Chapter 712: It's All Because of Money

Back at 912, seeing Shen Lang had returned safely and that Ji Xiang was still supervising with a brick in his hand, Zhou Congwen patted Ji Xiang to show his commendation.

"Cong Wen, there's something strange." Shen Lang stopped gossiping, but the fire in his eyes burned a little brighter.

"Wait here, don't leave my sight." Professor Zhou took the brick from Ji Xiang's hand and looked at Shen Lang with a smile.

Shen Lang felt helpless and sat down on the director's office desk with a huff.

Professor Zhou wasn't angry either; he was writing something at the computer.

The brick sat by his hand, looking exceptionally jarring and completely out of place with everything else in the office.

"Director, how do you think the matter of Lao Wangtou absorbing people's life force will end?" Ji Xiang felt the atmosphere in the office was a bit strange, so he broke the silence.

"You actually think someone can absorb life force?" Shen Lang said irritably.

It was as if Ji Xiang were the culprit.

"Lang Ge, you were the one who told me."

"That's gossip, gossip! Do you even know what gossip is? It's all just to fool people, just for fun." Shen Lang glared at Ji Xiang, as if everything were Ji Xiang's fault.

Gossip...

Ji Xiang looked at Shen Lang, truly unable to understand what kind of bizarre thought process this was.

Could it be that everyone around Professor Zhou was this bizarre?

"Don't mind him, Xiao Ji," Zhou Congwen said softly. "No matter what he says, he likes to lean toward the supernatural, but he doesn't actually believe it himself."

"Then..."

"Isn't he writing a novel? The readers like to see it. The reader is king, right, Shen Lang?"

"Cong Wen, there is a problem with this matter." Shen Lang didn't answer and instead began a logical analysis.

"Sit still." Zhou Congwen patted the brick beside him.

Ji Xiang felt that the person with the most combat power among these three wasn't himself, nor was it the sturdy-as-an-ox Shen Lang, but the quiet-looking Professor Zhou Congwen.

Shen Lang looked at Professor Zhou like a mouse looking at a cat.

No matter how curious he was, if Professor Zhou didn't agree, he had to hold it in.

The office fell silent again, and Ji Xiang didn't want to break the awkwardness, so he watched Professor Zhou quietly.

After a long time, Professor Zhou's phone rang.

After answering, he kept nodding and agreeing, finally saying, "Thank you, Bureau Chief Feng, let's have a meal together when we have time."

Hanging up the phone, Professor Zhou placed his hands in front of him, fingers twirling, and looked at Ji Xiang with a smile.

"Xiao Ji, guess what's going on."

"I don't know." Ji Xiang spoke the truth.

"Wang Chengfa's two grandsons: one wanted to throw him into the ICU to lie there until he died, and the other wanted to pull a fast one to collect a few more years of retirement pension, so they had a dispute," Shen Lang said.

Professor Zhou looked at Shen Lang with great interest. "Continue."

"That day I saw the two brothers fighting at home, and then the lights went out. I didn't think much of it at the time, but looking back now, it must have been Wang Quan accidentally killing Wang Liang."

"The next day, Wang Quan came to handle the hospitalization procedures and said Wang Liang was away on business. I felt something was wrong then, but it was their family business, so I didn't ask."

Ji Xiang's view of Shen Lang changed; this guy looked like a man who only knew gossip, but he hadn't expected him to be so sharp.

Regardless of whether he was right or not, being able to state these things in an orderly manner made Shen Lang a talent.

He had experienced these things himself, yet he couldn't make heads or tails of them.

"After finishing the discharge procedures, everything was actually normal, but after I received a call from an old patient, I realized where the problem was."

"If Wang Chengfa were really at home, he wouldn't be afraid of being seen. Pushing him out for everyone to see definitely meant something was fishy. It's highly probable that Wang Chengfa died, and Wang Quan kept the death a secret."

"!!!" Ji Xiang was speechless; Shen Lang's thought process was truly bizarre.

"Shen Lang, I really have to look at you with new eyes after a few days," Professor Zhou said with a smile.

"Pfft, he used an umbrella to block the view. Wang Chengfa was hanging his head, his face pale and a bit damp; I reckon he was stored in the home freezer by Wang Quan after he died."

"..."

Ji Xiang initially thought it was unlikely, but upon closer thought, Shen Lang's logic had no errors.

It was just...

For the sake of a retirement pension, could one really keep their grandfather's remains in a freezer?

"Taking him out for everyone to see, then throwing him back in the freezer. It was originally flawless; at least it could be hidden for a few years. I haven't studied forensic medicine, so I don't know if the freezer..."

"Low temperatures can delay the appearance of livor mortis, but the temperature of a freezer isn't that low; it can only guarantee 1-2 months at most. Wang Quan's handling of this is flawed; it would have been better to soak him in water, that would be even slower," Professor Zhou said.

"Cong Wen, stop talking nonsense. If you soak him in water and then freeze it, you can't get him out at all," Shen Lang said.

"Hahaha." Professor Zhou laughed.

"Lang Ge, what happened later?" Ji Xiang asked.

"What else could happen? Later, Wang Quan pushed Wang Chengfa out for everyone to see. The person was already dead, and the body was still being abused; damn it."

"It's nothing, it's quite normal. To collect retirement pensions, similar things are not uncommon," Professor Zhou said calmly. "However, the two brothers had a dispute, and Wang Quan accidentally killed Wang Liang. What do you think about that?"

Yuanfang, what do you think?

This phrase echoed in Ji Xiang's ears.

"Accidentally? Fifty-fifty. I don't think it was entirely accidental; perhaps it was intentional," Shen Lang said. "If they did it together, they would have to split the pension. If one was gone, Wang Quan would get it all. Greed blinds the mind; Wang Quan didn't think about the fact that murder is a crime."

"Just for that bit of pension?" Ji Xiang was surprised.

"That bit?" Shen Lang found Ji Xiang particularly unpleasant to look at now; he glanced at him and said with disdain, "Nearly twenty thousand a month, without having to do anything. There are definitely many people who would do such a thing."

Ji Xiang didn't understand this, but he remembered that student with the Kidney Stone.

Maybe so, Lang Ge was right.

"Cong Wen, did you find it?"

"Found it. The location where the body was hidden has been found—Wang Liang's. As for Wang Chengfa, it seems he was taken out of the freezer and sent to the funeral home."

"Tell me, if they were put in the ICU, they could at least keep breathing for another half a year."

"It can also be considered saving money for the national medical insurance." There was a hint of mockery in Zhou Jiaoshou's words, which Ji Xiang did not understand.

However, with the window paper pierced, Ji Xiang roughly understood the tricks involved.

"In the past, many people would keep a death secret just to collect retirement and pension payments. So they couldn't die in the hospital; Wang Quan's point of view was not wrong. If he hadn't beaten Wang Liang to death, at most he would have been scolded." Zhou Jiaoshou was uninterested.

So that was it; only then did Ji Xiang understand everything.

There were actually so many twists and turns in this.

Light flickered.

Ji Xiang suddenly reached out his hand, "I still want to perform surgery!"

But Zhou Jiaoshou and Shen Lang seemed not to have heard his words; in the blink of an eye, Ji Xiang returned to the System Operating Room.

(End of this chapter)