Inside the office.
George Adler took out a locked metal box from the bottom drawer of his desk.
"Key." Charlotte was concise and to the point.
George took a small key from his pocket and handed it over.
Charlotte took the key and skillfully opened the metal box. Inside lay a thick leather-bound ledger.
"Why didn't you take it out sooner?" Russell said from the side. "Why make things so complicated?"
George Adler's face reddened, but he didn't have the courage to argue. Like a student who had made a mistake, he could only stand beside them with his head lowered.
Charlotte ignored their exchange, picked up the ledger, and quickly flipped through the pages. She read at an astonishing speed, scanning nearly ten lines at a glance. Her finger slid rapidly across the yellowed pages, making a soft shush shush sound.
After a while, she turned to the A-3 page and stopped. "A total of 27 customers."
She scanned the list, closed the ledger, and tossed it back to George. "Obtain all information on these 27 people. This includes name, age, occupation, home address, marital status, and all transactions from the past year. You have one hour. You must pack your things and take them with you. If you can't do it…"
She paused for a moment and glanced at Russell. Russell understood her intention and picked up the phone. "You can call in a few people to help."
"I will definitely complete the task, madam!" George said immediately.
One hour later.
Twenty-seven thick official documents had been prepared.
Charlotte picked up the book, flipped through the pages, and put it back in its original place. "Load these onto the cart."
"Understood… understood." George nodded, then forced a smile and lifted the rather heavy box of documents, carrying it to the door. "Is there anything else, you two?"
"Yes, of course."
Russell interrupted Charlotte's words. Under Charlotte's curious gaze, he took out another envelope. "Mr. George, do you remember? We came to make a deposit."
"Of course… of course I remember," George nodded.
"If you remember, why are you still standing here?" Russell asked. "Will my cash be automatically deposited into the bank account?"
George looked at the thick wad of banknotes in Russell's hand and forced a smile that was closer to a bitter one. "I'll process it immediately."
"Then I have a small request," Russell said calmly, handing over the envelope. "Please hurry. We're in a rush."
Charlotte watched silently from the side, but a faint smile floated in her gray-blue eyes.
George Adler took the wad of cash without the slightest hesitation and personally escorted Russell to the VIP counter, completing the deposit procedures as quickly as possible.
"Understood, boss."
After stamping the final seal, George politely handed the deposit slip to Russell. "The transaction is complete."
"Very efficient," Russell said, nodding with satisfaction as he put away the deposit slip. "If I can get this kind of service every time, I might consider depositing all my assets here."
George's lips twitched, and he could only force a smile. "Anytime."
The carriage slowly drove away from Lloyds Bank.
…
Inside the carriage, Charlotte leaned against the soft cushions, casually holding a document she had taken from the box of files and slowly flipping through the pages.
Russell sat opposite her, also holding a file and casually turning the pages.
"You really seem to enjoy watching other people suffer," Charlotte said without looking up.
"You do too." Russell shrugged. "Tell me whether you're satisfied or not."
Charlotte didn't argue; she only let out a faint snort through her nose, which was taken as acknowledgment of the fact.
"By the way," Russell said, looking at the file in his hand. "You're only starting to review them now? I thought you'd sort everything out after we got back."
"Might as well kill time," Charlotte said, flipping a page. "Let's use this free time to see if there are any unexpected discoveries."
"Did you find anything?"
"Not yet," Charlotte shook her head, casually tossed the file aside, and picked up another one. "They're just merchants or nobles who succeeded big in business. As for the résumés… what's listed here is generally not very reliable."
"Maybe the professor just happened to pick an unlucky one from among these people?" Russell speculated.
"It's possible," Charlotte nodded. "But the probability is low."
"Why?"
"Intuition."
"..." Russell was momentarily speechless. "I thought you'd give a rigorous logical explanation."
"Sometimes intuition is more reliable than logic."
Charlotte put down the file in her hand and rubbed her slightly aching eyes. "Especially when dealing with opponents who don't follow the rules."
She paused, gazing out the window at the passing city scenery, lost in thought. "There must be something special about the professor's goal."
No, to be precise, the contents of that safe were extremely important to him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have stayed hidden for a whole year and risked exposure to plan such an operation.
"Then aren't we basically looking for a needle in a haystack?" Russell shrugged. "Twenty-seven people. No one knows who the real target is."
"That's exactly why we need to investigate," Charlotte said, turning her gaze back to the box of documents. "The workload is heavy, but it's not impossible to finish. If we can discover the unique anomaly hidden inside, all the problems will be solved."
"Then good luck!" Russell leaned back against the cushion. "At least while I'm at school, you'll have something to do."
"By the way, I don't want to spend time on this."
"Catboy, I wasn't expecting anything from you anyway," Charlotte retorted. "You can distinguish which information is useful and which isn't."
"If I asked you to do data statistics, you'd probably just output meaningless data like gender."
"So… why did you call me that?" Russell asked, confused.
Hearing this, Charlotte raised one eyebrow and shifted her gaze from the documents to Russell's face. "You don't know?"
She countered with a question that seemed somewhat unexpected. "I'd like to know too."
Russell said, "What do I have to do with cats?"
"I don't know." Charlotte shrugged and then laughed. "It's fine if you don't know."
"Hey, Charlotte, don't do that." Russell's eyes widened. "At least tell me what happened!"
"Secret."
…