The Mysterious Case of the Young Detective

  Di Luo led the three of them to the second floor, stopping in front of a door and saying: "You two wait here for a moment, Zheng Hanfei, you come with me to see the president."

  Zheng Hanfei responded with a sound, instructing Gu Jie to take good care of Nan Ruoxuan, and then followed Di Luo into the room.

  "Here you are!" As soon as he entered the door, Zheng Hanfei heard a voice that was extremely familiar to him. Looking forward, Ouyang Xiu was sitting in a soft and comfortable office chair, slowly taking a sip of tea.

  "Yes." Zheng Hanfei said, "I didn't expect you to be so efficient, I'm starting to look at you in a new light."

  "There." Ouyang Xiuxiu smiled, "It's all because of my father's face, I don't have that much face."

  "What is your father's name?"

  "One day you'll know." Ouyang Xiuxiu paused for a moment, gesturing to the sofa beside her and inviting him to sit down.

  "Dead or face!" Zheng Hanfei snorted disdainfully and sat down on the sofa, immediately getting to the point. "You should know what I want."

  "Here it is!" Ouyang Xiu opened the drawer of the desk in front of him, took out an ordinary envelope and threw it to Zheng Hanfei. "This is that letter, hoping you can find a useful clue."

  Zheng Hanfei nodded, first carefully examining the envelope all over, and finding it as ordinary as Ouyang Xiuxiu had said, before opening the envelope and taking out the card inside.

  This card is just like Ouyang Xiu's description, with a black exterior and bright red font. At first glance, it really does look like an invitation from the God of Death. The content reads as follows:

  Cursed youth, listen to the guidance of God: The gem of happiness, the venue of sorrow, you will encounter a young man who belongs to your destiny. Confused threads, the only truth, he will be with you side by side on the road that shatters darkness.

  Shadow

  After reading it several times, Zheng Hanfei couldn't help but let out a soft "hmm", causing Di Luo and Ouyang Xiuxiu, who were in the middle of discussing something, to shift their attention to him.

  "How is it? Is there a clue?" Ouyang Xi asked anxiously.

  Zheng Hanfei nodded and pointed to the black card, saying: "Firstly, this person seems to have already known what would happen at Uncle Stirling's gem exhibition and would also expect me to attend the exhibition."

  "That's right, and it's also a doubt that occurred to me after the case was over. This person seems to be a prophet."

  "Also, haven't you noticed that there's another character in front of the 'shadow' character?" Zheng Hanfei said while pointing to a certain place on the card, with a hint of sharpness flashing in his eyes.

  "What?! How is this possible? I've looked at it several times carefully."

  "It's not your fault. The card showed red characters, so we only looked at the red ones and didn't notice that one character was black and blended in with the card. If you don't examine it carefully several times, it's impossible to find."

  "What is the word that merges with the black card?"

  "The word 'cán' actually refers to a person who is called Cán Yǐng, not Yǐng!"

  "Ghostly shadow!" As soon as the words fell, Di Luo and Ouyang Xiuhu shouted in unison, with puzzled expressions gradually appearing on their faces, but more of them were shocked.

  "Do you know him?" Zheng Hanfei asked, his mind constantly recalling the name, as if he had heard it before.

  "Didn't you know?" Di Luo sized up Zheng Hanfei, saying in surprise, "The legendary thief, Shadow, the world's greatest thief. My father's Klauses Group was once visited by him."

  "Oh! I remember!" Zheng Hanfei slapped his forehead, "He has committed crimes over 3000 times, almost never failing, with a white hat, white mask, black cloak and black suit, he is just like the combination of Arsène Lupin created by French writer Maurice Leblanc, Kid from Conan and Dark Baron."

  "Indeed!" Ou Yang Xiu nodded, "A flexible mind, agile body, top-notch disguise skills, and most importantly, he's like his name suggests, always turning into a shadow, sneaking in and out unnoticed, stealing important art pieces. I've almost lost to him several times."

  "But how does this person know me? And why did he write a letter to you, who used to be his opponent?" Zheng Hanfei returned the letter to Ouyang Xiu, with a puzzled expression on his face. He had never met such an important figure before.

  "I don't know," Ou Yang Xiu shook his head. "Never mind, it's useless to think about these things now. By the way, I heard from Di Luo that you want your two friends to join the Detective Agency?"

  "Right, don't know if it's okay?"

  "How is their reasoning? What are they good at?"

