章 15: Flawed law

Mingshen raised his brow. "My name is Mingshen."

Limei laughed. "Ishen!"

"Mingshen."

"Ishen!"

"Mingshen."

"Ishen!"

Mingshen took his scalpel out of his pocket and picked Limei in his arms.

"Yang Mingshen! What are you doing showing your scalpel to my daughter!" She glared at him, horrified. "Put it away!"

The air around Wei got gloomier and bleak with the hint of danger. "Yang Mingshen…"

"Clearly, she needs some training to speak my name correctly. Don't worry. She is in good hands. It's not too late. I can still rewire her brain before she starts to follow in her mother's footsteps. While I am at it, I should take a look at your son too," he sighed, "Haish so much work."

Lihua gritted her teeth and threw a pillow at his head which he easily dodged.

Limei grabbed one of the buttons of his shirt and laughed as she tugged and played with it. "Ishen!"

He stared down at her silently and shrugged.

Jia cuddled Weiyun in her arms and sat on the couch too. He was busy chewing on her hair.

Wei took a seat on the opposite couch and tilted his head. "You said you wanted to ask me something."

Lihua curiously alternated her gaze between them. There was once a time when Wei had shot a bullet in Jia's chest for being a spy and which had caused Lihua and him to have a painful separation.

But now her husband and sister looked like any other pair of brother-in-law and sister-in-law after fighting with Jiang Zhen together.

She looked at them with a warm expression.

How times change…

"You look creepy, little chili."

"..."

"Shut up! A psycho doctor like you is the last person to call me creepy!"

Jia left them to their arguments and looked at Wei. "Mingshen told me about Huayuan."

Wei tilted his head. "Huayuan."

Lihua chirped and asked, "What is Huayuan?"

Mingshen smirked. "Red light district."

"..."

Lihua's face blushed for some reason. "I-I see," she coughed, "Why does sis want to know about Huayuan?"

"We got a case today. A little girl was kidnapped. Thankfully, we caught the culprits in time and she is safe now."

"Oh that's wonderful! Hmph! Those culprits should rot in jail!"

Wei blinked and looked at Jia, surprised, "The police handled the case?"

"...More like I bulldozed my way through."

"Then I understand. Huayuan doesn't allow anybody to interfere with their matters," Wei calmly said.

"I heard a lot about that. First from Mingshen and then from Commissioner Zhong. What I want to know is how exactly the deal between Huayuan and Underworld went through? Apparently, the talks between Huayuan and the police department are a secret. Is the deal from your side an underworld secret too?"

"No. The deal was fairly simple. As long as the sex workers are not coerced into sleeping with clients they don't want, we won't touch Huayuan."

Jia asked, "But how do you check that they are not breaking their part of the deal? I heard the previous tyrant, Long Sicong, wasn't exactly so innocent."

"Yes. Dad used to keep him in check."

"So Huayuan wasn't under the underworld's protection?"

"No."

That took Jia by surprise.

"Jiaaa…" Weiyun giggled at her.

Jia smiled and squished his cheeks. She looked back at Wei and asked, "I thought the underworld was in charge of such businesses."

Wei pursed his lips. "Huayuan has a long history with the underworld and not a very friendly one. When Jiang Zemin and previous generations were in charge of the red light district, they had thoroughly exploited the sex workers. They were abused and sold as mistresses. Abortion rate soared high and many women lost their lives because of dangerous pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. That brought bad blood between us."

The Jiang generation was truly a generation of tyranny.

"My grandfather brought reforms in his time and later, Dad took over as the Mafia King. Naturally, he vowed to make it a better place. We were always against such treatment. But the mental and physical damage was done so badly that nobody in Huayuan wanted to associate with the Mafia King's family anymore because of the Jiangs. They refused to trust us. So Dad let them become independent."

He tilted his head. "In that sense, Huayuan was already given autonomy from our side long ago. It got on papers only six years back when I was just about to take over."

"Six years ago…Long Sicong died."

"Yes. That's still a mystery to us. Though we strongly feel that he was killed," Wei said, unfazed.

"Because Long Sicong was a bad apple."

"Honestly, he wasn't initially. The one thing that was common in the people of Huayuan was their hatred for the police and the underworld, which included Long Sicong too."

"...Why the police?"

Mingshen chuckled. "Because no matter how bad the Jiangs treated them, the underworld at least recognized sex workers. But in the eyes of law and justice, they were and are deemed as illegal, which means criminals. And how do normal people treat criminals? Are they welcomed with a shower of rose petals?"

Jia said nothing.

Wei continued. "But soon Dad began to hear some rumors about Long Sicong harassing his own people. There was also an incident where a sex worker had gone missing some years ago. Dad had almost killed him as the last warning after which he abided. We didn't hear any news of harassment anymore but six years ago, we suddenly heard the news of his death. Naturally, we tried to investigate, but nobody spoke a word about it. And soon, a woman came from Huayuan's side, asking to speak to Dad."

"That's when they demanded their freedom."

Wei nodded.

"We didn't see a problem with it. After what the Jiangs did, we didn't want to force them to come under our protection either if they didn't wish to. But with Long Sicong's rule, we didn't want history to repeat either and let a new leader take the place who will walk in his same path.

So this time, we put forth only one condition that sex workers won't be harmed or harassed in any way. To make sure that this is acted upon, I personally go to Huayuan every month and see to it that nobody is treated unfairly. Sort of like a check. I don't leave unless I am satisfied."

Lihua felt proud of her husband.

Jia was taken aback. "They allowed it?"

"They had to or we refused to give autonomy. My trip to Huayuan every month is written on the paper, and they must cooperate on that day until I am satisfied that things are really going well for everybody there."

Jia seemed thoughtful.

Mingshen rested his chin on his palm and smiled. "Are you feeling frustrated? Because technically, Wei is doing your job. To treat and protect people equally."

Jia clenched her fist. "The law would never turn their backs on an innocent person-"

"They have, my dear," Mingshen's smile wasn't playful anymore. "They had, they are and they will turn their backs because the law which you are so proud of is flawed. It always has been."