In the outskirts of Yanjing, a certain heavily guarded high-walled compound.
The solitary buildings, the towering walls with ring after ring of electrified barbed wire on top, and the armed soldiers patrolling, all made it clear that this was a very special place.
People use "inside the high walls" to describe prisons or detention centers; here, you are stripped of many rights and lose your freedom.
Those who stay inside the high walls, once they lose their freedom, all feel that every day drags on like a year.
However, no matter where it is, there are always some people who enjoy privileges; it’s the same inside the high walls.
Ever since he was detained in this detention center he had once come to inspect, Chen Yining had grown much older.
Although he still enjoyed "privileges" and had not completely lost his personal freedom like other criminal suspects, the gap between his former lofty status and his current identity as a prisoner was too great. After being brought here, he completely lost his vitality and looked many years older.
Chen Yining understood that his life was finished; there was no chance of a comeback.
He only became like this after being abandoned by his father and younger brother.
In that matter, he was not the main actor; his father and younger brother were.
But he had not expected that after something went wrong, he would be pushed out as the scapegoat.
This made him furious and deeply unwilling, but in the end, he still chose to submit.
He knew that if he did not submit, things would be even worse.
With him stepping out as the scapegoat, the Chen Family merely lost an arm.
If he refused to be the scapegoat and, because of that, got into a dispute with his father and younger brother, then the Chen Family would not just lose an arm, but end up missing arms and legs, or even die as a result. As long as the Chen Family did not fall, even if he had no future, other things would still remain.
The family assets would not disappear, and the Chen Family’s influence would still be there.
Moreover, his father and younger brother would give him a lot of compensation in order to restore his psychological balance.
If he made trouble, unwilling to accept all this, and in the end caused the Chen Family to collapse, then everyone would be unlucky; he would lose all of that as well, even more. A shattered Chen Family, at the mercy of others, could not give him a future and would not be able to protect him.
Chen Yining still had a sense of the bigger picture; he did not want the Chen Family to fall. For the Chen Family’s better future, he chose to "maim himself."
Although doing this had temporarily kept the Chen Family safe, after losing all that he originally had, Chen Yining still felt very desolate and deeply frustrated. After losing his freedom and being locked in the detention center, he became completely silent and did not interact with others.
The management here provided him with relatively good living conditions, but to Chen Yining, the days still felt like years.
Ever since he was locked up here, no one from the Chen Family had come to visit him; he was almost cut off from the world.
He had no idea what was happening outside.
One thing puzzled him greatly: that case was already very clear and should have been tried soon, publicly or behind closed doors.
Why had it been dragged out so long without the slightest movement?
Was Chen Ruchang and Chen Yijing exerting influence?
Was it that the Ling Family and Luo Family refused to let it go, or that they had no chance to exert pressure on the case? No chance to influence the investigation?
Or were the various forces still locked in a power struggle, mired in a stalemate, so the case remained unresolved?
No one passed him any messages or gave him any reliable information; Chen Yining felt a bit lost.
The weather was nice today. After getting up, Chen Yining walked out of his room, intending to take a stroll outside.
He had that kind of freedom; the guards would not make things difficult for him.
But just as he was about to wander around the courtyard, breathe some fresh air and take a look at today’s sun, the staff member responsible for watching him came over and told him that someone had come to see him.
It was only natural for Chen Yining to assume that whoever came to visit him had to be from the Chen Family.
Before he was brought here, Chen Yijing had come to see him, and several others from the Chen Family, including Chen Yihe and Chen Yiping, had also visited him.
He was wondering who it would be today.
"It’s probably Chen Yijing coming to tell me something important!" Chen Yining instinctively thought.
He decided he must have a good talk with Chen Yijing and lay out all his grievances and demands.
But to his surprise, the one who came to see him was not someone from the Chen Family, but his mortal enemy Luo Ziling.
Of course, Chen Yining regarded Luo Ziling as his mortal enemy, because his son Chen Jiahai had died at Luo Ziling’s hands.
The police investigation concluded that Chen Jiahai had died from taking an overdose of drugs, but Chen Yining still believed that Chen Jiahai had died because of Luo Ziling.
There is no coexistence under the same sky for the killer of one’s son.
If not for this hatred, Chen Yining would not have done those things, and naturally would not have gotten himself into trouble by being involved in a homicide case.
When he saw Luo Ziling, there was that feeling of enemies meeting, eyes blazing red.
Therefore, after Luo Ziling came in, Chen Yining stared at him with extreme hostility, feeling an impulse to rush up and beat Luo Ziling senseless.
If not for Luo Ziling, he would not have been abandoned by his family, would not have fallen into such a miserable situation.
Given how things had turned out, he hated his family, hated his father and younger brother, but he hated Luo Ziling even more.
"What are you doing here?" In the end, all Chen Yining did was ask coldly.
"I came to check on you, Mr. Chen, and by the way to talk to you about some cooperation," Luo Ziling chuckled, then glanced around the room, "The environment here isn’t bad, a single-person room. At first glance, I’d have thought this was a refined little lodge, not a detention center."
"I’m not close to you, don’t call me Mr. Chen!" Chen Yining said angrily. "And stop pretending. The enmity between us is irreconcilable."
Being able to vent a few harsh words as he pleased took a lot of the resentment off his chest.
"I finally understand why your father pushed you out as the scapegoat," Luo Ziling chuckled. "Because your younger brother Chen Yijing is more magnanimous than you and thinks about issues more subtly. You may not know this, but a couple of days ago he came to see me and my mom, hoping our two families could reconcile."
Those words made Chen Yining freeze for a moment.
Luo Ziling smiled, took out his phone, and played a video.
The video had been secretly recorded during Chen Yijing’s last visit.
After watching a few seconds, the expression on Chen Yining’s face changed.
If the Chen Family truly reconciled with the Luo Family, then his end would be unbearably tragic.
You could even say that the price he had paid and everything he had done would be rendered completely meaningless.
"What’s your purpose in telling me this?" The anger on Chen Yining’s face had lessened somewhat, but he was still very hostile. "If you’re trying to sow discord between me and my father and brothers, let me tell you, you’re dreaming!"
"In breadth of mind and in strategy, Chen Yijing is better than you. I imagine that’s the main reason your father gave up on you and chose him as the heir," Luo Ziling once again smiled. "When judging a person, the first impression is often the truest."
Without waiting for Chen Yining to respond, Luo Ziling immediately added, "But what I want to tell you is: Chen Yijing is finished!"
Those words made the color drain from Chen Yining’s face.