Chapter 6

If Ethan had accepted the one million, that would have been extortion. With such a large amount involved, it would be enough to put him away for years.

But by listing out the compensation items one by one, even if the numbers were a little high, it was still a reasonable claim.

After all, compensation was compensation.

Asking for a little more than the actual value was normal.

No one here was stupid.

Mr. Leed finally realized he had run into someone ruthless today, and he gave up on trying to trap Ethan.

With the officers’ help, the two of them signed a friendly settlement agreement. Mr. Leed would compensate Ethan three hundred seventy-seven thousand nine hundred dollars. Both parties would forgive each other and neither side could publicly make statements harmful to the other.

Once the agreement was signed, Mr. Leed was straightforward about it. He transferred the money immediately.

Three seconds later, Ethan received a bank notification on his phone.

The money had arrived.

Ethan took the initiative to shake Mr. Leed’s hand.

“Pleasure meeting you, man.”

Mr. Leed looked like he wanted to crush Ethan’s hand. He gripped hard and said, “Man, you’re ruthless. I respect that.”

“I have a lot of respect for you too,” Ethan said.

Ring, ring.

Ethan’s phone rang.

He answered it. “What? Easton Police Station? I’ll be there right away. Half an hour at most.”

He had just hung up on Easton Police Station when his phone rang again.

“Yes, I’m Ethan Chancer. Maplewood Police Station? I’m busy this morning. Around three this afternoon. I’ll definitely be there.”

The officers in charge of questioning him and Mr. Leed were both stunned.

What exactly did this guy do?

He had not even left one police station, and two more police stations were already calling him?

His schedule was packed.

A regular at police stations, apparently.

“Sorry. Business is busy,” Ethan said with an apologetic smile to the officers. “If there’s nothing else, I’ll be leaving first.”

He even nodded politely at Mr. Leed before walking out.

Mr. Leed nearly cried.

What kind of person had he run into?

Ethan had no car now.

But since he had just received more than three hundred thousand in compensation, he decided to splurge for once and took a cab to Easton Police Station.

Easton Police Station was right beside his apartment complex.

The moment Ethan walked in, he heard familiar yelling.

Graham Marker stood at the very front, and his voice was the loudest.

The old men and women were full of righteous indignation. As soon as they saw Ethan, one of them grabbed his arm.

“That’s him! Don’t let him run this time. He’s the one who smashed our speakers.”

Ethan thought to himself that he had smashed these old people’s speakers yesterday, and today someone had smashed his car.

Maybe this was karma after all.

“Please remain quiet. Please let go of him. If there’s something to discuss, we’ll discuss it properly. Do not interfere with the normal operation of the station.”

The staff led Ethan and the seniors into a large office.

The seniors spoke at lightning speed, all talking over one another as they accused Ethan of being terrible.

The officer taking notes was on the verge of a breakdown.

“Can you be quiet? Can one person speak at a time? If you all talk like this, how am I supposed to take a statement?”

The seniors complained for several more minutes before finally settling down.

The officer asked, “Who wants to speak first? Whoever speaks will need to sign the statement.”

The moment the seniors heard that they had to sign it, they all backed down and started pushing one another forward.

The officer had no choice but to turn to Ethan.

“Why don’t you explain what happened? We received a report saying you used an iron hammer yesterday to smash their speakers, seriously interfering with their normal entertainment.”

Ethan nodded.

“Here’s what happened. Our apartment complex has an open area. These seniors like dancing there, but they stripped the wiring from the streetlights and illegally connected their own cables to play music. There are a lot of children in the complex too, not just elderly residents. If a child got shocked, it would be extremely dangerous.”

He paused, then continued calmly.

“A child happened to be passing by at the time. I was afraid the child might get electrocuted. The situation was too urgent, and there was no time to discuss it, so I had no choice but to smash the speakers.”

“So you did smash the speakers?” the officer asked.

“Yes. It was too dangerous at the time. They are already elderly. If they got electrocuted, that would be one thing. But children can’t be put at risk.”

Ethan looked genuinely distressed.

“Children are the future. They’re the hope of their families. They’re innocent and precious. Ignoring their safety like that is truly irresponsible. Only animals would do something like this. I’m honestly heartbroken. And the property management company is ridiculous too. They just let people tamper with electrical wiring? Where’s the power company? No one even came to fine them for something this dangerous. Honestly...”

