Genius Club.

Chapter 189 Gift
"So...our task today is to choose a gift for An Qing?"

Lin Xian looked at Ji Lin who was carefully selecting gifts in the gift section of the mall, and felt that the sun was rising from the west:
"As for that, isn't it a waste of time to spend an entire afternoon shopping for gifts when you're so busy?"

"Just treat it as a holiday for the team members. They have been working overtime for so long."

Ji Lin spoke softly, and looked at the Barbie doll gift box in his hand from front to back, left to right, front to back, up and down, and then put it back.

"Don't you think we should look at some more mature gifts?"

Lin Xian looked around at the colorful and pink children's gift area, feeling like Alice who had strayed into Wonderland:
"An Qing is celebrating her 19th birthday, not her 9th birthday."

"What should a 19-year-old girl like?"

Ji Lin raised his head and asked seriously:

"I've never given anyone a gift, and I don't know what to give."

"So how would you write about the gift-giving plot in your novel?"

"I will highlight the strengths and avoid the weaknesses, and simply skip over the birthday gift plot."

"You're amazing... But I think you don't have to be so serious."

Lin Xian scratched his head and walked towards the luxury goods display cabinets:
"Birthday gifts are just a formality. You don't have to choose them carefully. It's fine as long as you have them. They represent blessings and care. What the gift itself is is not important."

"That's what I said..."

Ji Lin followed behind Lin Xian, looking left and right:
"But since it's a rare opportunity to attend someone else's birthday party, I still want to give her a gift that she really likes."

"You don't know her, how do you know what she likes?" Lin Xian smiled helplessly:
"Women's hearts are like needles in the sea. Sometimes, figuring out what they really like may be more difficult than solving the case itself."

"That's not necessarily the case."

Ji Lin seemed to suddenly realize something and stared at Lin Xian's back:
"Actually, Chu Anqing is pretty easy to understand."

……

3 month 28 day.

On this day, Ji Lin and Lin Xian helped the Criminal Investigation Section 4 of the Donghai City Public Security Bureau solve an old case.

Sometimes it's quite helpless.

Lin Xian and Ji Lin easily found key clues and assisted in solving the case by looking at the files sent by other departments. However, their special team had not made any progress, which made the morale of the team members very low.

The main reason is the lack of clues and evidence, which has led to a stagnation in the progress of solving the case and a dead end.

"It would be great if we could find the vehicles that caused the previous accidents."

A female team member complained:

"I just don't understand. How could those vehicles just disappear out of thin air in the East China Sea, which is full of cameras?"

"The camera always has blind spots."

A male team member next to him sighed and said:
"If the vehicles involved in the accident had insisted on taking the main road, we would definitely not have lost them, as the surveillance cameras at the intersections can be connected. But the situation is the same every time. After these vehicles enter the blind spot of the surveillance, they disappear forever, disappearing into thin air without us noticing."

"What do you think?"

Ji Lin looked at Lin Xian who was spinning a pen beside him:
"How do you think those vehicles disappeared?"

Lin Xian twirled his pen and lowered his head in deep thought:
"I think it is absolutely impossible for something to disappear out of thin air. Nothing in this world can disappear out of thin air. Those vehicles were either hidden secretly or moved away by some unimaginable means."

"For example?" Ji Lin asked with interest.

"I can't figure it out either."

Lin Xian shook his head:
"But there are many similar scenes in movies, like in The Fast and the Furious, where the protagonist Don once drove his car under a high-speed truck and kept moving at the same speed as the truck without being discovered."

"If the murderer in real life also uses this movie-like method, driving the car under the truck in the blind spot of the surveillance, and then using the device to collect the car from the bottom into the container inside the truck... our tracking clues may be broken here."

"I've seen the escape video of the Audi and the taxi that caused the accident. The place where they disappeared at the end was exactly the road outside the city. There were semi-trailer trucks pulling containers everywhere. If the trees were hidden in the forest, it would actually be difficult to find them. Especially after such a long time, they must have dealt with them long ago."

"So... the best solution is to intercept the vehicles that caused the accident at the scene." Ji Lin crossed his arms and concluded:
"Therefore, we should strengthen communication with scientific research departments. It would be best if we could get the itinerary and meeting information of every scientist who comes to the East China Sea to study hibernation. If necessary, we can ambush in advance and use roadblocks and nets to catch the fleeing vehicle."

"Of course, we must first ensure the safety of those scientists, which requires us to make an early prediction of [which scientist will be murdered]. This will be our main task in the coming period... Only by predicting in advance which scientist the murderer will kill at the next 00:42 can we catch the murderer and advance the case to the next stage. This is our only chance."

Everyone nodded, agreeing with this idea.

The same goes for Lin Xian.

He was also waiting for the next murder at 00:42.

By then, the murderous driver who killed Xu Yun and Tang Xin will definitely appear again.

Just catch that driver...

