“Is that my dad?”
Zhang Qiling’s eyes widened, then her body trembled slightly as she asked in a shaky voice.
“Hmm?”
The question stunned He Li, who didn’t react immediately. Then, he shook his head and said, “Someone died at your company. I happened to be nearby, and headquarters sent me to confirm if it was killed by a demon.”
“Oh… Ah?!”
Zhang Qiling nodded, then shouted in surprise again.
He Li frowned and asked with displeasure, “Are you sick? Such a long reaction time?”
He Li ignored her, put on the backpack filled with various bombs, adjusted his watch, then closed the car door and turned to Zhang Qiling, saying, “Let’s go. Let’s go to your company. Didn’t you just come from there?”
“Oh… But I… I’m scared…” Zhang Qiling hunched her body, her expression fearful, and kept backing away.
He Li sighed and said, “Alright then, I’ll go by myself.”
Then, He Li added, “But that’s your company. Someone died, something happened, and you’re not going to do anything about it?”
“This…” Zhang Qiling’s eyes showed hesitation. After a moment of internal struggle, she took a deep breath, nodded at He Li, and said, “I’ll go!”
He Li carried the bag and walked towards Zhang Qiling’s company building. He raised his wrist to check his communication watch, but there was no demonic energy signal.
Suddenly,
He Li stopped.
Zhang Qiling, who was following behind, also stopped abruptly. She looked at He Li’s back and asked cautiously, “What’s wrong? Did you find something?”
He Li slowly turned around and looked at Zhang Qiling. At this moment, Zhang Qiling’s eyes were filled with fear, and her body was tense, indicating she was very nervous.
However,
He Li still asked, “Your company had a death, why was the first person you thought of your father?”
In an instant, countless scenes flashed through He Li’s mind. As a man who had watched over 700 episodes of Detective Conan, he sensed a hint of conspiracy at this moment.
Zhang Qiling frowned, bit her lip tightly, hesitated for a moment, then sighed softly and said, “My family’s rise to prominence was not honorable. My father had many enemies when he was young. When I was in school, you should have also seen that people would come to pick me up from school from time to time. That was my father fearing for my safety.”
He Li carefully recalled that when he attended the fashion dinner, Tao Xue had also mentioned that Zhang Qiling’s family’s rise to wealth was not honorable, and their wealth and influence were not comparable to those of the wealthy children like Tao Xue. Therefore, Tao Xue and the others didn’t associate much with Zhang Qiling.
He Li hummed and said, “The person who died is not your father. Don’t worry.”
Zhang Qiling glanced at He Li, then lowered her head.
Soon,
Zhang Qiling led He Li into the building. After He Li showed his Spirit Management Association identification, they took the elevator directly to the 13th floor.
Zhengsi Decoration, Zhengsi Furniture Decoration Group Co., Ltd.
The 13th floor was the design department.
At this moment, the entire 13th floor was in chaos. There were footsteps, loud crying, and shouting while making phone calls to urge people. He Li also saw a few people holding up their phones to record videos and take pictures, probably to post on their Moments.
Some employees saw Zhang Qiling getting off the elevator and immediately surrounded her:
“Manager Zhang, Mr. Xu is dead, it’s horrific. What should we do?”
“Manager, don’t go over there. It’s too gruesome. Don’t get scared.”
“Manager… Manager… Manager, such a big incident happened in the company, are we getting a holiday?”
He Li’s spirits lifted upon hearing this, and he quickly locked onto the honest-looking person who asked the question: cheap suit, sunken eye sockets, gaunt cheeks, listless spirit.
A pure overtime warrior.
After comforting the crowd, Zhang Qiling turned to look, only to find that He Li had left at some point. She looked around for him and saw He Li had already walked into the departmental office.
Just as Zhang Qiling was about to chase after He Li, the elevator doors dinged open, and police officers and forensic examiners poured out.
Several junior police officers began to maintain order, while the remaining police officers and two forensic examiners bypassed the crowd and entered the departmental office.
At this moment,
He Li stood outside an office door. The door was open. Inside was an office with minimalist white-toned decoration.
To the right of the desk was a computer monitor.
To the left was a neat stack of files.
In the middle was the upper torso of a middle-aged woman. Her right hand rested on the computer screen, and her left hand was on the pile of files. Her face wore a stiff smile, as if welcoming visitors to the office.
Her lower body, with legs together, was tilted to the right in a very standard ladylike pose.
Unfortunately, this lady was not ladylike at all at this moment, or rather, she was terrifying.
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed from behind.
The police and forensic examiners had arrived.
He Li turned his head and saw that he recognized the leading police officer, Guo Xuan, the captain of the criminal investigation team.
Guo Xuan also recognized He Li. When they handled the Blood Villa case, Guo Xuan was the only one who only threw up three times. He was indeed a captain.
Guo Xuan hurried over and asked, “He Li, why are you here?”
He Li replied, “I was patrolling nearby. Headquarters asked me to investigate the possibility of a demonic killing.”
Guo Xuan forced a smile and said, “How can it be that every incident is caused by demons?”
He Li shrugged, pointed into the office, and moved aside to make way.
Guo Xuan looked up, his expression visibly darkening. He took a step forward to look into the office, froze for two seconds, then turned to He Li with a pale face.
“How do you want me to cooperate with you?”
His expression changed as quickly as blinking, smooth and fluid. Captain Guo indeed had some skills. He Li thought for a moment and said, “Let the forensic examiners enter. At the same time, I’ll transmit the building information back to headquarters for Sister Jiang to analyze and then create a model.”
“Okay, thank you for your hard work.” After Guo Xuan spoke politely, he nodded to the two forensic examiners.
He Li raised his wrist and scanned the inside of the office. Then, he leaned against the doorframe, opened his watch face, and pulled down his glasses.
“Sister Jiang, please take a look. Can you detect any demonic energy here? And then, create a 3D model of this building and send it to me.”
“Okay, one minute.”
At this time,
Zhang Qiling walked over, trembling. It was obvious she already knew the state of the woman in the office.
“He… He Li, how is it? Did you find the demon?”
Zhang Qiling stopped and leaned against the wall, looking at He Li.
He Li blinked and looked at Zhang Qiling with some confusion, asking, “Did I say it was done by a demon?”
“Nonsense!”
Zhang Qiling’s emotions were somewhat agitated. She glared at He Li and shouted almost in a roar.
“The person is cut in half, do you think a human did this? What kind of perverted killer would do this? After killing, they would cut the person at the waist, place the upper body on the desk, and even pose it as welcoming guests?”
He Li scratched his head and said after a moment of silence, “Sorry, I’ve been watching too many cartoons lately and got a bit carried away.”