Chapter 296 - 66: Diary

She bowed deeply, expressing her gratitude.

"However, I’ve already made up my mind. I’m sorry to have troubled you all."

After school, in a hospital room.

Li Yini held a fruit knife, peeling an apple for her mother.

Her mother stared blankly at the ceiling, her gaze vacant. She had been this way for many years, ever since she collapsed in Guangxi during a nationwide, aimless search for her son with his father. She hadn’t left her hospital room since.

"Your teacher... your homeroom teacher... called this afternoon..."

Her mother’s voice was weak and halting.

"Yini, Lele’s life is a life, but your life is also a life... Mom and Dad will spend the rest of our lives looking for him, but you... you’re different. You’re his older sister, but you’re also just a child... You can’t sacrifice your own life for your brother’s sake."

Li Yini shook her head.

"I was the one who lost Lele. If I go abroad, how... how will I ever find him?"

To this day, she could never forget the day her brother was snatched away by human traffickers.

The scene was like a recurring nightmare, haunting her every night.

When she was five, her brother was not yet two. He was just a toddler, unable to run or jump, and she was holding his hand as they played outside.

It was her carelessness. They gradually wandered away from the crowded park, and she followed her brother into a small alley.

Suddenly, a man in sunglasses and a mask appeared and tried to grab her brother.

She immediately hugged her brother tightly and screamed for help.

But...

How could a five-year-old girl fight back against a grown man?

The man brutally snatched her brother away, kicked her to the ground, then jumped into a van with him and sped off.

She chased after the van, crying, screaming, running and running, running and running.

She fell, scrambled back up, and kept running.

Until the van disappeared from sight...

For all these years since, she would tremble uncontrollably whenever she saw a van, unable to stop herself from peering into its windows.

Every time she saw a little boy on the street, she couldn’t help but stare, desperate to see a shadow of her brother.

Countless times, Li Yini would suddenly break down, clutching her head and sobbing, hating herself... ’If only I hadn’t taken him to that alley, he never would have been lost.’

"Yini..."

From the hospital bed, her mother struggled to turn her head to look at her precious daughter.

"Don’t cry. It hurts me to see you like this."

Li Yini froze.

She hadn’t even realized she was crying.

She quickly wiped her eyes with her sleeve and forced a chuckle.

"Heh, I’m fine, Mom. It’s no big deal if I don’t go to Cambridge. It’s too cold there anyway. I don’t like it at all."

Her mother sighed, took her daughter’s hand, her eyes welling with tears.

"Yini, don’t always blame yourself so much."

"Your father and I... we’ve never blamed you."

...

「August 11, 2022. Weather: Sunny.」

My acceptance letter arrived. Imperial Capital Police University.

My college entrance exam scores were more than enough to get in here.

It’s just a shame I couldn’t get into the best police academy in the whole Dragon Country... I couldn’t get one step closer to my brother.

...

"Yini, congratulations."

Her homeroom teacher chuckled, handing Li Yini her high school diploma and the class photo.

"I know what you were thinking, that you had your heart set on police academy, so congratulations! Your wish came true, your dream is realized!"

"It’s a bit of a shame with such high scores, but life’s choices are in your hands. I wish you the best!"

"Thank you, Teacher."

Li Yini took the documents and bowed in thanks.

"Thank you for taking such good care of me these past three years. My dad is rarely home, always out searching for my brother, and my mom has been bedridden for years, so our family’s financial situation has been very difficult."

"But you always found ways to help me, applying for scholarships for me, even adding money to my meal card... I knew about all of it, actually. Teacher, thank you so much."

"Ahaha..."

As if he’d been caught doing something wrong, the homeroom teacher blushed and scratched his head.

"Oh, that’s just what a teacher should do! Yini, after you graduate, you’ll be a police officer too. You’ll have to help others and do righteous things!"

Li Yini nodded, her eyes filled with determination.

"Don’t worry, Teacher. I will definitely become a righteous police officer and bring all the lawbreakers to justice! I’ll protect the peace!"

...

「September 9, 2023. Weather: Sunny.」

A few days ago, a powerful and influential figure, world-renowned and of high standing, approached me.

He said he wanted to invite me to join a mutual aid association.

I thought it was the kind of mutual aid association formed by parents of abducted children, so I readily agreed.

They say there’s strength in numbers. If this important person was helping, there would surely be more hope of finding Lele!

But who would have thought...

This mutual aid association wasn’t the support group for finding relatives that I had imagined. It was something with a very strange name—

The Regrets Mutual Aid Association.

...

"Li Yini, I believe that at the gathering just now, you’ve already witnessed the miracle I performed."

Wu Yuanzheng sat in his chair, looking at the girl before him.

"The followers all call me Lord Priest. If you’re willing to join and let me help you make up for your regrets... you can call me that as well."

Li Yini shook her head.

"Mr. Wu, thank you very much for your kind offer, but... as you know, I’m a student at the Imperial Capital Police University. I can’t possibly get involved in a cult-like organization."

"Please don’t mind my bluntness, but a mutual aid association like yours is illegal. I hope you can see the error of your ways and stop these activities immediately!"

"Besides, your so-called ’tricks’ to make up for regrets are nothing more than an abuse of power, money, and connections—a deception aimed at followers who are blinded by their regrets."