Chapter 407: Xu 'God Detective' truly lives up to his reputation

"A flower rat? What does that mean?" a hint of puzzlement appeared on the manager's face.

Xu Mo knocked over the trash can, and the electrocuted rat inside, along with a pile of burnt wires, fell out; he pointed to the rat in the trash can and explained.

"A flower rat is a kind of pet mouse that can be kept; think of it as a large hamster, and it's easy to buy on the market."

Manager: "???"

Someone actually keeps mice as pets!?

He said he couldn't understand.

"Of course, this isn't the point; the point is, the circuit failure wasn't accidental, it was man-made." Xu Mo continued.

Earlier he felt the timing of the circuit failure was too coincidental, highly likely man-made, and now seeing it, indeed it is.

The fact that the chewed-through wires causing the failure were from this pet mouse, the flower rat, rather than ordinary mice, explains the situation well.

"Man-made circuit failure… so the generator was also sabotaged?" Han Fei seized the point, instantly energized: "This theft case is an inside‑job!"

Xu Mo's discovery undoubtedly gave the officers a breakthrough in this case that had left them clueless.

If this astounding theft was accomplished with an insider collaborating with the thieves, then there is a way to investigate it.

At least it would be far easier to investigate than before.

You have to know, before they were completely at a loss as to where to start; they only knew the thieves had knocked a hole in the wall and stolen some items from the safe, the surveillance was damaged, and footprints were covered by sewage, so they had no idea how to investigate.

But now, there are leads!

As long as we catch the person colluding with the thieves, we can follow the vine to uncover the thieves' identities and thus solve the case.

For a moment, the officers all perked up.

"Team Leader Xu is impressive! He spotted the problem right away."

"You all should learn from Xu Mo; you're good for nothing all day." Han Fei glanced at the officers.

"Han Team, you didn't think of this either, huh? All you do is lecture us…" Chen Ke muttered to himself, not daring to say it out loud, only venting in his heart.

The three officers who came to study also had active minds; this legendary Xu "God Detective" thinks quickly, is good at spotting things, and indeed lives up to his reputation!

It's not that they couldn't think of the circuit being man‑made; it's that they would need some time to realize it, certainly not as quickly as Xu Mo reacted.

In investigations, speed is key; only by being fast can you catch criminals off guard, while being slow might let the opportunity go cold—like daylily buds wilting.

Once the investigative direction was clear, the officers all sprang into action.

"Round up all employees who could possibly access the power supply room." Han Fei looked at the manager.

He immediately nodded: "All right, please wait a moment."

Having said that, he turned and left the power supply room.

Taking the opportunity, Xu Mo bent down to examine the burnt wires scattered from the overturned trash can.

Merely finding a flower rat and declaring the wiring damage man‑made is a bit hasty; after all, a starving flower rat might gnaw on wires, or use them to grind its teeth.

He wanted to find stronger evidence to prove that the wiring damage was man‑made.

Fiddling with the bundle of burnt wires, Xu Mo indeed made a discovery; he picked out several sections with clear tooth marks from the burnt wires.

Notably, the severed wires bore blackened food residue, like crushed meat scraps or sausage bits.

Seeing Xu Mo pull out several wires from a bundle of blackened, burnt lines, everyone turned to look at him, their faces showing some puzzlement.

Xu Mo met their gazes: "Come look, the severed wires all have food residue on them."

Upon hearing that, everyone crouched down to have a look.

As Xu Mo said, upon close inspection it's not hard to see some blackened food residue on the wires.

"No wonder the mouse would chew the wires… this is definitely someone doing it on purpose!" Li Chen exclaimed excitedly.

Xu Mo's discovery confirmed that their conclusion was correct.

This theft case was indeed meticulously planned, the work of thieves colluding with company insiders.

Now there are two possibilities.

First: someone from the theft gang has infiltrated this insurance company.

Second: the theft gang bribed personnel at the insurance company who could access the power supply room.

Regardless of which scenario, as long as we root out the person who has mixed into the company from the theft gang (the one bribed by the gang), the officers will surely be able to follow the clues, trace the vine, and uncover the theft gang!

Following Xu Mo's lead, an officer took out a sealable bag and placed the electrocuted rat carcass, several wire sections with obvious gnaw marks, and the wires bearing food residue separately inside.

Not long after.

The insurance company's manager brought a group of employees back to the power supply room.

"These are the police officers here to investigate; please cooperate fully—this concerns the theft case, so don't hide anything." The manager introduced: "Officers, these are all our company staff who can access the power supply room."

The employees the manager brought back numbered six in total.

The officers' eyes swept over these six people.

After Xu Mo glanced at the six, he turned to the manager: "May I borrow your company's office? We need to learn a few things from these employees."

"Sure, sure, of course!" the manager nodded vigorously and immediately agreed to Xu Mo's request.

Having said that, he led the group to an empty office.

For interrogations, it's naturally better to go one by one.

The officers planned to question these six individuals in turn.

Of course, besides the interrogation, the power supply room's surveillance also needed checking; they opted to tackle both fronts.

Xu Mo took a few officers to interview the six one by one, while Han Fei led another team, following the manager's guidance to the monitoring room to check the power supply room's surveillance.

"Chen Ke, you come with me to interrogate; the rest stay outside to keep watch." Xu Mo brought Chen Ke and an employee into the office.

The remaining officers stayed put, watching the other five employees who hadn't been called, to prevent them from causing any mischief during Xu Mo's interrogation.

In the office.

Xu Mo began the questioning.

Have you been in and out of the Power Supply Room these past few days?

"Yes, yes……", the interrogated employee was a little nervous.

"Don't be nervous, just relax, I'm just trying to find out the situation; answer whatever I ask.", To save time, Xu Mo went straight to the point as soon as he started, taking out two sealed bags and placing them on the table: "Is this mouse the one you put in the Power Supply Room?"