Volume 43: A Phoenix Gracefully Appears[1]

After Xu Fa's death, Long’an enjoyed a period of rare tranquility. In January, the first snow of the year fell. A video sent to the police by an anonymous email broke the calm at the beginning of the year.

In the video, a big fat man wearing a suit with his hair combed back was repeatedly hitting something with a blunt object. Red liquid was repeatedly splashed onto his face. The fat man’s face was gloomy and his eyes were sinister. A dense layer of sweat beads formed on his forehead.

He continued this action for a while, then stood up, straightened his collar, and said something. The video was muted.

Everyone studied this weird video repeatedly. Many people's first impression was that the fat man in the video was killing someone because judging from his lips, the last sentence seemed to be: "Find a place to bury him.”.

"Who is this person?" Xu Xiaodong asked.

"I think we should first figure out whether this is real or if it’s a film. The angle of the camera didn’t look like a video taken from a surveillance camera. We’ve received some spoof videos before." Old Zhang said.

"Can the IP address be traced?" Lin Qiupu asked.

A police officer from the Information Department said, "The IP address is from a foreign country. A proxy IP was obviously used. The registration of that email was also randomly filled in."

"I think someone wanted to report the crime, but they dare not disclose their identity. This fat guy looks very rich. There are even people watching him when he 'commits murder'. He might be a powerful man." Lin Dongxue spoke up about her speculation.

Nobody could identify who the person in the video was, so they went to the physical evidence center to conduct a facial feature recognition and then searched for the man in the household registration database. It took a few hours to come up with over a dozen candidate lists, including one person’s face that closely resembled the one in the video. The person’s name was Dong Xiao. After investigating, they found out that he was the president of the famous Zhuoyuan Communication. This company mainly engaged in communications and electronics. The head office was in the northwest and a subsidiary had just been established in Long’an. In the subsidiary company, he was rumored to be a big fat man of three hundred catties. He usually went out, but there wasn’t even a picture of him on the Internet.

"Captain Lin, shall we go see him in person?" Old Zhang said.

Lin Qiupu had a headache. To investigate using a video of unknown origins would only result in the door being shut in their faces. There also wasn’t much value in meeting him directly. He said, "It’s better to find out if anyone from Zhuoyuan Company has disappeared recently. Ideally, a corpse can be found. We can file a case if there’s a corpse."

"Shall I find Old Chen?" Lin Dongxue asked.

"Okay, he’s been idle long enough." Lin Qiupu said.

Chen Shi was called and when he watched the video, he looked very excited. Lin Dongxue said, "Look at your face of happiness in the face of misfortune."

"I can smell the scent of a big case. Ah right, this person is called Dong..."

"Dong Xiao. I’ve checked and he doesn’t have a shabby background. It turned out to be a little-known company in the northwest. It suddenly rose up and expanded South, buying out several companies such as Long’an's Hanying Communication. I heard that it has mastered a core technology."

"I remember that there was a mobile phone war for a while. At the time, you could buy a smartphone for two hundred yuan. This should be regarded as a vicious competition. Later, Hanying Corporation went bankrupt... Shall we go and have a look now?"

"Where are we going?"

"Zhuoyuan Company."

"My brother told us not to go for the time being, so as not to alert the snake."

"Then what is it that you’ve asked me here to do? Is there anything I can do?"

"Everyone is looking for surveillance footage around that company to see if there are any missing persons."

"Let's go as well!"

Immediately, the two drove to Zhuoyuan Communication. The outstanding building was originally owned by Hanying Company. After Hanying was acquired, it was transferred to Zhuoyuan Company along with the real estate. The sculpture in front of the door was that of a drawn sword on a galloping horse. It is said that it was also created after melting the global communication sculpture in front of the Hanying Company, revealing a conqueror’s spirit.

The two got out of the car and looked up at this skyscraper. It felt very majestic. Chen Shi thought that the company was a small kingdom with the cloak of civilization. Just like tribes in primitive times, people are tied together by interests to form a closed power structure. Behind the many systems and the shiny glass wall, who knew what secrets were hidden inside.

There were already other officers busying around, and the two of them also helped to find nearby surveillance footage. This job was boring, just like sales promotion. When they arrived at each store, they repeated the monotonous words, "Hello, we are from the Public Security Bureau. We want to see the surveillance footage from the store."

Chen Shi said to Lin Dongxue, "Why don't we start with that email?"

"You think we didn’t check that? The IP address couldn’t be found."

"I mean, since it's an email and the other party wants to report the crime, you can reply to the email to ask. The sender must know something.”

Lin Dongxue was stunned momentarily. Unexpectedly, they hadn’t thought of such a simple thing. They could really just send over an email.

At this time, a long black car stopped at the door, followed by a Rolls-Royce. A tall and burly man came down from the Rolls-Royce. His muscles were so full that his suit looked like it would explode. He jogged over to the car in front to open the door. Chen Shi noticed that he had a naked woman tattoo on his right hand in the space between the index finger and thumb.

A woman stepped out from the long car. She was wearing a tight-fitting qipao with fox fur around her neck. She had a very beautiful figure. Even her back had the lethality to make all men crazed. She nodded to the burly man as thanks, twisted her slender waist, and walked into the building slowly.

"Who is that man?" "Who is that woman?"

Lin Dongxue and Chen Shi asked almost at the same time. They looked at each other and smiled. The two of them were both lecherous.

The store manager was also staring at the woman's back in a daze. Then, he came back to his senses and said, "The man is the vice president of Zhuoyuan Company, Lu Qi. The woman is amazing..." The store manager lowered his voice. " I heard that she’s President Dong’s new love. President Dong is almost 60 years old but he found a beauty as beautiful as flowers and jade. Haii, we can’t imagine the life of a rich man."

"I guess she must look like a vixen!"[2] Chen Shi said, expressing his loyalty to Lin Dongxue.

"Haha, she doesn’t just have a killer back. I saw her face that time. Wow, I couldn’t fall asleep all night. Then I saw President Dong’s appearance and I cried. He looks like that, but he has such a beautiful girl giving herself to him. This world is so unfair... Haii, we need to make money!"

Leaving this store, the car outside has already driven away. Lin Dongxue sighed, "They really had a good figure!"

"You mean the male or female?"

"I’m talking about that woman and her small waist... Haii, I'm really ashamed[3]."

"You’re not bad yourself!"

Lin Dongxue pinched her waist. "No, it seems I’ve gained weight recently. Haii, don't always invite me to dinner."

"Is it my fault again?"

1. Auspicious sign.

2. Used negatively in this sense to say she’s a female fox rather than just sexually attractive.

3. Ashamed in the sense of one’s inferiority.