Chapter 273 - 207: Two Cities

"That young man had dark skin. He was a little shorter than me, about up to my ear, and was wearing light-blue ripped jeans and a solid black T-shirt."

Ni Guangli tried hard to recall the person who had bumped into him.

He wasn’t like those unobservant men who wouldn’t even notice if their wives wore a new outfit.

Ni Guangli had always been a refined man who paid close attention to his attire.

On top of that, his daughter had been sensitive and spoiled as a child, and her various demands often left his head spinning. For example—

"I want the tangerine one, not the vermilion one! WAHHH! Daddy, why don’t you understand me?"

"Daddy! This isn’t lace trim! My deskmate’s trim doesn’t look like this!"

"Why aren’t these buttons little hearts! Daddy! I want little heart buttons!"

"WAH! Daddy!! This is a Chinese rose, not a camellia! WAHHH, I want a camellia necklace!"

...

His daughter didn’t have a mother, and hired help was never as attentive as a parent. Ni Guangli didn’t want his daughter to feel insecure around her classmates, so he put a great deal of effort into her clothes and accessories.

Even after she went to college, he would often buy clothes and jewelry and mail them to her at school.

Over the years, Ni Guangli had become quite knowledgeable about women’s fashion.

So when he gave his description, he was particularly specific:

"The man was wearing long, silver sun-protection sleeves—the shimmery, ice-silk kind—with a cuff of matching lace at the wrist. At the time, I thought to myself, ’This guy looks pretty sturdy, but he’s a total sissy.’ Thinking back on it now, wearing sleeves like that in the middle of summer... something was definitely fishy!"

The police officer saw him recalling the details seriously and didn’t interrupt or offer an opinion.

To clear his name, Ni Guangli had no choice but to rack his brain.

"Because of those sleeves, I subconsciously took a few extra glances at him. He was wearing a black mask, so I couldn’t see his face, but he had a tattoo on his collarbone, so I..."

"Wait, what exactly did the tattoo look like?"

"At first, I didn’t notice he had a tattoo because his crew-neck T-shirt covered his collarbone. But he was very thin, and the hallway outside the restroom was quite narrow. When we passed each other, he deliberately bumped into me, and his collar slid to the side, revealing a small, red camellia flower."

"A camellia? What kind of camellia? If we showed you some pictures now, could you identify it?"

"Yes!"

When it came to camellias, he had plenty of experience!

Next, the police asked him many more questions, over and over. He didn’t understand interrogation techniques, but in any case, he had a clear conscience and answered whatever they asked.

He didn’t know how much time had passed before someone came to take samples of his blood and urine and cut a few strands of his hair.

Ni Guangli was fully cooperative.

After the interrogation ended, he got down from the chair and was taken to a small, windowless room. Inside, there was nothing but an iron bed welded to the floor.

The middle of the iron bed was a solid, fixed piece of wood. Lying on it wasn’t too cold at this time of year.

After the long ordeal, his back ached, so he went to lie down on the bed for a while.

A short while later, someone opened a small hatch on the door and passed him a boxed meal.

It was twice-cooked pork over rice. Unfortunately, the plastic container didn’t have any chopsticks, only a short-handled spoon, which made eating a bit difficult.

After he finished eating, two sturdy police officers came to take him to drink water and use the restroom.

Worried that using the toilet would be inconvenient, he didn’t dare drink too much water.

After using the restroom, he was returned to the same room. There was no form of entertainment, and no one spoke to him.

The room was bare except for the single bed, and the snow-white walls didn’t have so much as a single black dot on them.

Suffering such an undeserved disaster, Ni Guangli felt so angry and wronged that he nearly burst into tears.

With nothing else to do, he could only lie back down on the bed to rest.

He was half-asleep when, in a daze, he was taken out for questioning again.

It was the same interrogation room, the same chair. Ni Guangli was utterly exhausted. Locked into it, his heart felt numb.

In this state, when he heard a question, he would often answer directly without even thinking.

He had no idea how long this interrogation lasted.

Everywhere he went, there were bright incandescent lights and no view of the sky, causing him to lose all sense of time.

