Because JI Bai was so tired, he fell asleep and had a dream.
In the dream, the sun was dazzling, he was lazily sitting under the shade of a willow tree drooping by a pond, and beside his feet was a fishing rod. A slim girl was squatting on the ground with her back to him. She had her head bent down low, he had no idea what she was doing, just a noisy banging sound could be heard.
After a while, the girl suddenly turned around and threw a big fish with glittering silver scales towards him: “Master, the investigation has been hard on you, eat the fish to nourish yourself.”
The slippery scales grazed his hand, wet and soft, he felt a little itchy.
He looked down to see the half-dead /half-alive fish on the palm of his hand, then looked up at her: “I’m not eating it.”
Xu Xu surprised: “Why?”
He looked at her clear black eyes and said: “Men just want to eat women, not fish.”
“What?”
Xu Xu, master just wants to “eat” you. Sooner or later, he would eat you anyway.
“Ji Bai hasn’t left yet? Hey, why is the door locked?” The vague voice entered Ji Bai’s ears, he immediately woke up. The fishpond under the dazzling sun, Xu Xu and the fish in front of him all disappeared.
Su Mu had forgotten the key in the office, so halfway he had to return to get it. Seeing that the office lights were still on, he spoke up to greet Ji Bai but who would have thought the door would be locked.
While Su Mu was being skeptical, the door opened from the inside, an unfamiliar girl with flushed cheeks looked at him: “Hello… Come in.” Probing inside; Su Mu saw that Ji Bai was standing up from his chair, his eyes were still staring at the girl with a hint of a smile on his face.
Su Mu had heard a subordinate mention today, Ji Bai had a girlfriend in Lin city, possibly was working at the police station. Seeing this scene, the two of them at midnight with the office locked, what was there not to understand… Well, he really hadn’t come at the right time.
Seeing Su Mu’s expression, Ji Bai, of course, knew that he misunderstood. He glanced over at the chair in front and then the wall clock, Xu Xu clearly had come for some time.
Had she been sitting quietly next to him? No wonder Su Mu had misunderstood.
The smile on his lips deepened… He could patiently and quietly pursue her but she caused the misunderstanding on her own, he wasn’t going to take responsibility.
He walked towards Xu Xu, and said in an extremely gentle voice: “Xu Xu, this is captain Su, say hello.”
Those words in Su Mu’s ears sounded clearly like the tone a man used with his woman. He didn’t have to confirm, no matter what he’s still an excellent investigative police officer at this district, so he cheerfully smiled: “No need to stand on ceremony. This is *sister-in-law, right? Hello! I’ll go after getting the key.”
(*In China, wife of your friend/colleagues/etc = sister-in-law. No blood relation or family relationship.)
The moment Su Mu suddenly appeared, Xu Xu indeed was scared into cold sweats, and had immediately released Ji Bai’s hand. Xu Xu had run to open the door, and had glanced back to see that Ji Bai’s expression was, as usual, she had then calmed down. At this time hearing Su Mu say that she politely replied: “Hello captain Su . I’m Xu Xu at the city police station. You’ve mistaken…” Xu Xu didn’t get to finish before Ji Bai said in a deep voice interrupting her: “When did you get here?”
“Ten minutes ago.” Xu Xu answered slowly: “You were in deep sleep so I didn’t wake you up, I was sitting here looking over the information.”
While the two of them chatted, Su Mu had taken the keys on the table: “Goodbye.”
Deeper into the night, the surroundings were very quiet. The two walked step by step in the hallway to go back to the rooms.
Xu Xu was exceptionally silent.
Ji Bai had his hands inside his trouser pockets and followed the rhythm of her slow pace.
In fact, while he was busy solving the case, Ji Bai simply hadn’t gotten distracted and thought of her. But seeing her at the moment, the feelings that only belonged to Xu Xu had started to spread little by little in his heart. That feeling was very soft, a little hot, even hotter than before, and made his whole body very comfortable.
The little girl hadn’t slept in the middle of the night, instead had run to the office to find him just after arriving. Between a Teacher and student wasn’t it said that: “One day not to meet, like three autumns*” Although she remained hazy, but he believed she had him in her heart.
(*It is a Chinese idiom which is used to say that when you miss someone so much that one day seems as long as three years.)
Of course, the case hadn’t been broken yet; and thus, it wasn’t the time for personal feelings. But as a man, his feelings towards Xu Xu were more resolute and intense than before. Although he wouldn’t immediately expose the truth, but it was time to make her aware of the truth.
Glancing at her thin and pale shoulders, Ji Bai said: “You’re not cold wearing so little?” Before she could answer, he raised his arm from behind.
