue being taken away by the police was like adding frost to snow. They couldn’t even afford to hire a decent lawyer for her and could only rely on legal aid.

However, Wen Ming Yue’s crime of embezzling public funds was substantiated. She refused to return the embezzled funds of over a million, a huge amount. The case was quickly judged, and she was sentenced to fifteen years in prison.

Wearing an orange detention center uniform, Wen Ming Yue immediately felt dizzy. Fortunately, she was supported by the surrounding court police, or she would have collapsed. She heard Xie Cen’s crying and cursing. Wen Ming Yue’s vision blurred and darkened as she looked towards the jury. Xie Cen was kneeling on the ground, weeping bitterly. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, but the court police were already dragging her weak legs away.

By the time she came to her senses again, her handcuffs had been removed, and she had been shoved into a cold, dark square space.

The other inmates in the cell stared at her fixedly. They came from all over the country, with various crimes committed. The only thing they had in common was that they were all younger and stronger than Wen Ming Yue. Prison wasn’t a place that respected the elderly. Wen Ming Yue’s aged body trembled, as if chills were converging on her from all directions.

In less than a week, Wen Ming Yue was almost driven mad.

She had lived in civilized society for most of her life, and suddenly being thrown into this dog-eat-dog prison was a shock. During the day, she could barely manage, but at night, the inmates in the cell would take out their frustrations on her. They didn’t beat her violently, but tortured her with various small actions. Though not fatal, it was more like a form of torture.

For example, they would pour cold water on her face in the dead of night, or prick her scalp with sharp objects. If she showed any resistance, she would be punished by the cell leader to stand all night. She still had to continue labor reform during the day. When she lacked energy, she would be reported by other inmates, and in turn, be disciplined by the prison guards. Even the most timid and fearful person in the prison would use her as a punching bag.

She became someone everyone could bully. Wen Ming Yue had only been there for a week, but it felt like a lifetime. And she still had 14 years and 349 days of such a lifetime left. She might even die in this place.

Wen Ming Yue had never felt so afraid before. Endless terror choked her throat. She hurriedly wrote a letter to Xie Cen, asking him to find a way to hire a lawyer for her, to help her appeal, to ask Wen Lan Sheng for money, to compensate as much as possible. The most important thing was to reduce her sentence. She didn’t want to stay in this hellish place for a minute longer.

But the letter was sent out and disappeared like a stone sinking into the sea, with no response.

In the dark, dilapidated house, Xie Cen finished reading the letter and crumpled it into a ball, throwing it into the trash can. His tone was resentful: “She’s in jail, and now she’s ordering me around.”

“She embezzled public funds herself, lost her salary and pension. We can barely survive ourselves, and now she wants us to pay back for her. Dream on!” Wen Jing lay on the bed like an invalid, gritting her teeth.

If it wasn’t for her mom’s stupid decision to seek her own doom, how could she have ended up like this today?

“That’s right. I’ve followed your mom for a lifetime, suffered her temper for a lifetime. I was just hoping to have someone to rely on in my old age. I never thought we’d still have to rely on us, father and daughter, in the end,” Xie Cen cursed Wen Ming Yue viciously.

If she hadn’t lost money in stocks, would he have to work in the back kitchen of a hot pot restaurant, carrying pots and washing dishes now? Working himself to death all day, not even earning a hundred yuan, and still having to bear Wen Jing’s medical expenses. It was infuriating just thinking about it. It was all Wen Ming Yue’s fault for insisting on playing the stock market.

“Mom is so stupid. Since she already embezzled public funds, why didn’t she take more and transfer the assets to me? She couldn’t pay it back anyway and had to go to jail. She didn’t even think to leave some money for her daughter. What kind of mother is she?” Wen Jing looked at her wrist, which hurt even with the slightest bend, and said with red eyes, “If she had left me some money, would I be unable to afford medical expenses?”

Xie Cen looked at his precious daughter with heartache, scooped up a spoonful of porridge, and said gently, “Ah, let’s not talk about it anymore. Dad just made some vegetable porridge, drink it quickly to nourish yourself.”

Wen Jing suddenly pushed Xie Cen away with her arm, exploding in anger: “How can these rotten vegetable leaves nourish me!”

Xie Cen trembled, scalded by the hot porridge.

Wen Jing looked at Xie Cen, almost hating him to death: “If it wasn’t for you telling me to chase after Wen Lan Sheng, would I have gotten my wrist cut by him? I’ve become like this, it’s all because of you!”

Xie Cen stared at her blankly and said, “How can this be blamed on me? It was Wen Lan Sheng who hurt you, not me. Jing Jing, you’re the apple of Dad’s eye, how could I harm you!”

“Then go find Wen Lan Sheng for me!” Since her hand was ruined, Wen Jing had become gloomy. When speaking of Wen Lan Sheng, she seemed to want to skin him alive: “Find him and bring him back to atone for his sins!”

Of course, Xie Cen also wanted to find Wen Lan Sheng. Now that their life was so difficult, although Wen Lan Sheng hadn’t gotten money from Fan Xia, at least he was young and educated. If he could find a job first, then a part-time job, it would make their life better than now.

