Chapter 157: Leaving with Nothing

Chapter 157: Chapter 157: Leaving with Nothing

"You’re leaving with nothing. Not a single cent."

"Otherwise, we will pursue this to the bitter end."

Yao Yuzhen’s hands fell. She slowly looked up at Shen Rongjing, her eyes red-rimmed and her lips trembling slightly.

"Do you... really hate me this much?"

Shen Rongjing didn’t look away. He met her gaze directly, his eyes calm, devoid of anger, but also of warmth.

"And you? Haven’t you hated us for a long time now?"

Yao Yuzhen closed her eyes. She opened her mouth, but in the end, said nothing.

Shen Zhenwu and the others turned and left.

A few minutes later, two people in uniform entered the house. They stood on either side of Yao Yuzhen, their tone strictly business.

"Ms. Yao, please come with us."

Yao Yuzhen didn’t resist. She lowered her head, straightened her collar, and followed them out the door to give a statement and cooperate with the investigation.

Once they were out of the alley, Shen Zhenwu asked Shen Rongjing in a low voice, "Are we really letting him off that easy?"

"He made Song Yao suffer out there for twenty years,"

Shen Zhenwu paused, his voice dropping even lower.

"I’ll settle this score down to the last penny."

Shen Rongdan chimed in.

"Money? We don’t care about money. But the suffering Song Yao went through was real."

"No warm clothes when it was cold, no hot meals when she was hungry. No one to take her to the hospital when she was sick. When she was in pain, all she could do was grit her teeth and bear it."

Shen Rongjing pulled open the rear car door and got in first. Rubbing his red, frozen hands, he grinned at his dad and brother standing in the snow.

"What I said earlier—that Mom won’t take a cent, and we won’t go after that guy Ruan—that’s true.

But I never said we’d leave her alone once she’s out!"

His expression darkened, and his voice grew cold. "If I don’t make them bleed for this, I’ll never be able to stomach it."

’Song Yao was right. It’s not a sure thing we can make her truly suffer a major loss.’

’She could insist her health had collapsed and her mind was muddled, and that’s why she entrusted someone to help look after the child.’

’As for why she hid it from the family, she could claim she was in a trance-like state at the time.’

’A conviction? She probably wouldn’t even have to spend a day in jail.’

’At most, she’d get two years of probation, then smoothly walk away with her share of the money and the house.’

’And then she’d turn right around and go dote on Shen Shuangshuang, living a cozy little life with that man...’

’Just thinking about it made his stomach churn.’

’That’s why she can’t take the Shen family’s money.’

’Not only can she not take it, she has to spit it all back out, with interest.’

Ruan Yongxing was taken to the police station. They barely had to question him before he confessed everything.

But he threw Yao Yuzhen under the bus, trying to absolve himself of all blame.

"I was just helping a friend!"

His face was black and blue, the corner of his mouth was split, and his chest heaved as he spoke, panting for breath.

"Yao Yuzhen and her husband haven’t been getting along for a long time; they can barely be bothered to say a word to each other. She didn’t want to raise the child at all, and she didn’t dare mention divorce to her family, so she begged me to help her find a reliable family for adoption."

The officer stared at him and tapped the desk twice.

"But the Shen family says the child’s mother fainted on the roadside back then, and the baby was already gone by the time she got to the hospital. They said someone took the baby during the chaos."

Ruan Yongxing immediately raised his hand, palm up.

"Get her in here! Comrade Yao Yuzhen! She can testify that’s exactly what happened!"

He then hastily added, "I swear!"

The officer shot him a sideways glance, raising an eyebrow slightly. "This is a new era. We don’t do things like that anymore."

"We will summon Comrade Yao Yuzhen according to procedure."

Hearing that they had to follow procedure, Ruan Yongxing worried it would take too long. He quickly spilled everything about where Yao Yuzhen was currently living, adding a final sentence at the end.

"She might be on her way to my place right now! If you miss her at her place, you can go straight to my house to intercept her! I guarantee she’ll be there!"

And as it turned out, Yao Yuzhen was indeed brought to the police station.

She, however, was quite loyal to Ruan Yongxing. The moment she opened her mouth, she took all the blame.

"It was my idea. He was just doing what I told him. He never laid a hand on her, never even touched the child. I arranged everything myself."

"When I gave birth to her, I almost died on the delivery table from blood loss. From the first moment I saw her, my heart would pound, I’d feel nauseous, my stomach would turn itself inside out. I just wanted to hide from her. Keep her by my side? I couldn’t bear it."

"But I didn’t mistreat her. I paid the adoptive family. I made payments on time every year, not a penny short, not a single one missed."

As expected of a young lady from a wealthy family of the old society, she was glib-tongued.

In just a few words, she’d turned the cruel act of abandoning her child into a story of entrusting someone with her care, making it sound respectable and helpless, completely avoiding any legal red lines.

The officer asked, "Why didn’t you discuss this with your family?"

She twitched her lips and lifted her chin slightly. "Discuss it? Would they have agreed?"

"And if they didn’t agree, I’d have to watch over her every day, suffering day and night?"

"I’d have to get up to soothe her when she cried in the middle of the night, stay up all night when she was sick with a fever, feed her, change her diapers, and still have to put on a smile for my in-laws."

Her eyes looked a bit glazed over, and her voice trembled.

"If I had kept going, I would have gone insane... And who knows what I might have done after going insane? I couldn’t just wait until I’d caused some terrible disaster to feel regret, could I?"

The police officer glanced at her, took out a notebook, jotted down a few things, and said,

"We’ve noted down what you’ve said. We still need to verify it. Don’t go far anytime soon. Just stay where you live, and be ready to cooperate if we need you."

"Can I go now?"

"You can, but don’t leave the city."

"What about Ruan Yongxing?"

Yao Yuzhen pressed.

"He can’t leave. The case isn’t clear yet. We’re still verifying, point by point, whether what you’ve said is reliable or not."

"Whether he was an accomplice or the mastermind, no one can say for sure right now."

"He’ll be held for now. That’s the regulation. The detention center has already processed the paperwork."

"I’ve confessed to everything! I ordered him to do it! It was all me... I’ll take responsibility, I’ll cooperate with the investigation, I’ll agree to anything! Just let me see him, just once!"

The officer’s face hardened.

"Ms. Yao, please calm down. We operate according to procedure. Your emotional outburst will only delay things. You’re agitated right now, but the necessary procedures won’t be skipped just because you’re in a hurry, nor will the case be closed early just because you’ve confessed."

After saying that, the officer turned and left without another word.

She wanted to throw a tantrum, but no one would pay her any mind.

Stay at the police station?

They couldn’t care less if she stayed or went.

Everyone was busy. Who had time for her?

In the end, she managed to grab a uniformed officer. "Where is Ruan Yongxing being held?"

The man looked completely bewildered.

"Huh? Which Ruan Yongxing? I’m not in charge of that case. I was just transferred here three days ago."

"The one connected to the Shen family!"

The other person scratched his head, then it dawned on him. "Oh! The suspect who abducted Mr. Shen’s daughter?"

A dark cloud passed over Yao Yuzhen’s face.

"What do you mean, abducted?!"

The officer looked up, sizing her up. "What’s your connection to this case?"

Just then, Peng happened to be passing by. The officer quickly waved him over. "Peng, someone here’s looking for you."

Officer Peng stopped in his tracks, his gaze falling on her face. "Ms. Yao?"

"I want to see Ruan Yongxing,"

she said.

Officer Peng didn’t say anything, but nodded his head in silent agreement.

The moment Yao Yuzhen saw Ruan Yongxing’s condition, she swayed. "...You actually hit him?"