Back To Square One

"Chief Xu, why did you let the reporter in?" Xiao Li walked towards Xu Lan and handed Bai Wu over to him. Coincidentally, he was blocking the female reporter's way.

"Why can't the reporter come in? She is not a disastrous beast. Besides, where can you find such a beautiful creature?" Xu Lan said laughingly, as if he heard something really amusing.

His words left Xiao Li speechless, whose lips moved but could not refute. The reporter also blushed at the comments and did not dare to lift her head up. If she did, she would have seen the pair of fire-glazed eyes staring at her like X-rays.

Bai Wu had met Song Xi once. He also heard Song Xi's name when Xu Lan was hard on. The woman in front shared some resemblance with Song Xi. His heart that had already settled down was left hanging again when he saw the female reporter.

"Papa can only belong to me! No one can share him!" he thought to himself.

"You can go in and have a sit in the lobby first, don't go anywhere. Wait for me to come out and I'll take you to observe how they work." Xu Lan made eye contact with Xiao Li and hinted for him to go ahead. He then turned to the female reporter and said, "Okay."

"Oh, right. What is your name?" Xu Lan returned and asked, after realizing that he did not get her name while he was walking away.

"Wu Wendi1, 'Wu' with a 'mouth' and 'sky' and 'Di' representing the Amur silvergrass flower."

"Hmm, it's a good name. Xiao Li, please entertain her while I head to forensics." Xu Lan left Bai Wu in the lobby and called out to Xiao Li after drinking a mouthful of water.

"Why is it me…" Xiao Li immediately shut up after he saw blades darting out from Xu Lan's eyes at him.

Xiao Li had suffered quite a bit ever since he followed Xu Lan. For instance, he had to be a stay-at-home dad, serve others, and solve a case all at once. At this rate, Xu Lan would have trained him to be ready for a decathlon. However, this young man could not understand Xu Lan's efforts. He groaned inwardly while looking at the reporter in front of him.

Xiao Li carried Bai Wu to the reception counter where Zhu Jing was and said, "Xiao Jing, please handle that female reporter."

"Why? This was personally instructed towards you by Chief Xu, I don't want to get into trouble."

Zhu Jing was a very straightforward girl. Her speech was always forthright without any excessive vagueness.

"If you go over, I will let you carry Bai Wu for today." Xiao Li had already planned this in mind and blurted it out without giving much of a thought.

"Deal!" Zhu Jing looked at Bai Wu with gleaming eyes. She had always wanted to pinch his egg-like cheeks, but Chief Xu treasured him so much that either he was always around, or he would hand Bai Wu over to Xiao Li to care for.

"Brother Xiao Li, Papa will be unhappy if he knew about this."

Bai Wu thought about yesterday when he let everybody pinched his cheeks, and mentioned that all of them were good guys, but Papa did not seem too happy.

"Eh, if you don't tell Chief Xu, he will not know. We will let her leave before Chief Xu comes out. I cannot deal with reporters. I don't even know why Chief Xu let her in," said Xiao Li while he appeased Bai Wu.

The little guy rolled his eyes and walked over to hold Zhu Jing's hands. He then turned his head and told Xiao Li, "I will not tell Papa, don't you worry."

Xiao Li's eyelids twitched for a second. He felt a deep sense of insecurity. Did he do things without thinking over or did he speak without consideration?

On the other side, Xu Lan had found the colleague in forensics and asked, "How was it? Are the results out yet?"

He leaned impolitely on the table and looked at the busy workers.

"The results of the DNA profiling is ready. The first and second killer is the same person. This morning's case is still under investigation. The autopsy results were also similar, both victims were raped and died due to excessive bleeding. After comparing it to the DNA Encoded Library, there was no similar match to the suspect." The chief forensic officer, Sun Fei told Xu Lan while passing the documents over to him.

"In other words, this will be his first crime?"

Xu Lan could not fathom how can this person be so well-versed in counter-reconnaissance when he had no prior engagement with the police force. His methods were diabolically skillful even without a criminal record. Moreover, he was daring enough to leave his semen inside of the victim's body!

"This is difficult to judge because those crimes committed more than twenty years ago did not have DNA collection, thus they will not exist in the DNA Encoded Library," Sun Fei said after giving it a thought.

"What about the outcome of the fingerprint analysis?" Xu Lan asked as he squinted his eyes, unconsciously reaching for his Yunyan Special titbit Soft.

"All of them were from the victims…"

Suddenly, a 'pang' sound was heard. Xu Lan had thrown his fist towards the instrument he was leaning on.

"Hey! Hey, boss! Please calm down, this thing cost tens of thousands. I cannot afford to compensate it if it's broken!" Sun Fei fended off Xu Lan immediately and went to check on that piece of metal in pain.

"What should we do now! There is no surveillance or fingerprints. We finally got hold of the DNA but there's still no suspect. Also, I can't imprison everyone in the city just to compare their DNA."

Xu Lan felt an unprecedented amount of frustration creeping towards him, engulfing him within this case and leaving him breathless. His thoughts went back to this morning when he saw the two words on the victim's legs, 'So fun!'

As if life was like child's play in his eyes. This kind of person was no different from Ted Bundy, the typical perverted serial killer.

"If you do this, you will tire the whole forensics department." Sun Fei organized the disrupted documents and kept them in the data cabinet.

"So it's back to square one like the last case?" Xu Lan asked dejectedly.

"I guess so if it was done by the same person," Sun Fei answered in a non-committal tone.

"Do you have cigarettes?" Xu Lan asked.

"This place is a smoke-free zone." Sun Fei shrugged his shoulders as a sign of helplessness.

"Let's head out to smoke. I would like to review the information regarding the first case with you. It was quite some time ago, I can't remember well," Xu Lan said while walking out.

Actually, he wanted to find the intersecting point of these three cases, the commonality that was neglected by the killer.

Although the killer deliberately lowered his voice on that night, his mannerism made it clear that he was not an old man. Furthermore, the escort lady from the bar would not show such passion towards an elderly.

"I also heard that you invited the family members of Ms. Lee?" Sun Fei came after Xu Lan and walked out of the room, leaning against the railing while he waited for Xu Lan to pass him the cigarettes.

"Hmph, you were so restrained back in the police station, never knew you can be so ostentatious outside." Xu Lan snickered and also waited for Sun Fei to give him the cigarettes.

"Eh, how come you are still unaccustomed to it after such a long time. You even invited a reporter in here. Let's see how will Lao Hu treat you when he returns." Sun Fei elbowed Xu Lan and motioned to show that his mouth is still empty.

"You don't have cigarettes?" Xu Lan looked at Sun Fei puzzledly.

"I told you this is a smoke-free zone, how can I have any cigarettes!"

"F*ck, I thought you just don't smoke inside. You should have told me you don't have them. I'm leaving."

Xu Lan stood up and walked down the stairs. If it was not for Bai Wu, he would not have thought of giving up smoking. If he did not quit smoking, there would be cigarettes in his pockets.

"F*ck! Everything seems to be going wrong today!" This thought made his mouth itch, which worsened his cravings to smoke.

"I'll bring you a pack later."

Xu Lan turned back and waved at Sun Fei before walking downstairs.