CH 24.1

Li Chengkang and Jiang Biling were convicted very quickly because of the overwhelming evidence and the seriousness of the circumstances.

–In the first trial, Li Chengkang and Jiang Biling were sentenced to fifteen years in prison together with the confiscation of all personal properties of the perpetrators.

Li Chengkang filed an appeal, but it was denied and the original sentence upheld.

Xicheng Prison.

Li Hongjie, with a haggard expression, followed the policeman leading the way to the visiting room.

Jiang Biling was already waiting for him there.

The moment she saw her son appear, she stood up excitedly as well as anxiously, placing both hands on the glass as she shouted: “Hongjie, Hongjie……”

“Mum….” Li Hongjie sat down on the chair and licked his dry lips.

Neither one could hear the other, but they understood the meaning.

Across the glass Jiang Biling also sat down and picked up the phone between them.

Looking at her son’s haggard face, she asked as she held back the sorrow in her heart, “Hongjie, how are you doing….”

“Are your grandfather and Li Qingzhou giving you a hard time at the old house?”

Li Hongjie whispered, “No….. they haven’t done anything.”

Jiang Biling said bitterly, “Is your grandfather so heartless that he really won’t help at all? Chengkang is his son!”

“Hongjie, go and beg your grandfather again.”

“Your dad filed an appeal but it was rejected….. fifteen years is too long a sentence, how are we going to fit in society when we get out……”

At the mention of Li Chengkang, Li Hongjie’s expression suddenly dimmed.

Lowering his eyes, he said on a whisper, “Mom, I have something to tell you….. Dad, he, he cheated.”

Jiang Biling’s voice stopped abruptly.

After a while, with a tremble in her voice, she asked, “You, what did you say….”

Li Hongjie: “Dad, cheated.”

“I only just found out three days ago…..”

“A woman came to the house with a child…. a boy, about six or seven years old and said he was dad’s offspring.”

“After Dad went to jail and all his properties were confiscated, the woman had no more money, so she came to ask Grandpa for money…..”

“She also produced a paternity test, various evidence of her relationship with Dad, pictures, chat logs….”

“Enough, stop it!” Jiang Biling shouted, her expression revealing that she was on the verge of falling apart.

–It was as if something had completely collapsed within her at that precise moment, making her previously well maintained face appear even older.

Jiang Biling couldn’t help but grip the handset tightly.

Because if she didn’t hold on to something, afraid the handset would fall from her shaking hands in the next second.

She asked in a hoarse voice: “What does your grandfather…. plan to do with that child?”

Li Hongjie: “Because Dad was sentenced, the woman doesn’t want the child, only money, so grandpa made her sign an agreement, gave her the money and sent her away.”

“As for the child….. he is staying at the old house and I will leave the country with him.”

Jiang Biling’s eyes couldn’t help but widen and her body leaning forward towards the window, she asked, her voice sounding as if it was being squeezed out of her throat: “Going abroad?! Why do you want to go abroad?!”

“Is it your grandfather, or is it Li Qingzhou….”

Li Hongjie interrupted her, “Mum, it’s my decision and my idea to take that child abroad with me…..”

“He won’t be happy at the old house. He’s my brother, not Li Qingzhou’s brother.”

After experiencing all these things, Li Hongjie seemed to have suddenly grown up a lot.

At the very least, if this had happened before, he would have resented and even hated this unexpected child.

But now….. he understood how innocent this child really was.

It was his father who was guilty.

Jiang Biling was stunned.

Wiping his face, Li Hongjie took a deep breath then said, “I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in the past few days.”

“Every day I think about what to do afterwards…..”

“Should I hate grandfather who is treating me with indifference, hate Li Qingzhou who sent you guys here, or hate Li Xusheng who found out…..”

“But then I’ve discovered that I don’t even have the right to hate at all.”

Laughing bitterly, he asked, “Who am I to hate….. it is they who should hate me, hate me for having such cruel and heartless parents.”

“How am I to face my classmates, teachers and friends if I go back to school….”

“Mum, do you know that in an instant….. this city, seems to have no place for me? I have nowhere to go.”

Li Hongjie couldn’t help but choke and cry at the end of this sentence.

Bowing his head, he covered his eyes, but he couldn’t stop the tears from streaming through his fingers…..

Jiang Biling felt as if she had been struck by something, a piercing pain drilling into her chest, the pain coming in thick and fast.

Before Li Hongjie left,

Jiang Biling shouted, calling out to him as she asked in a hoarse voice: “Do you, do you hate Dad and Mum? Hongjie….. do you hate us.”

Shaking his head, Li Hongjie didn’t say anything, the atmosphere turning silent.

In the end, he just said, “Mom, you have to be good. I will come back to see you….. and dad often….”

After Li Hongjie left, Jiang Biling could no longer hold back the tears that fell….

The sentences for the two were upheld at fifteen years’ imprisonment.

As for Jiang Jihong, the charges against him were more serious– embezzlement and bribery, involvement with a human trafficking organization, using his position for personal gains, etc.

In the end, the court sentenced him to life imprisonment and deprivation of political rights for life…..

The Jiang family collapsed overnight and the Jiang Group’s share price plummeted.

And Jiang Daikun had his hands full.

–Not only were the board of directors unhappy and wanting to jointly oust him as president, the women he had previously messed around with and the mistresses he had kept also came to him one by one.

His wife even took the opportunity to file for divorce and demanded half of his assets…..

What’s more, the Jiang Group company began to face double suppression from the Li Group and the Liu Group.

Very quickly, Jiang Daikun couldn’t hold on.