"If it happened now, it would probably be considered child abuse." Yang Yifan shrugged. "But no one would make a police report for me anyway. Even if someone did, you guys wouldn't bother."

Captain Miao said seriously, "If the suspect had indeed engaged in acts of child abuse, we will definitely handle it."

"Whatever." Yang Yifan let out a half-mocking scoff. "You sure know how to talk big. Once a child is born, they are a beast of burden the parents are raising. All their rights lie in the hands of those two people. Since it's something that belongs to them, of course either one of them can do whatever they want, unless the other person who also has the rights has something to say about it. The other person who has rights over me—my mum—only cries or thinks that the family's dirty linens should not be displayed in public, and takes the initiative to conceal the matter. How would outsiders like you handle it, what would you use to handle it, Captain Meow?"

"My surname is not Meow." Captain Miao finally heard clearly what she was calling him and his eye twitched. "Ms. Yang, surely you do not have a lisp?"

Yang Yifan narrowed her long, slender eyes and gave him a fake smile.

Captain Miao put on a poker face and gravely turned the conversation back to the topic on hand, "So, what you're saying is that Zhai Da'an and the rest are lying. They have also participated in the kidnapping of Wang Jiake, and that even includes your father, Yang Ping… Why? Your father even wants to blackmail you?"

"I didn't say that… Who knows? Back then, when my grandpa severed his paternal ties with Yang Ping, I don't know if that matter was ever officially notarised. If it wasn't, who knows, he might be back to seize his inheritance." Having said so far, Yang Yifan lowered her head and let out a laugh, as though to herself. "But, speaking of that, did this bunch of people readily admit to blackmailing and extortion? They really are cooperating with our police comrades."

Captain Miao felt that she was insinuating something. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing. I just feel that it's an injustice," Yang Yifan said. "I'm so poor that all I have is money. The thing I fear the least is being blackmailed and extorted. You want money? No problem! The problem is, no one has ever demanded money from me. They didn't even notify me and just directly put the video online to create a fuss. Ai, I'm going bald from this. Captain Meow, why don't you ask those other people who were just as unlucky as me and see if any of them had received any blackmail or extortion calls?"

Captain Miao's brows slowly drew together.

Regardless of whether it was Travellers' Sect or Beggars' Sect, no matter how much of a dogfight their quarrels were in private, they had a silent mutual understanding not to bring up the name of their sects in front of government officials. This was because in the late eighties in the last century, there had once been a strict crackdown on "black triads." Ever since then, regardless of whether they were righteous sects or demonic sects, they all learned to conceal themselves and live like normal people. If they went a little overboard, they wouldn't be able to explain the nature of their activities and might be slapped with a lawsuit. Hence, both sides worked very hard together to turn the matter from something major to something minor, wanting to turn the fight between two sects into an issue of "personal conduct." On the question of "blackmail and extortion," they were united.

"I feel that you are hinting something to me." Captain Miao involuntarily sat up straighter. "Hold on, I heard that on the day that your grandfather was hospitalised and received emergency treatment, there was a group brawl in your neighbourhood. Due to the fact that it did not result in any serious repercussions and both sides laid down arms, our colleagues at the police station only gave them an educational lecture. There's more to this matter, isn't there?"

"I said just now, my grandpa will leave behind an inheritance in the future," Yang Yifan replied. "Captain Meow, what I am referring to is not that lousy apartment that's pushing thirty."

Captain Miao couldn't be bothered to correct the way she called him. He immediately asked, "Then what is it?"

"That day, I accompanied Grandpa to the hospital and wasn't at home. These people wanted to barge directly into my house to look for something. They were stopped by my busybody neighbours." Yang Yifan lifted her eyelids that had fallen down due to exhaustion. There was a light in her eyes, bright enough to burn. She spoke slowly, pausing between each word. "They were looking for a jade-green bamboo stick."

She finally said those words.

Yang Yifan was born in Yanning in the early eighties. She had basically grown up in the "civil society."

When she was old enough to remember things, the various sects had, after a momentary period of reunification and glory, started to go underground once more. Yang Yifan had never had a sense of belonging to Beggars' Sect. She only remembered that when she was very young, some peculiar uncles frequently visited her home to look for her dad for drinks.

Once they drank, they were very noisy. They would not be done before three to five hours were up. They stank up the whole place and when they were drunk, they passed out everywhere. The floor would be covered with limbs sticking out at every angle, making their home look like a mass grave.

