When the Possessive Omega Fell for Me - Chapter 69.1

With less than 24 hours remaining until the election deadline, supporters of Delinke and Mahira, still locked in a tight race amid the public discourse surrounding the Five Districts purge case were suddenly hit with breaking news: a massive explosion had occurred at the Ninth District port, allegedly triggered by improper operations during a covert investigation by the Inspectorate. The number of casualties remained unclear.

As the voting deadline loomed, tensions among supporters of rival candidates were already running high. The report immediately struck a nerve.

Delink’s backers and those aligned with the judicial system cried foul, arguing that at the time of the explosion, the Inspectorate’s two key leaders, one preoccupied with campaigning and the other tied up in a press conference couldn’t possibly have overseen any covert operations, let alone bungled them. They demanded the election committee conduct a thorough investigation, disclose operational details, and provide voters with answers. Otherwise, they insisted, hastily pinning the blame on the Inspectorate amounted to nothing short of slander, shameful slander!

Meanwhile, Mahira’s supporters couldn’t care less, gleefully watching the Inspectorate’s misfortune unfold. They seized the opportunity to amplify the negative fallout, peddling conspiracy theories to sway undecided voters and boost their own candidate’s numbers.

Online discourse descended into chaos, with outlandish theories running rampant some even pointing fingers at the yet-to-step-down mayor.

Under mounting public pressure, Hubert, who had been thrust into the role of the Inspectorate’s interim head, was forced to issue a swift statement under higher authorities’ directives:

The Ninth District explosion resulted from a classified joint operation involving the Inspectorate, the election committee, and the municipal police. The operation’s objectives and plans remained confidential and could not be disclosed. However, the explosion was indeed an unplanned accident, causing significant property damage and casualties a major operational failure.

Following high-level deliberations, it was decided that the operation’s lead current Deputy Inspector General and Thirteenth District Security Chief Yi Jing would be temporarily suspended, stripped of his election committee membership, and ordered to await further investigation.

The announcement sent shockwaves not only through Jing’an’s electorate but also through the typically composed Yi family. Many who had lain low saw an opportunity stirring, and subtle shifts in internal dynamics began to emerge…

“My god, Miss Yu, renowned journalist Yu, what are you still looking at? What could possibly be so important?” Yi Heng’s face was etched with anxiety, her entire body practically vibrating as she paced circles around Yu Miao’s living room.

Standing slightly farther away was a reserved young woman with an air of quiet intellect, her nose framed by a pair of unfashionably thick glasses. Her demeanor was so studiously meek it bordered on awkward, as if years in a lab had left her ill-equipped for social interaction.

Yu Miao ignored them both, her eyes still fixed on the encrypted files displayed on her terminal. The contents were beyond Yi Heng’s layman comprehension, leaving her to fret uselessly around Yu Miao.

If it were about scheming against the Yi family members or playing petty tricks, handling interpersonal relationships within the crowd was something Yi Heng could claim to be good at. But when it came to the level of problems Yi Jing and Yu Miao were dealing with now, Yi Heng was completely out of her depth. Someone who had only ever known how to eat, drink, and have fun was now frantic, almost hysterical as she said to Yu Miao:

“How can you still be fiddling with these trivial things! Yi Jing has already been locked up in the old church at the back, do you even know what kind of place that is? Even Old Master Yi rarely sends anyone there! Once you enter that damned place, no one gets out easily, and even if they do, they’re already ruined.

Almost everyone who’s ever gone into that old church and come out has gone mad! Hardly any of them are mentally sound they’re either insane, crippled, or never even make it out alive! Now Yi Jing is in there too, and with something this serious happening, how can you not be worried?”

Yu Miao frowned slightly, her expression darkening, but she still didn’t look up from her terminal. “How can you say that? Didn’t Yi Mian come out just fine?”

Yi Heng: “…”

Yi Heng was momentarily speechless, she had almost forgotten about that.

Old Master Yi had dealt with many people in the old church, and almost none of them emerged unscathed.

But there had indeed been one person who stayed in the old church for a long time and still walked out mentally intact neither dead, insane, nor crippled. Though severely injured, it was just that injuries. Once healed, there was no lasting impact.

But that was so many years ago!

