Zhao Mei's face immediately paled.
"No, he didn't hit the child." She quickly denied it, her eyes were darting left and right, it was very obvious that she was lying.
At this time, Zhang Lei walked in holding his daughter and roared in a loud voice, "Who says I didn't hit the child?!" He boldly stood in front of Xiao Yang, braving the opponent's cold eyes without fright, "It won't do if you don't hit them. You can go around and see how many families have adults that don't hit their children! It's because I didn't hit him enough that he went to steal other people's money!"
Zhao Mei tugged on his arm, hinting for him to stop talking as she looked from Xiao Yang to Qiao Yin, it was very awkward.
"Not every child who has been hit would be scared to have a physical confrontation with the parent. " Xiao Yang said bringing up the photo in his hands up to his eyes, in a very calm attitude, his voice carrying a trace of graveness as he continued, "However, you only hit the son and not the daughters. In the family, he is the only stepchild and is being hit by his stepfather, how do you think the kid will feel?"
With those few simple sentences, Zhang Lei became speechless and his face turned purple. His eldest daughter Zhang Pei did not understand and poked at his face while being carried in his arms. Qiao Yin took the photos from Xiao Yang and noticed right away that the first picture was a family picture with the couple Zhang Lei and Zhao Mei each carrying a daughter, smiling, and happy. With Wei Jun on the side, standing two steps away from Zhang Lei looking up at Zhang Lei with a pair of worried eyes as if he was scared to get close.
Zhang Lei hitting the child was very obvious. Qiao Yin stared at the photo but she still did not understand. Since the stepfather was not good to Wei Jun, then at the time of the photo, why did he still choose to stand at his step father's side?
"In a new family, the child should be closer to his biological mother." Xiao Yang's voice continued, saying her thoughts out loud. She looked up in time to see Xiao Yang staring Zhao Mei in the eyes, "Why didn't Wei Jun stand next to you?"
Zhao Mei did not reply right away. She pursed her lips as she looked down at her feet, then she suddenly passed her youngest daughter, Zhang Lan to Zhang Lei and pulled on his sleeve as she whispered, "Lao Zhang, take the children out first, I have something I want to talk about with them in private."
(note: Lao means old here, it's usually used between couples or friends that are familiar with each other)
Zhang Lei's anger had not dissipated yet so he shook off her hand and gruffly said, "What's this for? What is there that I'm not allowed to listen to?!"
The couple argued for a while, but in the end, she managed to convince him to leave the room.
"In the past Xiao Jun... Xiao Pei and Xiao Lan slept in the same room." After her husband left with their two daughters, Zhao Mei let out a sigh of relief, gripping the edge of her dress for a bit before lowering her head as she told them, "When I was pregnant with Xiao Lan, Xiao Pei was only two years old. I had to take care of the house chores and the children, so I seriously couldn't keep up with it all. So I let Xiao Jun help take care of Xiao Pei. As time passed, the neighbors started to gossip, talking about how Xiao Jun and Xiao Pei were not biological siblings but yet they were very close. At the time, coincidentally the Tan family had a big scandal. It was said that the son that came into the family with his remarried mother had r*ped his half-sister..."
When she got to this part, Zhao Mei pursed her lips. Xiao Yang raised an eyebrow, understanding what had happened, "So you were worried that Wei Jun will do the same?"
Zhao Mei stared at the dirt floor under her feet, hesitating for two seconds before finally nodding her head, "At the time Xiao Pei was only two, at such a young age, even if she was assaulted, she would not know either." She pushed a few loose hairs to behind her ear, "I also didn't dare tell Lao Zhang, afraid that if he discovered, without even asking properly about what happened, he would beat Xiao Jun to death. So I stopped letting Xiao Jun take care of Xiao Pei, and didn't allow Xiao Pei and Xiao Lan to get close to him."
Pausing, she sighed again, "As time passed, he probably understood in his heart and started become distant from me."
Qiao Yin looked through the next few photos, after being silent for a while, she suddenly asked, "Mrs. Zhao, I would like to ask, why did you divorce your ex-husband before?"
Zhao Mei's face paled once again and she scrunched her brows. She was quiet for a long time and then with a broken voice and pain in her eyes, she said, "He loved to drink. Every time he got drunk he would hit people."
Seeing that even recalling it still brought some pain to her, the abuse that she had experienced at that time was not normal.
"Wei Jun looks a lot like his father. " Qiao Yin observed and stared at her for some time, before she finally asked, "When you look at Wei Jun, does it make you recall the abuse you faced at your ex-husband's hands?"
