Chapter 235: The Cause of Death of Teacher Cao’s Son

Chapter 235: Chapter 235: The Cause of Death of Teacher Cao’s Son

Zhang Yun had kept his voice low, naturally half-joking. He wasn’t really that much of a wolf.

Zhang Lifeng smacked him on the back. Before he had a chance to reply, the dreamy, long-haired girl had already approached them.

"Xiaoyou is here," Zhang Lifeng greeted with a kind smile.

"Mr. Zhang," the young woman greeted, her gaze lingering briefly on Zhang Yun.

"Mr. Zhang?" Zhang Yun shot Zhang Lifeng a look of sheer disbelief. He thought, "With his age, shouldn’t she be calling him Grandpa?"

Zhang Lifeng caught his meaning and shot him a glare before making the introductions. "This is my junior brother’s student, Yuan You. She is a genius in traditional Chinese medicine. Xiaoyou, this is Zhang Yun. He is very skilled at tracking down rare medicinal herbs. You two should get to know each other."

Realization dawned on Zhang Yun. If she was his junior brother’s student, the address made perfect sense. His junior brother was likely significantly younger, and Yuan You was probably his final disciple. He took a soft breath and extended his hand. "Hello, Miss Yuan. Shall we add each other on WeChat?"

"There’s no need," Yuan You rejected him with breezy indifference. "I’m not lacking in medicinal herbs."

"Ah..." Zhang Lifeng desperately wanted to tell her she was being too presumptuous. The herbs Zhang Yun procured were far from ordinary; they were entirely unpurchasable on the market.

Zhang Yun just smiled, entirely unoffended. "Old man, catch you later." With that, he turned and walked away.

"I won’t see you out," Zhang Lifeng called after him before ushering Yuan You into his office.

Zhang Yun could sense that right before stepping inside, Yuan You had cast a brief glance at his retreating back. However, he kept walking and didn’t look back.

He thought, "Do you think just because you’re pretty, everyone is going to suck up to you? Did you really think I’d look back just to be caught red-handed? Heh, interesting! It’ll be even more interesting the day you have to come begging to me."

In high spirits, Zhang Yun whistled a cheerful tune as he departed.

After leaving the hospital, Zhang Yun immediately bought some fresh fruit and milk. Following the address Chen Hui had managed to dig up, he set off in search of Teacher Cao’s home. His GPS could only guide him to the general vicinity of the alleyway, so he had to slowly check the house numbers one by one. Eventually, he arrived in front of a self-built residential building.

Zhang Yun parked his motorcycle and grabbed his gifts. "Excuse me, is this Teacher Cao’s house?"

"Who is it?" A moment later, a gray-haired, middle-aged man opened the door and gave him a questioning look.

Teacher Cao had never actually taught his class, so Zhang Yun wasn’t particularly familiar with him. Having not seen the man for many years, his memory of him was quite hazy. According to Yang Bo, Teacher Cao’s son had been very young back then. By that math, Teacher Cao should only be in his thirties now. However, the man standing before him looked to be in his late forties or fifties, his hair already turning white.

"Are you Teacher Cao?"

"I haven’t been a teacher for several years now. Are you a former student from the county high school?" It was somewhat ironic for a student to visit their teacher without even recognizing them, which brought a mocking smile to Teacher Cao’s face. "Come in."

Zhang Yun carried the heavy bags of fruit and milk inside. Teacher Cao didn’t offer any polite refusals, simply accepting the gesture. The living room was sparsely furnished. From the looks of it, Teacher Cao had just been watching television.

"Take a seat." Teacher Cao poured him a glass of hot water. "Which graduating class of mine were you in? What’s your name? I don’t seem to have any impression of you at all."

"My name is Zhang Yun, and I actually wasn’t one of your students."

Teacher Cao’s somewhat cloudy eyes filled with confusion. "Zhang Yun? I really don’t recognize the name. What do you want with me?"

Zhang Yun decided to cut straight to the chase. He had been completely in the dark about the entire situation, but ever since Yang Bo had brought it up, an uneasy knot had lingered in his chest. "Teacher Cao, I’ll just be direct, then. I only ask that you stay calm and listen to everything I have to say."

Teacher Cao let out a cold chuckle. "What could possibly make me lose my calm at this point? Spit it out."

