Chapter 7

The following day, Ye Zixiao actually caught a cold. He was sneezing the entire morning and felt horrible. His complexion was visibly bad as he arrived at his company for work.

When his employees saw that there was something wrong with the young prince's complexion, all of them sensibly avoided him. Ye Zixiao was left alone and fell into a deep sleep in the office for the entire morning. By noontime, he was refreshed.

Speaking of which, the people in the company were on the fence when it came to Ye Zixiao's temper.

The Ye Family owned the Longxi Group, which had subsidiaries such as Longxi Construction, Longxi Transportation, and Longxi Electronics. The current Chairman cum President of the group was Ye Lanyuan. Ye Zixiao was his youngest son who had just returned home after studying abroad last year. Upon returning, he was immediately made the Chief Executive Officer of Longxi Electronics.

Ye Zixiao got along with everyone well and did not act arrogantly. He would even smile and greet the janitors when he walked past them. However, he was rather harsh when it came to work related things. What would happen if someone's performance could not meet his requirements? Easy. They would be dismissed.

His secretary often pleaded with him. "No, Executive Chief Ye, this person was your elder brother's high school classmate, and that person used to be the Chairman's secretary." To which Ye Zixiao would always reply, "Don't worry, I know what to do."

What could his victims do? Ye Zixiao did not change his decision even after receiving pleading phone calls. His father, Ye Lanyuan, had once gotten angry once because of his attitude.

He claimed that the Longxi Group was their family business and that Ye Zixiao would undermine the foundation of the conglomerate by involving himself in all these matters.

Ye Zixiao was calm when he heard this. He often coolly replied, "Dad, do you know how most family businesses in China collapse? Most of them die of old age. Since you have given Longxi Electronics to me, I will do with it as I see fit."

He also had a big risk appetite when it came to the business. He often made huge investments to bring in all sorts of foreign technology projects. While there were some with big profits, there were also others which lost them a lot of money. However, his overall numbers were in the green. Therefore, it could be said that the family business was booming despite all the bumps that it had to go through.

Ye Zixiao was not that close to his siblings due to the relatively huge age gap and the fact that he had lived abroad since a young age. However, he was very close to his elder cousin sister, Ye Zixi.

At noon that day, Ye Zixiao was lazily eating the food prepared for him by his secretary when he received Ye Zixi's phone call.

"Didn't you try to bump into her yesterday? What are the consequences of you doing so?" Ye Zixi seemed to be laughing while she said this.

Ye Zixiao raised his eyebrow. "You said 'consequences' and not 'results'. Did you expect her to reject me? Congratulations, you guessed right. She didn't even look at me."

Zixi laughed for a short while before saying seriously, "She's completely different from your previous girlfriends."

Ye Zixiao nodded. "She's different."

Therefore, Zixi dropped the matter. Ye Zixiao suddenly spoke up again just as she was about to ask him about some financial affairs, "You have to give me some tips. Isn't she eating the food you've been sending her every day?"

Zixi laughed. "That's not the same, you have other intentions."

"Do you have the heart to let your savior miss a chance with a good man like me?"

Zixi laughed and thought for a moment before answering. "Let me point you in the right direction. Xu Xu has a brother who runs an accounting firm. You've met him before. He came to the Longxi Group for some business in the past."

Ye Zixiao thought for a moment before asking, "Xu Juan?"

"Yes."

"Has the group decided to hire him?"

"Most likely," Ye Zixi replied, "his firm is the best in the entire southwest."

Ye Zixiao suddenly smiled. "Xu Juan did leave an impression. He is a clever and sharp-witted man. Who would have thought that he would have such a weird sister?"

Ye Zixi smiled.

After he hung up his phone, he thought about it for a while before asking for his secretary, "I heard that there was an accounting firm that wanted to work with our group. They are quite good. Contact the person in charge and tell him that I want to invite him to dinner. It's time to tidy up our company's accounts."

Over the following few days, Ye Zixiao did not bother Xu Xu. Because of this, Xu Xu had all but forgotten about his existence.

