After more than ten days of seclusion, Charlie wade finally emerged from the mid-mountain villa at Champs-Elysees Hot Springs.
Those ten-odd days of seclusion were, for Charlie wade, like a night of tossing and turning without sleep, because his mind was constantly on Claire Wilson, and he had never been able to settle his heart to cultivate.
It was now the end of March in the Gregorian calendar, the end of February in the lunar calendar, and Nanjing had entered the season of warming spring and blooming flowers.
With the Qingming Festival drawing ever closer, the Wade family had already begun preparations for this year’s ancestral worship. However, with everything now under Charlie wade’s control, Old Master Lord wade had taken the initiative to ask Charlie wade about the specific plans for the ancestral worship ceremony this year, such as whether to hold it on a grand scale or whether to notify members of the collateral branches to participate.
Yet, despite sending Charlie wade numerous messages and WeChat texts, Old Master Wade had received no reply, so he left a note for Charlie wade: if Charlie wade continued to ignore it, he would step in and take charge of the ancestral worship arrangements.
For Charlie wade, his first consideration was whether the ancestral worship ceremony was even necessary.
Paying respects to ancestors and parents on Qingming was naturally his duty as a descendant, but there seemed no need to make a big show of it.
So, the ancestral worship was essential, but the grand ceremony was not.
Moreover, he felt that he himself had become somewhat listless, and in this state, he was even less suited to organising a ceremony.
Thus, after some thought, Charlie wade decided that this year’s ancestral worship would be kept simple, with no extravagance or waste, and no permission for collateral family members to go to WadeLing Mountain. Only the direct descendants of the Wade family would gather at WadeLing Mountain for a devout tribute.
By this time, Lord wade had already been busy for several days with the ancestral worship preparations.
As Lord wade grew older, especially approaching the age of knowing heaven’s mandate, he became all the more attentive to these rituals of paying respects to ancestors, because he could not help but associate them with himself. The more sincerely he worshipped his forebears now, the more he naturally hoped that his own descendants would worship him with equal devotion in the future.
However, when he suddenly received Charlie wade’s message stating that there would be no grand ceremony, he felt a pang of reluctance but knew he could not overstep, so he had no choice but to call off all the preparations.
Charlie wade stood on the mountain ridge, gazing at the vast scenery, and for a moment fell into a daze.
He did not know where he should go next or what he should do.
He did not want to go home, because home was no longer home.
Nor did he want to go anywhere else, because he lacked the energy to go to any place.
Return and continue his seclusion to cultivate?
That did not seem like a good idea either, because he was like a severe insomniac: forcing himself to lie in bed would not make him sleep, but only make him more anxious the longer he lay there.
So, he called Li Yalin and asked about the progress of the investigation over these days. Li Yalin answered truthfully: “Young Master Wade, over these days we have preliminarily traced the leads on those vehicles. Each one’s movement trajectory has been deliberately concealed, so even using initial elimination methods, it is difficult to narrow the scope quickly. At present, it is hard to find a breakthrough; we estimate it will take at least two months for the first round of screening on these vehicles. By then, we should be able to eliminate at least 60 per cent of them, and then conduct a second round of screening on the remaining 40 per cent.”
Charlie wade felt his scalp tingle at this.
The first round alone would take two months; after several rounds, a year would be gone.
But he was not unreasonable either. In criminal investigation, apart from cases committed by fools that allowed the police to quickly find clues and make arrests, the rest, committed by individuals or small gangs with even a modicum of brains, would drag out the timeline for months or even years, with many taking more than a year to crack.
