Chapter 291 168: Product from Hell! Elixir of Immortality

Xu Huo sat on the stool, his expression calm. He looked up and quietly watched her.

"Principal Zhao... he's fine. He's fine."

"Is he fine?"

Xu Huo paused, then suddenly shifted his gaze to two of the children.

"What are those two girls' names?"

He pointed to two rather quiet girls in the back row.

Hearing his voice, they instinctively turned to look, their expressions timid.

Seeing the two girls Xu Huo was pointing at, Sun Yuhui's heart trembled, but she forced herself to remain calm and answer.

"Fu Jia and Liu Yu."

"Mm, have them stay at the school for a while after classes end. Don't worry, the police will provide compensation."

Xu Huo said coolly, looking at Sun Yuhui.

"As for Zhao Shan... I suggest you just tell the truth."

"Barring any surprises, our colleagues have most likely already found evidence of Zhao Shan's crimes, including video footage. It would be best for you to bring it up now. Otherwise..."

"Harboring a criminal is no small offense."

Sun Yuhui's face turned deathly pale.

Her lips trembled slightly. She remained silent for a long moment, and just as she was about to speak, another voice cut in.

"Found it. That son of a bitch... damn him..."

Li Jianye walked in through the doorway, his face dark. His eyes were incredibly grim, as if brimming with a cold gloom.

Just as he was about to speak, Xu Huo made a "shushing" gesture and then looked at Sun Yuhui.

Sun Yuhui was silent for a long while before she finally spoke:

"Zhao Shan... he..."

As she began to speak, the dark side of Zhao Shan was gradually revealed.

...

In the year 2000, Zhao Shan founded a charity initiative called the "Student Aid Program."

Its main purpose was to solve the problem of schooling for children in mountain villages, helping them leave the mountains and overcome the environmental disadvantages affecting them.

Once it was announced, the government provided substantial subsidies.

Having come from the mountains herself, a recently graduated teacher named Sun Yuhui was willing to return to teach there for five years.

She knew what life would be like for those who could never leave.

'Unable to keep up with the times?'

They would be abandoned by the times.

But unfortunately, Sun Yuhui underestimated both the poverty of the mountains and the ignorance of its people.

They refused to do anything that required spending money, even if it was for an education that could change their children's fate.

Then, Zhao Shan appeared.

He invested in the village, established a school, and became its principal, waiving all fees for the children except for their meals.

Suddenly, showered with honors, Zhao Shan stood at the pinnacle, basking in everyone's praise.

He seemed to have become the very paragon of human morality.

Only Sun Yuhui felt that something wasn't quite right.

The Student Aid Program couldn't be making a profit, but according to news from the outside, its website had attracted a large number of investors.

Among them were famous businessmen and well-known charitable organizations.

The amount of money invested was enormous, but the school saw no improvements. Everything remained the same as before.

Sun Yuhui figured that Zhao Shan had probably embezzled the money.

'But if he pocketed it, so be it.'

To be honest, she was satisfied enough with the fact that the children could attend school for free, with all tuition waived.

However, what she never could have anticipated...

...was *why* that money was flowing to the Student Aid website.

It happened one night.

Two families from the village knocked on Sun Yuhui's door. They said their children hadn't come home since school let out.

Sun Yuhui remembered that a "goodwill ambassador" had come to the school that morning and had shown particular kindness to the two girls who were now missing.

She searched the school.

They weren't there.

But she did find them in Zhao Shan's house.

...

...

"Later, I wanted to call the police, but what Zhao Shan said made me hesitate."

"His exact words were that if I called the police, all the children in this mountain would be finished. They would never have another chance to get out. He said he was just using children who had no future to begin with to secure a future for the rest of them..."

Sun Yuhui recounted truthfully. When she finished, she fell into a deathly silence.

The police officers around her said nothing.

Until...

SLAM!

Li Jianye slammed his fist on the table, making the water glass jump.

His face was ashen with rage, his eyes burning with such tangible fury that his stare alone felt like being seared by fire.

"And so what?"

"So you've let it go on until now, for almost a month, and you still haven't decided whether to call the police?"

Xu Huo let out a heavy sigh and looked coolly at Sun Yuhui.

Sun Yuhui didn't speak. She fell silent.

This moral choice, holding the future of everyone in the mountains in her hands, was about to break her.

On one side was the future of dozens, maybe even hundreds or thousands of children to come.

On the other, children who were being abused, their lives destroyed.

The choice felt like two heavy weights hanging from either side of her head, their gravity threatening to tear her apart.

It was a moral dilemma where either choice would send her plunging into an abyss of self-condemnation.

One had to admit, Zhao Shan was a clever villain, skilled at exploiting the contradictions in a person's character.

"So, these girls just became sacrifices?"

Xu Huo gestured to the girls in front of him.

They still didn't know what was happening, hiding fearfully behind Sun Yuhui.

Sun Yuhui said nothing, rooted to the spot in silence.

Xu Huo turned his head to look at the video on the computer screen.

It reminded him of something.

Something that happened in his past life.

It was an incident known as the "Baisui Student Aid Network." The owner of the website used children to make deals with businessmen, conducting all sorts of illegal transactions to please wealthy clients and rake in money. The number of videos they recorded was immeasurable.

It wasn't just the businessmen who "played"; he himself would also abuse them.