Chapter 248 - Cactus
"Unbelievable."
It was the only comnt Xiu i could make at that ti. To think that she’s being played by this person the whole ti... she was barely stopping herself from exploding with anger.
Just rely recalling how that bastard looked like whenever she sees him, and how he acts like the two were close made her let out a string of curses in her mind.
His shalessness was beyond disbelief. He actually had the gall to personally work in the company, brazenly approached her and the others, willingly acting as a lackey to his subordinate to hide his true identity, and acted as if he did nothing so outrageous every ti they bump into each other.
Clearly, he was fearless, and he wasn’t afraid if he was going to be found out by them or not.
She can already imagine how amused he was as he worked with them every day while thinking how foolish they were for being too slow in not figuring out that the person they’ve been looking for has been under their noses all along.
In Albert Chen’s place.
Albert Chen was sitting relaxedly on his porch, with his dog sleeping at his feet and swirling the glass of red wine in his hand.
He looked pretty laid back, unconcerned about the events that will unfold in the future.
"We’ve found traces of soone investigating master’s records for the past two days." Xiu Su Yi’s voice sounded from Albert Chen’s phone. Albert Chen’s place was devoid of people, with only a man and a dog living in it. He always disliked staying with strangers, even if it was his subordinates.
And it could only be counted in one hand as to whom Albert Chen revealed himself to his subordinates, Xiu Su Yi included.
"Too slow," Albert nonchalantly comnted as he took another sip from his wine glass. He didn’t speak anymore after that but Xiu Su Yi didn’t cut the call yet. A few monts later, Xiu Su Yi gave an instruction.
"Kill Ying Wan Wan."
And then the call was hung up.
Albert Chen raised his head and watched the clear night sky bright with stars silently.
"What do we do now?" Xiu i seriously asked.
If it were just a normal case, the protocol would be to fire the employee who leaked the company information outside, clean up the aftermath after the ss, and then it’s all over.
But she knew that it’s not as simple as that.
Albert Chen was manipulative and intelligent. Firing him was easy, but it wasn’t enough.
"He was on a paid leave since two days ago." Lu Shao added.
"Two days ago?" Xiu i was surprised.
Was it a coincidence?
She contemplated about sothing with her hand on his chin.
"Was he already on paid leave when you started investigating him?" She asked.
"No. We started the investigation the day Mada passed this to then he was on paid leave the next day."
Lu Chen and Xiu i’s eyelids jumped. The two glanced at each other as they shared the sa thoughts.
"Then that ans he was already aware that we started investigating him so he imdiately filed his leave." Lu Chen spoke out his thoughts.
"To think that he filed a leave after we started the investigation, I doubt it’s all a coincidence."
"When did he file his leave?"
"It was the afternoon of the day before his paid leave." Lu Shao answered.
Xiu i frowned. "If I rember correctly, I only handed the file to you in the afternoon. How’s that possible?"
Maybe it was a coincidence?
Lu Chen glanced at the two people in front of him.
"When you passed the investigation file over, how did you do it?" He asked his wife.
"How? Of course, I personally handed it over to him."
Their tables are rely just across each other. Since she handwrote the information in the file, it was easier to personally hand it over instead of typing it again thru email.
Hearing her answer, Lu Chen’s face darkened.
"That bastard was watching our movents." He stated. Lu Shao and Xiu i fell silent.
Xiu i’s mind was in a ss. Because she was aware of how serious their problem is at the mont.
It’s a different case if Albert Chen only knew about their movents when Lu Sha started investigating, but because he already planned to disappear the mont she passed over the file to Lu Shao, that ans that he was watching them REAL TI. IN. THE. OFFICE.
But how?
How did he know it?
Were their computers hacked? Or were there listening devices on their floor?
They’ve already restricted the access to their floor to so many people. How is that even possible?
"Do another sweep of the floor. If it ant having to check all the devices on the floor, do it. I need to know if that bastard was listening in on us the whole ti or not." Lu Chen commanded with a grim voice. His tone alone revealed how grave the current situation was so Lu Shao didn’t dare delay and imdiately left to carry out his orders as early as possible.
Xiu i grabbed one of Lu Chen’s hands and gripped it tightly. The two didn’t speak to each other at all but they understood each other’s thoughts at that mont.
The next day, Xiu i gave her assistant a day off. Lu Chen’s subordinates were on their floor, and she didn’t want to get her assistant involved about it so it was better to keep her in the dark with what they’re currently doing.
She stayed in Lu Chen’s office briefly before going out. There, she saw people occupying her table and her assistant’s table. She wandered around the floor curiously watching their movents. She didn’t want to bother them any further so she started to walk back to Lu Chen’s office when her eyes landed on the succulents by the window.
Her assistant was the one who takes care of it and since she wasn’t around today to do that, Xiu i took it upon herself to do the task. After all, this was the only area that displayed the green plants since it would be a bother to care for a lot of plants when they’re all too busy with their own work.
She picked up the water spray and started watering the succulents that were completely basked in sunlight. They all look well taken care of since they’ve been growing steadily and she can see so succulents that could already be transferred to a different pot as well.
She was spraying water religiously on them when her movents halted as soon as she saw a familiar cactus.
Her mind crashed temporarily.
Wait... wasn’t this the cactus that Albert gave her back then?
She recalled that box full of small pots of succulents that he said he was going to give away to his coworkers. And how he grabbed one pot and gave this cactus to her saying that it was a gift.
It was like an alarm rang in her mind as soon as she rembered that.
"Lu Shao!" She almost shouted in a loud voice in her urgency. Lu Shao was imdiately next to her, so Xiu i grabbed the cactus pot and shoved it to his hand.
"This pot...this was what Albert Chen gave when he newly arrived here in our company. I don’t think he was simply giving this away. Maybe he put sothing inside?" She voiced out her suspicions.
After listening to Xiu i, Lu Shao imdiately had soone send so tools so they could take apart the pot. After separating the cactus from the soil, he continued separating the soil but found nothing. They even took apart that poor cactus into two to check the inside but they found nothing of importance.
Xiu i watched all of it unfold before her eyes. She was puzzled when they found nothing and she imdiately doubted whether Albert was really rely sending it as a welcoming gift.
"Was I thinking too much?" She muttered under her breath as her eyes lingered on the poor cactus plant.
"Mada, is this what he really gave you? Maybe it’s a different plant?" One of the n who took apart the plant asked her.
Xiu i looked at the aisle of succulents by the window and carefully looked at every pot before answering.
"Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the one."
Almost all succulents they have were from the other employees who gave them to them, and she could clearly rember who gave which so she didn’t identify the wrong plant that Albert gave her.
"What about the pot?" Soone voiced out.
"But it’s just clay." Another voice responded while he tapped the pot making a dull sound on the table.
"Smash it open."
"...Okay."
And then a loud sound echoed within the room. In an instant, everyone fell silent as soon as they saw the shattered pieces of the pot in front of them.
A hand removed the shards of clay, picking up so kind of rectangular chip that was mixed in the shattered pieces.
"We found it." Lu Shao declared in a low voice.
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