Before Ethan could finish, the old people were already exploding with rage.

Was he not clearly calling them immoral animals?

Several of them were about to pretend they were having heart attacks, but when they glanced up and saw surveillance cameras mounted high on the wall, several of them at that, they had no choice but to force themselves to hold it in.

“Officer, he’s lying!” Graham could not hold back anymore. “He just hates us dancing and says the music is too loud and affects his rest. Don’t believe him. Ethan Chancer, you’re insulting people. You have no respect for the elderly.”

“Please do not interrupt my report,” the officer said. “We’ll investigate what happened. When it’s your turn to give a statement, you’ll be allowed to speak.”

The officer was getting a headache too.

These old people did not care about rules at all. They only cared about getting their way.

“Investigate, my foot. If you knew how to investigate, you wouldn’t be writing all this down. Ethan is obviously lying, and you’re still recording it. You’re clearly on his side. How much did he pay you?”

One of the old women was used to throwing her weight around, and her mouth ran ahead of her brain.

The officer finally snapped.

“I’m warning you. This room is being recorded. You are interfering with official police work. No matter how old you are, interfering with law enforcement can get you detained.”

The old woman’s face turned red from holding herself back.

She did not have a heart condition, and after holding it in for a long time, she still did not drop dead.

The officer finally finished registering the statement.

Of course, in Ethan’s version, the issue had become the seniors illegally connecting electrical wires, not dancing and disturbing the residents.

When the officer asked who had tampered with the wiring, the seniors all started blaming one another. No one dared admit they had done it.

Soon, the seniors began fighting among themselves, their faces flushed with anger.

Ethan watched, amazed.

Weren’t these people supposed to be united against him?

How had they started tearing each other apart?

The officers brought Ethan and the seniors back to the apartment complex.

Sure enough, the streetlight wiring had been stripped, and someone had installed an outlet on it.

That proved Ethan had been telling the truth.

They notified the power company, and the power company staff said that an outdoor outlet like this was extremely dangerous and prone to leakage. Once it rained, the risk of electrical leakage would multiply. The outlet was also installed very low, where children could easily touch it.

The seniors refused to admit they had installed it.

In the end, the power company and the police could not do much. They could only announce that if they found another illegal outlet next time, the power company would issue a fine, and the police would detain whoever was responsible for at least fifteen days.

After the police left, Ethan smiled in victory.

“Dealing with a bunch of old fossils like you is easy.”

The seniors immediately looked like they wanted to attack him again.

Ethan took out yesterday’s recording and played it while saying, “If I hand this recording to the police, this is solid proof that you disturbed the peace. The police can analyze the voices and figure out who was involved. You probably won’t go to jail, but getting detained for ten days or so shouldn’t be a problem.”

The recording clearly captured the seniors pounding on his door and cursing up a storm.

The seniors were both furious and frightened.

One of them let out a desperate sigh.

“God, society is so unfair these days. There’s nowhere left for us old people to seek justice.”

It was already noon.

Since he was right outside his home, there was no need to eat out. Out of habit, Ethan went home to save money.

Megan was still sleeping like the dead.

Every time she drank too much, she would not wake up until two or three in the afternoon. After her boss fired her, she simply stopped working and became a full-time housewife.

Ethan went into the kitchen, fried two eggs, and diced some chives.

Then he made himself a bowl of buttered egg noodles.

He placed the eggs on top, sprinkled the chives over them, and poured himself a glass of orange juice.

“Smells so good!”

Megan woke up and saw the noodles. Without washing her face or hands, she sat down at the dining table.

“You didn’t even bring me a fork. What, am I supposed to eat with my hands?”

Ethan grabbed a clean fork from the drawer and handed it to her.

“I didn’t make that for you.”

“Please.” Megan lowered her head and started eating. “You skipped work just to make me noodles and suck up to me. Say it. Do you want more spending money?”

Ethan said, “I want a divorce.”

“Ha.”

Megan let out a laugh with no humor in it at all.

Then she kept eating the noodles.

Ethan cooked himself another plate. He used the same pasta sauce, skipped the fried eggs, and topped it with two poached eggs instead.