Chapter 175: Guilty and Deserves to be Punished
"Get lost!"
Looking at Zhang Meiyun’s frightened face, an intense relieved feeling suddenly gushed inside Su Shangwen’s heart. He just saw her true face. Such a lame woman who despised the poor and favored the rich whom he had been living together for more than twenty years. But only now did he realize this.
Su Yanning had fallen to tears. Never in her dreams had she ever thought that such a good family as hers would turn out like this. She looked at her father’s cold and grim expression. She watched at her mother’s panicked expression as she wept and cried, “Dad, Mom just said that out of anger. You don’t have to put it into your head and be angry like this. Please tell the police that it was a false accusation. Mom has been wronged. She didn’t have a hit-and-run accident. Please tell them quickly!”
With a flabbergasted look, the policeman looked at Su Shangwen’s family. After staying silent for a while, he spoke seriously, “You don’t need to say anything right now. We wouldn’t come here if we didn’t have definite evidence. Zhang Meiyun, come with us now!”
After having said that, he turned toward Su Shangwen and spoke indifferently, “If I’m not mistaken, you should be Su Shangwen. The Shangwen Real Estate owner. Although your company has been declared to be closed down due to a contract fraud, the other party is accusing you of fraud with the amount up to 80 million yuan. If you can’t pay this 80 million by tomorrow evening, you’ll probably have an imprisonment order waiting for you.”
Su Shangwen’s body trembled as the despair inside his heart grew bigger.
He was finished! He knew it was game over for him!
Let alone 80 million, he didn’t even have 80 thousand. Much less that the friends he had in his circle must have known the closing down of his company also. Just like rats abandon a sinking ship, in this society where opportunist people would abandon an unfavorable cause such as him, who would be willing to lend him money?
Su Shangwen could only watch as his wife was taken away by the police with a foolish expression, as he looked at the tearful appearances of his children. He suddenly felt his strength leave his body as he sat down on the sofa as though he was paralyzed and without bones.
“Dad! Look for my cousin! He definitely has some means.”
Su Xiangfei suddenly stopped crying and spoke hastily.
Cousin?!
Looking at his son with a blank expression, Su Shangwen didn’t understand who was the person his son referred to.
Su Xiangfei shouted, “Dad! What are you waiting for? Find my cousin—Tang Xiu quickly! He knows a lot of Big Bosses, so he must have some means! If he’s really the instigator behind this, it must be because he hates us for looking down on him. As long as we bow our heads and admit our mistakes, he surely will let us go!”
Tang Xiu?
A mirthless smile appeared on Su Shangwen’s face. Looking at his own son with a disappointed expression, he suddenly had the impulse to strangle him to death.
He felt very funny inside. Ever since his son was still an infant till he had grown up to now, this was his first time he heard him calling Tang Xiu as a cousin, ever.
Su Yanning also hurriedly said, “Yes! Dad, let’s find cousin together! Or, aunt. Auntie has a soft heart. She definitely will ask him to save Mom. Maybe they will also help us and lend you the money to pay the debt.”
Su Shangwen had just given up all hope. There was not even a trace of spirit left in him.
In his mind, he recalled all the scenes of how they got along with the mother and child—his younger sister—Su Lingyun and her son. Just like how shameless his own children were acting at present in front of him, he suddenly realized how he was the same.
“Just like the sky will bring down the rain, a young girl will have to marry and leave to follow her husband.” [1]
Rigidly standing up, Su Shangwen mumbled as he walked as though a walking corpse into the room. After locking the door from the inside, he went over toward the bedside cabinet, pulled its drawer to take a handcrafted knife, and fiercely cut off an artery on his wrist.
His world began to blur as his consciousness turned hazy.
The last thought lingering inside his mind— “If I ever have the chance to go back, never will I wish to become such a bastard again."
At Primeforest Mountain Range.
