Jiang Si was currently on the sofa with the two little ones when she heard a knock at the door. The two children, who had been completely focused on playing with building blocks, immediately scrambled up from the floor mat, using both hands and feet.
Ever since the last time the two little ones accidentally ran to the door to greet Jiang Si and were rewarded with kisses on their cheeks and hearty praise from her, the tasks of opening and closing the door at home had been completely taken over by them.
Fortunately, the doorknob wasn't too high; they could reach it by standing on tiptoe.
The two little ones pushed together with all their might and finally managed to open the door.
Seeing the two little ones who opened the door, Chris's eyes instantly lit up. "How come it's you two opening the door?"
As she spoke, she bent down and leaned closer. "Do you still remember me?"
The two little ones blinked their big eyes, first nodding.
Then, in their milky voices, they called out, "Pretty Auntie~~"
Chris was utterly delighted by this "Pretty Auntie," her heart blooming with joy. She had only been here once, and she hadn't expected the little ones to remember her.
Right then, the two little ones waved their small hands at her.
"Auntie, come in~~"
"They are just too well-behaved!" Chris couldn't help but pat the children's heads. After sitting down, she said to Jiang Si with a smile, "I'm really so envious of you. You have two such good babies!"
"I've only been here once, and they actually remembered me!"
Listening to this, Jiang Si thought silently to herself: Is it possible that they call everyone 'Pretty Auntie'?
But she didn't say that out loud.
Getting up to make a cup of coffee for Chris, Jiang Si casually asked, "What have you been up to lately? I haven't heard from you in a long time."
Chris took the coffee, took a sip, and answered with a smile, "I went mountain climbing."
"Mountain climbing?" Jiang Si raised an eyebrow upon hearing this. "Going mountain climbing in the middle of winter?"
"That's right," Chris said with a serious expression. "Chi Heng likes climbing mountains, so I asked him to go with me."
Ever since Chi's mother and that group were caught, they had, as per their previous agreement, started seriously trying to get to know each other.
Jiang Si nodded in understanding. Luckily, the mountains near Capital City aren't very high.
Otherwise, climbing in winter would be pure misery.
"Not in Capital City," Chris added, as if reading Jiang Si's mind. "We went to Xiang Province together."
"Xiang Province?" Jiang Si thought for a moment, with a hint of uncertainty. "You didn't go climb Mount Heng, did you?"
"Yes! I didn't expect there to be a mountain in China called Hengshan, just like his name!" Chris nodded, her words carrying a touch of pride.
Regarding this, she had done her homework thoroughly beforehand.
She knew China had the Five Sacred Mountains, and two of them shared the pronunciation "heng."
Moreover, one of them was homophonic and homographic with Chi Heng's name!
Seeing Chris's expression, clearly seeking praise, Jiang Si couldn't help but laugh. "Alright then, you're quite the romantic."
Taking Chi Heng to climb Mount Heng—this seemed like a strategy to conquer the peak and win the person over.
After chatting a bit more, Jiang Si asked offhandedly, "By the way, where's Chi Heng? How come he didn't come with you today?"
Chris took an awkward sip of her coffee. "Well... he had a fall."
"A fall?" Jiang Si was puzzled. "What happened? Is it serious?"
"It's okay, no bones were broken," Chris quickly explained. "That day on the way down the mountain, I accidentally twisted my ankle again..."
The rest didn't need to be said; Jiang Si could pretty much guess.
One could only say these two were truly prone to mishaps.
After asking about Chi Heng's condition and confirming he only suffered some minor scrapes and was fine, Jiang Si got back to the main point. "So, what did you come to see me about today?"
Upon hearing this, Chris blinked. "Jiang, we're good friends, right?"
As soon as these words were spoken, Jiang Si understood.
It seemed she was also here about the facial feature database.
"Even brothers should keep clear accounts, and besides, contracts aren't under my purview anymore," Jiang Si laid her cards on the table.
After a pause, she added, "To be honest, a set of templates isn't cheap these days."
Of course, she wasn't the one who raised the price.
It was adjusted by the Ministry of Public Security based on the current situation.
And the reasons for the price increase were quite reasonable. First, the speed had improved, nearly halving the time compared to before.
Second, the drawing technique had been refined. You didn't need any artistic background to see that; anyone with eyes could tell.
Plus, they had meticulously polished the accompanying templates.
Whether from a technical or presentation standpoint, there had been significant improvements over the previous version.
Naturally, the price had to increase accordingly.
"I know, price isn't an issue," Chris said. Before coming, she had already looked into it.
She knew the current custom price was about thirty percent higher than last year's.
She also knew there were many people in line for customization.
No problem, she could pay extra to jump the queue.
"That's not necessary," Jiang Si waved her hand.
Currently, they had only signed a letter of intent with the Ministry of Public Security. Moreover, the facial feature database required collecting a large amount of facial information, so they might not gather enough people in the short term.
After explaining the specific situation to Chris, Jiang Si said, "If your side has enough variety for the facial feature database, I can prioritize working on yours first."
"No problem with that," Chris agreed immediately.
Just like Country Y, there were also many people from Gaul in China. If Capital City didn't have enough, they could gather some people from Hu City as well.
With the serious business concluded, Chris put down her cup and took a photo out of her bag.
To be precise, it was a photo of a photo.
Jiang Si took the photo and looked at it. In the picture was a middle-aged man around thirty years old, with a slightly oval face, straight eyebrows but without prominent peaks.
His eyes were somewhat elongated and of moderate size.
He had a high nose bridge with smooth lines and lips of even thickness.
His facial features were well-proportioned, giving him a mature and very approachable appearance.
However, because it was a photo of a photo, the image quality was somewhat blurry.
"This is?" Jiang Si asked, puzzled.
"This person, like Wu Nan, is also one of Chi's mother's trusted aides."
After a pause, Chris laid out the situation. "After Chi's mother was arrested, she didn't provide any useful information. Knowing that Chi Heng couldn't let go of Qin Grandfather and Qin Grandmother, she used their ashes as leverage, threatening Chi Heng to find a way to bail her out. Otherwise, she would never reveal the whereabouts of the ashes."
Chi Heng had paid such a high price to bring her to justice, so naturally, he wouldn't agree to her demand.
Thus, the two sides had been deadlocked for almost two months.
"This photo was obtained by my Father after pulling many strings," Chris said.
After this man went to Gaul, he had been secretly working for Chi's mother. His movements were extremely covert; apart from Chi's mother herself, none of her subordinates had ever seen him. It was only later that Chris's Father asked someone to check the archives at the immigration administration.
That's how they found this archived photo taken when he entered Gaul years ago.
Due to confidentiality regulations, the Immigration Management Agency couldn't hand over the original documents to them.
They could only use a camera to take a picture of this photo-within-a-file.
Similarly, for the same reason, Chris couldn't take this photo to seek help from others in Gaul.
"The Immigration Management Agency has no record of him leaving the country, so he should still be in Gaul," Chris analyzed. "I suspect the ashes of Qin Grandfather and Qin Grandmother are likely in this person's custody."
After saying this, she looked at Jiang Si. "I know you're a very skilled artist. I wonder if you could manage to draw what this person might look like now?"