Back then, Yi Xuan hadn’t even been born yet. Yi Heng herself had only heard about it from elders gossiping, how the now illustrious Second Aunt Yi Mian had once defied Old Master Yi over some minor matter, causing massive losses to the family business, and was thrown into the old church to die.

Though Yi Mian later emerged unharmed through sheer stubbornness, how did Yu Miao even know about this?!

Was Yu Miao planning for Yi Jing to tough it out the same way?

Yi Heng didn’t think that would work it was too abstract. Yi Jing, though slightly more capable than her, was still a pampered young lady who had sailed smoothly through life. Before joining the Inspectorate, she had done nothing but win awards and honors at the judiciary’s elite academy, a prodigy among prodigies. How could she endure this kind of setback? Staying in that cell for too long would drive anyone mad.

Yi Heng was torn, wondering if she had approached the wrong person.

Sure, Yi Jing liked this woman in front of her, but did Yu Miao feel the same way about Yi Jing? Now that Yi Jing had been abruptly suspended by the Inspectorate and locked up in the old church by Old Master Yi, the family always quick to read the winds had practically reached a consensus among the younger generation: “The one from the Inspectorate is finished.”

If no action was taken soon, not only would Yu Miao become a target again, but Yi Heng, who had barely managed to carve out some independence and status, would also be dragged back to rock bottom maybe even worse than before she had allied with Yi Jing.

Tch.

Besides, that old church wasn’t a place for humans. Yi Jing had never been involved in the family’s shady business, why should she suffer that kind of punishment?

Yi Heng bit her lip, feeling she had to try harder.

At least Yi Jing was so fond of the person before her! Surely this person wouldn’t completely disregard past affections even for her own safety, she ought to pull herself together!

Yi Heng pondered, her mind racing about how to pry open Yu Miao’s mouth. But before she could formulate the right words, Yu Miao suddenly stared at her terminal and murmured, “It’s Harris.”

“What?” Yi Heng was taken aback.

The young girl standing quietly nearby also lifted her head at the sound, turning her gaze toward Yu Miao.

Yu Miao had been ignoring both of them the whole time, sitting at the bar and attending to her own affairs. Now, she finally closed her eyes and let out a slow sigh of relief, setting the terminal aside.

She had been discussing with Qi Xiao and Xu Jiu why their operation details had been exposed and who might be suspicious.

In truth, Yu Miao had sensed something was off the moment the butler used the danger of the Ninth District operation to threaten Yi Jing into returning to the Yi family estate.

In her past life, she had spent most of her time investigating those wealthy families. Though she had personally witnessed Old Master Yi’s ruthlessness, she had seen him throw family members into the old church for execution as punishment multiple times it wasn’t uncommon for him to sacrifice dozens or even hundreds of lives for the sake of the Yi family’s safety in decision-making.

Yu Miao had no doubts about Old Master Yi’s brutality.

So the moment she returned to the estate, she tried contacting Qi Xiao. Normally, this wouldn’t have been easy, but Yi Jing had always disliked the Yi family secretly making things difficult for her. Every time someone paid attention to Yu Miao, Yi Jing would get angry. The butler who brought them back had focused his surveillance mainly on Yi Jing, allowing Yu Miao to reach Qi Xiao without much trouble.

By the time Yu Miao finished explaining her suspicions to Qi Xiao, and Qi Xiao urgently found Xu Jiu, there were only two or three minutes left before the explosion. At that point, Xu Jiu had just led his team deep into the port’s core area. Upon hearing Qi Xiao’s warning about potential danger, he didn’t hesitate for a second, he immediately ordered everyone to retreat, pulling the Inspection Bureau personnel out of the critical zone.

Fortunately, the timing of the order was precise. Only a small portion of the Inspection Committee members, who had ventured too far during the search, suffered minor injuries from the delayed retreat. Most were merely shaken by the blast wave, escaping unscathed.

But the explosion confirmed Yu Miao’s suspicions: Old Master Yi had indeed prepared something at the port and had precise knowledge of the Ninth District operation team’s movements.

When the Inspection Bureau’s operation team carried out dangerous missions, their first step was always to take control of the building’s intelligent modules, ensuring the entire target area was under their command before proceeding with the investigation.