Yang Yifan hated them, not only because they were very annoying but also because every time that happened, her mother would secretly hug her and cry and natter endlessly that they were running out of money for food, that even the two yuan for Fan-Fan's kindergarten had to be paid by Grandpa, when on earth would the man of the house make something of himself? The two of them, mother and daughter, had such a painful, suffering life.

Before the child could understand what money was, the fear of poverty was already branded into her bones.

At that time, to Yang Yifan who had yet to reach schooling age, "Beggars' Sect" was a group of locusts that ate their family to poverty.

Later on, both of Yang Ping's arms were destroyed by Wei Xiao and those people stopped coming. Yang Ping, who had never been home before that, started to stay home from dawn to dusk. From an indifferent and irresponsible father, he became a gloomy and peculiar father. Sometimes, he drank on his own to drown his sorrows and talked nonsense when he was drunk, cursing the Beggars' Sect people for sucking up to those with power.

At that time, to Yang Yifan, "Beggars' Sect" was like a gambling game that her profligate gremlin dad was obsessed with.

Even later on, she was taken away by her grandpa and started living at No. 110. She finally gained a complete understanding of Beggars' Sect.

When she saw it clearly, she hated it even more. This was because there was not a small number of members in it that were evidently sound of mind and body but were just doing nothing. They proudly proclaimed themselves to be preserving the traditions of Beggars' Sect's "dirty clothing section" and did not feel the least bit ashamed to go around begging. If they lacked anything, they would boldly and confidently ask other people to give them material assistance. From day to night, the phrase "we're all brothers from the same family" was never far from their lips. They idled about and had no proper work to do. Every few days, they would get into some ridiculous conflict or cause some bullshit trouble and come to look for the Old Sect Leader to intervene.

Furthermore, these hoodlums and ruffians who did not do any honest work did not feel the least bit ashamed. They had always considered themselves to be from a "reputable and righteous" sect and were bursting at the seams with their sense of superiority.

The demonic sects were always more flexible than the righteous ones. Travellers' Sect produced a Wang Jiusheng and very boldly and decisively washed themselves clean of their dirty past. In a flash, they transformed themselves into "proper and serious" businessmen. The disciples in the sect showed their various remarkable abilities and used dishonest means to help the company make profit, and all of them led comfortable lives.

On the other hand, the "reputable and righteous sects" always seemed to be separated from the "winners in life" by a lofty wall. Not to mention that Yang Qing had spent an entire life working but was not good in business. Even if he was, there was no way he could set up a large company and earn money the way Wang Jiusheng did. As a reputable and righteous sect, it was a basic requirement to be "indifferent to fame and fortune." The reason everyone gathered together had to be the righteousness in their hearts. If they relied on business volume, how would that be proper?

Since time immemorial, heroes only pursued "vocation and love" and must remain a respectful distance from "wealth and beauty." Heroes only followed Heaven's law and did not have mortal lust.

In Yang Yifan's eyes, these two groups of people could be summed up as: one group was the genuinely shameless ones whose methods had been passed down through the generations; the other group was hiding their shame with a loincloth, hypocrites whose methods had no boundaries in their messed-up system of values.

But Grandpa Yang Qing was brought up by Beggars' Sect since he was a child and it was also thanks to Beggars' Sect that he made his name when he was young. It had been his spiritual home for his entire life. No matter how much Yang Yifan disliked it, she had no choice but to hold her nose and endure.

Since she could not hold on to this jade-green bamboo staff now, then it was time…

...for someone to flip this weiqi board.

"Let me show you something good." Yang Yifan took out her buzzing phone and waved it before Captain Miao's eyes. Someone was calling her, the caller ID showed "Elder Zhao."

She smiled. She put the call on speaker and turned on the recording function, then accepted the call. "Hello?"

"Xiao-Yang, it's me, Grandpa Zhao," Elder Zhao spoke without the least inkling of what she was doing. He first briefly asked about Sect Leader Yang's condition but very quickly, he could not restrain himself. His tone changed and he said, "Even though you are Sect Leader Yang's biological granddaughter, thinking about it, you did not formally enter Beggars' Sect, did you? You have never handled the sect's internal affairs and had never practised using the Dog Beating Staff. I see that the way you conduct yourself and your affairs also does not conform with our sect's traditions… It isn't appropriate for the Dog Beating Staff to be kept with you, is it?"

Yang Yifan looked at Captain Miao who was scribbling furiously and said to Elder Zhao, "What do you mean by this? My grandpa isn't dead yet."

