February 13, the 20th day of the first lunar month—an auspicious day for travel!
Early in the morning, Li Yi and Jiang Xue got up.
After entrusting Yun Rui and Yun Jin to the care of their eldest sister and Juanzi, and leaving Yang Miao behind to protect them, the couple, accompanied by Zhang Ziqiang, Yang Zhiwen, and Zhang Feng, left the Li family residence and headed straight for the Jiang family’s ancestral home.
That’s right—they were setting out for Yong County today.
Since the journey was long and the weather hadn’t warmed up yet, traveling with children would be inconvenient and could easily lead to illness.
So, after discussing it, Li Yi and Jiang Xue decided not to bring the children on this trip.
With their eldest sister and Juanzi there to help look after them, the couple felt at ease.
When they arrived at the Jiang family’s ancestral home, Ye Lingyun had already packed everything up.
Shortly after, the group boarded a car and headed to the airport…
At 3:00 p.m., the plane landed smoothly at Chang’an Airport.
Since the flight wasn’t particularly long and it was a regular flight—with no sudden takeoffs or rough landings—everyone felt pretty good.
Even Ye Lingyun, who usually had a weak constitution, didn’t suffer from motion sickness today—a rare occurrence.
After disembarking, the group had barely reached the airport exit when they spotted a middle-aged man in a police uniform approaching them from a distance.
Upon seeing Ye Lingyun, the man smiled warmly and said, “Hello, sister-in-law! Welcome to Qin Province!”
Ye Lingyun took a closer look at the middle-aged man in front of her and asked, somewhat uncertainly, “Are you Jianqiang?”
“That’s right, Sister-in-law!”
Ye Lingyun looked at him and remarked with a touch of emotion, “It’s been a few years since we last met. You look so weathered—I thought you were only forty-three or forty-four this year?”
“Forty-four. It’s just that working in our line of work is really grueling—nothing like how easy Brother Shiying has it!”
“He doesn’t have it easy either—his hair has gone quite gray!” Ye Lingyun remarked.
“It’s just part of getting older—it’s inevitable!”
The middle-aged man continued, “My brother was actually planning to come pick you up himself today, but there’s an important meeting at the ministry that he has to chair, so he sent me to pick you up instead!”
“No problem—work comes first!”
Ye Lingyun then turned to Jiang Xue and Li Yi and said, “Xue’er, Yi, this is Uncle Hu Jianqiang. He and your Uncle Hu Zhiqiang have been childhood friends with your dad since they were kids!”
Li Yi and Jiang Xue immediately stepped forward and said, “Hello, Uncle Hu!”
Hu Jianqiang looked at Jiang Xue intently for a moment, then sighed and said, “My child, you’ve suffered so much!”
“Back when your older brother and I went to Yong County to bring your mother home, why didn’t we think to investigate? If we’d been more thorough back then, you wouldn’t have had to suffer for all these years!”
No sooner had he finished speaking than Ye Lingyun shook her head and said, “It’s not your fault. None of us could have imagined that family would be so wicked. Besides, if you two brothers hadn’t risked your lives to take me away back then, I might have…”
“Sis-in-law, please don’t say that. We grew up together. Back at the Yan’an Childcare Center, you and Brother Shiying took such good care of me and Xiaoying. How could we just stand by and do nothing when you were in trouble?”
Then Hu Jianqiang changed the subject and said, “Sis, let’s not dwell on that. I’ve already arranged a place for you to stay. I’ll take you there right now!”
“Alright!”
The group then walked out of the airport and got into the jeep that had been waiting for them for quite some time!
The car quickly entered the city and drove through the urban area for about half an hour before finally pulling into a large compound.
When Li Yi saw the prominent sign reading “Qin Provincial Public Security Bureau Guest House,” he was slightly taken aback.
He hadn’t expected that Uncle Hu had arranged for them to stay at the provincial Public Security Bureau’s internal guesthouse—clearly, the other party held a high-ranking position.
But then again, considering that he and his father-in-law had grown up together in the orphanage, their parents were certainly no ordinary people. Most of those who lived to see 1949 were founding heroes of the nation.
Even those who didn’t live to see the founding of the nation were all heroes and martyrs, and the state took great care of their descendants.
After settling them in, Hu Jianqiang took his leave.
