0011 011 Would you hand over your secrets to someone else?
This year, Qi Shuyao received an unusually large number of gifts, each of which was quite valuable. According to the old local housekeeper Ren, the "upper class" in Jingyang and the surrounding areas pay special attention to their children's seventeenth birthdays, saying that this is the last "children's day." After they turn eighteen next year, whether they become high-ranking officials, make a lot of money, or become wives managing a large family, their futures will be set, and even their birthdays cannot be celebrated carelessly.
As expected of Jingyang, a place with numerous and complex rules, nothing is done unnecessarily, and even breathing is purposeful.
Hearing these things now, even the most precious gifts held in her hands have lost their meaning, as if they were being used to send her off on her deathbed. Qi Shuyao continued to unpack them intermittently, losing all interest in handling them, and didn't finish until the day of Pei Yuzhou's funeral.
Butler Lu prepared a simple all-black dress for her, tied her hair in a low ponytail, and she followed Qi Yu obediently. Her lips, which were not covered with lipstick, looked a little pale, which was in line with the mourning hall.
Regardless of Pei Yuzhou's life, everyone at the funeral was friendly. Some said he spent his life navigating the ups and downs of officialdom, leaving behind only a leisurely son who became a charity painter, a waste of his genes and resources. But Qi Shuyao, watching the young man who was so organized in receiving and arranging everyone, felt that those were just prejudices. She secretly poked Qi Yu's waist and leaned close to him to ask,
"Pei Yuzhou is so old, and he only has this one son? He looks so young."
"It is said that Pei Yuzhou lost his son early in life. Although no one has ever seen his eldest son, this son was indeed born quite late in life. He doted on him so much that he even prevented him from pursuing his political career, which he cherished most."
"That's really a treasure."
As they were talking, the young man walked towards them. He seemed to respect Qi Yu very much. Everyone in the room bowed to him and exchanged pleasantries.
"My mother is unwell and has been in the hospital for a long time. She really can't come today, so I will take charge of the event."
He even noticed Qi Shuyao's boredom and awkwardness, so he turned around and started talking to her.
"I've long heard of Miss Qi's great name. Today I finally meet her in person. As expected, the rumors are not exaggerated, but rather exaggerated."
Even if Qi Shuyao was narcissistic, she couldn't possibly laugh at someone's father's funeral. She nodded slightly, exchanged pleasantries, and then tried to walk away.
"Let's be friends, Miss Qi. My name is Pei Youwen, and I'm twenty-two years old."
Qi Shuyao turned around, shook the hand he offered, and added his contact information.
Qi Shuyao, seventeen years old.
It's hard to imagine that Pei Yuzhou, who has been a policeman all his life, actually believes in God. Two masters dressed in strange robes performed a ritual outside the mourning hall for a long time before allowing everyone to enter. Everyone followed them with their heads down and walked forward. Once inside, everyone exclaimed in amazement.
The spacious mourning hall was filled with tall men dressed in black mourning clothes. They all had buzz cuts, were burly, and had the character "Pei" printed on the left chest of their clothes.
"Pei Yuzhou... Pei Youwen... the Pei family... the Pei family gang, the Pei family gang still exists!"
Back then, Pei Yuzhou's first step in his meteoric rise in politics was to execute his own family's decades-old gang, the "Pei Family Gang," not even sparing his own brother's only son, which was praised for a long time.
But now the facts are clear: it was all an illusion, a show he put on. The Pei family gang has always existed, and its current size is probably much larger than it was back then.
Is it because he has no constraints after his death that he is so fearless? But now that their protective umbrella is gone, can they still act so arrogantly in the future?
Of all the people present, Qi Shuyao was the most restless at this moment. She pushed through the crowd and turned her head to secretly observe Pei Youwen. Her gaze met his, and the man gave her a reassuring smile, like a white flower blooming in the darkness.
Finally, the burial ceremony arrived. Qi Shuyao bowed countless times to the unfamiliar old man. After all the procedures were completed, she got up from the women's section to look for Qi Yu. However, Pei Youwen stopped her halfway as she ran towards him.
"Miss Qi has also achieved great success in painting. My father collected several of her paintings when he was alive, and they are still hanging in our home. Would you like to invite Miss Qi to exchange ideas sometime?"
He actually has his own paintings at home? Qi Shuyao was a little confused, and subconsciously glanced at Qi Yu, anxiously trying to find an excuse to change the subject.
"Are you required to keep vigil recently, or...?"
“No need. My dad never thought much of me anyway. He said all my efforts were useless. Before he passed away, he even told me not to show up in front of him, so that he wouldn’t have peace even in death.”
"Well... let's talk about it when we have time."
The more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. She finished speaking in one breath, both refusing and agreeing, and quickly ran back to Qi Yu's side.