"It’s regarding your son..."

Teacher Cao’s expression instantly changed, his breathing growing noticeably ragged. However, perhaps recalling his earlier promise to remain calm, he kept his mouth tightly shut.

"Back when I was a student at the county high school, I heard about what happened, though I didn’t know the specifics. A few days ago, someone finally told me the truth about the incident..."

"What truth?" Teacher Cao’s voice turned hoarse, a look of desperate urgency in his eyes.

"I was told it was food poisoning. I’d like to ask, exactly what food caused it?" Zhang Yun was being direct, but he wasn’t foolish enough to blindly confess to a crime right off the bat.

"What ’truth’ are you talking about?" Teacher Cao demanded, locking his eyes on Zhang Yun.

Zhang Yun shook his head. "Tell me the details of what happened first. Then, I’ll share what I heard."

Teacher Cao continued to glare at him in silence. After half a minute, seeing that Zhang Yun had no intention of speaking first, Teacher Cao resentfully relented.

"It wasn’t food poisoning. It was an allergic reaction. My son was severely allergic to peanuts. I took my eyes off him for a moment, and I still have no idea who fed him those roasted peanuts. Whoever it was obviously didn’t know peanuts could trigger an allergy or how dire the consequences could be. It delayed his medical treatment, and by the time we got him to the hospital, it was too late..."

During this Samba, Teacher Cao’s expression was initially ferocious, looking as though he wanted nothing more than to brutally beat the person who had offered the peanuts. By the end, however, he had wilted into a state of lonely sorrow.

"It was just... a peanut allergy?" Zhang Yun was caught off guard. Allergies to peanuts and tree nuts weren’t exactly rare, but this entirely contradicted Yang Bo’s story.

"Just?" Teacher Cao bristled with indignation. He downed his entire glass of water in one gulp. "Now, tell me your ’truth’!"

"After hearing your side of the story, my ’truth’ isn’t the truth at all. It’s nothing but a deceitful lie." Zhang Yun let out a long sigh, a heavy weight finally lifting from his shoulders.

Even though the incident had happened many years ago, and he had neither intentionally caused it nor directly participated in it, the thought of being even indirectly responsible had been hard to stomach.

"It was you who fed my son those roasted peanuts, wasn’t it?!" Teacher Cao’s face twisted into a ferocious snarl once more. He lunged forward and firmly locked his hands around Zhang Yun’s throat!

Fueled by the agonizing loss of his child and years of festering resentment, the prematurely aged Teacher Cao suddenly erupted with terrifying speed and agility. Zhang Yun swiftly caught the man by his arms, forcing him back down into the wooden chair.

"Please, calm down! I only came here to understand the situation and see if what I had been told was actually the truth—"

"You murderer! Even if you didn’t kill him with your own hands, you’re the chief culprit! For all these years, you were too cowardly to step forward and utter a single word of apology. And now you come here today, pretending to care? Are you seeking forgiveness and redemption? Do you even have a conscience?!"

Despite his sudden burst of strength, Teacher Cao was utterly powerless against Zhang Yun. Unable to break free, he could only scream and curse before opening his mouth to hawk a glob of thick phlegm right at Zhang Yun’s face!

Zhang Yun rapidly scrambled backward, narrowly avoiding a direct hit.

Having finally been freed from Zhang Yun’s grip, Teacher Cao whirled around and dashed away!

"Teacher Cao, it’s really not what you think! I wasn’t the one who gave him the peanuts..."

Zhang Yun chased after him, only to realize the older man wasn’t running away—he had sprinted into the kitchen to grab a heavy meat cleaver!

"You murderer... you killed my son... you destroyed my family... It was you! And yet you dare to show your face in front of me!" He muttered deliriously as he charged forward, raising the cleaver high and slashing viciously at Zhang Yun.

Zhang Yun didn’t bother to dodge. To him, an attack of this caliber was as slow and clumsy as a toddler’s tantrum. He waited until the cleaver was barely a foot from his skull before moving with lightning speed, clamping his hand firmly around Teacher Cao’s wrist.

Teacher Cao shuddered violently, his grip abruptly failing. Released from his grasp, the heavy cleaver instantly plummeted straight down toward Zhang Yun’s head.