Chapter One: The Youngest Daughter Vanishes

After the resolution of Wang Meiqi’s case upstairs, the building returned to its usual calm. In the grand lobby of the luxury office tower, the absence of a single person changed nothing—it was as if a single drop of water had fallen into the sea, leaving the surface unperturbed.

“Xia Wuyou!”

The booming voice of the portly director echoed as powerfully as ever.

Not knowing what mistake she had made this time, Xia Wuyou entered the director’s office, hunched over like a mouse whose tail had just been stepped on.

“Director, is there something you need?” she asked, her voice trembling.

With a loud slap, a stack of documents was thrown onto the desk before her.

“Look at this. What kind of investigation is this? According to your report, this property was an old listing and should’ve been exempt from tax. But when the client went to transfer ownership, it turned out not to be the case at all—now they have to pay a large sum in additional taxes!”

The director was so angry, his eyebrows seemed ready to leap from his face. His soft cheeks quivered with every word.

“The client has filed a complaint! They want to cancel the sale and are threatening to sue us for fraud. What do you suggest we do now?”

This was clearly a serious issue.

Xia Wuyou felt a jolt of confusion. She was certain she’d checked the property deed herself—could it have been a fake?

“Director, I was tricked too! I can’t tell a real deed from a fake one—how was I supposed to know I’d run into the one bad apple out there?” she protested, her lips quivering with grievance.

“All right, enough with the pitiful act. Just focus on fixing the problem,” the director said, uncharacteristically letting the matter drop.

It was the first time he hadn’t pressed his advantage, leaving Xia Wuyou somewhat unaccustomed to the change.

She hurried out of the director’s office and slipped back to her desk, wiping sweat from her brow and thanking her luck for escaping disaster.

“Maybe the bathroom incident last time shook him up,” Fina commented gleefully from the next desk. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t have let you off so easily.”

Xia Wuyou shot her a glare and ignored her.

Fraud, they say? I was the one who got tricked! And besides, I’m an undercover officer—how could I end up as the culprit?

The thought made her unconsciously lift her chin, pride flickering in her eyes.

“Hello? Officer Mu, I have some questions about a fraud case,” Xia Wuyou said into the phone, calling Su Tianmu.

“I was just about to call you,” Su Tianmu replied. “We’ve just had a kidnapping and murder—do you want to come take a look?”

“A kidnapping? And the victim was killed?” Xia Wuyou felt a rush of excitement; she was growing accustomed to her new role as ‘Detective Xia.’

“I’ll be right there! Send me the address.”

The moment she hung up, Xia Wuyou had already forgotten about her own fraud case. She rushed out of the office like the wind.

According to the report, someone had discovered a suspicious object while scavenging for junk beneath the bridge. At first, it seemed nothing more than a pile of woven bags, but on closer inspection, it concealed the body of a young girl. The police were called immediately.

By the time Xia Wuyou arrived, the scene was cordoned off and a crowd had gathered outside the police line, murmuring and gesturing animatedly.

It was a long bridge spanning the wide river, and beneath the archway along the bank, there was a large mound of rubble. The river lapped against the shore, carrying bits of trash that had washed up with the current.

The body had been hidden in the deepest part of the archway, covered by debris.

It was late autumn, and the river’s wind whipped up Xia Wuyou’s coat, sending a chill through her.

“The girl was strangled. She’s been identified as the missing person reported a few days ago,” Su Tianmu explained as he brought Xia Wuyou to the scene.

She approached cautiously. She had seen many tragedies in her work, but the first sight always took her aback.

The victim was a girl in a school uniform, no older than fourteen or fifteen—a middle schooler, likely. Though her hair was a bit messy, she still wore two neat braids, and her clothes remained tidy. Apart from the wire tightly wound around her neck, there were no obvious signs of injury.

Suddenly, Xia Wuyou was seized by a powerful sense of suffocation, unable to breathe. She clutched her throat, her face flushing red as she struggled for air, unable to speak.

Su Tianmu, standing ahead, didn’t notice her distress until she reached out and tugged at his sleeve. Only then did he turn and see her gasping for breath.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?” he asked, quickly turning to grip her shoulders.

“I…” Xia Wuyou managed to squeeze out a sound.

After a moment, she recovered her composure. Glancing back at the girl’s wide, staring eyes, she knew she’d felt it—she’d been here.

“If this was a kidnapping, why would they kill her? Did her family fail to meet the ransom demand?” she asked after steadying herself.

“Just as you guessed. The kidnappers demanded fifty million in ransom and told the family not to contact the police. Maybe they realized the family had called us anyway. The girl was killed before they could collect the money.”

“Fifty million? Her family must be extremely wealthy.”

“Yes, her father is the CEO of a listed company—worth a considerable fortune.”

Xia Wuyou’s heart ached for the girl; what a promising future she could have had.

“My child! My precious child! How could this happen?” From a distance, a middle-aged couple ran over, weeping.

They must be the girl’s parents.

The father rushed forward, wanting to embrace his daughter, but the police guarding the scene stopped him.

“Please, sir, calm down.” Though everyone sympathized, the evidence had to be preserved.

Su Tianmu knew questioning the family now was impossible, so he simply let them grieve.

Xia Wuyou, affected by the parents’ anguish, grew somber. Recalling the vivid sensation she’d just experienced, she tried to guess what the dead girl wanted to tell her.

Could the perpetrator have been someone she knew? Did the girl recognize her killer, prompting them to murder her before collecting the ransom?

She glanced at the grieving couple again—the mother sobbing uncontrollably, the father weeping with a trace of regret.

What could he be regretting?