Qi Yu's expression was also not good. He directly took Qi Shuyao's hand and led her away from the scene.
"Don't go out with anyone before school starts. Stay home and play with Xiaolan and the others."
"Is something bad about to happen?"
Do you know what's about to happen?
"A meeting? What's up?"
"The Lin family was dragged down, and the He family took over."
On this land, the Gu and Lin families have been vying for power for nearly a hundred years. One steps down, the other steps up; one falls into ruin, the other watches the show; one declines, the other rises again. They are irreconcilable enemies, yet they have only each other. Now, with the Lin family in power, even someone like Pei Yuzhou has enjoyed a period of glory. It was thought that the Gu family had disappeared from Jingyang and the Lin family had won a complete victory. But now, after all this turmoil, the He family has actually benefited from it all. The power structure has been completely disrupted, and many people will certainly have a hard time in the future.
As luck would have it, Qi Yu was originally a subordinate of the man surnamed He.
"So, Pei Youwen is being so respectful to you because he thinks he'll be implicated by his father. But wait, his father is dead. What can he do to a dead man? He has no connection to politics, does he?"
"I don't have much contact with the He family, so there's no need to rush. Just stay home obediently."
"Then there's no need for his family to rush into bringing the gang into the open. Isn't that just contradicting themselves?"
“It’s strange, yes, everything is strange.”
Qi Yu harbored a vague suspicion, a jumble of fragmented thoughts that couldn't be pieced together. He tried to apply the relationships he'd witnessed to the current upper echelons, but the available information was still too limited to draw a conclusion.
"No! He told me his dad bought one of my paintings, this..."
Qi Shuyao's voice suddenly rang in her ears. She was very excited and turned around to look at him, looking very worried.
"What's wrong?" Qi Yu's tone was very normal, but with a hint of doubt, as if she were surprised that someone would put salt in their cooking.
"It's nothing, it's nothing... It's just that he doesn't like drawing, it's nothing."
Qi Shuyao's wide eyes narrowed, and she leaned back in her seat, not saying another word until she got home.
July, which is usually sunny, is now terribly gloomy. The air is so stuffy that it's hard to breathe, and it's not even bright at midday.
As expected, the Ho family took over after the funeral. Old Ho was still relatively young, but he looked serious. His first task after taking office was to eradicate corruption.
At this time, less than a week had passed since Pei Yuzhou's funeral. The incident happened so suddenly that there was no time to prepare.
The new leader said to start the investigation from the biggest one. The Gu family had been quiet for too long. Not to mention whether they could make a splash again, there was no sign of them at all. The new leader gave the Lin family half a face and skipped over them, going straight to investigate his son. It is said that when this crown prince, who had dominated for nearly twenty years, was found, he was in bed with a woman whose name he did not know. The room was full of dazzling gold and jade, and he could not even speak human language.
Before the Lin family could even adjust to being pushed down from the sky, their home was ransacked from top to bottom. The former leader, who had been in the limelight just days before, suffered a heart attack overnight and was sent to the ICU. His son and grandson were also basically out of work and school, and were taken away for interrogation day and night.
The public was initially in an uproar over the direct removal of the leader, but then applauded and cheered. Before the relevant departments even issued an official statement, many different versions of the story were already circulating among people from different social strata. Even the man surnamed Lin himself was unaware that his life had become so eventful.
Before everyone could even enjoy their happiness for a few days, the Lin family, under intense pressure, tearfully confessed the truth: all the extra money and power had been embezzled by Pei Yuzhou, who was the real mastermind behind it all, and the Lin family were merely his puppets.
With his confession, the investigators finally unearthed various buried evidence from the Lin family's underground. Pei Youwen was taken from the art studio to the interrogation room overnight.
However, his identity as a well-known charity artist and his almost transparent schedule and daily life as a volunteer teacher could not hide the corruption, nor could he know the mistakes his father had made. When he was released from the interrogation room, he was greeted by the children he had taught. The children surrounded their teacher and shouted clearly to the staff, "Our teacher is innocent and doesn't know anything about those embezzlements."
I don't know who taught me that.
Pei Yuzhou is dead, and his wife is a housewife who has never worked. Now she is seriously ill in bed and knows nothing when asked. Even if she has committed a great crime, there is no way to punish her. The tombstone that was originally engraved with "Guardian of the People" is now covered with spit. The smooth stone has been hacked and broken. His portrait, which was full of justice, is now only half hanging on it. When the wind blows, it makes a pattering sound.
This farce lasted a long time, and everyone's attention was focused on the big boss. Almost no one knew that some of the lower-level subordinates had long since used the timely death of this old leader to clean themselves up.
So no one noticed that during this period, Li Qing, also known as the famous writer Li Huanguang, suddenly filed an appeal.
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