Chapter 25

Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang drove down to the location of Professor Xu's private clinic as provided by Chen Jing. After making rounds around the area, they headed to a street with relatively low-end bars. As Bai Yutang's car was too eye-catching, the two parked the car a distance away and walked over.

This was an area where hoodlums congregate, filled with bars, clubs, all the typical business one would associate with a red-light district. All the people loitering along these streets were young and dressed in a strange fashion.

Zhan Zhao was looking for the unit number while checking against the address when Bai Yutang suddenly pulled him to his side by the shoulder.

"What was that for?" Zhan Zhao shook Bai Yutang's hand off and asked while giving the latter a dirty look.

Bai Yutang whispered, "Shh, don't look behind, there's someone following us."

…!…

"We were discovered so quickly?" Zhan Zhao asked with a surprised expression.

Bai Yutang smiled in response, "It's probably not what you're thinking of."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Zhan Zhao inquired, confused.

"You'll understand in a moment," Bai Yutang said and pulled him into an empty alley.

Suddenly, the messy sound of footsteps could be heard coming from behind them. It seemed like there was more than one person.

Bai Yutang stopped in his tracks. Then, two men ran up before them while another two stood behind them. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang had been surrounded.

Zhan Zhao observed the group and they all looked to be in their twenties. Their dress sense was very punk-inspired with tattoos on their body and bizarre hairstyles——COSPLAY??

"You two look pretty well off."

One of the hoodlums scanned Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao up and down and said, "Hand over some cash."

Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang and desperately tried to contain his laughter. The Captain of Criminal Investigators was being extorted. This was probably a first for Bai Yutang ever since he was born.

"It's fine if you don't have money," Another one of hoodlums said while reaching his hand out with a sleazy laugh, "We can also have some fun together…" His hand reached straight for Zhan Zhao's chin.

Crack.

There was a sound of something snapping. Before anyone could react, Bai Yutang had grabbed that hand and twisted it in an unnatural angle——it's broken.

"AaaAAh!!" that hoodlum fell to the ground, screaming in pain.

The remaining three immediately panicked.

Bai Yutang asked Zhan Zhao, "Do you still remember the few tricks I thought you last time?"

Zhan Zhao nodded, eager to try out those moves. Hey, this was actual combat, such an opportunity rarely comes by.

Seeing Zhan Zhao's reaction, Bai Yutang couldn't help but shake his head as he beckoned at the three hooligans. The hooligans exchanged looks and the leader yelled, "Get them!!" And they all charged at Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang.

Bai Yutang took a step forward. He let one pass through and blocked the other two. The one that was let pass ran straight for Zhan Zhao.

Zhan Zhao recited Bai Yutang's teachings in his mind, "Look for the right moment, quickly side-step to the right, follow the movement or your opponent's forearm with your right, grab their left shoulder with your left hand. Move into their left leg and turn your body around, then pull down to the right and throw the opponent forward."

And the hoodlum flew forward, crashing face first into the ground.

Oh yeah~~ Zhan Zhao did a little victory fist pump. When he turned around to look at Bai Yutang, the latter had already taken care of the other two thugs and was staring right at him.

Seeing Zhan Zhao's adorable expression that read: "That's so fun! I really wanna have another go!" Bai Yutang really wanted to pull him over and give him one long and hard kiss, but… forget it, lest he wants to be punched.

He then reached out to pull up one of the thugs and asked, "You still wanna continue?"

"Cough… don't… n-no more…" that hoodlum begged for mercy.

"Look at this address," Bai Yutang lifted one of the hoodlums as Zhan Zhao closed in and inquired, "Is it around this area?"

The hoodlum squinted at the address before nodding and saying, "Y-Yes, it's the house just in front."

Bai Yutang released him and the group of hooligans fled like no tomorrow. The two had no intent on pursuing them and headed for the house as indicated.It was a two-storey building. The roll-up door was half-opened and in tatters. And inside, all one could see was a pitch-black corridor.

Bai Yutang took a look inside and took out a torchlight. He then turned back to Zhan Zhao and whispered, "Be careful!"

"Un," Zhan Zhao nodded his head and followed behind Bai Yutang.

According to Chen Jing the clinic was on the second floor. The two entered into the corridor and cautiously made their way up the stairs, Unlike the pitch darkness of the first floor, the second floor was dimly lit by a faint light.

Bai Yutang suddenly stopped and turn off the torchlight. He also blocked Zhan Zhao from advancing. Zhan Zhao looked at him a little puzzled when Bai Yutang took out his gun and pointed to his nose. Taking a whiff, the strong smell of blood entered Zhan Zhao's nose. He pulled out his gun as well and looked to Bai Yutang anxiously. The two of them separated and moved in on the room from either side.

The door wasn't completely closed but slightly ajar.

Bai Yutang gently pushed the door open with his foot. The interior of the room was covered in a dull hue of red. The overwhelming stench of blood attacked their senses causing Zhan Zhao to furrow his brows. It's impossible for anyone to be alive after losing so much blood.

The two of them slid into the room, one after another and were both appalled by the sight that greeted them.

The entire floor was covered in blood as Professor Xu laid stiff on the ground, his neck, lacerated and bloody. Judging from the colour and coagulation of the blood, he should be dead for at least 24 hours.

