Chapter 264 – A Perfect New World (XXVIII)

Zhu Shoucheng’s son called several times, trying to borrow money from his friends, not bothering with the wounds on his face.

Unfortunately, his new colleagues did not know him very well, and when he was stumped for a reason, they naturally refused to lend him a large sum of money and politely declined; his friends and clients back home knew that he had gone to the US, and when they heard that he had borrowed money, they knew that there was no way they would return.

He called for an hour and was only able to borrow 30,000 RMB from his high school friends.

My son is clutching his mobile phone, and his eyes are dark.

The good thing is, at least visitation is allowed.

But when the son saw his father’s condition with his own eyes, he was almost scared out of his wits.

In just a few hours, Zhu Shoucheng’s entire body had fallen into disrepair, his eyes had lost most of their vitality, his legs were shaking, and most of his good trousers were stained with yellowish-brown filth.

At the sight of his son, Zhu Shoucheng’s eyes froze for a few seconds before slowly lighting up, as if he had seen a lifeline, he leapt forward and fell against the glass, crying out in desperation: “Son, Ning! Save me, take me out!”

Zhu Ning blanched at his old father’s bluff: “Dad!!! What’s wrong with you?!”

He turned angrily to the guards: “You are abusing! It’s outright physical abuse! I want to sue you!”

The guard’s reply was a careless one, “It was an internal conflict between inmates and we did stop it.”

Zhu Shoucheng cried out in pain and slammed his fists on the table: “I can’t stay here for one more second! Those people are completely crazy! They’re perverts!”

Zhu Ning swallowed hard, not daring to think about what had happened to his esteemed father, and could only ask in one voice, “Dad, is there anything wrong with your health?”

”It is good that you are here …… you are here.” Zhu Shoucheng interrupted nervously, not caring to maintain his usual poise, an unusually excited, overflowing fire of hope flashed under his eyes, and he said urgently, “Quickly, take me out!”

Junin was dumbfounded.

”Dad, calm down ……” Zhu Ning held his tongue for half a day, but could only hold back this meaningless comfort, “Maybe, it will have to wait ……”

Zhu Shoucheng leaned forward, pulling the wound at the back of his head, and the pain immediately raised his heart and his tone was not as gentle as before: “Didn’t you say you could bail?

Zhu Ning was puzzled: “But I have the money on hand ……”

Zhu Shoucheng changed his tune: “Borrow it! Borrow it!!!”

When Zhu Ning saw that his father had already suffered to such an extent, he was immediately distressed: “Dad, can I think of another way, please don’t rush-”

How can Zhu Shoucheng not be in a hurry?

The American side of the prison is full of bandits, hooligans and robbers! Police and bandits are in cahoots!

He couldn’t help but hate the teenager again, who was far away in a foreign country.

…… If it wasn’t for Chi Xiaochi, for those weird dreams, for the recording that was associated with him, how could he have been forced to come to America, how could he have been unlucky enough to be imprisoned in such a devilish place?!

Zhu Shoucheng was hoarse, his nails rustling at the glass, his face grey and defeated: “Go and borrow it! If you’re a day late, you’ll only get my corpse ……”

Hearing her father’s almost desperate plea for help, Zhu Ning was terrified and had to reassure him while seeking help from a leading Chinese law firm in the state overnight.

Because Junin himself had no such nasty sexual fetishes, he had only skimmed over the laws in this area when he arrived in the United States, not really bothered, thinking that the problem, though not insignificant, was at least solvable.

However, one by one, the lawyer threw in questions that little by little dispelled Zhu Ning’s luck.

The lawyer asked, “Where did the video come from? Did he download it from the internet?”

Zhu Shoucheng’s computer was detained by the police to act as a witness, so Zhu Ning could only shake his head: “I haven’t seen it with my own eyes, I heard he only downloaded a few pictures ……”

The lawyer said, “How many is how many?”

Junin can’t say for sure.

After Junin had paid a large sum of money in advance, the lawyer took a trip to the police station with his briefcase.

