Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Zhao Yu wanted to ask about the female fish vendor. He specifically wanted to find out if she was one of the victims of the Headless Female Corpses Case. If she was, he could be certain that Tao Xiang was the murderer!
However, when he pondered it a bit more, he finally realized that the female fish vendor’s murder happened after Bai Lili’s, as Bai Lili was the last victim. So, his guess was obviously incorrect.
Following this line of thinking, he were to suspect Tao Xiang, he only needed to investigate what happened to Tao Xiang before 1988. However, Cui Lizhu was only two years old at that time, so he wouldn’t be able to find out anything from her. This was because it was impossible for Cui Lizhu to know about things that happened when she was just a toddler, much less before she was even born!
“Police Officer Zhao, let me tell you a secret. You might not even believe it!” Cui Lizhu suddenly blushed. Then she said to Zhao Yu, “I have actually never had a boyfriend!”
“Mm?” Zhao Yu creased his eyebrows. He had never expected Cui Lizhu to suddenly redirect the conversation to personal relationships!
He immediately disregarded her flirtatious comment, then asked, “What does your having a boyfriend or not have to do with me? Little Zhuzhu, I am talking to you about the case! Don’t switch topics!”
Cui Lizhu felt rejected and her face suddenly grew grave. After all, she had taken a liking to Zhao Yu, especially after Zhao Yu had saved her life a few times!
Since Zhao Yu was an expert, he naturally knew that if he could use her affections to win over the female cat burglar. However, Zhao Yu wasn’t in the mood to talk about relationships then.
Plus, although he had been involved with Cui Lizhu for quite a long while and they shared a unique relationship, he felt that it was similar to when he had first met Li Beini. He didn’t have those kind of romantic feelings towards her.
“Alright!” Cui Lizhu was smart, too, so she could quickly tell from Zhao Yu’s tone that he wasn’t interested. Hence, she could only continue to tell her story about Tao Xiang and the women involved.
However, the version of Tao Xiang from Cui Lizhu’s story didn’t sound like a psychotic murderer. Although he sounded calm, composed, meticulous and smart, his cheerful and humorous personality didn’t align with the traits of the murderer that the police’s forensics psychologist had described.
Soon, Cui Lizhu could stay awake no longer. So, she returned to her bedroom to rest. Meanwhile, Zhao Yu read through Cui Lizhu’s testimony. After he had finished reading the whole transcript, he returned to his own bedroom.
That night, Zhao Yu didn’t sleep much, as his mind was occupied with Tao Xiang’s case. In the end, after some thinking, Zhao Yu finally decided that, although Tao Xiang was a suspect, there wasn’t evidence that could certify that he was the murderer of Headless Female Corpses Case.
Hence, he decided to take a step back. He planned to look for clues for the Gem Theft Case, while he investigated information about Tao Xiang’s past to see if there was a possibility that he was the psychotic murderer.
However, if he wanted to continue his investigation, he was still lacking of large amount of information, especially regarding the Gem Theft Case. This information was currently in Wu Fangfang’s hands, and Wu Fangfang obviously didn’t want to work with him
Of course, Zhao Yu had the most important witness, Cui Lizhu. So, he naturally had his countermeasures to use as bargaining chips! Hence, as the sun was just beginning to rise, he turned on his phone, which had a tracker installed in it, and put it in the courtyard. That way, whoever that want to know where he was could easily find him.
Just as Zhao Yu had expected, he saw that there were a few black cars that were parked at the door of the courtyard. Then, at eight fifteen sharp, Wu Fangfang and a few of her teammates barged in!
“This is such nonsense!” Zhao Yu heard Wu Fangfang yelling as she made her way to the front door. “Zhao Yu, get out here!”
Hearing Wu Fangfang’s scream, Zhao Yu and his other teammates appeared in the courtyard.
“Seriously?” Wu Xiumin creased her eyebrows and asked, “We didn’t turn on our phones, nor did we tell anyone where we were. How could she have found out that we were here?”
“Yeah, could it be that there is a snitch among us?” Zeng Ke swept his glance over everyone, suspicion filling his eyes.
“No,” Zhao Yu pointed at his phone and said frankly, “I invited them here!”
“Team Leader, what do you mean?” The three teammates were confused.
Ignoring them, Zhao Yu walked out of the house and came before Wu Fangfang.
“Zhao Yu, look at what you have done! I have to complain to Division Chief about you now, so you are going to be in big trouble!” Wu Fangfang pointed at Zhao Yu’s nose, while assuming an air of dominance. “You stole away an important witness of mine! Then, you sent people to beat up my colleagues! What kind of nonsense is this?”
Zhao Yu looked over at Wu Fangfang’s underlings, who were covered with bruises. It seemed that Ran Tao hadn’t lied about giving them a good beating!
“You’d better give me back my witness and apologize to my people! Otherwise…”
Just before Wu Fangfang was done issuing her threat, Zhao Yu preemptively took a step forward and pushed her against the wall!
Huh?
Everyone at the scene was astonished, Wu Fangfang’s underlings were shocked, too. They never thought that Zhao Yu would be so rude!
They quickly went forward to stop Zhao Yu. However, Ran Tao stood in at the middle to block them.
“Hey! Team Leader Fangfang, what did you say?” Zhao Yu purposely moved his face really close to her and smiled mischievously. He then said, “You’ve got it all wrong. The higher ups requested that we work this case together! So, it is only right and proper that I be able to interrogate the witness, right?”
“You… You are swearing black is white!” Wu Fangfang was so mad, her chest was heaving up and down. “Who would want to work with you? You beat people up! How is that legal?”
“You started it, okay?” Ran Tao was raging with anger now. “Come on. Come at me again! I dare you!” These people had experienced Ran Tao’s fighting ability before, so they didn’t dare to dash forward.
Zhao Yu took a deep breath of Wu Fangfang’s perfume and smiled mischievously. He then said, “Team Leader Fangfang, you are obviously putting the blame on the victim!”
He continued to pose as though he suffered bitterly, then pointed at Ran Tao and asked Wu Fangfang, “My colleague was merely carrying out orders to get case information from you! Not only did you not give it to him, but you beat him up! Are you even human?”
He then added, an even more dramatic look on his face, “Look, my great teammate is injured. I have not even asked for compensation from you, and yet you came here! Isn’t this going a little overboard?”
“You! You… You…” Wu Fangfang was fuming with anger. “Zhao Yu, you are the one getting carried away! I have been working on the frontlines for so many years, and I have never seen anyone act like such a gangster!”
“Me? Act like a gangster? Wahaha…” Zhao Yu roared with laughter, then moved his face closer to Wu Fangfang’s, his lips almost touching her face. “Hehehe… Fangfang, if I had really acted like a gangster, I’m afraid that you would’ve fallen in love with me!”
“You! You…” Wu Fangfang shoved Zhao Yu away, then, totally exasperated, she suddenly raised her hand to slap Zhao Yu’s face. However, Zhao Yu raised his hand and stopped her, grabbing her by the wrist.
“Wu Fangfang!” Suddenly, Zhao Yu’s facial expression changed, while he roared like an evil spirit, “Your head! Was it kicked by a donkey when you were a child?”
