"What do you think Master Xue’s reaction will be once he finds out?"

Liuxian sighed and turned to the car "I’d hate me for it.."

Zhang Wei nodded. "I know I’m not experienced in this field, but you have to learn to trust your spouse and give them room to grow. I believe Master Xue will be fine, and if he needs you, he’ll call you."

Liuxian nodded and got into the car. "Very well, I’ll take your word for it. Let’s head to the office.."

Zhang Wei nodded and got into the car.

Meanwhile, Guiying was fast approaching Bao’an district.

It was a typical ghetto town, congested apartment buildings, neighbors screaming from room to room.

He wouldn’t say this is a child conducive environment. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

His phone buzzed.

He had received a message from Bai Feng.

Bai Feng: Meet us in front of, Apartment building A1. We’ll head up together.

"Okay. I got it."

"Haiyan, drop me off at apartment building A1. The place is small, it shouldn’t be hard to find.."

It wasn’t.

Haiyan had located the building in under three minutes.

Guiying stepped out of the car and let his eyes lift to the building, and immediately understood why the report had been filed. Apartment A1 carried years of neglect in its skin: the façade was half-undone, paint peeling in long, curling strips that had given up halfway down the wall, and the ground-floor window patched with cardboard that had gone soft in the rain. The main door hung crooked on its hinge, swollen and reluctant, like it had been fighting to stay closed for a long time.

Someone was raising children here.

Guiying stayed still for a moment, jaw tightening at the thought. No child deserved to grow up counting peeling paint as wallpaper.

Bai Feng and Liang Xueyi were already waiting by the entrance, and Bai Feng had his phone out, scrolling as Guiying approached. "Morning," he said without preamble. "Two things before we go up." He turned the screen toward Guiying. "The neighbor who filed the report messaged again this morning. She found the kids outside alone last night; the youngest was barefoot.

She brought them in, fed them, and waited until the father came looking."

Liang Xueyi’s face didn’t shift, but something behind her eyes did.

"How old is the youngest?" Guiying asked.

"Two."

Guiying glanced back at the crumbling brick and the sagging door. "Which floor?"

"Third," Bai Feng said, pocketing his phone. "Let’s go."

The elevator was dead, and had been for a while, so they took the stairs.

The air in the stairwell was heavy with damp and old dust, the kind of smell that settles into a building when maintenance stops bothering and neglect starts becoming part of the structure itself.

A broken bicycle leaned against the wall on the second-floor landing, and on the third, a single child’s shoe sat against the baseboard, scuffed and forgotten.

Guiying didn’t stop, but he saw it.

They reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of the door, and Bai Feng knocked.

They waited for a while and after three consecutive knocks, there was no response.

"Is he not home? He told me you’d be available today, his children aren’t in school so drop offs aren’t in the equation.." Bai Feng sighed, he had to head to work and wanted to wrap this up in under two hours.

"Should we leave? We’ve got jobs, we can’t keep standing here. Maybe we can leave a message with the neighbor who contacted us, he should at least know we came.." Xueyi said, she was a doctor so she couldn’t exactly risk her attendance, she had to take extra work hours so she could make it to this meeting.

They were about to leave, when the door cracked open.

They turned to see a little girl, no older than five. At first glance it wasn’t hard to tell that she was severely malnourished.

"My daddy’s not home, but he said he’s going to make the money back very soon so please don’t hurt us.."

The girl’s voice was small, defensive, like she’d rehearsed it. Her eyes flicked between the three of them, measuring which one was the threat.

Guiying crouched down so he wasn’t looming over her. "We’re not here to hurt you. What’s your name?"

She hesitated, then said quietly, "Song Yilin."

Behind her, the apartment was dark and quiet. The smell of old food and damp plaster seeped through the doorway.

Bai Feng kept his voice level. "Where’s your dad, Yilin?"

"He went to work," she said quickly. "He said he’d be back before dark. Please don’t take us away. We’re good. We don’t make noise."

Liang Xueyi stepped forward, her professional mask slipping for half a second. "When did you last eat?"

Song Yilin didn’t answer. She just hugged the doorframe tighter, like it was the only thing keeping her upright.

Guiying glanced at Bai Feng, then back at Yilin. No one moved to leave. There was nowhere else they needed to be right now.

"We’re not leaving her here alone," Guiying said.

Bai Feng nodded once, pocketing his phone instead of pulling it out to call it in yet. "Fine. We’ll wait. Let’s figure out what’s going on first."

Liang Xueyi crouched down to Yilin’s level, keeping her distance, voice soft. "Do you have a brother or sister inside?"

Yilin glanced back into the dark apartment, then whispered, "Lian’s asleep and Momo and Zhenzhen are with Daddy’s friends.."

Guiying frowned. Something about her tone had shifted. Less rehearsed.

Before he could ask, Yilin stepped back and let the door swing open a few inches more. Her voice dropped. "Daddy’s inside. He told me to say he wasn’t home. The men from before kept coming. He said if they looked like officials, let us in."

Guiying exchanged a look with Bai Feng.

So the first words had been a ruse.

"Yilin.." Guiying said gently, "is your dad hurt?"

She shook her head. "He’s just... scared. He said he’ll pay them back soon."

Bai Feng exhaled and crossed his arms, settling in. "We’re not loan sharks," he said, half to Yilin, half to himself. "But we need to talk to him."

Guiying nodded at Yilin. "Can you ask your dad to come to the door? We just want to make sure you’re safe."

Yilin slipped back inside without another word.

A moment later, footsteps sounded in the dark apartment, slow and heavy. The door opened fully, and a man in his early thirties appeared.

He was clean-shaven, hair combed, shirt ironed. No shadows under his eyes, no gaunt cheeks. The stark difference hit immediately — he looked well-fed, rested, like he’d been eating regular meals in a place that wasn’t this apartment.

Guiying’s eyes flicked from Mr. Song to Yilin’s thin frame, to the dark room behind him.

The contrast was jarring.