“Lin Xi, you’ll be in charge of this case.” The Section Seven chief walked out of his office and waved at Lin Xi, who was sitting at her desk.

“Yes!” Lin Xi, whose name had been called, immediately stood up and jogged over to receive the file folder.

“Good luck.” The chief encouraged her with a pat on the shoulder.

After the chief returned to his office, colleagues in the department swarmed around Lin Xi, looking at the file folder in her hands. Lin Xi took out the materials inside and spread them on the table for everyone to see.

“Oh, it’s that museum antique theft case—it still hasn’t been solved!” a colleague said in surprise. “I remember it’s been two weeks already, right?”

“Yes, it even made it to trending topics on Weibo at the time, and newspapers reported on it too.”

“I remember too. They said what was stolen was a kingfisher feather hairpin. If it hadn’t been for the popular science explanation this time, I wouldn’t have known what kingfisher work was!”

Colleagues discussed among themselves, mainly because cases transferred to Section Seven were all “difficult and complicated cases.” Except for those out on field duty with cases, no one wasn’t curious. Besides, after Lin Xi took on this case, someone would come to partner with her, so naturally they needed to understand the situation.

On the surface, their department was called Section Seven, but it was actually the Special Events Investigation Unit.

Cases that other departments couldn’t solve, or cases with supernatural elements that couldn’t be explained scientifically, were all thrown to Section Seven. Of course, their department wasn’t omnipotent either, but if even they couldn’t solve a case, it could only be archived.

In fact, Section Seven had been just an unremarkable department a year ago, with a terrifyingly low case-solving rate.

This couldn’t be blamed on them, after all, the cases thrown to them were harder to solve than the last. This situation dramatically reversed after Lin Xi was assigned to Section Seven.

Cases handled by Lin Xi had an average of six out of ten solved. At first glance, this might not seem impressive, but don’t forget—these were all cases that other departments were helpless against. Compared to the previous one or two out of ten, this was already terrifying.

So Lin Xi was jokingly called the department’s lucky charm by Section Seven colleagues. She never had a fixed partner; colleagues took turns partnering with her to ensure fairness.

After a year like this, everyone in the department had partnered with Lin Xi. To be fair, Lin Xi really was just an ordinary police academy graduate. She had the necessary keen observation skills, logical thinking, and physical agility, but even at her most excellent, she was only at police academy level—not the kind of stunning genius.

But her luck was just too good!

She could casually find key clues at crime scenes that others had overlooked despite multiple searches, or spot telltale signs, or simply stumble upon the moment suspects revealed their hand.

Once or twice might be coincidence, but when this happened repeatedly, it couldn’t help but inspire admiration. Perhaps she was naturally suited to be a detective, which was why she had such opportunities.

Lin Xi’s luck was acknowledged by everyone in Section Seven. As long as Lin Xi was on the case, there was a sixty percent chance it could be solved! Didn’t you see that now whenever Lin Xi wasn’t on field duty, case assignments went directly to her?

Lin Xi had an outgoing and cheerful personality, pretty looks, and cut an even more dashing figure in her police uniform. She was extremely popular not only in Section Seven but throughout the entire police station as a police flower with many supporters. Who knew how many departments were secretly competing to transfer her over!

The materials in the file folder were quite detailed, but some things still required actual on-site investigation.

This time, her partner was Fan Ze. Fan Ze carefully reviewed the materials, pulled up some reference files from the computer and transferred them to an iPad, then indicated to Lin Xi they could go.

Lin Xi took one last glance at the photo frame on her desk, grabbed the files and her jacket, and left with Fan Ze.

“Hey, do you think Xiao Xi is single? Little Wang from the next department asked me to find out! But last time I tried to introduce her to someone, she changed the subject!” Colleague A from Section Seven stood by the window, watching Lin Xi and Fan Ze walk toward the parking lot one after the other.

“Xiao Xi’s boyfriend… was her classmate from police academy. Look, that’s the handsome guy in the photo with her on her desk.” Colleague B nodded toward Lin Xi’s desk.

“Huh? How come we’ve never seen Xiao Xi bring him around? That’s really inappropriate!”

“That person… died in the line of duty just after starting work.”

“Ah…”

“I heard that case was quite difficult, so it was eventually thrown to our Section Seven. Xiao Xi requested the transfer to Section Seven herself, just to investigate that case.”

“Ah? What about now? Are there any results?”

“Still unsolved…”

Lin Xi drove while Fan Ze organized the downloaded reference materials in the passenger seat, occasionally mentioning key points of the case for discussion.

Fan Ze was Lin Xi’s classmate from police academy. Back then, he, she, and her boyfriend Du Zichun had all been assigned to this police station together. Lin Xi had known him for a long time, and they had developed such understanding in their work that sometimes communication wasn’t even necessary—one only needed to say half a sentence for the other to understand the rest.

