The Missing Coal Heiress and Her Dead Friends
There is a word "widow" or "widower" for someone who lose their spouse, "orphan" for someone who lose their parents, but no word could ever describe a mother who lose a children, for the pain of it is ultimate bereavement and the hole couldn't be replaced till the heart stops beating." - (unknown)
Kwangju police office was more crowded than usual. Mr. Big was not in the front office, either. Xi and Jasper looked at each other then walked inside the office faster to find out what happened. From afar, there was such a noise came from the officer room. It looked like someone barged into the officer room and made a fuss about something. As Xi and Jasper arrived at the front of the room, they looked at each other once again and were puzzled. The phones kept ringing and all the officers were so exhausted answering it all.
A lady dressed in silk dress and fur coat argued fiercely with Captain Cheng. She looked so loaded. But as soon as the argument got heated, Captain Cheng's face turned red as he controlled his anger towards her. She acted so snobbish and rudely. She pointed her fat finger at Captain Cheng face and in a rude way, threatened him. Meanwhile, comparing to the rude fat lady's acts, another lady was standing beside her and said nothing. Her attitude was so timid. She looked like she held her tears for something indescribable.
"I already sent my assistants here to look for my precious daughter, Jen Hui. She is the precious daughter of mine and Robert Hui. Don't you dare to say that my daughter is dead!!!! She is still alive, I feel it!"
The rude lady screamed then started to weep. Even she was rude to others, anybody else could tell how much she loved her daughter. She cried painfully, so did the lady beside her. Later on, they knew that two female students from Kwangju High School were missing. Jen Hui and Shu Yi Liang. They were known as best friends at school. Both of them were definitely loaded, surprisingly. But the only fact they knew for that time being was one of them passed away, and the other one still reported missing. But which one?
Xi heard the familiar name. Robert Hui? She tried to remember his name. Aha! She finally remembered that he was the successful businessman in coal mining throughout Asia. Even he was listed on Forbes 30 richest man in Asia. He was really the big money and this time, his daughter was reported missing. This would make such a commotion around Asia. Instinctively, Xi opened her notebook and wrote every detail she heard from the heated argument. She smelled something fishy with the case. The victim body and all the clues they found led them into some presumptions. But unexpectedly, Jasper pushed the book Xi held and shook his head as he gave her sign "not now". His serious face and the heated atmosphere made Xi finally pulled herself together. Then she closed and kept her notebook back to her bag immediately to prevent any fuss of it. Then Jasper pushed her out of the office and sent her home.
"I think that it's better for you to get out of it first. Take some nap or else. I don't care. As long as you stay out of it for a moment."
She was a bit shocked. But she didn't feel offended at all as she was used to be treated like that. For now, she just found her news material. She could just report it. But when Xi wanted to talk back, Jasper already left her and went back to the room.
She just shook her head in disbelief.
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As Jasper came back to the room, somehow Captain Cheng finally handled the problem successfully and calmed the ladies.
"Ladies, we invited you here not to get us into a fight like this. We need to conduct DNA test and we need the sample from you. It will help us to ease the investigation. Please be cooperative and we will do our best to solve this." stated Captain Cheng to the ladies.
As Captain Cheng stated the soothing but firm words, the rude and the other lady finally agreed to do what officer asked her to. The investigators then led them to another room to take the sample. Captain Cheng then sat himself and took a deep breath. He looked so tired handling that rude lady.
After the fuss in the early afternoon, all the officer including Captain Cheng felt so tired and hungry at the same time. For the first time, after 17 years, Kwangju sector got really big case that related with a "big money" like Robert Hui.
Captain Cheng took a deep breath. He still remembered how thick the report layer that he had to finish more than a decade ago about the case of a rich family that moved from Japan to Kwangju then completely murdered in the next month and their house got burned. Captain Cheng sighed. It had been more than a decade, the suspected perpetrator was already sentenced to life imprisonment but somehow he still got goosebumps as if something was not right yet. The famous case of Hong Family.
Captain Cheng took a glance at Jasper, the new guy. Jasper already sat down on his chair and put a toy box on his desk.
Every time Captain Cheng looked at him, he kept reminiscing that case and got a really strange feeling. He was indeed a mysterious young guy. He was too perfect for a young guy in his early 30s. He dressed gorgeously. His achievement as detective was also remarkable for such a young age. After Captain Cheng got his transfer announcement to Kwangju, he was a bit surprised. He did some background checking about his whereabouts, work achievement, family, but at the end, there was nothing wrong with him. Although, it was still hard to Captain Cheng to believe why such a remarkable guy left the headquarter just to move to a medium sector like Kwangju. His awareness arose out of the blue once again.
Jasper suddenly looked at Captain Cheng then nodded to greet him. His gesture awoke Captain Cheng consciousness back from his wild monkey thoughts which kept jumping around about the past.
He shook his head because there was nothing else he could do except brushing off the thoughts and started to investigate this coal heiress case.
For now.
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After being kicked out of the office by Jasper, Xi decided to continue her work at convenience store while eating cup ramen. She found herself tired, hungry and dizzy at the same time. Her life definitely turned into a roller coaster ride, recently. She didn't know how to respond it, whether she had to be happy and proud because she had new superpowers like that or angry because these superpowers got her in many troubles already.
She just sighed and opened her notebook and started to write a new news about this missing rich coal heiress to the column. An hour had passed and she finished her story. Then she sent it to her editor's email and she also sent it simultaneously to Mr. Liu as email CC (Carbon Copy). As an employee sometimes she had to be a little tricky and "show off" her work to avoid something unpleasant. She did it not to become a people pleaser like her coworkers, who loved to please their superior without any work done, but she did it to get recognized by her superior especially a difficult superior like Mr. Liu. Although she hated her working environment so much, on the contrary, she loved her job very very very much. The legacy of her mother was left inside her and connected with her every time she did her job. She felt like somehow her mother helped her in many ways from above.
She looked up at the sky and smiled.
"Mom, I managed this job so far, and somehow. Thankyou. I'll keep moving on."
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In the distance, a tall man walked in a dim hallway. He looked much like a slender man. He got a mask then made him faceless with no expressions. Although he limped heavily as he moved, his footstep sounded so firm. He got an iron bar on his right hand to help him walked. The rusty iron odor was so strong and could make anyone around got dizzy and felt harder to breathe. He walked deeper and then arrived at a small door in the end of the hallway. He opened the rusty doorknob. He ducked as he walked through the door as it so small comparing with his height.
Surprisingly, the room was not as small as expected. It was a spacy dark room. But somehow that man was no trouble to walk around the room as if he got used to use that room. Then he sat down on a chair. He panted. It was kind of hard for him to walk that far with that limped foot.
He cleared his throat and suddenly kicked something on his foot hard.
"WAKE UP YOU LAZY MORON!"
A girl with a messy hair and her hands tied up curled around his foot. She howled in pain but no sound made as her mouth was sealed with a tape.
The slender cripple man grinned.
"You need to feel unbearable pain before you die! As it is for all of your sins!"
The cripple man whispered at her face but his eyes got teary as he whispered. His eyes sparked a raging hatred and huge will of revenge.
The girl was extremely scared and started to weep after hearing what the slender man said.
The slender man then got up from the chair and walked to a wall.
There was a photo of a beautiful girl on the wall. She wore a black glasses. She dress beautifully in a nice casual dress and a boater hat. She smiled so bright at the camera. He looked at it and found it endearing. But every time he looked at her, he felt unbearable pain as if he already lost her forever.
"My Dearest Yuqi."