Like that beam of blazing fire in Director Chai’s eyes, because he hadn’t received Principal Chen’s answer for a long time, it turned from bright to dim, until he turned into ashes in the end, not containing a spark any longer.
“Older Brother, you don’t believe me, is that correct?” Director Chai sighed heavily, a very bitter laugh hung on the edges of his lips, “Of course, almost twenty years have passed, who would believe in that? Even I can’t believe it, who would believe what I say?”
This Director Chai, who had climbed to his current position after retirement, step by step sighed heavily once again, as if he wanted to exhale all of the melancholy thoughts in his heart out, “It’s been almost twenty years, if it wasn’t because of Ye Jian’s appearance, I would’ve very likely spent the rest of my life in a muddled manner.”
“Before Red Plum died, she said if she died, she asked her comrades in the unit to take good care of her daughter. Older Brother, none of us promised her, and said she was overthinking things, who would’ve known she already had a premonition, a premonition that she would’ve died.”
The fire was blazing too hot; Principal Chen used a fireplace tongs to pull out one of the firewood, then used the wood ash to smother the flame; between his minute movements came Principal Chen’s knowing voice, “When she left the village, she had actually left with the determination to die, because, at that time, Ye Jian’s mother had an inkling that she would very likely not come back.”
After announcing such an important thing out loud, Principal Chen’s expression didn’t change too much because he had already known everything from Old Uncle Gen.
Director Chai’s face was full of shock, he thought Ye Jian didn’t know about anything, but now that he heard that she actually had a feeling about it, then, the dissipating fire in Director Chai’s eyes suddenly blazed up again, and was burning even brighter and hotter than just now.
Principal Chen looked at him quietly and said softly: “You can relax, little lass Ye would investigate it thoroughly. Only we hope for her to wait until two years after she graduated from the military academy when she had solidified her position in the military before she started investigating what happened to her mother.”
“We didn’t tell little lass Ye; it’s the kid herself who had her own suspicions. Besides, she already has her own list of suspects, just that she can’t withdraw herself right now to investigate.” Principal Chen said with a sunken expression as he spoke slowly, his calm tone sandwiched a thin chill, “We will investigate the through, but truly it won’t be now.”
Director Chai couldn’t accept that “Since you already know about it, then why not now? So many years have already passed; if we don’t start investigating, it is very likely we would never figure out who the true culprit is!”
“Let’s say Ye Jian is currently in the sights of someone; the moment she has any actions, she would be hurt. Would you like to see that?” One sentence from Principal Chen made Director Chai’s piercing gaze sink, making him press all the flames of his anger back down.
He asked after drawing in a deep breath, “Seems like the true culprit was already seated in a very high position! The third-year after Red Plum’s death, we had a batch of comrades who retired, they wrote a letter to the town in September, and received a letter at the start of October, stating Ye Jian had ‘died prematurely,’ after drowning in an accident.”
“At the end of December, we sent one of our retired comrades to personally visit Fujun Town to get some information, and similarly received news that Ye Jian had already ‘died prematurely,’ from then on, we stopped inquiring into it, all of us thought that was the truth.”
“After encountering Ye Jian in Tongzhou, she personally told me, saying that she felt like it was even a miracle that she could live safe and sound, then I realized someone from the shadows had been trying to stop us from inquiring news about Ye Jian, even buying off our comrade who had come here to confirm the news, so that we would completely believe the daughter of Red Plum had ‘died prematurely’ due to drowning.”
“Now Older Brother is saying, Ye Jian is currently being watched by someone, the moment she makes any actions she would be hurt, that is something the few old veterans like us wouldn’t want to see the most! The reason the true culprit is preventing us from meeting Ye Jian is nothing more than being afraid that we’ll tell Ye Jian that Red Plum’s death all those years ago was very suspicious.”
