Genius Detective

In the next few days, everyone was looking for clues in the surveillance videos they found. Everyone’s eyes had almost shrunk into two black holes. However, the videos that could be found were all within seven days. What was even more painful was figuring out who the missing person was. They didn't have a clue at all. They didn't know whether they were male or female, old or young, and they could only search around blindly.

This time, Chen Shi seriously helped. After watching surveillance footage for two days, he said, "Watching surveillance videos is really boring. I feel like I could watch a bad movie with gusto if you gave one to me right now."

Xu Xiaodong said, "Does Brother Chen know that there’s a foreign film called "Sleep"? It’s the longest film in the world and they just filmed a person sleeping for five hours. [1]

"It must be wonderful." Chen Shi smiled.

"I'd rather watch that!" Xu Xiaodong rubbed his eyes, took a sip of coffee, and barely mustered enough spirit to continue to look at the computer.

They had sent a reply to the email according to Chen Shi’s suggestion, but there was still no response. Chen Shi also suggested checking the people around Dong Xiao to see if there was a strange disappearance. It turned out that Dong Xiao was an orphan and had been married several times. He divorced all of them, had no children, and all his ex-wives were alive.

The police also investigated the people around him. The first was Vice President Lu Qi. This person turned out to be an executive of another communications company. When Dong Xiao led the Zhuoyuan Company to the south, he suddenly jumped ship and became the Vice President. The original company was immediately annexed. Some people in the industry speculated that Lu Qi sold out his original boss and stole some core technology for Dong Xiao. If this matter was found out, Lu Qi may have to go to jail.

Lu Qi was just as mysterious as Dong Xiao. He has almost never been interviewed by the media. The only piece of news about him that could be found was from around ten years ago. Lu Qi started his own business in the 1990s and was a very hard worker. Back then, this energetic young man took a small personal handy-phone system[2] to Shenzhen to earn his first pot of gold. He married once but got divorced because he was busy with his career and didn’t have time for his family. However, this report wasn’t verified and seemed like a speculation, so it didn’t hold much value.

Regarding Dong Xiao’s new love, Su Chan, it is said that she used to be a model and was part of a few unpopular movies. Later, she met Dong Xiao through a mutual connection and was taken care of by him. In fact, Dong Xiao still has a wife and Su Chan is just an extramarital affair.

The police turned their attention to the inside of the company and asked some cleaners and security guards for information. They didn’t know anyone who had disappeared recently in the company.

A few days passed and there was no progress at all. The weird and spooky video was repeatedly studied, but nothing could be seen from it.

On January 16th, Chen Shi announced loudly in the conference room, "I will go crazy from watching the surveillance footage for another day. Let me go directly to see Dong Xiao himself!"

Lin Qiupu stopped him, "How can we investigate without evidence?"

"Why don't you bring the surveillance footage back from the entire country? You can definitely see 10,000 cases happening in them. It’s energy. Energy. We don't have unlimited energy. The investigation hasn't started yet, but everyone has already withered away from labor."

Many people concurred in their hearts and silently nodded in agreement. Lin Qiupu said, "Are you going to go to Dong Xiao's office and ask him if he murdered someone?"

"Can you see the room in the video? Go to that room and take a look to see if there’s any blood stains and whose blood stains they were. Wouldn’t we know then?”

Indeed, there was this way. Lin Qiupu had a sudden revelation.

Thus, everyone watched the video again and analyzed the characteristics of the room. There was some relief [3] next to the ceiling and an oil painting was hung on the wall. Lin Qiupu asked Peng Sijue to change into casual clothes and bring luminol reagent, then go with them to tackle the defense.

A group of people went to the Zhuoyuan Company and explained their intentions. The lady at the front desk said, "Wait a minute, I will call Mr. Dong."

After making a phone call, she said, "President Dong said that he’s free right now."

They took the elevator up to the thirty-seventh floor. This floor was entirely Dong Xiao’s office. It was very spacious. The huge floor-to-ceiling windows let in the early winter sunlight. The room was warm. The police noticed that there was the same relief next to the ceiling, but the oil painting wasn’t there. This discovery made everyone excited as it showed that the crime scene was on this floor.

Dong Xiao’s office had no desks or chairs. His body of fat was sitting on a huge sofa, causing him to look very swollen and bloated. In contrast, the woman wearing a qipao who was sitting next to him looked as delicate as a doll. Dong Xiao held her hand and said, "My dear, I have something to say to the police. You should head out for now."

"Was the incident from last time discovered?" Su Chan smiled.

"Aiya, is it okay to make these kinds of jokes? Hurry on!" Dong Xiao gently patted the back of her hand with his fat hand.

Su Chan glanced at the policeman and that burst of electrifying current instantly pierced and killed the hearts of a group of male police officers. She walked through the group of people towards the elevator, and everyone subconsciously stepped back to give her a passage, leaving the smell of jasmine perfume in the air.

The same perfume sprayed on a beauty or held in the hand to smell was two completely different scents. It was a breathtakingly seductive scent. The men at the scene had their hearts flutter and they couldn't drag their thoughts away from her for quite some time.

Looking at Dong Xiao, who was as fat as a pig and full of meat on his face, the police couldn’t help being jealous. Why should such an old and ugly man possess such a stunning beauty? Noting that the atmosphere wasn’t right, Lin Qiupu coughed a few times to remind them. Everyone barely dragged their souls back.

He was one of the few who hadn't been affected by Su Chan. He admitted that the woman was indeed pretty, but she was far worse than his own sister. It was just the bewitchment of makeup. If Lin Dongxue also put on makeup, she wouldn’t be worse than her.

"I'm very busy. If the police have anything to ask, then please keep it short... By the way, are you the criminal police or the economic police?" Dong Xiao asked.

"Criminal."

"Then you guys are in the wrong place..." Dong Xiao took a plate of pasta from the male secretary next to him. "Sorry, I have a binge eating disorder. If I don't eat for five minutes, I will be so hungry that it will be unbearable. Do you mind? "

"We don’t."

Dong Xiao stirred up the spaghetti and slurped them up, almost as if he was drinking water. He ate up a plate of noodles in an instant.

Because he was too fat, the male secretary picked up a handkerchief for him and wiped his mouth. It felt as though he was taking care of a giant baby.

"Mr. Dong, we are investigating a missing person’s case. I hope you can provide a detailed list of the company's employees." Lin Qiupu said this prepared speech. Of course, he wouldn’t directly mention the video.

"Missing persons case? What does it have to do with me?"

"How many people are there in your company?"

"Several thousand…"

"According to the information we have, the person involved in this disappearance case is from your company, so I hope you can cooperate."

"Okay, okay. Little Jia, go print a list of the employees."

After the secretary left, Lin Qiupu walked to the window and asked, "Excuse me. How long has your company been established in Long'an?"

"Haha, it's been three years. Officer, looking down from here, the scenery is pretty good!"

Taking advantage of Dong Xiao’s focus being diverted, Chen Shi gave Peng Sijue a wink, and the two snuck into a door next to them. They saw the oil painting on the wall. Yes, this was the room in the video...

1. In 1964, Andy Warhol debuted this movie which lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes, but it was later extended to 8 hours. The 2013 remake was also extended to make the 8 hour mark.

2. The Personal Handy-phone System (PHS), also marketed as the Personal Communication Telephone (PCT) in Thailand, and the Personal Access System (PAS) and commercially branded as Xiaolingtong in Mainland China, is a mobile network system operating in the 1880–1930MHz frequency, used mainly in Japan, China, Taiwan, and some other Asian countries and regions. (Wiki)

3. Relief is a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane. (Wiki)