LIGHTNOVELSTORY Chapter 32: Thief!
True to his word, he sent her lunch from the royal kitchen. He didn't just send it to her; he sent lunch for her parents and brother as well.
She sent him a message.
["Thanks for lunch, my parents and brothers are thankful as well."]
["You are welcome."] He replied.
She munched on her food happily as she viewed footage from the cameras at home where they had left Mei-Mei in the care of the new nanny retired nurse Su Mei. The newly hired butler was trimming flowers in the garden and food was preparing by Nanny Zhu who Wenzhe had found for her.
Chi Zimo who stayed at home was watching over Mei-Mei as well while playing his video games.
"Where is my lunch?" the princess barged into her office.
"Lunch for employees will be provided starting from tomorrow which is your first official day at work." Chi Lian took another bite of her dumpling.
"You should have ordered food for me when you getting yours."
"Don't you have a secretary for that? Besides, this lunch was sent to me by someone special." She bragged. Yes, she longed to tell the whole world about it. In fact, she had taken a picture and uploaded it on the internet. She made it a point to mention that a special someone had sent her lunch.
"Who, Jun Muyang?" the princess widened her eyes and came close for gossip.
"Hey….keep a distance, from my food."
"Are you really dating the devil?" the princess asked.
"The devil!!!" the food in her mouth almost choked her. "Why are you calling him the devil?"
"Heh..." the princess grinned evilly, "You will find out soon enough."
"If you tell me I will share the rest of my food with you." Chi Lian offered a tempting bribe.
"No thank you, I would rather keep my sanity." The princess walked out of her office.
"T4 do you know everything about Jun Muyang? I don't want any unpleasant surprises later on."
"From all of my research, he is an excellent man. Perhaps his demeanor is the reason why she called him that. According to gossip, she had a crush on him when she was a teenager and he rejected her."
"Isn't he her cousin?"
"Perhaps the gossip is just false rumor. If they are cousins, then it would be incest."
"Yeesh..."Chi Lian shivered as such a scenario was disturbing.
After lunch, she handed over the finished songs and movies to her brother. In a way, she wanted to test his abilities. If he failed to find the right talents, she would hire someone to do the heavy lifting and he would be relegated to a minimal role.
With that finished, she arranged the programs which would be aired on their web TV. They had around ten million subscribers at the moment.
While this seemed like an impressive number, in an empire with a population of billions, it was nothing but a drop in the ocean. The more impressive programs they had, the higher the number of viewers.
In order to be unique, she needed to go the extra mile.
At the end of the day, the Chi siblings left the office at the same time. The princess followed them and squeezed herself right next to Chi Lian.
"Shouldn't you be heading in the direction of your home?" she asked.
"I moved into your community so we are all heading in the same direction."
Confused, Chi Lian remembered that she had been told only two houses were left in the neighborhood and she had acquired them both.
"I was told all the houses are occupied." She informed the princess.
"Oh please! The houses are limited but available if you have a sizeable account." The princess answered as if this was common knowledge.
"So they prefer people that are buying over those that want to rent."
"Exactly."
"Help thief." A woman screamed and Chi Lian turned her attention across the street from Phoenix building.
She could see a man running away and a screaming woman. The people gathered around were calling the police but nobody was running after the thief.
Instinctively, Chi Lian jumped up and run after the thief.
"Follow her," the princess said to her camera man. They went running after Chi Lian.
"He is getting away," Chi Wei shouted.
Chi Lian pulled out the Taser that she had received for protection and hit the thief perfectly. Perhaps the Taser had too much power because the man jumped up in the air and his body shook like ten thousand volts of lightning were coursing through his body and he fell back down on the ground.
"What the hell!" someone said.
"Did she kill him?" someone else asked.
The crowd, Chi Lian, the princess and the camera man who was recording surrounded the thief.
"Step aside, I am a doctor." A man from the crowd checked on the thief's pulse.
"He is alive." He declared. However his face showed a shocked expression because the way the body shook like a ragdoll, nobody expected him to live.
Chi Lian reached into the thief's pocket and handed the snatched wallet back to the owner.
While she was searching his pocket, something else fell out. It was a pink hair bow with two black beetles on it.
"Where have I seen this?" Chi Lian wondered. "T4 search for common images of this hair bow."
It didn't even take a minute for T4 to find the answer.
"This is the same hair bow worn by a missing thirteen year old girl that has been on the news for the past one month."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, one of the beetles is missing a leg. It's the exact bow. The girl Su Moli was wearing it in her hair when she went missing."
Chi Lian checked the thief's wallet and got his address.
"T4, find all the information on this man immediately."
The thief chose that moment to wake up. His eyes darted back and forth like a trapped animal. He tried to run but Chi Lian stepped on him.
"You are not going anywhere." She said.
"Chi-Chi." Her brother whispered and tried to tug her away. People were staring and some were recording with their phones.
Two police officers came by and when they saw Chi Lian, they smiled and spoke to her politely.
"Lady Chi, we would like to take the criminal away right now." The younger police man said.
"Not yet, I have a question for him."
The young police officer was confused.
Chi Lian looked at the thief, "Mr. Deng, this bow belongs to the missing Su Moli, and don't even bother denying because I have already confirmed it. Where is the girl?"
The police officers ears peaked in interest. They stared at the criminal with hostility.
"Are you sure about this Lady Chi?" the older officer asked.
"One hundred percent, this man knows where the missing girl is." She replied confidently.
"Then we will question him from the police station."
The police officers bagged the bow and put handcuffs on the criminal. They whisked him away speedily for questioning.
"What do we do now?" the excited princess asked. She was right to come to Phoenix. Following Chi Lian around was like following around a news hound.
"He has an elderly mother in hospice. My senses say if he has the girl, he is keeping her at his mother'shouse, so we should check it out."
The group got into their cars and followed Chi Lian to the address.
They arrived at a group of similar looking apartments in Beishu town of city B.
Chi Lian sent her drones ahead to check the apartment. And what she saw made her want to cry.
In the apartment, three girls were tied up with chains and looking lifeless; on their bodies was evidence of fresh and half healed wounds.
"Call the police." She told her brother.
As eager as she was to go in and rescue the girls, it was illegal to enter without permission so they waited impatiently.
When the police arrived, Chi Lian told T4 to connect the camera footage to the web TV and begin the live news show. T4 spread the news around on different websites under different accounts as usual.
"You be the reporter." She said to the princess.
"Professionally, the princess narrated the story of the thief turned kidnapper. She explained as the police went in and rescued the three girls including Su Moli. Chi Lian assisted the police to provide water and blankets to the frightened girls and they were taken to a hospital immediately."