Chapter 8 — The Wedding House Was Destroyed, I Want It All Back

At the same time, I contacted the area manager - Mr. Tran - for additional evidence, asking him to retrieve all cameras from the day the incident occurred. I emphasized to carefully check the area around the building, especially before and after Chu Tinh appeared, to see if there were any suspicious people or strange vehicles. At first he was a little hesitant, but when I reminded him that this was his obligation to coordinate the investigation, he still agreed. Two days later, he sent me several videos recorded from the surveillance screen. One scene shows that about half an hour before Chu Tinh led people in, there was a black car parked outside the area. She got out and talked to a man standing next to the car. The camera angle doesn't show the face clearly, but the body shape and way of dressing... very similar to Trieu Loi. She looked very agitated at that time, the man patted her shoulder as if to reassure her, then she led people into the area with a fiery spirit. Another part is that after the destruction was completed, Chu Tinh stood downstairs calling, sometimes crying and cursing. Not long after, the black car returned to pick her up. The group of young people who directly destroyed the house left in another car outside. I saved the entire video. Although I cannot directly confirm Trieu Loi's role, it can at least prove that he is involved. I passed these passages on to Tham Du and the police in charge, as an important piece to complete the picture. Following Tham Du's advice, I began to more carefully review the amounts of money between me and Chu Da, especially those related to the house, to avoid them taking advantage of the ambiguity. The deposit and loan were all borne by me, but during the process of renovating the house, Chu Da once transferred me 200,000 yuan, saying "it's a shared house from now on, so we should contribute together", used to buy a part of the equipment and pay the final costs. I retain all transactions and messages in full. But when I compared the entire cash flow, I discovered something wrong - after entering my account, that amount of 200,000 yuan was mixed with my money, then paid in bulk to contractors and suppliers. It is now almost impossible to separate which part of the money belongs to whom. Tham Du reminded me to pay special attention to the origin of this money, whether there was a possibility that it was their company's money being used for the wrong purpose. Especially when there is information that the Chu family company is lacking capital, this detail... can become a much bigger fire. I couldn't look up Chu Da's company records, but suddenly remembered that the two of us used to share an online shopping account, registered with my phone number, just the delivery address was sometimes recorded in his house. I reopened my order history and discovered that in the last half year there had been a few large expenses, all of which were branded handbags and jewelry. The recipient was listed as Chu Tinh, and the payment method was "family card". The main cardholder of that card... was Zhou Ye, the total amount added up to nearly 100,000 yuan, not once or twice but over and over again. My heart sank a beat. I had heard about him spending money on his sister uncontrollably, but I didn't expect it to reach this level. The frequency and number were far beyond my imagination. So is the 200,000 yuan he transferred to me to repair the house... really private money, or is it also mixed with "family money" like that, even... related to the “hole” his father mentioned? I took a photo of each page of transactions and saved them all for records. It may not be enough to conclude anything, but at least in court, I can raise questions about his motive for "investing in the wedding house" and the true financial status of their family. The more I piece together the clues, the more clearly I see that what I thought was just "the husband's sister-in-law broke up the wedding house" is actually much more complicated, with a whole dark side that has not yet been fully revealed. They quickly turned it into a "family conflict" to cover up the criminal risk, and wanted to use 1,500,000 yuan in exchange for my "complete forgiveness", something they wanted to keep... perhaps not just Chu Tinh. The pressure builds up in silence, like a balloon being inflated little by little, I know very well, the moment it explodes... is not far away. Friday night, I got off work late, returned to my usual hotel in Guangzhou, and spent several days running back and forth, my mind as tense as a string, and my body almost exhausted. I had just finished showering and hadn't even had time to dry my hair when the knock on the door rang out, not loud but urgent, as if it didn't give me a chance to pretend I didn't hear it.

"Who?" I stood a distance away from the door, not in a hurry to open it, my voice more cautious than usual.

“Lam Niem, it's me... Chu Da.”