Chapter 123: Blessing

Qin Qing couldn’t bear to look closely at the children.

Their little faces were devoid of the softness and rosy glow that children should have. Instead, they were pale and sickly. Their arms and legs were covered in countless needle marks.

But the most heartbreaking thing was their eyes.

Empty, numb, like dolls whose souls had been hollowed out.

Whenever someone approached, they would instinctively flinch. Yet when a nurse came over with cold medical equipment, they remained eerily quiet, as if they had long grown used to the torment.

Qin Qing fled into the room next door, twisted open a bottle of cold water, and gulped it down. The icy liquid slid down her throat, but it did nothing to extinguish the fury boiling in her chest.

Forcing herself to calm down, she flipped through the children’s logs on her notebook.

And there, she found an unexpected name connected to the case.

Jiang Yuan.

The celebrity she had run into at the natural stone market with He Xu—the one who had triggered an unusually intense green reaction from the Crystal Ball.

At the time, Qin Qing had noticed his Sin Value wasn’t particularly high. She had assumed it was just some hidden marriage or secret child scandal, typical celebrity gossip. She was momentarily surprised, but something else distracted her, and she didn’t dig deeper.

Only now did she realize that all these children shared the same father—Jiang Yuan.

Yet Jiang Yuan himself had no idea.

A deeper investigation revealed that Jiang Yuan truly did come from a powerful and wealthy family, just as the internet rumors claimed.

He was the heir to Chengfeng Group.

Chengfeng Group, founded by Jiang Chengfeng—Jiang Yuan’s grandfather.

The Jiang family had only one male heir per generation, and Jiang Yuan was the sole grandson, the treasured jewel of the family.

A few years ago, several younger members of their social circle had lost the ability to have children due to extreme sports injuries or illness.

Jiang Yuan, being playful and carefree, had no desire to marry or have children at the time.

So the family ordered him to freeze his sperm.

Those poor children had been cultivated from the sperm stored in that freezer, grown in test tubes.

The System Panel couldn’t make a second-level association.

But the information already uncovered was enough to prove that the Jiang family was deeply involved.

Qingteng Hospital hadn’t shown any anomalies during the investigation, but it just so happened to be a hospital under Chengfeng Group.

What were the chances of that being a coincidence? These clues all pointed to a much larger conspiracy.

The implications of this case were far too serious.

After Qin Qing reported it, the authorities immediately issued arrest warrants.

That very afternoon, the core members of the Jiang family were arrested at various locations.

At the time, Jiang Yuan was filming a show, Jiang Chengfeng was drinking tea and playing chess at a wellness retreat, and Jiang Yuan’s parents were attending a meeting at the company.

Not just them—their secretaries, personal assistants, housekeepers, and other close confidants were all detained as well.

It all happened in full public view.

The news about the others was suppressed by the corporation, but Jiang Yuan was a public figure. Fans tracked his every move, and he was in the middle of a busy production crew.

That night, the internet exploded.

#Famous Male Star Suspected of Drug Use Arrested#

#Two-Character Surname J Star Behind Bars#

#Insider Reveals Popular Science Variety Show “Youth Journey” Halted Due to Unforeseen Circumstances#

#”Youth Journey” Scrambles to Find Replacement#

#J Star Suspected to Be Jiang Yuan#

#Jiang Yuan’s Studio Yet to Respond#

On the Special Investigation Team’s side, after the Jiang family was arrested, there was no need for further input from Qin Qing. The biological tissue samples from the bonsai lab were compared against their DNA one by one…

Most of the cultivated organs had no connection to the other members of the Jiang family. They all belonged to 84-year-old Jiang Chengfeng.

Qin Qing was still at her desk next to the Interrogation Room, writing her report and organizing the information she had gathered.

Suddenly, several people in white coats rushed in with a stretcher. Moments later, they carried Jiang Chengfeng out.

Qin Qing stood up and poked her head out, just in time to see the Captain storming out of the Interrogation Room, his face dark as thunder, the muscles in his cheeks twitching.

Meng Yuan approached and pried open his tightly clenched fist.

The Captain looked at Meng Yuan, took a few deep breaths, and his expression gradually returned to normal.

When he saw Qin Qing, he ground his teeth and said, “That old bastard refused to say a word in the Interrogation Room. Kept insisting on seeing his lawyer first. I threw the lab’s organ tissue match report and his multiple organ failure medical records in front of him, and he still wouldn’t admit anything. Played dumb, saying none of it proved anything. Even if the reports were real, he claimed he was a victim.

