The thought of the workload waiting for her made Jiang Yuening’s head throb.
If she had to watch all that footage alone, when would she ever finish?
She needed to ask for help.
Thinking this, Jiang Yuening took out her phone, explained the situation she had discovered to Director Xu, and requested assistance.
After sending the message, she waited a short while.
Director Xu sent a new message.
“I understand your request, but I’m not sure if this reason will convince people in other departments. Also, this would require mobilizing surveillance footage from all nearby areas. I’ll do my best to try.”
“Alright, I understand. Thank you for your trouble, Director Xu.”
“No trouble at all, it’s nothing.”
After sending Jiang Yuening a ‘no problem’ sticker, Director Xu on the other end of the chat software went quiet, likely making calls to other departments.
While waiting for Director Xu’s update, Jiang Yuening found Ning Fan, who was wandering outside, clearly reminiscing about something, and asked him.
“Ning Fan, back when you and your friends were running the company together, did they have a habit of drinking large amounts of water?”
“This… how much per day would count as ‘large amounts’?” Ning Fan raised an eyebrow, seeking clarification.
“Use the amount of drinks you saw in the room as a reference.”
Jiang Yuening cleared her throat and explained.
Ning Fan lowered his head, pondered for a moment, then shook his head apologetically at Jiang Yuening.
“No. Back when we were working together at the company, I never saw them drink that many beverages.”
“In my impression, they preferred brewing tea or just drinking plain boiled water. Back then, none of us had much money, always trying to save where we could. The tea they bought was the kind that cost a few dozen for a big bag.”
“You’re probably trying to ask when they started consuming so many drinks, right?”
Jiang Yuening nodded frankly, her gaze fixed on Ning Fan.
She took a deep breath and voiced her current hypothesis.
“The situation with these missing persons is very strange. They clearly had good living habits, yet they exhibited a disregard for hygiene.”
“I’m wondering, would people like them really neglect hygiene? And for all three to neglect it simultaneously, while also drinking the same beverages?”
“Don’t you find that odd?”
Feeling Jiang Yuening’s interrogative gaze and listening to her analysis from this detailed perspective, Ning Fan fell silent for a moment before nodding slightly.
“I know, but I’ve gotten used to it.”
“Gotten used to it?” Jiang Yuening was somewhat puzzled.
“Before they went off the deep end, they were very particular about the company’s cleanliness. They would clean the office every few days, saying a clean environment was better for our collective struggle.”
“And now this is…?”
“Just their normal behavior after securing funding.” Ning Fan gave a shallow smile. “After they got that money and had a good time splurging, they stopped cleaning the office. They said the most important thing now was to get the product to market quickly, and not to worry about such minor details anymore.”
“…Interesting.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mention this detail before. I thought it was unimportant, so I didn’t tell you. Thinking about it now, that was probably when they started to change.”
Ning Fan shook his head with a smile and sighed.
Jiang Yuening studied Ning Fan for a few seconds before speaking slowly.
“That’s not your fault. No one would pay much attention to such minor details.”
“Thank you.”
“No need to thank me. I’m just stating the obvious.” Jiang Yuening shook her head. “I’ll need your help later when we review the footage. Please pay extra attention to where they went.”
“I’ll do my best.”
“Good.”
After this brief exchange, the atmosphere at the scene fell silent once more.
Some time later, several private cars arrived near the Kowloon Hotel. Several employees from other departments, familiar to Jiang Yuening, got out.
The man leading them went inside, spoke with the female receptionist, successfully inserted a USB drive into the hotel’s computer, and began copying the hotel’s surveillance footage.
The others waited patiently outside the hotel, looking around boredly like tourists passing by.
Watching them, Jiang Yuening habitually hid in an unlit, secluded spot, half-squinting as she waited for them to move to the next intersection to collect footage.
Just a few minutes later, the lead man came out of the hotel, waved to his colleagues, and gave them a thumbs-up.
Seeing this, the other employees nodded, opened the car doors, and prepared to take the USB drive to the next target location.
Just as the leader was about to get in the car, a middle-aged man in a suit walked out of the hotel entrance, walking briskly towards Jiang Yuening’s right.
It seemed this middle-aged man just wanted to buy something at a nearby convenience store.
Jiang Yuening looked at the middle-aged man. Her body sensed no malice, and his expression showed nothing unusual.
‘…Transformation!’
‘Dice! Come out!’
But after a casual glance at the man’s thigh, Jiang Yuening immediately took several steps back, moving into a blind spot of the cameras, and took out her magical outfit.
Grabbing the Dice, she completed the emergency transformation. Sapphire rushed directly to the middle-aged man’s side and tapped his head with her magic staff.
“Miss Sapphire?! What are you…?”
The employees about to drive, seeing Sapphire’s actions, were confused, not understanding why she would attack an innocent citizen.
However, in the next second, they were all left speechless.
The moment Sapphire’s staff touched the man’s head, a flash of white light instantly engulfed the entire Kowloon Hotel.
After a continuous roar and deafening blast, Sapphire snapped back to her senses and nervously looked behind her, only to see everyone on the scene completely unharmed, with nothing wrong.
The only difference was that the middle-aged man had vanished from the spot, leaving behind a small crater about ten centimeters deep, with a note on top.
Sapphire pursed her lips and picked up the note.
“I know why you’ve come, I know what you want, and I even know where you live!”
“Stop now. Turn big problems into small ones, and small problems into nothing. You might still save your lives.”
“Otherwise, next time what greets you won’t be a flash, but a fatal explosion!”
“I mean what I say!”
Reading the threatening and warning words, Sapphire couldn’t help but smile.
“Miss Sapphire, are you alright?”
“I’m fine. He didn’t cause any real damage. Here, take a look at this.”
Shaking her head at the concerned employees from other departments who had come over, Sapphire handed them the note in her hand.
They took the note, read it one by one, then looked at each other, their expressions seeming to want to say something.
Finally, after their leader turned the note over and examined it several times, staring at the printed characters in silence for a few seconds, he suppressed a laugh and said to his subordinates.
“Excellent. Taking on this case was definitely the right call.”
“A collective second-class merit is within our grasp, everyone. Give me one hundred percent focus to review that footage and help Miss Sapphire find the locations of those missing persons!”
“Yes, sir!”