Monday morning.

The Criminal Police Force held a meeting to once again discuss how to solve the razor blade case. All the core members from each branch were also present.

It was a very sunny day. The round teakwood table looked shiny and seemed to gleam under the sunlight. However, everyone had a serious look on their face. The station chief had given the order that they had to catch the criminal within five days. They had already been discussing things for half an hour, but they still had not come to a conclusion.

Some people suggested that the criminal was very familiar with the park's environment. Thus, the criminal might be a one of the park staff. However, no suspects were found during the previous screening.

Someone else suggested that the criminal committed the crimes at the parks near the CBD. It was obvious that the criminal had a hateful mentality towards the rich. Therefore, they should focus on the city's unemployed and low-income citizens. However, this proposal was like finding a needle in a haystack.

There were also people who claimed that the five-pointed star found at the scene represented something. The criminal might be imitating a foreign criminal and using his mark; it might also be a prank by a problematic teenager who was obsessed with crime novels.

Some people even suggested that since the CBD was a place where highly intelligent businessmen gathered. That person might be a white-collar worker who could not take the pressure required by corporate China anymore. Hence, the criminal was taking revenge on society.

There were many different opinions and all of them were plausible.

Despite it being such an important work meeting, Xu Xu and Yao Meng were present as well. The two of them sat at the most inconspicuous seats at the roundtable. Xu Xu lowered her head to note down the points of the meeting while Yao Meng made sure to keep listening attentively.

However, Liu Zijuan, the Deputy Chief and Captain of the Criminal Police Force was very open-minded. He suddenly turned and said to the two girls, "Little Yao and Little Xu, what are your opinions? Feel free to speak up."

Yao Meng's face was a little red as she said, "Deputy Chief Liu and all my colleagues, everyone's suggestion make a lot of sense. I have learned a lot by listening to all of you and it has given me some new ideas. I would like to add three points. I'm not sure if they're right so please feel free to criticize and correct me:

"Firstly, the criminal should be relatively young; he is below 25 years old

"Secondly, the criminal should have the characteristics of a person with antisocial personality disorder. Such people tend to fail in life. Thus, the criminal is unlikely to be one of the elites of the CBD. We could probably focus on unemployed citizens or low-income workers

"Thirdly, the criminal has not committed any crimes for three days now. I think he will make a move very soon. However, he might commit the crime in a new location. Since his target was obviously the elites of the CBD, we can predict his next crime scene: the subway has very good monitoring facilities, so it is unlikely that he will make a move there. The office building is obviously impossible. Therefore, the scheduled public buses around the CBD area are the most suitable location for him. Since there aren't that many bus lines, I recommend that we add more police officers around these areas. We might get lucky and catch him in the act."

Everyone slowly nodded after hearing her speak, especially the third point. Deputy Chief Liu and Officer Wu both smiled. Officer Wu went on to say, "I was on the phone with Deputy Chief Liu this morning. We both considered the possibility and were just about to increase the manpower around the area."

Deputy Chief Liu nodded. "It's good that Little Yao came up with this point."

Yao Meng sat down with a straight face, but her cheeks were completely red. Over the past few days, Xu Xu did not go around to investigate the case like Yao Meng. Hence, after hearing her view on the case, she felt that her points were very reasonable despite the fact that they both had very different perspectives.

"Little Xu, do you have anything to add?" Asked Deputy Chief Liu.

Everyone redirected their gaze towards her.

Initially, everyone had been more interested in Yao Meng when the two girls arrived at the police station. Their impression of Xu Xu was that she was a petite, quiet and introverted girl. Of course, she was also a little odd.

However, these days, Xu Xu was a big hit. Not only had she saved the famous Ye Zixi, but the entire criminal police force was benefiting from it. They had been eating imported fruits every single day.

Xu Xu nodded. "I do." She stood up and flipped open her notebook.