Under these circumstances, Old Master Yi could only have accurately tracked the Ninth District team’s movements in two ways: either someone within the operation team had defected to the Yi family and leaked information during the mission, or part of the port’s buildings had a second, independent surveillance system.

Since the core structures had been destroyed in the explosion, the second possibility couldn’t be verified for now. Qi Xiao and Xu Jiu had no choice but to focus on investigating the first possibility after all, it was no secret that the Yi family planted their people at various levels of authority, using money and benefits to corrupt public officials. Both Qi Xiao and Xu Jiu were mentally prepared for this.

But this time, before the operation began, Qi Xiao and Xu Jiu knew they would be opposing the Yi family, so they only mobilized trusted colleagues. After thorough investigation, they concluded that if there were any issues, the problem could only lie with Harris.

Although officers from the Ninth District remained on the periphery during the operation and didn’t participate in the actual investigation, and Xu Jiu remained vigilant, it wasn’t impossible for Harris to pull some strings if he was determined. Xu Zaixi had always worked for the Yi family, with their headquarters stationed in the Ninth District. The Yi family even placed such an important port in the Ninth District. To say that Harris, the district police chief, knew nothing about the Yi family’s affairs was something Yu Miao and Qi Xiao found hard to believe.

Yi Jing had originally planned to use the port as leverage to attract Old Master Yi’s attention and secure Yu Miao’s release, which was why she bypassed Harris from the start and directly mobilized the Ninth District police force. Partly due to a genuine lack of manpower, and partly to use Harris as a messenger to the Yi family to expedite Yu Miao’s rescue.

However, Yi Jing hadn’t anticipated Old Master Yi’s ruthlessness or Harris’s willingness to carry out any task, nearly costing the lives of her own colleagues.

Yu Miao let out a soft sigh.

At least now she could confirm that Yi Jing didn’t have many people around her who were loyal to the Yi family, which was already a relief. If even Yi Jing’s most trusted allies could betray her and disregard so many lives, Yu Miao wouldn’t know what to say, let alone how heartbroken her Jing-jing would be.

Fortunately, things hadn’t deteriorated to that extent.

Beyond that, there was another matter worth considering.

The sudden explosion at the Ninth District port was just as brutal as the Fifth District case. In her past life, by the time Yu Miao began investigating the Yi family, the “Fifth District Purge” had long since faded into obscurity, with records thoroughly scrubbed clean. No one spoke of it anymore, and Yu Miao had heard little about the Fifth District.

But recently, people kept bringing it up repeatedly, sparking a new thought in Yu Miao’s mind.

Initially, Yu Miao had assumed the Fifth District shootout was just a random occurrence, after all, gangs often acted recklessly, and it wasn’t unheard of for them to impulsively clash with government forces. The Fifth District had been so chaotic that even organized groups avoided it until the joint purge half a year ago cleared the way for them to move in.

Under such circumstances, such senseless violence wasn’t entirely unexpected.

But now, Yu Miao began to suspect the “Fifth District Purge” might not have been a coincidence. The odds of everyone from the district head to the gang leaders simultaneously losing their minds were astronomically low. Not to mention, Old Master Yi later used the incident to target Derrick, the purge’s initiator.

“The Fifth District.” Lost in thought, Yu Miao suddenly turned to Yi Heng, whom she’d ignored for a while, and asked, “Was the Fifth District once a transit point for the family’s business?”

“Huh?” Yi Heng was caught off guard by the question. She had asked Yu Miao several things without getting a response, only for Yu Miao to turn the tables. But since Yu Miao rarely engaged with her, Yi Heng didn’t hesitate to answer.

“It’s not just about handling transfers. Our family’s business used to focus heavily on District Five, which was far more important than District Nine that Xu Zaixi was in charge of. When District Five was still under the Yi family’s control, hardly anyone paid attention to District Nine. It was only after District Five was raided and District Nine had to step up that Xu Zaixi’s status gradually rose over the past six months… Huh? Wait, why are you asking about this?”

Yi Heng was slow to react, but it was already too late.

Yu Miao had gotten the answer she wanted.

No wonder. No wonder Old Master Yi knew the details of the District Five raid so well and spared no effort in fiercely targeting Delinke, who also came from the judicial system, during the election.

