Always by your side

Ch 6. They kept running

Present

Wei Ying POV

"Hey, so do you know my dad? His name is Lan WangJi, "Asked Shizui, his eyes widened.

I had the urge to kick myself for revealing that information in front of the young officials. But despite my many lives, my tongue was quicker than my brain. So, after a few seconds of pause, I finally said.

"Yes, we were inseparable when young," I said while scratching my face "however, I got injured, and I was away healing myself. So you are Lan Wangji's son? I must have seen you long ago; you have grown so well" I put on my brightest smile. That must be enough for now. I prefer not to scare him away by revealing too much. The boy's face eased a little, and then I proceeded.

"Wen Ning, please help us here. Could you find information about these addresses and ask forensics to hurry up? Let's head to the station soon and report about this".

---

After a while, Wen Ning and I were released from briefing, and we were at our desk looking for information. Well, it is Wen Ning's desk since I still didn't have one.

"So, what's up with these bills?" I asked

"Well, they are high in today's standards, but the addresses are suspicious," he said "the first one used to be a hotel run by the Nie family, but the place was burned to the ground three days ago. The second one used to be old Wen RuoHan's casino, and the last one is a monastery- turned orphanage run by Jin's family state," explained Wen Ning.

"Let's go to visit the old casino ground. It would be difficult to enter the monastery without permission of the family head, and whatever was in the hotel might have been destroyed. The fire department might be still investigating".

"You don't want to talk to Sizhui more?"

"Yeah, right, let's bring him with us".

Wen Ning was looking at me speechless.

"You are worse than Lan Wangii with the poor kid. I wonder how he may be so well adjusted".

"Hey, manners, you have no right to judge us. Plus, he only knows that I am a friend of his father and that I am a cop. So it is better if he knows me as a person and a capable detective than go directly and say: Sizhui, I am your father".

"Right, let's go," said Wen Ning defensibly.

It wasn't that easy to get inside the building. After the fall of the Wens, the place stayed in the hands of the government for a while. And it was used as a storage facility for evidence. But then they sold it because they needed more space. The people that paid for it seem to be a small scrap collection and recycling company. Fortunately, they agreed to have a visitor without a warrant. So after the necessary paperwork, we drove to the former casino, kids in toe.

"There is an older man that lives here. Nobody knows his real name, but most of us just called Mei Mei. In any case, he uses this place as his repair shop. He used to live with another guy here, but we haven't seen them together in a while. Mei Mei is out today and said you could enter at your own risk. He is a bit weird," says the guard.

"Does he works a lot with welding, you know, industrial stuff...?"

"Not, primarily cars, household stuff, and antiques. Not that I cared, though," said the guard while opening the door for Wei Ying and the party.

The kids turned on the lights and saw the hall full of tables with brakes, mufflers, transmissions, and spare parts. Other rooms store TVs and freezers, while others have old swords.

"Now you can look for what you need and leave. It seems that I am required at the entrance again", said the guard watching the phone. "So I have to leave."