Moreover, he was Wen Lan Sheng’s father, so Wen Lan Sheng should support him. And Wen Jing’s hand was injured because of him, he couldn’t escape responsibility.

But Xie Cen had been inquiring about Wen Lan Sheng’s whereabouts all this time, yet he still didn’t know where he was.

In the prison, Wen Ming Yue had been waiting day and night, and finally, someone came to visit her.

During the waiting period for the visit, she had been tortured day and night by her cellmates. These days, they had come up with new ways to torment her. She lived under collective bullying in the cell, becoming a skinny old woman.

She thought it would be Xie Cen bringing Wen Jing to see her, and might have even hired a lawyer for her, preparing to appeal again. But to her surprise, the person who came to see her was Fan Xia. The prison’s visiting room was an independent small house, without guard supervision.

Fan Xia sat leisurely on the other side of the glass wall, her long, slender white legs crossed, with a gentle smile in her eyes.

Seeing Fan Xia doing so well, Wen Ming Yue’s face fell even more.

She had become like this all because of Fan Xia. If she hadn’t listened to Fan Xia’s persuasion to play the stock market back then, she wouldn’t have lost money, wouldn’t have embezzled public funds, and wouldn’t be in jail.

She was now the source of all her suffering.

Wen Ming Yue had an expression like she wanted to kill Fan Xia, leaning against the glass wall: “Fan Xia, you’ve ruined me like this, and you dare to come!”

Wen Ming Yue’s face was twisted, but Fan Xia laughed, laughed very happily, and even changed her posture to lean back casually in the chair: “Why wouldn’t I dare to come? I came just to see how miserable you are.”

Wen Ming Yue was stunned, then filled with even stronger hatred, shouting: “You dare to kick me when I’m down! Fan Xia, my son served you for so many years, and you abandoned him just like that. Are we your enemies? You refuse to help, and you treat me like this!”

Slap——

“Aren’t you my enemies? Fifteen years ago, you killed my mother in a hit-and-run, caused my father’s death, your whole family forgot about it, but I haven’t!” Before Wen Ming Yue could finish speaking, Fan Xia’s hand slammed against the glass. If not for the layer of glass separating them, it would have hit Wen Ming Yue’s face hard. Her eyes were no longer gentle, but filled with a chilling aura that made one’s heart tremble. In the face of her imposing manner, Wen Ming Yue suddenly shrank.

It seemed that only at this moment did she truly recognize Fan Xia.

Wen Ming Yue sat down with weak legs and said, “You… so you knew all along. Then all these years… you deliberately slept with my son, deliberately took revenge on me!”

Suddenly she gasped, her eyes widening: “So the stocks were also you deliberately harming me! You knew all along that stock was problematic! You watched me step by step into the fire pit… That anonymous report letter was also written by you!”

Fan Xia smiled: “Not bad.”

Wen Ming Yue’s hands and feet turned cold. She never thought that the person she always considered the most harmless was actually a venomous snake lurking for years, causing her family unspeakable suffering.

“Appeal! I want to appeal again! You deliberately harmed me.” Wen Ming Yue said excitedly.

“You can go ahead and appeal. Did I force you to embezzle public funds?” Fan Xia smiled faintly.

Fan Xia was right. Even if she appealed again, she couldn’t win. Wen Ming Yue trembled in despair.

Fan Xia’s voice was as cold as a hanging blade: “Wen Ming Yue, this is retribution for you killing my parents. You just wait to die in prison.”

Wen Ming Yue begged pitifully: “Fan Xia, I was wrong, I really didn’t mean to harm your mother, I had no grudge against her, I just had a bit to drink that day, it was really an accident, Fan Xia please forgive me-”

Fan Xia’s eyes were cold with tears: “No grudge? So you hit her, not only did you not save her, but you deliberately fled, leaving her lying on the cold ground, to be run over by car after car!”

Wen Ming Yue cried: “I didn’t mean to, I was in shock at the time, I did think about going back to save her.”

“Your so-called saving was to flee back to your hometown overnight, scrap the car, and destroy all the evidence?”

Wen Ming Yue was visibly stunned, not expecting Fan Xia to know everything.

Fan Xia smiled coldly: “Wen Ming Yue, are you enjoying your time in prison?”

Wen Ming Yue looked at her in surprise: “What do you mean?”

Fan Xia smiled ambiguously: “Nothing, just take care of yourself.”

“Don’t go! Explain yourself clearly!” Wen Ming Yue pounded on the glass wall and shouted, but Fan Xia ignored her.

Wen Ming Yue was trembling as she was taken back to her cell. Looking at the burly inmates around her eyeing her maliciously, and thinking about what Fan Xia had said, she finally understood why these people had been specifically tormenting only her for so long. It wasn’t because she was old and easy to bully, but because these people had all received benefits from Fan Xia.

Wen Ming Yue was completely desperate, living in a daze every day, as if in hell.

She had tried to commit suicide secretly, attempting to stab her neck with a sharpened toothbrush handle in the dead of night, but was stopped by her cellmates.

“You can’t die. That young lady instructed us not to let you die so easily. As long as you live another day, our families will receive money.”

Hearing her cellmate’s words, Wen Ming Yue shed desperate tears. She could only spend the rest of her life in prison, living worse than death.