It was eight in the morning.
Zhou Hui pulled into the City Bureau parking lot, slammed the car door, and led Yu Bai toward the office.
Several colleagues greeted her in the corridor. “Morning, Captain Zhou.”
“Morning,” Zhou Hui replied with a smile, answering as naturally as ever. She didn’t notice how their eyes had already drifted from her to Yu Bai.
One of them grinned. “Captain Zhou, who’s this beauty…?”
Sun Ye cut him off, addressing Yu Bai directly. “Who cares who she is? A guest is a guest, right? Beauty, join me for lunch?”
Zhou Hui’s temple twitched. She swung a palm at the back of his head. “Lunch? The case isn’t solved, and all you do is think about eating all day. You’re never this eager when it’s time to work!”
“Damn!” Sun Ye clutched his head and yelped. “Captain Zhou, can’t you go easy on me?”
“No way—” Zhou Hui shot him a glare and rolled her eyes.
From the moment Zhou Hui unleashed her straightforward aggression, Yu Bai had quietly slowed her pace, maintaining a one-meter buffer.
Ignoring Zhou Hui, Sun Ye turned back to Yu Bai with a sleazy grin. “So, miss, what do you say?”
Zhou Hui despaired at this all-too-common behavior in the Police Bureau. She was about to lay into him when Yu Bai smoothly picked up the thread. “Of course, but I have one small condition.” Yu Bai smiled, raising a single finger and wiggling it before Sun Ye’s eyes. He nodded eagerly at once.
“Officer Zhou has to join us,” Yu Bai said without missing a beat.
Sun Ye blinked at her in astonishment, his expression screaming, Are you serious? He glanced at Zhou Hui, muttered an awkward “Never mind” to Yu Bai, and beat a hasty retreat.
Once Sun Ye was gone, Zhou Hui turned to find Yu Bai smirking mischievously. “What are you playing at?”
Yu Bai dialed back her smile. “Nothing much. Just teasing him. Your colleagues here are pretty entertaining.”
Zhou Hui arched a brow. “Entertaining?”
“This fresh young meat type isn’t bad at all. Like you said, Officer Zhou! Try different flavors—there might be surprises.” Yu Bai delivered the line with a mix of sincerity and jest.
“?”
Zhou Hui felt a twinge of unease. Yu Bai sounded like a battle-hardened flirt, the type who struck fast, ghosted smoothly, and always knew when to bail.
Yu Bai offered no further explanation, just flashed an enigmatic smile before following Zhou Hui into the office. She seemed utterly indifferent to Zhou Hui’s opinion—or anyone else’s, for that matter.
By the time they arrived, Sun Ye had clearly spread the word about the stunner who’d shown up at the Police Bureau. Heads craned, necks stretched, all eyes waiting.
When they clocked the newcomer, Zhao Min and Han Wei blurted out in unison, “Yu Bai?!”
Han Wei eyed Zhao Min curiously. “You know her?”
Zhao Min steadied herself. “Saw her at the hospital yesterday.”
Han Wei couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was off.
Sun Ye was still processing it. He hesitated, then stammered, “Yu… Yu Bai? …That Yu Bai?”
Yang Pingfan leaned in and whispered, “Red Club. The suspect we hauled in not long ago.”
“?” Sun Ye took a closer look. Yu Bai lifted her head right then, locking eyes with him and curving her lips in a smile. A shiver ran down his spine.
He jerked his gaze away, ducking behind Yang Pingfan to mutter, “Holy shit, it is her. Didn’t recognize her back in the corridor.”
Zhou Hui addressed the room. “This is the consultant the Police Bureau brought in to help crack the River Channel Murder Case. She’ll be working with you all for a while. Play nice.”
“？！”
Han Wei opened his mouth, but Zhao Min beat him to it. “The new consultant Bureau Chief Zhang mentioned yesterday—the one arriving today—is her?”
Yu Bai met Zhao Min’s eyes, narrowing hers ever so slightly. Zhao Min caught it, flinched inwardly, and clamped her mouth shut.
No one else in the office registered Yu Bai’s subtle shift.
Whispers rippled through the room, and the looks aimed at Yu Bai turned wary.
“Why would Bureau Chief Zhang let her investigate a case? She’s Ji Shen’s wife, right?”
“Ji Shen? The one from the 725 Case? Bureau Chief Zhang’s okay with her as a consultant?”
The mood grew tense. Everyone knew the 725 Case’s gravity. With Yu Bai tied to Ji Shen by blood and her own murky background, the Police Bureau couldn’t help but tread carefully around her.
Han Wei snapped out of it first. “Captain Zhou, you let her come in injured like this?” He dragged over a chair.
Yu Bai raised a hand to halt him, smiling gently. “No need for formalities, Officer Han. Let’s jump straight into the case. The faster we close it, the sooner I can head home and recuperate.”
Captain Zhou frowned slightly. “Alright, everyone get back to what you were doing—prepare your materials if that’s your task, or handle whatever else needs handling. Compile all the case details we have on hand. Little Yang, print out this file and make a copy for each person. We’ll meet in the conference room in half an hour.”
“Yu Bai, come to my office.” Captain Zhou turned her head toward her as she spoke, then strode off.
Yu Bai offered a smile—whether directed at Captain Zhou or the others in the office, it was hard to say—and followed her inside.
Once they were in, Captain Zhou stood with her back to the door, her hands braced on the desk. Without turning, she said to Yu Bai, “Close the door.”
Yu Bai dipped her head with a quiet smile and did as instructed.
“What’s this about? Does Officer Zhou have something to say to me?”
Captain Zhou turned around and met Yu Bai’s gaze. “Don’t let what they said get to you.”
“What words?” Yu Bai stepped closer, her eyes locked on Captain Zhou’s. Yu Bai had striking eyes—sharply angled at the inner corners, tapering finely at the outer edges with a subtle upward curve, framed by a faint reddish tint around the sockets. They were eyes that seemed to hold a thousand untold stories. Right now, they were veiled in a haze, the black of her pupils blending indistinctly into the white. “You mean about my husband?”
Before Captain Zhou could respond, Yu Bai pressed on. “Their reactions are the most natural ones possible. Don’t worry—I won’t take it to heart.”
Captain Zhou paused, then said, “That’s not your fault.”
“That’s your view, of course. And I’m grateful for Officer Zhou’s trust in me. But because of who I am, there are bound to be people here at the bureau—maybe even most of them—who resent my involvement in the investigation. It’s unavoidable.” Yu Bai spoke lightly, without a trace of emotional weight.
Captain Zhou’s voice grew heavy, threaded with some unspoken feeling. “But none of this had to happen. You could have stayed on the outside, kept running your business. You knew full well what you’d face walking into the police bureau, yet you came anyway. Why? What reason did you have that made it impossible not to?”
Yu Bai blinked in surprise for a moment, then broke into a smile. Captain Zhou couldn’t decipher what that smile meant; Yu Bai seemed to smile no matter the circumstance.
She gazed at Captain Zhou—or perhaps past her, as if seeing someone else entirely. “Because I don’t care.”
She didn’t care about the strange looks. She didn’t care about winning approval from others.