“Boss.” A cheerful voice sounded from the end of the hallway, Da Hu walked out from the dark: “I waited so long but you still hadn’t come back, Xu Xu is also here?”
Ji Bai loosened his arm that was in the air and brought them down, his expression remained as usual.
After Ji Bai showered, it was already more than two at night. He had just laid on the bed when he heard Da Hu’s voice from across the bed, ask: “Boss, you’re in love with Xu Xu?”
JI Bai moved his arms behind his head, his lips and eyes were curled up, and said: “I’m concentrating on solving the case, and not such a thing.”
Da Hu: “Oh, I’m mistaken then, I thought, earlier you wanted to hug Xu Xu but I disturbed it.”
Ji Bai smiled and did not say anything.
After a while, Da Hu once again spoke: “That’s great then. Two days ago, Xie at the files department at our police station asked me about Xu Xu. He said if Xu Xu didn’t have a boyfriend then he would pursue her. I can now give him a definite answer.”
Ji Bai was silent for a moment before unhurriedly answering: “You tell him that Ji Bai also wants to pursue Xu Xu, tell him to think clearly.”
Da Hu froze for a moment then laughed out loud. Ji Bai also smiled and after a while said: “Xu Xu has thin skin, don’t say nonsense in front of her.”
“I understand.”
In the next room, when Xu Xu went in, the dim soft lights were still on for her. Yao Meng’s face was deeply buried in the pillow and curled up. It seemed that she was already asleep.
Xu Xu quietly got on her bed.
The next morning, the news came that Lu brother would appear at a village of Zhifu Zi district around hundreds of kilometers away from their current place. Ji Bai acted as the team commander and led all the police officers straight to Zhifu Zi district.
In Ji Bai’s and Xu Xu’s conception, the case was yet to be cracked, so their feelings would be suspended and moved aside for the time being. So they naturally returned back into being efficient partners mode without any distractions.
The provincial police were very serious about the case, and they specially appointed the province’s deputy director Liu Ying to supervise the operation. She’s over forty years old, although she was no longer in the front line but she was once a very well-known criminal police officer across the province, and very experienced in human trafficking cases.
Everyone arrived at Zhifu Zi district that evening; they immediately held a meeting that night to arrange the arrest actions for the next day.
About the “Lu brother”, there were lots of rumors about him. It’s said that he was in charge of dozens of underground lines, and ran rampant among many provinces across the country. He was not only involved in human trafficking but also involved in drugs, and had initially formed criminal syndicates. This person was heinous and ruthless, he personally shot many unruly subordinates and victims, and abandoned their corpses in the wilderness. So it was very likely that he had a gun on him. Liu Ying, the deputy director especially reminded people to act cautiously, they absolutely could not allow “Brother Lu” to slipped through the net*.
(* cracks; to escape punishment from the law. )
The next day, the weather was gloomy, there was silence all around.
The destination of “brother Lu” was a town on the eastern side of the village.
All the probes were waiting in ambush in the woods and used binoculars to watch at a nondescript white three-story house in the undulating paddy field.
“Action!” Ji Bai gave the order; the number of police officers under him quickly approached and surrounded the small house from all directions instantly. Da Hu was the first one to break down the door of the house and ran inside. At this moment, it was no longer quiet on the second and third floor; silhouettes moving around were faintly visible through the window. After a while, a man opened the window on the second floor and jumped out. Just as he landed on the ground, he was captured by the police.
When Ji Bai’s team like tigers broke into the criminals den, Liu Ying, Xu Xu, and Yao Meng who were in a police vehicle also came. The police siren rang with the mighty momentum. A little while later, the police escorted all the suspects out, there were a dozen young women and children who were also escorted out. Among them, the oldest was around twenty five-six, the youngest was only two-year-old.
“Boss, we arrested a total of 8 suspects, and escorted all into the car.” Da Hu said: “We rescued thirteen victims, eight women and five children. However… “He paused for few seconds then said: “When we did the initial verification of the identity of the suspect, there wasn’t “brother Lu”. They said, brother Lu suddenly had a change of plan, and did not come here.”
“Fuck! We let him escape!” Su Mu sighed heavily.
Da Hu helplessly said: “Deputy director will be so angry.”
Ji Bai did not say anything but quietly observed the room. Seeing the expression on his face, Da Hu and Su Mu were also alerted.
There is a total of two rooms on the third floor, all the victims were rescued from here. At that time, several criminals stayed on the second floor to eat and drink. But the room they were standing in was obviously a lot neater and cleaner than the room next door, the bed linen still looked new. There was a small square table inside, a few dishes were placed on it with a fallen glass of wine, the top of the table still smelled of the spilled wine.