Lin Xian twirled the pen and looked at Ji Lin who was tidying up the papers on the desk in front of him.

Follow the clues and find the decisive evidence.

Zhou Duanyun, Ji Lin, Ji Xinshui... none of you can escape!
"Let's adjourn."

Ji Lin stood up and ended the meeting.

……

night.

On the outskirts of Donghai City, beside the university town, there is a group of lakeside villas.

Ji Lin's driver drove a black business car to take Lin Xian and Ji Lin to the door of Chu Anqing's villa.

"What a coincidence, I didn't expect it to be here."

Ji Lin looked at the familiar route home:
"I live here too."

"You live here too?"

Lin Xian rolled down the car window and looked at the scenic villa area. This place must be very comfortable to live in, but it was a little far from the city.

Chu Anqing told Lin Xian in a WeChat chat that this villa was a gift from Chu Shanhe for her coming of age. However, for safety reasons, she was not allowed to live here alone. She was only allowed to hold birthday parties for her classmates or drink tea and play with her classmates here.

But you must go home or return to the dormitory on time at night!

When it comes to access control, Chu Shanhe's rules are still very strict.

“I live in that building.”

Ji Lin pointed to Lin Xian through the window.

"6."

Faced with two peers who are a few years younger than him, each of whom owns a lakeside villa, Lin Xian can only play alone.

Although Lin Xian is now able to pay the full amount for a house, once he takes out the full amount... his pocket will be empty.

We will have to bring Liu Feng over to set up a laboratory for him in the future, so we should save money.

or……

Once the crisis around him is resolved, he can copy some useful technological products from his dreams, and perhaps cooperate with the national authorities to give Liu Feng a laboratory for free without spending any money.

However, that is all a story for later.

The cat-and-mouse game before our eyes has not yet ended, so we cannot be careless. What's more... Lin Xian has a hunch that perhaps the real decisive battle is about to begin.

Pushing open the redwood double doors of Chu Anqing's villa——

"Welcome, welcome! Welcome, senior!"

"Wow! It's really Ji Lin! Teacher Ji Lin is really here!"

The arrival of Lin Xian and Ji Lin caused cheers from the younger female students from Donghai University who had been waiting in the villa for a long time.

When Chu Anqing first told them that Lin Xian was coming to the birthday party, they were all very excited to meet this legendary senior.

but!

When I heard that Ji Lin, the popular mystery novelist, the youngest nominee for the Best Screenplay Oscar, the young, melancholy and handsome man, was also coming!
The screams almost pierced through the classroom floor!

In their opinion, seeing Ji Lin was much more exciting than seeing Lin Xian, because he was a great god who rarely appeared in the world!

So, they swarmed around, holding books to ask for autographs and holding mobile phones to ask for photos.

"Hey, Senior Lin Xian, I'm going to cook for you today!"

Chu Anqing came out of the kitchen wearing an apron and holding a cooking spatula, looking very much like that:

"My mother and I have learned many specialties, and we will definitely not let you down!"

There weren't many people in the room. They were all Chu Anqing's friends from school and high school, all girls, seven or eight in total. Including Lin Xian and Ji Lin, there were only 10 people at this small birthday party, which wasn't a big one, but there were also advantages to having fewer people, as everyone was more intimate when chatting.

After a while, the food was served and the huge birthday cake was lit with candles.

Turn off the lights.

The birthday party has officially begun.

As everyone sang birthday songs to wish her well, Chu Anqing made a wish for her 19th birthday amid the flickering candlelight and blew out all the candles in one breath.

"I hope everyone's life will get better and better! Friendship will last forever!"

Chu Anqing happily cut the cake for everyone and handed the first piece to Ji Lin opposite:

"Ji Lin, I'm so glad to meet you! Please be sure to invite me to your birthday party!"

"Of course." Ji Lin took the cake with a smile and placed it in front of him:
“It’s an honor to join you.”

"I want to go too!" "Can we go for a free meal?" "Teacher Ji Lin! Please let us go too when the time comes!"

The girls around her age probably couldn't get over Ji Lin's looks and temperament. For them, Ji Lin was a dimensionality reduction attack.

"Of course, everyone come."

Ji Lin didn't seem to be very good at dealing with girls, and he basically just nodded his head desperately to comply with every request.

Then, it’s time to give gifts.

Everyone gave various gifts, and Chu Anqing opened them one by one in front of everyone. She liked them all very much.

Lin Xian gave her an LV co-branded handbag.

He didn't know what to buy either. He really didn't know what gift to give to a 19-year-old girl, so he simply asked the shopping guide to recommend one.

Hey.

Giving gifts to girls is really a difficult and complicated issue.

Recalling the night before the Chinese New Year when the Bentley flew over the viaduct and Zhao Yingjun's birthday when she turned 23 from 24... he directly gave the crumpled bouquet of flowers that the criminals had hung on the broken car door to Zhao Yingjun as a birthday present.

