Chapter 44-1 : Human Bone
Today was Friday so Chen Yu came back home from school, Chen Yang also came back from the police station to have dinner, while Mayor Chen didn’t have a meeting to attend today, so the Chen family got together for a rare family dinner.
“Shishi, ah, eat some more.” Mother Chen pinched a dish with her chopstick and put it in Chen Yu’s bowl, “Don’t stress yourself over exams, it’s okay if you can pass.”
“How can you teach the children this way? Of course she must do well on the exam, how can it be okay to just pass?” Mayor Chen disagreed, “This is the kind of ‘perfunctory and not striving to make progress’ attitude.”
“What’s perfunctory? Isn’t the school requirement just to pass?” Mother Chen retorted.
“Passing is the minimum standard, if everyone in society just wants to barely pass, then if they muddle through their work, how can society improve?” Mayor Chen replied back.
“Isn’t it just an exam? How can you talk about society’s improvement?” Mother Chen said with displeasure.
“I mean, this kind of attitude…”
Chen Yu saw her parents were quarreling about her exams, so she hurriedly stopped them, “Dad, don’t worry, I’ll try my best on exams. Mom, you can rest assured too, I was number one in my high school. Well, it’s just a test, it’s not that tiring.”
“I knew my daughter was so smart.” Mother Chen happily picked up another bit of food for her daughter.
“Take the test seriously.” Mayor Chen also encouraged.
Chen Yu nodded with a smile on the surface, but she was actually feeling gloomy inside, let’s not be hung up on math!
After focusing on his daughter, Mayor Chen began to focus on his son, he called out, “Chen Yang.”
“Dad.” Chen Yang turned his head.
“Did you arrest a person named Qi Changming the other day?” Mayor Chen raised this topic all of a sudden.
Qi Changming? Chen Yu’s hand stopped as she raised her head and looked towards her brother.
Chen Yang was also looking at her, but he quickly turned his head to his father and replied, “Dad, do you know him?”
“I don’t know him.” Mayor Chen shook his head, “It’s just that someone called me the other day to plead on his behalf, saying the other party had offended you.”
“He didn’t offend me, and I won’t arrest people just because they offended me, I was just following the rules.” Chen Yang answered,
“That’s good, the police are a disciplined force, you must be cautious and don’t fall for gossip when handling things.” Mayor Chen naturally didn’t agree to the other party’s plea, otherwise he wouldn’t wait so long to ask Chen Yang. He suddenly recalled this matter so he inquired about it to his son in passing.
“I know.” Chen Yang nodded.
Chen Yu was greatly relieved her elder brother didn’t mention she was ‘molested’. Her heart felt like it was touching her throat. If her parents who felt like they owed her for her childhood knew their daughter had been molested, then they would definitely make a fuss.
Except for this incident, dinner went on quite comfortably. Chen Yu stayed downstairs to accompany Mother Chen in watching TV for a while before she went up to her room.
Chen Yu took a shower and was blowing her hair dry when she heard a knock on the door. Chen Yu hesitated, found a towel to wrap her hair up, and then went to open the door.
“Brother.” Chen Yu looked with some surprise at Chen Yang who was standing at her door.
“May I come in?” Chen Yang asked.
“Ah? O-of course.” Chen Yu quickly gave way aside.
Chen Yang entered the room and closed the door behind him.
“Brother, sit down.” This was the first time Chen Yang had entered her room, Chen Yu was a little flustered and didn’t know what to do, she remembered to drag out a wooden chair by the desk to let Chen Yang sit.
Chen Yang naturally realized Chen Yu felt panic and discomfort. His own personality was rather dull, so he didn’t know how to express his care to this little sister who was lost for a long time and was finally found with much difficulty.
When Chen Yu first came home, she was very optimistic and well-behaved, but they still noticed the estranged and distant feeling her eyes occasionally revealed. The Chen family discussed this in private and decided to not be too obvious and enthusiastic when interacting with Chen Yu, to let her integrate into the family slowly and naturally.
This method was very successful, except for his mother, neither he nor his father had much communication with Chen Yu, but Chen Yu quickly settled in.
It was precisely because he didn’t interact frequently with Chen Yu that she seemed surprised and uneasy at his sudden appearance. However, Chen Yang still had some things he wanted to ask her.
“Qi Changming, he will be released tomorrow morning.” Chen Yang blurted.
“Ah, oh.” Chen Yu sat on the edge of the bed, nodding her head to show she knew.
“I checked his identity.” Chen Yang would naturally investigate those who ‘molested’ his little sister, however after some checking, he felt it was impossible for the other party to ‘harass’ Chen Yu according to his status, “He’s a Feng Shui master.”
“Is… is he?” Chen Yu said with a guilty conscience.
“The day after he was detained, at least five different people from various backgrounds called the police station to pressure us to let him out.” If it weren’t for Chen Yang’s identity, it would be impossible to keep Qi Changming in detention until now.
“Pressure?” Chen Yu paused before she asked anxiously, as if she thought of something, “Are they making things difficult for brother?”
Chen Yang didn’t expect that Chen Yu’s first reaction would be to care about him, his expression softened a lot as he comforted her, “No, people in our family are not easy to bully.”
“That’s good.” Chen Yu was relieved immediately.
Seeing Chen Yu’s appearance, Chen Yang was even more sure of his guess, he directly asked her, “Qi Changming didn’t harass you at all, did he?”
