People's perception of beauty, their feelings for beauty, and their need for beauty are second only to their need for wealth and power.
In some classes of people who do not have access to wealth and power, the need for beauty will outweigh these two elements as the first goal to be pursued.
Lynch's handsomeness is also a form of beauty, and when the cop takes a liking to Lynch and empathizes with his chagrin over losing the ring he was going to give to his girlfriend, everything changes a bit.
Of course, even without these changes, Lynch would have kept things moving, and he was in a phone booth right outside the antique store, and he was just about to call the police to report a pinup deal here when a car with lights but no sirens pulled up right outside the antique store.
Two policemen got out of the car, one of them even pulled out a pistol, and it looked as if they were on duty.
It made Lynch feel a little ... confused, and he hung up the phone, a little hesitant, staring over at Michael s house all morning and into the middle of the day, he wasn t sure that little Michael had gotten the ring, but now it seemed as if things were a little more complicated than he had expected.
Just as he was contemplating whether or not to sneak back into Michael's house to check on the gold ring, he saw young Michael struggling to be escorted out by two police officers and handcuffed, and at the sight of this Lynch breathed a sigh of relief, and felt worthy of his own two slightly trembling legs.
He'd been chasing Michael Jr.'s car on his bike, and if the Bison hadn't been so visible, he might have missed it at the last intersection, but it was a good thing that the orange base color and big red flaming stripes stood out so well throughout the entire street, allowing him to find his target at a glance.
Michael Jr. never imagined that the gold ring would make him a "prisoner", let alone that he would be caught in another police precinct because he deliberately ran so far away.
Every city in the Bailer Federation will have a regional police station, which will often be in the vicinity of the city hall, and the work will be mostly administrative, in other words the work of the regional police station is management, not attendance.
Those who are really responsible for the front-line work are the individual precincts, such as the Sabine so-and-so street precinct and the so-and-so district precinct, which draw their own precincts, and they do not enforce the law across the districts or interfere with the work of other districts.
It looks like each precinct is independent of each other, though there are some things that are shared with each other, such as certain information.
Michael Jr.'s actions had harmed him, and if he had sold the gold ring at an antique store near where he lived, the person in charge of making the arrest would have been the local precinct police department, and he would have ended up meeting with the sheriff whom he had met that morning, which would have still allowed for some maneuvering, or lines of communication.
But he didn't do that, and was arrested after crossing more than one district, a district whose police department had no knowledge of him, and naturally was unlikely to sit down and have a good talk with a burglar, much less listen to him - every criminal who is brought into the police station claims to be innocent until after all the evidence has been listed in a court of law. .
The next step is to wait and operate, Lynch rode his bike back to the warehouse district, waiting for the police station's "subpoena", not to investigate him, but to let him assist in the investigation, he will certainly cooperate with the police request, he will also take the initiative to clear Michael's suspicion, yes, he is such a decent and kind-hearted good people, never would falsely accuse others.
Just as he returned to the warehouse, he noticed that something didn't seem quite right with Vera's mood, and being the considerate older boy he was he took the initiative to ask about it.
"It looks like you're not feeling well?" , he walked over to Vera with a glass of hot milk and placed it on the table in front of her, "You may not be used to hot milk, but trust me, it's good for you."
Vera took a sip of the hot milk after saying thank you, it was a rare experience for her, knowing that in the Bailer Federation and the world as a whole, people didn't have the habit of drinking heated liquids, even those girls lying on their maternity beds would gulp down some cold drinks soaked in ice cubes.
As the first sip of hot milk entered Vera's mouth with its strong, creamy flavor, she was a little surprised by the slightly above-body-temperature heat that accompanied the comfort that spread throughout her body as the milk slid into her belly.
She never thought hot milk would taste so good, more flavorful and comforting than refrigerated or room temperature.
"Thanks!" , she put down her glass and thanked again, "I'm fine, thanks for asking, I just ... leave me alone for a while okay?"
Lynch shrugged his shoulders away from him, "Sure, but be sure to call me if you need anything, anything at all!"
The two exchanged glances before Lynch left in pain, while Voula's face wore a wistfulness she didn't even realize she had.
Last night she had returned to find her husband drunk again, he had always come home drunk these days and Vera could actually understand that, after all, now was an opportunity to change the status of the entire family once Gap had gotten the go-ahead from management to become a partner in the firm.
She sympathized with her husband and was distressed that he had to drink so much every day, which was not at all good for his health, but there was no way to persuade him; Gap was a macho man and the head of the family, and she could not persuade him.
Just last night, while changing her husband's pajamas, who had collapsed on the bed and huffed and puffed, as usual, she had accidentally discovered a few lipstick marks on his buttocks.
A bolt of lightning ripped through her heart in that instant, and she almost couldn't breathe.
She never thought she would face such a day, and she was not as naive as the kid who was explaining the situation at the police station, who thought it was just a "joke" between colleagues.
The pants are off. This is no longer a joke.
Bewildered, she changed Gap's clothes and wiped away the evidence as if she'd made a mistake, her heart in turmoil though she pretended it was business as usual.
She needed calm, distance, and she had come in extra early today, her whole being seeming to be in despair, her soul on the verge of freezing.
She subconsciously held up the hot milk and took a sip, the heat from the milk gave her body a touch of warmth and made her feel better, she didn't know what to do, her mind was a mess.
Divorce?
Even if she did manage to leave Gap, Gap wouldn't allow her to do so; it's a hypocritical society, where people don't actually care about the family situation, but always have to make the harmony and fulfillment of the family one of the measures of a successful person.
From the management of corporations to the president of this commonwealth, they are constantly making statements about the value and role of the family to themselves, and to society.
It's Gap's time to rise, he won't agree, and even if he did, what about the baby?
Suspicion is the cancer of trust, and once the seed of suspicion is planted, all trust begins to crumble away, and it seems as if every overtime shift Gap used to work, every outing, has become an excuse in Voula's mind at this point for the purpose of cheating on her.
Even she felt her marriage was a sham!
She is going to crash and the sky is falling!
The more pessimistic a person was, the more likely they were to imagine things extraordinarily bad, and Vera quickly finished the hot milk in her hand, her breathing sharpening as the heat radiating through her body gradually cooled and there was no new source of heat to add to the mix.
Straightening her body with every breath, as if she were drowning, suffocating.
Her vision mixed with dimness as well, and she tried to call for help, but her instincts gave her what was actually the wrong signal; if she opened her mouth, she would be flooded.
Just at this moment of utter despair, a warmth from nowhere appeared in her arms, and the entire dimness of the world was fading, and she even heard someone speaking at her side.