Red Light

Decisions

He was pacing his office. Trying to decide.

It had been three hours since he had originally called Homicide and Wu Haoyu still hadn't hadn't seen a soul.

He had filled out his report. Printed out all the pictures. Placed a call to his priest asking for prayers for Mo Xuanyu. Had tried to start processing the next piece of evidence but he just couldn't do it. His concentration was on the manilla envelope on his desk instead of his screen. When he almost deleted the hard drive he was supposedly examining, he gave up and quit.

The last of the three additional calls he had made to Homicide had turned up a bit of news. Apparently, everyone was busy on search warrants. Literally everyone. The night shift was due in soon but Wu Haoyu didn't want to wait anymore.

Bribing the secretary with her favorite coffee for a week, he not only got Nie Mingjue's phone number but his location.

In a sudden moment of decision, he downloaded the contents of thumb drive A47319 to his lap top. Putting it into his messenger bag, he grabbed his jacket and headed out the door.

____

Yu Ziyuan's day had not improved any after the punch to her face.

The steel mirror in the bathroom had shown her a distorted view of her black eye and swollen cheek. She had never been punched in her life much less had her eye blacked.

Fury bubbled in her throat and ate at her stomach. She looked no different than the street trash around her.

'I am Yu Ziyuan! I am not like this scum! I will learn. It will only be a matter of time before I run this place.' she told herself angrily. Her decision made, she exited the bathroom. The woman who had punched her was leaning against the wall.

"You didn't bow. You saw me but didn't bow. No manners at all. Were you raised in a whore house?" the woman sneered with a grin. "This once, I will forgive you. I feel merciful currently."

She nodded her head at several women who bowed respectfully as they passed.

"See? A perfect example." She turned back to Yu Ziyuan. "Now. Let me see you do it."

"I would rather fuck the whole police force." was the flat reply.

"Kinky... I like it... Perhaps you want me to notice you... Is that it?" The woman looked her up and down. Yu Ziyuan was middle aged but she had kept in shape. She was slender and reasonably toned. "I think I might sample you. Tonight... would you like that, Yu Ziyuan?"

Madame Yu looked as startled as she felt. She had told no one her name.

"Don't worry. I've already arranged to share a cell with you. Amazing what you can get for a simple blowjob." the woman grinned again. "We 'trash' are pretty direct in getting what we want. No schemes. Just action."

Her hand whipped out and slapped Yu Ziyuan before she could duck.

"See? Simple. Direct. Effective." she stated softly into her ear. "You may call me Ma'am."

Yu Ziyuan's head was spinning from the slap.

"Ma'am?" she questioned not quite able to understand what had been said. "Why would I call you Ma'am?"

She was hauled closer to Ma'am's face by a hand full of hair.

"Because I said so. You are going to be so fun to break..." Another slap that flung Yu Ziyuan up against the wall and Ma'am walked away.

"Tonight..." was tossed over her shoulder with a laugh as she left.

_____

Song Lan was pensive.