Chapter 13: No Way Out
Chapter 12
late at night.
A box truck was parked steadily at the flower bed on the side of Xiuping Road.
When Wen Xi regained consciousness again, he felt a pain in the back of his neck and arms. He struggled with the ropes and realized that he was tied to a bench.
"woke up?"
It was exactly the same voice I heard before I fainted, sharp and vicious.
Wen Xi clenched his fists nervously, and felt a piercing pain from his wrists that were tied behind his back. Wen Xi groaned, and cold sweat soaked the back of his neck.
The cloth bag on his head was taken off, and the dazzling light suddenly shone into his eyes. Wen Xi tilted his head to avoid the direct light and looked at the man sitting opposite him.
He was dressed in a suit and had a handsome appearance, but he had a pair of snake-like eyes that were full of ruthlessness. He was an acquaintance of Wen Xi - Mr. Pi Sanye, the leader of the underground debt collection team of the loan shark company of Wen Xi's father Wen Guoqing.
Wen Xi tried his best to calm himself down. Even though his wrist hurt a lot, he still stood up straight. "What do you want from me?"
Master Pi San snapped his fingers and someone untied Wen Xi.
Wen Xi glanced at his wrist, which was left with red marks from the rough rope, almost breaking the skin and bleeding. However, Wen Xi did not take it seriously. He casually covered it with his sleeve and stared straight at Master Pi San in front of him.
"Of course I'm asking you for money. Your father ran away. If I don't ask you, who will pay me back?"
"Didn't we agree on 30,000 a month? I've been paying it back. I've already paid you back."
"At the age of 16, with a two-year-old child, you can still pay back 30,000 a month. Wenxi, you are quite capable. But this was agreed upon two years ago." Mr. Pi smiled, "Now that you are an adult, the previous contract is invalid."
"I said I would work and pay you back."
"Work?" Mr. Pi San suddenly laughed. Wen Xi looked at his eyes that saw everything and his heart skipped a beat.
"Hide the property certificate, and when the admission letter arrives, sell the house and hide in City A." Mr. Pi stood up, walked casually in front of Wen Xi, bent down and looked into Wen Xi's eyes. His tone was light, but it sounded chilling: "Wen Xi, why are you so scared of me? I ran so far and it took me a lot of effort to find out that you were here."
After Wen Guoqing fled abroad, Pi Sanye brought people to Wenxi's house and asked him to pay off his father's debts and pay off the debt for Wen Guoqing. At that time, Wenxi was about to take the college entrance examination, and his home was smashed to pieces. He hid the property certificate of the old house in his mother's urn so that it would not be dug out.
Uncle Pi San is a well-known local gangster. He kidnapped the crying Wen Ran and forced Wen Xi to sign a debt repayment contract, demanding 30,000 yuan a month in exchange for peace.
The neighbors nearby were afraid of being implicated, so no one called the police. Wen Xi had no choice but to agree. After Pi Sanye left, Wen Xi knocked on every door and found a kind grandmother to entrust Wen Ran to her care.
Wenxi ran to the cemetery behind the village in the heavy rain. In a panic, he dug open his mother's grave with his bare hands and found the property certificate while crying. Before his mother died, she held Wenxi's hand and sternly asked him to hide the property certificate so that it would not be sold by his crazy father or snatched away by a cold-blooded loan shark.
After his mother died with hatred, Wenxi knelt in the simple mourning hall holding his sister, thinking about how to survive. When the uncles in the village notified him to bury his mother, Wenxi, who couldn't find a place to hide her, gritted his teeth and hid the property certificate in the urn, and buried it with his mother.
Unable to find the property certificate for mortgage, the father had no money to pay off his gambling debts, so he fled abroad in a hurry, leaving Wenxi and Wen Ran to clean up the mess.
When Wen Xi dug up the property certificate, his hands were worn out and his fingers were bleeding, but he didn't care about that and buried the soil back. He found the village chief, who, perhaps because he couldn't bear it, helped him find someone to sell the house. When the admission letter came, Wen Xi took Wen Ran and ran away by train overnight.
Master Pi San was very close to Wen Xi. He could smell the pungent scent of perfume on him. It was very strong and pungent, as if he was an evil ghost in human skin.
"So what's your change of mind?" Wen Xi clenched his fists, his nails almost digging into his palms.
"Don't be afraid, Wenxi." Master Pi San lowered his eyelids and saw that the young master was trying to remain calm but was still blinking panickily. He suddenly smiled, straightened up, and blocked the light above his head with his body. Wenxi was trapped in his shadow.
"We are just here to discuss Wen Guoqing's gambling debt with you today."
"We are not bad people who have committed heinous crimes. Your father has to pay back the money he owes. If he ran away, you have to pay it back. Thirty thousand a month. You did a great job in this regard, so you and your sister lived a stable life for two or three years."
"But now you are an adult." Mr. Pi snapped his fingers, "We are not a charity, so we have to put the debt on the agenda."
Master Pi San stared at Wen Xi with a fake smile, like a sinister and poisonous snake.
Wenxi: "How much do you want?"
"Not much." Master Pi San opened his hands. "I'll give you one year. You don't have to pay back the money every month, but after 12 months, you have to pay off your father's gambling debt in one lump sum. In addition, we won't hold you accountable for secretly selling the house and running away."
Wen Xi could hardly breathe: "There's too little time. I can't get it together in such a short time--"
"That's not something I should consider. You should blame your damn father. It took me a lot of time and effort to find you."
