Chapter 9 - The Vicissitudes of Human Feelings

She stared at the home she had lived in for ten years—a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment that barely exceeded 100 square meters, tucked away in an old residential area with worn-out buildings. Every piece of furniture was outdated and worn, and she could barely remember the last time her family had splurged on new ones. Her father was the deputy mayor of the city, yet their living conditions were even worse than those of a deputy division-level cadre. How could those people be so blind as to accuse her father of embezzlement? It was clearly a frame-up. One hundred million yuan—for a family like theirs, that sum was nothing short of an astronomical figure! "Nuanxin, what do we do now? We must find a way to get your father out!" Yang Peijie grasped her daughter's hand tightly, her eyes filled with desperation as she pinned all her hopes on her eldest daughter. "I know, Mom. Dad is innocent, and I will definitely find a way to get him out." Mu Nuanxin nodded firmly. The Mu family had raised her for ten years; if it weren't for Mu Luozhong adopting her back then, she couldn't even imagine where she would be now. For the sake of this kindness, she would never stand idly by while her father suffered injustice. "I just called your brother, but he didn't answer… With such a big incident at home, he needs to come back." As Yang Peijie spoke, she reached for her phone again, ready to dial her son's number once more. But Mu Nuanxin quickly stopped her. "Mom, don't call him. Brother is about to graduate. If you tell him now, with his temperament, he will definitely drop out of school without a second thought…" After hearing her daughter's words, Yang Peijie's eyes filled with panic and helplessness. No, Jiyang was the hope of the Mu family—she could never let him give up his studies. She tremblingly hung up the phone, then threw her arms around her younger daughter and burst into tears. Mu Nuanxin comforted her grieving mother for a while before hurrying out the door. She first went to the Procuratorate, hoping to see her father and ask him what had really happened. However, the staff there told her that Mu Luozhong was suspected of embezzling a huge amount of money, and no one was allowed to visit him until he revealed the whereabouts of the stolen funds. Helpless, she had to leave. She then went to visit all the people who had been close to her father, begging for their help, but she was either turned away at the door or given vague excuses—no one was willing to even see her. When Mu Nuanxin walked out of the community where her father's last friend lived, her heart felt as cold as ice. Such was the fickleness of human nature: it was easy to add flowers to a blooming tree, but hard to send charcoal in the snow. Thinking of her father, who was wrongfully imprisoned, she felt a sharp ache in her chest, and tears welled up in her eyes. For a whole week, she ran around tirelessly, but there was no progress at all. It seemed that everyone in the city had reached a silent consensus on Mu Luozhong's "embezzlement"—they were determined to convict him. It was already ten o'clock in the evening when Mu Nuanxin returned home. After a week of relentless running around, she had lost a noticeable amount of weight; her already slender figure looked even more fragile and delicate. In just seven short days, she had tasted the full bitterness of human warmth and coldness. She dragged her tired body into the house, and Yang Peijie immediately rushed over, her eyes filled with eagerness. "Nuanxin, how is it? Any progress?" Mu Nuanxin shook her head, let out a long sigh, and said, "Mom, I think there's something fishy about Dad's case…" "Nuanxin, I have an idea—maybe it can save your dad." Yang Peijie interrupted her anxiously, lowering her head and avoiding her daughter's gaze, unable to meet her eyes. "What idea?" Mu Nuanxin's eyes suddenly lit up, and she grabbed her mother's hands tightly, not noticing the unnatural look on her mother's face. "Do you know Zhou Renxiong?" Yang Peijie pulled her daughter to sit on the sofa and asked in a low voice.