The police called sometime in the afternoon, asking them to come by the next day.

The police station was located in Lotus Town, which was just a branch office with a few officers and a small holding cell. For more serious criminals, they’d be sent out to bigger prisons in bigger territories.

They were interviewed separately in order to make sure their accounts were not affected by what others’ say, and they were fairly detailed about it.

She also discussed the story with the other three before the police arrived, making sure there were no inconsistencies, while at the same time leading the police to the right suspects, thus saving time for everyone.

"They were looking for our treasure! Gold, maybe? But they’re focusing a lot on jaidete!" Naia said, eyes brimming with tears.

"But we do not even have pretty rocks, let alone jaidete! I don’t know where they got that information from! I’m afraid, officer. Is someone trying to harm us from behind the scenes?"

One of the things to focus on was their motive of targeting their family specifically.

Her words made the police feel the case was even deeper than they thought. It was definitely more serious than a mere robbery gone wrong.

"They were so brave, they were planning on killing us! Why would they do that, officer? Why? Our family is composed of an old woman and three teens below 20 years old. We are so small and weak. I’m afraid someone truly is targeting us!"

"What if the next call you receive—would be four bodies found in their home?"

Combined with her pretty face and delicate aura, it broke the policemen’s hearts, causing them to unconsciously be biased towards whatever she was saying.

Wow, those dramas she had watched so far really paid off.

"We will follow up on this closely," the policeman captain, Pan, said. "But I’m curious...how they...became that way."

He couldn’t help but think of the battered state of the three robbers.

Naia understood the puzzlement and cleared all doubts. She couldn’t escape this one because the robbers were alive and could speak. Besides, the robbers were defeated. How would she explain that? A vigilante swooped in?

She shifted the topic skillfully, without dropping character. "It is a good thing I learned some self-defense back home—my family is rich—otherwise, I cannot imagine what would’ve happened to grandma!"

The policemen nodded, impressed, though they probably were also thinking about how to handle this case. It was clear that there was a possibility of deeper schemes, and their small town station, which only had a handful of officers, might not be enough.

"I also want to know whether they planned to kill us from the start or they had a change of plans."

While killing them wasn’t entirely the plan, they were not beyond it. When they showed resistance, they definitely had a killing aura around them. Their aunt probably told them it was best to kill, and they agreed when they saw they could cause trouble.

She sighed. "I mean, why does everyone keep looking for things that aren’t here?"

This made the police flinch. "What do you mean by everyone?"

She nodded eagerly, her head bobbing cutely. "Hmn, first, my cousin from town uncharacteristically went to this place. You have to know that family looks down on their roots so much. I never thought I’d see them in the rural area.

"We rejected her, and the next morning, my aunt was there too. She asked us for a box jaidete," she said, then backtracking. "She was quite loud. I’m afraid some neighbors heard it and it spread, reaching bad people’s ears."

The policeman was actually familiar with one of the robbers. The man was actually someone who had done time after robbing a small shop before.

Since the robbers were also in Lotus Town, it was estimated their families and other connections, if they had them, were there too. This narrowed down their investigation, especially if the robbers didn’t reveal the information they needed.

The policemen nodded. "Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll do our best to give your family an explanation and the compensation you deserve."

...

Naia knew that the burglars would be punished, but even if they testified against auntie, they might not drag down the latter. She doubted her aunt would be stupid enough to reveal her face and identity when planning a ’hit’. If she did, then it meant the burglars were people she trusted. As such, it was unlikely that they could pin something more on Aunt.

Naia knew the law could not help this time, so she might have to do some things herself.

For example, embarrassing Auntie Michi. That woman also loved her reputation.

Anyway, the family said their goodbyes to the police officers and headed home in complex moods.

It was Sunday, but Monday was a holiday, so the twins went home with them instead of staying in Lotus town.

When she got home (after eating dinner outside), she immediately said her goodnights to her grandmother. She opened her laptop and started working overtime.

She had some background in intermediate IT, as it was a required course for them. After all, whenever they went out on a mission, they were also expected to obtain information and data that they could, some of which required some coding.

Now that she had refreshed a bit of knowledge, while she still couldn’t risk hacking institutions like banks, she could easily use her skills to gather as much information as she could about a person.

She could also try to hack a few accounts, as long as it wasn’t those extremely encrypted ones.

She read through everything, skimming through dozens of documents within a few hours.

Soon, she really did find quite a few scandals. It ranged from infidelity, then prostitution, and then there seemed to be some patterns associated with laundering and embezzlement.

Naia’s eyes sharpened, using a few more hours to consolidate the data.

She just had to find the optimal time to release them.

Humph! If they wanted to bully her family, they had to make sure they had the strength to deal with the aftermath first.