You're supposed to be a security officer, what case are you solving?

Chapter 165 People's joys and sorrows are not shared.

Yang Jinwen returned to the platform but did not wait for Zhao Jianxin's bus.

Instead, he randomly took a car and returned to the city.

It was still early, but he had nowhere to go, so he had to go back to his workplace first.

The cat hasn't come back yet; it was already three o'clock in the afternoon after he took a nap.

The weather was frighteningly cold. Annan City is located south of the Qinling Mountains, and no household has installed heating. In winter, people can only keep warm by wearing more clothes.

After getting up, Yang Jinwen selected a bicycle from the bicycle shed.

These bicycles were all delivered by the patrol team; they were all stolen and unclaimed, and the owners could not be found.

So Wang Daquan selected a few good ones and put them in the branch office's bicycle shed, so anyone who wanted to ride could ride them.

Yang Jinwen and Maozi's bicycle was stolen in July in front of the health school police station, and its whereabouts are still unknown. Nobody knows who they are riding on now.

Yang Jinwen put on all his clothes, wore the leather gloves Wen Ling had given him, and braved the freezing cold to ride his bicycle home.

The so-called home was the staff dormitory of the Anan Steel Plant.

But right now, he lives alone in the house.

Yang Dachuan was the only son in three generations, and Yang Jinwen was the fourth. He had no relatives in the city, and the same was true for his deceased mother's side of the family.

In other words, Yang Jinwen was all alone in An'nan City.

I have a lot of classmates, but we all go our separate ways and don't keep in touch often.

The steel plant is in complete disarray due to layoffs, so Yang Jinwen doesn't feel comfortable visiting it.

When he got to his building, he turned his clothes up, strode upstairs, took out his keys, opened the door, and went inside. He couldn't help but shiver.

When Yang Jinwen looked up again, his entire face froze.

"dad?"

Yang Dachuan sat on the sofa, a cigarette dangling from his lips, staring at him with an air of arrogance.

"no……"

Yang Jinwen thought he was seeing things, so he blinked.

Yang Dachuan clicked his tongue: "If it wasn't me, who else could be in this room?"

"No, when did you get back? You didn't even call ahead?"

Yang Jinwen was completely bewildered. He glanced at the sofa and saw a suitcase filled with neatly stacked bundles of brand-new 100-yuan bills.

Yang Dachuan tossed the money in his hand into the box: "It's good that you're back, saves me the trouble of going to your workplace to look for you."

"Where did you get so much money?"

Yang Jinwen immediately became alert. When he looked at Yang Dachuan again, he saw him in a crisp blue suit, white trousers, and slicked-back hair.

With so much money involved, he's definitely the prime suspect.

Yang Dachuan stood up, grinning from ear to ear: "How was your dad's trip south? Wasn't it awesome?"

"What exactly were you doing in Shenzhen? Were you a notorious criminal? Or a fraudster?"

Yang Dachuan frowned: "Didn't I tell you? He made a fortune reselling TVs. Damn, money in Shenzhen is really easy to make. I didn't want to come back, but Jiang Hong insisted on coming back first."

Yang Jinwen looked doubtful: "Really?"

"Would your dad lie to you?"

Yang Jinwen turned to the side and pointed to his mother's portrait: "I swear in front of my mother."

He looked closely and saw that in front of his mother's portrait, there were three incense sticks in the bronze incense burner. They had only been lit for a short while and had burned down to the length of his little finger, with only a wisp of smoke.

It was obvious that Yang Dachuan had just returned, and he hadn't forgotten to offer incense to his deceased wife.

"Okay, I swear."

Yang Dachuan pursed his lips, walked to his deceased wife's portrait, and clasped his hands together.

“Meijuan, my son doesn’t believe me. He thinks I’ve done something illegal or criminal.”

I swear to you, I, Yang Dachuan, have absolutely not done anything immoral. That box of money was all earned by Jiang Hong and me through trade. I have a clear conscience.

After saying that, Yang Dachuan picked up the wooden hammer on the table and struck the chime in front of the portrait.

"clang!"

"Xiaowen, it's your turn. Light incense for your mother. I came back and saw that no one has lived in this house for so long. Your mother's portrait is covered in dust. Didn't you even come back to wipe it clean?"