Xu Xu had written a detailed report last night and sent her analysis on the case to Ji Bai earlier that morning. However, Ji Bai had only replied with two words. "Duly noted."

After that, Xu Xu gave it to Zhao Han to have a look at it. Zhao Han praised and advised her, "Don't just talk about conclusions during the meeting. You also need to speak slowly and talk about the process. Otherwise, your psychological analysis will sound very unrealistic and others might not be able to follow it."

Because of this, Xu Xu took his advice and prepared a detailed analysis process.

"I started analyzing the case from three aspects, which is the crime scene, the victims' behavior, and the criminal's behavior. At the same time, I also considered the time, the tools and the motives for committing said crimes. By referring to the data on crimes related to endangering the public's safety over the past few years..." She took Zhao Han's suggestion and spoke relatively slower.

Deputy Chief Liu glanced at the clock on the wall and smiled. "Little Xu, just get to the conclusion."

Xu Xu was taken aback but quickly nodded. "Yes." She put away the notebook spoke with a slightly low voice.

"Firstly, the criminal is a male, between 18 to 25 years of age; he is only a high-school graduate.

"Secondly, he works in the CBD as a security guard.

"Thirdly, he has not been performing in work. I hypothesize that he had been severely punished at work during the last six months; he was also not on duty on Saturday at noon.

"Fourthly, he is easily irritated. When he was a juvenile, he most likely broke the law a lot. At the very least, he was severely disciplined by his school authorities. There must also have been some major changes in his life, such as strained family financial issue, divorced parents when he was young, or something along the lines of that. This could also have been a very superficial love relationship."

After she finished, she looked across the room. Everyone was quiet and no one said anything for quite a long time. In the end, Officer Wu finally coughed and asked, "So the person that we are looking for is someone between 18 to 25 years old with high school education. He is a single security guard who had been punished within the past six months. Also, he is not on duty on Saturday afternoons."

"Yes." Xu Xu blushed again. Her pale skin was so thin that it seemed as though it had been soaked in rose water. However, her eyes were still as calm as usual. Her piercing gaze made some of the other officers uneasy.

Deputy Chief Liu smiled and gently probed her for more. "Little Xu, talk about your analytical process."

Lin City was in full swing, but Ji Bai had been very carefree. On that evening, he was fishing with Shu Hang and the rest of the group at the countryside. As he was sitting on the deck when his phone rang and he received a text message.

It was from a young criminal police officer from the East Branch. "Captain Ji, I didn't know you had an apprentice. I've learned a lot from her. You are a really good teacher."

Ji Bai had always mixed around with people at the lower levels and he was quite close to the Criminal Police Force there. Just as he was about to reply, the rod in his hand dipped a little, signaling that a fish had taken the bait.

He picked up his phone again after reeling the large fish in. However, he was stunned to see that he had received another five text messages during the short interval.

Old Zhao of the Western Branch said, "Captain Ji, I didn't know that you had an apprentice. Not bad. Congratulations."

Little Xu of the Eastern Branch chipped in. "Brother Bai, your apprentice showed off her skills today. All of us are shocked. She's amazing."

"Captain Ji, when will you accept me as your apprentice?"

"Old Ji, I'm so jealous of you. You have another strong member on your team. More importantly, it's a girl."

...

"Third brother, what are you so fascinated about?" Someone asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Ji Bai did not answer, nor did he call Xu Xu to ask what happened. Instead, he replied to those who texted him, one by one.

"Xu Xu is not that experienced. Please excuse her for my sake."

The following day as the sky got dark, Xu Xu stared at the computer blankly.

Almost all the people in the office were gone. After several days of non-stop investigations, Deputy Chief Liu was allowing everyone to go home and sleep. However, they needed to report on time the next morning. Zhao Han packed up and walked over to Xu Xu. "Xu Xu, go home and rest."

Xu Xu raised her head slowly and looked at him. Then, she slowly turned her gaze back to the computer screen. She did not speak. All she did was wave her hand slowly in a half-hearted goodbye.