Junin followed the lawyer, waited in the hall, and as soon as he had finished talking to the sheriff, got up and asked, “Well? Well?”

The lawyer’s face was stony enough to drip: “Come out with me.”

Once in the car, the lawyer said straight away, “It’s very difficult.”

Junin’s heart crashed, “How?”

The lawyer said, “He was in possession of 11 photographs downloaded from the internet and related to child pornography.”

Once he heard the number, Zhu Ning was slightly relieved and pleaded his father’s case: “My dad should just not understand it, he told me that he saw the pop-up window and clicked in. It can’t be blamed on him ……”

”But it’s equally illegal.”

The pressure that had built up over the night caused Zhu Ning to burst out abruptly upon hearing these words, “What kind of law is this? Aren’t people allowed to be curious? Why should we arrest the watchers and not the people who actually make the videos and pictures?! Besides, what serious harm can there be in looking at a picture? There are so many people on the internet who love watching horror films, are they all murderers?”

Despite trying to maintain a professional attitude, there was more than a hint of disgust in the lawyer’s demeanour: “But he is also in possession of more than 170 photos of child pornography of unknown origin, and 21 short videos related to it of unknown origin. How will you explain this for him, Mr Zhu?”

Zhu Ning’s mouth was slightly open, stunned, and his unspoken words were all stuck in his throat, causing the knot in his throat to roll.

”…… source …… unknown?”

”Yes.” Realising what a hot potato he had been handed, the lawyer straightened his bow tie in annoyance, “Even Zhu Shoucheng himself has not been able to give a reasonable explanation as to the origin of the videos. He said they were downloaded from a domestic website, but when asked which one, he couldn’t say. The videos do not appear to have been ripped, and there is no trace of any download in the history. …… Also, is your father a teacher?”

Some terrible suspicion gradually fermented into a pool of fermenting black water that submerged Junin whole.

Junin gave a dry “ah”.

That would be correct,” the lawyer said. He had graduation group photos of every class on his computer. There are about a dozen children’s faces that match the children in the videos and pictures.”

A clear sound of collapsing objects sounded in Junin’s head, as if silent, but deafening.

The lawyer laid out the cold legal bar Wen : “The law in this state is very heavy on pedophiles, even the mere downloading, distribution, and possession of obscene material involving real children can carry a prison sentence of more than 5 years and less than 20 years. Not to mention the fact that it is highly likely that he has already committed an act of harm or indecency against a child ……”

”It’s just possible ……” The feeling of a crumbling idol made Junin feel like his world had turned upside down, but the glimmer of instinct he had stored up still told him not to resist defending his father, “Besides, my father is not a US citizen, if he can be extradited back to his country ……”

”But he has already committed an offence against the law. It is indisputable that, according to reports, he has engaged in unusual snooping behaviour with your neighbour’s children and has downloaded inappropriate pictures. Now, the US police have reason to suspect that he is a repeat paedophile who has behaved badly and is a major danger to society, so of course bail should be raised to keep him under control as long as possible. As for extradition and repatriation, I’m sorry, Mr Zhu, but you should know that Zhu Shoucheng is now in violation of US law within the US and is in no way a matter that can be easily resolved with a simple ‘extradition’.”

Zhu Ning still held on to a sliver of hope: “So, if I want to bail him out, are there any lenders I can recommend?”

”Absolutely. There are specialist bail bond loan businesses in the US. If you are in need, I can recommend them.” The lawyer sighed, “However, I would advise you to be cautious about committing yourself. Catching a pedophile in the US is like catching a drug addict in China, and I hope you understand the seriousness of this matter.”

Junin collapsed into his car seat with a dull gaze.

He stayed up all night and waited in front of the loan company until he got to work. He was able to wait for the staff to mortgage the car in exchange for a $50,000 mortgage payment.

But when he rushed to the police station to process his bail, he was informed that the entire balance on his joint savings card with his wife had been requested to be frozen half an hour earlier, even the $50,000 he had just deposited.

