Chapter 248 - Cactus
"Unbelievable."
It was the only comment Xiu Mei could make at that time. To think that she’s being played by this person the whole time... she was barely stopping herself from exploding with anger.
Just merely 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 shamelessness 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 time 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 someone 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 commented 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 moments 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 Mei 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 mess, 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 Mei was surprised.
Was it a coincidence?
She contemplated about something 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 Madame passed this to me then he was on paid leave the next day."
Lu Chen and Xiu Mei’s eyelids jumped. The two glanced at each other as they shared the same thoughts.
"Then that means he was already aware that we started investigating him so he immediately 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 Mei frowned. "If I remember 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 merely 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 movements." He stated. Lu Shao and Xiu Mei fell silent.
Xiu Mei’s mind was in a mess. Because she was aware of how serious their problem is at the moment.
It’s a different case if Albert Chen only knew about their movements when Lu Sha started investigating, but because he already planned to disappear the moment she passed over the file to Lu Shao, that means that he was watching them REAL TIME. 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 meant 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 time 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 immediately left to carry out his orders as early as possible.
Xiu Mei 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 moment.
The next day, Xiu Mei 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 movements. 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 Mei 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 some succulents that could already be transferred to a different pot as well.
She was spraying water religiously on them when her movements 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 remembered that.
"Lu Shao!" She almost shouted in a loud voice in her urgency. Lu Shao was immediately next to her, so Xiu Mei grabbed the cactus pot and shoved it to his hand.
"This pot...this was what Albert Chen gave me when he newly arrived here in our company. I don’t think he was simply giving this away. Maybe he put something inside?" She voiced out her suspicions.
After listening to Xiu Mei, Lu Shao immediately had someone send some 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 Mei watched all of it unfold before her eyes. She was puzzled when they found nothing and she immediately doubted whether Albert was really merely 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.
"Madame, is this what he really gave you? Maybe it’s a different plant?" One of the men who took apart the plant asked her.
Xiu Mei 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 remember who gave which so she didn’t identify the wrong plant that Albert gave her.
"What about the pot?" Someone 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 some kind of rectangular chip that was mixed in the shattered pieces.
"We found it." Lu Shao declared in a low voice.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.𝒄𝒐𝙢