Surrounded by the Billionaire's Deep Doting-Chapter 689 - 529: Am I Afraid of Killing, or Afraid of Paying the Price?
Xiao Meng stared fixedly at Shan Mingxu for a long while before softly asking,
"Mingxu, has this severed arm been identified by a forensic expert?"
Shan Mingxu’s expression turned solemn, while Su Xiaomeng tightened her lips and beckoned Shan Mingxu over.
"Aunt, he’s wearing the same wedding ring as you, he—"
"Shhh... speak quietly."
Su Xiaomeng glanced around, then knelt down again. Shan Mingxu crouched in front of her, watching as Su Xiaomeng held the charred, processed arm that still showed the marks of the fierce fire.
"Aunt, I know you’re in pain. No one here wishes for Uncle to be dead. I wish this were all just a dream."
"..."
"The arm is bombed to such an extent, it’s impossible for other parts of the body to be intact. The seawater is rapid, making recovery truly difficult, so—"
"What if this arm isn’t his?"
Su Xiaomeng murmured, her bloodshot eyes meeting Shan Mingxu’s.
"How could it not be? You mean this ring is..."
Shan Mingxu’s eyes suddenly widened.
Su Xiaomeng looked at him seriously,
"Call me crazy if you want, whatever it is, I have to get a forensic identification done."
"Since no other parts of the body can be found, how can a single hand make me recognize this as my husband? To me, that’s too far-fetched and too dismissive."
Xiao Meng’s voice was hushed, even though she held such doubts in her heart, she had no intention of alarming anyone in the Yin Family.
Had Shan Mingxu not appeared, she would have figured out a way to quietly conduct the examination on her own.
"Mingxu... if you’re able to help me, that would be best. If you’re unwilling, at least keep it a secret for me."
Shan Mingxu looked at Su Xiaomeng, her hair nearly all white, though her face was as young and tender as that of an eighteen or nineteen-year-old girl. Yet, there she was with this glaringly white hair.
The deep bond between Su Xiaomeng and Yin Shixiu, he had already felt keenly during the last terrorist attack.
Those days, he often daydreamed... imagining that one day, if he could love someone wholeheartedly like that, and be loved by someone wholeheartedly like that, how wonderful it would be?
But then he thought, someone like him, always hanging between life and death, perhaps isn’t cut out to love someone. Loving someone seems like causing trouble for another...
During the London incident, there was also a fire that nearly set the whole sky ablaze.
Uncle didn’t believe Aunt would die. He firmly believed as long as no one was carried out, there was a chance they were alive.
So, he kept waiting there, waiting for the firefighters to extinguish the fire, waiting for them to carry out charred bodies one by one for identification.
Aunt wasn’t carried out, so it was as if he saw hope.
He charged into the fire scene regardless of the potential dangers and managed to save Aunt from the church basement!
As long as there was even a sliver of hope, he wouldn’t give up.
"Of course, I’ll help you."
Shan Mingxu told Su Xiaomeng, "I’ll get someone on the forensic side. Do you have Uncle’s hair or...?"
"I’ll collect blood from Huang Huang, and conduct a paternity test directly."
Shan Mingxu nodded, "Alright."
"Then tomorrow... will Uncle’s burial proceed as usual?"
Su Xiaomeng’s eyes sank,
"If this arm indeed belongs to Shixiu, I naturally can’t delay his burial. If it’s not his arm..."
With eyes that had sunk before now lifting, a glint flashed through them as she looked at Shan Mingxu,
"The burial will still take place."
Shan Mingxu felt a chill in his heart. The two exchanged looks without fully speaking their minds, but their hearts already understood each other.
Shan Mingxu wasn’t a fool. Su Xiaomeng had laid things out to this point. If he still didn’t understand, he’d truly be a simple-minded brute then.
But even as he grasped the meaning behind Su Xiaomeng’s words, Shan Mingxu couldn’t help but be a little startled.
Astounded by Su Xiaomeng’s thorough consideration.
If this severed arm isn’t Uncle’s, then too many possibilities exist.
The arm isn’t Uncle’s, but the ring is on it, suggesting someone is trying to fabricate the illusion of Yin Shixiu’s death.
If the person fabricating this illusion has ill intentions, and they find out Yin Shixiu is actually alive, it would be like stirring up the snake.
