A bad foreboding arose in her heart, sensing the iciness in his voice as if Jinhai stood on a higher moral ground.
"Continuing from where I left, Ouyang Haitao wasn't painted in white. He wanted to earn quick cash and that desire usually leads to people making hasty and wrong decisions. He wasn't really trying to set up an honest business in the first place. Lots of shady things were a part of it. But it didn't hold water like any bad business wouldn't. The debt started piling on him."
"There is no way Dad would do anything wrong!" She tremblingly defended him with all the anger bubbling inside her.
"Acting blind to reality won't help you here."
She angrily laughed. "Don't act as if you are innocent either! Dad was already going through a tough time and he was doing his best to return the debt. But what did you do!? I know everything! You cut short his time to only three days to make him return his sixty million debt! You are the one who took sadistic pleasure in torturing my father!"
Jinhai cocked his brow up. He ordered a guard. "Call Xuan Hui here."
Xuan Hui was also a guard working for the Liu family. Jun remembered how he often met him during his childhood whenever he came to visit the underworld base. He always allowed his Uncle Xuan to carry him in his arms. Even now years later, Jun often chatted with him, and he was the guard under whom Jun had his martial arts training.
Xuan Hui, who was in his middle age now with locks of slightly greyish hair near his ears, entered the room and stood in attention. "Boss!"
He brightened upon seeing the members of the Liu family, especially Jun but his expression soured as he glanced at Zhan Yahui.
Zhan Yahui had no clue why a guard was suddenly called for. "What the hell? Are you trying to waste time here and escape?"
"Liu Jinhai doesn't need to escape from anything. It's always the other way around, especially for people like your father," It was a calm, quiet but imposing tone.
Ai coughed.
"You fucking-"
But Jinhai cut her off. "I called him here not to waste anybody's time but to make you understand that you actually don't understand a thing about Ouyang Haitao."
Xuan Hui widened his eyes.
He tilted his head. "Ouyang Haitao met your mother around a year before the incident happened. They eventually moved in together. You must be ten at that time."
"So what?" She gritted her teeth.
"The problem here is that you think that Ouyang Haitao started to work for his own business AFTER meeting your mother and you to provide you two a better life."
"So you think I was unfair to him?" Jinhai glanced at Xuan Hui and asked, "Since how long were you chasing after Ouyang Haitao for his debt settlement?"
He seemed a little hesitant as he threw glances at Jun. After Jun's kidnapping incident, it was forbidden to talk about Ouyang Haitao anywhere because everybody was well aware of the trauma his death had put upon Jun's mind.
Jinhai already understood his concern and said, "It's time to reveal the truth today. There is no need to be cautious. You can speak freely."
Xuan Hui was still worried. He adored and cherished Jun the most, and they had bonded even more during their training. But since the ultimate Boss didn't have an issue, he decided it was okay.
He straightened up and respectfully answered Jinhai's question, "Boss, it was a total of three years since Ouyang Haitao had taken a debt from the underworld but was unable to pay back."
Zhan stared at him. "Huh?"
Jian sneered. "If that's too difficult for your brain to understand, let me make the math clear for you. Three years. Two years plus the year during which he met you and your mother. Ouyang Haitao took a debt from us two years BEFORE he met you."
Nian continued. "Which means he was already into these shady practices and bad businesses even before he met you. I can even tell your mother and his meeting wasn't all filled with roses. He planned to have a relationship with her on purpose. Do you know why?"
She felt her heart skip beat in fear.
"For the amount of sixty million debt that Ouyang Haitao fell under, the rules of the underworld stipulated him to repay his debt within two years."
Nian remained silent to let the implication sink in Zhan Yahui.
Jinhai stared at Zhan Yahui's confused expression and said, "Let me put it down for you word by word. Ouyang Haitao took a debt from the underworld three years before his death. Two years later, he was unable to pay back. Naturally, the underworld demanded the money back. Now, whether or not I grant more time for repayment depends on how the borrower behaves. If I see a genuine effort being put into paying that money, I will extend the deadline.
But if I see the person was upto no good, then I don't show any mercy. Instead of rectifying his mistakes, Ouyang Haitao only gambled more and only made more wrong decisions. Yet I granted him one more year despite my own rule of not showing him mercy. Do you know why?"
Zhan Yahui was in no condition to think straight.
"Because he got into a relationship with your mother."
She froze.
"It was at that time that I felt he was finally making a genuine effort to change himself. Maybe being in a relationship with her and being a father to you would make him more responsible. From what the guards reported, Zhan Kai-Ming looked happy to be with him too. I did feel suspicious about him suddenly finding a woman, but I gave him the benefit of doubt because I didn't want to be an asshole. Falling in love is never planned. Since it was a new relationship, I felt it was prudent to give him more time and I did."
He smiled. "So it wasn't that I reduced my time limit from a week to three days. I extended his deadline by a full year instead."
R𝑒ad latest chapt𝒆rs at f(r)eew𝒆bnovel.com Only