After this interrogation was over, the officers moved him to a different room.

This time, the bed in the room had a mattress, a pillow, a thin blanket, and there was a toilet in the corner.

Ni Guangli wasn’t young anymore. After such a frightening and shocking day, he didn’t have the energy to think much. He entered the room, collapsed onto the bed, and fell asleep.

’Anyway, it’s like they say: a clear conscience fears no accusation.’

He believed the officers wouldn’t wrong him.

After all, he was a major taxpayer, and he’d been arrested in his own hometown. Not to mention the unlikelihood of anyone playing dirty in a case like this, even if they wanted to, they wouldn’t dare mess with him lightly.

Having thought it through, his heart settled down.

’In any case, my daughter isn’t around, and there’s no wife or elderly parent at home. Lu Xun’s wedding is still several days away. I don’t need to report my whereabouts to anyone, so it’s not a big deal to cooperate with the officers’ work.’

’These criminals are despicable! It would be best if they were all rounded up and shot!’

As Ni Guangli slept in his cell, Ni Bingyan and her two companions had just arrived in Liucheng.

This was the closest city to the plane crash site. More than six hours after the incident, the families of the missing passengers were gradually arriving from all over the country.

To properly handle the matter, the state had set up a special task force, which had arranged for dedicated personnel to receive them.

As the three of them deplaned, they saw a large sign at the exit, where staff in green vests were responsible for greeting the families.

A staff member saw her red, swollen eyes, paused for a moment, and immediately led them toward the reception hall.

Liucheng Airport was now incredibly crowded. Airline, airport, and government staff; civilian and official search and rescue teams; armed police, military personnel, and medical staff... all were converging on this location.

Ni Bingyan’s eyes were swollen from crying, and her voice was too hoarse to speak. She had just entered the terminal when someone recognized her.

It was impossible for her not to show her face at a time like this, and as long as she was out in public, she would be discovered eventually. Furthermore, Sang Yuan and Shui Sulan were also well-known. With the three of them appearing together, trying to hide their identities was completely unrealistic.

She didn’t have the energy to worry about any of that right now, so she simply followed the staff member openly.

No sooner had she left than the news of her arriving in Liucheng as the family member of a passenger on the crashed plane was posted online.

This incident was not only the biggest story in the country but had also become a major international event.

The moment the news broke, it captured the attention of netizens.

Her eyes were terribly swollen, and her nose was red from crying. When high-definition photos appeared online, her fans were all heartbroken for her.

It was only when they saw that Shui Sulan and Sang Yuan were accompanying her that the fans felt slightly relieved.

At a time like this, even anti-fans couldn’t bring themselves to say anything malicious, not that she had many anti-fans to begin with.

Many people had already gathered in the reception hall. Everyone was wailing, their cries heart-wrenching.

But when Ni Bingyan arrived, she had no time for tears. She immediately found a staff member and demanded to join the mountain search party.

"It’s pouring rain right now, and it’s getting dark. The terrain in that mountain forest is complex. For everyone’s safety, non-professionals are not allowed to enter the mountains."

The staff member refused her request without hesitation. Fearing she might lose control, a line of armed police officers stepped forward and politely asked her to return to the reception hall to wait for news.

Sang Yuan and his mother had been on the phone making calls ever since they landed. Someone had told Shui Sulan the truth: "That part of the mountain is gone. The plane bored a huge crater into the mountaintop. Survival is... unlikely."

Knowing Ni Guangli’s chances of survival were slim, the mother and son had to change their strategy and focus their energy on Ni Bingyan.

"If we go up the mountain now, not only will we be no help, we’ll just get in the way. It’s better to wait here. I’m sure there will be news soon."

How could Ni Bingyan not understand this logic?

But she just couldn’t sit still.

Sang Yuan reminded her, "Do you want to call your uncle? He’s a local, maybe he has better channels for information."

Ni Bingyan’s eyes lit up. She immediately accepted the suggestion, took out her phone, found a quiet corner, and called her uncle.

Shui Sulan and her son looked at each other and sighed in unison.

At a time like this, it was better to be doing something than nothing at all.