*Xin Lei*
"It's a cipher." Bai Li said.
I typed. "Yes. Brother Zhen and I used to play a lot using secret messages during childhood. He always loved to give me puzzles."
"Right. Since he knows that, he would relatively give a simpler message for you to decode since he has already disappeared, and he has yet to warn you about the danger. There is no time. At the same time, it should also be difficult to crack the code if the letter falls in another's hands, or it should at least look useless at a glance, which is exactly what Xin Zhen has done."
I nodded.
"There are three sentences. Ciphers are a play with the letters. If you take the first letters out, we get I, L, C, N, O, P, O, T, L, I, C, A, E, T, G, Y, R. In the second sentence, Candy sounds more like a nickname to me. Is it yours?"
I smiled and typed. "Yes. He always teases me with the name Candy because I have a sweet tooth."
"I could also guess because when you crashed into me, I smelled something sweet like caramel from your mouth. It was probably a caramel flavored candy. So, when I heard Candy in the message, it clicked to me."
Gosh, it was so embarrassing! Damn my mouth!
"I tend to eat candies when I am stressed." I awkwardly typed.
Bai Li nodded.
"Right. Coming back to the code. Since it's a name, we take Candy as the full word, not just it's letter C. Now, we club the letters together according to where the full stops are placed. So, it becomes - IL. Candy NO. POTLICAETGYR. The message starts with Candy because from there, he addresses you. So, IL is of no use. It's just window dressing. In POTLICAETGYR, remove both T's and A because 'the' is an article and 'to' and 'at' is a preposition. They are only for grammar not to make it look abrupt. So, we are left with Candy. NO POLICEGYR. With 'police' as the first six letters, the message is clear. 'GYR' as 'Get your reward' is just to mask it in a proper sentence, same as 'I lose' - just a window dressing."
I looked at him, dumbfounded. Even I had to take five minutes to decode it, but he did it just by listening to it once.
Brother Zhen would have mocked me for being so slow.
He asked, "Is it handwritten?"
"No. It's typed."
"What else is there apart from the message?"
I once again took a good look, turning the paper back and forth, but found it empty.
"There is nothing."
I saw him slightly squinting his brows together. He seemed to be in deep thought.
I typed. "Is there something on your mind?"
"I thought that perhaps Xin Zhen would give a hint about his location."
I nervously worded my message. "What if he is kidnapped?"
Bai Li put the coffee cup down on the table and said, "Possibly. Or he might be in hiding. What about your father?"
"No, he didn't leave me any message."
Bai Li said after a pause. "Alright, we have a note given by your brother, and your father was working on a case. We have to know the details of that case to get a direction here."
I typed a long message. "The goons have smashed our house in Chaoyang where we all three lived together. I don't know about his office at the Central business district because I never got the chance to go there. I was in hiding."
Bai Li said, "So, let's go there. And before that, do you have any clothes or personal items of Xin Nianzu? Cocoa will register his smell. The note has already given him Xin Zhen's."
I gave one of the shirts to Cocoa, and he smelled it just like the note.
"Let's go."
As Bai Li said that, I felt a strange nervousness but also excitement surge in me. I felt the fear of the unknown, but when I looked at his tall, muscular figure and his broad back, it gave me a sense of security.
Cocoa barked and looked at me.
I giggled. I bent down and kissed his head.
And of course, Cocoa too.
---
The third minion who ran tail in between his legs from Bai Li was kneeling in front of a fat man with a chubby belly. Everybody called the fat man as Gen Gen.
Gen Gen punched the minion in his face.
"Useless bunch of craps! You three men can't even handle a woman? Just how difficult it is! She is just a woman, and you are still cannot drag her out her fucking hiding!"
"B-boss…" the minion stuttered. "The woman wasn't alone this time."
"What?"
"A man was with her. He was the one who beat them up."
Gen Gen gnashed his teeth. "Now who is this man? There was never a man before! When did he pop out?"
"I don't know…"
"And you still lost even when you were three against him!? You are fucking three men, and he is just one!" He roared and kicked him. "Useless!"
"Fan! Fa!"
The two men came forward. "Yes!"
"Go get the job done. I want that man and woman dead!"
Fan sneered. "Yes, boss."
*Bai Li*, ---
Central business district.
I stood in front of Xin Nianzu's office and from the message that Xin Lei just said, it didn't seem to be how an office should look like.
Naturally, I had expected that. Whoever they are, are really thorough.
I heard a faint pitter-patter of Xin Lei, knocking her fingers on the phone and then a robotic voice.
"The office is completely messed up. All files and papers are thrown here and there. Even the computer is broken. Now what?"