Dark Light Chaser.

Chapter 18 The Secret of Fighting to the Death

Ai Liang followed the two out of the mourning hall. While they were breaking up the fight, he secretly slipped the bank card back into Gao Fuye's pocket.

After leaving the mourning hall, the staff gave Wang Qiang a cold shoulder and told him to leave immediately. As the saying goes, "If a son is not taught, it is the father's fault." How could he have the nerve to ask for forgiveness when his own son killed someone else's daughter?

Ai Liang didn't want to get involved in other people's family affairs, so she left the funeral home and went to the bus stop.

The bus stop is right across from the funeral home, separated only by a road.

Ai Liang sat on a bench waiting for the bus. This suburb was sparsely populated and the bus only came once every half hour. The last one had been ten minutes ago.

As Ai Liang texted Yue Qihua to ask for her home address, a car stopped in front of him.

The face revealed when the car window was rolled down was Wang Qiang.

"The bus to the city center takes a long time to arrive, how about I give you a ride?"

Just moments ago, Wang Qiang was "crying his eyes out," but the moment he stepped outside, he changed his expression and came to Ai Liang's side, urging her to get in the car.

Ai Liang couldn't stand this kind of hypocritical fake smile. He moved to the side and sat three body lengths away from Wang Qiang, and said without any mercy, "Just say what you need me for. If you don't need anything, don't take up a bus parking space."

"Your relationship with Gao Jiajia."

Wang Qiang did not directly state his purpose, but changed the subject to subtly probe Ai Liang's attitude.

“I don’t know her well. I’m here today only because her father asked me to.”

Ai Liang stared blankly at Wang Qiang, her hands still busy tapping on her phone screen.

Seeing that Ai Liang ignored him, Wang Qiang wasn't annoyed and continued, "Really? I heard you saw Wang Zi throwing things away at the recycling station in the middle of the night? Could you have seen wrong?"

Ai Liang stared at him without saying a word.

“I only have one son, Wang Zi. He should be punished for his mistakes, but we can’t let him spend the first half of his life in prison.”

Wang Qiang started playing the emotional card with Ai Liang again, speaking with tears in his eyes: "Please, just pretend you never saw him that night, okay?"

Ai Liang remained seated on the bench, watching Wang Qiang perform his one-man show.

Seeing that appealing to emotions wasn't working, Wang Qiang immediately changed tactics. He took out a tissue and wiped away his tears: "Classmate, I know he's guilty and deserves punishment, but as a father, I really can't bear to see him waste half his life in jail. As long as you tell the police you were mistaken that night, I'll immediately transfer 100,000 yuan to you. I'm not asking for acquittal, I just want him to suffer two fewer years!"

Ai Liang's expression finally changed when she heard that Wang Qiang was going to transfer money to her.

Just when he thought the matter was settled, Ai Liang said, "Do you know how much money Gao Fuye just gave me?"

Wang Qiang's face froze instantly. How could his financial resources compare to Gao Fuye's?
“I just returned the one million he gave me.”

Wang Qiang remained silent for a long time after hearing this, but then a thought suddenly occurred to him. He stood up and said angrily, "You actually took money to give Gao Fuye false testimony?! Let me tell you, even if you return the money to him, you still can't escape the charge of giving false testimony!"

"If you've accepted money from the victim's family as a witness, your testimony is invalid. And do you know how people will perceive you if this gets out?"

After realizing that appealing to emotions wasn't working, Wang Qiang immediately changed his tune, just like he had in the mourning hall, and attacked where it hurt.

He twisted the obvious evidence into fabricated evidence in just a few words. Ai Liang was almost amused by Wang Qiang's exaggerated performance.

A normal high school student with no social experience might actually be fooled by these words, but is Ai Liang normal? She can't even be bothered to pay attention to him.

Not wanting to get entangled with Wang Qiang any longer, Ai Liang got up and planned to walk a few hundred meters to another bus stop to stop the guy from nagging in his ear.

"Do you know how much money Gao Fuye gave me?"

Ai Liang's voice came from behind, but Ai Liang herself did not speak; it was a recording from her phone.

"I don't know what will happen if this audio gets out; I'll just try my best to send it to your classmates."

Wang Qiang finally stopped hiding his sinister intentions. He knew that sending the recording to the police would be useless, so he changed his approach.

"You took the money to do something, then kicked your classmate when he was down and slandered him. You don't want to have this kind of reputation, do you?"

Seeing Wang Qiang's smug smile, Ai Liang asked, "I'm curious, how did you find out my identity? A witness's identity should be kept confidential, right? Isn't it illegal for a suspect's family member to contact a witness privately?"

Wang Qiang smiled but did not answer directly. Instead, he continued to threaten Ai Liang: "Classmate, I don't want to make things too tense. I just want you to help me get rid of the charge of maliciously destroying evidence against my son. I will delete this recording in front of you afterwards."

"Really?" Ai Liang tapped her phone lightly. "What if I asked you to delete it right now?"

Wang Qiang's silence was already quite telling.

