Hello, Mr. Major General

if he couldn’t find any violation of the law by the soldier, then it would be nearly impossible to create any arguments about it.

cai sumin calmly looked at his phone and replayed it over and over again. when he finally couldn’t watch it anymore, he sighed and put his phone away.

…

at the same moment, huo shaoheng was sitting in his bulletproof vehicle and staring at the surveillance footage inside the car. he watched the process of his subordinates’ actions.

when his special operations forces subordinates went to the vip lounge inside terminal 3 of the imperial capital international airport to make the arrest, they were equipped with a special type of video camera. aside from recording video, this also recorded on file everything that occurred within ten meters of their surroundings.

inevitably, huo shaoheng noticed cai sumin. a burly, strapping, and serious-looking man stood in the corner and kept looking at his phone the entire time. the man appeared somewhat familiar. huo shaoheng initialized the facial recognition system within the surveillance footage and ran a search. soon afterwards, that person’s information appeared on his screen.

rows of beautifully written song-style characters appeared next to cai sumin’s head shot. “cai sumin, male, 55-years-old, american nationality, experienced lawyer. former chief legal counsel of the previous president of the united states. he once helped the prime minister win the ** case, impeachment case. older brother of cai songyin, father of cai shengnan.”

huo shaoheng raised a brow. so he was actually here? was he sending cai songyin abroad? or was he taking cai songyin abroad with him? he then searched through the system again and discovered that cai sumin was also on tonight’s flight back to the united states.

huo shaoheng couldn’t deal with someone like cai sumin as he had with cai songyin. cai sumin was american, and not of huaxia nationality.

…

cai sumin no longer wanted to return to the united states. if tan dongbang had been the only one arrested, then cai sumin would certainly refuse to get involved in the mess. it wasn’t worth the effort to help scum like tan dongbang, so he had chosen to return to the united states immediately to avoid his younger sister asking him for help. would he then have decided to help or not help tan dongbang?

however, now his own younger sister was arrested, so he couldn’t sit idle. watching tan guiren sit there all alone and cry, he realized she was still as naive as a child, even though she was already in her 20s. cai sumin sighed once again. his younger sister excelled at everything and always wanted to be strong her entire life. however, when it came to her daughter, she had spoiled her far too much.

of course, tan guiren was well worth being spoiled. she had been a musical prodigy since she was young and possessed the strong family backgrounds of both the cais and tans. she was destined to be able to grow up in an ivory tower with those around her completely protecting her heart of innocence. but now, both her parents had been arrested, and her ivory tower had completely collapsed. who would be the one to protect her from now on?

cai sumin had no choice. since she was his younger sister’s daughter, he could only take care of her from now on. he knew that no matter what happened to cai songyin after this, her biggest worry would be her daughter.

after hesitating for a long time, cai sumin finally grabbed his suitcase and walked towards tan guiren. just as he stopped in front of her, cai sumin suddenly discovered another pair of shiny military boots entering his field of view. cai sumin slowly raised his head, and his gaze drifted upwards to see a strapping man in a black uniform standing across from him.

this man appeared mature and reliable, possessing a profound aura. his eyes were as dark as the sea, and his nose was finely chiseled. his features were so handsome, no one could find any flaw in them, and on his shoulders gleamed a golden epaulet of an ear of wheat and one gold star. he held the rank of major general.

cai sumin looked at him with a bit of surprise. “may i ask who you are? what can i do for you?” actually, cai sumin recognized who this person was, but it was better to pretend he didn’t know at a time like this.

this person was none other than huo shaoheng. he stared pointedly at cai sumin and replied, “are you mr. cai sumin?”

“yes, may i ask who you are—”

before cai sumin even finished his sentence, tan guiren jerked her head up and stood up in delighted surprise. “major general huo? is that really you, major general huo?! i’m begging you, please release my daddy and mommy. they are old, so they can’t stand up to this treatment. arrest me! can you arrest me instead?!”

huo shaoheng was speechless. the corners of cai sumin’s lips couldn’t help but twitch. he grabbed tan guiren and squeezed her shoulder as he nodded at huo shaoheng. “so this is major general huo. please forgive us. my niece suffered a great shock today and is speaking nonsense.”

“i’m not speaking nonsense!” tan guiren wanted to struggle out of cai sumin’s grasp. “i sincerely want to go in exchange for my mommy and daddy! uncle, you’re a lawyer. you can convince major general huo to release my mommy and daddy, right?”

cai sumin’s brow raised as he replied sternly, “little darling! don’t cause a scene! uncle will help you rescue your mommy and daddy. don’t cause trouble.”

“fine, fine, i won’t cause trouble. but uncle, you must rescue them! you were just about to return to the united states. how would you be able to rescue mommy and daddy, then?” tan guiren’s cries grew even louder. she wouldn’t have been this frightened and distressed if she were the one in danger. when she was kidnapped in new york, she didn’t allow herself to cry at all. but now her own parents were in trouble, so she wasn’t able to control herself anymore, and her tears surged out like a river overflowing its banks.

huo shaoheng curled his lips as he answered tan guiren’s question. he replied slowly, “lawyer cai plans to return to the united states? isn’t it unethical to leave your younger sister and brother-in-law behind at a time like this?”

a hint of embarrassment flickered in cai sumin’s eyes, but he still replied calmly, “how am i leaving my younger sister? i was originally planning to leave, but i just witnessed my younger sister being taken away and imprisoned, so i’ve decided to stay.” as he spoke, cai sumin patted tan guiren’s shoulder. “little darling, don’t cry. we’ll go back together and think of a solution.”

