Chapter Seventy-Four: Not an Accident

My job is similar to Song Ji-hyo's, so we often end up in the same place. It was the end of the year, and thieves were rampant. One day, I received a call from a citizen hotline reporting that several houses in the old town had been burglarized, and they asked me to do a report on it. As soon as I received the news, I rushed there.

The old town is a government-protected area, so there has never been any planning for its development. The residents are mostly elderly people, and recently, it has been the elderly whose homes have been burglarized.

"Lin Dang, you're here too~" Song Ji-hyo had arrived before me, and it seemed she had almost finished her interviews. I saw a lot of elderly people gathered at the door of a house, all of them angrily pointing fingers. Through the crowd, I saw an elderly woman in her eighties sitting blankly at the door, her eyes filled with tears.

"This is the grandmother; even her savings for her funeral have been stolen," Song Ji-hyo said regretfully.

"Grandma, hello, I'm Lin Dang, a reporter from the A City Evening News. This is my work ID." I placed the ID in front of Grandma, and she looked up at me, her emotions rising again.

"How am I supposed to live? How am I supposed to get by?"

"Grandma, don't worry, the police are here. They will definitely help you get your lost money back," I comforted her.

"How can we find it? This isn't the first time these things have happened. It's happened so many times. In the end, it always just fades away. You work for the newspaper, right? You must teach those thieves a lesson in the newspaper. I'm an old woman with no one to rely on. I live on government subsidies. How could they be so heartless as to take my money?" Grandma cried.

"Yeah, that's really despicable!"

"How will the old lady survive now?"

......

As the people around me chatted, I learned that Grandma's husband had passed away years ago, leaving her with a son. However, her son had recently died in a car accident. His company had given them a large sum of compensation, but his daughter-in-law took it all away. Now, Grandma and her grandson, who is in college, are left to depend on each other. The grandson is quite sensible; he works part-time during his college years and often sends money home. No wonder Grandma is so heartbroken.

I'm not good at comforting people. Grandma had cried so much she was numb. Everyone has something important in their life. I remembered when I learned that Chu Lin had left, I felt the same way as Grandma. Although money is something you can't take with you when you die, it was a kind of security for Grandma, a guarantee for her and her grandson.

"Grandma, don't worry, we will definitely help you find it." The police officer, feeling a little sorry for her, stepped forward to comfort her.

"Ji-hyo, do you have any cash?" I don't carry a wallet when I go out now, and I don't even have any change on me.

"No, who carries cash these days? What do you want to buy? I'll pay for it with my online banking."

"Never mind~" I think I'll give some money to Grandma first, at least to buy some New Year's goods.

Song Ji-hyo and I couldn't do much there, so we went back to work and organized the news content for publication tomorrow.

"Lin Dang, I'm at the coffee shop downstairs from your house. Come out right away." I had just gotten home in the evening when Song Ji-hyo called. We had only met during the day, so what could be so urgent?

After telling Chu Zhen, I went downstairs. Now everyone wants to meet me near my house, because they're worried that I might have some psychological trauma from what happened last time, so they try to keep me from driving.

"What's wrong? Why are you in such a hurry? Are you covering for me on this blind date?"

"It's big news, look." Song Ji-hyo handed me the tablet and opened the video. The video showed the grandmother's house that we had interviewed during the day.

"Has something happened to Grandma?" I asked, a little worried.

"No, look at this." Song Ji-hyo zoomed in on a photo, a picture of a middle-aged man.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with this photo?"

"Lin Dang, promise me you'll be mentally prepared," Song Ji-hyo said worriedly, but I sensed she was being mysterious.

Song Ji-hyo took out her phone again and opened a photo.

“Lin Dang, I know you’ve been too scared to look at the scene of your car accident, but after all this time, you still have to face it.” Song Ji-hyo handed me her phone. The car body was shattered, and the ground was covered in blood. Not far from the car, a child’s body had been covered with a white sheet, and half of the truck driver’s body was hanging out of the window.

“This was taken by a passerby. He gave it to me when I arrived at the scene, and I asked him to delete it from his phone because you were wearing a seatbelt and were secured in the driver’s seat. Look closely at this truck driver.” Song Ji-hyo enlarged the photo.

My God, the middle-aged man in my grandma's house looks exactly like this truck driver.

“The neighbor said that the grandma’s son died in a car accident some time ago. I found this while organizing materials today. The grandma’s son is the driver who hit you.”

It's unbelievable! I just went out for an interview and there was such a coincidence. I looked at the two photos and they are indeed the same person.

“Lin Dang, do you remember what the neighbors said? They said that Grandma’s daughter-in-law ran off with a large sum of compensation money. We followed up on the police investigation at the time. The driver was driving under the influence of alcohol, which is a serious crime. Moreover, he was just a temporary worker. It’s impossible for the company to give him such a large sum of compensation money.” Song Zhixiao’s suspicions were all there.

"You mean the car accident wasn't an accident, but possibly deliberate?" The discovery I just made had already surprised me, but Song Ji-hyo's analysis shocked me even more. If it really was deliberate, who have I offended?

"Lin Dang, the reason I came to see you in such a hurry is to warn you to be careful. If it really was someone else, you've escaped unscathed, but I'm afraid the other party won't let you go."

"Okay, I understand. Send me these two photos and the video!" I had been avoiding all the details about the car accident, but now I really want to know if it was an accident or not.

When I got home, I went straight to my study. Song Ji-hyo's photos had already been sent over, and they were much clearer on the computer screen.

"Who gave this to you? Why are you looking at this all of a sudden?" I was probably too focused on it, and I didn't even notice Chu Zhen next to me.

"Chu Zhen, my car accident might not have been an accident." There was no point in hiding anything from Chu Zhen, so I told him directly. But at that moment, I suddenly remembered that I was driving Chu Zhen's car at the time. Could it be that the other party intended to hit Chu Zhen?

I looked at Chu Zhen nervously; he stared at the photo after hearing what I said.

"Is this the house you interviewed earlier today that was burgled?"

"Yes, Ji-hyo filmed the indoor video at the time, and when she was organizing the footage, she discovered that her grandmother's son was actually the driver who caused the accident."

"Let's go eat first, we'll come back to see you soon." Chu Zhen's expression was a little off; it was probably the first time he'd seen the photos of my car accident scene. I didn't say anything and followed him to the restaurant for dinner.