Yao Qin had drunk a little too much, so she couldn’t recall much of what had happened. All she could remember was that someone was forcing her to drink.
Shi Sheng didn’t tell her the matter behind it.
“Sheng Xia, did I cause trouble for you?” Yao Qin looked like a child that had done wrong, as she stood in front of Shi Sheng.
“No, don’t think too much on it.”
“Oh.”Yao Qin scratched her head, her gaze catching sight of the A4 paper in Shi Sheng’s hand. She asked, rather curiously, “Why’re you looking at this again?”
‘She was looking at it before too.’
“Because I don’t know what mysteries lie within.” Shi Sheng sighed. ‘I’ve got no leads at all; how am I supposed to read this?’
“Mysteries? What mysteries?” Yao Qin moved closer. “...Eh?”
“What is it?”
Yao Qin straightened out the paper and examined it for quite a while. “These numbers look a bit familiar.”
“Wait a sec. I’ll ask my dad.” Yao Qin rushed over to the living room to make the call. Shi Sheng followed her.“Dad, do you still remember how three months ago, you took me to S Country to go to that ‘Secret’ organisation?”
“Right, right! Do you still remember the serial number? 42492702S? Oh, nothing, nothing. Just asking. Hm, okay. Bye bye.”
“Sheng Xia, Sheng Xia!” Yao Qin excitedly turned around. “It’s that organisation’s serial number!”
“What organisation?”
“It’s a private safe-keeping organisation. I think my dad went to collect something belonging to my grandad...seems like it’s been around for a while. All the boxes start with 42492. I was curious, so I asked. The employee told me it was the birthday of their founder and his wife, and the story behind founding the organisation. It was really touching, so I remembered it clearly. The ‘S’ is an abbreviation for ‘Secret’, which is the name of their organisation.”
“Xiao Yao Qin, you’re finally of some use!” Shi Sheng smiled and patted Yao Qin’s head.
“Ah? Oh, glad I could help.” Yao Qin scratched her head.
......
Shi Sheng took a flight to that safe-keeping organisation in S Country. It was just like how Yao Qin had described it.
The only thing was, Shi Sheng had to key in the password herself. And she only had four chances.
She experimentally tried keying in Sheng Xia’s birthday, but that was wrong. She then tried keying in her parents’ birthdays, but that was wrong too.
“Try 819741.” Yu Jiu reminded.
Shi Sheng had already made the decision that if this last attempt didn’t work, she’d just hack it open, so she entered the numbers without any hesitation. But unexpectedly, it opened.
She shot him an odd look.
Yu Jiu laughed lightly. “It’s the serial number on that document. Have you forgotten?”
Shi Sheng suddenly recalled—those numbers had been the document’s serial code.
Sheng Xia’s parents left behind a lot of things relating to that plot of land. There was a completed version of the contract, as well as the materials that they had been preparing to hand over to the government.
And there were photographs...of the diamonds.
Within a vast, natural chasm which had been formed from the movement of the Earth’s crust, one could vaguely make out a few specks of light.
But most importantly, there was a video of the meeting between them and Yang Huairen.
They had wanted to hand these over to the government, but were pursued by Yang Huairen before they could do so. Hence, they could only hide them here.
On the flight back home, Shi Sheng leaned against Yu Jiu as she stared at the layers of clouds outside the window. “Wouldn’t you say they were dumb?”
‘Why go to that extent? Why forfeit their lives just to hand these things to the government?’
Yu Jiu ruffled Shi Sheng’s hair. “They’re not. Everyone has a pair of scales in their hearts, with light on one side and darkness on the other. Some like the darkness, while others like the light. They just preferred the light, so their scales tilted to that side.”
“That’s still dumb.” Shi Sheng spoke indistinctly. “Then do you prefer the light or darkness?”
Yu Jiu stared off into the distance, his gaze gentle and peaceful. “Wherever you are is where my light is. You are the only light I yearn for.”
Shi Sheng felt her heart beat faster. ‘This guy’s getting better at flirting...’
She leaned in to kiss Yu Jiu and didn’t speak.
‘This is good too, I guess. At least I still have him to accompany me through the darkness.’
Once they got off the plane, Yu Jiu shielded Shi Sheng from the crowd as they walked through the tunnel.
Yu Jiu’s people were already waiting outside for them. Shi Sheng only just got in a car when a beautiful figure appeared from behind.
“Yu Jiu.”
He paused visibly, and slowly turned around, frowning slightly.
The speaker was a young girl of mixed blood. If you had to use one adjective to describe her, it would be: kawaii.
She was being blocked off by the men in suits, and was currently looking at him, grief and helplessness in her eyes. “Yu Jiu...”
Shi Sheng gave Yu Jiu a baffled look. ‘Who’s this woman?’
“You head back first.” Yu Jiu bent over to lightly brush his lips against her forehead. “I’ll be back soon.”
Shi Sheng’s lips tugged into a smile. “If you dare to do anything to let me down, we’re dying together.”
She pushed him out and instructed the people in front to start driving.
The cars soon vanished from Yu Jiu’s sight. He smiled, but when he lifted his head to look at the woman, his expression turned cold once more. “Why were you looking for me?”
“She’s the one you’ve set your mind on?”
“Yes.”
......
Shi Sheng already had enough evidence in her hands. At first, she’d been planning on eliminating him quietly.
But who would’ve expected Yang Huairen’s people to court death by getting Yao Qin involved. Sure, he was powerful, but he too had areas he had no say in.
Shi Sheng packed up the evidence and sent a copy to all the major news outlets.
There’d always be one or two media companies that weren’t afraid of death.
Soon, news of Yang Huairen’s corruption, callousness, and forcing young girls into prostitution came to light. Though everyone had been clear as to his character, they had always lacked the evidence to bring him down, hence why the upper echelon had let him be.
Now that this information had been released, the higher ups immediately made use of this to suspend Yang Huairen from his post. Since this matter would have a negative effect, they dispatched a team to completely investigate Yang Huairen.
Shi Sheng gave them plenty of information, so, as repayment, she was allowed a meeting with Yang Huairen.
Yang Huairen greatly resembled Yang Huaili, the only difference being that he appeared somewhat older than his younger brother. He gave one the first impression of being an amicable old man and not someone who’d commit crimes.
The two were seated across from each other, with handcuffs on Yang Huairen’s wrists.
“I actually fell to a little girl.” Yang Huairen lamented. There was no anger or unwillingness in his tone.
“It’s your honour to fall at my hands.” Shi Sheng’s lips curled in a slight smile, her eyes completely calm and without a single ripple. “Yang Huairen, who was the informant?”
“Informant?” Yang Huairen was uncertain at first, but soon understood who she was referring to. “You mean the one who told me about that plot of land? It was Sheng Yang. By all rights, you’d have to address him as Uncle[1].”
Knowing that there was no way for him to turn this around, Yang Huairen decided to take down everyone he could with him.
There is a type of person who is mentally prepared to face the consequences when they sin.
Yang Huairen was that kind of person.
Shi Sheng was calm throughout, as if the person who’d leaked the information meant nothing to her at all.
“Hope you have a happy stay in prison.” Shi Sheng rapped the table, smiling as she got up to leave.
Yang Huairen’s case was exceptionally startling. Not only was he guilty of corruption, he also forced girls into prostitution. Only now did the university students he’d threatened dare to identify the officials they’d had to serve.
Officials went down by the batch, causing much panic amongst the remainder.
[1] I absolutely refuse to try and find the exact term for this. The original was “堂叔” which is sort of like...your father’s cousin or something? Which would make him your first cousin once removed... But then there’s the added layer that it specifies it’s his younger, male cousin...
