Chapter 1579 - 1577: Come Clean

Yang Chen looked at Zhou Laifu, frowning for a moment.

This Zhou Laifu turned out to be just a pawn too!

But Yang Chen didn't believe that Zhou Laifu was just some simple pawn; being able to access the parasite already meant top-level secrecy. Besides, the organization behind him was actually willing to hand him such an important task, which meant he was more than capable enough!

Yang Chen fixed his gaze on Zhou Laifu.

On the surface, Zhou Laifu seemed terrified; fear showed on his face and in his eyes.

But Yang Chen could feel the composure and calm hidden beneath that fa?ade.

Yang Chen could sense that Zhou Laifu had this feeling of being in control of everything.

Because if things were exactly how Zhou Laifu claimed and Yang Chen believed it, then he'd become insignificant.

But is that really the case?

Yang Chen cast Zhou Laifu a long, deep look, then stood up and walked out of the interrogation room.

At the very instant the door closed, Yang Chen clearly felt Zhou Laifu let out a sigh of relief.

"Heh." Yang Chen sneered inwardly.

This Zhou Laifu really does have a problem.

Once he was outside, Yang Chen asked Ye Xin, "How's the investigation? Where did the funds behind all this end up?"

Ye Xin gave a cold, stunning smile and said to Yang Chen, "You'll never guess."

Seeing Ye Xin's expression, Yang Chen raised a brow, already having some guesses in mind. "Where?"

"See for yourself." Ye Xin said nothing else, simply handed the file straight to Yang Chen.

Yang Chen took the file and saw a complicated chain of transfers.

Every time money left Zhou Laifu's hands, it went through multiple hops, and after being laundered, it would end up in a single account. And that account was an offshore account of the Yuan Group.

"They're with the Yuan Group?" Yang Chen looked up, cold light flashing in his eyes.

"Pretty much, yeah." Ye Xin said. "A lot of those accounts are their dedicated money-laundering accounts. One glance and you can tell these are companies under the Yuan Group."

"Didn't expect that." Yang Chen said coldly. "The Yuan Group's reach is this long—they even know about the parasite. They know about Wowo Mountain, and they even know about the secret passage inside. That's… impressive."

Now Yang Chen felt more and more that the Yuan Group was anything but simple.

They knew too much.

Or rather, they'd infiltrated too many places.

That made Yang Chen all the more wary.

This Yuan Group looked less and less like something ordinary.

Their group wasn't just a financial conglomerate anymore; mixed into it were many other forces. Otherwise, how could they know so much?

Yang Chen's face darkened as he asked Ye Xin, "And this Zhou Laifu…"

"This Zhou Laifu is no good piece of work. He didn't tell you a single word of truth. He's not some boss who came here to do business. He committed crimes in the mainland and fled here, then killed the owner of this factory and used the chance to climb into the position himself. Because he didn't know how to run a business, he was on the verge of bankruptcy. Later he unexpectedly got a huge capital injection—he not only turned the factory around, he crushed all his competitors. With that sort of 'ability', I'd say someone was backing him. As for who's backing him, I think you already know."

Yang Chen nodded slightly. "Got it."

Immediately, Yang Chen turned, pushed the door open, and went back into the interrogation room.

The moment he stepped in, Yang Chen gestured to the two men inside.

They understood at once, yanked Zhou Laifu away, and pressed him down onto a recliner.

Next, a piece of gauze was slapped over Zhou Laifu's face, and a kettle of water poured over it.

Zhou Laifu thrashed wildly.

After one kettle of water, he was choking and coughing violently, gasping desperately for air.

With just one layer of gauze, he could still breathe, even soaked.

But because the gauze was drenched, his frantic breathing made him inhale loads of water vapor, making it feel even more unbearable.

Then came the second piece…

The third…

The fourth…

Zhou Laifu struggled like mad, but it was pointless.

By the time the tenth layer went on and his whole body went rigid, on the brink of suffocating to death—

Yang Chen walked over and ripped all the gauze off in one go.

Zhou Laifu sucked in huge lungfuls of air, looking at Yang Chen like he was the savior himself.

It took quite a while for Zhou Laifu to catch his breath, feeling as if his soul had been drained right out of him.

Yang Chen looked at him, gave a cold smile, then walked back to his seat and sat down.

Only after a long moment was Zhou Laifu dragged back over.

When he finally collapsed onto the chair, Yang Chen smiled and said, "Keep talking."

"T-Talk about what?" Zhou Laifu said weakly.

He'd been tormented to the point of almost losing half his life.

Yang Chen smiled. "My mistake. I should've said keep making things up. The better you spin it, the harsher the punishment. I've prepared quite the grand gift for you. This was just the beginning—there are four 'packages' in total, and you're still a long way from the fourth."

Hearing that, Zhou Laifu shuddered all over in fear.

Ten rounds of torture—he doubted he'd survive to the tenth. The fifth could already kill him.

"I really was telling the truth!" Zhou Laifu said.

"Oh?" Yang Chen replied blandly, and started to raise his hand, ready to have them go at Zhou Laifu again.

Seeing Yang Chen lift his hand, Zhou Laifu shivered so hard his whole body shook. He somehow found the strength to practically spring up, yelling in a panic, "I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"

Yang Chen chuckled. "Will you talk, or keep making things up?"

"I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll say everything! Everything!" Zhou Laifu screamed miserably.

Yang Chen was amused. Leaning back in his chair, he said calmly, "You should've done that from the start. Would've saved yourself a lot of pain."

Zhou Laifu lowered his head, let out a sigh, and said slowly, "I'm guessing you've basically dug up everything by now. What you're missing are just my statements. I'll say it all, I'll say everything. Twenty years ago, I was still young back in my hometown. I liked a girl, but…"

Zhou Laifu began confessing, from the crimes he committed in the mainland all the way to the present, laying it all out clearly.

"You're saying someone from the Yuan Group approached you back then, said they could pull you out of your debt hell, and in return you'd have to work for them?" Yang Chen looked at Zhou Laifu and asked.

Zhou Laifu shook his head. "It's not as simple as you think. Monkey Country isn't like the mainland, all nice and peaceful. It's a mess here. For people in debt, having your hands chopped off or ears cut is common. They paid off my debts, invested in me—that was essentially saving my life. And not just that. With my level of business ability, I'd still have gone bankrupt even with that much money. They gave me a lot of resources, turned my business into a snowball—bigger and bigger, more and more, endless benefits."

Listening, Yang Chen understood how Zhou Laifu had slowly become completely devoted to the Yuan Group. On top of that, the Yuan Group had later put him through dedicated brainwashing, which was why he'd ended up like this, refusing to admit anything even under torture.