Zhao Han watched her pale side profile that was being bathed by the cold light of the computer scream for a while before sighing and leaving. After a while, Yao Meng stood up with her backpack. There was a pitiful look in her eyes as she looked at Xu Xu. "Xu Xu, you should go home. You spent the whole day here. It's not your fault that you made an incorrect assumption and failed to catch the suspect. Everyone makes mistakes."

Xu Xu answered her with an almost inaudible "Hmm."

Yao Meng came over and patted her shoulder. Nevertheless, she remained motionless. In the end, Yao Meng had no choice but to leave. After leaving the police station, Yao Meng had an idea. She took out her mobile phone and dialed Ji Bai's number.

"Captain Ji, it's me, Little Yao. There's nothing… it's just that... it's about Xu Xu. She's feeling somewhat depressed. I don't know if I should tell you about it, but I think she needs encouragement now... Yes, it's about the case. You probably don't know about it because you are on a vacation. She made some bold deductions and Deputy Chief Liu decided to investigate things in accordance to her hypothesis. He dispatched a large number of police officers, but they did not find the suspect. Her deduction was wrong and cost everyone the day..."

Xu Xu was very confident in her conclusion. She did not understand where she had gone wrong.

In the past 30 hours or so, the police conducted a large-scale investigation to look for security guards in the CBD that matched her description. In the end, they found 24 suspects.

She followed the officers to meet and interrogate each and every one of the subjects individually.

They came up with nothing. None of them were suspicious.

Firstly, they did not find any evidence such as blades or crime-scene photos in their residence. Secondly, most of them could provide an alibi. Thirdly, even if a few of them could not provide time witnesses, they were deemed to be mentally sound after being interrogated by Xu Xu and the police officers. Thus, they did not have any motives.

The Criminal Police Force was disappointed that their efforts had come to nothing. Deputy Chief Liu said that he was the one who started the investigation, so he would be the one to explain the situation to the station chief. No one had any complaints, nor did they put the blame on Xu Xu.

However, Xu Xu had been silent ever since. After returning to the office, she buried herself in work to check the data and the analytical process over and over again.

The night was getting darker and the building seemed to have fallen into an eerie darkness.

Xu Xu's eyes were getting blurry and her brain had started protesting the lack of rest with dizziness. However, her failure today felt like a piece of stiff, stale bread that was stuck in her throat. It did not want to move upwards, nor downwards. It was well and truly stuck.

She leaned on the table and decided to continue working after taking a break.

Even though she was very tired, but she knew she would not be able to sleep. The faces of the suspects and the crime scenes flashed through her mind. In a daze, she heard her phone ringing. It felt almost dreamlike as it kept ringing non-stop.

Xu Xu snapped to attention and opened her tired eyes.

It was the landline on her desk. The caller's number indicated that it was Ji Bai.

Xu Xu took a look at the clock on the wall. It was already twelve o'clock.

It seemed like he was calling because of the case.

Was he planning to scold her? It was only natural for him to do so.

Xu Xu picked up the phone. "Captain Ji."

Ji Bai's answered with a cold voice. "Have you reflected on your mistake?"

Xu Xu kept quiet. She had reflected on it. A lot. "Yes. I want to figure out what went wrong."

He suddenly snapped at her, "Who said that you are wrong? Did I say it? Can you not wait to acknowledge your mistake?"

Xu Xu was stunned. Then she heard him continue, "Now explain your analytical process to me."

"It's in your mail."

Ji Bai paused for a moment, then she heard the sound of a mouse clicking coming from the other end. Xu Xu sighed aloud before he said, "You are talking about a report with 30,000 words, twelve charts, and seventeen attachments? I want you to hear you talk about it yourself."

Xu Xu frowned. "Why?" A digitalized report was much more precise than a spoken report.

"You have one minute to tell me everything clearly. If I don't understand by then, then it just proves that you have not thought about it thoroughly. Actually, you know what? Since you're really good at overcomplicating even the simplest stuff, I will give you two minutes."