The Devil Doctor's Spicy Love-Chapter 444: Spread wings

Syaoran was watching Anming and Delan in the distance. His chin loosely rested on his fingers, leaning back on his wheelchair.

He looked up, feeling a shadow loom over him. He smiled. "Inspector Song."

Jia wasn’t sure where to start.

"You played quite a long game."

"Is that so?"

"You could have revealed Miss. Nuwa’s existence way earlier when she stumbled at your place."

"Where would have been the fun in that then?"

"I think your brother who suffered a long separation would disagree."

"And? What would have happened even if he had known? Our parents would have gotten rid of her in a heartbeat. He was way too vulnerable back then."

He stared at Zihan at a distance gently draping his black coat over her shoulders. The bliss in his eyes sparkled too bright to ignore. His usual plain countenance turned sunny as if it was daylight.

Syaoran looked back at Jia. "You have to wait till the fruit turns just ripe enough to eat. Impatience will leave you with a bitter taste and probably a bad stomach."

Jia’s eyes narrowed. "Did that ripening of fruit also mean letting many innocents suffer in the process?"

"I don’t understand."

"You wanted to take the Hou family down as much as your own."

"Oh?" He blinked. "Did I ever claim as such?"

"You will never admit it but I know. Taking down two huge political families is not a joke. Your parents sent Zhuo Zihan’s lover Hou Jielun’s way and wanted to take that control from him. They never treated you with respect either so I understand why you hate them. But you could have taken them down - just them alone. But you wanted to drag the Hou family down too."

He simply stared.

"There was no way that Shi Ningkai would have attended the engagement ceremony tonight - not if he knew that Uncle and Aunt would be present too. He is not stupid. Aunt would obviously recognize him if they happened to meet. Yet he still came tonight."

"He is Jielun’s doctor. He must have been sick."

"Hou Jielun is not known to attend public events because of his unstable state of mind. He would have been left cooped up in his room under the watch of his maids and butlers. A doctor wasn’t really needed unless his life was in danger. So I think somebody convinced him to be there."

Syaoran raised a brow.

"I can think of two people. Yong, who was acting as his aide. But she could have failed because she still didn’t know him that well. So someone from the Hou family itself was also involved. A close enough family member to make some convincing excuse for Shi Ningkai to be there. I take that person to be Hou Anming. You know both of them."

"Me? I don’t know the aide."

She smiled. "But you know the leader of the place she comes from."

Silence.

"I think the reason why Shilin was so calm about Miss. Nuwa is because he knew she was with you. He knew from long ago that she was always alive. Was you and Shilin being present at the amusement park really a coincidence? Huayuan’s boss and the man who kept a woman from Huayuan hidden with him to be at the same place, same time seems awfully convenient to me."

"Coincidences happen, Inspector. Where are you trying to get at, I wonder."

"Where I am trying to get is that to ruin the Hou family, you needed something more than just Miss. Nuwa’s disappearance. What other damning reason to give than them being involved in the illegal trade with Shi Ningkai to bring women for Hou Jielun? Then Hou Tengqi’s involvement with Xie Mulan for the game became the icing on the cake."

"I see it as a happy ending for everyone."

"It’s not a happy ending for those women who directly or indirectly became Shi Ningkai’s victims in all these years. After Miss. Nuwa’s escape, you probably quickly learned how they ’took care’ of Hou Jielun’s needs long ago. You might have planned a long game, but a lot of women could have been saved in this span had you exposed Shi Ningkai before."

Jia thought about Ehuang, the innocent teen, whose parents had performed the horrendous surgery on her. There were many more young women like her who had suffered due to Shi Ningkai’s cult’s brainwashing.

She looked back at him. "Why bring down the Hou family? Only because of Miss. Nuwa?"

Syaoran simply lifted his shoulders up once. "It was all Huayuan’s plan to plant a spy on Shi Ningkai. I had nothing to do with it. For me personally, seeing my dearest brother happy is the only enough reason I need. They needed to be gone so that my brother could spread his wings," he smiled.

"...Does that also include Hou Anming?"

He arched his brow.

"I was wondering. Why did you visit the hospital that day when you heard that Hou Anming was injured because Jielun had thrown a vase at his head? If anyone, I assumed it would be Zhuo Zihan to drop a visit only for the sake of appearances. Yet you personally came too, especially knowing what they did with Miss. Nuwa. Now knowing what you knew, I don’t think you would have really cared about the Hou family that much - Who got injured and who didn’t."

She took a step forward as she held his gaze.

"I think you wanted someone else to be able to spread his wings too."

"Really?" He tilted his head. "Everyone else except for Delan seems to be going to jail."

Jia smiled. "And I wouldn’t be so surprised if one of them would walk out a free man soon enough. Take care Mr. Zhuo."

She left to join the Yang family again. Yang Bingqing was the first to embrace her in a loving, crushing hug whereas Mingshen was trying to get her apart from her with a dry expression.

Syaoran watched them for a long moment before settling his gaze at Anming. He was seated calmly in the police car, staring right back at him through the back door window.

He looked away and summoned his able guard, always dressed in black and always holding a stone-faced gaze. She grabbed his wheelchair and waited.

"It’s cold. Let’s go back."