"You're all leaving?" Bright sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows, shining on the woman's brown-gold curls. Wei Jinna raised her head and looked at the figures before her. "If they won't approve the funding, I can find another way."
"Director," a somewhat thin young man looked at Wei Jinna and said slowly, "I really wanted to cooperate with your investigation, but..."
He fell silent for a moment.
"This matter involves too much," said a woman in her thirties, wearing glasses and looking like an office clerk as she held the documents in her arms. "Those people from Aines should be left to fight among themselves. We shouldn't get involved. Besides..."
She paused. "The people who came from Aines don't play clean. You can't beat them."
Wei Jinna froze when she heard that, then lowered her head and asked hoarsely, "Did they approach your family?"
The female clerk looked up at Wei Jinna. After a brief pause, she said softly, "My child's teacher called me last night. She said someone had specifically gone to see her and paid the tuition we'd owed for this school year."
She lowered her head and stopped looking at Wei Jinna. "I've followed you around the Federation these past few years and never had time to go home. Now the transfer order has come through. They're sending me back to Konovi City, to an easy post..."
Hearing this, Wei Jinna raised her head and looked at the other people in the office.
When they met her gaze, they all looked away slightly, unable to meet her eyes.
"My mother is getting old, and her health hasn't been good. She wants me to go home..."
"My girlfriend isn't getting any younger either. She said if I don't go back soon, she'll marry another man..."
Soft murmurs