After Hu Jianqiang left, Li Yi asked curiously, “Mom, what position does Uncle Hu hold here that he was able to arrange for us to stay here?”
Ye Lingyun shook her head and said, “I really don’t know about that, but I do know that Uncle Hu is the head of the public security system here!”
Li Yi was slightly surprised, then said, “No wonder!”
“After all that running around, you must be exhausted. Go back and rest. Uncle Hu said he’d treat our whole family to dinner tonight, so we need to be well-rested for that!” Ye Lingyun said.
“Alright!”
With that, Li Yi and Jiang Xue left his mother-in-law’s room.
………
At six o’clock that evening, Hu Jianqiang arrived again and took everyone to the Chang’an Restaurant.
When Li Yi, Ye Lingyun, and Jiang Xue walked into the private dining room, they saw three middle-aged people—one man and two women—already waiting for them.
Upon seeing the group enter, the middle-aged man seated at the head of the table immediately stood up and said to Ye Lingyun with a smile, “Sister-in-law, I’m truly sorry I couldn’t pick you up at the airport today!”
The middle-aged woman to his left also stood up and said, “Lingyun, you look so much better now. It’s truly a blessing from heaven!”
“Brother Zhiqiang, Sister-in-law, and Xiao Ying, it’s been so long! I’m truly delighted to see you all!” Ye Lingyun replied cheerfully.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Hu Zhiqiang turned his attention to Li Yi and Jiang Xue, then said, “Young lady, you must be Xiao Xue, right?”
“Hello, Uncle Hu, I’m Xiao Xue!”
Jiang Xue then pointed at Li Yi and said, “Uncle Hu, this is my husband…”
Before Jiang Xue could finish, Hu Zhiqiang interrupted, “No need for introductions!”
Hu Zhiqiang then looked at Li Yi with a scrutinizing gaze and said, “Your name is Li Yi, right?”
“Hello, Uncle Hu. I’m Li Yi!”
For some reason, Li Yi couldn’t shake the feeling that Uncle Hu was looking at him strangely.
How to put it? It was like a police officer interrogating a suspect—there was wariness, scrutiny, and a faint sense of restraint.
But since they shouldn’t have any history together, this expression and gaze were a bit puzzling.
“I’ve heard Shiying mention you—you’re a resourceful young man!”
When he said the word “resourceful,” Hu Zhiqiang’s tone was slightly heavy.
Hearing this, Li Yi’s heart skipped a beat; it seemed he’d caught onto something.
But just then, Hu Jianqiang’s voice rang out: “Bro, everyone’s here. I think we should have them serve the food.”
“Go ahead!”
While they waited for the food to be served, Hu Zhiqiang and his wife, along with Hu Jianqiang and his wife, immediately began catching up with Ye Lingyun, reminiscing about their childhood together decades ago.
Li Yi and Jiang Xue couldn’t really join in on these topics, so they could only sit there and listen intently.
Taking this opportunity, Li Yi began to analyze Hu Zhiqiang’s “peculiar” attitude toward him.
Li Yi could tell that Hu Zhiqiang didn’t harbor any hostility toward him; the words he’d spoken earlier seemed more like caution.
He was just an ordinary citizen—what could possibly make a high-ranking police official so wary of him?
Suddenly, Li Yi thought of those people in Yong County.
It must have been the things he’d done in Yong County that had caught this man’s attention.
Although his schemes against the Tang family, the Tan family, and Liu Ermao had been carried out in secret, a thorough investigation would likely uncover plenty of clues.
After all, back then, he was new to the area and had no one he could truly trust.
Most of his schemes had to be carried out through Long Zhanjun and his gang of underlings, and they simply wouldn’t hold up to scrutiny.
Perhaps those methods were indeed rather unscrupulous—such as luring Tang Meilian’s son into gambling and then using that to force Tang Meilian into compliance.
To be honest, this was already borderline illegal. It must have been Director Hu who uncovered these details during his investigation, which is why his attitude toward Li Yi had been so peculiar.
Once he had sorted this out, Li Yi stopped dwelling on it. Although the methods weren’t exactly honorable, he didn’t regret a single thing.
As for what others thought, he couldn’t care less!
Just then, the conversation between Hu Zhiqiang and the others suddenly turned to that incident from years ago…
……..