363 Regrets

July 6, 20X2 (Sunday)

Various Places

When Chen Zhong finished reading the letter that Mei Lin sent, his heart dropped. Seeing the name Wu Mei Li, that he always associated her with being replaced as Mrs. Zhao signaled to Chen Zhong's heart that she would never be his again. The Mei Li that he knew was never the true her. She was a noble- beautiful with a kind heart. Chen Zhong did not deserve her before, and he does not qualify for her even in the present.

As a human, who had still a little hope left for love, Chen Zhong was disappointed, and without realizing it, regretting everything he had done. He had the world at the palm of his hands but was too stupid to see its worth. Laying on his bed, Chen Zhong buried his face on his pillow.

Regret; it always comes last, and it when it comes, it hits on the face harder than a football.

In Y Building, Uncle Wu was typing like crazy. His eyes were clouded with how little sleep he was getting. Hao Ren was beside him with the same look and dark eyebags underneath his eyes. Both men had run background checks on many people, again and again, looking for a hint for that one person- the spy. Even with a week of scouring their government files, they were still not even half done! Hao Ren never knew how thick a government file could get! They were both ready to fall asleep in their chair when Uncle Wu discovered something weird in the history with all the three members of Mei Lin's trusted employees. All of them have pasts outside the country, so some files were understandably missing. It was an undeniable mistake for them to have not realized this fact sooner.

Uncle Wu dialed Yang's number and immediately said after his nephew had answered the call, "I advise you to be cautious with Mei Lin' workers. Trisha Fuller came from the USA, it is unlikely that she was a connection with Arcadia, but her past has a large chunk missing in government files here, and there is a possibility that the US government will not divulge more information about her. That woman has a secret, but it might not be the one we want, I think she an illegitimate child of someone important- a high ranking government official, maybe?"

"I don't care about that... We shouldn't care much about that. We need to find a spy." Yang interrupted his Uncle's intriguing spill of words. He had some suspicions about Trisha's upbringing before, but it was her secret to tell, so he did not think it was anything worth investigating as long as she was not the spy.

Uncle Wu chuckled, "Well, I only have two other suspects. It is either Elias or Dan. Elias has a record, but it seemed superficial as if it was rewritten and edited. There's a good chunk of his life that is not recorded. If I only see his background, I would have instantly say that he is the spy, but that is until Elias' relations are scanned and thoroughly investigated."

"Relations?"

Uncle Wu laughed, dry with humor as he replied, "His uncle was the trusted agent with Jerome Bonaparte in his witness protection program. Their family members are notorious in the European Union as guard dogs of people with noble blood, some are even butlers, and spies."

Yang's eyes widen in disbelief. Did Mei Lin know about this?

"Dan is mixed blood too, and although his files are not suspicious at first glance...Dan went to college in Europe, Greece in particular. That fact is suspicious enough for me. Father Chen all became a member of Arcadia when he was a university in Europe, thinking it was harmless fun. That might have happened with Dan." Uncle Wu continued, "Again, all of these I told you are discrepancies, and some speculation. If you depend on the files, I am sorry to tell you that these are the only ones we could find."

Hao Ren was listening on the side, thinking deeply about their next step. The first time, he had wanted to prove himself. Now, he was having fun with uncovering lies, researching, and monitoring people in secret. Hao Ren felt free as he did his tasks since there was no limit to what he could do, no leash to push him back to what he can acquire. It was also heartwarming that he could do all these things while helping to protect the city! Hao Ren was injuring his punishment more and more. He wondered if Hao Chen and Zhao Yang would let him do these kinds of tasks more in the future, he would totally be down with it.

Suddenly, Hao Ren's genius mind concocted a complicated puzzle piece of a plot to dig the spy out from its hiding place. He opened his phone and joined the call of Uncle Wu and Yang, saying, "I have a plan that would end this spy business... Listen to me..."