Ji Bai leaned down and sniffed the top of the table: “It’s MaoTai*, the wine downstairs was rice wine.”
(*Very expensive wine)
Da Hu and Su Mu were stunned.
“Darn, they were welcoming the leader.” Da Hu said excitedly.
Ji Bai walked next to the table, looked down carefully for a while. After that, his hands with gloves on picked up a long strand of hair, then squatted down to observe the ground, there were small/narrow footprints and also traces of mud.
After a while, Ji Bai stood up, he looked at Da Hu and Su Mu: “Long hair, high heels, height 165-175 cm, thin body, brother Lu is a woman. Immediately inform deputy director, Liu Ying and Xu Xu, she infiltrated within the victims.”
The town wasn’t big, the police vehicles alarmed the people around the village, more and more people poured out.
A total of two vans to transport the victims had been brought. Yao Meng and two other police officers were on one, and Xu Xu sat in another one. When Xu Xu helped the young women and children on the van, she looked up and saw that two adult women followed Yao Meng were getting on the van in front.
Looking over them Xu Xu felt that something wasn’t right. But specifically what, she didn’t know.
At this time, deputy director Liu Ying and another police officer came, she said: “The rest is assigned to Ji Bai, I told him to take care of the place and comfort the victims.” Then she looked at Xu Xu: “Are you Xu Xu? Let’s go, we’ll talk on the way.”
The van drove a distance on the highway into town. At this time, cars, agricultural vehicles, pedestrians, and even livestock gradually increased on the road, it became noisy and chaotic. The traveling speed of the vans gradually slowed down, and they got further and further away from each other.
Liu Ying spoke on the phone with province’s higher-ups: “Unfortunately, we didn’t catch “Brother Lu”. Yes! We have to continue to search within the province and nationwide, we cannot let him go unpunished.”
Hanging up on the phone, she turned to Xu Xu: “You’re Yang Qinglin’s junior sister?
Xu Xu was somewhat shocked and nodded.
Yang QingLin was a shixiong * in the crime psychology department and had also seemed to have special feelings for her that year.
*Senior /senior brother in an educational setting.
A hint of a smile appeared in Liu Ying’s eyes: “He’s currently a talent of the provincial police. In several major cases, his psychological analysis played a crucial role but Yang QingLin said your level is even higher than his. He isn’t a good speaker and cannot lie but praised you a lot. I am personally very interested in the application of criminal psychology in China. If there is an opportunity, we can also call Yang Qinglin to have a good talk.”
Liu Ying’s words could be considered as praise from a higher up, and was beyond her expectation, Xu Xu did not answer. She lowered her head, and quietly thought for a moment. She suddenly looked up to look at Liu Ying: “Deputy director Liu, I’m suspecting that “brother Lu” is a woman. She was posing as a victim, and infiltrated into the car that went ahead.”
Liu Ying was slightly stunned, then her expression turned serious: “Why?”
Xu Xu mentioned one of the two young women before: “She wore two inches of high heels, her hair was still a little wet, nails were just trimmed and very clean, also her coat wasn’t quite right.”
As Xu Xu was speaking, Liu Ying turned back to look at the other women: All of their faces looked haggard, their clothes hadn’t been changed for a few days, they either wore sneakers or flat heels, and some simply did not wear shoes. These victims were transported for a long distance and bore all kinds of torment, so pitiful.
At this time, Liu Ying’s phone rang Ji Bai: “ Deputy director Liu, we suspect that brother Lu is among the victims, there is a high possibility that she carries a gun. Everyone should be careful, don’t arouse any suspicion. We’re coming immediately.”
Liu Ying and Xu Xu looked ahead at the same time. The bustling town road was very narrow, the van ahead drove into a turn.
“Call now! Don’t alarm the suspect!” Liu Ying ordered.
A police officer on the other van answered the phone call, very surprisedly: “Its bad, we had to stop. Just now a child cried out wanting to use the bathroom. At the moment, Yao Meng is accompanying that child and a woman to the bathroom. That’s right, it’s a woman with long hair, she seems to be wearing high heels.”
Xu Xu immediately took out the phone, then saw Ji Bai’s text message: “Be careful.” She didn’t reply but called Yao Meng’s phone immediately. When Yao Meng picked up the phone, she was quite calm: “Xu Xu, what’s wrong?”
Three minutes later, everyone rushed to the public bathroom, Yao Meng with a pale expression was standing still holding a child. While the side window of the public bathroom was smashed open, without a trace of “brother Lu”.
Liu Ying with an ashen face looking at Yao Meng said: “Is this how you work?”