Chapter 739
After the loud noise, the noise upstairs stopped abruptly, leaving only deathly silence.
A few seconds later, there was a heart-wrenching cry, a hundred times more miserable than the previous one, as if someone had suffered a great misfortune, and there was also the sound of footsteps hurriedly running down the stairs.
Pan Ma's face turned pale, and she subconsciously grabbed Su Miao's arm: "What...what happened?"
Su Miao was also startled, and her heart started beating wildly. The loud noise and the subsequent crying sounded so wrong.
Su Miao and Pan Ma came to the living room, and several men obviously heard the noise.
"Old Pan, what was that sound just now? It seemed like... something fell from upstairs? Listen to the crying sound..." Pan's mother's voice was a little anxious.
The large balcony in the living room faced the courtyard, and they walked out to look down.
But now it was already dark, and people were having dinner at home. The lights in the courtyard were not on, and the big banyan tree blocked the view, making it difficult to see clearly.
The crying and shouting in the corridor continued, mixed with the man's panicked shouts.
The neighbors were all alarmed and rushed to their balconies to see what was happening. The whole building seemed to have been thrown into a stone, and the tranquility was completely broken, leaving only chaos.
Pan's father frowned and walked quickly to the door: "I'll go down and see what's going on."
Su Yuanzheng also followed: "I'll go with you."
Finally, the three men went downstairs to check the situation. Pan Ma pulled Su Miao to stand on the edge of the balcony, her fingers tightly gripping the railing.
The people who ran down from the upstairs had already reached the first floor. Someone was shining a flashlight, and the pale beam of light swayed in the darkness, illuminating a chaotic mess of shadows.
The doors of every household were opened a crack, and faces full of doubt and uncertainty peeked out.
As soon as Su Yuanzheng and others reached the second floor, they ran into Aunt Zhang and Uncle Zhang running downstairs in a panic, holding a piece of unfinished knitting in their hands, and the ball of yarn rolled a long way on the stairs.
"Someone's dead! Someone's dead!" Aunt Zhang's voice trembled, her gray hair sticking to her forehead in a mess. "Section Chief Li on the top floor... jumped off the balcony!
These words were like a huge rock thrown into a boiling oil pan, and the corridor instantly exploded.
Teacher Wang, who had come down from the west building to investigate, had his glasses slipped down to the tip of his nose. "Sister Zhang, what did you say? Section Chief Li?"
"That's right!" Aunt Zhang gasped, clutching the handrail of the stairs, her chest heaving violently. "I was just washing dishes in the kitchen when I heard a 'clang' upstairs, followed by her husband's cries... I ran to the balcony and saw that she was lying under the banyan tree downstairs, motionless..."
More and more neighbors came downstairs. I don’t know who went to the security room and turned on the lights in the compound, but everything could be seen clearly for a moment.
Su Miao and Pan Ma vaguely saw a twisted human figure lying on the cement ground through the dense branches and leaves of the banyan tree, and dark red liquid was slowly spreading on the ground.
A middle-aged man in a navy blue cotton jacket knelt beside him, holding his head with his hands and howling like a wild beast.
Most of the people living in the compound are colleagues and their families from the same unit.
Su Miao suddenly remembered the miserable state of his previous life, and his mind felt dizzy.
"Miao Miao, we won't watch it anymore. Don't be afraid."
Pan's mother noticed her pale face and quickly took her back to the living room to sit down. Su Miao's emotions gradually calmed down.
There was a constant noise in the compound, and someone was shouting "Call an ambulance", but anyone with a discerning eye knew that after falling from the sixth floor, headfirst, there was no way he could be saved.
Li Mei's husband cried so hard that his face was covered with tears and snot, his eyes were red, and his throat was hoarse as if it had been rubbed by sandpaper.
"Director Wei, calm down!" The person next to him tried to hold him back, but he pushed him away.
"Calm down? How can I calm down? Why hasn't the doctor come yet?!"
Director Wei's voice was as shrill as a cat with its tail stepped on. Behind him, several people who looked like relatives had pale faces and sighed.
The good thing about this small county town is that it has convenient transportation. The ambulance arrived soon. Regardless of whether the person could be saved or not, they were taken away first at Director Wei's request.
Wei's relatives also went to the hospital. Such a thing happened before the end of the year, and the whole compound was in panic.
Now that the Wei family has left, the remaining neighbors have begun to discuss the cause of the tragedy.
An old man leaned on a cane, wiping away tears as he looked at the large pool of blood on the ground:
"What a sin... It's New Year's Day, why did we take this road..."
"I heard that something was wrong a while ago. The couple quarreled every day, and you could hear the sound of things being thrown in the middle of the night. It seemed to be related to stock trading, but I'm not sure about the details," said a neighbor.
Aunt Zhang said to everyone, "Let me tell you, there were signs of this happening a long time ago!
Li Mei boasted to me a while ago that she had made a lot of money from stock trading in the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and she also advised me to take out my pension money and invest it.
I told her it wasn't reliable, and she laughed at me for being stubborn, saying that nowadays 'time is money, efficiency is life', and I'd be stupid not to seize the opportunity!
"Stock speculation? Oh! I have indeed heard of stock speculation. There is a section chief in the Finance Bureau who is very smart and made 10,000 yuan in half a year! However, since he has made money, why did Section Chief Li suddenly become so depressed?" someone asked.
"The more you earn, the more you lose!"
Aunt Zhang lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "During the New Year holidays, her parents-in-law came to live in the city and complained to me a lot.
I heard from her mother-in-law that the stock had been falling since the end of last year, but Section Chief Li was unwilling to sell, thinking that if he held on, the price would go back up.
Not only did I invest all my family savings, I also borrowed tens of thousands from relatives and friends. As a result, the stock price never went back up after it started to fall, and I lost half of my money in just two weeks!"
There was a gasp from the crowd.
"Tens of thousands of yuan? That's a huge sum of money!"
Aunt Zhang sighed, "That's right! Her husband advised her to withdraw the money quickly, but she refused to listen, saying 'wealth and honor are sought in danger', and even added more money.
The losses kept piling up, and I finally made up my mind to liquidate my position a few days ago and repay the borrowed money. My family savings were all gone, and I didn't even have money left for my children's tuition."
The neighbor who lived across from the Wei family shook his head and said:
"During the Lunar New Year holidays, relatives from both her natal family and her husband's family came to visit, and after learning about what happened, many of them criticized her.
Her father-in-law smashed his teacup on the spot, calling her a "spendthrift woman" who had ruined their home. Her mother-in-law burst into tears and said she would fight her to the death.
A gray-haired old man sighed, "Alas, I have no choice. I know Li Mei. She is very strong-willed. She is the section chief at work and has the final say at home.
This time she had fallen into such a terrible situation. Not only did she lose all her money, but she also lost all her face. The spit from her relatives and friends was enough to drown her. How could she bear it?
Why don't you just go to work? Why do you have to speculate in these stocks? I think these stocks are just gambling! We should all stay away from them!"
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