Junin thought he knew who had done it.

He called his wife, who answered, but simply said that he should come home as soon as possible and that he had something to talk to him about.

Zhu Ning was simply physically and mentally exhausted. After driving home and seeing his wife, who also looked haggard, he opened his mouth and didn’t even have the strength to argue.

He whispered, ” A Mei, stop it, give me the money, we’ll get Dad out and we’ll talk about what to do afterwards, okay?”

The wife, A Mei, is nestled in the sofa, her eyes downcast and oblivious.

Zhu Ning continued to persuade, “I know that my father has made a mistake this time, but in all fairness, if your father had made a mistake, could you not fish for him? Can you watch him suffer in jail?”

”Don’t compare your dad to my dad.” A Mei let out a sneer and lifted her puffy eyes, “You know, what good things your dad did in China?”

……

The country, in a small town.

The story of Zhu Shoucheng has been turned around with incredible speed.

The culprit has fled abroad, which to many people is tantamount to a guilty plea, but the mountains are far away and no one can control him.

There were many people who said sourly that it was better to have a successful son, who could hide abroad and live happily after killing someone. This old man is a real blessing to his ancestors.

Only Chi Xiaochi and Lou Ying know that his family’s ancestral grave is not just smoking, it’s on fire.

Chi Xiaochi keeps a close eye on developments in the USA.

The first day Zhu Shoucheng went in, he was “well treated” by the convicts.

It’s not that these criminals have an overwhelming sense of justice, it’s just that “paedophilia” is an extremely nasty crime and a great outlet for their excess energy that “everyone needs to kill”.

Although the guards changed his cell at his request, Zhu Shoucheng soon realised that he would be ‘treated’ the same way wherever he moved.

So far Zhu Shoucheng has been in prison for a whole week and is not dead as he claims, but it’s not bad to say that “life is worse than death”.

By his third night in prison, he was unable to walk and had to live on a liquid diet.

His son Zhu Ning has also gone from actively running around earlier to being silent and uncommunicative, going to work quietly every day for fear that the incident will be known by his colleagues and make a big Wen chapter. However, it is said that his bosses are aware of the incident and HR is re-evaluating Zhu Ning and does not seem to be planning to let him serve in the company again.

In fact, from Zhu Shoucheng’s first day in prison, after having tasted the mop pole, the bar of remorse value in Chi Xiaochi’s eyes was a ride and a gallop.

It is reasonable to assume that this is the last world and Chi Xiaochi has collected all the various feature cards in the card pool and is long ready to leave.

However, Chi Xiaochi did not say anything about leaving.

Since he wanted to stay longer, Lou Ying did not want to leave.

He can understand the great lure of the world for Chi Xiaochi.

For Chi Xiaochi, he has a life that he has never had before.

It was a life exactly like his, a life that Chi Xiaochi himself never had the right to have.

No Zhu Shoucheng, no psychological shadows, no need for revenge, no nightmares that suddenly wake you up in the middle of the night.

He has a new circle of friends, his grades are picking up and his teachers are taking him more and more seriously ……

What’s more, this man was also called Chi Xiaochi, sharing the same name, appearance, personality and memories as him.

Lou Ying has complete confidence in knowing that Chi Xiaochi will not hijack another person’s life, but a slight indulgence is perfectly understandable.

While waiting for the mission to be completed, Lou Ying made a trip back to Lord GOD’s space.

On his return, Chi Xiaochi asked him, “How many more missions does 089 have?”

Chi Xiaochi has been asking this question a lot recently, and every time he goes back, Chi Xiaochi asks it again.

Lou Ying, who always had Dong Feihong on her mind, laughed and said, “You care about him a lot?”

Chi Xiaochi peeled grapes and replied, “Maybe when we go back to hand in the assignment, we’ll finally get to meet.”

”Then it might be too late.” Lou Ying stroked his head, “Knowing you were going to ask, I asked him specifically yesterday, and there are 12 more to go, so it’s only …… a day or two away.”