The man who entered stated his purpose directly. He was looking for his wife and daughter, who had been brought into custody by the Lungmen Guard Department.
An officer promptly invited him into a private consultation room.
Stepping inside and finding himself alone, the man's heart sank halfway into his chest. Facing the officer who entered behind him, he asked tremulously, "Officer... are my wife and daughter alright?"
The patrol squad leader took the lead in handling the case. Picking up the file in his hand—which contained the preliminary physical evaluation from the Guard Department medical center—his expression turned thoroughly grim. He stared at the child's report, where nearly every health indicator dipped dangerously below the normal baseline.
Silent for a few tense seconds, the squad leader finally looked up at the man. "You are Li Meng, correct? And your daughter is named Li Li, eight years old?"
Li Meng had been anxiously reading the officer's face. Seeing that dark, ominous expression, his knees nearly buckled.
"My daughter..." Li Meng choked out, a sob rising in his throat. "What happened to my daughter...?"
"Hmm?" Seeing the man break down in tears, the squad leader immediately realized what was wrong.
Recognizing the utter despair in the father's eyes, the officer realized the man thought the absolute worst had happened. It was a look he had seen countless times on the relatives of homicide victims.
"Your daughter isn't dead," the squad leader clarified quickly, leaning across the table. "It's just that her physical condition is severely compromised. Take a look for yourself—this is the medical report from our Guard Department's health division. Her physical development is barely at the level of a five or six-year-old child. She looks nothing like an eight-year-old."
He slid the document across the table.
Li Meng snatched the paper, his face pale with shock. "Impossible... didn't Zhang Qin say she was taking wonderful care of her?!"
The three Guard Department officers in the room exchanged deeply uneasy glances.
"When was the last time you actually spoke to your daughter?" the squad leader pressed in a low voice.
The question hit Li Meng like a physical blow. He searched his memory, only for his face to drain of color as he realized that the last time he had held a proper conversation with his own daughter was during the New Year festival. His lips parted as if to offer an excuse, but no words came out. He slumped back into his chair, looking utterly defeated.
After several agonizing minutes of silence, he asked in a hollow voice what had transpired on the street.
As the officer laid out the full story—from the stepmother's public outburst to the child's emaciated state and scrapes—Li Meng's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. A few seconds later, he surged up from his seat like a enraged lion, his eyes wide with fury.
"How could she... how dare Zhang Qin treat her like that?!"
"Calm down!" The officers pressed firmly on his shoulders, forcing him back into the chair. "Your daughter is safe right now."
Breathing heavily, Li Meng slumped back and slowly began to recount his family background.
Li Li was the daughter of his late wife, who had passed away three years ago after a sudden illness. He was just a rough laborer who knew little about taking care of a young girl. Furthermore, while his job paid decently, he worked long shifts at a plant outside the city core and could only return home once or twice a month.
Wanting to provide a proper home for his daughter, he thought about finding a new wife in Lungmen. That way, he would have something to look forward to when returning from the factory, and there would be someone to look after the child's daily needs.
Through a matchmaker, he was introduced to Zhang Qin. The matchmaker claimed she was frugal, traditional, and kind-hearted. Though her looks were ordinary, Li Meng cared far more about character than appearances, so they married. He genuinely believed he was giving his daughter a stable, complete home—he never imagined Zhang Qin would mistreat her so horribly behind his back.
As he reached the end of his explanation, Li Meng buried his face in his hands and wept bitterly.
Outside the observation glass, the Guard Department psychologist who had been monitoring the interview stepped out and whispered to Beatrice. In his professional opinion, the man's emotional breakdown was completely genuine. He had almost certainly been kept entirely in the dark.
Standing beside them, Flandre rubbed her chin thoughtfully before turning to Hong Meiling. "How much of what he said do you think is true?"
"Eighty or ninety percent," Meiling replied softly. "That kind of body-shaking anger and fear can't be faked."
The squad leader and the psychologist nodded in agreement. In law enforcement, officers were accustomed to suspects lying through their teeth, so they never treated spoken words as decisive evidence. Instead, they relied on a comprehensive evaluation of micro-expressions, posture, and instinctual physical reactions. Ordinary people simply couldn't fake the raw, involuntary trembling Li Meng had just displayed; an actor capable of such a performance wouldn't be working in a factory—they'd be a famous star.
Flandre trusted Meiling's judgment implicitly and nodded. "Then let's take him to see her!"
Leaving the observation room, Flandre and Meiling walked into the adjacent lounge where Li Li was waiting.
The little girl was sitting on a soft sofa, holding a plush doll while a cup of warm milk rested on the table before her.
"Big Sister Flandre!" Seeing Flandre enter, the child's face lit up with a sweet, innocent smile.
"Eh~~?"
Flandre gasped, turning to Meiling so fast her ponytail swung. "Meiling, Meiling! Did you hear that? I've become a big sister too!"
Flandre was so thrilled she almost leaped into the air, but Meiling reached out and gently patted her shoulder to ground her. "Stay steady, stay steady! Little Flandre is a big sister now!"
"Oh, right!"
Flandre suddenly remembered how her own elder sister always carried herself. She quickly pulled back her shoulders, puffed out her chest, and wiped the grin off her face, trying to adopt a cold, aloof expression to project majestic elder-sister dignity.
"Meiling, Meiling," Flandre whispered out of the side of her mouth. "Do I look like an elder sister now?"
Looking at Flandre's adorable baby face trying so hard to imitate Remilia's solemn, aristocratic air, Meiling couldn't help but cover her face with one hand to hide her laughter. "Extremely dignified! You have all the majesty of the Eldest Young Lady!"
"Hmph hmph!"
Hearing the praise, Flandre immediately broke into a silly, beaming grin, losing her majestic composure in less than a second.
Watching her, Meiling chuckled under her breath, reminded of the old story of someone trying too hard to imitate grace. Remilia might not always maintain her high-and-mighty dignity either, but at least she didn't laugh so sweetly.
"Alright, Second Young Lady, let's not forget what we came in here for," Meiling reminded her softly, giving Flandre's head a gentle pat.
Realizing her slip-up, Flandre cleared her throat and walked over to sit beside Li Li. "Little Sister Li Li, I have good news for you. Your daddy is here to see you."
Hearing Flandre's words, Li Li's expression went blank for a fraction of a second—before freezing into a look of deep-seated fear and resistance.
Noticing the child's visceral recoil, both Flandre and Meiling froze.
This was completely different from what they had anticipated.
Li Meng clearly loved his daughter deeply, so why was Li Li so terrified of meeting him?
Flandre shot a quick glance at Meiling, who gave a subtle nod of understanding. Only then did Flandre gently squeeze Li Li's tense, chilly little hand.
"You... don't seem to like your daddy very much?"
Li Li shook her head slowly, her eyes cast downward as she squeezed her plush doll tight. "Daddy doesn't like me... He gave me away to a strange auntie and told me to call her Mommy. But that auntie isn't my Mommy... and she never gives me enough food."
Uh...
Flandre scratched her head in confusion.
From Li Meng's perspective, his intentions had been pure and well-meaning. But when executing his plan, he had made three critical errors. First, he failed to realize that Li Li was already five or six years old and had her own clear memories and emotional attachments. Second, he chose the absolute wrong person to marry, exposing his daughter to hidden abuse. Third, he failed to maintain close enough contact to notice the abuse, allowing Li Li's trust in him to erode to absolute zero.
The end result was a tragic, deeply entrenched rift between father and daughter that no simple explanation could easily mend.