If the person creating this illusion is... Uncle!
Then Uncle must have his own reasons! They definitely cannot ruin Uncle’s setup lightly.
Shan Mingxu was secretly alarmed by Su Xiaomeng’s calm and meticulousness at this moment.
Although he didn’t have much hope for all kinds of assumptions that Uncle was still alive...
But as long as there’s a shred of hope, it should be seized.
Holding the cold severed arm was indeed a terrifying scene, but at this moment, any emotion could suppress fear.
She reached out to Shan Mingxu,
"You carry a military knife, right? Can I use it?"
"Aunt, let me do it."
"...Alright."
That night, no one knew about the speculation and actions Su Xiaomeng and Shan Mingxu took in front of the spirit hall, and they wouldn’t let anyone else know either.
————
The next morning, Su Xiaomeng was neatly dressed, but no attire could conceal the exhaustion and aging etched in her demeanor.
The wooden coffin was closed.
The two elders of the Yin Family, stubbornly wanted to get up to send off the fourth son, but Su Xiaomeng dissuaded them.
"If you can’t hold on, if you collapse, then I might not be able to bear it. Things are as they are... I don’t want to lose another family member. Dad, Mom... Let Meng Meng send him off on the last leg for you."
Zhou Mengqin lay in the bed crying. The elderly woman had cried for four days, her eyes almost unable to see anything.
Little Mengxin was deeply anxious.
Yin Shaohui lay in bed, unable to get up at all, barely maintained by nutrient fluids.
Hearing Xiao Meng say this, Zhou Mengqin and Yin Shaohui felt even worse in their hearts, but the two elders still listened to Xiao Meng, not stubbornly getting out of bed.
The hearse had already stopped at the door.
The wooden coffin was being lifted, yet before it could be placed into the hearse, another black luxury car arrived at the gate of Zheng Garden.
The person stepping out was none other than Yin Shiqing and his wife.
The mourning Yin Shilan and Yin Shihua immediately stopped crying.
The group of people observed Yin Shiqing, with an invisible line drawn between the two sides.
Yin Shiqing glanced at the wooden coffin, then asked,
"Where’s the old man and the lady?"
"What do you want?"
Yin Shilan spoke. Among the siblings, Yin Shiqing was followed by Yin Shilan.
Yin Shiqing looked at Yin Shilan,
"You’re all busy burying the fourth, but haven’t you noticed that rumors outside are raging like a storm?"
"What do you mean?"
"There’s a video online showing the fourth being caught smuggling drugs at a checkpoint, then fleeing by car. It’s been circulating for three or four days, and now everyone in Beijing questions the Yin Family. Yin Group’s stock has plummeted. At this rate, the Yin Family might be ruined by the fourth..."
Yin Shiqing lifted his chin slightly, his chest puffing up straight,
"While you all are busy wiping tears and noses, as the eldest brother, I can’t possibly ignore Yin Family’s reputation and prestige, right?"
"People need dignity, like trees need bark."
Su Xiaomeng stepped forward, her thin body further emaciated by mental torment for several days, swaying in the wind.
Yet, she slightly raised her chin, looking directly at Yin Shiqing, unyielding, making her seemingly fragile form appear indestructible,
"Yin Shiqing, don’t think I don’t know what you’re after. With Shixiu dead, the position of the Yin Family head lacks a male heir. That’s what you’re after, right?"
"..."
"Today is my husband’s burial. Anyone who disrupts my effort to send my husband off, I’ll make him accompany my husband!"
"Heh, Su Xiaomeng, you speak quite boldly. Killing someone means paying with your life."
"Yin Shiqing, you don’t believe me?"
Su Xiaomeng’s voice turned cold, her expression carrying a hint of doubt, her eyes narrowing slightly,
"My husband is dead, so tell me... would I be afraid of killing? Or afraid of paying with my life?"
Everyone in the Yin Family, including Yin Shilan and Yin Shihua, had never imagined that after something happened to Yin Shixiu, the person who remained the calmest would be Su Xiaomeng.
In their impression, Su Xiaomeng was nothing more than a young girl, fond of being pampered and cute, with a lively and enthusiastic personality, but indeed not someone equipped to handle things...