"Hey classmate, I know he's guilty and deserves to be punished. Just tell the police you were mistaken that night and I'll transfer 100,000 yuan to you right away."

Wang Qiang's voice also came from Ai Liang's phone, and his expression immediately changed.

"Don't worry, I just sent the audio to my friend. Even if you steal my phone, it won't help."

Ai Liang naturally had a way to deal with this kind of scoundrel. When Wang Qiang approached with ill intentions, Ai Liang turned on her phone to record the conversation.

"Now, either give me your phone, or I'll send the recording to Captain Shi of the Criminal Investigation Team. You choose."

Unlike his recording, if Ai Liang's recording were sent to Shi Feng, he would definitely be warned, and his personal freedom would even be temporarily restricted.

Illegally probing the identity of witnesses and attempting to bribe or threaten them—these two offenses alone are enough to get him into serious trouble.

Wang Qiang could tell that Ai Liang's fearlessness stemmed from his knowledge of the two charges.

Wang Qiang's face was ashen, and he could only hand the phone to Ai Liang as instructed. He never expected that after so many years in the underworld, he would be defeated by a mere junior high school kid.

After getting the phone, Ai Liang immediately pulled up the recording and deleted it: "By the way, if anyone does anything like dumping garbage or splashing paint in front of my house in the future, I will send this recording to Captain Shi."

"Don't go too far."

Ai Liang said in a flat tone, "This is not excessive. I will still need Uncle Wang's help then."

He had long seen through Wang Qiang's character; the guy was essentially a scoundrel.

Wang Qiang forced a smile, but there was no hint of amusement in his eyes as he looked at Ai Liang.

Ai Liang sat down on the bench at the bus stop. Before getting on the bus, Wang Qiang deliberately gave her a meaningful look, as if advising her to be careful. Unfortunately, Ai Liang kept her head down, playing on her phone, and didn't even glance at him, which was really infuriating.

Wang Qiang cursed inwardly as he drove away.

Only after Wang Qiang left did Ai Liang glance in the direction he had gone, her eyes devoid of any emotion.

Wang Qiang had no idea that in those few short minutes, Ai Liang had obtained the secret he had buried deep in his heart, a secret that could send him to prison.

Such a thug would refrain from harming himself in the moment because he is afraid of that recording.

Once Wang Zi goes to prison, the recording will be of little use, and he will definitely come back to retaliate; he's the kind of person who holds grudges.

Sometimes you don't want to cause trouble, but trouble will find you anyway.

Therefore, it's still necessary to prepare some countermeasures.

So this is what "fighting to the death" means.

Ai Liang looked in the direction of the funeral home, and he finally understood how Wang Zi's family had started their supermarket.

It all started three years ago.

Gao Fuye caused a fatal accident at night and fled the scene. He found the traffic police officer on duty, Wang Qiang, to delete the surveillance video. After the deed was done, Gao Fuye gave Wang Qiang 200,000 yuan plus a storefront, which is the supermarket.

Although Wang Qiang was dismissed, he was doing much better than when he was in the traffic police team because of the connections he had built up by helping people avoid traffic tickets and the help of Gao Fuye. He spent his days drinking and playing cards with his cronies or going out to fool around.

It was precisely because of her husband's appearance that Wang Zi's mother, a teacher, had an extremely strong desire to control Wang Zi, which indirectly led to Wang Zi's withdrawn personality.

After piecing together the stories, Ai Liang shook her head and sighed. Who would have thought that there was such a connection behind a campus case?

As Ai Liang pondered how to uncover evidence of Wang Qiang and Gao Fuye's crimes, the bus arrived, and he temporarily set aside the grudges and affections between adults and boarded the bus.

Ai Liang hadn't forgotten that his backpack was still with Yue Qihua. Based on the address Yue Qihua provided, he got off the bus nearby and wandered around for a bit before finding the apartment building Yue Qihua had mentioned.

"Is the mourning over so quickly?"

Yue Qihua was standing downstairs at the apartment building waiting for him.

"Yes, because I'm all alone."

Ai Liang followed Yue Qihua onto the elevator.

"Gao Fuye is a real estate tycoon, so why are you the only one going to pay your respects?"

Yue Qihua said with some doubt.

Ai Liang stepped out of the elevator first: "He didn't want any irrelevant people to disturb Gao Jiajia."

Yue Qihua was somewhat surprised, not expecting Gao Fuye to value his daughter so much.

Ai Liang looked at Yue Qihua, who had opened the door, and asked, "Where's Xingyue?"

Yue Qihua slapped her forehead and said helplessly, "Ah, I almost forgot, she accidentally spilled juice and dirtied your backpack. She's washing it in the bathroom now."

Yue Qihua took out a pair of spare slippers from the shoe cabinet and gave them to Ai Liang.

As if hearing the door open, Yang Xingyue cautiously peeked half her head out of the bathroom: "Ai Liang, I'm sorry."

"Have you finished washing your backpack? If you have, hurry up and come out. Ai Liang won't get angry over something so trivial. Besides, most people would be happy to have a beautiful girl help them wash their things, right, Ai Liang?"

