"You people go ahead. I'll catch up," Su Man's brother said flatly, his eyes glinting. The other officers saluted without question and filed out of the room, leaving only him, Su Man, and Mr. Lin behind.
He folded his arms, lips curling into a smirk. "Sis, you're lucky this time. That little brat walked out on her own."
Su Man gave a delicate scoff, but before she could answer, Mr. Lin slammed his palm against the table. Bang! The sound echoed sharply.
"Lucky?!" he barked, his face contorted with anger. "You call this luck? That brat remembers everything! Don't you see? She's nothing but a ticking time bomb!"
The officer leaned back, unbothered, his smirk never faltering. "So what? She's just a child. What can a little girl do?"
Mr. Lin's breath hitched, his chest heaving as his eyes grew wild. "No one stays little forever," he hissed through clenched teeth. "You think I don't know that? Every day she grows, every day her eyes sharpen—it's like looking at her mother all over again."
The officer's expression hardened. "Then you should've sent her to the asylum when you had the chance," he shot back, his voice low, sharp as a blade.
"Shut up, Su Xiyao!" Mr. Lin roared, his voice booming with fury. His face flushed crimson, veins bulging at his temples as his fists trembled at his sides.
The air between them grew tense and poisonous, like a storm about to break. Su Man's eyes flicked nervously from her enraged lover to her indifferent brother, her fingers tightening around her teacup until it threatened to crack.
Outside the mansion, the senior officer paused under the gray morning sky, drawing in a deep, weary breath. His eyes lingered on the grand gates of the Lin residence, its gilded walls standing tall like a fortress—cold, imposing, and suffocating. He shook his head slowly, the weight of unspoken truths pressing on his shoulders.
"It's so obvious," the younger officer muttered, his voice tight with suppressed anger. "Mr. Lin killed his wife for that mistress of his, then twisted it into a farce. His so shameless. How can everyone just ignore it?"
The senior officer's sharp gaze snapped to him, voice dropping low but cutting. "Mind your tongue before someone else hears you. Truth without evidence is nothing but a noose around your own neck. A man like Lin can crush you with a single lawsuit. Remember that."
The younger officer stiffened, saluted with clenched fists. "Yes, sir." Yet his eyes burned with reluctance, resentment smoldering behind his obedience.
The senior officer softened just enough to add, "And remember this too—Su Xiyao is Madam Su's elder brother. He will shield them at all costs. That's the battlefield we're standing on."
The younger officer's eyes widened. Shock flickered across his face before it shifted into bitter understanding. At last, he bowed his head, murmuring a subdued, "Thank you, sir." The senior officer gave no reply, only walked away with the slow heaviness of a man who had seen too much and could say too little.
** ** **. **
Dr. Lee, barely in his early thirties yet carrying the quiet weariness of someone twice his age, stepped into his office. He pulled off his lab coat with mechanical precision and hung it neatly on the rack. With a sigh, he unfastened the top button of his shirt, rolling his sleeves halfway up his arms as though loosening invisible shackles.
Crossing to the water dispenser, he filled a cup and raised it to his lips—but froze. The faint sound of voices echoed in the room.
His head snapped toward the corner where the television flickered, still on from before he rushed to the emergency earlier. The broadcast made his heart jolt.
"Breaking news: The young miss of the Lin family, Lin Hye Ji, has gone missing… An open offer of millions has been made for any information on her whereabouts."
The cup slipped from his fingers, shattering against the tiled floor with a sharp crack. Water spread like tears across the room, soaking into his shoes, but Dr. Lee didn't move. His eyes were locked on the screen, wide and stricken.
Memories came flooding back—Mo Xin Yu. Her laughter. Her quiet elegance. The way she had walked into his life like sunlight and just as quickly walked out. He had thought she was happy in her marriage, so he had stepped aside, burying his feelings and wishing her a lifetime of happiness from afar.
Now… she was gone. Murdered.
His chest tightened painfully as another memory stabbed through his mind—little Hye Ji, pale and fragile in the hospital bed, clutching his sleeve with trembling fingers while pretending to forget. Her eyes had held more than a child's sorrow. They had held secrets, ones she dared not speak aloud.
The little girl had feign amnesia to protect her self.
Dr. Lee pressed the heel of his hand against his reddening eyes, forcing back the burn of tears. His voice broke in a whisper meant for no one but himself.
"If I had only persisted… If I hadn't backed away… maybe… maybe things would have been different."
His regret was a blade twisting inside his chest. The love he had buried, the woman he had lost, and now—the only piece of her left in this world was gone too.
Drawing in a ragged breath, he shut his eyes tightly, as though closing them could hold back the storm in his heart. But his body trembled, and when he finally exhaled, the sound was jagged, raw, and heavy with grief.
He staggered to the couch and layed on it and folded his self like an anbadoned child