“According to the materials, the perpetrator’s theft method was sophisticated and meticulous. Should be a repeat offender.” Lin Xi frowned.

“I checked recent cases at major museums worldwide—almost no similar situations.” Fan Ze immediately understood her implication. “Every case should have traces to follow, but this time is different.”

“Tsk, if this case can’t be solved, there’ll probably be a bunch of high-quality fake kingfisher hairpins appearing underground, fooling wealthy people into buying them as authentic pieces.” Lin Xi tapped the steering wheel with her index finger, thinking. “But kingfisher work is made from kingfisher feathers and isn’t easy to fake. Plus, compared to gold, jade, and ceramics, it has a shorter preservation time of only about a hundred years, so it’s actually not that popular in the antique market.”

“So the question is, if that thief has such skills, why did they only steal this kingfisher feather hairpin?”

“From the materials submitted by the museum, this kingfisher feather hairpin has nothing particularly special about it. It’s not a relic of any famous person either, just well-preserved with relatively bright colors.”

“Maybe… they just liked it?” Fan Ze shrugged, making a little joke.

Lin Xi curled her lips, thinking this joke wasn’t funny at all.

Lin Xi and Fan Ze had already contacted the museum by phone before arriving.

So as soon as they parked their police car, staff came up to take them directly to the director’s office.

The kingfisher feather hairpin was stolen, but the glass case preserving it showed no damage, and no alarms were triggered. Therefore, police suspected it was an inside job by museum staff. This point was specially marked in the files. As soon as Lin Xi entered the museum, she became extremely alert, viewing everyone as suspicious.

Actually, Lin Xi knew this kind of mindset wasn’t good, but to find criminal suspects, police needed this kind of awareness—even if the other party was their own relatives or friends, no exceptions.

Lin Xi originally had the personality of seeing everyone as good people and subconsciously thinking for others and making excuses for them. Back then, it took great effort to force herself to think this way during investigations.

But the person who had sternly taught her back then was no longer by her side.

After being distracted for just one second, Lin Xi pulled herself together again. At this time, she and Fan Ze had arrived at the director’s office, and the director was standing up to greet them.

This museum director had been in office for many years and often appeared on TV for interviews. Even Lin Xi, who wasn’t interested in history, was quite familiar with him.

Perhaps because several waves of police had already come, the director wasn’t too enthusiastic when he saw them, clearly not holding much hope for these two young officers.

Without wasting time on pleasantries, Fan Ze began routine questioning.

The director had obviously been interrogated many times and spoke without much spirit. His answers weren’t much different from what was recorded in the files. Observing micro-expressions to determine if he was lying was also useless, because after repeating so many times, micro-expressions would change too.

After the questioning yielded no effective new intelligence, the two went to investigate the scene. Because the crime method was mysteriously skillful, there were no new discoveries at the scene either. Finally, they went to the surveillance room.

The surveillance footage from the day the kingfisher feather hairpin disappeared had already been watched over and over many times. But Lin Xi was afraid others’ analysis would influence her judgment, so she went through all the surveillance footage from beginning to end again.

There were two cameras aimed at the display case with the kingfisher feather hairpin. The screen was split in two, playing both feeds simultaneously on fast forward. She watched while asking the director beside her.

“Why did that woman stand here so long? The one with the scar near her right eye. And this man with glasses also stood for a while. Director, do you know each other?” Most visitors just walked past, so when someone stayed too long, it became particularly obvious.

“That man is a surgeon from a nearby hospital. I’ve known him for several years—he couldn’t possibly be a suspect.” The director said with certainty. Are you kidding! That doctor had seen so many rare treasures at the Mute House boss’s place—would he even care about things here?

“What about the person beside you, Director?” Lin Xi pointed at the screen again.

“That’s the deputy manager of an antique shop. I asked her to come check the feng shui.” The director was telling the truth, but unsurprisingly saw disapproving expressions on the two young officers’ faces.

Lin Xi wrote down these people in her notebook one by one. These suspects she could spot at a glance had probably already been investigated by previous colleagues, so there was no rush to interrogate them again.

Although this was a criminal case, as time passed and news interest waned, with still no progress, the director was clearly about to give up.

After all, many famous museums in history had been visited by thieves. Some thieves were caught, but more remained unsolved cases to this day—this was unavoidable.

Lin Xi and Fan Ze discussed and decided to first screen through the museum’s surveillance footage. Not just the day of the incident, but several days before and after.

After all, this kind of case would be very difficult for a lone wolf—at minimum, someone would need to case the joint repeatedly.

The director stayed with them for a while, but seeing they were determined to investigate thoroughly, he stopped watching over them and specially cleared out an office for the two of them, with one computer each to watch surveillance footage.

They had arrived at the museum in the afternoon after receiving the case, and watched until the museum closed.

“See anything?” Fan Ze rubbed his eyes, asking without much expectation.

