Double evil in the business district

Chapter 431 Xiao Yue strikes back: Going deep into the tiger's den to find out the truth

When the gears of the shredder got stuck on Xiao Yue's fingernail, she smelled the scent of agarwood mixed with the fishy smell of rust wafting from Accountant Chen's cuffs.

Those scraps of paper printed with the hexagram were swirling along the airflow from the vents and stuck to the filter of the central air-conditioning outlet, looking very much like the shape of the second button on Shen Ting's suit.

"The Finance Department's surveillance system was reported for repair last week." Accountant Chen suddenly released his hand from the power button and pointed his ink-stained index finger behind Xiao Yue. "But Miss Xiao showed up here in the middle of the night..."

A rainstorm suddenly came outside the glass curtain wall, and lightning illuminated the wrinkles at the corners of Accountant Chen's eyes. Only then did Xiao Yue discover that he had an old centipede-shaped scar on his left eyebrow.

The shredder suddenly let out a sharp whistle, and three documents that were not completely shredded popped out from the feed port. Half of the remittance slip had a gold-plated watermark of "Xinghui Technology", which was the same name as the medical device company acquired by Shen Group.

Xiao Yue used the tip of her high heels to catch the pieces of paper that were about to fall. The blood that seeped out from the rips in her stockings left maple leaf-shaped marks on the beige carpet.

When she pulled out the recorder from her suit's inner pocket, veins suddenly popped out on Accountant Chen's wrist, which was covered with age spots. There was actually a micro blade hidden inside the gear ring. A cold light flashed, and tiny sparks burst out from the outer shell of the recorder.

"Be careful!" Auditor Huang's hoarse shout and the sound of the iron door of the archive room slamming were heard at the same time.

The moment Xiao Yue rolled over the office chair, she caught a glimpse of Accountant Chen's crocodile leather shoe toe facing the shredder pedal, with half a piece of golden nanmu wood shavings stuck in the gap of the shoe sole - that was the unique incense material in Shen Ting's study.

Heavy rain hit the tempered glass on the 28th floor. Xiao Yue grabbed the rescued debris and retreated to the fire escape.

The emergency light stretched her shadow onto the safety notice board, and it suddenly overlapped with another trembling shadow - Cashier Liu was huddled in a ball at the corner of the stairs, holding a thermos cup with a Hello Kitty pattern on it.

"This is your daughter's international summer camp bill from the 15th of last month." Xiao Yue pressed the sweat-soaked scrap of the receipt against the fire door. She saw the scraps of paper stuck in her messy hair reflected in the man's eyes. "But you called in sick that day."

Cashier Liu's pearl earrings jingled against the metal door handle. The moment the thermos lid popped open, the aroma of wolfberry tea mixed with a familiar cedar scent wafted towards his face.

Xiao Yue suddenly realized that the smell was exactly the same as the incense that stained Shen Ting's cufflinks this morning.

"They said we only need to change three transactions..." Cashier Liu's manicure dug into the rubber ring of a thermos, and the rhinestone-studded nail suddenly broke off. "But I really don't know how the money ended up..."

The fluorescent tubes on the entire floor went out without warning. In the three seconds of darkness before the backup power started, Xiao Yue heard the friction sound of the filing cabinet rails.

When the pale emergency light came on again, three scratches appeared on the back of her hand - and on the bottom of the inner liner of Liu the Cashier's thermos, half of a hexagram watermark was slowly unfolding in the tea stains.

"This is the calming tea specially provided for Mr. Shen!" Cashier Liu suddenly screamed and smashed the cup against the fire window. Amidst the flying glass shards, Xiao Yue could clearly see that the floating tea stems were arranged into the equity structure diagram in the merger and acquisition plan.

The electronic clock in the Finance Department chimed every hour. Xiao Yue wiped the tea stains that had splashed onto her lips and pulled out a fountain pen wrapped with canary tail feathers from her waist - that was the pen that Shen Ting had put in her shirt pocket on the day she started working.

