The netizens quickly divided into two camps, one on Gregory and Linda’s side and the other on Finley’s. The argument was heated online.
Haven never expected things to escalate like this. She thought about it with her head in her hands, memories of that time flooding back to her.
Soon after, Star Entertainment’s official Twitter account posted a message that helped control the situation.
“Thank you for your attention these past few days. Please stay rational while following this matter. This issue involves ethical and moral standards for humanity. Whether it is child trafficking or college admission fraud, they are major problems in today’s society. This matter is no longer just an entertainment industry dispute; it has violated social interests. Any force that goes against the law will eventually be punished. We have reported this to the police, and we await confirmation of the truth.”
Jane spoke on behalf of the company on Twitter with powerful words that were convincing.
Since law enforcement had already intervened, netizens had nothing more to say; no one could escape legal punishment now. All they needed was to wait for how law enforcement would view and handle the Hodge family’s case next.
Soon after, police began investigating by coming over to Star Entertainment where Jane temporarily kept Gregory and Linda due to their morning interview earlier in the day.
After the police arrived at the company, they took Gregory and Linda away. Jane, wanting to help, followed the police to investigate the truth behind the incident.
These days, Jane had been too busy with company matters, especially since their own artists were involved. If the issue wasn’t resolved properly, it could potentially affect the company’s credibility in the future.
This made Jane even more worried. She had to go to the police station to provide a witness statement and then search for some college-related documents, including the admission scores and the Hodge family sisters’ scores from that year.
However, this incident had happened many years ago, and there were countless high school graduates each year. If she suddenly had to find these documents, it would be troublesome.
As a result, during the day, Jane observed how the police interrogated the Hodge family parents at the police station. However, the Hodge family parents, who came from a remote area, had a weak sense of law and couldn’t provide much information.
In the afternoon, Jane stayed at the Education Bureau, trying to find out the truth from that time.
Was it a case of impersonation or voluntary withdrawal?
Due to this incident, Patrick assigned a few subordinates to guard the homes of Finley and Haven to prevent them from causing any more trouble.
Jane went to change Haven’s Twitter password to ensure that the company had control over their artists’ Twitter accounts. This was to prevent Haven from making reckless statements. It was a necessary decision.
Even if Haven used an alternate account to spread rumors, nobody would pay attention to her.
With Haven temporarily stable, she wholeheartedly focused on uncovering the truth behind the incident. She had been running around for these days, overwhelmed with work and investigations, barely getting five hours of sleep each night.
The high workload and investigations drained Jane of her energy and time.
Patrick looked at Jane’s dark circles and felt sorry for her. Seeing that she was still busy, he walked up and embraced her.
“Still no leads?”
Patrick’s magnetic voice brought Jane a sense of security.
“This matter still needs to be sorted out. There are so many truths that haven’t been made public, and public opinion won’t let it go.”
Jane sighed and resumed flipping through the documents on her desk.
“You just recovered from an illness, and now you’re busy again. Don’t exhaust yourself and break down your health.”
Patrick was deeply concerned. He looked at the thick stack of documents in Jane’s hands, unsure of when they would finish going through them.
“It’s not efficient to approach it this way.”
Patrick handed the documents to Jane. “There’s so much text, and human memory has its limits. You can’t memorize all of this in a short time.”
Jane felt helpless too, feeling like she was back in the week before her college entrance exam, trying to read as much as she could.
“Let me teach you.”
Patrick bent down, glanced at the document, and started analyzing it for Jane. Soon, they finished interpreting a set of documents together.
With so much material, Jane didn’t know when they would finish reading it all. Patrick had someone find a few competent staff members from the Education Bureau to investigate which students were accepted but didn’t attend school.
This narrowed down the scope, relieving Jane of some of her workload.
Jane couldn’t believe that Patrick was actively helping her. It brightened her mood considerably.
“I’m glad I have you; otherwise, I wouldn’t know how to get through this.”
She stretched and got up, preparing to rush to the police station.
For the past few days, the vague statements made by the Hodge family parents hadn’t provided much insight to the police.
Jane also felt helpless. She didn’t have high expectations for elderly people with low education levels.
However, child trafficking was indeed a matter that needed thorough investigation.
Through these days of investigation, Jane was certain that someone had instigated the Hodge family parents to engage in child trafficking.
The elderly, with their limited legal awareness, were the perfect targets for those people.
Soon, Patrick’s people also went to the Education Bureau to help with the investigation. The investigation from the Education Bureau quickly confirmed that Haven and Finley had indeed been accepted to college together.
The truth gradually came to light, and the situation began to reverse.
However, the police investigation hit a bottleneck. They discovered that a group of people had indeed entered the mountainous area and that Finley and Haven arrived after they left the Hodge family.
Clearly, it was this group of people who incited the Hodge family parents to engage in child trafficking.
But why did they leave the mountainous area after trafficking the twins, and why had no one discovered it all these years? If there were no hidden interests, normal people would continue such activities if they went undetected.
Soon, through their investigation, the police found that the group of people came from a large corporation. The matter had been delayed for a long time, so the police hastily extended their reach to that corporation to avoid further delays.
However, the corporation had been operating for many years and had already planned for such a situation. Before the police could make progress in their investigation, the group had already activated their personnel embedded within the police force.
Over the years, in their pursuit of child trafficking, they had infiltrated the police force with many people. Now that the truth was about to be exposed, in order to protect their own interests, they were forced to mobilize their personnel.
In a meeting, those individuals began to disrupt the police’s actions and thinking. On the other hand, they also obstructed the police’s operations, preventing the investigation from progressing further. The situation quickly reached a stalemate.