It’s quite embarrassing to think about it now.

But I felt that the atmosphere was just right at that time, and it would be inappropriate not to give a birthday present. Given the situation at that time... I could only offer my gratitude through borrowing flowers.

"This is my gift."

Ji Lin took out a rectangular photo frame wrapped in colored paper from behind him. He didn't know what was inside, but it looked like a painting.

"Ok?"

Lin Xian was a little surprised, and looked at Ji Lin and whispered:

"Didn't you buy a hat?"

The gifts they both received were recommended by the shopping guide. They were not cheap and were both big brands.

Lin Xian never expected that Ji Lin would suddenly turn against him and give him a painting instead of a hat.

"I think she likes this one better."

Ji Lin whispered:

"It's rare to give someone a birthday present, so why not give her something she likes?"

"How do you know she'll like it?"

“I am still very confident about this painting.”

After speaking in a low voice, Ji Lin turned his head and looked at Chu Anqing:

"Happy birthday, An Qing. But you should wait until you get back to open this painting. Just keep it as a surprise."

"Okay Ji Lin, thank you for your painting!"

Chu Anqing was looking forward to opening it immediately, but since Ji Lin said so, she put the painting down and continued to open other people's gifts.

The birthday party was enjoyable and relaxing that night.

Lin Xian and Ji Lin also had a lot of fun.

Lin Xian was surprised by Ji Lin’s performance that night.

He originally thought that Ji Lin was not someone who liked this kind of lively atmosphere. After all, he gave people the impression that he was lonely, unsociable, and silent. But it seemed that everyone was seeking recognition and longing for fun, so he gradually integrated into it and played many games with everyone.

Later, the girls chattered about gossip, school, and TV dramas, while Lin Xian and Ji Lin came to the open-air balcony on the third floor of the villa, lay on the lounge chairs, and looked at the moonlight in the sky.

"Actually, I still like you and Chu Anqing as a couple. They are more suitable than Zhao Yingjun."

???

Lin Xian almost choked on the juice in his mouth!
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"

Ji Lin lay on his back, turned his head and looked at Lin Xian:

"What is your relationship with Chu Anqing?"

"It has nothing to do with anything." Lin Xian answered truthfully.

"But Chu Anqing obviously doesn't think so." Ji Lin said with interest:
"She likes you very much, even a fool can see it."

"Have you ever been in love?"

"No." Ji Lin shook his head.

"Then what makes you so sure?"

"I've read a lot of novels, and the emotional descriptions in novels are all like this." Ji Lin turned his head and continued to look at the sky:

"So, actually I'm quite disappointed with you today. I thought there was going to be some big drama today."

"Have you gone crazy writing novels?"

Lin Xian really didn't know whether to laugh or cry:

"Can reality be the same as fiction? According to what's written in the novel, what should I do now?"

"The words in the novel..."

Ji Lin blinked and said:
"You always want to do something romantic and loud, right? Like setting off a fireworks display that covers the entire city for Chu Anqing? Lighting up the night sky of Donghai? You clearly know that Chu Anqing will be very happy, but you just don't do it."

"The novel you're reading is 'Dragon Race', right?"

Lin Xian chuckled:
"Then I think your fantasy is a bit petty. Why don't I just call on all the heroes in the world to hold an East China Sea Conference, and let the world's top rich people, celebrities, and big shots come one by one to give Chu Anqing treasures and magic weapons, and finally ride a big eagle down from the sky? Isn't this much more interesting than the plot of the novel you wrote?"

Ji Lin was amused. He naturally understood Lin Xian's joke:
"The Return of the Condor Heroes, Yang Guo and Guo Xiang."

He sighed softly:

"Actually, during this time I've been with you, I feel like I can get along well with you. At least you're a very interesting person, and I feel comfortable chatting with you."

"In the past few years, I basically stayed in my room, doing math problems, reading books, writing novels, watching the news... I rarely went out. I always felt that the outside world was boring and there was nothing that could interest me."

"But now it seems... it's nice to be able to attend Chu Anqing's birthday party and chat with you here."

He sat up from the recliner, the moonlight shining on his thin face, making it look even paler.

He sat quietly, looking at Lin Xian who was resting with his eyes closed in the moonlight:

"Can you tell me in advance...what gift are you going to give me on my birthday?"

"How could I have been informed in advance?"

Lin Xian smiled without knowing why:

"You'll know on your birthday. May 5, right? Don't worry, I'll give you a birthday present."

Provided that……

Lin Xian put away his smile and looked at the moon gradually climbing up to the center of the sky:
【I hope you can live till then. 】

Although on the surface I was getting along well with Ji Lin during this period of time.

But Lin Xian never wavered in his determination to avenge Xu Yun and Tang Xin.

Ji Lin, if you are really the murderer...

I will show no mercy.

(End of this chapter)