When the Possessive Omega Fell for Me - Chapter 22

To deal with Xu Zaixi, the first thing to settle was Yi Heng.

It wasn’t that Yi Heng was particularly important, but in the vast Yi family, it wasn’t easy to move against anyone. If Yi Jing wanted to do something, she had to have some helpers of her own.

But choosing who to approach was also a skill.

In a place like the Yi family, most people with any ambition had already picked sides long ago. If Yi Jing rashly approached them, she might expose herself instead.

Therefore, the best choice was to find an ally who had no backing but wasn’t stupid enough to betray teammates.

However, such people were rare to begin with, and even fewer were suitable for Yi Jing to consider. Relatives who met the first condition were usually truly stupid, truly on the fringes of the family, or had some character flaws. They had “trouble” written all over them, and it was disgusting to even associate with them.

After careful screening, Yi Jing still chose Yi Heng.

Although Yi Heng wasn’t very prominent in the Yi family, she was the first person Auntie had brought to meet and chat with Yi Jing.

If Auntie, with her discerning eye, trusted Yi Heng, this seemingly idle and useless young lady must have some unique qualities of her own.

Most importantly, Yi Heng was known to everyone as a wastrel. She had no proper job, neither breaking the law nor running a business, so she hadn’t picked sides.

Her background was clean, and as for ability  judging from what she said during their casual conversation that day, Yi Heng wasn’t stupid.

At least she was good enough to work with for now.

Yi Heng…

Yi Jing wanted to cooperate with her and have her on her side, but she didn’t rashly contact Yi Heng. After all, there were only two ways to make someone obedient: either give them real benefits, or hold some leverage over them.

Yi Jing couldn’t think of anything irreplaceable that others couldn’t offer for the former, so she had to work on the latter.

As the security officer of the 13th district and the second-in-command of the entire Jing’an City judicial system, it was all too easy for Yi Jing to check any information or keep an eye on someone.

She had mountains of work to deal with every day. It was normal for her secretary to occasionally pick out one or two matters related to Yi family members, especially after Yi Jing had reminded her. The next day, the secretary quickly brought Yi Jing the information she wanted.

Yi Jing looked up from the high stack of case files and took the document handed over by her secretary, which was sent from the security system. She quickly scanned it, catching the key words, and the corners of her mouth, which had been pressed down for days due to the troublesome cases, finally turned up slightly.

It’s here, Yi Jing thought as she looked at the document stamped with the security system’s seal: This is what she had been waiting for!

Yi Heng had recently gotten into some minor trouble.

It wasn’t exactly small, as it involved a death; but it wasn’t big either as the death didn’t really have much to do with her.

She was just passing by looking for some fun, who knew that among the idiots she was hanging out with, someone was taking drugs while racing flying vehicles. They went off course and crashed through the electromagnetic protective measures of a shopping mall, bringing their entire group crashing into the mall building.

If he had just died in the crash, it would have been clean. But he didn’t die himself, instead killing a little girl who was just shopping peacefully.

So now things had gotten serious.

In the entire mall, there was one death and nineteen injuries, with two more still in critical condition. The big boss behind this mall wasn’t someone to be trifled with either. The mall was part of an entire group’s assets, and the top boss had connections that could be traced to the territorial level. Even the Yi family wouldn’t casually provoke them.

Moreover, this incident had brought very bad publicity to the mall. The media was full of reports questioning the adequacy of the mall’s protective measures. Their stock price was said to be falling already, so it was normal for them to not let the matter rest.

But she didn’t really need to take responsibility.

She didn’t injure anyone, she wasn’t driving the lead flying vehicle. Although she also crashed into the mall building, she had performed the most standard operations when landing, causing no harm to bystanders. She could easily get off the hook with just a little contact from the Yi family. The mall’s big boss would probably not make a fuss considering the Yi family’s status as the local power in Jing’an City, but…

Sigh…

Yi Heng, confined in the detention center, irritably turned over, causing the electronic handcuffs on her wrist to rattle noisily.

But she didn’t really want to trouble “the family.”

