Chapter 138: Crime doesn’t sleep.

Weijun was exhausted. He had never lost so much money on a card game. The quintuplets were cheating to confuse him. He was learning to tell small differences between them . Wait,” she said frowning, “weren’t you just sitting there?”

“No,” he replied innocently. “That was my brother.”

“But you look exactly the same!” Weijun exclaimed.

“That’s your problem, Mayor. Not ours.”

Meanwhile, the younger kids staged another prank. They tied a rope to Weijun’s chair and tried to drag him across the deck. He resisted, laughing despite himself, until Liwu snapped, “Enough!” and the kids scattered like startled pigeons.

Later, those in the family that were politically intrigued gathered around Weijun, asking him about politics. “Is it true you banned fireworks in the city three years ago?”

“We had many fires back then.”

“Is it true that you wanted to introduce separate visas for your city only?”

“Yes.”

“Do you still think Alix is a dictator?”

Weijun laughed. “Which Alix?”

They all laughed. There were four people in the family named Alix. Tai Alix, the original. Zhang Alix. A cousin named Du Alix and a toddler named An An but everyone called her Alix.

Weijun had only learned this after interacting with the family. Apparently they should have been five people named Alix, but one step brother Zhang Yong tried to give his daughter the name and Caishen punched him.

Every family had its own drama. The Tai’s and Zhang’s had funny drama. But overall, he was beginning to understand: this family thrived in chaos but beneath it was loyalty, warmth and a strange kind of love.

As the yacht sailed further away from the city, Weijun leaned against the railing of the room were they would be spending the night. He was exhausted, but oddly content. Liwu joined him, her eyes soft. “I cannot remember the last time I took a day off and just hung around.”

She laughed. “It is good because it resets the mind. You did well today.”

He groaned. “They nearly killed me.”

She laughed. “That means they have accepted you. Old Tai did not even hit you with water when he arrived.”

Weijun laughed. “He reserved it for Elder Zhang and your father. I have to say, I have never seen your father being humbled. I would not mind seeing Old Tai suffering a similar fate.”

An echo of noise and joy came from the deck.

“Do they plan to sleep tonight?” He asked.

“Probably not.” She replied. “But we should, because tomorrow, its back to work.”

****

In the morning, the yacht was docked near the beach again. Liwu and Weijun left while most of the family was still sleeping. It was because she received an alert that was accompanied by an amber alert. A child had gone missing and the SOB was invited in. This was not a case Liwu would refuse.

As they climbed into the car, Weijun couldn’t help saying, “Ever since I met you, my world is on fire. There is a gruesome crime everyday.”

“It was happening long before I came into your life.” She replied.

She drove fast, rushing to the crime scene which happened to be a movie set that was still buzzing. Police officers were already on the scene. Crew members were whispering, reporters were hovering. A woman was weeping loudly in the arms of a female officer.

“Maybe you should go to work, to city hall.” Liwu suggested to Weijun. “These cases can be…..rough.”

He shook his head. “My dad and Mo Xia have everything covered. Showing my face here at a time like this is can be helpful sometimes.”

Xuanji waved to Liwu and she walked over while Weijun went to talk to reporters that were screaming his name.

“What happened?” she asked.

Xuanji pushed up his glasses. “A kidnapping at 6:00 AM. A child actress named Su Wan was rehearsing lines with the director. Then, a masked man appeared, grabbed the child and vanished.”

Liwu raised her eyebrows. “Are we talking about teleportation?”

Xuanji nodded. “It must be an unregistered system host because so far, all the registered ones are accounted for.” He walked her to the exact spot where it had happened. “You don’t watch a lot of dramas but my mother does and it sucks for me because we live together. I recognized the girl. She is a rising star, won an award last year.

She endorses some popular milk brand. It is rumored that she is heading to Hollywood next year to star is some sci-fi movie. Apparently, the contract is somewhere in the six figure range.”

Liwu crouched near the spot where Su Wan had disappeared. No footprints, no fibers, no trace.

He Xiao Yi walked over and crouched next to her.

“What do you see?” she asked.

The profiler straightened. “A system host that is either brazen, has nothing to lose or they are confident that we will never find him. I don’t understand the full story right now. He could have kidnapped the child anywhere else but they chose here.

It could have happened at night but the kidnapper chose broad daylight. He could have used a car or some other means to do the kidnapping but he chose to flaunt his system.

Its’ arrogance. His signature is arrogance and this kind of arrogance does not come from inexperience.”

Xuanji made a skeptical noise. “I am no profiler but if a teleporter was kidnapping kids, we would have heard about it. It is the kind of thing that makes the front page of every national news paper.”

He Xiao Yi shrugged. “Whether I am right or wrong can be decided by doing some research.”

Linlin approached them, walking fast as if she had some urgent news to share. “You are never going to believe this,” she said in a rush, “I just hugged the mother and held her hand. She is hiding from us the fact that the kidnapper left a phone in her bag and he is demanding for a ransom. 5,250,960, yuan.”

Xuanji lifted his head. He liked numbers, because numbers were never random. He preferred this to He Xiao Yi’s ’the criminal is arrogant’ theory.

He scribbled possibilities on his notepad.

A date? 5/25/0960

A code? 5-2-5-0-9-6-0

A sum? 5+2+5+0+9+6+0=27!!!!

The figure was too odd not to mean anything. Why not five million alone, or six or seven? If it was money, why add 960 yuan?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep