Chapter Sixty-Six: A Way Out

"Huh? What did you say?" Lu Ji was momentarily stunned, hesitated a little, then pretended he hadn't quite caught what An Changpu had just said.

"I said, you should have paid off all your loan shark debts by now, right? Or have you gone and borrowed more?" An Changpu showed no sign of impatience, repeating the question almost word for word.

At this, Lu Ji realized he could no longer play dumb. He forced a look of sudden realization onto his face, and with an embarrassed laugh, said, "Looks like you both already know about my shameful business! Well, there’s no point in hiding it and making a fool of myself. I only borrowed that one time, and it's long since repaid. I wouldn’t dare borrow again!"

"In fairness, your father-in-law actually helped you out a lot in that matter. Or perhaps, to put it more precisely, you two were helping each other. You changed your mind and supported him, helped him take out a loan so he could have his operation, and then he helped you pay off what you couldn’t manage." This time, An Changpu didn’t bother with any detours, but went straight to the heart of the matter, leaving Lu Ji no room to feign ignorance.

Lu Ji was dumbfounded at these words. His first reaction wasn’t to reply, but to leap to his feet and rush out of the living room.

Qin Ruonan tried to follow, but An Changpu held her back.

"Don’t worry, he won’t get far. There’s no need for you to follow him so closely," he said.

As expected, Lu Ji ran straight into the kitchen, whispered a few words to Ding Mulan, who was boiling water, and before long, Ding Mulan hurried out.

Before leaving, she paused at the door, uneasy. "You said my daughter called and wanted me to come over? I didn’t hear the phone ring."

"She called my cellphone! It was on vibrate! Come on, just go already! With these two officers here, what am I going to do—steal your house and sell it?" Lu Ji, impatient, waved her off and urged her to leave.

Ding Mulan glanced at An Changpu and Qin Ruonan. Considering their professions, she seemed somewhat reassured. She cast Lu Ji one last puzzled look and closed the door behind her as she left.

"Sorry for making a spectacle," Lu Ji said with a forced smile, watching Ding Mulan walk out the gate before turning back to sit down. "I know you must have already investigated me. As for introducing my father-in-law to those loan sharks, I just can’t discuss that in front of my mother-in-law."

"There was no need to send her away," Qin Ruonan replied, unmoved by his excuse. "If you’re uncomfortable talking here, we could have gone somewhere else."

Lu Ji immediately waved his hand to refuse. "No, no, that wouldn’t do! You’ve come all this way to ask questions, I can’t trouble you further. Besides, my wife did mention this morning that she wanted her mother to come over. I wasn’t lying. Really."

Qin Ruonan didn’t press further. She gave him a stern look and fell silent. An Changpu also waited, saying nothing. Lu Ji looked from one to the other, growing uncomfortable, and was the first to break the silence.

"Since I’ve already started, don’t just leave me hanging! I did get mixed up with loan sharks in a moment of stupidity. I thought I’d be able to pay it back easily, so I didn’t take it seriously, but the deadline crept up and I still didn’t have enough money." He sighed heavily, putting on a look of deep regret. "At first, I really didn’t support my father-in-law’s plans. But later, he came to me and said Anju had told him I was in debt. If we backed him for the operation, he’d pay me and help me settle my debts. I thought, I can’t have loan sharks showing up at my door and my wife living in fear. And since my father-in-law was already set on it, he’d go through with it sooner or later—so why not go along? But I didn’t help him borrow the money; the cash he gave me was what he’d made selling burial plots. The loan was his business alone—I didn’t touch a cent!"

After finishing, Lu Ji was met with silence. Perhaps feeling guilty, he didn’t wait for An Changpu or Qin Ruonan to question him. After only a few seconds, he couldn’t help adding, "Well, it’s not like I didn’t take any money at all, but I never asked for it. After he got the loan, my father-in-law gave me a little kickback."

"How much?" asked An Changpu.

"Thirty thousand."

"You really are cut out for business! Never miss a feather from a passing goose, and never make a losing deal." An Changpu's tone was half-joking, half-sarcastic.

Lu Ji looked a little embarrassed, but since taking the money was undeniable, he changed the subject. "Actually, I was very much against my father-in-law borrowing from loan sharks, especially when it was me who introduced him! If he couldn’t pay, it’d be a huge headache for me. I honestly didn’t know he needed to borrow more. My father-in-law was always a big spender, and during the time he owed money, I hardly slept a wink. Tell me, would I really risk all that for thirty thousand?"

"If he gave you a thirty-thousand kickback, he must have borrowed quite a lot. Would Yao Chang really lend that much so easily? Wasn’t he afraid your father-in-law wouldn’t pay him back and would disappear?" Qin Ruonan suddenly remembered this detail. The day they arrested Yao Chang, he’d resisted, resulting in a scuffle, and the subsequent interrogation was tense. With the discovery of the homicide charge against Yao Chang, the loan sharking had become a secondary concern, and this question had never been clarified.

Lu Ji pointed a finger at the ceiling, then gestured with his thumb behind him. "He used this house as collateral—plus the land."

"And you weren’t afraid he wouldn’t repay, and both the house and land would be lost? What would your father-in-law and mother-in-law live on then?"

"He said he’d already figured out a way to make money, said there’d be no problem. I asked if he had some get-rich-quick scheme, but he wouldn’t say. I figured, at his age, he wasn’t about to go out and commit crimes. If he said he’d pay, he must have had a plan. Since he didn’t want to tell me, I didn’t press."

At this point, Lu Ji suddenly realized something. "Wait—you know Yao Chang?"

Qin Ruonan and An Changpu nodded.

"He didn’t say anything crazy about me, did he?" Lu Ji asked anxiously.

"What do you think he’d say? Or rather, what are you afraid he might say?" Qin Ruonan found his question odd.

Lu Ji hurried to clarify. "That’s not what I meant. I’m just worried he might make something up to save his own skin, slandering innocent people! Honestly, he knows nothing about my father-in-law’s affairs!"

"Maybe he doesn’t, but you certainly know plenty," An Changpu said firmly.

Lu Ji’s eyes darted back and forth, and then, caught off guard, he sighed. "If I’d known all this trouble was coming, I wouldn’t have backed him for that operation even for a million. He spent plenty on the first surgery, and afterwards, the hospital recommended he attend psychological counseling for post-op adjustment, but he refused. They told him to take his hormones regularly, but he wouldn’t listen—well, he did take them for a while, said it was to improve his skin, just for vanity! Later, my wife asked him why he didn’t go ahead with the second operation, and he said he wanted to enjoy life for a while, wasn’t sure which path to take, and didn’t want to cut off all his options yet."

"What options? Going back to being a man? If he didn’t truly want to be a woman, why go through all the trouble to raise money for surgery?" Qin Ruonan was puzzled by Lu Ji’s mention of a backup plan.

Lu Ji slapped his thigh. "Exactly! That’s what we all said. Who knows what was on his mind back then? He did say once that he’d always thought being a woman would be nice, but he’d never tried it, so he wanted to see for himself. He even paid to get a fake ID under the name Ruby—female."

"By the way," Qin Ruonan remembered something, took out her phone, found the photo she’d taken at Xie Lemin’s house—the one with the tricycle—zoomed in on the image and handed the phone to Lu Ji. "Does this tricycle look familiar?"

Lu Ji took the phone with both hands, studied the screen for a long time, and muttered, "Looks a bit familiar, like I’ve seen it somewhere, but I can’t quite place it."

After a while, he handed the phone back to Qin Ruonan. "I can’t remember. Maybe I’m mistaken. These tricycles are everywhere; maybe I saw it somewhere else."

They’d gotten a bit of new information from Lu Ji, but no more questions came to mind. The conversation was winding down.

Lu Ji seemed to notice this too. He looked conflicted—relieved, yet still uneasy.

"Don’t suspect me!" he finally blurted, defending himself. "I’m not a bad person—"

"Not so bad that you’re already pushing your mother-in-law to sell the house before your father-in-law’s murder is even solved?" Qin Ruonan interrupted.

Lu Ji’s words caught in his throat. After a long pause, he said, "I was just worried that if my father-in-law died before paying off his debt, Yao Chang would come after my mother-in-law, and she wouldn’t be able to handle it! If we moved her out and sold the house, Yao Chang couldn’t find her and—"

He trailed off, realizing how weak his excuse sounded, then amended, "I may not be a great guy, but I’d never lay a hand on my father-in-law. Think about it—he owed Yao Chang money, and I introduced them. If anything happened to him, Yao Chang would come after me! Who would be stupid enough to bring trouble to their own door?"

[Thanks to "Summer Cloud 0112" for the pink ticket!]