Yang Jinwen looked up and saw that his mother's portrait did indeed show signs of being wiped clean.

He walked to the portrait, took out three incense sticks, lit them, bowed three times, put them into the incense burner, and then struck the chime with a mallet.

"clang!"

"Mom, I'm busy with work, I'm sorry. But you must remember what Dad said. If he dares to break the law, you should take him into custody."

Yang Dachuan looked distressed: "No, can't you think about the good things about me? Back then, wasn't it you who told me to go south? We even discussed it all night to make big money. Weren't you just fooling me?"

"Well, now that I'm making money, you suspect me of committing a crime? Is this your own son?"

Yang Dachuan looked at his deceased wife's portrait and lamented, "Meijuan, look at our son. I raised him with so much hardship, and this is how he treats his old man."

"Alright, alright," Yang Jinwen roared, "Tell me how you made all this money? How far has your business gone?"

Yang Dachuan chuckled and pointed at the money box: "You guess how much money your dad has in this box?"

"Do I need to guess? One million."

"No, you have such sharp eyes?"

Yang Jinwen shrugged, inwardly thinking that when he confiscated drug money in his previous life, he could roughly guess the amount just by looking at it.

Yang Dachuan immediately recounted how he and Jiang Hong did business in Shenzhen, how they managed operations, and how they established a trading company.

The approach was still the same as Yang Jinwen's, with not much difference, but Yang Dachuan mentioned a woman in his words.

Holy crap, he made his first fortune through a woman.

Yang Dachuan tossed a cigarette to his son: "This amount of money is just a drop in the bucket for Anan Steel Plant. We originally planned to deposit it in the bank, but there wasn't enough time."

Jiang Hong and I followed two truckloads of goods back. Damn, the road was too dangerous; we encountered several groups of village bandits and highwaymen. Jiang Hong carried her gun with her the whole time and took it out several times.

Yang Jinwen asked, "So what do you plan to do in the future?"

"I'm leaving tonight; I have a lot of things to do in Shenzhen."

"So what are you doing back here?"

“I couldn’t sleep well over there, and I even sleepwalked. I would wake up in the middle of the night looking for your mother’s portrait. I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep.”

I'm thinking of bringing your mother's portrait over and putting it in my bedroom so I can see her too.

Yang Jinwen looked at his mother's portrait, a black and white photo of her when she was young.

In terms of looks, none of Yang Dachuan's 'girlfriends' could compare to her. Moreover, Yang Jinwen had heard from her grandparents when she was a child that her mother had married Yang Dachuan during his most difficult time and lived a frugal and simple life for a while.

She never said a bad word about Yang Dachuan, nor did she complain at all. She just smiled, no matter how difficult or challenging things were.

Yang Dachuan wasn't a good-tempered person, but as soon as he saw her smile, his anger and pressure would disappear instantly.

He kept repeating in Yang Jinwen's ear that even if his mother had scolded him once or said something bad about him behind his back, he would not have remained chaste until now.

Yang Dachuan could not forget his first wife.

Yang Jinwen also never forgot his mother.

The two men sat in dining chairs, separated by the table, lit cigarettes for each other, and remained silent for a moment.

Yang Dachuan asked, "How's work?"

"pretty good."

"How good is 'pretty good'?"

"that's it."

Yang Dachuan looked at his son's face, then at his clothes, and scolded, "It's so cold, and you're not even wearing a sweater? You're only wearing two coats?"

"I just came back to get my clothes. Where did my mom put the sweater she used to knit for me?"

"It's in the cabinet, next to mine."

If you feel you can't fit into the sweater anymore, you can wear mine. My son and I are about the same height. Before your mother passed away, she worked hard for more than half a year, knitting twenty sweaters. Ten for you, ten for me. In the end, her hands, the ones that held the knitting needles, were covered in chilblains.

Yang Jinwen lowered his head: "Mom passed away in the winter."

"December 20, 1980, is today."

"Mmm," Yang Jinwen choked out.

Then, he wiped his eyes, looked up, cleared his throat, and asked, "You just said you were in a hurry to leave tonight?"

