Stealing Your Heart (Lin Xinyan) novel Chapter 535

Perhaps their ill-fated romance had been ordained by the gods. No matter what, they were humans after all, and nothing they did could’ve prevented the untimely end of their relationship.

“Xichen and Ruixi will be heading off to primary school soon, right? It’s time to bring her back and live out the rest of our lives together.”

Their children weren’t to blame for the grudges they harbored towards each other in the past. Naturally, the blame wasn’t their children’s to shoulder.

Ever since he found out from Bai Yinning that Lin Xinyan had left, Zong Qifeng had constantly been on edge. He was afraid that his son would do something he would regret in the future.

Zong Qifeng had tasted bitter regret before, and he didn’t want Zong Jinghao to follow him down the same slippery path.

Zong Jinghao continued, his voice quavering a little, “I wonder if she hates me. She’s been gone for so long, but she has never visited me in my dreams.”

The older man didn’t reply. Instead, he continued standing silently and listening to him.

A gust of wind blew through the garden, sending the trees rustling noisily as their branches danced in the breeze.

Time had simply flown by. The sun, which had been high up in the sky the entire day, had disappeared behind a mountain in the west. The mountain blocked out the rays of the sun, finally allowing dusk to settle over the city.

The father and son stayed in the room for a long time, with nobody coming in to disturb them. When it was dinnertime, however, Zong Jinghao finally exited the room by himself.

Cheng Yuwen had prepared dinner and set the dishes down on the round table in the courtyard. Zong Yanxi ran over to Zong Jinghao and tugged at his hand. “Daddy.”

Zong Jinghao caressed her hair lightly.

“Come and have dinner with us,” Zong Yanxi said, dragging him over to the table.

Buzz—

At that moment, Zong Jinghao’s phone started vibrating, signaling that he had an incoming call. Telling his daughter to sit down first, he walked to a corner and took out his phone. Shen Peichuan was calling him. Zong Jinghao accepted his call and brought the phone to his ear.

From the other end of the line, Shen Peichuan said, “Wen Qing’s sentence is out.”

Wen Qing’s car accident had caused three people to die on the spot. For such a serious case, it was only right for him to be punished according to the law. When the judicial court launched its own investigation, they quickly realized that the car accident had been caused by a kidnapping case gone wrong. Wen Qing then turned himself in and confessed all his wrongdoings, even offering a public apology for his actions. He had sounded so sincere that the court decided to lighten his sentence.

“He got a two-year suspended sentence,” said Shen Peichuan.

When the judge announced his sentence, this was what he said exactly, “Wen Qing, you should have known better as a civil servant. Your crimes have severely tainted the image of the civil service in the eyes of the public, not to mention the damage caused to its reputation. For that, you deserve to be punished severely. However, considering that you surrendered yourself to the police, confessed your wrongdoings, apologized to the public and showed a willingness to turn over a new leaf, we have opted to lighten your sentence. You are hereby sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence, and you will not be able to take up a job in the civil service for the rest of your life.”

Zong Jinghao didn’t seem affected by this news at all. Showing no desire for revenge, he replied blandly, “I understand.”

“Other relevant authorities have meted out similar penalties to Wen Qing, but… Gu Bei managed to get away scot-free.”

Wen Qing had sought out Gu Bei first, and as such, he was the mastermind behind the crimes. Besides, Gu Bei wasn’t the one who had hired the gangsters to hijack the car. He had let his assistant manager do it instead.

In order to implicate Gu Bei, Zong Jinghao had taken a video of the clandestine meeting between the assistant manager and the gangsters. He had even managed to get a recording of the assistant manager saying that Gu Bei had sent him there. However, when the assistant manager got arrested, he had sworn up and down that he had orchestrated everything by himself, and that Gu Bei had nothing to do with it.

Besides, Mr. Gu had made use of his connections with the higher-ups to ensure that Gu Bei would escape imprisonment.

Anyone who was able to open a highly-publicized nightclub had to be a person of great influence.

“After this, Gu Bei will definitely know that we tricked him and took advantage of him. Will he come after us for revenge?” After all, Gu Bei wasn’t exactly a nice person.

He had nearly fallen into their trap this time. Knowing Gu Bei, there was no way he would let it go so easily.

Zong Jinghao said, “Keep an eye on his movements. We’ll make further plans when I get back.”

“Okay.”