Qiming Chapter 8

Chapter 8

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"What did Chen Yu say?" He took the excuse of going to the restroom to interrupt Yuan Man, who insisted on playing games with him, and quickly dialled Xu Chengyue's number.

"She said the company started receiving blackmail calls a month ago. The caller demanded half a million yuan, or they would reveal the secret of Yuan Man's life to the media."

Obviously, Yuan Man didn't know this secret about herself. After careful consideration, the company and her agent decided to handle the pressure together.

"Later, with the company's consent, Chen Yu transferred three hundred thousand yuan to the blackmailer's account, but ten days later, the blackmailer reneged and demanded an additional seven hundred thousand yuan."

"Did Chen Yu comply?"

"Mhmm, and soon after, they started receiving threatening letters,"' Xu Chengyue's voice was calm and steady, "Isn't it strange?" Initially, they extorted five hundred thousand yuan, and after tasting success, continued extorting more, and eventually, after obtaining a substantial sum, they began directly threatening Yuan Man.

"What is the secret of Yuan Man's life that caused such a commotion?" Gu Yunfeng asked nonchalantly. For a profit-driven agency to unhesitatingly shell out a million yuan, it must be something serious enough that if exposed by the media, it could cause the collapse of AIR.

"Her biological mother was the main culprit in a major girl trafficking case eighteen years ago and was released two months ago after completing her sentence." Xu Chengyue lowered his voice while standing in a soundproof corner of the hallway outside the reception room.

"I also discovered an odd coincidence – Guan Jianhua who died in the garbage bin a few days ago was one of the offenders in that girl trafficking case." He pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered, "I don't think this is just a coincidence."

Eighteen years ago.

The girl trafficking case.

Hearing these words left Gu Yunfeng's mind blank, and Xu Chengyue's voice seemed to fade away into the cracks of the past.

"Hello? Captain Gu? Gu Yunfeng? Are you listening?" Xu Chengyue, noticing Gu Yunfeng's sudden lack of response, hung up and returned to the reception room, where an emotional Chen Yu was recounting her experiences over the past month.

As for Gu Yunfeng, he remained standing, phone in hand, for fifteen minutes before turning to look through the glass at Yuan Man, who was engrossed in her game.

Yuan Man was also eighteen.

Eighteen, such a blooming age.

In his eyes, girls at that age should be like flowers in a greenhouse, carefully protected until they could withstand the storms. He watched Yuan Man's energetic figure and extended his right hand, revealing a scar on his palm that looked striking in the sunlight.

He had once held a sharp knife in that hand.

The wound seemed never to have healed. He studied the fading scar, remembering those eighteen-year-old girls again.

It was the same June, they wore floral dresses, their laughter like ringing bells, radiant while unaware of the lurking danger.

Their images overlapped with Yuan Man's, forming a bittersweet smile.

He closed his eyes, overwhelmed with guilt. This guilt made him feel like strangling himself. Although he had always appeared calm and gentle, memories of blood-soaked soil and the reflection of the knife's tip filled him with relentless regret and hatred.

Leaning against the transparent glass window, Gu Yunfeng's mind was flooded with heavy memories. Noticing his return, Yuan Man bounced over, tapping the glass rhythmically and asking, "Officer Gu, why are your eyes red?"

Have you been crying?

Why are you sad?

He rubbed his eyes and quickly regained his composure.

"I'll send you back," he said.

—————

"Officer Xu, Officer Shu, you mustn't tell anyone about this," Chen Yu pleaded with a pained expression.

"AIR is our company's only group that has exploded in recent years. We've signed over a dozen advertisements and variety shows in the past few months. Yuan Man is a core member, if this gets reported, we'll face tens of millions in penalties, and our future earnings will plummet."

"I discussed this with the company leaders, and they all decided not to let Xiao Man know about this. She's on the rise and can't afford any distractions." Chen Yu sighed and drank more water.

"Eighteen years ago, those girls were easily deceived because that wicked woman, Cao Yan, was pregnant," she said through gritted teeth. "The case caused an uproar back then, and the child in her womb, Xiao Man, was labelled as the original sin even before birth. If this old case resurfaces, AIR will surely disband, and no one will have a good time."

"Calm down, Chen Jie," Looking at the increasingly agitated Chen Yu, Shu Pan helplessly shook his head at Xu Chengyue. Xu Chengyue approached, holding a stack of printed materials, information he had just gathered.

He guessed that Chen Yu was unaware of some details. Her reaction to impulsively bring up this old case was likely due to her being a high school student back then, seventeen or eighteen years old, and some of her classmates might have been unfortunate victims.

"Do you know the current status of the other offenders in the 6.24 case from eighteen years ago?" Xu Chengyue handed her a photo. "Have you seen this person?"

The person in the photo was Guan Jianhua.

"No," she said after examining it closely, "Who is this?"

"He was one of the offenders in the girl trafficking case, named Guan Jianhua."

"He was murdered a few days ago. I heard the final judgement of that case was highly controversial, of the twelve offenders, only one was sentenced to death."

"The one sentenced to death was Cao Yan's husband, and that scum Cao Yan was only sentenced to twenty-five years," she said angrily, pounding the table. "The one you just mentioned, that... Guan Jianhua, he deserved to die."

Yes, he did. For those involved in the case, his death was very gratifying

"Did you know that Cao Yan's sentence was reduced?"

"What?" Chen Yu's eyes widened in disbelief, her nails digging into her palms.

"She was released two months ago, here are the documents" Xu Chengyue handed her a document listing recently released prisoners.

The main culprit of the 6.24 human trafficking case eighteen years ago, Cao Yan, was on the list.

"Bang–"

Chen Yu accidentally knocked over a glass of water on the table. She stared blankly at the list of black characters on the white sheet, bewildered, shocked, and angry... with all kinds of emotions soaking into her bone marrow.

"Ahem, we hope that if Ms Yuan Man receives more blackmail calls, your company will contact us immediately," Shu Pan said, handing her his work number after organising the transcript.

Xu Chengyue did not believe all these connections were mere coincidences. Guan Jianhua, a criminal from the girl trafficking case, was murdered, and the popular idol who was regarded as the original sin back then was being blackmailed at the same time.

And the idol's mother, the main offender in the trafficking case, was released around the same time.

Everything revolved around the old case, a ticking time bomb waiting for retribution to send the evildoers to hell.

"Did you tell Captain Gu about this? He's still taking the big star's statement, right?" Shu Pan asked.

"He hung up before I could finish."

"Huh?" Shu Pan was a little surprised, this wasn't like Captain Gu. He'd wake someone up in the middle of the night to solve a case or throw out anyone smoking in his presence, but he would never hang up on an important work call.

According to him, that would be irresponsible.

"It's strange. I'll check on him," Xu Chengyue said, hesitating for a few seconds before heading in the opposite direction with his materials and water cup.

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

Hello! Now that the week of daily uploads is done and I know what the workload is like with Qiming and the other projects I am working on, I have decided that the upload schedule for Qiming will be three chapters a week, uploaded Monday, Wednesday and Friday, following the SCI schedule.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 25, 2024 by Angel

Edited: June 27, 2024 by Angel