Master Pi interrupted Wen Xi and finally revealed his true face. Snake Eyes was in low spirits, and the atmosphere in the car suddenly dropped to freezing point: "Wen Xi, if you don't want anything to happen, just collect enough money to pay back your father's debt in one go."
“Buzz buzz buzz—”
Wen Xi's cell phone suddenly rang. Wen Xi instinctively went to look for the phone, but found nothing. He looked up and saw Master Pi San holding the phone, looking at him thoughtfully.
"Ning Haoyu? Your friend?"
Wen Xi was so nervous that his mouth was dry. The carriage was small and the ringing of the telephone was echoing suddenly.
Wenxi's brain was working rapidly: "I said I would go back to school tonight. If I didn't go back, he would call the police."
"Call the police? We didn't imprison you." Mr. Pi handed the phone to Wen Xi, "I just came to inform you to pay back the money. It's a matter of course. You should know how to answer, right?"
Master Pi San stared at Wen Xi with a half-smile, and beyond him was a row of strong thugs.
Wen Xi couldn't conflict with him, so he lowered his eyes and said softly, "I know."
The phone was still ringing, and it seemed like it would not stop unless Wen Xi answered it. The ringing again and again hit Wen Xi's fragile nerves.
"Turn on speakerphone."
"Hello," Wen Xi answered the phone, and Ning Haoyu's concerned voice immediately appeared on the other end, "Xiao Xi, why haven't you come back yet? I checked, the last subway has stopped running."
Wen Xi's fingertips turned white as he gripped the phone. He stared at his wrist on his knee with drooped eyelids. When he stretched out his hand, his wrist was scratched by the cuff, and the deep red mark had become swollen.
"I missed the last subway and I'm on my way to school now. You guys just leave the door open and go to sleep first."
"Oh, you scared me. I thought something happened to you. I almost called the police because you didn't answer my call for so long."
Wen Xi pulled the corners of his mouth and said in a relaxed tone: "My phone was muted by accident, so I didn't hear it. You can call the police if I'm not home in the morning."
Wen Xi looked up at Mr. Pi San, who raised his eyebrows. Ning Haoyu continued on the phone, "Okay, do you want me to pick you up?"
"No need, I got a taxi."
"Okay, then we'll leave the door open for you and go to bed first."
"Okay." After hanging up the phone, Wen Xi looked at Mr. Pi again. The other party clapped his hands and praised him hypocritically: "How can I describe your excitement?"
Wen Xi swallowed nervously, but still looked at Pi Sanye. The other party threatened him, and he was also threatening Pi Sanye. As long as he didn't go back in the morning, Ning Haoyu would definitely call the police. The intersection where he had the accident had been installed with surveillance not long ago. No matter how powerful Pi Sanye was in his hometown, he had to follow the rules in City A.
Mr. Pi San placed a contract in front of Wen Xi and said, "Pay off the gambling debt in one year."
Wen Xi stared at the contract in front of him for a long time, which was completely illegal and for which he should not be responsible. Then he took it.
"Our boss is in a good mood and knows that it's not easy for you to take care of your sister, so he won't charge you interest during this period. Whatever method you use, get the money together."
"You haven't been back home in the past few years. Take your sister back if you have a chance. Don't let her stay in the daycare center all the time." Mr. Pi San seemed very sorry and said, "The grass on your mother's grave is too tall. As a son, why don't you go home and clean it up?"
Time passes by every second.
Wen Xi's breathing became disordered and rapid, and he signed the contract with trembling hands.
"Don't move Ranran."
Wen Xi stared at the person in front of him, his eyes red, like a helpless and desperate trapped animal, and almost squeezed out the sound from his throat: "I will collect the money and pay it back. If anything happens to her, I don't know what I will do."
Master Pi San put away the contract with satisfaction, bent down to look into Wen Xi's eyes, which were filled with hatred but were so beautiful that one wanted to dig them out, and smiled softly, "After all, this is a civilized society now."
"Whatever method you use, pay the money back."
The rear door opened with a whoosh, and a gust of cold wind blew into the car.
Wen Xi was respectfully escorted off the carriage. Across Xiuping Road was the familiar Yunjia University. Mr. Pi San was standing at the door of the carriage. The lights inside were turned off, and the room was dark and empty. The man smiled and waved at Wen Xi.
"Think about your sister. You can do it, Wenxi."
"Wait for your good news."
"Also, happy coming of age."
At one o'clock in the morning, the truck carrying the road was leaving.
Wen Xi didn't know how he got back to school. He walked slower and slower until he stopped at a garden without lights on the edge of the road. Wen Xi stood in the shadows with his head down, holding a stack of papers in his hand.
His face was pale and he was as thin as paper. If anyone saw him, they would be scared because he looked like a wandering ghost who couldn't find his home.
Just like when he was sixteen years old, someone broke into his home and threatened him with the corpses of his sister and mother. Wen Xi once again signed a debt repayment contract that did not belong to him.
Tick-tock.
Suddenly, many cold water droplets fell on the back of his hand, and Wen Xi took out his cell phone to check the weather.
Today's weather is sunny, with a precipitation probability of less than 5%.
Wen Xi blinked blankly, and more water droplets hit the back of his hand. Wen Xi touched his face, which was wet, and felt a sharp pain in his wrist.
“It hurts so much, so much, so much—”
"I'm really in pain—"
Wen Xi squatted down in pain, like an abandoned little animal, hiding alone in the silent and deserted campus garden, venting his emotions helplessly.
He thought.
Adulthood is not joyful at all.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