Hot tears spilled from Zhao Mei's eyes and she covered her mouth with her hand to help control her emotions, shortly after she nodded her head with a face filled with tears, sobbing lightly.
Qiao Yin lifted her head and made eye contact with Xiao Yang and did not continue to question Zhao Mei. After Zhao Mei had calmed down, they started searching for more clues, only to find there were no other clues. So Xiao Yang went to find Zhang Lei once again, "In the two years since Jun Wei left to work, did he remain in contact with anyone here?" He asked and then suggested, "Friends or teachers, classmates from the same school?"
However, Zhang Lei shook his head, and irritatedly responded, "Don't know."
So the two drove to Wei Jun's former school and discovered that on Thursday Wei Jun had returned to his school, but did not let Zhang Lei or Zhao Mei know about it.
When his former teacher heard that he was a suspect in a robbery case, her reaction was the same as Yang XiaoLi, disbelieving. All the teachers that had taught him before all said he had an excellent character and excellent grades. He often helped the teachers with things and was kind to his classmates. He even always protected and took care of the younger kids at school, once a little kid broke his nose and it was Wei Jun who was the first to immediately rush over and carried him to the clinic many miles away.
"In this school, there are a lot of kids from the countryside, some only return home once a week, so the teachers aren't able to keep tabs on every student. So we would usually have the older kids help look after the younger ones." The teacher said as she looked at the kids playing in the yard, knitting her brows with a sigh, "Wei Jun was the most responsible and understanding kid. He was just quiet and shy, he often kept things to himself. We all thought he would go on to continue in high school, however, when school started, he did not show up. It was only then that we found out that his family could not afford the school fees so he went to the city to work." She looked at Xiao Yang, still unwilling to believe the accusation, "Officer, you people must thoroughly investigate this, Wei Jun is a very good kid, it's impossible for him to steal money."
Xiao Yang did not answer. This confirmed that Jun Wei also did not give the money to the school. As he and Qiao Yin were preparing to return, they received a call from Yan Cong. As soon as the call was answered, "Lao Xiao, we found another ten thousand! This morning Yang XiaoLi came to the station, saying that she remembered that on Thursday Wei Jun had given her a necklace, saying that he bought it from a stand. Yang XiaoLi thought it was weird so she brought the necklace over for me to see. What a guy! This necklace is made of pure gold, even a thin piece of necklace is worth ten thousand. I asked Wei Jun and he also confirmed it, but he still would not tell where the other eighty thousand is."
"Mmm." Xiao Yang said, looking back at the school, "There isn't any progress here either. Wei Jun likes kids, I suspected that he would donate the money to the school, however, he didn't." He thought for a while and then told Yan Cong, "Go investigate the orphanage in city X to see if they have received a donation of eighty thousand in the last few days. Take note of every donation, do not leave out anything."
Yan Cong took note of it and not long after, he hung up. He turned back to find Qiao Yin and Xiao Yang noticed that she was silently standing at the school entrance staring at the happy and energetic kids in the yard. Her big eyes that were usually shining, looked on empty devoid of its usual light. Her eyebrows were knit and she looked confused as if she did not know what to think, almost like one who had lost their soul.
Xiao Yang walked over to her and tapped her shoulder and she slightly jumped and turned to him, seeing that she had regained her soul, Xiao Yang calmly said, "Time to go." Then he informed her of what Yan Cong had just reported, "Yang XiaoLi found a necklace that Wei Jun gifted her, pure gold, ten thousand."
Qiao Yin nodded, subconsciously glancing back to the school, "Eighty thousand left."
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YukkiMuch: Wow... such a cold family... I feel bad for Wei Jun...
Now that twenty thousand has been found... what about the eighty thousand..?
Also!!! I want to thank a mysterious reader for helping me upload the links for my chapter 11,12, and14 on novelupdates!! I thought my fellow translator here, Mirai who had been doing it so I thanked her and she went, "...What are you talking about?" Then we were both confused and thought the other person was going crazy and had done it but was having memory loss. The entire time we thought the other person was doing it until we verified in our user logs that it was neither of us... hahaha, I would usually have the chapters scheduled to publish after I finish translating, so my fellow admin can help with editing. Once in a while, I forget the publish time and forget to upload the links to novelupdates till much later... Thank you mysterious reader for your help! You Rock! Please leave a message in the comments so I can properly thank you !! (⁎⁍̴̛ᴗ⁍̴̛⁎)
~Thank You for Reading, Please Comment Below~
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