18 Huo Youyou

Crime Unit, Imperial City Police Department

A middle aged man sat in his office. He read the report of the investigation and autopsy from homicide case last week.

He read it seriously. Sometimes, he would frown in incredulity. After some minutes, he stopped reading as he leaned back on his chair and sighed helplessly. He went to the crime scene last week, hoping for evidences so the perpetrator would be caught soon. And now, after reading a full report, he still couldn't come up with a speculation that he was really confident at.

The perpetrator of the homicide was too good. He cleaned everything from the crime scene so nobody would be able to trace his identity. To the middle aged man, this type of 'perfect' crime was like trying to find a needle in the haystacks.

The middle aged man went out of his room and walked to the conference room. He had notified all his subordinates to attend the meeting.

"Captain Ling..." Soon as the middle aged man got into the room, all the subordinates presented stood up and gave a salute. The man returned the salute and sat He spoke to begin the meeting. "I've read your report. This case is troublesome indeed."

Everyone nodded in agreement. The case was too perfect that they couldn't find any clues regarding to the perpetrator.

One of the young officers who assisted the investigation in the crime scene last week raised his hand as he spoke. "Captain, last week, you informed us that there will be a new member of our unit. Who is he?"

Captain Ling was about to reply when the conference room's door was knocked. Captain Ling permitted the one who knocked the door to come in. "Come in."

The door was opened and there was a man in late twenty standing. He don a black framed glasses with white shirt and cream chino. His body was lean and tall. His appearance was simple and neat that it pleased everyone in the room. He walked in and greeted Captain Ling. "Hello Captain Ling."

Captain Ling nodded as he stood up and walked to the man. He introduced the man to his subordinates. "This handsome man in front of you guys is Huo Youyou. He was a graduate from Standford University. From today, he will become our colleague. He is our unit's criminal psychologist." Then, Captain Ling looked at him, beckoning to introduce himself more.

Hou Youyou nodded as he spoke politely. "Hi. I'm Hou Youyou. You can call me Youyou. I'll assume criminal psychologist post. Nice to meet you all."

Everyone was speechless. Did he just repeat what Captain Ling said? But they did not talk about it because they thought someone as clever as him would have his own uniqueness, in this regards, he seemed to be a taciturn person. They just smiled to him and replied almost simultaneously. "Welcome to the team Youyou." Then, they began to chatter about their new colleague.

Youyou smiled back. Captain Ling nodded in satisfaction. Earlier, he was worried that his subordinates would taunt Youyou to speak more. Youyou taciturn personality was a complete opposite of his subordinates talkative personalities. He was afraid that it would be hard for Youyou to mingle, but his worry seemed unfounded. Captain Ling clasped his hands to remind everyone that they are still in a meeting. "Back to the meeting. Youyou, sit." Captain Ling pointed a chair and let Youyou sat in the right side near his seat. After that, he asked Youyou. "Youyou, what do you think about this case?"

Youyou replied. "Currently, i can't make any conclusions. But, if we linked it with the case one month ago, i can make a conjecture." Youyou had just came to the crime unit but three days ago, Captain Ling sent him the report of the homicide case along with the report of other cases that their crime unit were working on. He sent it to Youyou because he expected Youyou to familiarize himself in the crime unit as soon as possible

"Hoho? What is that?" Captain Ling asked curiously. He also linked the homicidal case last week with the one occured last month. And as the result, he found something but he was not confident because his speculation was vague. If what he thought was similar to Youyou's, then it confirmed that his speculation was rather right.

"There are more than one murderers. The murderers are highly skilled in their execution that they probably have been doing this kind of crime for a long time." Youyou replied immediately. Then he continued. "As for the number or how the murderers executed their crime or how they erased the evidences, it is still not clear. I still do not know whether both the murderers are equally skilled or not. But i think, we need to delve deeper into the victims information because both victims must have similarity that make them was targeted by the perpetrators."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Youyou speculation was reasonable. Captain Ling was about to ask when Youyou suddenly spoke. "The same case will occur next week"

Everyone except Captain Ling was puzzled. Why did Youyou think so?

As if he could read everyone's thought, Youyou smiled and said ambiguously. "Captain Ling also know about this. Don't you Captain?"

Captain Ling nodded but he had no mood to explain as he only said to his subordinates. "Just think about it." Then he walked out of the room followed by Youyou. The other subordinates sat still and gasped like fish out of water. How could they come up with that conclusion?

Everyone was speechless. They were not genius like Captain Ling or Youyou. Their reasoning ability were weak compared to those abberants. Everyone could only sigh helplessly, unable to comprehend the way of how genius work.

...

New York

The sunset left golden afterglow that reflected in a room where a man was standing near the floor to ceiling window of a high rise building. He swirled the wine his his glass and took a sip before he dialed a contact number with his phone.

"How is it?" the man asked. His tone was calm but filled with excitement as if he was waiting for the winner of a lottery.

"Customer W-012, everything is prepared according to your request." replied the one on the other end politely.

"Huhuhu... Well, just wait for my further instructions." ordered the man.

"Understood."

The man hung up the phone. He gulped the rest of the wine from the glass as he enjoyed the sunset. He smirked in amusement as a glimpse of evil flashed through his eyes. The D-day almost came.