Chapter 1306: Chapter 1306: All About the Second Child (Part 6)
But she really didn’t want to do that.
After all, she’d been in the entertainment industry for a few years; she was no longer some naive sweet idiot.
She faintly sensed that her dad hadn’t told the whole truth.
The fact that her dad would secretly carve seals and embezzle public funds meant he’d already been pushed to a desperate situation where he had no choice but to take risks.
With her dad’s current position, he was never short of people trying to curry favor with him. On normal days, just going out to play mahjong he could win forty or fifty thousand; for him, borrowing a million or so from those bosses was no big deal.
The fact that he now needed to mortgage the family’s houses to keep things afloat meant he no longer had any other channels to borrow from.
Or rather, every channel he could borrow from had already been used once over.
If that was really the case, then his total debt absolutely wasn’t just forty million.
Yu Sui was glad she’d asked Tang Li that night first.
Tang Li’s line "check the accounts" sounded cold and heartless on the surface, but it had made her realize a lot of issues.
That very night she’d locked her parents’ bedroom door and stopped them from going to the bank the next morning to sign for the loan.
Even if her mother scolded her for being an unfilial daughter, she still refused to let them out of the room.
She wasn’t sharp enough.
But she knew very clearly whose advice she should listen to.
Back in their dorm, out of the four of them, Tang Li had been the smartest.
And besides—
They already owed forty million; at that point, what difference did a day or two of extra interest even make?
Facts proved she’d made a wise decision.
Otherwise, once all three apartments had been mortgaged out, she and her mom would still be getting played in circles by her dad.
Owing tens of millions because of gambling and being stuck with tens of millions in the stock market are two completely different concepts that cannot be equated.
With tens of millions in stocks, there’s still hope of getting your money back.
Gambling debts, though, are like throwing a meat bun at a dog—gone for good.
Now that this had happened, her dad was definitely going to be stripped of his position at the Export-Import Bank.
When that happened, where was he going to earn another few tens of millions to buy the houses back?
Just the interest on forty million in loans every month would be enough to crush their whole family until they couldn’t breathe.
Selling the houses to pay the loans was only a matter of time.
Of course she didn’t want her dad to go to jail either.
That was why she’d thought about having her parents divorce to protect part of the assets, at least keep one house so that in the future her dad wouldn’t end up homeless.
However, Tang Li’s single sentence "he’s seeing someone outside" was like another basin of cold water dumped over her head.
Besides the sting, it also made her much more clear-headed.
When a man cheats, especially when it’s some average-looking middle-aged man cheating, there are definitely signs.
Like suddenly chewing gum.
Like suddenly wanting a hair transplant.
Or, for example, suddenly starting to care about managing his figure.
And these past two years, her mom had said her dad often claimed to be so busy he couldn’t come home for dinner.
They’d originally thought he was just out gambling, but Tang Li had told her there might be another possibility.
On the other end of the line, Yu Sui clutched the cellphone to her ear, her mood indescribably complicated, because she knew very well that Tang Li might really have guessed right.
In these two years, her dad had stopped video calling her every few days like before to ask if she was eating well and keeping warm; thinking back carefully, she realized his attitude toward her and her mom really wasn’t what it used to be.
Since he no longer cared about the family, it was obvious his mind was on someone else outside.
"I’ll dig into it some more." Whether her dad had been unfaithful in the marriage was what she most wanted to confirm right now.
Before hanging up, Tang Li said on the other end, "If your dad really did... I don’t recommend confronting him in person, so you don’t alert the snake in the grass."
In her previous life, Yu Guofeng hadn’t treated his mistress badly.
Once he saw things were about to blow up, he’d still made sure to arrange for Jiang Yiniing and her daughter to go abroad.
This lifetime, Yu Guofeng’s gambling scandal had exploded two years later, and Jiang Yiniing had seduced Lai Wenyan first, but that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be someone else around Yu Guofeng now.
"Once a man has flags fluttering outside, it’s very easy for him to do things in a daze."
Tang Li added, "The money your dad spends on other women during the marriage, half of it belongs to your mom; as far as I know, she can sue to claw it back. And to put it more bluntly, your dad’s money was supposed to be yours in the first place."
Yu Sui tightened her grip on the cellphone.
She was her dad’s only child.
In the future, she was definitely going to be the one providing for him in his old age and seeing him off at the end.
If her dad really did have someone outside, clearly he hadn’t spared a thought for her.
"At your mom’s age, she probably won’t have a second child, but your dad might."
So no matter what happened, she needed to stand together with her mom.
The problem now was that her mom wasn’t necessarily any smarter than she was.
If her mom had had even half a brain more, she wouldn’t have only found out today that her dad had racked up a huge debt.
Yu Sui drew a deep breath. "I get it."
"As long as you can sort it out yourself." Tang Li didn’t say more.
Otherwise, she’d risk being accused of breaking up someone else’s family.
Tang Li hung up, then turned around and noticed a small dark shadow reflected beside the balcony door; she didn’t know how long it had been there eavesdropping.
Putting her cellphone away, Tang Li deliberately lightened her steps.
Song Xiaohua was clinging to the doorframe when a shadow suddenly fell over her head, catching her off guard.
The little one immediately tilted her head up, met Tang Li’s raised-brow expression, and split her mouth into a grin. "Mom, I came to call you to eat strawberry pie with me."
Song Xiaohua was at the age where she was curious about everything; as someone who’d been through it, Tang Li wasn’t going to fuss with a child. She just gave her a lesson while they shared the strawberry pie—
"Once upon a time there was a spy who loved to eavesdrop on other people talking. She always had her ears perked up, hiding behind doors or under other people’s beds. Then one day—"
Seeing that Mom wasn’t continuing, Song Xiaohua urged, "And then what?"
"And then—" Tang Li picked up the cake knife and, slice by slice, scraped off the strawberry sauce on top of the pie. "Because she was too distracted, by the time she came back to her senses, she realized the strawberry sauce she loved most had been completely eaten up by someone else."
Song Xiaohua: "..."
Holding a strawberry pie with no strawberries, Song Xiaohua experienced the first fraud of her life.
But what could she do about it?
She couldn’t exactly replace her mom over a single strawberry pie.
With a long sigh, Song Xiaohua picked up a corner of the crust and took a bite.
Young Uncle really had been right.
Whose childhood ever goes smoothly without a hitch?
Taking more lumps now is so you’ll take fewer detours when you grow up.
Because Yu Guofeng was technically a public official, Tang Li hadn’t mentioned the Yu Family’s affairs to Song Baiyan. Since the bank could handle it, why make sure Yu Guofeng’s name was also recorded on Song Baiyan’s side?
Yu Sui was her friend, and she didn’t have the hobby of laughing at her friends behind their backs.
She hadn’t expected that two days later, Yu Guofeng would be trending.
And it was from a bulletin issued by the Capital Prosecution Hall.
—Yu Guofeng has been publicly reported by name for embezzling public funds. After investigation and verification by the Monitoring Department, the case has been transferred to the procuratorial authorities for review and prosecution.
That very afternoon, the relevant departments legally arrested Yu Guofeng.
Tang Li stared at the news in a daze for two seconds; things were moving a bit fast. She was just about to message Yu Sui when Yu Sui @-ed her first in the #Three Golden Flowers# group.
[Yu’s Family Only One]: "@[Tang Li] Thank you, Ah Li, for teaching me that when it’s time to put righteousness above family, I mustn’t hesitate. My dad’s already in, and I’ve successfully protected my mom’s share of the marital assets. [fist.jpg]"
Tang Li: "......"
——
——
Good night!
