CHAPTER 51: CHAPTER 51: MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

The girl’s hood was pulled low over her head, with strands of rainbow-colored hair peeking out from the sides near her ears.

She sauntered in, her delicate high heels deftly kicking the door shut behind her. Sitting down opposite Chen Gu, she flipped back her hood to reveal a small, oval face with snow-white skin. Her large eyes brimmed with laughter, and her nose and mouth were small and exquisite—she was a beautiful girl with the charm of the girl next door.

But Great Actor Chen, with his vast experience in judging people, sharply noted that beneath her loose clothing, the woman was hiding ’assets’ that could incite criminal thoughts: a pair of heavy **, whose weight alone looked lethal. Extremely dangerous, and not to be underestimated!

"Are you new here? Hehe, you’re quite cute. What’s your name?" The girl crossed her legs. Like the archetypal ’girl next door’ who often serves as a young boy’s introduction to the world, she naturally had an easy-going and approachable personality.

"Chen Gu." Chen Gu behaved obediently. But he just couldn’t bring himself to call her ’Older Sister’—he had an idol’s burden... No, it was a parental burden. Chen Gu himself could be shameless, but he had to consider his grown son’s self-esteem. How could he call his subordinate’s subordinate "Older Sister"? Alas, a thousand words boiled down to one phrase: It’s tough being a parent.

"My name is Melincha Stephanie, but everyone calls me Doll." Melincha, or Doll as she was known, showed no wariness toward strangers and began chattering away as if looking after a younger brother. "There are four other people in the group. You’ve met Silver Eagle Charles. He mentioned he was the one who conducted your physical fitness test."

"There’s also ’Witch’ Selena, and our group leader, ’Bartender’ Marcus."

The ’big’ sister next door leaned her upper body onto the table, a wide smile playing on her lips. "Selena is a cute little thing, you know, right around your age, little brother. Want me to introduce you two?"

Chen Gu glanced over discreetly, wincing internally for the table as it creaked under the pressure from those oversized items.

"Melincha!" Before Chen Gu could respond, a sharp, haughty voice cut in as a petite figure stormed in angrily. "Can you please stop being so tiresome?"

The girl who entered was undoubtedly ’Witch’ Selena. She was half a head shorter than Melincha—though one shouldn’t assume Melincha’s ’oversized assets’ would stunt her growth; in fact, Doll was quite tall and slender.

Selena had peach-blossom eyes, strikingly contrasted by clean, sharp sword-like eyebrows. At her young age, she already combined cuteness, charm, and a heroic spirit. If she were taller, she would be perfect—even more ’criminally’ alluring than Melincha’s oversized assets.

"Hehehe," Melincha laughed breezily. "Big Sister is just trying to help you get along with the newcomer."

"I don’t need it!" The little witch pouted, clearly unappreciative.

The door was pushed open again, and Chen Gu finally saw someone familiar: Silver Eagle Charles.

He followed a middle-aged, world-weary man whose wrinkled face told a story of hardship. The man was unfortunately balding, with a noticeable paunch that his uniform struggled to contain.

"Alright," the middle-aged man interjected, stopping the argument. "Let’s not squabble." He extended his hand to Chen Gu. "Hello, young man. I’m ’Bartender’ Marcus, the leader of this group."

Chen Gu quickly shook his hand. "Hello, I’m Chen Gu."

Marcus spread his hands helplessly, gesturing towards the others. "As you can see, it’s because of these characters that I..." He then pointed to the top of his head, the meaning self-evident.

Chen Gu couldn’t help but smile; the group leader was an easygoing person, which was good.

"Your physical skills assessment was excellent. We’ll take you on a few missions to accumulate some experience and merits, then you can apply to become a Professional."

Hearing Marcus’s explanation, Chen Gu immediately understood. So, I’m here to leech experience.

It seems that with my grown son looking out for me, I should do quite well at the sub-bureau.

If he only knew how crucial Aviloya’s role had been in all this, he certainly wouldn’t be so optimistic.

"Alright, now let’s continue working on that case. Selena, send the newcomer a copy of the data..."

"Why not let Melincha send it? I’m not going to talk to him first!" the little witch retorted, proudly stubborn.

Marcus looked exasperated, clearly at a loss with the young girl. "Alright, Melincha, you do it."

Melincha gave a knowing smile and passed a set of documents to Chen Gu. When he opened it, he was utterly stunned. It was the case from the last time Chen Jixian had been targeted for assassination by a Mutant!

Moreover, the case wasn’t isolated; another one was attached. Almost concurrently, Zhao Zhenhuai had also faced an assassination attempt by Mutants.

However, according to the case file, the "intensity" of the incident involving Zhao Zhenhuai was much lower. There was only one Mutant, and its degree of mutation was far less significant than that of the two who had attacked Chen Jixian.

The Mutant assassin had barely gotten close before Zhao Zhenhuai’s security detail riddled it with bullets, tearing it to pieces.

Silver Eagle Charles reported on recent developments, including several leads he was pursuing. The other members also gave their updates, while Chen Gu listened silently.

He might not have even realized it himself, but he was growing increasingly concerned about these "family" members of his.

Finally, Marcus concluded, "Based on the information we currently have, this appears to be a targeted operation by the Wuzhaoyin City Mutants against the future leaders of the police department."

"Both targets have military backgrounds and are known for their decisive leadership styles. This is certainly not good news for the Mutants, giving them ample reason to plan such an operation."

"The problem now is that all our leads have gone cold. We need to find another way to identify the mastermind and, ideally, root out all the Mutants hiding in Wuzhaoyin City in one fell swoop!"

Marcus looked deeply troubled again. In the past, if leads dried up, a case would be temporarily shelved. Mutants were bound to cause trouble eventually, and new clues might surface in other cases, allowing them to be linked.

But now that Chen Jixian was the Branch Chief, his attempted assassination case couldn’t remain unsolved. Otherwise, everyone’s future would be difficult.

However, conjuring a new lead out of thin air to continue the investigation was extremely challenging.

"Let’s all share our thoughts. We need to hurry; the Chief is putting a lot of pressure on me."

Silver Eagle furrowed his brow, his mind racing. If I can turn the tide now, it’ll be a stroke of genius!

This was the kind of moment Silver Eagle lived for.

Melincha, the ’big sister’ from the Lin family, looked from one person to another; her expression suggested even she doubted she could come up with a solution.

As for the little witch Selena... she was happily painting her nails.

Marcus sighed inwardly, his face a mask of woe. He had little hope for this eclectic group of team members. Just then, a soft cough drew everyone’s attention. Chen Gu, who usually behaved much like a high school student, raised his hand as if to speak in class. "Um... I have a half-baked idea."

"Go on," Marcus said, his tone suggesting it was better than nothing.

"Since all the leads are dead ends, I think we could try to lure the snake out of its hole."

Marcus’s interest was piqued. "Continue."

"What are these Mutants most interested in? We can release some information related to that and lure them out." Solving cases, tracking leads—I’m not good at any of that, Chen Gu thought. But in my past life, I read countless scripts, including many detective screenplays. I just need to follow the formulas.

Silver Eagle sneered dismissively. "What they’re most interested in? All that’s left is our dear Chief. What, you want the Chief to be our bait?"

If I weren’t afraid of scaring them, I’d immediately order my grown son to be the bait! Chen Gu thought.

Er... on second thought, no. If I actually said that, what if my grown son didn’t give me face? It’s a tiny possibility, but it still exists... around 99.999%, I’d say.