This matter probably couldn’t be handled by anyone else. Her branch of the Yi family was already a side branch among side branches, not very prominent in the family and without much power. To successfully get herself out, she would probably have to ask her dad to beg for help.

But her dad was usually someone without much ability but extremely concerned about face at home. On one hand, he looked down on others relying on the Yi family’s power, while on the other hand he always claimed he would do some great deeds to prove his ability, to make the old man and the entire Yi family see him differently.

Asking him to swallow his pride and beg for help would probably be harder than climbing to heaven.

Thinking of how she was usually urged by her arrogant and ignorant father to do something proper, repeatedly lectured and forced to listen to nonsense, Yi Heng irritably turned over again.

She just didn’t want to contact her family!

Annoying, annoying, annoying, annoying–

Just as Yi Heng was feeling frustrated about not wanting to contact her family, preferring to stay in the detention center a while longer rather than trouble her always unrealistic father, a standard black official car for high-ranking civil servants had already stopped at the identity verification hub outside the 9th district detention center.

The driver sat quietly at the wheel in the front, waiting for the notified 9th district detention center staff to open the gates, while Yi Jing sat in the back seat, still holding the documents just approved by the 13th district security system.

The file her secretary had given her in the office was about Yi Heng’s case.

Originally, the evidence chain for this case wasn’t complete, and the suspicions around the main culprit hadn’t been fully investigated. The case files shouldn’t have reached the judicial system yet, let alone have the Censorate work overtime to take over the documents in advance.

But Yi Jing wanted to do Yi Heng a favor, and also wanted to have some leverage over her.

“Is it not ready yet?” Yi Jing asked from the back seat.

The driver immediately looked towards the verification hub control center, preparing to get out and urge them, but the protective measures just happened to rise at that moment.

“It’s ready now,” the driver immediately replied, then drove the car into the 9th district detention center.

The 9th district government vehicle followed behind. As soon as Yi Jing got out of the car, the director of the 9th district detention center immediately came over to greet her:

“Security Officer Yi, I’ve long heard of your reputation. Seeing you in person today truly exceeds the rumors. But why did you come to our place personally? If you had anything you needed, you could have just said the word. There was no need to trouble yourself to come here in person.”

“Yi Jing,” Yi Jing extended her hand to shake with the detention center director, “I heard there’s someone from the Yi family detained here? I’ve come to see her.”

The director was stunned for a moment. “?”

What did this mean, did she want to bail someone out?

If so, couldn’t she have just said the word? Why come in person? Were superiors’ working styles all so strange now? Had some new document been issued?

He should have known about it if that were the case.

The 9th district chief frantically made eye signals to the director from behind Yi Jing. The director immediately understood, temporarily setting aside his doubts and turning to clear the way into the detention center:

“I’ll have someone bring Miss Yi out right away. Oh my, it was negligent of the staff below. If we had known Miss Yi was here earlier, we should have released her already. I said she was innocent. Dragging it out till today really shows low efficiency.”

“No need,” Yi Jing calmly raised her hand, her expression indifferent. “If she really made a mistake, you should keep her detained. I’m not here to interfere with law enforcement today, I’m just here to see my cousin.”

“Ah… ah.” The director was stunned for a moment, thinking to himself that this person who was both a high official’s adopted daughter and from a wealthy family actually had such awareness?

But since Yi Jing had spoken, he couldn’t go against her wishes. After all, in terms of real power, in the entire judicial system, apart from the old-fashioned man at the very top, this young person in front of him was the most powerful. Offending anyone else was better than offending the core district’s security officer who specialized in investigating people like them. Who could stand it if she sent people to investigate them every now and then?

“Alright, alright,” the director quickly became eager to please again, waving at the deputy director to cancel the prepared meeting room, then said very carefully, “I’ll take you there right away.”

Yi Heng, who had her own special room in the detention center, was facing the wall pretending to sleep with her eyes closed, her expression as droopy as if she had just killed twenty people.

And in her heart, she was indeed full of curses for the idiot who had crashed, wishing that guy would hurry up and go to prison.

It was at this moment that the 9th district detention center guard opened the door to Yi Heng’s cell, swiping the authority card over the nearly unbreakable security lock, and leaned half his body in to say: “Yi Heng, right? Stop lying there, someone outside wants to see you.”

