"So you made your way into She to find out about Yuming and Miss. Nuwa’s disappearance?" Jia surmised.
Yong threw her an acute stare. "Huayuan takes care of its own problems. Especially when we figured the cops were useless."
"Why do you say that?"
She sneered. "On top of the cops treating all my sisters as so sex slaves and deaning them at every chance they got, they never bothered with Aunt Nuwa’s disappearance years ago. When Long Sicong didn’t give Aunt Ruolan any face, she did try to knock on the cops’ doors for help. Among the pile of dirt and trash, only one decent officer actually listened to her."
She pressed her lips. "I suppose he couldn’t find out about her..."
She scoffed. "More than unable to find Aunt Nuwa, his own officers betrayed him. He was falsely accused of drugs and thrown into jail - only because he was poking his nose into her disappearance."
Which told Jia that Nuwa’s disappearance was indeed most probably connected to a political family as the tea shop owner believed. They had sobody working in the police force licking their feet and with one command from them, that officer managed to malign that good officer.
Mingshen lazily said, "Obviously. Politicians like to show a very clean image of themselves in front of the public. Doesn’t matter if they are knee deep in muddy waters behind their eyes."
Bojing cried. "Th-that’s horrible...Is he...s-still in jail?"
Jia noticed Yong’s slightly faraway and glassy gaze.
"Yes," her trembling fingers curled into a fist. "They will never let him out because they know that he will never drop the case. Though he is the one in jail, it is not only him who is suffering."
Jia blinked once and a particular mory from just an hour ago suddenly ca to her mind almost simultaneously as it struck Mingshen too.
"...I am sorry if I am very far off in my guess, but is that boutique owner, Miss. Si Yu, related to that officer who wanted to help Miss. Ruolan?"
Yong stared at her. She then observed Jia from head to toe and realized that the Hanfu she wore felt very familiar to her.
"So you t her. Though why did you guess that?" Her eyes squinted.
"I was wearing my police uniform just now."
Yong’s eyes widened. "Police uniform in Huayuan? I guess I should admire your guts."
Mingshen smiled. "Which is why she is wearing a Hanfu right now. Her uniform was a thorn in everybody’s eyes."
Yong sneered. "Wise choice Dr. Yang."
Jia cleared her throat and continued. "A-Anyway. I was in my uniform and I noticed the owner’s gaze at ."
Shilin asked, "Gaze?"
Bojing tilted his head as well, puzzled.
"Yes. She was...She looked emotional and overwheld. She was brushing her fingers against my uniform. Her eyes were slightly brimd with tears. She was drunk so maybe that’s why she was mistaking for a man. But was she mistaking for that cop you just talked about? Was his na...Lingyun?"
Mingshen had deduced the sa conclusion.
Yong said nothing.
She t her only once and she already connected the dots...
Yong’s silence proved to Jia that her hunch was indeed right and not outrageous.
Were they together...?
If it was true then wasn’t Si Yu still bearing the pain of separation from her lover?
The warmth and pain in her gaze as Si Yu looked at Jia and uttered Lingyun’s na expressed that her heart still held him so very close to it.
Si Yu hadn’t forgotten him.
A pang of sadness filled her heart as she thought about it.
Bojing’s tears were already gushing out of his eyes with full force.
"Senior Lu?" Shilin asked, concerned.
"I-I hate this..." he sniffled, his trembling tears wiping his eyes, "Throwing an in-innocent person in jail a-and separating him from M-Miss. Si...G-Good people should n-never suffer..."
Qin Ruwen’s voice echoed from the corner. "But the world is never fair for good people. It’s only dark and cold..."
Jia grimaced.
Yet he loves the dark...
Mingshen asked, "Did that tea shop owner ever guess the family’s identity where Miss. Nuwa last went?"
"Not him but I ca across so information during my own investigation. I don’t work as a part ti dancer in high-end bars and private clubs for money. It is to scour information."
"And what did you learn?"
She smiled. "And why should I tell you that? My only point of explaining all this to you was to clarify my involvent with the cult. I don’t want Inspector Song chasing my back anymore and I would rather do my investigation in peace."
"Peace?" Mingshen laughed out loud. "Ah, that’s a funny term. What is peace? You hope to have a peaceful ti investigating a political family who covered up a sex worker’s disappearance by pinning fake charges on a good cop who wanted to bring out the truth?"
Her gaze darkened.
"You hope to get peace by investigating a dangerous cult associated with this family where the cult leader acts like so God and mutilates won’s genitals?"
Her eyes narrowed again.
Mingshen chuckled heartily. "I admire your guts but you are way out of the league, young lady. Sure, Huayuan is influential in its own right but nowhere near to taking down on a political family. What do you think? That the contract between the cops and Huayuan will stay in effect forever?"
She blinked.
"If you happen to inch too close to their territory, they can end a puny contract like this in a matter of seconds. They will let the cops under their thumbs barge into Huayuan and fill the jail cells with every single one of you just like they did with Mr. Lingyun thirteen years ago."
Yong said, "We know. We have first-hand seen their might when Long Sicong ruled here. He used to bring influential guests here so we know how far his reach went and how far can these people go. But we are not the old Huayuan to be trampled upon anymore."
Her gaze fell cold. "We have shed blood to get our freedom back, Dr. Yang. We are not going to let any family snatch it again from us ever again."
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