Red Light

It Begins

 As soon as Yu Bin had fallen asleep, Nie Huaisang became aware of the events taking place next to him. He continued to stroke the hand he was holding. It was comforting to have Yu Bin safe and close by.

As Wei Ying had opened the floodgates and began talking, Nie Huaisang had taken out his phone and hit Record. Unobtrusively, he placed it on the bed to get the best recording he could without disturbing anyone. They might throw it out as inadmissible due to Wei Ying still being under sedatives but they might not. It was worth a try.

He watched Lan Wangji comfort the broken Wei Ying. Nie Huaisang was a keen observer of individuals. There was something about the two men. A connection he couldn't quite put his finger on. Their unconscious physical interactions were closer to established couples. People who had been partners for years. These men had spent less than two conscious hours together. Total.

When Wei Ying had fallen back to sleep, Nie Huaisang had taken his phone and stopped the recording. He labelled it, noted who was present and put the recording in its own album for easier retrieval. He went back to holding Yu Bin's hand and tried to give the Jiang siblings some space to deal with what had happened to Wei Ying.

-----

It had been over an hour since Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli had walked in on their little brother sobbing and talking about how their mother had sold him to a pimp. Their reactions had been shocked horror expressed in totally different ways.

Jiang Yanli couldn't breathe. Her mother wouldn't do something this totally despicable, callous, cruel. But the proof was right before her. Her beloved baby brother pleading for Lan Wangji to not let Madame Yu hurt her. To save her from her own mother after everything he had gone through. She moved to the sofa in the room before her legs gave way. Pulling out her phone, she sent a text of six words.

'I was wrong. I need you.'

-----

Jiang Cheng stood, cradling his sleeping nephew and listened to Wei Ying talk about being beaten, raped. Begging not to go back to that while trying desperately to save him and ShiJie. His mother had sold his Di-di? Had known those things were being done to him?

As Wei Ying fell asleep and ShiJie sat down, Jiang Cheng began to pace. Mother had been the one who told him Wei Wuxian had decided to travel. She was the only one he knew that actively hated his brother. Suspicion was one thing but this? There was no doubt Wei Ying was telling the truth. Jiang Cheng had just never realized how awful his mother truly was.

He glanced down at the small boy in his arms. Somewhere along the way, he had failed his brother. He hadn't saved him from the hell Madame Yu had put him through. He wouldn't fail to protect him again. Not Wei Ying. And now, not Wei Yuan.

His eyes hardened. Sitting on the other end of the sofa from Jiang Yanli, he pulled out his phone.

The minute the phone was picked up, he began talking.

"I need an arrest warrant filled out. I will give you the information."

"Ready, Inspector."

"Name Yu Ziyuan." It took a further twenty minutes for Jiang Cheng to give the department's night secretary the basic information.

"Offense, sir?"

Jiang Cheng looked at Wei Ying's sleeping form and then at Jiang Yanli's tear filled eyes.

His voice was firm. "Human trafficking. I want it ready to go in the morning with a search warrant request for her residence as well. Make sure the grounds, vehicles, all of it is covered. Keep this quiet. Do you understand?"