Yi Heng was already annoyed enough, and hearing a little guard dare to speak to her like this, she immediately sat up: “What’s wrong with me lying down? Aren’t the beds in your detention center meant for people to lie on? Have you been formally employed? Do you have any official title that you dare to speak to me like this?”

The guard frowned slightly, uncomfortable: “The person outside who wants to see you is also surnamed Yi. It’s up to you whether you want to see them or not.”

Yi?

Yi Heng was stunned for a moment.

Which member of the family had come?

It shouldn’t be. Hadn’t she not notified her family? Would anyone be so kind as to notice her movements?

Forget about those superficially united but actually disunited relatives in the family. Even her own father might not notice her, right?

Full of doubts, Yi Heng walked out of the cell and followed the guard’s directions to the temporary office used by the detention center’s supervisors for rest.

Wait… They didn’t even need to go to the meeting room?

Yi Heng grew more and more alarmed as she walked, and couldn’t help but wonder if it was that seemingly harmless but actually ambitious schemer of a young lady from the family’s inner circle who had come.

If it was that person, this kind of treatment wouldn’t be surprising.

But if it was Yi Mingyu coming to bail her out, she might as well stay in the detention center until she died. After all, being in prison wouldn’t stop her from going online, but working for that young lady would be different. That person really didn’t treat human lives as lives.

She didn’t want to be anyone’s dog.

Yi Heng had fully prepared herself mentally, planning to start being perfunctory as soon as she entered the room. If that didn’t work, she’d just stay in the detention center for another ten days or half a month. She hadn’t taken drugs or hurt anyone, so those judges couldn’t sentence her to death. At worst, she’d just be locked up for a while.

Yi Heng had already planned how to slack off, but she didn’t expect to see someone completely unexpected when the door opened—

“Yi Jing?!”

Yi Heng widened her eyes in shock.

“It’s me,” Yi Jing raised her eyes slightly, putting down the folder in her hand after hearing Yi Heng’s voice, and looked her up and down, “It’s been a few days, you look quite miserable. Is this how you usually play around when I’m not here?”

Yi Heng: “??”

Yi Heng was a bit shocked: “Wait, why are you here?”

The last time they met was drinking tea, playing chess and chatting at the Yi family’s old mansion. Yi Heng had carefreely shown Yi Jing her strange collections. This time when they met again, she had become a suspect who accidentally got into trouble, while Yi Jing was a big shot many levels above her in this case.

This contrast was a bit hard for her to accept.

So annoying! It would have been better if it was Yi Mingyu! After all, that person had always been stepping on the heads of side branches like them. Even if she saw them in a miserable state, it wouldn’t matter, since she had always been looking down on them anyway.

“Of course I came to see you, I have something to discuss with you.” Yi Jing raised her eyes to look at the others in the room.

Those officers of various ranks still standing in the room immediately understood and left, leaving the space to Yi Jing and Yi Heng.

Yi Heng snorted irritably through her nose: “You’ve got quite the air about you now, able to find someone even in a detention center outside your jurisdiction, cousin!”

“I am the security officer of the core district after all,” Yi Jing wasn’t bothered at all by her barbed words and calmly continued, “Handling your case is within my duties. Or did you prefer someone else to come? How about letting the old man come bail you out?”

Yi Heng was suddenly struck dumb.

If only she had that courage!

With so many people in the Yi family, how could the old man possibly manage everyone?

Yi Heng was choked for a moment, and after a while she sat down opposite Yi Jing with annoyance and said grumpily: “Stop pretending. With the 9th district’s work efficiency, the case files couldn’t have reached the judicial system in just the few days since I got into trouble. Moreover, if they were going to judge directly here, there would be no need to trouble your supervisory department. You came so quickly, were you secretly keeping an eye on me?”

Indeed, this person is not stupid at all.

Yi Jing made a judgment in her heart, but she didn’t intend to admit it out loud. She just raised her eyes and looked at Yi Heng with a half-smile, asking: “You seem to know quite a bit about our judicial system’s affairs?”

Yi Heng was stung for a moment, paused for a second and turned her head away awkwardly, quietly muttering: “What’s so great about that.”

