Hearing the news from Fumizuki, Wei Yenwu could be certain that this was absolutely no ordinary smuggling operation. Their goal likely had already been achieved; he just didn't know what they were actually planning to do.
Thinking of this, Wei Yenwu felt a wave of frustration. He felt that Lungmen had become a bit chaotic recently, with more and more things slipping from his grasp.
"You don't need to be so irritable. Isn't it a good thing for us that they've exposed themselves? It means that things we couldn't notice before are starting to appear right in front of us, doesn't it?"
Wei Yenwu naturally understood Fumizuki's meaning. He also didn't believe that such things were discovered on their very first operation. The real question was: how long had this been going on? Regarding the Ursus smuggling, Wei Yenwu didn't believe for a second they were just doing it for the money. But as for their goal, he couldn't guess the specific details for the time being.
At this thought, Wei Yenwu looked again at the photograph of Jeanne on his desk. This person also had her own tracks in Ursus, and she arrived here exactly during this period. These problems were all starting to surface one by one.
"It seems I really need to go find Old Lin during this time. For things like these gangs and smuggling, it's much simpler for him to investigate than for me to act."
He looked up at the Lungmen outside the window. For a moment, he felt that the current Lungmen was like a ship unknowingly sailing into dark undercurrents; one mistake could lead to the danger of capsizing. Fortunately, this crisis was discovered relatively early. As long as he followed this lead to investigate, there was no one he couldn't find as long as they were still in this city.
"As long as you can heighten your vigilance toward their movements, I believe you can handle the rest."
Hearing Wei Yenwu's self-muttering, Fumizuki stopped worrying about the matter. She had quite a bit of confidence in her husband's ability to handle various problems.
"Of course. If I couldn't even handle something like this, I wouldn't have had the ability to snatch you away back then."
Hearing his somewhat boastful words, Fumizuki gave him a helpless glance. This fellow was bringing up the past again; was there any inevitable connection between those two things?
"This is your office, after all. Aren't you afraid of someone barging in while you're saying such mushy things? If that happened, your status and authority as the City Ruler of Lungmen would be utterly ruined."
As she spoke, Fumizuki inadvertently caught a glimpse of Jeanne's photo on Wei Yenwu's desk. She had previously thought the photo on the desk belonged to a suspect; she hadn't expected it to be such a youthful and beautiful girl! Recalling that he had just met with that penguin, Emperor, could this be some new 'little' girl idol debuting in their company?
However, seeing how much importance Wei Yenwu placed on this person—even stealing glances at her while talking to his wife—Fumizuki felt that this person was not as simple as she thought.
"Who is this person, that she can appear on your desk? I don't recall you having a habit of following stars. Could it be that this person has some connection to this incident?"
Wei Yenwu realized Fumizuki had suddenly focused on Jeanne's photo and noticed he had forgotten to hide it. It wasn't good for her to discover it now. He didn't want to tell Fumizuki about Jeanne and Talulah without knowing the other party's objective; otherwise, the stimulation of a false joy would be quite a shock to her.
"It's nothing, just a suspicious person who entered Lungmen yesterday. As for whether she has a connection to this case..."
At this point, Wei Yenwu narrowed his eyes slightly. After thinking for a long while, he realized his understanding of Jeanne was nearly zero, making it impossible to reach any conclusion. He could only say:
"It's not clear yet, but according to the tracks my subordinates investigated, I can't rule out the suspicion that she's related to this matter."
"And yet you're actually letting her wander around Lungmen like that? In the past, when you encountered such a situation, the most lenient thing you'd do would be to reassign Shirayuki from my side to conduct 24-hour tight surveillance, wouldn't it?"
Fumizuki's intuition told her that Wei Yenwu was definitely hiding a portion of the intel regarding this girl. Combined with his somewhat abnormal behavior, her interest was piqued. It wasn't that Lungmen hadn't seen beautiful female suspects before; every time that happened, Wei Yenwu would borrow Shirayuki from her to tail and monitor the target immediately.
But this time, he actually didn't intend to inform her about this girl's situation. Did this mean this girl's circumstances had a massive connection to her as well?
At this thought, Fumizuki carefully observed the photo on the desk, trying to find some valuable clues within it. It was a girl with a strange temperament; her skin was far too white, an almost unhealthy white, and there was hardly any color in her face. Paired with that platinum-blonde hair, the whole person gave Fumizuki the feeling as if she had been thrown into a pool of bleach.
And yet, such a girl who was strangely white all over happened to be wearing entirely black clothes. The two temperaments of white and black manifested simultaneously on one person, yet they merged so harmoniously that there was no sense of abruptness. Those dark-gold eyes held a peculiar attraction; with just one glance, Fumizuki was certain she would never mistake those eyes the next time she saw them.
"Stop looking. She's just a suspect with some background; it hasn't reached the point where you need to worry. If you have nothing else to do, why don't you help me plan next year's work schedule..."
Seeing Fumizuki's growing interest, Wei Yenwu tried to divert her attention away from Jeanne to give himself enough time to investigate. But how could such 'little' tricks escape Fumizuki's eyes? She quickly realized Wei Yenwu wanted to pull her out of this matter and even wanted her to forget about this person.
"Tell me the truth, what exactly is special about this girl? Don't use next year's city planning as an excuse. According to what you told the penguin, there's still some time before next year. Why are you in such a hurry now!"
Seeing his wife's determined attitude, Wei Yenwu realized his attempt to hide the matter had backfired. His desire to hide this from her was far too obvious.
Wei Yenwu sighed, holding his forehead in deep thought for a long time. He was caught in a difficult choice between refusing to answer firmly or coming clean to his wife now. If it were anyone else, Wei Yenwu, known for his hardline methods, wouldn't hesitate to tell the truth or even turn it around and make them monitor the target themselves.
But... this was his wife, after all! She was one of the very few people he was unwilling to hurt, yet he was forced to make such a decision.
"It seems her secret has a massive connection to both you and me, and you've only just received the intel, right? That's why you're trying every means to hide it from me, and why you've seemed a bit irritable all day, right?"
Fumizuki seemed to see right through what Wei Yenwu was thinking. Her words left him with no way to rebut, so he could only respond with silence. As for lying? Don't be ridiculous; Fumizuki knew him far too well. How could someone who knew his every detail fail to notice the signs of a lie?
"Speak up. This is something we'll have to face sooner or later, isn't it? Rather than making me find out eventually, can't I gain some initiative now?"
Hearing Fumizuki's words, Wei Yenwu could only nod and agree. He took a deep puff of his pipe, exhaling the smoke after a long silence before saying:
"In that case, I'll tell you now. Originally, I was thinking of investigating more thoroughly before deciding how to tell you."
As he spoke, Wei Yenwu paced back and forth in the office, his eyes fixed on his wife, filled with helplessness.
"This child... my Black Raincoats once spotted her figure in Chernobog. At that time, there was another person with her, someone who has been missing without a trace for many years... Talulah!"