Chapter 374: She's Quite Talkative, Isn't She

The woman spoke very quickly, clearly having these matters thoroughly memorized.

She probably would never forget for the rest of her life the grievances her son suffered at school.

"So he's been getting into fights at school since he was little because of this?"

Yu Dazhang was not emotionally affected; on the contrary, he became even calmer.

Though children say things without fear of consequence, more often than not, a child's words are the most hurtful.

As a child, he often fought with classmates—the type to throw a punch the moment words ran dry.

It wasn't that Yu Dazhang was especially violent, but rather that he found that after he fought back, his classmates became much friendlier toward him.

Once he resorted to real violence, the cold violence disappeared.

"That's right, exactly because of this." The woman said with great certainty:

"The child was especially sensible as a little one. He only became rebellious after his father passed away."

That's not really called being rebellious... Yu Dazhang suddenly felt that Zhang Chao's mother was being a bit extreme.

She seemed to be deliberately muddying right and wrong.

Faced with verbal violence, fighting back is the most instinctive reaction for anyone.

Endless forbearance will only make the other side push further.

Over time, the child will only grow weaker and weaker, while the bullying party will grow more and more vicious.

For both sides, this is not a good thing.

Going to the teacher was basically useless—over verbal conflicts between children, teachers couldn't mete out any substantive punishment.

It's not that the teachers were muddling things along, but rather that today's parents aren't easy to provoke either.

If the punishment was too harsh, parents would come to the school and beat up the teacher.

In fact, such incidents had happened plenty of times.

Yu Dazhang hesitated, then swallowed the words that had risen to his lips.

He had come here to understand the situation; there was nothing to argue with her about.

"What did Zhang Chao's father die from?" Yu Dazhang asked.

When Zhang Chao was six, his father wasn't very old either, so Yu Dazhang figured it must have been an unnatural death.

"A workplace accident."

The woman's voice dropped slightly, and her expression also dimmed:

"Back then, his dad was working at a machining factory when he suffered heavily from an accident. He was rushed to the hospital and resuscitated for two days, but in the end still didn't pull through."

Recalling that painful experience, the woman's voice trembled slightly.

"Later, the leaders of their unit, afraid of taking responsibility, stubbornly claimed it was caused by the child's father's improper operation."

The woman's tone was filled with anger and helplessness:

"They even colluded with other employees to give false testimony, so the workplace injury compensation wasn't paid out to us according to regulations."

"We lost a family member, yet still had to face such injustice."

Hearing this, Yu Dazhang did some quick mental math.

1988—back then, he himself was still just a protein.

That factory was probably long gone, so the woman's words couldn't be verified.

But judging from the woman's expression, she didn't seem to be lying, and there was no need to fabricate such a story.

"However, the leaders of their unit also came to me privately to negotiate."

The woman paused briefly, then continued:

"They agreed to give us a property as compensation. The house we live in now is the one their unit allocated to me back then."

She's quite talkative... Yu Dazhang found that Zhang Chao's mother was a very chatty person.

He had only just asked how Zhang Chao's father died, and she had gone and told an entire story.

She's got a bit of a chatterbox streak in her.

Could it be that because she'd lived alone for so long, too lonely and bored, she was so eager to communicate with people?

Yu Dazhang only thought it to himself and didn't show it.

Women are naturally fond of chatting about domestic matters, especially older women.

There's really nothing strange about that.

Precisely because she was Zhang Chao's mother, Yu Dazhang would overthink it a bit.

"Didn't Zhang Chao ever think about renovating the house?"

He'd wanted to ask this when he came in.

Even Wang Hao knew to renovate his own room, and Zhang Chao certainly wasn't short on money.

Moreover, from the fact that Zhang Chao often came back here, it was clear he had deep feelings for his mother.

"What's there to renovate in an old house?"

The woman didn't answer directly, but said evasively:

"Besides, the children don't have an easy time earning money. They have kids of their own to raise too, so save where you can."

Mother-in-law and daughter-in-law at odds? Yu Dazhang caught a note of helplessness in her words.

It seemed that in the woman's eyes, Zhang Chao and his wife put all their energy into the child, neglecting her, the mother.

The woman's words also revealed one piece of information: she didn't know her son was very wealthy.

Otherwise she wouldn't have said to let the children save money.

One had to know that the wealth Zhang Chao and his wife possessed could never be saved up just by being frugal.

"Let's leave it at that for today."

Yu Dazhang stood up and said to the woman:

"If Zhang Chao comes back, you can contact me directly."

Saying so, he took out a notebook from the bag he carried with him, tore off a page, and wrote down a phone number.

"Don't worry—when the time comes, it'll count as him turning himself in." Yu Dazhang handed over the paper with the phone number written on it.

He knew in his heart that Zhang Chao definitely wouldn't go turn himself in.

Given the crimes he had committed, he'd be executed for sure.

But his mother didn't know, so for Zhang Chao this counted as a loophole.

After the woman took the paper, she nodded, but still couldn't help asking:

"What exactly did Xiao Chao do?"

"We can't confirm anything right now either." Yu Dazhang couldn't possibly reveal the case details to her, so he could only brush past it vaguely:

"Please understand."

After leaving, Yu Dazhang went downstairs, and immediately police officers from the provincial bureau came over.

He thought for a moment, then ordered:

"The next stop is Yangcheng in Province D."

"So soon?" The provincial bureau officers clearly hadn't expected this arrangement:

"For a cross-province case, we need to prepare a bit."

The two places were over six hundred kilometers apart; even taking the expressway it would take over seven hours.

Besides, going out of province for a case, they also needed to report upward.

"No need for that." Yu Dazhang waved his hand and said:

"Colleagues over there have already started working."

Now he was the direct superior of these officers; whatever he said was an order.

After getting in the car, he immediately took out his phone and called Qi Fang, notifying him to bring people and hurry to Yangcheng.

Qi Fang agreed readily; by now he had complete trust in Yu Dazhang.

Still had some loose ends to wrap up… Yu Dazhang called Captain Hua again.

"I'm taking the task force to Yangcheng in Province D."

After the call connected, he said directly:

"The coordination work will be left to you, and after you're done over there, come over as soon as you can."

This rescue operation in Jianning was originally Captain Hua's responsibility, so right now he still couldn't get away for the moment.

"Cross-province case?"

Captain Hua was also taken aback:

"So sudden? Are things over there all wrapped up?"

He was clear on the operational flow of that criminal organization; Yu Dazhang had already given a detailed briefing at the meeting earlier.

Back then it was also Captain Hua who deduced that the other side was abducting people in the other province and then transporting them into Province N.

However, Yu Dazhang didn't mention that Ma Jian and the others were already staking out in Yangcheng.

He didn't want to expose Ma Jian and the others too early; it wasn't that he didn't trust the colleagues in Province N, but rather out of a cautious consideration.

When out and about, keeping an extra eye out is never wrong.

"Everything that needed checking here has been checked." Yu Dazhang explained:

"And the other side is mainly guarding against this side too; for now, Yangcheng is actually the best breakthrough point."

(End of chapter)