"Let us talk nicely, don't lose your temper. Old Sect Leader is already advanced in age. His health will definitely be weaker than before after this round of hospitalisation," Elder Zhao said. "Actually, all these years, Old Sect Leader-"

"Has blocked off your road to fortune more than a few times," Yang Yifan interrupted.

"Hey, you…"

"Grandpa Zhao, Elder Zhao, I would like to ask, what are the traditions of your Beggars' Sect? You allow the disciples under you to engage frequently in shady businesses like stalking and getting evidence of love affairs, and even help the paparazzi take pictures and sell them for money. Are those the traditions of Beggars' Sect? How much of the money your disciples earned is to demonstrate their filial piety to you?"

"Who started those rumours? Utter nonsense!"

"At the start of the year, a hotel opened for business in the outskirts of the city. A group of your disciples were hired by their competitor and went over to create a disturbance. They ruined the hotel's opening ceremony and even got the police involved. That happened, didn't it?" Yang Yifan said. "Even if you have forgotten it, there is still a record of it in the police station over there."

Captain Miao felt that his own two ears were no longer sufficient and wanted nothing more than to grow another pair on top of his head.

Yang Yifan said, "But I heard that when these disciples were freed after the incident, surprisingly, not a single one of them were punished. It was all as per your special instructions."

"Those weren't my disciples!" Elder Zhao immediately refuted. Then, his tone gentled. "I just feel that everyone has their own difficulties and I was just helping to speak out for them. Xiao-Yang, not everyone has a chance to attend university like you and become a boss. Among our brothers in the sect, the majority are still people whose lives are difficult. If we can help, then we should help. If you can't help… you should at least be considerate!"

Yang Yifan scoffed. "Isn't that so? Money is hard to earn, shit is hard to eat."

"What are you saying?" Elder Zhao continued to say, "Compared to Travellers' Sect, are we Beggars' Sect not as united as them or is our name not as popular as theirs? Is there any reason why Travellers' Sect can not care at all about the swindling and tricking they've done all these years and prosper while we squander away the time we have and have no accomplishments at all? Our ancestors once had assets. It's just that at the start of the country's liberation, we handed them all to the country! Yifan, the Old Sect Leader is old now and his thinking is still old-fashioned. In consideration of his health, we shouldn't be bothering him so much with these trifling matters. Help your Grandpa Zhao pass the message—he can rest assured if the Dog Beating Staff is handed over to me. I'm not impulsive like Old Tian and I also won't ignore important matters like the other two. I guarantee-"

Yang Yifan cut him off, "I can't pass the message. Please pass it to him yourself via telepathy."

"You-"

Without waiting for Elder Zhao to finish speaking, Yang Yifan hung up right then. Her phone spun between her fingers. She raised her head to look at Captain Miao. "Heard that? Captain Meow, the waters are deep. They would rather admit to kidnapping and blackmail than to tell the truth to the police. Shouldn't you people investigate properly?"

"I'll say it once more. My. Surname. Is. Miao." Captain Miao stood up and turned to instruct his colleague. "Call a meeting and prepare to interrogate the suspects separately! Yanning is not a place for this!"

The surging wave was finally crashing on the shore. Everything hidden in the sand grains would soon have nowhere to hide and would be exposed to the light of day.

Yu Lanchuan's charging phone buzzed, vibrating until it fell off the desk itself. His eyes not leaving his computer screen, he reached out to catch it as deftly as though there were eyes on his ears. On the other side of the desk, Liu Zhongqi looked on so enviously that light was shining from his eyes. "Ge, can you-"

"No," Yu Lanchuan cut him off. "Someone's knocking on the door, go open it… Hello? Old Fish, what's the matter now?"

"The wind is blowing in the wrong direction, Master Lan!" Yu Yan lowered his voice in the call. "The higher-ups suddenly want to investigate the illegal societies in Yanning!"

Yu Lanchuan asked, "Is there yet another qigong master selling eggs in bulk and causing mischief?"

"It's not a qigong master! The news I heard mentioned Beggars' Sect and Travellers' Sect! Their names are specifically stated. My rank is not high enough, I'm still not sure what the exact situation is. When we arrested the qigong master the last time, that pack of Travellers' Sect ruffians attacked the police. We interrogated them three times and they would rather plead guilty than admit that they had an organisation backing them up. I know the truth in my heart but I was afraid of causing trouble for Old Master Yang and Meizhen-jie, so I didn't dare say anything… Listen to me. Don't poke your head into this and definitely don't meddle…"

Yu Lanchuan brows drew together swiftly.