  "Intelligence is enough!" Zheng Hanfei thought for a moment, "After all, they are all students of Quinlan Academy. Reasoning? I'm not sure, as for being good at it? Xiaoxiang is good at math and English, Xiaojie is good at analyzing people's psychological activities, and observing is also very careful. Right, they are all athletic types, physically fit."

  "Alright..." Ou Yang Xi thought for a moment, then said: "For your sake, I'll let them take the test. If they pass, they can join. You can also sit next to them and give them one hint at a crucial moment, but you can't answer for them. Remember, just one hint each."

  "No problem." Zheng Hanfei stretched out his hand and made an "OK" gesture. "Then I'll go first."

  "Go on, Dilo. Take them three up to the registration room on the first floor for their first test."

  "I understand!" Di Luo responded with a sentence, leading Zheng Hanfei out of the room.

  After the door closed, Ouyang Xiuxiu threw the card and letter on the table, thought for a moment, then slowly smiled: "Lingyin? I don't know if you can escape next time we meet under the eyes of two top detectives."

  ……

  "It's here!" Di Luo pointed to the three big words "Registration Room" on the door sign and said to the three people behind him, "You can go in, someone will receive you, I'll leave first."

  As Di Luo's figure disappeared around the corner, Zheng Hanfei knocked on the registration room door. Suddenly, the heavy door emitted a low, muffled sound, giving people a sense of oppression.

  "Please come in!" A sweet voice came from inside the room, making Zheng Hanfei feel as if he had eaten honey, and the sweetness reached his heart.

  Ka! Nan Ruo Xun quickly pushed the door, and due to using too much force, the heavy door slammed into the wall, making a loud crashing sound, scaring Zheng Han Fei into jumping up.

  "What are you doing?!" Zheng Hanfei couldn't help but scold Nan Ruoxuan, his face seemingly with a hint of anger. "This isn't a place for you to play around."

  "It's none of your business!" Nan Ruo Xun tossed her head and strode into the room.

  Gu Jie let out a sigh and glanced at Zheng Hanfei, with a hint of amusement on his face, before following Nan Ruoxuan into the room.

  What's wrong with them? Especially Nan Ruo Xun, who provoked her? Zheng Han Fei scratched his head in confusion and walked into the room. Anyway, he couldn't just stand outside like a fool, those two still needed his help.

  "Hello. Are you Nan Ruoxi, Zheng Hanfei and Gu Jie?" As soon as they entered the door, a girl who was about their age appeared in Zheng Hanfei's line of sight. Her long black hair, wearing a beige dress, her dark eyes slightly narrowed, paired with a sweet smile, giving people a sense of closeness.

  "Yes!" The three of them said in unison.

  "Let me introduce myself, my name is Zhong Li Wanyu, I'm in Class 3 of High School. I excel at graphical analysis and calculation." Zhong Li Wanyu said enthusiastically, "The president has already told me about your situation, from now on, I will be the examiner for your first round test. Are you ready, Gu Jie and Nan Ruoxuan?"

  "Ready!" they replied in unison.

  "Alright!" Zhong Liwen'er smiled, took out a blue file folder from the drawer of her desk, opened it, pulled out two sheets of paper of the same size, and handed them to Nan Ruoxuan and Gu Jie. She instructed: "This is your test. There's a password question written on the paper. Please tell me what the password is. You have half an hour, starting now."

  As soon as the words fell, the two of them took out a pen from their pockets and began to think deeply about the answer to this question.

  "Do you want a copy too?" Zhong Liwen'er pulled out another sheet of paper from the file folder and asked Zheng Hanfei.

  "Of course, reasoning is my hobby!" Zheng Hanfei nodded. Although Ouyang Xiuxiu didn't need to test him, he still wanted to try out the test. This was not only to exercise his reasoning ability and help his friend solve the mystery, but also to prove his own abilities to the other members of the detective agency.

  "Here." Zhong Liwen handed it over to Zheng Hanfei, then put the folder back in the drawer, took out a watch and started timing.

  "Huh?" Zheng Hanfei's eyebrows furrowed as he read the contents of the paper, then immediately smiled.

  "What? Unlocked?" Zhong Liyu discovered Zheng Hanfei's abnormality and couldn't help but ask.

  "No, I'm just excited." Zheng Hanfei replied, "I really want to know who spent the effort to come up with this topic, and actually brought a bit of interest to my boring mood."