"Yes."

"And what about this money?"

"Come out with me in a little while, and we'll put it in your name."

"Aren't you going to visit your grandparents?"

"I'll come back to see them during the Chinese New Year. They won't feel at ease if I go back abruptly."

"I'll go pack my things." Yang Jinwen stood up and began packing his winter clothes to take back to his workplace.

Yang Dachuan called out, "Hey, you put your sweater in my room."

"Please take it out for me."

"You little rascal." Yang Dachuan chuckled.

After entering the room, the father and son started tinkering.

Yang Jinwen picked up a suitcase and began packing.

When he came out, he saw Yang Dachuan standing in front of the bed, holding a brown sweater in his hands, burying his face in the sweater, and low sobs coming from inside.

Upon witnessing this, Yang Jinwen quietly withdrew.

Then, the father and son carried three suitcases and sneaked downstairs.

Yang Dachuan was afraid of being seen by the steel mill workers, lest he be gossiped about. Fortunately, there was no one in the yard that afternoon.

They first deposited the money in the box into the bank in Yang Jinwen's name.

The bank manager was an acquaintance, so there weren't many procedures involved.

Then, Jiang Hong drove over, and after exchanging pleasantries with him for a while, Yang Jinwen watched them leave.

Yang Jinwen looked at the snowflakes falling all around him. The weather forecast said that there would be no more snow after passing An'nan City.

He carefully tucked the million-yuan deposit certificate into his pocket, rode his bicycle, and returned to his workplace.

After tidying himself up in the dormitory, he put on a brown sweater knitted by his mother and leather gloves given to him by Wen Ling, then rode his bicycle to the Anan Hotel.

Upon entering, Yang Jinwen was greeted by Yang Dachuan's old flame as usual. After asking for the private room number, he went upstairs.

When the waiter pushed open the door, Yang Jinwen was startled by what he saw inside.

Inside the private room, there were three tables and dozens of people sitting there.

Besides Wen Ling's family, all her extended family members came.

Among them was Wen Jian, the deputy director of Yulin Road Police Station, whom he had met before.

The room was filled with people staring at Yang Jinwen with curiosity, making him feel extremely uncomfortable and his heart pounding.

Wen Ling quickly ran over to greet her: "Is it cold outside? Come on, let me introduce you."

Yang Jinwen smiled and nodded, greeting everyone in turn.

When it was Wen Mo's turn, the old squad leader looked at the gloves he was wearing, and his face immediately fell.

So the case was solved? It turns out there was a thief in the family.

"Sit down, sit by the window. It's snowing today, let's have hot pot in a copper pot. We can watch the snow while we eat hot pot, it'll keep us warm," Wenling's mother warmly invited.

As soon as she entered the room, Yang Jinwen's height and appearance immediately attracted her attention.

As for family work, I already knew about that before.

After sitting down, Yang Jinwen looked out the window.

The snow outside was falling heavier and heavier. Across the street, a middle-aged man in a blue suit stood in the snow, looking out the window of the Anan Hotel on the second floor.

Yang Dachuan took a deep breath, casually pulled out a cigarette, lit it, opened the car door, climbed into the passenger seat, and called out to Jiang Hong, "Old Jiang, let's go."

Jiang Hong sighed: "We haven't even left yet, and I already miss my wife and children. I really don't want to go south with you anymore."

By the way, the Wen branch of the municipal bureau called you. You finally came back, why didn't you go in?

"What are you going in for? You'll only cause trouble for your son."

"Didn't Xiao Yang tell you about this?"

Yang Dachuan smiled and said, "I didn't say."

"Why?" Jiang Hong started the car: "It's not that your relationship with your father is bad."

“This child has been very sensitive since he was little and is very good at reading people’s expressions. If he has a girlfriend and gets married, he is afraid that I will no longer fulfill my responsibilities as a father, that I will go astray, and that I will have no more ties. He is thinking about me.”

Jiang Hong pursed her lips: "You two, father and son, are leaving."

Yang Dachuan looked out the car window at the snowflakes dancing in the sky and said thoughtfully, "Let's go, let's go forward, don't look back."

(End of this chapter)