When the tip of the pen was pressed against Liu Chuan's trembling jaw, the shadow cast by the tea stains on the wall just spelled out the English abbreviation of "Xinghui Technology".

"Mooncake coupons from last year's Mid-Autumn Festival." Xiao Yue used a pen to pry open the interlayer behind the other person's badge. The laser anti-counterfeiting sticker revealed the cashier's modified receipt. "You received seven extra boxes of snowy mooncakes, but the surveillance shows..."

The power supply system of the entire building suddenly made a buzzing sound, and Xiao Yue's mobile phone vibrated at a specific frequency in her pocket - this was the Morse code she and Shen Ting agreed to use for emergency contact.

When she was distracted by the warning "Beware of Electronics", the steel needle on the badge of Cashier Liu suddenly scratched her wrist, and the blood beads that came out glowed a strange indigo blue under the purple light of the money detector.

"That money is cursed!" Cashier Liu's curly hair got stuck in the shredder's feed, and the broken diamonds on her nail polish formed a hexagram under the ultraviolet light. "Every time a transfer is successful, the bronze pendulum clock in President Shen's office..."

The sound of an elevator arriving was heard outside the fire escape. Blood from the wound on the back of Xiao Yue's hand dripped into the pile of shredded paper, dyeing the six-pointed star logo the same pigeon blood red as the one on Shen Ting's tie clip.

When the first ray of morning light pierced through the cumulonimbus clouds, she touched the emerald cufflinks that Shen Ting had secretly stuffed into the secret pocket of her suit lining last night. At this moment, they were burning through the fabric, at the position of her third rib.

When Shen Ting's fingers passed through Xiao Yue's fingers, the blood beads on her wrist dripped along the arc of their handshake.

The drop of blood reflected a strange prismatic light in the morning light, and happened to fall on the hexagram shreds left in the shredder, dyeing the gold-plated watermark of Xinghui Technology into dark purple.

"The power distribution box on the 28th floor tripped because of someone's actions." Shen Ting pressed his thumb against the bleeding crescent-shaped wound on Xiao Yue's palm. The emerald cufflinks peeking from his suit sleeves shone dimly under the emergency light. "The cedar scent you smelled was picked up by Accountant Chen when he stole incense from my study."

Xiao Yue's eyelashes fluttered as she glanced at the scraps of paper stuck on Shen Ting's shoulders. The tea stalks printed with the equity structure chart were falling from the dark patterns of his custom-made suit.

When the unusual sound of steel cables rubbing against each other came from the elevator shaft, Shen Ting suddenly embraced her and turned to retreat to the emergency passage. The back of her neck touched the warmth of the second button of his shirt - which perfectly matched the shape of the certificate fragment ejected from the shredder.

"Cashier Liu's thermos has a layered lining." Xiao Yue pulled a fountain pen wrapped with canary tail feathers from his waist. The moment the pen cap popped off, a micro-projector projected a shareholding structure chart onto the fire door. "Those tea stems will develop when heated. Accountant Chen must have destroyed them..."

The fire sprinkler heads on the entire floor suddenly exploded. In the mist mixed with the smell of rust, Xiao Yue saw seven overlapping star rays reflected from Auditor Huang's glasses.

His trembling hands were pressing the backup circuit switch of the switch box, and the skin exposed by his cuffs had burn marks similar to a hexagram.

"There's something wrong with Xinghui Technology's acquisition three years ago!" As Auditor Huang shoved the encrypted USB drive into Xiao Yue's palm, the metal casing burned her fingertips red. "There's something mixed up in their medical device shipping manifest..."

Shen Ting suddenly pulled Xiao Yue towards the right pillar, and three miniature listening devices brushed against her hair and were nailed into the fire door.

The moment the dark red door paint peeled off, Xiao Yue saw clearly that the surface of those devices was etched with the same thorn pattern as the commemorative badge of the Shen Group Shareholders Meeting.