Halfway up the mountain, was a smooth contour terrain. After Tang Xiu, Miao Wentang and Shao Mingzhen had their breakfast, with light hearted feelings, they rushed toward the destination. The natural maze wasn’t enough to pose a problem for Tang Xiu. Even if he had to compare notes with an array great master in the Immortal World, he could crack it to the finest details. If his cultivation was still like before, no matter how profound an array was, he would probably be able to pass it through casually.
Smoothly, the three of them traversed through the natural maze, as they then arrived on the hilltop at the edge of the Sky Cavern.
The Sky Cavern was about tens of meters deep, with a width of more than ten meters. It was very likely that a meteorite from outer space had fallen here. The three of them looked downward, and they could clearly see a few black cave mouths at the bottom. Even though the distance was tens of meters from above, it was very likely that there was a cave there.
“Let’s go down!”
Tang Xiu spoke with a sinking tone.
Miao Wentang hurriedly stopped him as he said with a forced smile, “We can’t! Our men had used a rope tied to their waist and then slowly went down before. But when they were only halfway there, a lot of vipers appeared— there were also large pythons several times thicker than a man’s thigh. The second time we got here, we brought a lot of arsenic powder, but it simply didn’t work. The vipers in this place have extremely potent poison— I even suspect that they’ve gone through mutation.”
Tang Xiu’s brow wrinkled. He looked at the spirit beast under his feet and found that most of its injuries had been healed. Then, he asked it with a deepened tone, “Little Beast, is it very dangerous down there?”
Little Beast! It was the name given by Tang Xiu to this spirit beast.
Upon hearing Tang Xiu’s inquiry, it quickly nodded its head with eyes full of fear.
Tang Xiu’s brows twisted. After pondering for a moment, he said, “Since the two of you know about the threat of these snakes and still want to venture into this place again, this means that both of you already have some ways around it, haven’t you? Tell me, how do we go down?”
“We’ll find another path to get there.” Miao Wentang said.
Tang Xiu asked, “What does that mean?”
“This place has a lot of underground passages. So I believe that this mountain definitely has some passages to enter the cave’s mouth. If we look around, maybe we can find it. But if we can’t find any, we also have prepared some petrol barrels to make some fire. Those snakes are not afraid of arsenic powder, but they should be afraid of fire.” Miao Wentang said.
“That’s also a way!” Tang Xiu nodded.
The three of them explored a lot of places to look for the passage the entire morning. They even examined each and every opening in the surrounding, even though the mountain was very steep. However, much to their disappointment, they couldn’t find any traces of the entrance to the cave.
The three converged again above the Sky Cavern.
Tang Xiu grabbed a thick rope and tied it to his waist. Then, he tied the other end of the rope to a tree trunk as he said with a deepened tone, “Give me the torch! I’ll try to go down there.”
Miao Wentang hesitated, “Tang Xiu, it’s really dangerous down there, you gotta be careful! If those vipers pose a threat to you, give us a call immediately and we’ll pull you up at once.”
“Alright!” Tang Xiu replied.
Whilst holding a torch, Tang Xiu slowly went down the rope. Shortly after, he reached about 20 meters, with 20 meters left to the bottom.
"Hiss..."
The sound of snakes’ hissing entered Tang Xiu’s sharp ears.
Tang Xiu had long released his perception earlier and found that this Sky Cavern had a total of five cave mouths. Four of which were at the bottom and one that was about 10 meters down from his position. This cave entrance was as though it was attached to the inside, and the passage was dark. It was also very wide—it wouldn’t be a problem for a few people to enter it at the same time.
The mountain walls of this Sky Cavern were covered with green vines, and there were at least a hundred of vipers on it. However, several hundreds of vipers as well as dozens of pythons could be seen in those five cave passageways.
“This place is simply a snake pit.”
Tang Xiu secretly sighed inside. As he tried to get close to the snakes with the torch, he was satisfied to see that the snakes immediately followed along the green vines to avoid the high temperature.