“I have serious business to discuss with you, no time for bickering and nonsense,” Yi Jing leaned back in her chair, tapping the documents on the table with one hand,

“You surely understand what the Yi family means to you. If you agree to what I say today, I will bail you out directly. It won’t go through anyone else’s hands, and there’s no need to notify the old man’s side. No one will know you’ve ever been in here, including your father.”

Avoiding others’ attention?

This condition was a bit too tempting. Yi Heng paused for two seconds, and even though she knew there was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, she couldn’t help but ask: “What do you want to do?”

“Nothing much,” Yi Jing withdrew her hand and placed it in front of her, looking at Yi Heng and saying, “I just hope you’ll help me.

You haven’t picked sides within the Yi family, right? Since you don’t want to follow any of those in the inner circle, why not trust me, a fellow side branch member? We’re both from side branches, so we should have more in common.”

Yi Heng was suddenly alarmed: “What are you trying to do? Who are you going up against?”

Logically speaking, weren’t side branches supposed to stay out of the Yi family’s business?

Yi Jing already had a position in the judicial system, why get involved in the family’s internal struggles?

She wanted to avoid these messy affairs but couldn’t, so why was Yi Jing actively looking for trouble?

Shouldn’t she just stay out of it from now on, leisurely waiting for that group to fight it out and determine a winner, then directly cooperate with whoever successfully inherited the Yi family?

Who would actively look for trouble for themselves?

“Why do you look so surprised,” Yi Jing looked at Yi Heng and smiled, unsurprisingly starting to attack her psychologically, “Have you really never felt it was unfair? Following me is better than following others. At least I can protect you better. Oh right, and your father too.

I think the real way for you to break free from him is not to give up on life and go completely against his unrealistic expectations by being a thoroughly stupid rich kid, but to become stronger than him, right?

The abilities he lacked in the past, the opportunities he never encountered, you may well have.

Don’t you want to give it a try?”

Hearing Yi Jing’s words, Yi Heng’s hand that had been resting on the table finally couldn’t help but twitch.

If Yi Jing had said anything else, she could have treated it as a joke, but this talk of surpassing her father, of proving to that closed-minded and controlling middle-aged man that the failure of their family all along, their marginalization and lack of voice, was not due to “not trying hard enough” as her muddle-headed father claimed, really struck Yi Heng’s heart.

She had never believed her father’s self-deceptive words from the beginning.

In the Yi family, climbing up had nothing to do with “hard work”. It was about being close enough to the old man’s bloodline, having the ability to protect oneself, making wise choices, and even necessary cunning. People who weren’t smart enough simply couldn’t survive well. Lacking any of these qualities would turn one into cannon fodder in others’ struggles. It was better to stay out of it than to squeeze in and seek death.

Her father could never understand this truth, which was why he had been a laughingstock for half his life.

“Well? Have you considered it?” Yi Jing sat across from Yi Heng, still wearing a faint smile, “I won’t ask the same question twice. If you refuse, I’ll respect your choice.”

“No!” Yi Heng stared at Yi Jing, gently grinding her back teeth. It was less like she was staring at Yi Jing and more like she was staring at something else she hated. “I agree. It’s just picking sides, right? But don’t think you can treat me as some disposable pawn. Otherwise, I’ll bite a chunk of flesh off you even if it kills me.”

“Don’t worry,” Yi Jing stood up with the documents, “I don’t have a habit of being bitten by people. I’ve already had people sort out your part of the matter. This incident doesn’t have much to do with you. They’ll release you within three days. I’ll send someone to pick you up then.”

“Hmph.” Yi Heng let out a light snort, no longer objecting. The temporary alliance between the side branch cousins was thus established.

Walking out of the room, Yi Jing turned to open the files on her terminal and looked at them, silently breathing a sigh of relief in her heart.

For some complicated reasons, it was a bit difficult for her to move against Xu Zaixi now. She had to understand clearly who was standing behind her before she could weigh how to act.

But now it was better.

With the help of Yi Heng, who was always pragmatic and well-informed, she should be able to figure out the power dynamics within the Yi family.

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