This family lived a fairly comfortable life—a typical middle-class household.
Li Ying was an only child, and all of her parents’ affection was lavished on her. Even the house had been bought specifically for her.
The two of them followed Li Ying’s parents into the bedroom.
It was spacious, clean, and tidy, filled mostly with feminine items. There was nothing particularly out of the ordinary.
On the way over, Yang Ruiming had specially brought along a computer technician from the bureau.
He waved his hand, and the technician, receiving the order, sat down in front of Li Ying’s computer and began working.
“Captain, it’s open!”
The two who had been looking around hurried over, moving the mouse to click into the email inbox.
There was quite a lot of information inside—mostly emails from companies or schools.
Qi Qi continued scrolling down and finally spotted something unusual among the many message threads.
She clicked open that chat window.
The other party’s avatar was a leaf-shaped pattern, fiery red in color, with a pitch-black background image.
Staring at that avatar for a moment, Qi Qi’s gaze flickered subtly, silently concealing her reaction before she began analyzing the chat records with the others.
But the further they analyzed, the colder their backs became.
Not for any other reason—it was that when the other party chatted with Xiao Ying, every line revealed an intent to probe and pry.
And the content he was prying into?
All of it concerned Starlight Arms!
However, Li Ying also knew what she should and shouldn’t say. Faced with his questions, she only glossed over the important points and brushed past them. The rest of the content was the same.
Yang Ruiming: “Can we trace it through the IP?”
The technician began operating again.
But—
“The address is fake information.”
“This person might very well be the killer,” Yang Ruiming said, glancing at Qi Qi, his voice turning grave. “It seems this isn’t just a simple murder case. This needs to be brought to the higher-ups’ attention.”
“By the way, since you know President Jian, go ahead and give Starlight a heads-up.”
Qi Qi cast one last glance at that avatar before being the first to leave Li Ying’s home.
…
The car was silent.
Slender fingers tapped lightly on the steering wheel. The soft beeping of dialing a phone was faint, yet unusually clear inside the vehicle.
The other party picked up.
“They seem to be making a move again,” the woman’s voice carried a hint of coolness.
Whatever the other party said—
She frowned slightly. “Why?!”
The other party said something else.
But the woman refused: “I’m not backing out.”
With that, Qi Qi hung up the phone, her eyes fixed on the screen. She gripped the steering wheel tightly for a moment, only starting the car and driving away after suppressing her emotions.
She had just arrived at her destination when she happened to see Jian Ze coming out of the company.
“President Jian.”
Jian Ze turned his head at the sound, and upon seeing it was her, smiled and spoke.
“Here to see A’yu? He’s in his office.”
Qi Qi didn’t understand why his first thought upon seeing her would be Jian Yubai.
Not overthinking it, she stated her purpose directly.
“I’m here to see President Jian—it’s about Starlight.”
Assuming it was still about the case, Jian Ze brought her to the top floor of the building.
The top three floors of the entire building were private space.
At this moment, inside the luxurious, spacious office—
Jian Yubai had completely shed his previous carefree and casual demeanor, seriously reviewing documents.
In just one morning, this man had transformed from a wild young master into a cold, domineering CEO.
Look at that—now that’s the ultimate in fickleness.
Seeing her enter, Jian Yubai finally lifted his gaze from the documents.
“You here to check whether I’ve been disgusted to death, or starved to death?”
Qi Qi: … If he didn’t speak, he’d almost pass for a normal person.
Jian Ze said helplessly, “Miss Qi is just here to discuss some matters.”
As he spoke, he looked at Qi Qi. “If it’s about company business, you can talk to A’Yu. Xingyao will be under his management starting today.”
Jian Yubai said, “I told you, I’m only staying in the country for two weeks. Once Grandpa’s birthday is over, I’m going back to England.”
Jian Ze said, “Grandpa has already sold your villa and race cars in England. You can’t go back.”
Qi Qi couldn’t be bothered to get involved in their personal affairs. “It’s still about this morning’s case. Based on the clues provided by the victim’s family, we’ve deduced that the killer’s ultimate goal may be related to your arms deals.”
Hearing this, both of them finally turned serious.
Qi Qi explained her analysis to the two of them.
Jian Yubai asked, “You mean the killer is targeting people from the company in order to obtain intelligence about Xingyao?”
“Mm, I think the company definitely has more of his targets.”
She didn’t say anything more than that.
However, she seemed very certain about who the killer was and what his purpose was.
Jian Yubai gave her a deep look.
Jian Ze asked, “So you came here this time to directly find out who the killer’s next target is? How are you going to find them?”
The company had at least a thousand employees—there was no way they could ask each one individually.
Qi Qi didn’t explain. She just asked, “Could I borrow some paper and a pen?”
Jian Ze was puzzled, but he still brought the items over and handed them to her.
Qi Qi took them and started drawing directly.
In no time, a pattern appeared on the paper—it was exactly the avatar she had seen on Xiao Ying’s computer.
Her movements were very skilled, as if she was very familiar with this pattern.
After finishing, she handed the paper to Jian Ze.
“Ask them if they’ve seen this pattern.”
“Can you find the killer with just a pattern? What if we catch the wrong person?” Jian Ze asked doubtfully.
“There won’t be any mistake. You’ll know in a moment.”
“Sorry, I need to take a call.” Qi Qi said, then walked out of the office with her phone.
Just as the two of them were examining the pattern, a phone rang.
Seeing the caller ID, Jian Ze answered, “Grandpa.”
Whatever was said on the other end, Jian Ze’s expression darkened, and he couldn’t help but glance toward the door.
“I already know.”
Jian Yubai noticed his expression was off and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Jian Ze asked back meaningfully, “Is Miss Qi really just a forensic examiner?”
Jian Yubai explained, “Mm, she joined the Criminal Investigation Bureau right after graduating from graduate school. Her mentor is the chief forensic examiner there.”
“She’s only been back for two days—how do you know all this so clearly?”
Jian Yubai’s expression faltered slightly. Under his scrutinizing gaze, he explained lightly, “Gu Cheng told me.”
“What did Grandpa say?” He changed the subject.
“Grandpa said the killer might be someone from the Maple Leaf Organization.”
Jian Yubai said, “What kind of name is that? So cringey.”
Jian Ze was speechless at him. “The name might be cringey, but any single member of that organization is a world-class spy. They don’t respect national borders and specialize in stealing intelligence for others. I don’t know much about them either—I’ve only heard Grandpa mention them a few times before.”
Jian Yubai tapped the paper. “So, this messy pattern is the symbol of the Maple Leaf Organization?”
“Mm, but… I’m quite curious—how does Miss Qi know about this? The Gu family shouldn’t have access to this kind of information, right?”
The Gu family operated in the business world, and those who knew about the Maple Leaf Organization were all upper-echelon people.
Jian Ze glanced toward the door with interest, then looked back at him.
As if not noticing his scrutiny, Jian Yubai merely lowered his gaze, concealing the expression in his eyes from view.