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 Lan Wangji watched his brother and Dr. Yu leave the hospital room. After finding out Wei Ying was fine, he was ready to take another step. He turned his chair toward Jiang Cheng.

"I want to know who Madame Yu is." his voice was almost monotone. From the siblings's reactions and Jiang Cheng's ability to recite this woman's information, he had his suspicions but he needed to know with certainty.

Jiang Cheng looked down then straightened his shoulders. His face felt stiff, brittle as he opened his mouth to speak.

"She is my mother and Wei Ying's adopted mother." the words tasted bitter and settled like ash on his heart.

"Why would she sell him and then threaten her own children to keep him in that hell?" There was a stirring of anger in Lan Wangji's eyes.

Nie Huaisang was paying careful attention to the conversation at this point.

"I don't know." His voice was raw. The detective knew he was telling the truth.

"How long was he there?"

"Six months. I think..." his voice trailed off. "She told me he was traveling. He's an artist and he does things that surprise me sometimes but he never answered any of my calls. Any of my messages. I think he was gone almost a month when I realized this wasn't busy or doing his own thing. He was gone. There was no use on his passport but it wasn't in his apartment. I went through every piece of information I had. Tracked every connection I could find. I brought in Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang to help me." Jiang Cheng was staring at a random spot on the floor as he spoke, reliving the fear and horror when he realized his di-di was missing. The inner turmoil of the decision to share the information with his sister who also joined the hunt.

And the nagging suspicion of his mother who had told him Wei Ying was traveling. Said he wanted to experience the world from a new perspective. She had laughed at that point. In hind sight, as a police officer, if any other suspect had done that, his instincts would have been flashing danger signals immediately.

But who wants to believe their mother is capable of calculated evil. Of selling his little brother? He couldn't wrap his head around it. How did she even know who to contact to make this happen? What the hell else was his mother up to?

The inspector and detective watched the progression of his thoughts slide painfully across Jiang Cheng's face. The man was in torment. Caught in an awful situation that was not of his choices or choosing. It didn't matter. If all of this was true, the siblings's lives would be different from here on out.

Nie Huaisang sighed. "We didn't realize Yiling was Wei Wuxian. We had the pieces - no, I had the pieces but I didn't get it put together." He looked at his police brethren. "I apologize Jiang Cheng. I knew we were looking for Yiling. If I had looked at the painting more closely, I would have seen the name and we could have had him out of there days ago." Regret stood heavy in his voice.

"Painting?" Lan Wangji looked back and forth between the inspectors.

"My brother is a painter. Don't tell him I said it," Jiang Cheng unconsciously grimaced at the thought of the teasing he would get at this admission, "but, he's good. Very good. He painted a picture - wait."

He carefully laid Wei Yuan down on the sofa and stood up. A sigh of relief. "My feet were going to sleep." he mumbled embarrassed. Digging out his phone, he looked for something on it and passed it to Lan Wangji.

"This painting."

The painting was larger. Taller than Wei Ying. Parts of his body were defined by red paint. The parts that weren't, were a photo realistic painting of Wei Ying. Lan Wangji glanced up startled at Jiang Cheng.