Chapter 129 - Knowing The Truth

"Brother Ah Hai? This diary..it belongs to someone with the same surname as Shi Ai? Is this person, her mother? Or a relative? And how did she come across all this?"

Ah Hai glanced at the diary in Zhang Min's hand and then back at the boy. Just likebhebhad predicted, Zhang Min had grown into a fine young man whi deserved to know everything. "Yes,the diary belongs to Shi Ai's deceased mother. Regarding the contents, I am not aware since I have not read it. We discovered it just last night.."

Zhang Min listened to the entire story quietly and this actually helped him understand Shi Ai and Ah Hai's relationship better. Sometimes true love transcends age and experience. Though Shi Ai may have not realized it in the past but as an outsider he could see that as a young girl why she had latched onto Ah Hai. Her heart had found the person who could protect her from the horror that her brain had forgotten. But apart from this realization he also acknowledged the saddening truth that he never knew the extent to which his sister for suffering to look for answers from the past. Having heard the entire story,Zhang Min quietly picked up the diary to read. He had no qualms about reading someone's personal life as long as it would help him understand his sister's situation better. Being unrelated to the writer, Zhang Min was able to read the diary faster and more objectively than Shi Ai. But even then his eyes blazed with fire and he could only imagine what Shi Ai felt at this moment. Her own uncle had been responsible for their mother's lifetime of misery. What a despicable man! In that moment Zhang Min was tempted to go and wring that man's neck himself! Only after a while did Zhang Min think of something else and taking out his own cell phone checked something. The names Shi Qinglan and Shi Xiadong had been ringing a bell in his head but now the dots had connected.

He looked at Ah Hai whi was sitting in the chair reading some files and said," this is why you told me the truth? If I had not bee connected then I would never have known." Zhang Min's tone of voice was both shocked and accusing. There was a possibility that Shi Ai would never have told him the whole truth by herself.

Ah Hai looked up from his file and said,"I always knew you were smart."

Zhang Min :".."

Why did Zhang Min feel that this was not a compliment but rather an insult...

Calming himself Zhang Min reworded his questions,"If I am to understand this correctly, you need me to spy on Shi Qinglan? Since I am currently working in his hospital?"

Ah Hai continued to maintain his silence, so Zhang Min elaborated some more of what he could guess from the diary and the rest. "So after his beloved wife's death, Shi Xiadong opened the world class hospital where the poor could receive treatment and the rich were able to get the best medicine. Soon the name of Lifeline Hospital was included in the top 3 hospitals making their profits exceed their philanthropic work. Miss Shi Qing was going to be the only heiress to the pharmaceutical company and the hospital that her father had set up and was all prepared to go abroad to pursue modern medical studies but she instead fell in love with her cousin's poor best friend and had a fallout with her father who was disappointed in his daughter. Flouting the social norms she married the man and was happy for a few years. From what she writes in her diary,she then discovered that the man who was her husband did not love her at all and was actually being paid by her cousin so that she would stay away from her own father. Once a few years had passed, Shi Qinglan felt that the daughter and father had drifted well apart so he cut the man off,thus forcing the man to make Shi Qing a drug addict so that she would be willing to sell herself. And Shi Qung had really fallen into the trap. Everything was going fine until Shi Qing was pregnant with Shi Ai. Once she gave birth to her daughter and realized that her newborn was already addicted to heroin,shephard instantly turned sober. From then on Shi Qing had slowly and steadily started to gather money to escape with her two daughters. She felt that she had been sullied so she did not dare not go back to him. At this point of time she had rejoiced in the fact that she had maintained her pride and never told her husband about her mother's set which he had always kept well hidden. She had hoped she would be able to escape with the help of her cousin who had always been kind to her and even visited them sometimes. This had given her the strength to face years of degradation and be cruel to her own daughters sometimes. So when her older daughter had been threatened with prostitution, she realized that she had run out of time. Deciding that they had enough money to escape,she stumbled upon Shi Ai's plan to escape as well. So she told her daughter about the uncle who could help her and then have the money to the Grey's so that they could go to the uncle.Everything I said,is that correct in assumption." Ah Hai simply agreed with a curt nod.

"So,that really is the reason I have been told the truth. So that I could keep an eye on that man."

This time Ah Hai chose to give Zhang Min a question,"Isn't that the reason for you being the chief surgeop in that hospital. You are already there undercover to keep an eye on him Commander Zhang. I just need you to keep an eye on someone else's activities also." Ah Hai then took out a photograph from the file in his hand and placed it in front of Zhang Min. "Keep an eye on her also. She is your colleague and competitor,if I am not mistaken."

Again,Zhang Min did not ask how Ah Hai knew of his undercover mission or his rank in the army. He had never officially entered the army. As far as the world knew he was a genius who had become the youngest top surgeon ever. He looked at the picture in his hand and nodded. He could tell the reason why Ah Hai wanted this. But there was one last thing he needed to know. The answer to which he and even Shi Ai did not know but he was sure that Ah Hai had guessed. So he decided to ask again,"According to Shi Qing's plan,she planned to burn down the apartment and herself once the girls ran away sucessfully so that everyone would think that both the girls had died alongwith her. So what changed?"

Ah Hai c.o.c.ked his head at Zhang Min and asked,"What do you think would have happened Min Min?You can't guess? Lady Shi discovered the buyer for Shi Ai?Can you guess who that was? Her uncle of course. Shi Qinglang knew that even if Shi Xiadong did not forgive his daughter he would accept his granddaughters so he planned to ruin the girls early on.This was why he sometimes visited the house. To keep an eye on them. But he did not know that the eldest daughter remembered him from his sparse visits and so when he used Shi Xaio onto his l.a.p,he gave himself away. Once Lady Shi came to know that her biggest hope was in fact her biggest enemy,she was able to communicate with her daughter and the two changed the plans at the last moment. Shi Ai would naturally have not been aware of her mother's plan to commit arson so she had come back to take her with them,only to find her home in flames."

No wonder! Zhang Min realized that he and Xaio Ai would never have been able to guess something this disgusting. The man wanted to ruin his own blood related nieces. He knew this because that is why he had been placed in that hospital. To investigate Shi Qinglan's suspected paedophilia as well as human organ trading and human trafficking racket.

Zhang Min was brought out of his thoughts by another shocking piece of news,"There is something else you have not yet guessed Zhang Min.  How did the police suddenly gain evidence against that man when they have been trying for so long?  And who do you think is Shi Qinglan's second in command? The man who kidnapped Xaio Ai last year is none other that their own biological father. Shi Qinglan's best friend and his gay partner-Qin Yung.