It was a done deal, and he still refused to budge. So Team Leader Cisha went in hard.

She told him that the lab called ‘Seventh Day’ had been completely destroyed—every researcher, every organ culture dish, all the technical data, and even the organs that were still growing and nearly mature.

That finally got a reaction out of him. But he thought she was bluffing. Until she played the enforcement footage, showing those nearly mature organs dissolving slowly in concentrated hydrochloric acid.

Then the bastard clutched his chest and collapsed. Didn’t even get a single word out.”

Qin Qing patted his shoulder. “There are still people under him who were directly involved. Sooner or later, someone will talk. If they confess, they’re just accomplices. If they keep their mouths shut, they’ll worry the Jiang family will throw them under the bus. Either way, someone will crack.”

They were still in the middle of their conversation when a call came in from one of the team members who had followed the ambulance. Jiang Chengfeng had lost all vital signs on the way to the hospital.

The doctors declared him dead, resuscitation unsuccessful.

Team Leader Cisha strode out of the Interrogation Room, took the phone from the captain’s hand, and gave a direct order to the team on the other end, “Keep a close watch on the body. Don’t let him pull a disappearing act. I’m filing a request now—until the investigation is complete, the body will be held by the Special Investigation Team.”

The Special Investigation Team had seen their fair share of bizarre cases. Everyone had a wild imagination.

Qin Qing, however, was staring at a branch on the Character Relationship Map connecting Jiang Yuan and Jiang Chengfeng’s father. It was slowly fading, disappearing.

She knew then that Jiang Chengfeng was truly dead.

Such an easy death was, in a way, a cruel mercy for a man who had committed such monstrous crimes.

Yes, Jiang Chengfeng was the one who started it all.

He was nothing if not “decisive and ruthless.” No wonder he had built the Chengfeng Group from the ground up and ridden the tide to success.

Never mind his cunning in the business world—just look at two incidents involving his own family.

He began to rise in his youth, and his wealth quickly attracted envy. One day, both his sons were kidnapped. During the standoff with the criminals, both boys were in grave danger. Jiang Chengfeng made a swift and cold-blooded decision: he abandoned his elder son, who was of average aptitude, and rescued the younger one, who had always shown exceptional intelligence. That younger son would later become Jiang Yuan’s father.

Looking back, Jiang Chengfeng later admitted that if he had delayed just a little longer, there was a good chance both sons could have been saved. He grieved over the loss, but never regretted his choice. In a life-or-death moment, if he could ensure the survival of one child with absolute certainty, he would never gamble on a slim chance to save both and risk losing everything.

The second incident came when his wife, emerging from the grief of losing a child, discovered that it was Jiang Chengfeng who had made the fatal decision. She vowed to divorce him and take their younger son away.

At the time, Jiang Chengfeng was in the middle of negotiating with a major client who could determine the future of his company. That client placed great value on personal integrity and family harmony.

Jiang Chengfeng first tried to reason with his wife, then even got down on his knees to beg her to delay the divorce. But she had already seen through him. Her heart was dead, and all she wanted was to protect her remaining son.

When he realized there was no turning back, Jiang Chengfeng staged an accident that killed his wife. He made it look like she had been overwhelmed by grief and taken her own life.

The incident was never investigated.

Afterward, he remained unmarried for years, had no known romantic partners, and raised his young son alone. His image as a devoted, grieving widower became the talk of both his social circle and the public.

That same image moved the client who had loved his wife dearly. Thanks to that connection, Jiang Chengfeng’s wealth multiplied several times over.

Ironically, on what would have been his and his wife’s golden wedding anniversary, Chengfeng Group launched a new home goods sub-brand. The logo was said to be based on his wife’s favorite rose design.

Such a selfish and cruel man.

And yet the son he raised turned out more like his gentle, soft-hearted wife.

Jiang Chengfeng’s plan was carried out by his trusted aides. He never told Jiang Yuan or his father. He launched the plan using sperm his grandson had banked in advance.

In his later years, he grew increasingly disdainful of Jiang Yuan’s father, whom he saw as weak and easily swayed by emotion. If the organ transplant had succeeded, he had every intention of reclaiming control of the company.

Still, the large financial movements had raised some suspicion in Jiang Yuan’s father. He just never imagined the old man could be this utterly deranged.

Inside the Interrogation Rooms, Jiang Yuan and his father were hit with one shocking revelation after another.

