Jia showed her badge and marked her entry in the register. She took a seat in the eting room and waited before the glass window.
A few minutes later, the door on the other side of the room creaked open. Jia watched a middle-aged man step in, his hair slightly grey near his ears. He walked with a certain finesse as his sharp gaze fell upon Jia. He pulled the chair and took his seat, still studying her quite intently.
"Superintendent Song. What brings you here to et ?"
Just like how he was studying her, Jia was scanning him as well, her eye on his every movent. He didn’t ss around and ca straight to the point.
"Mr. Su Lingyun."
"That’s ," he slightly tilted his head as he said, "I don’t think I know you so I don’t understand why you would co to et ."
"I am investigating a certain case and along the way, I happened to cross paths with Huayuan."
His gaze reflected a hint of puzzlent for a mont but then an eerie silence fell. It only made Su Lingyun stare at her even more intently.
"And?"
"I t Miss. Si Yu."
The ntion of her na brought a certain tremble to his eyelids. It was gone as soon as it ca.
"Are you here to ask about Nuwa’s case?"
Jia assud he would ask about Si Yu but was surprised by his directness.
"Yes."
"I am pretty sure you don’t have the permission from your higher ups to look into her case. I don’t know how you stumbled across that thirteen year old case but you are just putting your job on the line, kid. So there is no point in asking anything if you will eventually have to drop the case."
"I won’t drop the case."
Su Lingyun smiled. "That’s a bright and positive attitude to have. I was also like you once upon a ti. But that unyielding attitude got on this side of the window."
She said nothing.
"I can very well see you joining this side soon if you don’t give up."
"Please help ."
"You have no idea who you are going against."
Their eyes locked into a tense mont.
"I am not alone."
"Your cop buddies will hardly be of any help. Even if your imdiate officer has two cents of principles alive in him, he still doesn’t hold much power to give you free reign."
"It’s not just my colleagues in my team. I am also talking about...the underworld."
He stared at her in a daze. "Underworld? A cop will take the underworld’s help?"
"Have you heard of Dr. Yang Mingshen?"
"The Yang family of the underworld. Who hasn’t heard about them?"
"He is my partner, who has been helping with cases as the forensic investigator."
"I think I missed the party when the underworld and police force beca best buddies. He has no reason to help you. Why would you count on him?"
She closed her eyes for a mont and opened them again. "I know him well enough to be certain."
"So you are counting on his power rather than the law’s?"
"Is that why you never approached the previous Mafia King of your ti?"
"The Mafia family has been enough of a pain in the ass in the olden days, especially with Jiang Zemin’s rule. I don’t care who the Mafia King is, I wouldn’t count on them."
"That Mafia rule has changed since the Zhaos’ took over."
He smiled. "You seem to trust them a lot."
"My sister is Zhao Wei’s wife. The Mafia King is brother-in-law. The underworld and cops might have their friction but the current hierarchy is nothing like the Jiangs."
Su Lingyun fixed his gaze at her to which Jia said, "I will take any help I need to get to the bottom of this case."
"You don’t have to go this far."
"The bureau is my ho, Mr. Su. We don’t keep our hos dirty, right? We don’t let the garbage keep accumulating until it rots and slls. I have finally understood that my second ho needs so serious cleaning to be done."
Jia was aware that the law and justice wasn’t perfect, yet in so corner of her heart, she struggled to believe that the law could be this skewed.
An edgy silence hung in for a while.
Su Lingyun rose from his seat and said, "Well, it was nice eting you."
Jia’s eyes widened and she jumped on her feet. "Mr. Su, please don’t leave. I need to know whatever you know-"
He threw her a piercing look that got her silent. The guard approached him and said in a gruff voice, "eting ti’s over. Let’s go."
Jia saw Su Lingyun walk away and exit. Silence returned as she stared ahead at the empty space. She slowly sat back on her seat, replaying the tiny interaction between them.
The fraction of an interaction where Su Lingyun had mouthed one na in silence before the guard had co in.
’Commissioner Zhong Kai.’
Commissioner Zhong Kai. That’s what he had mouthed...
Suddenly, she understood how political families were involved in this case. A Commissioner was a very high ranking official in the Public Security Bureau. China’s police chiefs were usually high-ranking mbers of the Communist Party, which gave them a lot of political influence and connections with those families.
If such families were to bend the law to their favor, a Commissioner was the easiest person to be relied on on the municipal level. Although if required, they could go all the way up to...
Ministry of the Public Security under which the bureaus worked.
And as far as Jia was aware of the political landscape...
Zhuo Syaoran’s father is the Party Secretary of this ministry...
She took a deep breath, trying to calm down her rapid heartbeats.
If Miss. Nuwa was seen last either being taken in Hou or Zhuo family’s car, then was it the Zhuo family’s car?
Was it possible that even the ministry was involved?
User Comments
0 comments from readers