Zhan Zhao couldn't bear to see Professor Xu like that, he was an old senior who Zhan Zhao had worked with after all. So Zhan Zhao turned his head away, unable to look at the body any longer.

Bai Yutang did a quick check of the room before taking his phone out to give the rest of the team a call. Soon, this dingy building was surrounded by police cars, with police lines put to keep the curious onlookers away. Zhan Zhao sat in a police car, staring blankly into space. Bai Yutang walked up to him and handed him a can of hot coffee while asking, "Are you alright?"

Zhan Zhao received the coffee, cupping it with both hands, taking in the warmth of the coffee to disperse the chill surrounding his body. He responded, "What do you think?"

Bai Yutang sat beside him and let out a sigh, "It seems like things are slowly spiralling out of control."

"I had thought that once we found Professor Xu, we would be able to bring this case to a close. But to think he was killed," Zhan Zhao took a sip of the coffee and commented, "This taste so bad."

"That Dr. Zhang is a suspect," Bai Yutang stated while taking the coffee from Zhan Zhao's hand, "It tastes bad?" He tasted it a little and threw the can of coffee away with a frown as he remarked, "Just like this can of coffee, even though it was bought to be drunk, it ended up being a better handwarmer than a drink."

Zhan Zhao chuckled under his breath at this comment.

"What are you laughing at? Damn Cat!" Bai Yutang exclaimed while scratching his head.

"The way you comfort people is so bad!" Zhan Zhao said as he looked to the sky, "Logic and you don't go together at all."

"Yet you still laughed!" Bai Yutang nudged Zhan Zhao with his shoulder, all proud of himself, "I'm good at everything."

……

"Leader, we're done with the on-site investigation."

Bai Yutang acknowledged it and asked, "Found any clues?"

Wang Chao shook his head in response, "We didn't find anything. No murder weapon either."

"What about Zhang Long?" Zhan Zhao joined in and asked.

"I just got off the phone with him, he didn't find Dr. Zhang and is still on the search for him," Wang Chao continued, "Xu Qing and the rest are keeping an eye around the school. It's like that guy evaporated into thin air."

"Stay alert and continue looking."

Just as he was about to get the team to pack up and leave, Bai Yutang's phone suddenly rang. Bai Yutang froze a little when he saw the caller ID, "Commissioner Bao?"

He then answered the phone, "Hello, Commissioner?"

(lilies: major lies I read like 4 books alr and still nothing on it. I wanna know wtf happened in the parent's generation zzzz)

Seeing the two shake their head, Bao Zheng explained with a bitter smile, "In those days, the way police work was carried out was very conventional. As such, Zhao Jue's use of psychological analysis often came under fire. Many a time, he would propose the establishment of a specialised department dedicated to psychological analysis, to recruit researchers in psychology to work on criminal profiling… But it was all treated as mere fantasy."

"So he killed people in order to prove the usefulness of psychology?" Zhan Zhao asked.

Bao Zheng took a puff and replied, "Un. He would kill people through the use of suggestions and then save people with psychological analysis… He wanted to toy with and make a fool out of the people who once mocked him."

Bai Yutang had finally calmed down, "So he wants to harm Zhan Zhao because of jealousy?"

Bao Zheng, "Do you know the last thing he said before he was equipped with the Silencer?" he took a deep puff before carrying on, "He said he was jealous. Jealous of me, jealous of Yuwen, jealous of everyone. He said that geniuses must be able to find a stage for themselves. Otherwise, life would be even more painful than those idiots. Everything he did was simply to create a stage for himself."

After listening to Bao Zheng's story, Zhan Zhao was a little stunned, "If there had been a psychology research centre, a specialised department like this…"

"Then he would have been like you," Bao Zheng finished Zhan Zhao's sentence.

…Then, Bao Zheng fell silent, as if lost in his memories. Both Bai Yutang and Zhan Zhao could see the immense regret and sorrow in his eyes. Bai Yutang was very familiar with this sight. He's seen it for over 20 years. His pops would often make that expression, a cigarette in hand as he stared blankly into space. As a kid, he thought it looked really masculine, but now that he thinks about it, he was very fortunate.

"Don't smoke so much, it's bad for your health," Bai Yutang told Bao Zheng before pulling Zhan Zhao to leave.

The two of them had arrived in Zhao Jue's room once more. Zhan Zhao entered the room and began scrutinizing over every corner of the room. He sat on the red chair and flipped through the sketches Zhao Jue left behind, page by page. Meanwhile, Bai Yutang stood at the door, gazing at Zhan Zhao's figure inside the room. And just like that, time slowly trickled away and the sky beyond the window gradually turns white.

After a long time, Zhan Zhao got up and went out of the cell.

"Kitty?" Seeing the lack of colour on Zhan Zhao's face, looking like he was unwell, Bai Yutang immediately went up to him. But just as he took a step forward, Zhan Zhao's body slumped over.

"Cat!"

Bai Yutang hurriedly reached out and caught Zhan Zhao's falling body, "Cat, what's wrong?"

"No…" Zhan Zhao gripped onto Bai Yutang weakly and uttered, "L-Lock the room and don't look at the drawings."

What's wrong?" Bai Yutang asked, confused.

"G-Gather all the staff. They need to receive therapy," Zhan Zhao steadied his breathing and the colour started returning to his face, "Zhao Jue implanted suggestions into his sketches… People who view these drawings for long periods of time are likely to commit suicide or commit murder…"