“I…” Chen Yu’s guilty expression had betrayed her so Chen Yang no longer needed her answer.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Chen Yang looked at his little sister, he wanted to know the truth, which was why he went back home on purpose tonight.
“I… I…” Chen Yu could feel her brother’s concern for her, but what should she say about this kind of thing, ah? Could she say Qi Changming suddenly attacked her when she was in the middle of taking her exam? And then because she was so angry she ran to Qi Changming to settle their account, and she happened to see the other party fighting with a ghost? And following that, she turned to helping the evil spirit, taking the opportunity to manipulate a few times?
Didn’t this sound even more outrageous than her lies?
Besides, what kind of person would help an evil spirit? Even when she heard it, she sounded like she wasn’t a good person, sob, sob…
Chen Yang saw his sister’s eyes dart around rapidly with a tense expression. After hesitating for a long time and her face turned red, she still didn’t say a peep, so he suddenly felt a little weak.
She’s not speaking, it seems that she still doesn’t trust me.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” Chen Yang wanted to know the truth, but he didn’t want to make things difficult for Chen Yu.
“It’s okay?” Chen Yu somewhat couldn’t believe what Chen Yang said.
“Then, will you tell me the truth?” Chen Yang asked.
Chen Yu’s expression became complicated and she fell silent, however she cried out in her heart, it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, but I’m afraid you’ll think I’m talking nonsense.
As expected…
“You not saying anything about it is okay, but you have to answer a few questions for me.” Chen Yang said.
“What questions?” Chen Yu raised her head to look at him.
“Qi Changming…” Chen Yang stared closely at Chen Yu’s eyes, “Who started the issue between the two of you?”
“Of course it’s him! I didn’t even know who he was. If he hadn’t provoked me first, I wouldn’t have bothered with him because I was busy studying and taking exams.” Thinking about her math exam, Chen Yu still felt angry.
“Then you… were you hurt?” Chen Yang was afraid Chen Yu had suffered a loss but wouldn’t want her family to know.
“No.” Chen Yu shook her head.
“Okay, I get it.” Chen Yang got the answer he needed and got up from the chair, “Get some rest.”
“Brother…” Chen Yu felt somewhat dumbfounded as she called Chen Yang, she asked under his puzzled gaze, “That’s all you’re asking me?”
“That’s enough for me.” Chen Yang said, “I needed to make sure you weren’t hurt and that you didn’t start the fight. As long as you didn’t start it, then big brother didn’t catch the wrong person.”
As an older brother, no matter what Chen Yu encountered, even if she was the one in the wrong, he would still protect her. However, as a policeman, Chen Yang can’t abuse his power, so he needed to know who initiated the matter first. As long as it wasn’t Chen Yu, he wouldn’t be regarded as catching the wrong person. As for the specific reason, Qi Changming himself didn’t explain anything, which showed that this matter might be more serious than a case of ‘molestation’.
“Get some rest!” Chen Yang smiled, he then opened the door and left.
Chen Yu stood there in a daze, she felt there’s something wrong with her as her chest somewhat swelled up and ached a little, what’s wrong with me?
Twelve o-clock, midnight.
As usual, Chen Yu waited until the light in her brother’s room had been turned off and confirmed he had gone to sleep before she jumped out the window.
When Chen Yu arrived at the Lou's courtyard, Lou Ming was waiting in the living room. On the table there were heaps of antiques Tian Fei had brought back today.
“Third Brother, why did you put everything in here?” During the day, Chen Yu was too anxious to go back and catch up with the next exam, so Chen Yu didn’t have the time to appreciate her loot.
“Because I know you would want to look at them.” Lou Ming couldn’t help but smile when he saw Chen Yu rushing to the table of antiques as soon as she entered the door.
“He, he…” Chen Yu foolishly laughed twice, and said while looking at those priceless antiques, “I didn’t look carefully earlier. It seems that most of them are jade, ah, I don’t know how much they are worth.”
Lou Ming’s slight smile suddenly turned strange.
“But they’re more than six hundred years old, even if they weren’t worth anything back then, they must be worth a lot now.” Chen Yu said confidently.
Lou Ming’s expression became even more strange.
“Third Brother.” Chen Yu picked up a jade pendant with a coiling dragon and crouching tiger carved on it and looked at it under the light, “This jade pendant is very pretty.”
“Yeah.” The jade pendant was exquisitely carved and has a transparent color, it was indeed very beautiful.
“Third Brother, do you know anyone who collects antiques? Let’s sell all of them and split the money in half.” Chen Yu said after thinking about it, “I heard prices can be higher in an auction, maybe we can go to one?”
Lou Ming met Chen Yu’s money-greedy shining eyes, he hesitated and said, “I’m afraid we can’t.”
“We can’t?” Chen Yu thought Lou Ming also didn’t have a way to get into an auction, so she pondered again, “It doesn’t matter if we can’t auction them, with so many antiques, we can sell them in an antique market, it’s okay we make less money. He, he, I heard antiques are really valuable.”
“Shishi, ah.” Lou Ming felt that it was better to tell her the truth before Chen Yu got too excited.
“En?” Chen Yu put down the jade pendant and picked up a colorful porcelain vase.
“These antiques aren’t very valuable.” Lou Ming finally said.