Their father/grandfather’s insane life extension plan, the surreal scientific experiments, the sudden appearance of twelve grandchildren/children, Jiang Chengfeng’s sudden death…

In their respective rooms, their minds had long since gone into overdrive and crashed. To them, all of this felt like a bad prank gone way too far.

Qin Qing submitted her report.

From here on, more specialized personnel would take over.

She called for Meng Yuan, and the two of them found a seafood hotpot place that served tom yum broth. Qin Qing asked them to double the bird’s eye chilies in the soup base. The pot came out a fiery red, as if it could set your mouth ablaze.

They ate a steaming, spicy meal and worked up a satisfying sweat.

Only then did that suffocating, clogged feeling in their sinuses and pores finally dissipate, leaving them clear-headed and refreshed.

Meng Yuan slouched in her chair, cradling her now-round belly, sipping from a cup of mango sago between breaths.

“Team Leader said that after this case wraps up, there aren’t any urgent missions for a while. We can take a break. I’m planning to go back to school, catch up on classes and homework. What about you?”

“Haven’t decided. First, I need a proper night’s sleep.”

Her phone buzzed with a new message.

It was from Wuyong.

【Yang Sang and Zheng Yi are getting married over the May Day holiday. Are you coming back? They didn’t want to bother you with work, so they didn’t tell you, but I figured you should know.】

!!!

Qin Qing was so shocked her neck practically twisted into a hook.

She called back immediately.

“Who’s marrying who? Did you type that wrong? How are they suddenly getting married? Did I miss something?”

Wuyong chuckled. “Even you can’t believe it, huh? The whole office was floored. Yang Sang even said that if you come back, he wants you to be their officiant.

He told us that the first time you met him, you did a fortune reading and said he was about to meet someone special, and to watch for a new girl in his life. So now, the happy couple thinks they owe you a toast for matchmaking them.

So? Coming back?”

“Of course I’m coming back!”

Finally, finally, some good news.

Qin Qing couldn’t help but smile.

Yang Sang used to be a so-called “Pet Communicator” who relied on psychology to scam people. Later, when Qin Qing opened her own studio, he became her first employee.

Zheng Yi had been a client during Qin Qing and Yang Sang’s very first case together—they helped her find her missing cat.

They had witnessed firsthand how that cat helped the young woman see through the chains of her marriage, giving her the courage to break free from a man who spoke of love while raising his hand against her, and from the toxic family that enabled him.

No one expected the two of them to end up together so quickly.

After hanging up the phone, Qin Qing stood by the window, staring at the plump, adorable succulents planted by the restaurant owner on the sill. She gazed at them for a long time.

Darkness always passes, and beautiful stories are always unfolding.

Before leaving the city, Qin Qing went to the hospital to visit the children.

She spent a considerable amount of Merit Value to erase all memories the children had since birth, and to a certain extent, repaired the physical damage their bodies had suffered.

No matter what the future holds, she hoped these children—whose very births had been orchestrated—could rediscover the world on their own terms.

A world that might not be perfect, but still brims with small, unexpected moments of beauty.

Qin Qing lowered her raised hand. The glowing motes in the hospital room faded away.

“Yiya…”

At some point, a little girl in the crib before her had woken up. Her dark, shining eyes—so different from before—were staring at Qin Qing with curiosity. Her tiny hands reached out, grasping at the air, as if wondering where those beautiful lights had gone.

Qin Qing smiled at her, and the little girl smiled back. Her not-yet-fully-grown teeth looked like a row of tiny millet grains.

Suddenly, the System Panel notified her of a large influx of Experience Points and a significant Merit Value reward.

She read the notification in surprise, then checked the little girl’s System Panel information. A knowing smile curved her lips.

So this little girl with the millet-grain teeth was, like Liang Jian and Professor Yang, a future heavyweight capable of reshaping an entire industry.

In fact, her potential impact far surpassed theirs. She had the power to drive a revolutionary transformation.

That was why the Merit Value she returned to Qin Qing was so much greater.

Qin Qing reached out and gently brushed her fingertip across the little girl’s forehead.

A cluster of light slowly sank into her skin.

The girl’s eyes were instantly drawn to the glow, crossing slightly as she tried to follow it.

Qin Qing tapped her between the brows, bidding her farewell.

Cherish the gifts Heaven has given you, little one.

The words lingered on her tongue for a moment, and when she finally spoke, she said, “Grow up well. Do what you love.”

Ahead lies the vast ocean, the shining stars, and mountains that will become level paths under your feet.