The conference room was still buzzing with tension. Manman sat stiffly, her silence system sending warns to overwhelm the desire she had to question Liwu. The rest of the team members were pretending to be organizing notes about the case, when they hardly had any.

"How did you get the first statement in the first place?" Liwu asked Xuanji.

"She had not been forbidden from writing at the time." Xuanji whispered. "I don’t know what happened all of a sudden to trigger it."

The doors banged open. Weijun strode in, Weifeng trailing behind like a a very angry storm cloud.

"Liwu!" Weifeng bellowed, voice echoing across the room. "How dare you arrest my girlfriend and interrogate her like she’s some criminal? What is this about her system disappearing. Did you do this or did you put your mother up to it? Everyone knows the bureau has ways to meddle with other people’s systems."

Gasps rippled through the bull pen, the conference room and the up stairs corridor. Detectives and officers lifted their heads, pens froze mid-scribble, fingers froze on keyboards.

Liwu didn’t flinch. She leaned back in the chair, cool as ice. "Hello to you too, Weifeng."

He jabbed a finger at her. "Don’t play innocent! Your mother has been in the system business long before you were born. If anyone knows how to strip a system its her."

Weijun raised his hand, trying to calm his brother. "Enough Feng’er. Don’t you dare shout at my wife and mind your manners. This is a police precinct, not a marketplace. Liwu did not arrest your girlfriend, she is simply taking her statement. She is doing her job."

But Weifeng’s voice grew louder. "Her job? Ha! Who exactly are you standing with, brother? Manman was right in her text, Liwu did this for you. She has always the resented the friendship the three of us once had. That is why she silenced Manman. You saw how she treated Manman when you returned to Austria. She humiliated her. Now you expect me to believe that it’s a coincidence?"

The detectives exchanged curious glances.

"What happened after Austria?" Xuanji whisper to Linlin.

Linlin shrugged, because Liwu had not told her about it. "This is getting messy."

He Xiao Yi just scribbled notes, as if this was a course he was taking at a university.

Liwu’s jaw tightened. "Refusing to give your girlfriend a pastry that I bought for myself with my money is different from stealing her system. I have never been threatened by her beauty system before or her hypocrisy. And how dare you accuse my mother, you dumb ass. You think she can involve herself in petty grudges like this?"

Weijun squeezed Liwu’s shoulders. He was like a trainer behind a prize fighter, giving her courage to carry on with the fight.

Just then, the air chilled. The doors opened again, and Tai Alix entered. She was cols, elegant and terrifyingly confident. Her heels clicked like judgement itself. "I heard someone was making accusations against me."

Weifeng faltered, his voice cracking. "Y-you...."

Alix’s gaze swept the room, silencing everyone. She spoke with calm authority. "I have already been made aware of the beauty system theft. Some of you in this room are not privileged enough to be aware of this information but I will share it anyway. This beauty system theft is not the first. A few more beauty-related systems have been stolen in the last six months. This one makes it fourteen."

Gasps filled the room again. Detectives whispered.

Weijun’s face darkened. Had this been happening in his city, in the country or around the world?

Alix continued, voice sharp as a blade. "The case has already been assigned to agents and they are investigating. Whoever is behind this has skill and audacity. But let me be clear, actress Manman here is not the only victim of this swap and replace. Someone out there is not a fan of women and men who are relying on system given beauty to get ahead in life."

Manman’s face darkened.

Liwu’s eyes flickered. She knew the truth. That her mother was behind the case. The woman had probably stripped that system personally and chosen the silence one deliberately. The case of other beauty systems being stolen was probably true.

But, it was also likely that the bureau was behind it. Manman’s case was simply hidden in the chaos of the other thefts.

Manman slammed her hand on the table. She pointed to Liwu, mouthing out, "Liar." But, even that made her gasp and clutch her head.

Then she collapsed back into her chair, trembling. Weifeng hurried to her side, embracing her from the side. "We don’t believe you at all. You are telling lies to cover up your crime." He turned to the other detectives. "Do something. Arrest them!"

He Xiao Yi’s pen dropped. "Arrest....detective Liwu? President Alix? Are you insane?"

Weijun loudly replied, "Yes. He is clearly crazy." He scoffed at his brother. "You have just been offered an explanation and you are throwing it out of the window. Goodness, Feng’er, you used to be wiser than this. Where is my younger brother that I raised and taught? Ask to see he evidence, ask to speak to the agents. Understand the case and find out how the other victims are coping. Instead of making baseless accusations, do something useful."

"Stupid," Liwu muttered.

Weifeng turned a bit red in the face.

Alix stepped forward and waved her hand forward. The door slid open and two agents walked inside. One was male, and the other female. "These are agents Shengsheng and Shi’an. They are handling the theft of the beauty systems in our country. We have five cases here, the rest are international so we are working with other bureaus on this. One of the victims was actually an agent of ours, so this case is very personal to the bureau."

Liwu squeezed her brows. Fourteen cases, and some were international! It seems like she had misjudged her mother. Maybe she was not the one behind this after all.

The same thought was occurring to Manman and Weifeng.

He Xiao Yi tapped the table slowly. "They dared to come after an agent of the bureau! This brazenness seems like something IH would do."

Everyone turned to Weijun. The Mayor huffed in shock. Why was he being dragged into system theft?