Within a short moment, Tang Xiu went through a daunting experience without having any mishap as he went to the bottom of this Sky Cavern. As he took a Luoyang shovel from his waist, he spent thirty minutes to dig the ground until he had dug more than two meters deep. However, he didn’t find any trace of meteorites here. With his perception, he traced all the five cave passageways and continued spreading his perception range. However, even after it was nearly at the two-hundreds meter range, he still had no harvest.
“Could this place have no precious ores?
Tang Xiu stopped digging. He looked up at Miao Wentang and Shao Mingzhen, who were standing at the edge of the Sky Cavern, and loudly shouted, “I’ll go to the cave’s passageway and take a look. If there’s any danger, I’ll immediately run back. You two be prepared to aid me from above.”
“Brother Tang, I’ll also go down!”
Shao Mingzhen shouted back. Just like Tang Xiu, he held a torch and used the rope to come down the bottom of the pit.
Shortly after, the two of them walked down the passageway and quickly entered the cave.
With the aid of Tang Xiu’s spiritual sense, although they saw a lot of poisonous creatures such as vipers, scorpions, and centipedes, but these poisonous creatures were afraid of fire, causing the two of them to safely avoid them. After they smoothly traversed for two to three hundred meters, suddenly, Tang Xiu stopped walking.
“Brother Tang, what is it?”
Tang Xiu’s heart palpitated and sped up. He could feel a terrifying aura that made the hairs in his whole body rise. The aura came from the depths of the cave. He couldn’t find any ominous danger through his perception. But he could clearly feel this particularly huge aura.
“Can you feel it?”
Shao Mingzhen nodded and said, “Yes. It’s one hell of a terrifying aura! What should we do now? Should we continue venturing inside?”
“We’ll continue forward! No matter what ominous thing is inside, we won’t lose our lives as long as we can escape in time.” Tang Xiu clenched his teeth and replied.
Timely escaping?
Shao Mingzhen secretly smiled wryly inside. But he still followed Tang Xiu’s idea and continued moving forward.
Having walked forward for a hundred meters, Tang Xiu stopped again as a look of disbelief revealed itself on his handsome face.
Using the searchlight and the light from the torch, Shao Mingzhen was keenly aware of the changes in Tang Xiu’s face and quickly asked, “What is it?”
Tang Xiu’s mouth twitched a few times as he suppressed the shock inside his heart. Then, he spoke with a sinking tone, “If you were to be given choices with 50% probability of us dying here but also with a heaven-shaking treasure inside, what would you choose: Continue fighting or immediately retreat?”
Shao Mingzhen pondered for a moment before he seriously said, “I’ll take the risk! You won’t get the tiger’s cub if you don’t enter the tiger’s den. And oftentimes riches and honor can be sought for within dangers.”
“That being the case, then we go back now.” Tang Xiu said with a deep tone.
“Go back?” Shao Mingzhen was confused and asked.
Still with a deep tone, Tang Xiu said, “Yes, we’ll go back. If we continue going forward, it might be a narrow escape, but we’ll absolutely die! We better go back first and prepare some things. When we come back here our chance of survival should be around 50%.”
Shao Mingzhen followed Tang Xiu and walked down along the same way back. Then, he asked, “Brother Tang, what have you found inside the cave?”
“It’s a Fire Qilin!” Tang Xiu replied in a sinking tone.
"That’s impossible!"
Shao Mingzhen exclaimed out loud and continued, “In this era we’re living, how come such a legendary divine beast exist? Are you sure you’re not mistaken?”
Notes:
天要下雨，娘要嫁人。随他去吧. This line is a story about a scholar named Zhu Yaozong. I’m kinda too lazy to include the story in this chapter but you can google it. But in short, it can be summarized that everything developed out of ones’ control and led to desperate and helpless circumstances. This line is also often cited when someone encounters difficult things s/he cannot solve or when people found that the situation is irreparable.