Chapter 683: A General Meeting of Shareholders Gone Sour
Translator: Azza
Editor: Conspiracing
In the middle of the night, Chen Shi was awakened by fierce door knocking. After opening the door, he saw Ai Ying knocking on the doors one by one in the corridor. Seeing Chen Shi, he said agitatedly, "Mr. Chen, I’ve finally found you. I don’t have your contact information and didn’t know which room you are staying in."
Many guests had been woken up and stood in the corridor complaining constantly. Chen Shi asked, "Is there an urgent matter?"
"Chang Juan may be in danger right now!"
Ten minutes later, Chen Shi, Lin Dongxue and Ai Ying went outside. Ai Ying took out his mobile phone to show Chen Shi. It was the chat record of that day’s shareholders meeting. The member named 39 had actually suggested using Chang Juan to lure the murderer out and votes were cast. As before, 11 was on 39's side. Although the others disagreed, 39's wishes finally prevailed.
Lin Dongxue said, "I think that this 11 is very problematic. They always support 39 unconditionally. The equity shares of these two people added together are sufficient to let almost any unreasonable decision pass through successfully."
Ai Ying sighed, "We think so too, but 39 and 11 are both old members... Haii, this is probably the drawback of the stock ownership system."
Chen Shi thought to himself that if 39 had decided to let Chang Juan seduce the murderer, it seemed as though 39 had a way to reach the murderer. He said, "Where are we going now?"
Ai Ying said, "Sister 22 is also worried about Chang Juan getting into trouble. She sent me an address, which may be Chang Juan's current location." He took out his mobile phone and showed it to the two of them. It was actually somewhere near the town.
At that moment, they were afraid that something might happen to Chang Juan and he no longer concealed anything. "In fact, the person who had called Chang Juan over to his house last time was 39. It was Sister 22 who stopped him. It’s said that 39 is a rich old man. He must harbor evil thoughts towards Chang Juan. I’m really worried that he has a hidden motive behind making Chang Juan go out as bait tonight."
Lin Dongxue said, "Let’s not talk about hidden motives. If by any chance she actually encounters the real murderer, that would be the worst scenario."
Soon, they arrived at a parcel of abandoned land surrounded by bamboo fences. This area was very big, overgrown with weeds, and there were some old villas. Chen Shi saw the wooden sign fallen on the ground saying "Xianghezhuang" and said in surprise, "This is Xianghezhuang?"
"Yes, it used to be a holiday village. Since no one came because it was too remote the business couldn't go on. The boss later sold all of the land and it is waiting to be developed!"
"Chang Juan's parents died here."
"Re... Really?"
Lin Dongxue poked Chen Shi. Someone was walking around in the dark. From such a distance, they couldn't see who the other party was. Lin Dongxue didn't bring a gun, but deliberately said, "Stop! Police! Or I’ll shoot!"
"Don't shoot, I'm not a bad person." It was a woman's voice. She walked over and the three found that she was a slightly overweight middle-aged woman with well-maintained skin. She was wearing a brown windbreaker, a gold watch and had a leather handbag on her arm.
"Sister 22?" Ai Ying asked tentatively.
"Little 13?" The other party said.
"It's me. It’s me. I came over when I received your text message. These two are police officers who are in charge of this case." Ai Ying introduced.
"Why didn't you tell the police in advance that something like this had happened? Everything is so passive now.” Chen Shi said.
Sister 22 said in embarrassment, "Originally, we didn't want the police to intervene. I kept contacting 39 to persuade him not to do this, but he insisted. I didn’t have any other ideas, so I called Little 13 to come out and find Chang Juan. I'm really worried about this girl getting into trouble."
"You and 39 know each other privately?"
"I... We used to be husband and wife." 22 lowered her head and said.
"What!?" Ai Ying was shocked.
historical
"This is a long story. Let's talk about it on the way! In the beginning, when 39 became Chang Juan’s shareholder, his enthusiasm was indescribable. In order to be a good 'life counselor', he looked at books on nutrition, fashion styling and fitness training all day. He sat in front of the computer for at least eight hours a day discussing with the other shareholders. I got annoyed that a big man was so obsessed with a young girl but I had no way of stopping him! He rationalized it by saying that I didn’t give birth to a child for him, so he was showering this young girl with his paternal love. I was afraid that he would do something improper, so I also bought part of the stocks in order to participate. At first, it was just to monitor him. 13, you may remember that for a while, 39 and I were always opposing each other!"
Ai Ying nodded, "I remember. I was wondering at the time why you two weren’t on good terms."
22 sighed, "These are all matters that happened before we got divorced. It would be a bit exaggerated to say that we had divorced because of Chang Juan. In fact, we’ve accumulated too many issues with each other. Chang Juan was just the straw that broke the camel’s back. We divorced three years ago, and my mind has calmed down since. What he loves to do has nothing to do with me. But I’m also Chang Juan’s shareholder. Participating in her life makes me feel very peculiar. I really feel like she’s my own daughter, so I’ve been wanting her to be well... I don’t know why 39 has gone crazy recently, playing a detective game. Today, he actually made such a ridiculous decision to use Chang Juan as a bait. I have to stop him no matter what!"
It seems that 22 knows a lot about 39. Chen Shi asked, "Do you know 11?"
"I haven't seen him in person, and I don't know what this person is doing, but I suspect that 11 had been bought by 39. You probably don't know, but there’s an agreement between the shareholders that no one's equity ownership can exceed 50% in order to prevent someone from completely controlling Chang Juan. That would be meaningless. 39 has always been keen to obtain full control over Chang Juan. He regarded Chang Juan as his private property. Lately, all his absurd decisions had 11’s unconditional support. This has created the current situation. 39 wants Chang Juan to do whatever he wants, so I suspect that he had bought 11 out in private!"
22 showed a distressed expression. 13 said, "We should have discovered this long ago, haii!"
"Is there someone in front?" Lin Dongxue pointed in one direction.
A ray of light seemed to flicker in an abandoned house. Everyone went to the door. Chen Shi asked Ai Ying and 22 to wait by the door and walked in with Lin Dongxue.
This was an abandoned villa. The old and dilapidated wooden floor had been warped by the overgrown weeds. Chen Shi wondered why it was here where Chang Juan’s parents had been killed. How did 39 ask the murderer to come here?
A bloody reek hit Chen Shi's nose. He and Lin Dongxue immediately went on guard. The two followed the stench and walked into a bedroom. They heard "puchi, puchi" sounds, which made them feel uneasy.
When they walked into the bedroom, they saw a figure kneeling on the ground, holding a knife in both hands, repeatedly stabbing another person who was lying down. The eyes of the knife holder were gleaming with a terrifying light, and the smell of blood filled the whole room.
When the knife stabbed the person, it made a horrifying "puchi" sound. It looked like they had already stabbed the other person many times.
Lin Dongxue was thunderstuck and roared, "Put the knife down and don't move!"