Right then, he heard his younger brother who was opening the door say, "Are you looking for my brother?"

A familiar voice said, "Yes, please excuse me."

Yu Lanchuan nearly lost his grip on his phone. His attention that had been on Yu Yan was drawn away by this voice. He brushed Yu Yan off absent-mindedly and just barely managed to maintain his seated upright and frowning posture, his expression so severe he looked like he was handling matters for the United Nations.

When Gan Qing came in wearing a face mask, he gave her a proper and serious nod and said something completely unrelated to the matter at hand. "Okay, got it. If there's anything you need me to help with, just let me know…"

Yu Yan wailed, "What help, dage! Was everything I said just now a waste of my saliva? Please may I trouble you to withdraw your claws, stay low and stay alive, Alliance Leader! You fought with Beggars' Sect that night. Captain Miao's people will definitely ask you some questions. Remember, you don't know anything… Ai, you really don't know anything in the first place anyway."

Yu Lanchuan, "..."

Gan Qing heard every single word and quickly hid her laugh behind a cough.

Yu Lanchuan hung up on Yu Yan, his face impassive.

"What are you laughing at? You… What is this?"

Gan Qing put a paper packet on the desk. "English mock exam for self-taught students. I'm here to ask you for pointers on some questions."

Liu Zhongqi was peeking in from the door and once he heard the word "English," his brain started to curdle. He turned and slipped into his own room, not daring to eavesdrop anymore.

He thought he was being quiet but the two people in the room had already heard him. When the gremlin kid had gone away, Yu Lanchuan finally opened the packet. "Isn't the self-taught English exam free marks for you?"

"Not free," Gan Qing said almost inaudibly. "It's asking for my life."

A stack of photographs fell out of the package, together with a printed list. It was a list of names and addresses.

"This is…"

"Eight years ago," Gan Qing said. "Mudpool Backlane…"

Yu Lanchuan was at first baffled. Then, he abruptly realised something and looked up in disbelief.

"...Wei Changsheng's house."

Gan Qing sat under the desk lamp. The lamplight shone on her eyes above her mask, putting a soft halo on them.

"Little Master Yu," she asked. "That day at the cemetery, you said that you can help me investigate the cause of Wei Xiao's death. Do you still mean it?"

Yang Yifan stayed at the police station until very late before Captain Miao sent her out himself. She suddenly thought of something. "Coco… The girl called Wang Jiake, she shouldn't be an offender, right? Is she still here? Can you arrange for me to meet her? I have a couple of things to say to her."

Wang Jiake happened to be there. Originally, she had been taken home by her parents but another special investigation team asked her to come back to assist them with investigating scam loans.

Yang Yifan met her in a small waiting room. The last time, the two of them had met amidst dazzling luxury; one person soaring on the wings of success and speaking without fear, the other swept along by the glamour and at a complete loss.

This time, they were united in being shrouded in misery.

When Wang Jiake saw her, her gaze flickered away awkwardly. But after she avoided looking at Yang Yifan, she couldn't help stealing glances at her. She prepared herself to receive a dressing down the very next minute.

"Coco, right?" Yang Yifan came to a stop two steps away from her. "I'm not here to get even with you."

Wang Jiake said cautiously, "Please have a seat…"

"No thanks. I only have a couple of things to say, I'll leave right after."

Wang Jiake rubbed the corner of her clothes between her fingers nervously.

Yang Yifan looked at the girl and remembered herself from ten years ago. Young, nothing to her name, a pair of curious and greedy eyes on her face. The way she had desired everything was truly the pinnacle of naivete.

"You will slowly realise that no matter how hard you work, you still can't live the life you want. Nothing goes your way and you still have a pile of troubles by your side that you can't resolve. You won't succeed in your entire life and you'll never become the person you want to be in your entire life."

Wang Jiake was stunned. Yang Yifan was mocking her to her face!

But thinking about it carefully, did she need other people to mock her? This was reality. She could not refute those words.

All of a sudden, sorrow welled up from within her and tears started forming in her eyes.

"...Those who are weak will pretend that they are not at all sorrowful and switch to pursue ever cheaper happiness, losing themselves in gluttony, in materialistic desires… all those things from which they can obtain a momentary satisfaction," Yang Yifan said softly. "Because they feel guilty, they even have to shout out loud and put themselves on parade, encouraging others to follow suit, desperately putting on a show of being bold and confident that their way is the right one."

Through her tears, Wang Jiake looked at her, a little unable to react.

"I am that weak person," Yang Yifan said. "I'm sorry. I lied to all of you."