Because District Five had been crucial to the Yi family, it was a key stronghold for their shady operations. When Delinke  spearheaded the ‘District Five Raid,’ whether intentional or not, it was effectively targeting the Yi family.

Old Master Yi always had informants in government departments. He must have received word before the operation began. To protect the family’s interests, he had to hastily abandon District Five, forcing its district chief to resist the investigation with armed force and inciting gang wars with the police.

The violent resistance resulted in countless casualties, and witnesses vanished most were dead. As for physical evidence, it was practically nonexistent; Old Master Yi was always skilled at erasing traces.

Afterward, the District Five case was left unresolved. Many officers and inspectors involved even faced disciplinary action likely also tied to Old Master Yi’s influence.

No wonder Old Master Yi was so familiar with the details of the District Five raid, even without needing Yi Jing to access judicial records. She had been involved every step of the way, so of course she knew everything.

But after the incident, neither the Yi family, Old Master Yi, nor Delinke were willing to let it go. The former held grudges, while the latter, having carried out a legitimate operation only to face such an outcome, couldn’t help but suspect foul play.

Under these circumstances to ensure Delinke wouldn’t interfere with the Yi family’s business again, Old Master Yi would undoubtedly consider eliminating him entirely.

Yu Miao was almost certain that the election situation today was Old Master Yi’s long-planned retaliation. She had likely been scheming to deal with Delinke ever since the District Five raid.

Her encounter with Jingjing, seemingly coincidental, was actually a minor deviation in Old Master Yi’s grand scheme.

Old Master Yi had long intended to use cases Delinke personally handled to bury him. That’s why she transferred Jing jing, going to great lengths to pull her from the judicial academy and install her in Jing’an City’s judicial system as the deputy head of the Inspection Bureau. Once Delinke lost the election and was forced to resign as bureau chief, Yi Jing could seamlessly take over.

From there, between the legal and public security departments, there would be no high-ranking official in Jing’an City the Yi family couldn’t influence.

In that case, Old Master Yi’s initial leniency and favoritism toward Yi Jing made perfect sense, she was the final piece of her plan, her most important chess piece.

Yu Miao exhaled deeply, closing her eyes in frustration at having realized this too late.

But even if they had noticed earlier, it might not have made much difference. Her and Jing jing’s power was too weak they had been pieces on someone else’s chessboard from the very beginning. Even with advance warning, effective countermeasures would have been nearly impossible. It’s just a shame that her Jing jing had to be locked up in the old church’s detention cell.

Yi Hengzhi, that bastard, discards people the moment they lose their usefulness.

Yu Miao’s mind raced, turning over countless thoughts in an instant. Yi Heng, unaware of her musings, initially regretted speaking too hastily but now grew frantic seeing Yu Miao lost in contemplation. Unable to bear it, she started circling Yu Miao again, exclaiming:

“Oh my god, Miss Reporter, could you please stop overthinking things? Right now, what could possibly be more urgent than the explosion in District Nine? Do you know what people are saying out there? They’re saying Yi Jing is finished, that her faction is about to vanish completely. Forget whether Yi Jing can even get out, if this kind of talk spreads, you and I will be the first to go down!”

Yi Heng had initially thought that since Yu Miao wasn’t responding, maybe appealing to old sentiments wouldn’t work, so she switched to pragmatic reasoning instead. Unexpectedly, this finally got Yu Miao’s attention.

“Who says Yi Jing won’t get out?” Yu Miao lifted her head and glared at Yi Heng sharply. “Jing jing will come out. I’ve already contacted her foster mother the right people will be here soon.”

“!” Yi Heng froze, her eyes widening in shock. “You mean the one who’s always taken care of Yi Jing? The wife of the Minister of Territorial Finance?”

“Yes,” Yu Miao replied flatly, averting her gaze. “Her.”

“That’s good, that’s good.” Yi Heng exhaled in relief, finally sitting down in a chair not far from Yu Miao, murmuring to herself, “If she’s willing to come, then we’re saved.”

At this point, only that elder could help Yu Miao and Yi Jing.

After all, Yi Jing had been raised by her. Their bond was nothing like the ruthless, profit-driven relationship Yi Jing had with the family patriarch, Old Master Yi.

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