“ok, uncle.” tan guiren sobbed and clung onto cai sumin’s shirt tail.

cai sumin wanted to take tan guiren out of the vip lounge, but huo shaoheng continued to stand there without moving, blocking their way. “major general huo, shouldn’t you move aside?” cai sumin said calmly. “we have to go home now.”

“lawyer cai, shouldn’t you delete the footage of our personnel performing their duty that was secretly recorded on your phone?” huo shaoheng replied languidly, his right hand curling up to point at the pocket holding cai sumin’s phone.

cai sumin was momentarily speechless but quickly recovered. “no! you can’t violate my privacy!” cai sumin rebuked him. “you can’t check my phone!”

huo shaoheng laughed. “oh? why can’t i check it?”

“because you’d be violating a citizen’s right to privacy, obviously!” cai sumin replied stubbornly and couldn’t believe that someone in this world would dare to make the unreasonable request of checking his phone!

“but you aren’t a citizen of our nation, so a huaxia citizen’s right to privacy is not valid for you. as a foreigner coming to our nation, you must abide by all the regulations of our country. we have the right to believe that your mobile phone contains content that will damage our national security,” huo shaoheng remarked coolly and stepped forward with his hand extended towards cai sumin. his shiny military boots made a heavy sound on the carpet inside the vip lounge. each step seemed to stomp inside a person’s heart. tan guiren could feel her own heartbeat rising and falling along with huo shaoheng’s footsteps. she looked down with her hands clasped to her chest.

cai sumin’s eyes instantly narrowed. it appeared that this major general huo was truly different from a soldier who was physically developed but simple-minded! he actually understood the law… and the most remarkable thing was that his statement was absolutely equivalent to the practice of us customs.

us customs was given the highest authorization by the us supreme court to conduct searches of all luggage and electronics carried by travelers to the united states. in the past, some huaxia citizens had been directly repatriated on the spot when they entered us customs, because us customs found inappropriate content on their mobile phones.

as an experienced lawyer, cai sumin was very familiar with such regulations. there was nothing inappropriate on his phone, since he knew that there were elements of insecurity with anything related to the internet. however, the video he had just taken was truly a bit inappropriate.

cai sumin squinted to study huo shaoheng. after hesitating for a while, he finally took his phone out and unlocked it before passing it to huo shaoheng. he smiled at huo shaoheng. as long as huo shaoheng dared to accept his phone, then huo shaoheng would have fallen into his trap… because that regulation only authorized customs personnel. it didn’t mean anyone else had the right to check a foreigner’s phone. however, huo shaoheng didn’t take it. he got the attention of someone wearing a customs uniform standing beside him and said, “little li, this is within your jurisdiction.”

the customs inspector named little li wore white gloves and took cai sumin’s phone to begin conducting a check. little li was a well-trained customs inspector. he quickly found that video and sent it to his own email before physically deleting it from cai sumin’s phone. at the same time, he also checked the cloud drive on his phone to confirm it hadn’t been enabled before being assured enough to hand the phone back to him.

“it’s fine now. don’t take videos in here again.” little li pointed to a large sign inside the vip lounge which read, “unless authorized, recording of audio or video is prohibited.”

cai sumin’s plan had not succeeded, so he smiled awkwardly and said, “i’m sorry, that was my mistake. i didn’t see the warning sign there.”

huo shaoheng nodded. “lawyer cai should remember this from now on. since this was your first infraction, this will be considered a warning. if you make a second infraction, you will be punished for both infractions.”

“i didn’t think major general huo would be so proficient in law, despite being a soldier.” cai sumin composed himself and half smiled as he began chatting with huo shaoheng. when he took his phone back, he sent a text to his daughter, cai shengnan, asking for her to pick him up from the airport.

cai shengnan hadn’t gone too far by that time. when she received cai sumin’s text, she quickly called him. “daddy, what happened? your flight was cancelled?”

“no, i don’t plan on going back for the time being,” cai sumin replied slowly. “come pick us up first, and we’ll chat later.”

cai sumin ended the call and spread his hands at huo shaoheng. “major general huo, was there anything else?”

huo shaoheng glanced at tan guiren. “miss tan, according to the law, you’re the immediate family of tan dongbang and cai songyin, so you cannot go abroad until their cases conclude.”

tan guiren instantly shook her head. “i won’t run away. major general huo doesn’t need to worry. if you’re concerned that i’ll run away, you can lock me up! i can guarantee that my mommy and daddy won’t run away, either!”

huo shaoheng didn’t know what to say.

cai sumin knew that his own younger sister and brother-in-law once yearned badly for huo shaoheng to be their son-in-law, so he had an idea when he saw his own niece listen obediently to everything he said. “i’ll be troubling major general huo in that case. my niece has been protected too well by her family all this time, so she hasn’t had much social experience. now that you’ve arrested both her parents, and you’re also the only person she trusts, how about you take her with you, so she can be close to her mommy and daddy?”