The Sea Queen of 1985

Chapter 496: Chapter 496: He’s a Demon

Han Xiaorui and Ye Feng looked at each other in disbelief. ”My god, does living in the United States turn people into demons?”

Ye Feng paused. ”Maybe Yang Jianming was a demon to begin with. It’s just that over in the United States, so-called ’freedom’ and the ’money is king’ mentality amplified the evil inside him. Exploiting legal loopholes allowed him to escape punishment.”

Han Xiaorui thought for a moment, then nodded. ”You’re right. No wonder Zhang Xiufang died. In that environment, she probably thought she could do whatever she wanted. Little did she know, she was just being used by her own son.”

Ye Feng nodded. ”Yang Jianming can’t even be called a ’refined egoist’ anymore. He’s just pure evil! A person like that should never be allowed to come back.”

”Now that we’ve found all this, should we tell Uncle Yang? I’m worried he’ll be devastated when he finds out.”

Han Xiaorui considered it. ”Uncle Yang has been asking constantly these past few days. If we don’t tell him, he’ll just keep at it. If we were hiding good news from him, it probably wouldn’t cause any harm.”

”But what Yang Jianming has done is horrifying. If we don’t tell Uncle Yang, he’ll remain in the dark. What if Yang Jianming comes back someday? He’s still Uncle Yang’s son, after all. If Uncle Yang’s heart softens, it could lead him to a point of no return.”

Ye Feng mulled it over and agreed with Han Xiaorui. ”You have a point. It’s better to tell him so he can be on his guard. But this news will be a huge blow to Uncle Yang. How about we talk to Brother Jianguo first?”

”We can get his advice and then figure out the best way to tell Uncle Yang so he can process it, to minimize the damage as much as possible.”

Han Xiaorui nodded. ”That’s a good idea.”

So they went to find Yang Jianguo and handed him the file.

Yang Jianguo was confused as he looked at the stack of English documents. ”Is this a new client’s file? It’s all in English. I can’t read it. I’ll have to ask Yu to translate it.”

Han Xiaorui explained, ”It’s not a client file. It’s information about Yang Jianming that Ye Feng collected in the United States with help from Uncle Xu. Uncle Yang kept asking about why Zhang Xiufang died, and we never expected what we’d uncover would be so horrifying.”

Yang Jianguo’s face paled. ”Xiao Rui, Ye Feng, what on earth is going on? Don’t tell me... was Aunt Zhang killed by Jianming?”

’Zhang Xiufang was awful to everyone else, but she was never, ever bad to Yang Jianming!’

’Anyone in the world could have hated Zhang Xiufang, but Yang Jianming had no right to.’

Han Xiaorui explained, ”After arriving in the United States, Yang Jianming took Zhang Xiufang’s money under the guise of paying for her medical treatment and bought himself a luxury car. As for the treatment itself, he just got her some painkillers from a clinic.”

”Painkillers are effective when you first start taking them, but they’re addictive. You have to take more and more, and they have side effects on the stomach, liver, and kidneys. They only mask the pain; they don’t actually cure the underlying disease.”

Hearing this, Yang Jianguo’s heart sank. A sharp pain shot through his chest, as if someone had grabbed his heart and squeezed.

”My god, is he an animal? That’s his own mother! And he took the money for her medical treatment to buy a car instead of getting her help! That fucking bastard!”

This was arguably the main reason Zhang Xiufang’s health went from bad to worse.

Han Xiaorui continued, ”And that’s just one part of the story. When Zhang Xiufang got to the United States, she brought her domineering mother-in-law act with her. Perhaps it was the physical pain, or some kind of psychological distortion, but she relentlessly targeted Yang Jianming’s new wife, Linda.”

”It got even worse after Linda’s father, who was a congressman, was arrested, imprisoned, and then committed suicide. Zhang Xiufang intensified her bullying of Linda. Before his father-in-law’s downfall, Yang Jianming would still defend Linda. But after he died, Yang Jianming simply turned a blind eye.”

”Linda developed severe depression, and her behavior became erratic. During another one of Zhang Xiufang’s verbal assaults, Linda beat her up, leaving her bedridden for over a month before she could walk again with a cane.”

”Over that month, the conflict between the two women only intensified. Yang Jianming acted like a complete bystander, refusing to get involved. As for their children, Yang Jianming used Linda’s mental instability as an excuse to hand them over to a nanny to raise.”

”One day, Yang Jianming went to work and the children were at the nanny’s. A fire suddenly broke out in their house. Though it was eventually extinguished, both Linda and Zhang Xiufang had burned to death.”

”Half the house was destroyed, but aside from the people who died, nothing else of value was lost. The police investigated and ruled it an accident. However, neighbors reported hearing arguing right before the fire broke out.”

At these words, Yang Jianguo’s face grew even paler.

”They didn’t have to die! Why didn’t he step in and do something?”

A cynical look appeared in Han Xiaorui’s eyes. ”Perhaps Yang Jianming was hoping they would kill each other. After their deaths were ruled accidental, he collected on two life insurance policies. The total payout was five million US dollars!”

Yang Jianguo swayed on his feet, almost collapsing. ”You mean Yang Jianming intentionally fanned the flames of their conflict so they would destroy each other... all for the insurance money?”

Han Xiaorui sighed. ”While there’s no direct evidence to prove it was premeditated, the fact is that Yang Jianming is now a free man with five million US dollars in insurance money.”

”On top of that, Linda had a lot of assets in her name. With her father dead, all of it has fallen into Yang Jianming’s hands. As for his twin daughters, he simply leaves them with the nanny.”

Yang Jianguo paused, a thought striking him. ”Knowing Yang Jianming’s personality, he’ll be starting a new relationship in no time now that he’s single again. There’s no way he actually cares about those children. There must be another reason he didn’t send them back to China.”

Just as Han Xiaorui was about to answer, the color drained from Yang Jianguo’s face. ”Xiao Rui, don’t tell me he bought life insurance policies on the children, too? Is he waiting for them to have an ’accident’ so he can collect another payout?”

Han Xiaorui shook her head. ”Not this time.”

Yang Jianguo breathed a sigh of relief. ”Oh, thank god. Thank god.”

Han Xiaorui answered, ”It’s because Linda placed another part of her fortune in her daughters’ names. It’s in a trust, and the girls can only access the enormous sum of money after they turn eighteen.”

”Otherwise, with a personality as cold-hearted as his, do you really think he’d keep his daughters around? They would just get in the way of his womanizing and his freewheeling lifestyle.”

Hearing this, Yang Jianguo clutched his head in his hands. ”Money... What on earth is money that it can make a person so cold, so inhuman?”

”And those poor children... growing up in an environment like that, what kind of people are they going to become?”

Han Xiaorui sighed. ”We know this news will absolutely devastate Uncle Yang. That’s why we weren’t sure if we should tell him.”