Takei Katsuhiko forcibly ended the meeting, and Secretary Hanai saw Jiang Xia and the others downstairs.
Compared with Takei Katsuhiko, the kidnapping seemed to have affected Hanai Akiko even more. She kept drifting off, tears still clinging to the corners of her eyes.
Seeing how hard she was trying to wipe them away, Kinoshita Yoko handed her an unused handkerchief.
Secretary Hanai came back to her senses, accepted it, and dried her eyes with a bitter smile. "Sorry. I lost my composure."
Jiang Xia looked at her. "You seem very close to Takei?"
Secretary Hanai nodded. "Her mother died early, and Mr. Takei was always busy, so he often asked me to look after her. Maybe, in Naoko's eyes, I'm like her older sister... or even her mother."
They had reached the entrance. Seeing that Kinoshita Yoko's assistant and the others were waiting in the courtyard outside, Secretary Hanai stopped. "I'll see you off here. I should get back."
She bowed, stepped back inside, and closed the door.
Kinoshita Yoko sighed and quietly said to Jiang Xia, "A child she raised herself was kidnapped, and nobody knows whether she's alive or dead. She must be suffering terribly right now."
Jiang Xia nodded in agreement.
Then he looked at the sky and happily realized it was nearly dinner time. He invited the other two involved in the case, "Let's have dinner together and talk about this job while we're at it... huh?"
Before he could finish, Jiang Xia turned around and suddenly discovered that, while he had been talking with Kinoshita Yoko, Amuro Tooru had already opened the nearby car door, bent down into the driver's seat, and shut the door tightly behind him.
Hearing Jiang Xia's words, the crafty boss's eyes flashed with just as expected, thank goodness, and *at