"The case of apples turning into oranges is interesting, but the case of the missing seal is boring. Maybe social news reporters might be interested, but why did you specifically tell me about it, is there some kind of supernatural event involved later?"
"Yes, it's practically haunted! The emergency call was taken by another colleague, I didn't notice it at the time, but today I heard the follow-up—their seal wasn't even missing, and they found something else in the office..."
The incident happened at an internet finance company, reported by the company's administrative director, whose last name is Zhang, essentially the office manager.
Early in the morning, Director Zhang opened the office and found the metal filing cabinet's door open, with signs of obvious forceful damage. Everything else inside was intact, except the seal was missing.
In the emergency call, he said the safe had been pried, which was actually a slip of the tongue. There is no safe in the administrative office, only a metal filing cabinet with a combination lock, which is far less sturdy than a safe.
After the police arrived on the scene, preliminary judgment was that it was pried open using a crowbar. Through questioning, it was learned that the cabinet lock's code was left in its place, and the key was in the first drawer of the director's desk.
It seems the thief wasn't aware, otherwise, there would be no need to pry it open forcefully, or maybe the perpetrator knew, and deliberately did it this way to attract the police.
The police searched the office and found the missing seal in the third drawer of the director's desk, along with a folder and a laptop.
Talking about it, the girl blinked and asked, "Guess what's in that folder?"
The man: "Surely nothing good, most likely black material on this company."
The girl: "Spot on! The officer handling the case was startled upon opening the folder—it contained more than a dozen A4 pages, all were screenshots from videos, those nude photos holding up ID cards, you know the type..."
After investigation, the girls in the video screenshots were all current students at Qingyuan University. As for the nearby laptop, it contained a lot of the company's internal 'confidential materials', with the source videos of the aforementioned screenshots being only a small part of it.
The laptop belonged to the company owner; it originally wasn't at the company but at the owner's home, yet for unknown reasons, it mysteriously appeared at the scene of the theft.
Summarizing the clues before and after the case, it should be that someone stole the company owner's private computer, printed its illegal contents, and placed them all in the administrative office's drawer, pried open the metal cabinet, took out the seal and put it there.
The most bizarre part is that it's the company's administrative director himself who reported the case, like turning himself in!
After hearing the case details, the man slightly nodded and said, "In that case, it's a bit interesting. When you first said it, I suspected that Director Zhang was stealing from himself, intentionally attracting the police to expose the company's dark secrets."
The girl: "Oh, why would he expose himself?"
The man slowly said, "Very simple, a sense of justice or guilt can sometimes be precious and sometimes laughable; there's also a possibility of being bribed or coerced by competitors; or more likely, he himself has no connection with these activities and fears being implicated."
The girl: "He's the administrative director, how could he be unrelated to the business?"
The man: "Such situations are very common, a company gets registered, ostensibly operating regular business, but actually covering for shady activities. Not only might the administrative head be unaware, even the nominal legal representative might be oblivious.
This Director Zhang noticed but didn't dare to report directly for fear of revenge, so he played this trick. On the surface, it seems like someone else is causing trouble, having nothing to do with him.
But such speculation fails to explain one thing: how did he get the owner's home-stored laptop and put it in his own desk drawer?
This can't clear his suspicion at all, might as well report directly, so still doesn't quite make sense."
The girl: "The news I heard was that the company's main business isn't lending but helping other lending companies with collections. Some things are certainly illegal, but not fully investigated yet.
The owner realized his computer was stolen only after the police came, and even the boot password had been unlocked and removed. Also, the company's surveillance records were very complete, from the previous day's end of work to the start of the day, no one entered that office."
The man: "What about the windows?"
The girl: "That office is on the third floor, the street corner outside also has surveillance, conveniently capturing the windows, and there's no sign of anyone going in or out. If it wasn't Director Zhang, then it's haunted!"
The man laughed and said, "The ghost has quite a sense of justice, managing such affairs... I will check the background of Director Zhang. Then tell me about last night's case, apples turned into oranges, did you send officers out later?"
The girl: "We sent officers, notified the duty officer in the jurisdiction who arrived at the scene."
The man: "These kinds of things warrant sending officers?"
The girl: "There are much crazier situations too!"
The man: "What was the situation at the scene, you should have inquired?"
The girl: "The result was quite eerie, a bit creepy too..."
The caller claimed she stayed in the bedroom after making the call, didn't dare come out until the police arrived. When she came out, there wasn't an apple left on the living room coffee table, not even an orange, and the plate holding orange slices was missing too."
The man slightly squinted his eyes: "Even the orange disappeared! Then there's no evidence at all, why would the police believe her?"