Chapter 12

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Professor Zhang reached out first?

Sikang answered the call. “Professor Zhang?”

“Congratulations on cracking the major case,” Professor Zhang’s voice came through the bracelet speaker.

Sikang felt ashamed. “It wasn’t me who solved the case. You must have seen the trending headlines online.”

“I did, right alongside my name,” Professor Zhang said with a hint of a smile. “The intern detective should be called Shen Yulan, right? To surpass the master — quite fitting for her name.”

He had never heard Professor Zhang praise anyone else like this.

Sikang clenched his fingers tightly. He wanted to ask if Professor Zhang had called just to compliment Shen Yulan.

Then came a knock on the door.

He told Professor Zhang to hold on and didn’t hang up. Turning around, he saw Bai Shizhou entering.

“You can clock out now. An Jiashu will drive you and Detective Shen back to Green Lake,” Bai Shizhou said briefly. “Detective Shen will be staying next door temporarily, in the room Bao Xiao used to occupy.”

“What?” Sikang almost instinctively wanted to refuse. The apartment wasn’t his to decide, but he could move out. He saw Shen Yulan behind Bai Shizhou, grinning and waving at him, about to say, “I’ll stay at the Special Crimes Unit tonight.”

But Professor Zhang’s voice came through the earpiece first: “It’s settled, Sikang.”

He swallowed all the words at the tip of his tongue. Since he was eleven, Professor Zhang had been visiting the orphanage, providing him with enough food, clothes, pocket money, even personally teaching him to read.

When he joined the Special Crimes Unit and everyone praised his genius, only he knew that his intelligence came from Professor Zhang’s guidance and his own thousandfold effort; he was painfully aware that if he stopped being “smart,” Professor Zhang would discard him immediately.

Yet now, in the presence of a true genius, his thousandfold efforts seemed worthless. Shen Yulan had easily bested him.

He hated her...

“Don’t hang up,” Professor Zhang’s voice appeared again, as if issuing a second order.

“Why?” Sikang asked instinctively.

Bai Shizhou thought he was asking him and replied, “It’s unsafe for Detective Shen to stay in the hotel outside.”

At the same time, Professor Zhang’s gentle voice came through the earpiece: “I want to hear Detective Shen’s voice.”

Sikang realized that Professor Zhang had called precisely for Shen Yulan.

※※

It was nearly midnight when they left the Special Crimes Unit. Bai Shizhou gave several staff members half a day off tomorrow so they could rest without an early start.

Bao Xiao was in a hurry to care for a sick family member and left early, arranging for An Jiashu to take the injured Detective Shen and the unlicensed Sikang.

The wind picked up at night, and the temperature dropped sharply.

An Jiashu, worried about Detective Shen catching a chill in the passenger seat, turned the heater up high.

Sikang sat in the back, sweating at the nape of his neck as if the suppression patch was melting or failing. He saw Shen Yulan pull a peppermint candy from An Jiashu’s pocket, flick open the lid with her fingers, and a wave of heat swept over him.

He closed his eyes, inhaling the scent of the hotel’s body wash on her, his mind flooded with the memory of her finger pressing on his tail on the hotel sofa...

He hated her.

He raised his hand to press hard on the wet suppression patch on the back of his neck, hearing her laughing with An Jiashu, saying, “Let me smell it again, maybe my wound won’t hurt as much…”

He hated her so much.

Suddenly, Sikang rolled down the car window, and cold wind rushed inside.

An Jiashu was surprised. “Sikang, why did you open the window? It’s so cold!” But Sikang ignored him. Through the rearview mirror, An Jiashu saw Sikang’s tightly closed eyes and flushed cheeks. “Are you feeling unwell, Sikang?”

In the cold wind, Shen Chu Yi caught the scent of buttered bread and was a bit surprised. Could Sikang really get aroused just by sitting in the same car with her?

Fortunately, the Green Lake community was not far from the Special Crimes Unit.

As soon as the car stopped by the staircase, Sikang pushed the door open and hurried into the elevator without looking back, going straight to his room.

He didn’t even turn on the light, rushed into his bedroom, locked the door, and went to the bathroom.

He found the suppressant in the bathroom drawer and injected himself, slowly feeling better. He looked down and saw that Professor Zhang had hung up the call after he got off the car.

His body tingled and ached from the injection; his tongue and stomach felt sour and numb as if he were a worthless tool.

There was a light knock on the bedroom door. An Jiashu asked outside, “Sikang, are you okay? Do you need to see a doctor?”

Sikang slammed the door in reply—no need.

※※

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It was late, and An Jiashu didn’t want to disturb Detective Shen’s rest. He made her bed, set out fresh toiletries, and left a glass of water by her bedside before leaving.

At one in the morning, Shen Chu Yi wrapped the wound on her shoulder with a plastic bag and slowly sank into the bathtub, sighing with relief.

Opposite her was a slanted skylight, showing the side of the Crystal Tower in City A, its towering peak crowned by a crescent moon.

The sprawling penthouse was temperature-controlled at 24°C, with a large bathtub like this.

Good heavens, Bai Shizhou lived such a life every day.

Shen Chu Yi slipped the diamond watch back onto her wrist, burning with jealousy. Her greatest dream in life was simply to have a place of her own that could fit a bathtub.

Even if she sold this watch for 800,000, she might still be unable to afford the grand bathroom in Bai Shizhou’s apartment.

Life was truly unfair.

