Chapter 30: Teasing Her Repeatedly

Yu Bai had been interrupted midway through her speech, leaving her somewhat displeased. She had no desire to feign magnanimity and forgive someone who clearly harbored hostility toward her.

She tossed the documents aside and leaned back in her chair, shrugging her shoulders as she gestured invitingly to Xu Zhixin. “Then you take it from here, Officer Xu.”

“You…” Xu Zhixin was instantly speechless. He could only turn to Zhang Yunan. “Let her join the investigation? Bureau Chief Zhang, that’s not right!”

Zhang Yunan frowned and lowered his voice. “Little Xu, what did I just say? Rein in your emotions.” Then he turned to Yu Bai. “Little Yu, give us your analysis of the case.”

Xu Zhixin glanced at Yu Bai a couple more times before finally taking his seat.

Yu Bai couldn’t even be bothered to roll her eyes at him. She addressed Bureau Chief Zhang directly. “Then, Bureau Chief Zhang, why don’t you first introduce the related cases? It’ll help everyone review the situation.”

Zhou Hui felt a slight headache coming on. Why was Yu Bai suddenly acting out like this? Asking Bureau Chief Zhang to recap the case—what on earth had gotten into her?

Zhang Yunan showed no sign of displeasure. Instead, he smiled. “You’ve all gone through the materials, right?” He held the remote control and paused the projector on a particular image—the photo from the Shao Yuan Case that Zhao Min had once displayed in this very conference room.

He obliged Yu Bai, giving a brief overview of the Shao Yuan Case. Naturally, he only mentioned that the undercover agent and his family had been killed, omitting any details about the causes or consequences.

Even that was shocking enough.

Zhang Yunan continued, “Although the killer was never identified, the trace evidence analysis at the time concluded there were five perpetrators.”

“Bureau Chief Zhang, what’s the connection between the ‘Shao Yuan Case’ and our case?”

“The Provincial Department suspects it was retaliation by the victim’s relatives or friends. However, since the perpetrators from back then were never pinned down, and the victim’s identity in the River Channel Murder Case is still unknown, this theory lacks solid evidence. Moreover, we haven’t found any relatives or friends of the victim who match the profile for carrying out the crime.” With that, Zhang Yunan turned to Yu Bai. “What do you make of this case?”

Yu Bai replied calmly, “If we’re only considering the male victims from the first three incidents, I’d say it’s one of those street types who crossed a rival gang, or someone who handled dirty work for a bigwig and got silenced for it, or maybe an undercover cop your police sent in who got exposed. These things happen all the time. Folks in smuggling or drug trafficking usually have a body count or two on their ledger—nothing new there.”

Yu Bai rattled off these details like a catalog, with utter familiarity. The police officers in the conference room shifted uncomfortably. Hearing such talk from a suspect in the interrogation room would have made any cop frown.

Her matter-of-fact, utterly nonchalant tone made it feel as if they’d invited a gang boss right into the City Bureau’s conference room.

Zhou Hui coughed lightly twice and shot her a pointed look that said, “That’s enough.”

Yu Bai caught Zhou Hui’s gaze. Her expression froze for a moment before she ducked her head, a faint, almost imperceptible smile tugging at her lips. Zhou Hui spotted it anyway, and a sudden sense of foreboding washed over her.

Sure enough…

Yu Bai looked up and launched right in. “People in that line of work hate cops the most… er, no, police. They really hate police.” She smiled, correcting her slip of the tongue. Zhou Hui eyed her coldly, knowing full well it had been deliberate.

“If one of their own turns out to be a police undercover, it’s like finding a dirty cop in the Police Bureau—they’d beat him half to death. This kind of mutilation counts as one of the milder methods.” Yu Bai had successfully drawn uneasy stares from everyone in the room. Only then did she smile and add, “But given Wu Guojiang’s identity, we can rule that out.”

Everyone suddenly felt the urge to blurt out a curse.

So all that rambling had just been her messing with them!

Han Wei suddenly recalled the lectures he’d attended at Provincial Police University. Yu Bai always slipped into the criminal’s mindset herself and made her students do the same.

It had drawn criticism from plenty of other teachers at the time, but the students loved it. Young people craved the thrill, and their morbid curiosity drove them to delve into the unfamiliar.

Han Wei had been one of them.

Hearing it now, though, Han Wei realized Yu Bai’s way of thinking was actually quite dangerous—especially when tied to her background.

Zhou Hui shot Yu Bai another disapproving glance. She respected Yu Bai’s abilities, but that didn’t mean she approved of her attitude toward cases.

Yu Bai seemed to have lost her mind today, deliberately clashing with the police. She lowered her head slightly, catching Officer Zhou’s gaze from the corner of her eye. Pressing her index finger to the bridge of her nose, she tugged out a faint smile before speaking in a leisurely drawl. “Out of all the cases, there’s only one female victim. She was tortured, disfigured, and sexually assaulted—highly matching the condition of the sole female victim in the ‘Shao Yuan Case’. The killer shows strong personal motives and a deep-seated grudge.”

Yu Bai smiled as she continued, “So, I still believe it was someone close to Shao Yuan. If you haven’t turned up any leads, it just means the police…”

She trailed off there, bestowing a meaningful smile on the room.

Zhang Yunan opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off with a casual wave. “The ‘Shao Yuan Case’ had five killers. Three are dead, and the other two haven’t made a peep in ages. They might have gotten wind of things and gone into hiding—or maybe it’s something else.”