Heavy rain washed away the corporate logo outside the glass curtain wall. Xiao Yue curled up in the shadow behind the filing cabinet, hearing the beating of his own carotid artery resonating strangely with the second hand of Shen Ting's pocket watch.

The moment the pocket watch cover popped open, she saw the remittance slip number destroyed by Accountant Chen appear on the enamel base - it was the voucher code for the three most recent abnormal transfers made by Xinghui Technology.

"The golden nanmu incense burner used in the acquisition signing ceremony." Shen Ting pressed the jade cufflinks into Xiao Yue's palm. The sensor chip inside the jade suddenly began to heat up. "The sawdust on the sole of Accountant Chen's shoe was a deliberate flaw."

As Xiao Yue crawled through the ventilation duct, the tip of the canary-tail pen kept drawing fluorescent marks on the wall.

Those traces of phosphorus powder will turn dark red when exposed to the cedar scent from the central air conditioner, which is the same color as the confidentiality seal on the confidential document she saw in Shen Ting's study last night.

When she touched the sticky agarwood resin at the corner of the pipe wall, the safe hidden deep in the pipe suddenly emitted a red alarm light indicating that the biometric authentication failed.

"Voiceprint authentication passed." Xiao Yue hummed the lullaby that Shen Ting taught her towards the vent. The moment the safe popped out, six seals engraved with the names of shareholders rolled onto her knees.

On the copy of the ocean bill of lading at the bottom, the container number of Xinghui Technology was exactly the same as the serial number of the scrapped medical equipment destroyed by Shen Group last month.

The blinds in Auditor Huang's office suddenly shook violently. When Xiao Yue jumped off the filing cabinet, she saw that the equity distribution chart on his computer screen was automatically reorganizing.

The jumping percentage figures were reflected in the glass curtain wall and projected into the heavy rain, and together with the neon signs on the office building opposite, they spelled out the warning message of "Loan Shark Liquidation".

"There were unusual movements in Accountant Chen's overseas accounts last night." Auditor Huang pointed the spectrometer at the seal Xiao Yue had brought back. A three-dimensional diagram of the funds' flow emerged on the holographic projection. "The casino to which this money ultimately flowed is actually controlled by CFO Ma's cousin."

When Xiao Yue rushed into the financial director's office holding a copy of the chain of evidence, the cumulonimbus clouds outside the window happened to crack.

The sunlight filtered through the emerald cufflinks in the inner pocket of her suit, casting a hexagram-shaped spot of light on the walnut desk.

Financial Director Ma's gold-plated pen suddenly made a sharp sound as it scratched on the approval form, and the ink smudges perfectly overlapped with a fault on the capital flow chart.

"Do you think these copies can threaten me?" Financial Director Ma's laughter made the crystal ashtray buzz, and the black onyx ring on his ring finger suddenly popped open its secret compartment. "Didn't Shen Ting tell you that Xinghui Technology was originally his bait?"

When Xiao Yue stepped back, he knocked over the bronze ornament. The base cracked when it fell to the ground, revealing a miniature signal transmitter.

The arrangement of those flashing red indicator lights was exactly the same as the structure of the tea stems floating in Cashier Liu's thermos.

When her cell phone received a Morse code alert at a specific frequency, Financial Director Ma had already pressed the chain of evidence document into the shredder.

"You missed the crucial timestamp." Financial Director Ma's crocodile leather shoes rolled over scattered papers, sending shavings of golden nanmu wood rustling off the soles. "The guarantee agreement signed by Shen Ting himself three years ago is the legal cover for all capital flows..."

Xiao Yue watched the paper butterflies flying in the sky brushing past the canary-tail pen Shen Ting had given her, and suddenly discovered that the jagged cracks on the edge of each piece of paper contained a hidden binary code.

When the morning breeze blew the ink-scented fragments toward the floor-to-ceiling windows, the shadows cast by the pieces of paper floating in the air in the sunlight just formed the dynamic password wheel of the safe in Shen Ting's study.