“Send me Gu Bei’s criminal records,” Zong Jinghao instructed.
“Right away.”
He had kept it all in his house to prevent anyone from finding it.
Shen Peichuan turned towards Song Yaxin and said, “You head on home. There’s something I need to do.”
“All right then,” Song Yaxin replied.
After fastening her seatbelt, she rolled her window down and called out to him, “Dad will do his best to help you out, Peichuan. I believe in you!”
Shen Peichuan didn’t want to trouble Captain Song, so Song Yaxin’s words of encouragement only made him feel awkward.
He thanked her politely and waited till she drove off before taking a taxi home.
He called Zong Jinghao after compiling the files and offered to bring them over, but the man told him to send them over via email.
Shen Peichuan did as told without any questions, and the next two days went by very peacefully.
Zong Jinghao hadn’t returned to his villa at all, and even Lin Xinyan had no idea what he was up to. He had only told her via phone call that he would be away for two days due to work.
Although peaceful, a lot happened throughout those two days. Zong Qifeng and Cheng Yuwen had returned to B City, and Qin Ya had recovered enough to walk again. At first, the woman had been in a hurry to return to C City but changed her mind when she found out that Lin Xinyan and Zong Jinghao were having their wedding later on.
As such, Qin Ya had to wait till after the wedding before she could leave.
“What will you be wearing?” Qin Ya asked.
Lin Xinyan looked at her in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“I’m talking about your wedding dress. Are you going for a Chinese or Western style?” Qin Ya munched on an apple while lounging on the sofa.
“Oh, I don’t know. He’s the one preparing everything.”
Such a response left Qin Ya dumbfounded. “Are you even looking forward to your wedding at all?” Isn’t it every woman’s wish to have a romantic and memorable wedding ceremony? Why does she look like she couldn’t care less about it?
Lin Xinyan was so calm about it because she had been through too much before.
“Seven years ago, I’d be so excited that I wouldn’t be able to sleep a wink. A wedding is indeed a very meaningful event for a woman, but… Jinghao and I have been living our lives like an ordinary married couple for a long time. This wedding is just a formality. Think of it as a way to announce our relationship to the public,” Lin Xinyan explained.
Qin Ya gave it some thought. She’s right. The two of them are basically living the life of a married couple with two kids right now. She placed a hand on Lin Xinyan’s tummy and said, “You two really do look like an old married couple. Heck, you’re already having your third child! Why didn’t he ask me to design your wedding dress? Does he not like my designs?”
Qin Ya really wanted to help Lin Xinyan design a wedding dress.
“He probably doesn’t want to trouble you. Besides, you’re still injured, so I had him take care of everything by himself.”
“All right then…” Qin Ya looked at the time. “Why aren’t the kids back yet?”
Zong Qifeng and Cheng Yuwen had brought the two kids out to play in the afternoon, and it was already getting dark outside.
“It’s almost six. Will they be coming back for dinner?” Qin Ya asked.
“I don’t know. They didn’t say if they were coming back for dinner when they left,” Lin Xinyan replied.
“Your husband hasn’t been home for two days now. Did something happen?”
Lin Xinyan didn’t give the matter much thought because she knew she couldn’t do anything to help out anyway. What she could do was take care of things at home. That way, Zong Jinghao wouldn’t have to worry.
She figured that it must’ve had something to do with Gu Bei, as that was the only unresolved issue at the moment.
What she didn’t expect was for Shen Peichuan to be brought into this mess.
The two kids had taken their dinner outside before returning, and Zong Jinghao had yet to return. As such, Lin Xinyan and Qin Ya were the only ones at the dinner table.
“It’s so quiet with just the two of us…” Qin Ya commented.
“Yeah… It sure is…” Zong Qifeng and Cheng Yuwen were planning on staying at the old manor at first. Afraid that Zong Qifeng would be reminded of Cheng Yuxiu, Lin Xinyan invited them to stay in the villa instead.
With the two kids keeping them company, they wouldn’t feel as lonely.
“Have you given your uncle a call?” Qin Ya asked while stuffing a tomato into her mouth.
It’s Lin Xinyan’s wedding, after all. Shao Yun should be invited.
“I’ll call him after dinner.”
With Aunt Wang over to help out, the chores became a lot more manageable. Although Lin Xinyan no longer had to bathe her kids as they were old enough to do so themselves, she found herself being a lot more exhausted lately.
It’s probably due to the baby being so far along…
Lin Xinyan was lost in thought as she lay in bed after taking a shower.
She then grabbed her phone and dialed Shao Yun’s number, but the line was busy no matter how many times she tried.
Why isn’t he picking up? Hmm… Maybe he’s in a place with a bad reception… I’ll try again tomorrow… She frowned and put her phone down.
Lin Xinyan had had difficulty sleeping in the past two days as she was used to having Zong Jinghao beside her.
She was tempted to call him out of concern for his safety but resisted the urge. She didn’t want to disturb him while he was busy.
After an entire night of tossing and turning, she eventually fell asleep without even realizing it and woke up very early the next day.
It was no ordinary day, however, as something big had happened in B City.
A huge group of people from a faraway village had gathered outside the city hall.
The crowd consisted of old people – most of them were women. They held up banners, demanding an explanation from the government.
It was obviously premeditated, as they had all arrived in B City and gathered outside the city hall within a single night. On top of that, the press had also arrived at the scene very quickly to report on the incident.
A female reporter held a microphone towards one of the protesters and asked, “Could you tell us where you’re from and why you’re raising a ruckus here?”
The woman being interviewed was a dark and skinny middle-aged woman in her forties with two of her kids by her side. “We’re not raising a ruckus!” she retorted with a thick country accent.
“What are you doing here, then?” the reporter asked.
“We just want an explanation.”
“What kind of explanation?”
“We’re from X Province, Ning County. My husband is an ordinary bricklayer. He was killed by a collapsed building fifteen years ago.”
The reporter shot her a confused look. “If that’s the case, you should’ve had sought justice from the responsible party back then. Why did you come all the way here now?”
“Because it was taken care of fifteen years ago,” one of the kids next to her spoke up. She looked around sixteen or seventeen years of age, so she was about one or two years old when her father died. “We came here today to impeach the official who was in charge of the inspection work in Ning County.”
The reporter pointed the microphone towards the young girl. “Could you tell us what this is all about? Why are you impeaching this said official?”