In other words, she hadn’t said a damn thing.

Officer Zhou sat beside her, gripping her pen so tightly she couldn’t jot down notes. The others fared no better, all wondering why on earth they’d brought someone like this into the investigation.

Zhang Yunan adjusted his bifocals and tried to smooth things over. “Little Yu, what do you make of this latest case?”

“Isn’t the autopsy report out yet?”

Officer Zhou pointed to the printed file right in front of her, rubbing her temple in frustration. “It’s right here!”

Yu Bai smiled, gave it a quick skim, and found nothing worth lingering on. A few words tumbled from her lips. “Copycat killing, crime of passion, no ties to the previous cases—hand it off to the local police station…” She flipped to the next page and froze, her brow furrowing. “The victim had six fingers on his left hand?”

“That’s right. But there’s no DNA or fingerprint match in the database. No priors, no family to claim the body. Something off about him?”

Yu Bai set the report down and shook her head. “Nah, just curious. Let’s start digging into him, then. Found anything yet?”

Hadn’t she just said to pass it to the local station?

Zhang Yunan nodded to Officer Zhou, who cleared her throat and began. “We haven’t pinned the primary scene yet, but we found the victim’s limbs in a dumpster not far from where the body turned up, along with a bloody pair of work gloves—the standard labor protection kind. Cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head; weapon’s probably something like an iron hoe or other heavy implement. Black residue near the wounds was coal slag. And there were truck tire tracks on the nearby ground.”

“Any direction on those?”

“We’ve narrowed it down. The killer’s a truck driver hauling cargo. We’re cross-checking the coal haulers from the transport companies that day.”

Yu Bai nodded. “Find this guy first. We can worry about the rest later.”

As they filed out of the conference room, whispers rippled through the group. Yu Bai knew they were talking about her, but she didn’t give a damn. She smiled to herself and kept walking.

Officer Zhou caught up from behind and shoved her straight into the office, slamming the door shut. “What the hell’s gotten into you today?”

Yu Bai turned to face her, all wide-eyed innocence. “What do you mean? What’s wrong with me?”

Officer Zhou gnashed her teeth. “What was that crap you pulled in the meeting?”

Yu Bai dipped her head a fraction, her smile sly. “What did I say? I just can’t believe the police efficiency… Present company excluded, of course.”

Coming from Yu Bai’s lips, those words dripped with innuendo. She was openly flirting now, probing Officer Zhou’s limits with every syllable.

Officer Zhou’s face darkened. “…That’s enough.”

Yu Bai let out a soft chuckle, pouring oil on the fire. “Enough? Can’t handle one little truth? Dare you hear what I’ve got to say next, Officer Zhou?”

She tilted her chin up at her, then rose on tiptoe, closing the distance.

As Yu Bai’s face drew nearer, Officer Zhou felt a strange flutter in her chest. Her throat bobbed involuntarily.

Yu Bai kept leaning in. Officer Zhou took a step back on instinct—and bumped into the door. The twinge of pain snapped some sense back into her. She shoved Yu Bai away, fuming. “What the fuck is wrong with you today?”

She wouldn’t even let her shower at the hospital, and now this—teasing her relentlessly right here in the police bureau office.

Pushed aside, Yu Bai lounged against the wall with lazy grace, her smile refusing to fade. She shrugged it off. “Just messing around. Why so serious, Officer Zhou?” Her finger snagged Officer Zhou’s collar, tugging her closer as she leaned in to murmur against her ear. “Such a perfect gentleman? You didn’t peek while I was changing at the hospital? I don’t buy it.”

Yu Bai’s voice was low and husky, laced with that ambiguous tease—a voice that could unsettle anyone.

Zhou Hui felt those words strike her like a thunderbolt, her heart skipping a beat as the color drained rapidly from her face, visible to the naked eye. “Yu—Bai!”

Yu Bai, of course, knew full well that Zhou Hui hadn’t looked—not only had she not looked, she’d gone out of her way to avoid it, like a female Liu Xiahui sitting pretty amid temptation, utterly unmoved and boring as hell.

Yu Bai deliberately poked at her. “Aiya, forget it. If Officer Zhou doesn’t want to admit it, we can just pretend you didn’t see anything!” Then she flashed a wicked grin. “Tsk, but Officer Zhou… your figure really is something else!”

A vein throbbed at Zhou Hui’s temple. Suddenly, she recoiled from the woman before her as if from a venomous serpent, wrenching Yu Bai’s hand away. This time, she didn’t shove Yu Bai back—instead, she herself retreated a good three feet.

“Officer Zhou?” Yu Bai called out tentatively. “Mad again? No way, right?”

Zhou Hui’s face turned to ice, the words hissing through her clenched teeth: “Get. Out.”

Yu Bai put on an expression of exaggerated shock. “Huh? Kicking me out again? Twice in one day from Officer Zhou… it’s making me feel just a tiny bit… disappointed…”

“Shut your mouth.” Zhou Hui’s annoyance finally showed through as she jabbed a finger toward the door. “Your desk is out there. Go.”

Yu Bai let out a delighted little laugh, happily granting Zhou Hui’s wish. She rolled right out of the office without a trace of disappointment—in fact, she seemed downright cheerful.

The instant the office door clicked shut behind her, Yu Bai released a sigh too soft for anyone to hear.