In the Special Crimes Unit’s group chat she’d just been added to, she forwarded three news articles about Zhang Dian, all from when he first joined the unit—solving a major case before graduation, being specially hired without ever serving as an intern detective.

She tagged Bai Shizhou, sending a message: [Geniuses don’t have internships. Why can’t I become a full detective tomorrow?]

She considered herself somewhat of a genius too. Zhang Dian didn’t need an internship—why couldn’t she immediately become permanent?

She was really anxious; she didn’t know how much longer she could keep being Shen Yulan.

Bai Shizhou seemed busy and hadn’t replied.

But a notification popped up in the “Genetic Zoo” game.

She opened the game to find a golden card shimmering in the starlight—a [Dream Card].

Dream Card!

She sat up excitedly, seeing an unused Dream Card in the system.

How had she gotten it? Was it a reward for solving a case? Or related to reputation or affection?

The system gave no clue. She had no idea how to earn a Dream Card, only feeling incredibly lucky these past few days.

She gleefully looked at the animals available for interaction but hesitated to use the Dream Card.

Sikang wasn’t worth wasting her one and only Dream Card on.

Using one on Bai Shizhou just to slap him a few times didn’t seem cost-effective either.

She thought: unless I go to sleep with him, it’d be such a waste.

In the steaming bathtub, she glanced at the [Arctic Wolf wearing a muzzle], then the estrous rabbit, the bleeding lion... and the enticing Zhang Dian...

It was truly a difficult choice. If only she had four Dream Cards, she could sleep with all four before disappearing quietly—just imagining it thrilled her.

But she had only one.

Her eyes fell on the image of Zhang Dian in the bathtub. Suddenly remembering she was still “blackmailing” Professor Zhang, she turned on her secondhand bracelet.

As soon as she powered it on, a message popped up from Zhang Dian: [Did you get caught, Ms. Goat?]

Caught? Did Zhang Dian think she was the dry cleaner murderer apprehended today?

Impossible.

She thought Zhang Dian must have seen the news—the arrested suspect was male, and Zhang Dian was sure she was a lady.

So why ask that?

Was he testing her?

She didn’t know if the news or online reports and live videos had revealed critical information about the case—like the foot coverings.

If they had, Zhang Dian might suspect her involvement and be deliberately probing.

Could he have guessed she was Shen Yulan?

The thought unsettled her. No way he figured it out so quickly. How could he?

Her bonus wasn’t even in yet, and the watch hadn’t been sold.

He mustn’t figure it out.

She turned on the shower and decisively called him.

It rang for only three seconds before he answered.

Amid the sound of running water, he chuckled lightly: “Looks like Ms. Goat hasn’t been caught and can still soak in the bathtub.”

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Shen Chu Yi took off the Shen Yulan bracelet, watching her body return to normal, and asked, “Why doesn’t Professor Zhang call me ‘baby’?”

There was a two-second silence on the other end.

※※

“So this is what your voice sounds like.” Zhang Dian stood before the virtual screen, his finger pausing as he checked data. He hadn’t activated the voice changer.

This voice was different from Shen Yulan’s.

The tentacles crowded around the virtual screen, all turning to “look” at his bracelet.

She laughed lightly, seeming to move her body, with the sound of water—she was bathing.

“Do you like it?” she asked.

Tentacles surged forward, wrapping around his bracelet.

“What do you mean?” Zhang Dian asked.

“My voice,” she laughed again. “What else? Would Professor Zhang fall for the blackmailer threatening you?”

Zhang Dian felt a flicker of confusion. The photos, videos, and terminal surveillance records from Shen Yulan’s full moon to graduation on the screen showed no voice matching Ms. Goat’s current one.

Her voice, however, resembled a clip from police surveillance five years ago at Oasis Police Station, where nineteen-year-old Shen Yi defended herself: “Can’t I appear at the gambling den without gambling? Officer, I’m just a cleaner there, is that not allowed?”

How strange. Could she be the late Shen Yi?

“You sound very young,” Zhang Dian said, following her words, trying to hear more of her voice. “Just graduated?”

“Professor Zhang, no need to test anymore,” she said generously. “Do you want to see me?”

Zhang Dian froze. He couldn’t read her rhythm.

Suddenly, she spoke to him in her true voice and invited him to meet.

Why? The pace suddenly quickened?

Tentacles clamored eagerly:

“See her, see her.”

“Say you want to, say you want to.”

“Trick her here, make her the sofa.”

“She’s bathing, little goat’s bathing, love her curly, wet wool…”

Zhang Dian’s rhythm was thrown off. He said, “Are you available to meet?”

“Professor Zhang is so polite,” she seemed to smile a lot, her voice muffled by water as she said, “I won’t meet you for free—I have to blackmail something.”

“What do you want me to give?” Zhang Dian asked.

She chuckled twice, about to answer when a very low muffled sound came from the bracelet, and her voice paused for a moment.

Then she deliberately turned up the water noise and said, “I’ll tell you when we meet. For now, Professor Zhang just has to wait.” Then added, “I’m hanging up now, but this time you won’t have heard my voice for nothing.”

Zhang Dian waited for her blackmail.

He heard her whisper softly, “Professor Zhang says: Good night, baby.”

Once again, Zhang Dian was surprised by her behavior.

What were her motives? What did she want to blackmail him for?

“Speak,” she urged.

The tentacles wrapped around his wrist and bracelet, murmuring all at once—

“Good night, baby.”

“Good night, baby.”

“Say it, say it, it’s nothing.”

“To catch her, you have to coax her first, or she’ll lose patience...”