“No.” Lin Xi sighed, tilted her head, and raised her hand to massage her aching neck. At this moment, her phone screen lit up with a new email notification. Lin Xi swiped to look and immediately brightened with joy, even unable to sit still, instinctively heading for the door. Fortunately, she had just stood up when she realized she was still investigating a case and forcibly restrained her impulse.

“What happened?” Fan Ze asked curiously. Ever since Du Zichun’s incident, Lin Xi had rarely smiled genuinely, so Fan Ze was indeed very curious what news could make Lin Xi so visibly happy.

“Wasn’t I always investigating Zichun’s case?” Lin Xi said a bit embarrassedly, because Fan Ze had also accompanied her in investigating for over half a year before ultimately finding nothing and advising her to give up. She had agreed verbally but was actually still secretly investigating.

“You actually…” Fan Ze’s expression was very subtle, both angry and anxious. “Don’t you know how dangerous that case is? You dared to continue investigating alone without even telling me?!”

“Sorry, sorry.” Lin Xi pressed her palms together, apologizing verbally, though her expression didn’t look particularly guilty.

“I give up on you.” Fan Ze snorted lightly, crossing his arms. “So what progress is there now?”

“A message from a friend in the forensics team. Didn’t their team import a new American device? They said it can restore damaged SIM cards. The report I filed was finally approved.” Lin Xi moistened her dry lips and continued with a smile, “Don’t I still have fragments of Zichun’s phone found at the scene? Tomorrow I can send them for examination. Although the hope is slim, we should be able to restore some photos and information.”

“Xiao Xi, you’ve really suffered.” Fan Ze sighed, looking at Lin Xi with extremely complex eyes. Although he wasn’t the cool, handsome, domineering type, he could be considered gentle and refined. His eyes were full of sincere deep affection that was impossible to ignore.

Lin Xi felt somewhat uncomfortable. She knew Fan Ze had feelings for her, but previously when she had a boyfriend, Fan Ze maintained ordinary friendly relations with both of them. After Du Zichun’s incident, Fan Ze had helped wholeheartedly. Lin Xi could somewhat understand his hints but couldn’t respond, only trying to maintain distance. But working in the same department, no matter how distant they tried to be, they still had to see each other every day.

“Xiao Xi, Zichun has been gone so long, you should also… should move on.” Fan Ze’s words were full of pity.

Lin Xi immediately firmly retorted: “He didn’t die, he’s just missing.”

Fan Ze was speechless, not knowing how to comfort her. He could only sigh silently and change the subject. After an awkward while together, he excused himself saying it was dinnertime and got up to buy boxed meals.

Their office belonged to the museum’s administrative area and was connected to the security room, so staying all night wouldn’t be a problem. Lin Xi stared at the computer screen in a daze for quite a while, patted her cheeks to perk up, put Du Zichun’s matter aside for now, organized her thoughts, and threw herself back into work after eating the boxed meal.

She first fast-forwarded through recordings from a week before and after the incident, mainly checking for any traces of those three previous suspects. The answer was no.

She thought for a while, then began watching the recordings again, this time at a slower fast-forward speed, mainly to identify if anyone had repeatedly come to look at this kingfisher feather hairpin during these few days.

There indeed were some, and she recorded them all. But after checking corresponding footage from other cameras, these people appeared to just be visiting the museum to pass time, with low suspicion levels.

Staring at the computer screen for a long time made her eyes feel dry. Lin Xi stretched, only then noticing a bottle of eye drops had appeared on her right side at some point.

Wasn’t this bottle of eye drops in her purse? Had Fan Ze taken it out and placed it here earlier? When had that boy become so considerate?

Lin Xi grumbled internally while unscrewing the cap to use the eye drops.

The cool mint sensation spread through both eyes, immediately clearing away mental fatigue. Lin Xi blinked, and when her vision recovered, she discovered the computer screen had been repeatedly playing the same surveillance segment. Forward three seconds, then back three seconds—one scene playing over and over.

And Lin Xi hadn’t touched any keys on the keyboard.

But Lin Xi perked up, knowing her long-awaited lucky moment had finally arrived!

That’s right—from some unknown point, supernatural events always occurred around her. For example, criminals would fall directly in front of her during investigations, or clues would be placed right in the most obvious position before her eyes. That’s why the cases she handled had such a high solving rate.

Lin Xi had actually been somewhat apprehensive at first, but over time, she got used to it.

Maybe she was just that lucky one favored by heaven!

It’s just that she never won the lottery… Heaven really did hope she’d focus on solving cases and being an agent of justice…

Lin Xi curled her lips, just about to call Fan Ze over to look at the screen, but her voice got stuck in her throat and didn’t come out.

Because in the center of the footage playing back and forth on screen, that person had just turned their head.

It was a face very familiar to her.

A face she could see just by turning her head.