Chapter 235: Multiple Wives and Concubines
As Shao Xi looked at Shao Qihai, he suddenly remembered the two people who had been mistaken for Shao Qihai’s new wife and child. “Dad, when you said that you were going to protect the transfer, was that a family member?”
Shao Qihai thought for a moment and nodded. “That’s right. Ordinary people don’t hear about nameless heroes, but they do exist. Their contribution and sacrifices might be known by very few people. It’s even possible that they won’t be able to regain their honor for the rest of their lives. They might just die quietly or while facing a scandal.”
Just like that senior last time. Outsiders had only thought that he was a hooligan and had even angered his mother to death because of this, but in reality, he wasn’t.
Shao Xi was sensitive. Upon recalling that he had secretly hated them last time, he couldn’t help but say, “Daddy, can I contact them? I won’t do anything, nor will I reveal anything. I’ll just be friends with that child. I remember that he’s about the same age as Little Nan and the rest. We’re both boys. It’d be good if we wrote letters to each other and became friends.”
Shao Qihai shook his head firmly. “No, absolutely not. Don’t think about this anymore.”
He couldn’t reveal their address even if he died, and he didn’t know their new identities either, so it was impossible for him to say anything or contact them. Talking so much today was already his limit.
When he saw Shao Xi’s disappointed expression, Shao Qihai’s gaze became slightly complicated. Previously, he had said that Shao Xi had good eyesight, but for some reason, that wasn’t the case this time. That child was obviously a bonafide girl. It was just that her hair was a tad short.
Shao Qihai had an honest chat with the five kids and finally made up with them. It was a heartwarming scene of a loving father and his filial children. Mu Jingzhe gave them some space and went to get the latest update on the kidnappers herself.
The identities of the kidnappers had been discovered and were really unexpected.
No one had expected the left-handed gang to be associated with loan sharks. The money they earned had even been invested in the loan shark business, allowing them to compound their money by collecting interest.
Plus, that wasn’t all. They actually had several fake identities. These people had established homes in various parts of the province. Three of those men weren’t even in their thirties, but they’d already married three times each, and each of their wives had given birth to two children. Thus, each of them had six children.
Their wives were officially married to them by using fake ID cards. The wives didn’t know each other or that their husbands’ names were fake.
This kind of operation was very difficult in modern times. After all, there was the national database. However, it had been possible in this era.
Other than the advantage of having more hiding spots, they had done this because they wanted to leave behind more descendants. It was said that their ancestors had been landowners, and they used to have multiple wives and concubines because they were really concerned about continuing the family line. These men had thus been influenced.
However, in the new era, multiple wives and concubines were no longer allowed. Even the number of children had to be limited. Having more identities could solve this problem.
The three of them believed this was a good idea that they had thought of. To them, it was normal to have multiple wives and concubines. They lived to earn money so they could marry and have children. This was also why they had always needed money. If they hadn’t worked on a few cases, they wouldn’t have been able to help their wives settle down.
Their original goal had been to marry a few more women and have more kids in the future. If they hadn’t been caught, it would have been entirely possible.
Based on Shao Dong and Shao Nan’s observation, they were very cruel to children and didn’t have any compassion for them at all. In the end, they only had feelings for their children.
Although the three of them were involved in the loan shark business, they’d never made an appearance. They had only gone to collect money and interest. However, since they had implicated the loan sharks, the police naturally wouldn’t let them off. After some arrangements, they finally wiped out all of them.
Needless to say, there were interrogations, and they also checked their account books. However, due to this check, an unexpected person entered the police’s line of sight through the account books.
Shao Qiyun, Shao Qihai’s biological younger sister, was actually in the loan books.
Through the interrogation, they quickly learned about Shao Qiyun’s situation. It turned out that Shao Qiyun couldn’t bear hardships, so she had borrowed from a loan shark. Initially, she had only borrowed a little, but her vanity had eventually led her to borrow more.
Life was comfortable after borrowing money. She could eat well, drink well, and dress well, but when she’d been asked to repay the money, she couldn’t do so. After being threatened by the debt collectors, she had even gone to borrow money from Shao Qihai, but Shao Qihai had ignored her.
Since she couldn’t return the money, Shao Qiyun could only return it in other ways. She was young and beautiful. If she was sold or simply used to earn money, she could repay the loan. However, Shao Qiyun couldn’t accept this. She was going to marry a rich person. How could she ruin herself like this?
According to the statements of the debt collectors, they didn’t have the chance to touch Shao Qiyun in the end because Shao Qiyun had said that her second brother, second sister-in-law, third brother, and even her nephews and nieces were very good at earning money and were all very rich. She had guaranteed that she would definitely repay them.
In order to get the loan sharks to believe her, Shao Qiyun had told them everything about Mu Jingzhe. She had emphasized how promising Shao Nan and Little Bei were and the fact that Little Bei was a celebrity. She had told them they needn’t worry about her not being able to repay a mere 2,000 yuan.
According to the thugs’ statements, because of Shao Qiyun’s words, they had given her a few more days. After learning about the kidnapping case, they had tried their best to prove that they had nothing to do with it. Even though they usually committed evil deeds and beat people up, they only targeted the borrowers. They denied seeing Mu Jingzhe and the others before and said that they had only urged Shao Qiyun to pay back the money.
Mu Jingzhe hadn’t expected Shao Qiyun to be involved in this. It was a little unexpected but not very surprising.
After all, the kidnappers knew a lot about their family situation and had even fabricated a car plate to commit the crime. If the kidnapper had not been observing them previously, someone must have leaked the news.
Shao Qiyun was quickly brought over to be interrogated. When Shao Qiyun saw the police, her face turned pale. As soon as she entered the station, she cried out for justice, saying that she had nothing to do with Shao Dong and the others being kidnapped.
The police hadn’t even asked her anything yet, and she’d already claimed that she had nothing to do with it. That meant that she had to be involved.
Intimidated by the interrogation, Shao Qiyun, who had a guilty conscience and didn’t want to go to jail, confessed what had really happened in order to lighten her sentence.
It turned out that after the group of debt collectors had left, someone else soon had come to her door. They’d claimed to be debt collectors too, but as she couldn’t recognize all of them, she couldn’t help but repeat what she had said previously. This time, the person seemed very interested and asked for a lot of details, including the time and location of the kids’ weekly classes, Mu Jingzhe’s business, Shao Qihai’s car, and so on.
Later on, they’d even asked who was the most favored among the children. Shao Qiyun felt that something was amiss, but she’d still answered.
“I just told them that the children were all favored and bragged a little. I didn’t know their motives. I really didn’t.”
The more she emphasized that she didn’t know, the more suspicious it appeared. Perhaps Shao Qiyun hadn’t known for sure that they were plotting an abduction, but she had definitely sensed that something was amiss.
Of course, the interrogation wasn’t only directed at Shao Qiyun. The police also interrogated the kidnappers. When the kidnappers saw that their background was being investigated and there was nothing they could do, they spat out some facts intermittently.
Since they were each raising three families, money was always spent very quickly. As they were looking for a target and were about to take action, they accidentally heard Shao Qiyun’s words.
Mu Jingzhe and the kids were simply unlucky. Originally, they had been in Great Eastern Village and had kept a low profile, so no one had known about them. However, after Shao Qiyun’s words, they had entered the kidnappers’ line of sight.