After everyone felt better, life went back to normal. Only Xia Zhe knew that Qiao Mei had not recovered fully. She still lived in fear and would wake up startled in the middle of the night. The first thing she did whenever she woke up was to see if the children were around.
If this continued, Qiao Mei's health would definitely be greatly affected and the baby would also not develop well.
"Don't be afraid, I'll protect all of you," Xia Zhe comforted her softly.
"I'm fine. I'm just… just a little uneasy. I can't feel settled so long as the mastermind is not caught. I wonder how Eldest Aunt's interrogation is going," Qiao Mei said worriedly.
During this period of time, Xia Xiu had sent a letter to Xia Zhe. She wrote that those human traffickers would not tell her who their buyer was even if they had to die. They had their own rules to abide with. Since they had already been paid, they would not betray the buyer.
Xia Lu was not as stubborn as them. Before Xia Xiu said anything, he confessed everything, including how much money the Du family had given him and where the money was placed.
"It's the Du family," Xia Zhe said.
"The Du family? It's them again!" Qiao Mei said as she sat up furiously.
"Why? Do you already know that it's the Du family?" Xia Zhe asked.
"Not really. I have my suspicions. The Du family came to ask us for the medicinal wine, but I didn't give it to them back then. I guess that this matter made them bear a grudge against us. It's probably also the Du family who instigated those seed buyers to blow up the matter and ended up getting my mother kidnapped. I don't have any proof even now, but they finally give themselves away this time round," Qiao Mei said.
"That's true. Father has already reported the situation to the higher-ups. The Du family is completely disgraced and they will never be able to make a comeback. You don't know how funny Father's written report is. I found it unbelievable when I read it," Xia Zhe said with a laugh.
"Huh? What did Father write?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.
Xia Mao was so angry that he was not even able to write in his usual nice and steady handwriting. Every sentence he wrote was a condemnation of the Du family's crimes. He begged his superiors to punish the Du family severely and give the Xia family justice. He even played the emotional card at the end. Xia Mao wrote that the children involved were Xia Jun's great-grandchildren and that the kidnapping of Xia Jun's great-grandchildren was a truly serious crime. He hoped that his superiors would deal with the matter sternly.
"Putting up the request in his own name is good enough to get this matter settled. Who would have thought that he would even bring up Grandfather? Of course the higher-ups have to respect Grandfather and investigate the Du family thoroughly. It's not just the matters related to us. All the wrongdoings done by the Du family have been investigated and their family is completely disgraced," Xia Zhe said.
Qiao Mei leaned against Xia Zhe's chest and said, "Hmph, they brought this on upon themselves. They deserve it."
"Don't worry, those people who harm us won't end up well," Xia Zhe said.
"Do you know the name of the person who went to look for Xia Yan?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.
Xia Zhe recalled carefully and said, "They said his name is Du Miao and that he's Du Bo's son."
Qiao Mei was a little surprised. The Du Miao that she remembered did not seem like such a person. Du Bo would usually ask his subordinates to do this kind of thing, so why would he ask Du Miao to do it? Although Du Bo always said that Du Miao was useless, he doted on Du Miao very much and would not let Du Miao do anything dangerous.
"What's wrong?" Xia Zhe asked.
"Does the Du family have any other children?" Qiao Mei asked.
"I've never heard of any other Du family member. Du Bo's wife, Feng Niao, is not in good health. I heard from my mother that after Feng Niao gave birth to Du Miao, she became very weak and could no longer have children, so the Du family only has one son," Xia Zhe said.
"No… It's definitely not right… How can it be Du Miao?" Qiao Mei muttered to herself.
"You suspect that Du Miao did not do this?" Xia Zhe asked.
Qiao Mei could not pinpoint what was wrong, but she just felt that Du Miao was definitely not the person who engineered this matter. He was not interested in harming people this way. Moreover, he had a daughter himself, so he would definitely not hurt other people's children.
"Call it a woman's intuition. I have a feeling that it's someone else who did this. Get Yao Nian to dig into the Du family's past and see if there are any other clues," Qiao Mei said seriously.
"Alright, I'll definitely go and investigate tomorrow. Go to bed now. It'll be dawn soon," Xia Zhe said with a smile.