After saying that, Yue Qihua nudged Ai Liang with her elbow, her tone full of teasing.

Although Yang Xingyue had taken Yue Qihua's advice, she couldn't change her mindset of pursuing someone else overnight, so she could only blush and shrink back into the bathroom.

Ai Liang didn't answer and calmly sat down on the sofa in the living room, an attitude that made Yue Qihua feel extremely bored.

Not long after, Yang Xingyue came out of the bathroom carrying her schoolbag and said somewhat hesitantly, "My schoolbag might not dry until tomorrow. Ai Liang, will you come again tomorrow?"

After hearing this, Yue Qihua gave Yang Xingyue a thumbs up from an angle that Ai Liang couldn't see.

Ai Liang pretended not to see the hand dryer in the bathroom, as it would be too impolite to directly expose someone's little secret. So he nodded and said, "I'll come over if there's nothing else."

"That's great. I mean, thank you. You've been helping me with my studies all this time." Yang Xingyue smiled brightly and ran happily to the balcony to hang up her schoolbag.

Unlike the cheerful Yang Xingyue, Ai Liang felt a mix of emotions. To be honest, when he first met Yang Xingyue, he didn't like her much because of Yang Xingguo; in fact, he could even say he disliked her. Even though Ai Liang understood that what his parents did had nothing to do with their children, he still found it difficult to view her normally.

Ai Liang initially tutored Yang Xingyue because of Yue Qihua's request. At that time, Ai Liang was completely perfunctory, until she saw Yang Xingyue hiding alone in the school garden and crying, which moved her to pity.

After two years of getting to know each other, Ai Liang gradually changed her opinion. Yang Xingyue was just a somewhat naive and innocent little girl. Apart from having some ulterior motives occasionally, she was very gentle and kind in her dealings with others. No matter how cold Ai Liang was, she always held pure goodwill.

Unfortunately, her father was Yang Xingguo, the person Ai Liang hated the most, so their relationship could only remain as friends.

Yue Qihua waved her hand in front of Ai Liang: "Hey, what are you daydreaming about? Are you fantasizing that Xingyue will wash your clothes like this after you marry her?"

Yang Xingyue, who had just sat down, blushed bright red upon hearing this: "Huahua! What nonsense are you talking about!"

Shyly, Yang Xingyue took out all the test papers that Ai Liang had assigned and put them on her desk: "I've finished all the test papers for the past few days."

Ai Liang glanced at the test paper and then asked, "Okay, where did you put my things in my bag?"

"Here it is."

Too lazy to get off the sofa, Yue Qihua simply walked past Ai Liang, picked up a black notebook from the shelf, and handed it to her. She sat cross-legged next to Ai Liang and asked with interest, "Don't worry, we haven't seen it. Is this your diary?"

The two were very close, only a hand's width apart.

Ai Liang moved slightly to the side to create some space before opening her laptop.

"Huh? This is... Advanced Mathematics?" Yue Qihua asked, looking at the densely packed formulas.

“This is Xu Zhihai’s notebook, a gift from Beijing University to its students upon enrollment.” Ai Liang handed the notebook to Yue Qihua: “It contains his conjectures and proofs from his university days. I felt it would be a shame to lose it, so I brought it back.”

The first few pages of the notebook contain only basic advanced mathematics knowledge, while the proofs of mathematical conjectures are only found a few pages later.

Yue Qihua took the notebook and began to flip through it. She had already taught herself all the high school material, and she could barely understand the first few pages of the notes.

Yang Xingyue, who was clueless about advanced mathematics, also came over to look at the notes, which immediately drew a shoo from Yue Qihua: "Go away, go away, what are you doing here if you haven't even finished high school math?"

Yang Xingyue grabbed Yue Qihua's arm and said coquettishly, "I just wanted to take a look. Maybe there's something else."

"Do you think this is a treasure hunt for kids? What could possibly be in a notebook?"

Despite her apparent impatience, Yue Qihua still placed the notebook between the two of them.

She could tell that Yang Xingyue had only come over because she didn't want to be doing her homework alone. It was just her childish nature acting up because she was afraid of being lonely.

Now it was Ai Liang's turn to be neglected by his two best friends. He silently got up and went to Yang Xingyue's desk to grade the test papers he had assigned earlier.

"There's a poem!" Yang Xingyue's voice came with surprise, just like a gamer discovering an Easter egg while playing a game.

"It's just a short poem, what's the big deal?" Yue Qihua wasn't very interested. She was more interested in the mathematical formulas in front of her than the poem, typical of a science student.

"You're a math major, right? Don't you think it's strange that you wrote a poem in your notebook?" Yang Xingyue rested her chin on her hand as if she were playing a deduction game.

"The latter half of the notes is obviously something he scribbled down when he went crazy, okay?" Yue Qihua couldn't help but complain. Based on the strokes and layout of the formulas, she could easily tell the change in the glasses' mentality between the two parts.

"Ugh, Hua Hua, you're so boring. Ai Liang, come take a look."

(End of this chapter)